http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/janees/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from janees en-us Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:58:46 +0000 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:58:46 +0000 When my volunteering time at Las Pumas came to an end Lynn and I went travelling to see some other parts of Costa Rica. We set off on the bus to Tilaran a nice cool town in the hills and there changed to catch a bus to Santa Elena. The road from Tilaran to Santa Elena was pretty bumpy as are all roads to Santa Elena I think because when we were in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve our main http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/blog-196562.html I landed at San Jose airport and was collected by Nicki the rep from the volunteer company itoi. I had signed up to do about 3 weeks work at a big cat shelter. This was to be my first time volunteering I wanted to give something back for all the wonderful trips and fantastic times I had whilst traveling and holidaying. My first couple of days in Costa Rica the first time I had ever visite http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/blog-196558.html TravelblogNorth CarolinaI spent three days with Bert an old travel friend his wife and children in Charlotte North Carolina. Bert gave me a bit of a tour around Charlotte and environs when I first landed. I was struck by the space and size of things I know it is a clich but it is true The centre of Charlotte I had seen from the plane as we landed a little island of towering steel co http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/blog-196517.html I work for the BBC and was at the BBC World Service at the same time as Alan Johnston in the 1990's. I want to show my support for his release please follow the link below to the BBC News website to find out moreGo to the BBC Website for more info http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-157285.html We went to St Davids in south west Wales for Easter. We stayed at The Waterings BB. We had stayed there before for Nick and Vicky's wedding so we knew that we had a great place to stay It took us over 5 hours to get there due to the amount of traffic on the roads we also stopped for about 40 mins for lunch. Once we arrived we took a stroll into St Davids and down to the Cathedral. It is such http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Saint-David-s/blog-148851.html David and I went to Polperro in Cornwall in the south west of England well I guess it IS the south west of England sorry to Devon. Polperro is a beautiful little village with only 1100 residents. It nestles in a valley and has a pretty little harbour. In some of the guide books it says it is the lsquomost picturesque village in Cornwallrsquo. It is really lovely with little quaint cot http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cornwall/Polperro/blog-141535.html We drove to Windhoek and stayed at the lovely Pension Steiner we had rung ahead the day before to check they had a room available. Pension Steiner was great secure parking friendly staff they served lunch in the lovely garden around a pool and it is REALLY close to the centre of the city. We walked around a small part of the city and saw the meteors that dropped in Gibeon 300km south about http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-108000.html Our next stop was Waterberg Plateau Park back down on the B1 road. Waterberg Plateau is a huge plateau huge It dominates the landscape. We had planned to do some walking trails here and enjoy the outdoors. The weather was fine by now with no sign of rain. We were due to stay at Waterberg for two nights our last two nights in Namibia but decided that one would be enough. This was because http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Waterberg/blog-107998.html After Twyfelfontein we drove towards Ethosha National Park. We were due to stay at the Eagle Tented Camp in Epacha Game Reserve but there had been a mix up with our booking and we had stay in the luxury Epacha Game Lodge and even though it was not our fault we had to pay the difference. Epacha Game Lodge was lovely if a little stuffy and pretentious particularly at dinner time We stayed i http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Etosha-National-Park/blog-107990.html Our next stop was Twyfelfontein. This was about a 5 hour trip from Swakopmund along the C35 and the D2612 and we filled up with fuel at Uis. The usual expanse scenery sky etc still amazing Twyfelfontein lodge was one of Davidrsquos favourites because it had a buffet for breakfast and dinner lots of choice and lots of food and lots of different puddings he was VERY happy Not th http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Twyfelfontein/blog-107988.html On the way to Swakopmund from the Namib Naukluft Park area we drove through two passes I especially liked Kuiseb pass the scenery was a mix of rocky hills with bands of grass growing on them which made the whole landscape seem striped black and greenyyellow rolling and undulating into the distance. We filled up with fuel at Solitair and arrived in Swakopmund in time for lunch. We had http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-106081.html The next day we had a long drive mostly on gravel roads to the Namib Naukluft National Park passing by the turning to Sossusvlei which we would visit the following day. It was a long journey and the beautiful road from Luderitz to Aus the road that had been so beautiful on the journey down was spoiled for David who was doing the driving because there were lots and lots of little birds o http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Sossusvlei/blog-106065.html Our next stop was Luderitz on the coast. We set off from Canon Lodge in the morning and arrived about lunchtime. The B4 road to Luderitz was one of the most wonderful journeys we have ever done. The scenery was stunningly beautiful and diverse and the landscape just kept stretching for miles. We saw some red hills I presume they were sand dunes in the distance huge plains or prairies of gra http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Luderitz/blog-106063.html On one of the roads towards the Fish River Canyon we saw something standing in the road in front of us. We thought through the heat haze that it was maybe a donkey but it turned out to be an oryx just in the middle of nowhere From the car we also saw lots of ostrich and springbok. We got some petrol at the Canon Road House and then drove to the canyon paying our entrance fee at the gate http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Fish-River-Canyon/blog-106059.html Our first accommodation was Anib Lodge on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. We checked in and were offered the option to go on an evening game drive and sundowner which we decided to do We went for a sleep as although we had slept a bit on the night flight we had not had enough sleep We woke up in time for the game drive which was great We saw oryx gemsbok which I was very excited about http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Kalahari/blog-106056.html David and I went to Namibia for just over two weeks. David had booked our flights with Air Namibia from London Gatwick direct to the capital of Namibia Windhoek. And we had sorted out our own routeitinerary and David had booked the accommodation through the excellent Namibia Reservations based in Otijwarongo. He had also organized our hire car which we were to collect from Hosea Kutako Inter http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-106054.html A week in Alcudia Mallorca with my husband my sister and her husband ... hmmm I was a little worried I thought it would be high rise and tacky... I was wrong I found the old town of Alcudia and some Roman ruins more later... We stayed at the Soliceto Apartments which were about 900 metres from the beach. The apartment was fine and the property had a bar and restaurant and a small pool http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Balearic-Islands/Majorca/blog-76638.html Our good friend Nick got married to Vicky on Saturday 6th May 2006 in his home 'city' of St Davids in Pembrokeshire Wales. We drove down on Friday we left home at 10 and got there at just after 2pm. We checked in to our bb and then walked around the smallest city in the UK. St Davids has a cathedral which gives it the status of city but it is really a tiny little place a bit more like a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Pembroke/blog-57733.html We went to Barcelona for 5 days it was great Warmer and sunnier weather than the UK lots to see and dohellip and eat and drink We got the train in from Barcelona airport to the city centre and checked into our hotel on Ronda St Antoni. On the way from the metro station we walked past one of Antoni Gaudirsquos architectural creations Casa Batllo on Passeig de Gracia. It was built be http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-48962.html Our trip to the Valleys of the Kings and Queens was great. We got up early to beat the heat and the other tourists Althought it being the summer and very hot there were not as many tourists as there are in the other seasons when it is cooler. We went first of all to the Valley of the Kings you are allowed to go into three tombs. Our guide pointed us in the direction of the tombs of three di http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Thebes/blog-12531.html