"Is it surfing that turns an ordinary man into a handsome, bleached, chilled and rugged nomad?" asks Alastair.

‘Cotty’ is a 32-year-old Devon plumber, married and with two kids, a Devon man to the soles of his feet. But he is also a devoted, almost messianic, surfer, eyes turned to the sea and the first flicker of a wave’s swell sensed in his fibre.

I've always known that a guidebook is a poor substitute for tips dished out by a local. So, to test my theory, I've arrived in Puglia without one, but with a list of Sawday's Special Places to Stay and a hope that the people who run them would point me in the right direction. And how right I was.

Bristol's Big Green Week is happening June 9 – 17th. It is going to be superb, and will soon become the UK's biggest green festival. There will be over 100 events/talks etc – with the UKs top environmentalists, led by Jonathan Porritt, practical events, bike rides, talks all day and evening, gorgeous food, exhibitions, special events, a Fringe, Bristol's biggest bike ride, the Festival of Nature, the Festival of Green Ideas, tours, films – the list is endless.

Here's a delicious-sounding recipe from our friends Roy and Goretti - one a Scottish chef, one a Catalan whisky expert - who run the 12th-century La Rectoria de Sant Miquel de Pineda in the wooded hills of La Garrotxa, Spain.

"One of the characteristic themes of Catalan cooking is 'mar i muntanya', the combination of ingredients from the sea and the land," they say. "Our guests love this... Bon profit! (Good appetite), as we say in Catalonia."

Alastair by Joe Cornish

On a wild, wet and windy day in the North York Moors I had a lesson in how to enjoy myself in unpromising circumstances.

For the third leg of my UK tour for Guardian Travel they dug out an indomitable guide for me, Joe Cornish, the renowned landscape photographer. Joe, who has photographed for the National Trust for over 20 years, lives on the north west edge of the Moors. For him, bad weather is just another part of his animated love affair with the county.