over the hills & far away
Hailing from the sunny village of Coventry, England, 23 year old Marc & Claire hatched a cunning plan in the summer of 2004. Twas plan so cunning in fact you could literally brush your teeth with it: To conquer the world via the medium of travel! It then took about a year to actually do anything about organising it (boo to the "o" word), but now Leeds uni maths graduate Marc, and Swansea uni geography graduate Claire, ask you to come hither to their blog of comedy events through India, Asia and finally New Zealand. We salute your coming to visit our photos and anecdotes. In addition this blog now has the glories of South America and although Claire sadly no longer contributes, the name lives on. Finally to those new to the bolg Marc now finds himself in the grand old US of A enjoying the last few moments of a momentous year away from home. I get home on 3rd December, just under 13 months from departure. claireandmarc
Travel Blog Posts
August 11th 2008
Howdy folks, i don´t imagine anyone still tunes in wildly hoping that i´ll write another entry ç. However i got an email from the folks at travelblog and didn´t want them to close off the old account. so...seeing as i´m in el la spain. i though i drop in this pointless and short blog that keeps my account open and all you hungery for proper news of travelling wondering why you bothered to read this. sorry. i guess i can report that i went to touristy faro in prtugal which was perfectly pleasant and perfect for those looking to sit on the beach and not understand why they dont speako le elnglish or la spanish. they want portuguese. honestly. lucky hap now sees me in seville in the hottest situation ever. spain is seriously hot at ... read more
Coventry - an idylic corner of the world
Published: December 9th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » England » West Midlands » Coventry
December 8th 2006
Well, here we go. Who would have thought there'd ever be a travel blog for Coventry. Given its grey nature, anonomous character and....hang on. Do you know what, i confess that i was all up for a bit of Coventry bashing in this blog. Not because i dont love the place, i truely do, and anyone who's met me will agree. But, in fairness, apart from coming from dear old Coventry, i've always known at the back of my mind, theres not much going for it. Well, that was before i got back and started wandering around. Now, i'm not going to go overboard and try to put Cov in the top 10 places to see in the world, but to a point..Cov's gone cool. Firstly and maybe most importantly it houses the worlds best ever ... read more
Touchdown UK
Published: December 6th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Heathrow Airport
December 3rd 2006
Oh my..oh my. Well. Crumbs. Basically this blog is only to let you know that i am back on British soil safely. At present words are not happening. If you want to get inside the head of Marc create mass panic and shock then add a large amount of rather naughty and expletive words. My plan is to soon get the Claire back on board for one last blog full of our thoughts, highlights and opinions on travellig. For now i'm stunned and apart from seeing family and real tea (both perfect and very very much causes for happiness) not overly impressed. What will become of me i have no idea. It's been a whole more than a year. wow - post travelling is a strange strange place to be. hmm. marc... read more
Winding down in the windy snow
Published: December 6th 2006North America » United States » Minnesota » Minneapolis
November 29th 2006
Ok, yes yes yes. I havent done a blog entry for ages. After all the excitement of the blogs in California i'm sure you were all expectring the fireworks and the such to continue right back till blighty. Well, as it worked out on 24th November i flew 2 Frontier airlines flights from San Fransisco - Denver - Minneapolis. Respectively these were with Larry the Leopard and Foxy the Fox (all the Frontier airline planes are mascoted by animals. As you can see the brainstormers ran out of ideas when naming the fox plane - just a bit). So what have i been up to since arrival in this part of the worls and why on earth did i go there. Well, those with good memories will remember Laurel from earlier blogs from our heady days ... read more
Climbing in Joshua Tree
Published: November 24th 2006North America » United States » California » Joshua Tree National Park
November 24th 2006
Those trees are indeed Joshua Trees. Just when i thought it was impossible for my trip to keep on getting better and better, it goes and does just that. For the last 3 glorious days i've been having a fantastic time in Joshua Tree National Park, 9 hours drive south from San Francisco (many many thanks to Uncle Nick for the driving - about 1100miles in all). In short Joshua Tree is not just a slightly overrated U2 album (oooo risky comment), it's an area of desert east of Los Angleles 558,000 acres big. It's one of 380 US National Parks. It's littered with amazing granite rock formations, cacti, Joshua Trees, sand and general dryness. After the mammoth drive down form San Fran on Monday we arrived at the Jumbo Rocks campground around midnight, pitched up ... read more
Yosemite National Park: A Forced March
Published: November 18th 2006North America » United States » California » Yosemite National Park
November 18th 2006
Since leaving the UK, often has been the case when i've been forced to try and make things sound awe inspiring, fantastic, all that jazz. I think in the early days me and claire kept on finding places that were clearly like paradise. Well, i'm nearly going to be home soon (and i think, although i'm extremely fond of dear old Coventry, paradise it ain't). Hence it seems only fitting that i got to go there once more. Yosemite National Park, is without doubt one of the most scenic, picture perfrect, and downright lovely places i've been. The trip began with myself and Uncle Nick making the 4 (or if you were to trust the cars onboard route finder, a bit longer) hour trip out from San Fran on the night of the 16th. Arrival ended ... read more
Haight and Ashbury
Published: November 18th 2006North America » United States » California » San Francisco
November 17th 2006
Another day in San Fran, and this time a mission of discovery. Firstly it's worth pointing out that seeing Golden Gate bridge yesterday turned out to tbe one of the all time great plans, because today was gloomy, misty, rainy, grey...getting me ready for a return to England me thnks. Anyway seeing as all was looking bleak I decided to go and see Golden Gate park (bad idea), and then look around the birth place of the hippy movement in the 60's - Haight Ashbury. A very cool district and lots of fun just looking around at the shops and all the street art on the walls. How nobody from San Fran that i've met on my travels has told me to go to this place i have no idea. It's fantastic. Thought i'd keep this ... read more
San Francisco Welcomes You
Published: November 16th 2006North America » United States » California » San Francisco
November 16th 2006
There's no doubt you know that you're in the USA when you get here. Having been in South America for so long, at times it's a mystery as to what time zone, what currency, what day, heck, what country you're in. However here in the US of A you're left in no doubt as to where you are. Things started slightly..'interestingly' as i had no address for Uncle Nick here in San Francisco. This meant the authorities decided to double check everything about the floppy haired Brit arriving from El Salvador..."why are you here ?", "why would anyone want to travel for a year ?", "why are there llamas on your guitar case ?". In fact they ended up taking me away to the (effect a huge American accent) 'secondary interrorgation area' and questioning me at ... read more
Taking it on a technicality
Published: November 15th 2006Central America Caribbean » El Salvador » Central » San Salvador
November 14th 2006
Ok, my stop in El Salvador was in fact only 49 minutes while waiting for my connecting flight to San Francisco. However i did play a song on ye olde guitar to a rather bemused collection of American business travellers and some El Salvadorian airport workers. Hence i feel i'm allowed to blog the place. Also i managed to nearly get arrested in the airport despite my breif stay for.. carrying toothpaste. Yep, apparently although taking umpteen TACA airline flights before, because this one was bound for the states, all of a sudden we were not permitted to "..gather in groups of more than 3 people in any area..." ooo! Also my innocent Colgate toothpaste was suddenly deemed a security risk. However after negociations as to the actual risk toothpaste poses, and demonstrating that it was ... read more
Zipping thorugh Monteverde & Bye Bye CR
Published: November 14th 2006Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Monteverde
November 14th 2006
After slight dissapointment at the Volcano experience (although i keep forgetting the aceness of the thermal spa) in La Fortuna, Monteverde had a lot of work to do. After arrival last night we had lengthy discussions as to what was the best course of action (we incidentally is still myself and Emma, the girl from the Valparriso blogs in Chile) for the next day. Monteverde as an area pretty much offers the lot in terms of activities that a Marc might be interested in. There's a cheese factory that offers tours (i'll forever regret the fact i couldn't fit this in, however i would like to point out i did go to a cheese factory in New Zealand, to anyone doubting my lack of cheese love - its still huge), coffee plantations with tours, zip lines ... read more
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