By Verity Twydale

Travelling with your bestie? That holiday with your BFF might seem like a great idea … until you’re too busy bickering over where to stay and what to eat to enjoy it.

Ahhh … holidays. Such a distant memory. But if you’re like the rest of us you’re probably already planning an adventure for 2010. The question is, who with?

Going away with your best friend might seem like the perfect plan. It’s usually one of those ‘OMG, you want to go to Thailand too, lets go together!’ moments that, before you know it, ends in a commitment neither of you need or necessarily want. So how do you make sure your homie holiday is a success?

1. Set your goals and expectations

You may know your best buddy inside out but if you haven’t travelled together before, assume you’re travelling with a stranger. Even the best of friends can turn into nightmares when they’re out of their comfort zone.

Before you book anything, make sure you get together to discuss your travelling experiences and habits. If your bestie likes to wallow in the lap of luxury and you can think of nothing better than getting down and dirty with the locals, you’re going to run into problems. Try and come to an agreement about what you both want from the holiday before you choose the destination, activities and accommodation.

2. Keep communicating

If you and your travel buddy have differing ideas about what an ideal holiday is, you’re going to need to do a lot of communicating. You will always have to make spur of the moment decisions when you’re travelling, so set good communication habits before you leave so no-one feels trodden on.

If you need to change your plans, discuss the changes openly with your holiday companion. Make sure both of you feel like you’re being heard, and that both your interests are being taken into account. And, if communication fails, don’t start playing games – do everything you can to get to the root of the problem by talking through the situation openly.

3. Learn to compromise

No matter how much you may run from commitment in your real life, when you set out on an adventure with someone else you and that person are in what’s called a ‘relationship’. And relationships involve compromise.

When you’re travelling, you will most likely have constraints revolving around money and time. Try to sort out as many of these issues before you pack your bags, but if all else fails, learn to compromise on the run. Like any relationship you need to pick your battles. Will you feel completely devastated if you miss a tick off your checklist? Honestly? If so, let your friend know what’s particularly important to you. If not, let it go. No-one likes a princess.

4. Get out of your comfort zone

So much of travelling is about getting out of your comfort zone. It’s not always a nice feeling but moving beyond your circle of safety will help you experience new things and grow as a person. What better way to do this than with a friend by your side?

Remember, no matter where you’re going the most important thing to bring back with you is your friendship. Because that, my friend, is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Tell me, dear SheGoesicans, do you have any horror stories about travelling with friends? Or tips on how to avoid trouble? Share away …

Bay of Fires, Tasmania

By Verity Twydale

Named the world’s ‘hottest’ travel destination for 2009, Tasmania’s Bay of Fires – located on the state’s East Coast – remains one of its best kept secrets.

Tasmanians are good at keeping secrets. I remember when my family first emigrated from ‘The Mainland’ and it took us months to work out the best picnic spots and weekend destinations. Even after getting vague directions from an evasive local, we’d usually just stumble across some well-known gem after Dad took a wrong turn and landed us in the middle of nowhere. So it should have been no surprise to find that, when trundling up the east coast with little more than an out of range Google maps app on my iPhone, the road to the recently nominated ‘best beach in the world’ wasn’t signposted.

Located just north of St Helens, the Bay of Fires is actually a number of white beaches glued together by mammoth granite boulders formed 380 million years ago. Taking its name from the Aboriginal fires that dotted its shores, the bay stretches 29 kilometres from Binalong Bay in the south to Eddystone point in the north. Getting there is simple yet easy to miss – there’s only one signed turn off to Bay of Fires and the common assumption is that you’ve reached it when you hit the beautiful Binalong Beach. But don’t give up. Follow the road to the end and you’ll be rewarded with a stretch of solitary elegance that will take your breath away.

The beaches that make up the Bay of Fires are startling to behold. There are endless ribbons of crystalline white sand that melt into azure waters on one side and salty sea scrub on the other. Clusters of lichen covered rocks look as though they’ve been painted with ochre and you can still find huge collections of Aboriginal middens (discarded bones and shells) among the dunes near Boulder Point. On a clear day you are instantly transported to another world where your eyes soak up the contrasting colours to the tune of roaring waves.

The best way to experience the bay is to make use of some of the many campsites in the area. If you’re flush and reasonably fit, Anthology run guided four-day walks through the Mount William National Park and Bay of Fires for around AUD$2,000. Alternatively,  you can do it yourself by following the turn-off to ‘The Gardens’ and setting up camp in the southern section of the bay. If you’re short on time but want maximum impact, stop off at Salty Seas in St Helens (turn off the Tasman Highway onto The Esplanade) and pick up a freshly caught-and-cooked rock lobster, some hot chips, and settle down for an afternoon picnic in the Bay of Fires conservation area just off Lyall Road. There you’ll be rewarded with mouth-wateringly good nuggets of crustacean and what is, inarguably, the best view in the world.

Getting there: Virgin Blue run regular flights to both Launceston and Hobart from Sydney. For a pleasant day trip from Hobart take the Midlands Highway north to Campbell Town, stopping off for a scallop pie at the Ross Bakery Inn before turning onto the Esk Highway to the east coast. Visit http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx for maps.

Anthology Travel run daily guided tours from Launceston to Bay of Fires from early October to early May. Package includes accommodation, all meals, non-alcoholic beverages and a selection of Tasmanian wines. Visit http://www.anthology.travel/ for more information.

Shikunga, Kenya

By Verity Twydale

Bumping along a dirt road I’m beginning to realise that I’ll need more than a few Swahili phrases and a mosquito net to get through the next three months. The romanticism of a dramatically wide savannah is quickly wearing off. I’m in the back of a car that’s largely held together by rust and rope, charging through a jungle of banana palms and maize plantations towards a village that doesn’t exist on Google maps. No-one knows where I am and I have lost my mobile. I mentally kick myself, repeatedly.

Thankfully, I have found my host. Dressed in an ostentatious red and gold paisley suit, Onesmus is sitting in the front of the scrapheap we are calling a taxi. He tells me we are trying to beat the rain and points to a cluster of murderous looking clouds flanking the mountains. “It’s the time of the long rains,” Nes explains. “It will be very bad if we get stuck. Very bad”. When it rains the village roads turn into a greasy clay that bogs anything from buses to bikes. From late afternoon to mid-morning, don’t plan on going anywhere in a hurry.

We pass rows of street markets pulled together with the aid of empty UN food bags set against a backdrop of captivating farmlands. Grubby barefoot children sprout on the side of the road as they hear the car pass. A chorus line of “Mzungu! Mzungu!” erupts and Nes is laughing, telling me they will run home to tell their mothers that they’ve seen a white person. We turn off the main road and a clearing opens before us. There’s a crumbling mud hut in front of me. Hours away from the nearest town there’s no turning back now. “Karibu Nyumbani” Nes says. Welcome home.

Shikunga is not an easy place to fall in love with. Life is a clichéd struggle. There is no water, no electricity, no hospital. The village runs to a soundtrack of funeral drums and there are signs of sickness and malnutrition everywhere. I came to Kenya to do what any socially conscious Gen Y’er wants to do – make a difference – but it was difficult to see what could be done. “Pole, pole” says Nes. Take it slowly, give it time.

So slowly I slip into life in an East African country. I get used to tea so sweet it causes instant tooth decay. I come to an understanding with the a chicken roosting on the end of my bed. I get sick and then I get better. I spend three months living life to my own personal album of children squealing “Mzungu, how are you?”, grinning madly as they shake my hand. I do what I can and it becomes harder to form conclusions about what life should be like. And as a pair of leathery old hands press a fresh egg into my palms I realise that life isn’t quite what it used to be.