Dan and Dot

For our final blog of the trip we see white snow, pink flamingos, green jungle and deep blue ocean. So without further ado, here we go.... Leaving London we flew to LAX, slept in the airport for the night (surprisingly tolerable) and then flew up to Vanvouver, where we got to Whistler about 30 hours after leaving London. Phew! We stayed with Dan's brother Nick and his partner Sophie in their critically over full flat. It turns out Whistler has a housing crisis with all the pre olympics building that is underway there for the 2010 Olympics. Happily we didn't mind sleeping on the floor at the foot of Nick's bed as compared to some of the places we have been it was perfect luxury! Dan's other brother, Ben, and his wife Kat were also there, ... read more

(Sorry for the lame title, we've been up since 3am) Since our last blog your intrepid (or at least tepid) travellers grabbed their packs and headed to the Lycian Way. The Lycian Way is a long distance hiking trail along the southern Anatolian coast. We were dropped of by a crazy old "taxi" driver who took us on a hair raising ride to a cliff face in the middle of nowhere. After getting lost (twice, before we even found the track) a friendly beekeeper (carrying his bees) and an equally friendly goat herder set us on the right path. It was a long walk down hill to Kabak beach, passing under unstable cliffs to the tune of loud rumbles. We found the only other tourists sleeping over in Kabak and joined them in the only joint ... read more

Since Cadaques in Spain, our journey has turned to the east, and towards the distant city of Istanbul... Before leaving Spain we went to the bizarre and fascinating Dali Museum in Figures, designed by the man himself. It was replete with sexual imagery, clever visual tricks (a room with a sofa and fireplace becomes a glamorous woman's head) and giant sureal statues. Even the building was mental, lined with giant eggs. Cool. We drove back into Spain and the town of Carcassone. The town has a fascinating history. The Romans built a huge wall here in the 3rd century AD which is still standing. It has had another enormous wall with towers added in the centuries since by first the Cathars and then the kingdom of France. The town on the hill is therefore surrounded by ... read more

We´ve been on the road for 3 weeks or so and there´s been no time for blogging. However the rain has started falling again, so here we are. The trip started off well with a visit to Dan´s cousins in Edinburgh. Great city full of fringe festival. However things took a turn for the worse as we headed up to north Scotland in our wee rental..... We arrived on the west coast to find it the home of the Midgy. We had been warned, however we underestimated the buggers. To understand the midgy - take one sandfly and mix it with a mosquito, shink it down to microscopic size and clone it a billion times. The tenatious little bastards really tested our patience. Between them and the fairly cold wet weather we were driven from the ... read more