(apologies for slight hiatus)
The Ripped Backsides of Nougat City (or Where Not to Go When Yr Car Can?t Wink). Dr Vick’s Golf’s clignotants aren’t working so most of the day we scour the endless lookalike trading estates on the edg[…]

Likoma Island, Malawi
“Hey Mazungu!” a voice called, “I am Gift, and this is my brother, Advice.” I glanced at the younger boy who smiled shyly. Mazungu is a Swahili word meaning white man, although its literal translation is […]

The Quirks of Travel
One of travel’s joys is a delight in trivia, those bizarre local myths or footnotes of history gathered along the way.
I’ve just returned from Italy and came back with a couple of great finds. I now have a photo of t[…]

The Transpacific Flight to New Zealand (and back again)
The amount of hectic work I’m doing this week — to be expected, it fits in with the start of the school year and all — perhaps unsurprisingly puts me in mind of some of my best[…]

The Chatwin Hotel
Bruce Chatwin’s name has cropped up a couple of times among the travel posts. This pleases me. I’ve been a devotee for years and once formed part of the clich’d Chatwin Traveller set, hitchhiking around South Ameri[…]

Fear of Flying
As the aircraft lifted into the afternoon skies, I craned my neck to see Miami below. I had bagsied the window seat ahead of my sister. She sulked as a ten-year-old does. At two years her senior I was entitled to the privilege. Despite[…]

Moominvalley In November
Have you ever been on your own in a hotel? A big hotel, a hundred rooms – and no other guests but you?
We arrived in Bialowieza on a Tuesday, to stay four nights. It was early November, the night came on early and the v[…]

DELIGHTS OF SOLO TRAVELLING
1: Staying in bed all day
I have a pretty protestant work ethic. In my usual day to day, not only do I rarely have sick days off, but even at the weekend I am usually up and out by 10am. I have never been sure if this is a[…]

Gronk board
Another story on the theme of strangers in travel pictures.
Once when I was a teenager, I was in the Navy cadets. We went on a 3-day trip staying on a minesweeper.
The minesweeper was dirty and gray coloured and smelt like a hospital. I[…]

Strangers on a Photo
I was looking at some old holiday photos last night and was struck by the random strangers that end up in family photos. You get chatting to other families, and the young kids play with each other on the beach, and have pictures […]