We had tickets for a 'sleeper' bus - super deluxe air conditioned. In reality it was a coach with intermittent air conditioning and oversized luggage racks - which was where we spent the whole journey. 28 hours, one puncture, five bananas and one pack of hobnobs later we arrived in Srinigar - along with 3 quarters of the Indian army. As their trucks had priority (the big guns kinda gave them that privilege) the tourist busses had a long wait. The only thing to punctuate the trip, on a very regular basis, was the numerous passport controls. It was only for the western tourists which on reflection is curious as we haven't been blowing stuff up in Kashmir! We were met by Shafi (Mr. Bob) who is the owner of the boat (and Niaz' uncle) who ... read more

Hello and welcome to Mark and Gills travel journal. Apologies to all who expected this site to be running months ago, but as most of you will appreciate we're not the most organised of people! We started our 'journey' in Spain, spending 4 weeks in Algodonales, in the south, and then travelling around the coast for 2 weeks. While in 'Algo' we spent 3 weeks with Fly Spain (in conjunction with Lijar Sur - Spanish school), and qualified (thanks Rob and José) with a 'Para-pro 3' paragliding pilot rating, (equivalent to elementary and club pilot in England for anyone interested). For anyone considering paragliding we'd recommend this region of Spain and the school. Set in the Grazelema national park with 3,500 ft mountains, the flying is amazing. We completed our course with a number of breath ... read more