-
A Day On The Road: From Kaikoura To Glacier Country
With seven hours’ driving time ahead of us to make it to our next destination, we decide that our best option is to make a full day of it and allow for a few stops in small towns along the way, rather like we have done previously on our US road trips. So with the darkness of night still awaiting the sunrise and Kaikoura still asleep we drop the motel key into the night box, pull out of the car park and turn to the right, out on to the highway, the ocean away to our left rolling in heard but not seen. It’s still dark half an hour later…
-
Westward To Botswana: Dirty Shoes And Itchy Feet
Before we start this next post, a shock update. A first for us, we’ve decided we’re not going to complete this trip and we’re going to head home early. There’s a variety of reasons, maybe we’ll detail them when we do a “trip conclusion” post later. We’re cutting the adventure short, which means not doing Namibia, nor, regrettably, Cape Town – but those places remain very much on the wish list. So we’ll be heading home to England in early October rather than mid November which was the original plan. Well maybe that way we’ll have time for another trip before Christmas…. Ever since we began travelling together with a…
-
Before The Road Trip Begins: Early Days In California
With a four week full on tour of California ahead of us, our first few days here feel something like a warm up exercise before the green light goes on and we’re away on the tour. Shorter but varied walks, some steep climbs and a measure of acclimatisation have been in order, though not without some surprises along the way – never mind the whole of California, there is plenty of variety in LA County, it seems. Our first base before we commence our road trip is my daughter Lindsay’s home in Acton, some 47 miles north of Los Angeles – although in truth we are a couple of miles…
-
Exploring Los Angeles
In the crisp clear mountain air, the peaks and ridges of the surrounding ranges seem almost impossibly well defined against the unchanging backdrop of the cloudless blue sky, now and again one more prominent peak glistens with white snow. The setting is of one of rural remoteness, yet the giant sprawl of Los Angeles starts just a few miles away; it’s only forty minutes drive to downtown LA. This is the small all-American community of Acton, founded by gold miners in the 1880s and a world away from the burgeoning metropolis we passed through en route here from the airport. It’s crisp and cold in the bright sunlight but the…
