Michael & Faye Johnson

MichaelnFaye

Michael & Faye Johnson

So... It's been six years since we got back from our big family travels. A lot can happen in six years and the kids are growing at a pace that's completely overwhelming.

We have 'settled' back into life in the UK, which for all its problems is an amazing country and we love it here. We've got back on track with our careers and the kids are progressing well with their schooling.

As for travel, thankfully we still haven't stopped. Over the last few years we've been to a few more places in Europe, spent many weeks in Thailand and Malaysia, celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in Western Australia, spent three incredible weeks in Canada and have just explored Cappadocia and Jordan. Next on the list, summer in S. Africa...

May the good times never end!

Check in from time to time to see how we're getting on, and hopefully be inspired by the fact that doing something you love doesn't have to come at the cost of increasing responsibilities...

Where we are currently: Back in the UK, catching up on sleep

Our second grand adventure lasted 420 days!

Travels, Part 2 - Where we went!

Travels, Part 1 - Where we went!

Travel map 2007-2008

MichaelnFaye

May 8th 2003
Random Photos

Safari in South Africa - Kruger National Park

Africa » South Africa August 26th 2018

Blyde River Canyon

MichaelnFaye

South Africa wasn't even on my radar as a destination I wanted to go until very recently. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to go, I want to go everywhere, but I didn't think it would happen soon. Flights always seemed so expensive and I also want to experience safari with the kids when they would be old enough to remember and appreciate it. After reading an article on the Shosholoza Meyl tourist train though, I thought it sounded fun. The kids are nearly 10, so would probably enjoy a safari, so I added Jo'burg and Cape Town to my list of flight alerts for the summer not really expecting much. Two weeks later my phone buzzed in my pocket, the days flight prices had been emailed. Right there at a bargain price for the exact ... read more

Beautiful leopard basking in the evening sun

Petra - The Temple of the Sun in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon.

Middle East » Jordan April 14th 2018

The Treasury from above

MichaelnFaye

Arriving in Jordan was a bit of a shock. Due to the upfront costs of things (Visa's, Petra and hotels), which were much more expensive than I'd hoped, I assumed that Jordan was just another oil rich Arab country, like the UAE or Saudi Arabia. We arrived at Amman airport at midnight, so after getting our bags and the rental car, we didn't leave the airport till 2am. From the airport we drove to Madaba, one of the closest towns just to get some rest in a hotel. Now, no country probably looks its best at 2am but we were left wondering if we'd landed in the right country. The road conditions were beyond terrible, most of the houses were dilapidated, there were stray dogs chasing the car down the streets and there were a few ... read more

Ballooning in Cappadocia

Middle East » Turkey » Central Anatolia » Cappadocia April 6th 2018

Ballooning in Cappadocia

MichaelnFaye

This trip was a bit of a surprise to us. Our plans for Easter were to fly to Bangkok and then try to organise a trip to Myanmar, but for some reason the price of the flights to Bangkok never seemed to drop. I think we may have been spoiled by the £360 bargain we bagged last year with Oman Air, it’s set a precedent I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to match. This meant I was scouring the flight search engines for flights to ‘somewhere new’ which was the only guidance I’d been given by Faye. Jordan has always been somewhere we’ve wanted to visit but flights weren’t far off what we’ve paid to visit South East Asia, the cheapest being with Turkish Airlines, via Istanbul. The flights for the London-Turkey segment were ... read more

Whistler

North America » Canada » British Columbia » Whistler August 25th 2016

Peak to Peak Gondola

MichaelnFaye

After leaving Jasper, our first stop on the long journey to Whistler was at Valemount. We'd heard from someone we spoke to in Jasper that the salmon are spawning in the river which is only a few hundred meters from the visitors centre. We parked at the visitors centre, then walked down to the viewing platform and it didn't take long before we spotted a couple of salmon making the arduous journey upstream. There weren't any waterfalls or anything so we didn't get to witness any spectacular leaps but they're not small fish so it was pretty cool to see them thrashing through the rapids. Sadly, after they've spawned they die, and we did see a couple of dead ones on the bank. From Valemount we stopped for the night at a place called Bone Creek ... read more

Jasper National Park with a Drone.

North America » Canada » Alberta » Jasper National Park August 21st 2016

Icefields Parkway

MichaelnFaye

I bought myself a new toy! One of the big perks of travelling with two children is you get four cabin bags, which meant my shiny new drone was able to come to Canada with us. I was a little nervous going through security as there's so much negative press surrounding drones, but I needn't have worried, they didn't give it a second glance. Below is a short video I shot while driving the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper, one of the worlds most scenic drives. The video certainly gives you a better idea of just how beautiful this place is, rather than having to rely on what I'm able to write down. Watching it back, I'm still awestruck on just how beautiful the scenery is, and can't believe that I was there, standing by ... read more

Beautiful Banff National Park

North America » Canada » Alberta » Banff National Park August 19th 2016

Moraine Lake

MichaelnFaye

Driving the Canadian Rockies had been high on my 'list' for ages. Due to the cost though, I'd always written it off as something we'd do later, probably when retired and especially not a few months after visiting Iceland, which seriously left my wallet hurting. So how did this trip come together? Well, the boys made some firm friends at school who sadly (for us, definitely not for them), moved to Seattle, so I looked at the possibility of visiting them. Also at this time, a very close family friend of ours who we've travelled with many times was turning 40 and has always wanted to see Orcas from Vancouver. We could always go together and tie the two cities into one trip? It's a long way to go for two city breaks though, so I ... read more

The Land of Fire and Ice

Europe » Iceland February 20th 2016

The Blue Lagoon

MichaelnFaye

So... It was another beautiful summer morning, and I was at work! *Ping*, another email. It was from Easyjet, so of course I had to check it out. They'd released the flights for the next spring, was there anywhere we'd like to go? Oooooh Iceland! I wondered how expensive they'd be over the February half term, then we might get to see the northern lights too. Holy crap, they were really cheap. My heartbeat steadily increased. I quickly fired off some messages to make sure we'd be free for that time, double checked the dates, oh wait I'd got the wrong week. The flight prices for the actual half term were double! My mood worsened considerably and I resigned myself to the fact that we wouldn't be heading to Iceland any time soon. All afternoon though, ... read more

State of Emergency

North America » United States » New York » New York November 2nd 2012

Grand Central Station

MichaelnFaye

We've been home (back in the UK) for 6 months now after travelling for 14 months as a family, plenty of time to move back into our house and fill it with all the crap associated with a 'normal' existence, all the things we shook off when we left. Before we even came home though, Faye and I had talked about going away for a break later on in the year, just the two of us, without the kids. Time to get back some of that closeness that inevitably gets lost once you start sharing your life so closely with little people who at times can be incredibly emotionally and physically demanding. New York for 6 days was our destination of choice. A perfect short city break, which we could explore to our hearts content without ... read more

1 Year On...

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Esperance March 1st 2012

Flowers, Cameron Highlands

MichaelnFaye

A year on the road today... Quite the milestone! This is actually the longest Faye and I have ever been away from home, our last travels lasted just less than a year, so this is quite monumental for us. I'm actually suffering from severe blog lag. We're not in Vietnam as the last published blog suggests, in fact we're not even in SE Asia anymore, we're currently living under canvas, roasting our asses off in a beautiful Western Australia summer. Between then and now, we spent a month in Thailand, a couple of weeks in Malaysia and a month in Java and Bali, these blogs will be written eventually, but for the moment I'm enjoying doing not a lot and will probably continue to do so... So how has travelling with the children been? Our biggest ... read more

Feeling Low in Indonesia

Asia January 2nd 2012

Borobodur

MichaelnFaye

So it's been a while since I've blogged anything. If I'm honest, checking out Travelblog just ends up making me yearn for the times we were on the road with little more responsibility than parenting two kids, figuring out where/what to eat and where to sleep next. Obviously these are pretty big responsibilities, but here at home we are surrounded by a whole host of other chores and tasks that we need to do, that it's hard to make time for the things we want to do... The blog is incomplete though, and it feels wrong leaving it as it is, so with that in mind I'll carry on where we left off, we were in Java for the Holidays. Having travelled in Java before, we know how long it takes to get anywhere by road... ... read more

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Michael & Faye Johnson

MichaelnFaye

Michael & Faye Johnson

Travels, Part 2 - Where we went!

The route so far...

Travels, Part 1 - Where we went!

Travel map 2007-2008