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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…
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Time Passing
The sound of a ticking clock makes me think of childhood, and, at the same time, boredom. Maybe it was the grandfather clock at an old Aunt’s house on a family day which would seem both interminable and a complete waste of time while the rest of the gang were playing football or cricket down the Rec. Such days drag when you’re young. Other things were equally disproportionate, like how far away Saturday was on a Monday morning, or how far away four o’clock was at half past nine. At some point in life, the whole thing turns on its head and the years start to race by. When exactly…
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From Turkey To Quarantine
And so we start our 14 day quarantine which will most likely run straight into a period of further regional lockdown given the high current COVID rates in our corner of England. We’re a little sad that the Turkey adventure ended the way it did, with our time in Antalya cancelled and an abrupt end to our newly found social life in Side. In the final three days after making our decision to return home, we did manage one last trip to our favourite riverside eatery in Manavgat before it all shut down, and even managed a quick dip in the Med on each of the last two days. So…
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Last Day in Pamukkale And The Wishlist Ticked
As we approached retirement in the pre-COVID days of 2019 and our dream of full time travel was becoming reality, we, like most travellers, drew up a lengthy wishlist of places to go and things to do. Pamukkale has delivered one of the latter for us, in the shape of a hot air balloon flight…. It’s 6.30am, just getting light, and half an hour past the first muezzin call of the day, when we are collected by minibus and taken to the launch field at the foot of the “cotton castle”. Five balloons are in the process of being inflated, bursts of flame roaring into each. Lift off is gentle,…
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Next Stop Izmir
It’s been 26 days since we returned from Croatia, 14 of which were in quarantine and the other 12 catching up with friends and family, within the COVID rules set by the UK Government. Now it’s time for our next adventure. 2020 was meant to be the year we realised our dream of travelling the world pretty much full time, until the whole world changed, but we’re now trying to make the most of what limited travel opportunities are available and be as resourceful as possible. We may have lost our dream but the upside is that we’re finding ourselves in wonderful locations which weren’t even on this year’s agenda.…
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Escaping COVID: Our Next Move
Our regular readers will know that we retired at the end of 2019 to pursue our long held dream of full time travel. Unfortunately the obvious intervened and we were forced to abandon our trip after just 7 weeks of what should have been endless exploration. UK lockdown followed. As the slight easing of restrictions started, we took full advantage of the so called travel corridors and have just returned from 5 weeks touring Croatia, which was more than fabulous. We’re now nearing the end of the 14-day quarantine which was imposed just a few days before our return from that trip. These 14 days have naturally felt pretty dull…
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Croatia, COVID and other tips
Entering our fourth week of this Croatia odyssey, we feel qualified to offer some advice to anyone thinking of heading out here, so here goes… COVID If you think you’d feel threatened or vulnerable due to a lack of COVID rules, then it’s probably best you stay at home. If however you feel there is some overblown mass hysteria afoot, or just want to escape the “new normal” for a while, then Croatia is for you. It’s masks on buses and trains, and inside shops and public buildings, but otherwise life is absolutely normal. Locals do have a tendency to wear the mask only over the mouth, and leave the…
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Island Hopping Croatia: Brač
Some of the inter island ferry services have been scaled back due to an expected drop in visitor numbers during COVID, so to hop from Šolta to Brač we have to go back to Split and on again from there. So it’s an early alarm, the 7:20 bus from Maslinica and the 8am ferry, breakfast in Split harbour and then a second ferry over to Supetar on the island of Brač. Brač a much bigger and more mountainous island than Šolta, in fact the third largest Adriatic island; our next billet means travelling some distance to the south of the island, and we’ve been recommended that the best option for…
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First Taste Of The Islands
Island hopping is going to make up most of the rest of our time here, but the island wanderlust kicks in early, and for our last day at our Šibenik base we take a Jadrolinija ferry to Zlarin, just a 30-minute boat trip away. All we can say is, if the remaining islands on this trip are as good as Zlarin then we are in for a treat. With only an afternoon to enjoy it, we don’t venture beyond the eponymous port town, a pretty collection of old stone houses clustered around a horseshoe harbour with five or so seafront restaurants. Crystal clear water laps the pebble beaches, both the…
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Krka National Park
As well as the many attributes of its own, the city of Šibenik is also a gateway to the Krka National Park, another spectacular series of waterfalls as the Krka river crashes down the mountains towards the Adriatic. To access the park, we drive to the small town of Skradin, from where we take a river boat to the falls: a wise decision, as Skradin turns out to be a charming and peaceful place in its own right. Krka is markedly different from Plitvice. Plitvice was largely unspoilt, and clearly less popular, perhaps due to its more remote location. Around the sixteen lakes there were only three modest cafes, spaced…
