After a three hour delay out of East Midlands we are delighted to finally land into Almeria in the south of Spain and find that our car hire company is still open and waiting for us (they were scheduled to close an hour ago). So after handing over our credit card and signing the appropriate forms we’re handed the keys to our hire car for our long weekend - a left hand drive Seat Leon - and we head off on the 1.5 hour drive to our B&B. At first the feat seemed a little daunting considering it’s now 11:45pm and [View Full Entry]

---

---

We set off early on Saturday morning negotiating our hire car out of Nottingham onto the M1 motorway following the signs for “The North”. Interestingly even after a couple of hours of driving the signs that we pass in North Yorkshire tell us that “The North” is still yet further ahead. We ponder this. There mustn’t be a Yorkshireman alive who would attest to be southern, but if Yorkshire isn’t north, does that make it south? Surely not... Anyway just past ‘Scotch Corner’ we turn off the motorway and after another half an hour or so of hea [View Full Entry]

---

---

As our Friday afternoon flight touches down, we’re feeling excited about being in Edinburgh again. It’s our first visit back since getting engaged here in November and also in an hour or so we’ll be meeting up with James and Kylie for three day’s travel around the highlands. Can’t wait... From the airport, the double decker bus takes us into the city centre and from its terminus at Waverley train station we head up into the old town towards our backpackers. Thinking that we know what we’re doing, we take a “short cut” and end up lugg [View Full Entry]

---

---

Travelling from the UK to the Continent overland has been a dream of ours since we first arrived in England. European friends in Australia would amaze us with tales of travelling to another country without getting on a plane but until now we hadn’t found an opportunity to do so, well not across the channel anyway. So when we found bargain Eurostar tickets available for the second May long weekend (which also happened to be a weekend when Ariana’s Mum and Dad would be visiting us), we couldn’t pass it up. Arriving at London St Pancras after a short bus journey [View Full Entry]

---

---

It’s early afternoon on Saturday of our early May bank holiday weekend and we’ve just landed at Carcassonne airport. As we walk across the tarmac to the terminal building we notice how small the airport is - it’s easily half the size of the Rocky Airport. Only in Europe could an airport this small be “international”… After clearing the relaxed customs process we head outside and jump on the bus for the town centre. The bus ride really sets the scene for where we’ve decided to spend the weekend. The streets are full of 4WDs (the proper sort - [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our fourth day in Morocco starts at 5:45 with our alarm sounding sharply. We drag ourselves out of bed and in to the cool Saharan morning air in order to find a good spot to watch the sunrise. On a decent size dune we make it just in time to see the sun break the horizon and send the desert through a cascade of colours. Erg Chigaga really is at its best at this time of day. The overnight breeze has swept away any footprints from the day before and it feels like we’re the only people for a thousand miles… [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our first visit to the African continent starts with a long corkscrew descent into Marrakech airport. After clearing customs we exchange money, pick up our backpacks and head outside into the welcoming warm spring air. First challenge: make it to the CTM bus station in town. On most of our travels so far this would be reasonable simple, but there are three things against us - one, Morocco’s first language is Arabic, two, their second language is French, and three, foreigners are seen as easy targets for inflated prices. So we wander up to the group of drivers milling around [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our flight from Amman arrives into Istanbul airport without fuss, and despite the snow (which we weren’t expecting) we jump on the tram and head for the backpackers. Istanbul clearly needs a metro or heavy rail system because we’ve never experienced a more sardine experience like this tram ride - at one point with all the pushing and shoving to get on and off, a fight almost breaks out! It’s quite a contrast to calm Jordan where we’ve spent the last 8 days, although we are just a little surprised at how ‘normal’ Turkey already feels. The tram eventual [View Full Entry]

---

---

At Wadi Musa we check in to our hotel and wash the remaining Dead Sea salt from our hair before joining our guide on the short walk downhill to the entrance to Petra. It’s already quite cold under the clear night sky, but ‘Petra by night’ is too good an opportunity to pass up. The site authority lay down the ground rules for the walk down to the Treasury - no mobiles, no flash photos, no loud talking, and no bunching up as there’s plenty of time to see everything. With the rules established we pass through the gates onto a [View Full Entry]

---

---

410m below sea level is where we’re going- the lowest point and the saltiest sea on earth. At eight times saltier than the ocean it’s uninhabitable thus giving it its name…the Dead Sea. We’re told as we depart Amman that the temperature typically rises by 1 degree for every 150m of decent so we’re looking forward to a swim and some relief from the cool temperatures of Amman. As we round a bend in the road we get our first glimpse of the Dead Sea which, given the windy conditions, looks more like a choppy lake than a sea. Our guide [View Full Entry]

---

---