The grounded backpackers filling their gap years with volunteering

With foreign travel tricky this summer, some people are make a difference closer to home, be it building chicken coops or trekking with llamas

Djembe Askins had planned to be very far from home this summer, travelling around south-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Then the pandemic hit. But rather than completely abandon his gap year-style trip, the 24-year-old decided to transplant it to the UK.

Askins, who left his job at a bank in London, has spent the past nine months volunteering at farms, mostly in Wales, through World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (Wwoof), a network where people volunteer for four to six hours a day in return for food and accommodation. Although the weather was a bit wetter and not as sunny" as his original destinations, he found the experience of living in a different part of the UK and learning how to be self-sustaining" a revelation. It does make me think about what else there is across the UK that I've never even been to."