http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/mightymark/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from mightymark en-us Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:51:12 +0000 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:51:12 +0000 Too much time on my hands perhapsI've unearthed a little project I did a few years ago when the change was from office to art foundation and I was trying to find my way out of an office and into something more interesting failed to impress a tutor and projected into 'Roger.' He ended up with five squillion pounds. I didn't. I don't even have a dog. We the household do have a hamster cal http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Bristol-County/Bristol/blog-387390.html Update. I left my old faithful bike in a damp cellar put all my other wordly goods as opposed to otherwordly that would have been far too odd in a big rucksack and headed to Amsterdam for the next 5 months where I found another bicycle it was destroyed by a garbage truck I found another which had emotional problems continually breaking down worked in a book shop learned to salsa dance http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Bristol-County/Bristol/blog-387376.html The end is not so much nigh as now at least for this part of the trip. I'm back where I started Bristol older wiser handsomer modester and grammerly betterer.I clocked up the magic 10000 kms and after that stopped counting. It felt enough and I didn't want to be greedy.So a few days here to do notalot and play with my computer again which is why I'm lumping loads of mugshots on this pag http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Bristol-County/Bristol/blog-288461.html Voila my first blog videos and pretty darn fine they are too. Oh yes. Well all it does in France is rain which is good for the slugs which are still hunting my bicycle shorts under the flysheet at night but but maybe it's beginning to change. I got mosquito bitten last night which I believe is a positive omen for better weather. I am the barman tells me in THE SMALLEST TOWN IN EUROPE http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Burgundy/blog-283287.html There's a funny smell in the cyber cafe and I realise it's me. Stale armpits yummy. But that's not the worst of it. 2 days ago I stop for a little chat with a french cyclist with a green tarpulin over his rack and he calls me a fatty I explained I'd just eaten a banana but it didn't wash. I'm not a fatty just well proportioned. And then it's been loads more rain thunder lightning and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/blog-281038.html After cycling again in Italy I got bored and took several trains from Florence to AixenProvence while someone else took my camera. Merde. Bad news is the vomiting monster shape I saw on the road outside Siena will now never appear in my photo album good news is I've done unfeasibly huge cyclings in a big circle up Mont Ventoux through gorges up into the Provencal Alps lots of rain light http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/blog-278983.html My previous blog looked forward to a leisurely cycle into Bari and a ferry to Corfu.It didn't quite turn out that way.Buouyed by finding a campsite 20 kms north of Brindisi a sunny day and the prospect of a much cheaper ferry I went for the 120 km ride and porridgedup made it to find the camping book had lied and the campsite was shut so a long cheap day became longer 145 kms and expensi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Ionian-Islands/Corfu/blog-269920.html Hands up at the outset I have had a little bit to drink and no food and I've done heaps of cycling so. I'm in a most extraordinary place. Matera. Little Mel Gibson was here first apparently and filmed Christ being crucified usual quip about being well hung.... and there's this area called the sassi where folk pretty much used to live in caves. Me too. I've slung the boat out there bein http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Basilicata/Matera/blog-266441.html Archaelogical Museum in Napoli confirmed what a perverse bunch the old Romans really were. More enormous phalluses and a charming sculpture of a satyr making the intimate acquaintance of a goat. More coventionally the Farinese collection of sculpture houses huge marble heads with bits of ears and noses chopped off. Maybe Mike Tyson got to them. Good to be out of Napoli though. I'm now in a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Campania/blog-264283.html Oooh my little legs are tired. 300 km in 3 days and a thunderstorm outside of Napoli and up a big hill. So for a rest I'm at Pompeii mulling a la Frankie Howard. Not much of a rest though. I was expecting a few crumbly columns maybe a statue not the great big town that it is. Packs of screaming school kids accompanied by frumpy teachers. Soooo glad I'm not a teacher I should have d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Campania/Pompei/blog-262967.html Brrr it's chilly. I didn't expect that. I'm back into thermal longjohns woolly hat and socks. But that's just at night. The rest of the time daylight it's pretty sunny so I'll stop moaning for a bit. I have at present no plan but I do have lots of maps and am putting off looking at them again by writing this and drinking coffee to the strains of abominable pop music in which the cam http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-261497.html It's 1 o'clock in the morning but no it's 10 in the evening 'cause I've crossed time zones and this computer comes courtesy of a fried rice at Hong Kong airport.I've just 'done' Australia in 10 days most of which was in a retirement village with top rellies and I'm now in transit waiting for the next flight outta here to Rome.I am a headless chicken.Mediterranean Europe in the Spring and edgi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-260648.html First off it's raining. It's been raining for days and that's just not good enough so I've been drinking lots of coffee and going to the pictures. Before holing up here in Dunedin it was mainly sunny and lots of good stuff in Wanaka dismal Queenstown great gravel road through the hills dolphins and mountains at Milford Sound and down along the south coast. Tuatapere offered the worst fush http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-246691.html Before I get to that let me tell you about Okarito. Beautiful wee campsite close to the shore no shop no cafe but jungle behind sea in front a lagoon to swim in and a nice man who left me 2 beers in a fridge. This has nothing to do with toilet love incidentally. I stayed a couple of nights and enjoyed what the highly organised NZ tourist industry tends to trample with its emphasis on con http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-240231.html Note to self from last entry try to avoid writing a blog after drinking too much the previous night.Taking my own advice I'm in a better mood despite constant rain all day. Yet because I'm now only doing miniscule distances and the novelty of it still being warm I quite enjoyed it and hope that my hair will now become curly. Come to think of it the only hair I have IS curly further rumina http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-238275.html It's roasting hot and I'm cutting down on the distances so I can regain enthusism for cycling which was wobbling loads but is now beginning to recover. The grind in South America has had a similar effect to drinking too much and feeling sick at the mere thought of another drop or in this case pedal. I'm meeting other cyclists quite regularly now and they're all so keen I've felt like Eeyore http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-237038.html Chau Argentina and kia oro New Zealand.I flew out on new year's day and now I'm in Auckland stopping for a few days with cousin Gerald Tresna two kids and a tubby cat. Creature comforts have dripped down upon me starting with fush n chups moving on to imposter marmite earl grey tea english breakfast tea christmas tea and Guinness.The last few days in Argentina were great though. I cycl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-232948.html Theres a monster that lives in the lake.It feeds by night on ducks and on frogs and when its eaten enough on the weeds that grow in the mud at the bottom which aid its digestion.Theres a monster that lives in the lake.It leaves trails of broken reeds and grass when it wanders through the shallows or when it comes ashore to rub its scales against the willows.Theres a monster that lives in th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Rio-Negro/San-Carlos-de-Bariloche/blog-230529.html Once again I got it wrongThis time I set off with sunstroke left over from the volcano when I decided not to drink anything as I couldnt be bothered opening my pack and didnt want to pee. Well more fool me.I managed 2 tiny days not feeling too good but confident Id be fine and then on day 3 was back on the ripio gravel heading up and managed the majestic distance of 25 km in 10 hours int http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Rio-Negro/San-Carlos-de-Bariloche/blog-230520.html Just a quickie.Because the tryes I ordered from UK are sitting in Customs in Buenos Aires and dont seem to want to move and because I was knackered Ive stayed a couple of extra days here in Villarrica and traipsed up and down the volcano today. The volcanos pretty impressive and smokes and everything but its nothing compared to sliding back down it on my bum in the snow.No photos of that I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Araucania/blog-229129.html