-
That Was 2024
Well, our travelling for 2024 is done and dusted and we eagerly await our first adventure of the new year. We think it’s fair to say that although 2024 was another splendid year of travel, not everything went according to plan. What with having to return home when Michaela’s Dad passed away, hiking ability being blighted by hip/groin trouble, becoming unexpectedly Africa’d out and heading to Turkey instead, the year ended up with a shape significantly different from the original plan. You could say it was a year of mighty rivers, as we saw or sailed upon the Amazon, the Rio Negro, the Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Thames and the…
-
Can Someone Please Explain….
We’ve been having trouble with this website, so much so that we’ve discussed calling it a day. It started with difficulty in linking with certain other bloggers’ sites (hello Sarah!), for instance difficulty in leaving comments or even giving a like. Or making us sign in with password to sites to which we already subscribe, every time we commented. But then on this last trip it all went to another level…. First, contents of the entire site effectively vanished. The menu at the top disappeared and every link to every article we’d ever published was dead. None of the help teams could tell us why or how it had happened,…
-
Retracing Our Steps: Different Sides Of Bodrum
One last morning cappuccino in the Greek island sun, one last tickle of the friendly cat with the pretty face, one last pastry from the savoury counter, and it’s time to pack the bags and wander round to the ferry point. With impeccable timing, Meltemi has taken a rest day and the Aegean is benign and flat as well as its usual spectacular blue. When we looked out on our first morning on Kalymnos, preparations for some sort of ceremony were underway, one which lasted through the Sunday morning and featured the army, a naval captain, a marching band and what appeared to be most of the island’s dignitaries. The…
-
Kalymnos: Diving For Sponge And The Joy Of Meze
Skevos is clearly pleased to see us or, more accurately, pleased to see someone, anyone, because being a museum curator out of season can be a lonely job. He has a face which carries a natural smile which is completely disarming in its sincerity. His full head of cascading white hair is long enough to sit neatly on the shoulders of his zipper jacket, nestling on the collar in the style of a rock band lead singer still strutting his stuff in the bars of Pothia. But he’s not here to sing, he’s here to tell us about sponge diving. Sponge diving museum He does so in articulate English and…
-
More Of Kos, Then On To Kalymnos
A number of things changed on Kos between our arrival on Monday morning and the Saturday ferry to our next destination. For one, the dull grey start turned into some glorious sunny days with blue skies and temperatures in the low to mid 20s, interrupted by heavy downpours on the Wednesday but leaving us feeling that generally we have been lucky. And, as the weather improved and the weekend approached, cafes and coffee bars started to reopen – not so much the tourist restaurants along the seafront but the cosy sites within the town, seemingly having moved on to a seasonal Thursday-to-Sunday opening regime. For our last day with the rental…
-
Tavuk Sis To Souvlaki: From Turkey To A Greek Island
What in God’s name possessed us to decide to leave the waterproofs at home? How on Earth did seasoned travellers like us make the conscious decision to leave them out of the backpacks until next time? Well somehow that’s what we did, which is how we come to be heading to the ferry in the early morning light by lurching from shop doorway to shop doorway in order to keep out of the worst of the rain. Mercifully it eases off just as we reach the open territory of the dock and we can pick our way through the puddles without getting a dousing. Just. An hour later – though…
-
Bodrum: Party Town Or Ancient Treasure?
Sometimes it’s a strange feeling, saying goodbye to an airbnb host who lives on the premises. For a few days your lives have crossed, your stories have entwined, and then you move on, knowing that those paths will never cross again. Our host at Datça, a tiny elderly guy named Bulent, shows real kindness by driving us across the peninsula to the ferry point, then caps it all by parting with warm heartfelt hugs on the quay. Bye mate, and thank you. In order to reach Bodrum the ferry at an hour and 45 minutes is a much better choice than three hours by road, especially with the sea flat…
-
Further Afield: More Of Datça Peninsula
The Turks of the peninsula have clearly decided winter is here, on the basis that there has been one single chilly day, last Sunday. No matter that the next few days were sunny and 22 degrees and then Wednesday touched 27, the quilted coats and heavy woollens are out now and they’re not going back until some time next Spring. At Hayitbükü, three guys work repairing a fishing boat on the beach, toiling away in body warmers and sweatshirts, a few yards away from where a girl, obviously not a local, is stretched out in a bikini. Datça town, the only place of any size on the peninsula, is a…
-
Out On The Datça Peninsula
Our arrival in the small coastal town of Datça coincides with the first noticeable drop in temperature and the first time on the trip that the sun has failed to break through cloud. The Datça peninsula is narrow, too, only about 6 kilometres wide, meaning the sea breezes are far more sharp here than back in Fethiye. Overcoats are in evidence down in the square on our first morning as the crowd gathers for Ataturk Remembrance Day, today – November 10th – being the anniversary of the death of the Republic’s founding father 86 years ago in 1938. The weather blip is just that, a blip, and the sun returns…
-
Ancient Sites, Canyon Hikes & Deserted Cities: Last Days In Fethiye
Things just keep getting better. The more we explore this section of coastline and its scenery, the more we are in awe of its beauty, it really is a breathtakingly gorgeous area. And, after a slow start with food, we’ve fought our way past the tourist restaurants and found eateries which do complete justice to the Turkish cuisine which we already love. Even the weather is playing ball with clear skies, sun drenched days and seas still warm enough for a dip whenever we fancy it. Things just keep getting better. Our food breakthrough comes when we discover restaurants inside the fish market where not only is the fresh catch…
