As we sit by the pool in sunshine it all seems so long ago that we took to the British roads. Our goal was to cycle England from sister's home in Olney, Bucks to the Scottish borders and back down via the Lake District. We set off in glorious sunshine and the perfect English summers day. We wondered why we hadn't done this before. Images of cream teas on perfectly manicured lawns flashed by as we peddled the country lanes. Our first destination was St Neots. No idea what to expect but Ray managed to fall off his bike just as we entered the camp-site; this was not to be his only fall and within a day or two his knees were in shreds. A pleasant town St Neots turned out to be with the river ... read more

Arrived in KL ready for our visa run. Had booked in a hotel in the heart of Chinatown. As with all accommodation on our budget in Malaysia it was a windowless shoebox but had an attached shower. On previous visits to KL we had not been impressed, this time was different. Our slightly higher budget meant we could actually afford decent food. The intense heat forced us to spend our time window shopping in the numerous air conditioned shopping malls. To avoid argument 50% of our time was spent in sports shops and 50% in clothes shops so both me and John were kept happy. With our visas we flew to Thailand. Phuket immediately felt like home and we settled into our room on the outskirts of Phuket City for two months. Soon we were contacted ... read more

We arrived the next day in Lanzarote with no problems and soon were being shown around our new abode in Costa Teguise. The apartment was lovely and spacious with a view of the sea and a pool. We threw our clothes into the wardrobe and headed out to explore picturesque Costa Teguise and sample some traditional Canarian hospitality. Well traditional Canarian hospitality consists of Sky TV, English Breakfasts and Beer. So not all bad, especially when the beer is 1.50 euros from our local bar where our two Canarian hosts (from Bradford originally) kept us up to date with movies. What was harder to find was a decent coffee. We tried the many English bars who quite clearly had only the vaguest notion of what the coffee machine was for and spent quite a while trying ... read more

Well I was going to tell you all about our journey up the coast and how we started in 1970 at the Crossroads Motel in Rockhampton and ended up in Bates Motel in Port Douglas. On the way we had met a host of cyclists and some even joined us. But as many of you now know we needed to return to the UK to visit Ray's mum. Our flights to New Zealand and Vietnam in the bin and the prospect of living in a tent in the frozen wastes of the UK awaited us. The story started well with Ray's mum and sister joining us in Cairns for a belated birthday treat. We drove up into the hills and visited an historic town, we even made it to some hot springs picturesquely sited at the ... read more

After a bout of Denge fever (yes I finally got the real thing) and the rains opening up in Thailand it became obvious we had to fly south for the Winter. All of SE Asia was covered in rain cloud and Australia looked dry. Welcome to Sydney. Decided to stay for a month and so organised a flat share with some Koreans. Planned to buy a car and extend our visa to 9 months so that we could travel the length and breadth of this island. Received lots of advice from various Brits, Irish, Thais, Kiwis and Chinese (are there any Australians here?). Well after three days we met our first Ozzy (he was trying to sell us a copy of the Big Issue). The sun was shining and the beach of Palm Beach beckoned (aka ... read more