Today we set off early with the whole group for a tour of the Tierra del Fuego National Park area. We had a lovely guide called Everlyn who looked just like our Broads Authority Ranger Elaina! She took us on hikes in the amazing scenery of the National Park along side the sea shore, lakes and with ice topped mountains all around. The air is SOOOOO fresh it's wonderful. The cameras were out snapping the fantastic views and wildlife. And yes we did see a CONDOR. I even managed to get a great photo. They are so awesome with their huge [View Full Entry]

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After a quick breakfast of tea and croissants - a bit of a theme seems to be emerging - I headed off for a quick morning exploration before the group meeting at 10am. Ushuaia First impressions - WOW what a stunning setting for this little town, surrounded on all sides by amazing mountains. There's a large port area with huge ships docked that look destined for Antarctica and here there's also a cluster of places vying for tourist trade on the many boat trips on offer. There's a main hight street with all sorts of shops from clothes boutiques and outdoor [View Full Entry]

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Waking very early after my extremely long sleep I decided to do a bit of reading and have found out a bit about the area of South America I've flown into. The region is called Tierra del Fuego which translates as Land of Fire and the name was coined by the explorer Ferdinand Magellen who, when he arrived in 1520, saw smoke rising from camp fires along the shore. Land of Smoke evolved into the better sounding Land of Fire. For years after this Tierra del Fuego was feared by sailors for its frequent storms and freezing rains and rounding Cape [View Full Entry]

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Lottie's off on her travels again It's hard to believe that it's been a year since my first dabbling of toes into the huge waters of world of travel. I'm very fortunate to be off again very soon and this time I'm heading south to Argentina and Chile in the wonderfully shaped continent of South America. My trip starts at the very tip of the carrot - am I the only one that thinks it looks like a carrot? Or moron as they say in Welsh!! How appropriate. Ushuaia is the most southerly city in the world and that's where I'm [View Full Entry]

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And so on to Jodhpur, the second largest city in Rajasthan. Another long drive and we arrived at our next hotel which turned out to be one of the nicer ones of the tour and a great relief after the Jaiselmer distaster! Jodhpur has a fort (now there's a surprise!) on the top of the hill called Meherangarh Fort. We were dropped at the entrance where we picked up audio guides and it was actually really good to be able to go around the fort at your own speed listening to the plummy Indian accented audio tour guide. The walls of [View Full Entry]

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The next stop on our tour took us to the fortress city of Jaiselmer. Set up on the top of a sandy rock surrounded by the Thar dessert, Jaisalmer is unique in being a lived in fort rather then a preserved monument. After settling into, what turned out to be our worst hotel of the tour (more of this later) we set off for an orientation tour of the fort area. The buildings are covered in extremely intricate carvings all in the local red stone. There are lots of little alley ways with balconies, windows and doorways where you could almost [View Full Entry]

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It was with mixed feelings that we boarded the bus on our journey to the start of a two hour camel trek into the Thar dessert. After the heat of the heritage hotels (no air conditioning!) we were a bit worried about being out in the direct heat of the dessert for hours on end. Not to mention the whole camel thing! So we were all a bit quiet as we waited to get up on the camels that were waiting for us one by one. And then Tara started shrieking - her camel had just decided to have a piss [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Pushkar after another drive on the coach. We are lucky enough to have our own coach and driver with air conditioning and bottled water that is cold (if the driver can get hold of a block of ice in the morning!). He carries it back to the coach with a piece of cloth then dumps it in with the bottles of water. We have a tally and so far Charlotte and Harriet are winning with Sammy a close second. I'd had problems with my breakfast arriving really slowing that morning ( way after people who had ordered after [View Full Entry]

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Fort Khejarla After a long coach ride we finally pulled up at Kherjala Fort one of the many Heritage Hotels in the area. I'd already read up about these before we came away and had mentioned them to other people in the group but I don't think they'd realised quite how special they were going to be. This one is absolutely amazing and we had it almost to ourselves, just one family of 4 also there the night we were. This Heritage Hotel is a proper fort with turrets and walls - a mini version of the ones we've seen so [View Full Entry]

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Ghost Town - whoooooo! On the drive to Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan and the biggest state in India, we stopped off at the deserted Mogul city of Fatehpur Sikri - or Ghost Town. It was built over a period of 12 years but despite an artificial lake being made the water ran dry after only 3 years habitation and the fort place became a ghost town! The emperor, king, maharaja (can't remember what his title was - he was VERY rich whoever he was!) had three wives, 1 muslim, 1 hindu and 1 catholic. Each had their own quarters but they [View Full Entry]

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