Episode 1 (8.9.2011) We made it - Africa, the dark continent. We arrived safely in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday. The Qantas flight over was great for two reasons. 1. Plane only half full and the three of us each got a row of seats to ourselves. 2. I mistakenly thought that we would fly West, over Australia, over Perth and across the Indian Ocean. No - we went south from Sydney , over Gippsland, over Tassie and across the Southern Ocean. This meant that we skirted Antarctica, and we saw icebergs ! Fantastic. We arrived at Johannesburg and had a woman waiting to pick us up and deliver us to our accommodation in leafy Melville in the northern suburbs. We drove past some ramshackle, scary looking suburbs, and past some lovely upmarket suburbs too. The immediate ... read more

Saturday October 2, 2010 Hi folks, We arrived home last weekend. I have up-loaded some of the best pictures from the England part of our recent trip. (See below) . To enlarge a single picture, click on it. The pictures from continental Europe will come later. Craig... read more

Episode 7 : Oxford to St Albans via BADGERS ! Sunday Sept 19, 2010 Hi everyone. Firstly, thanks again to all those who have been leaving comments for us (Sally, Marja, Shell, Leon, Rodd , Kev ,Steve and others). In the previous blog, I talked about Stonehenge and Bath and Oxford. From Oxford we drove North (ie, Ross drove- since I cannot drive manuals, ...he, he, he.....) We went North through The Cotswolds. This area is quintessential England - renowned for its picture postcard villages of honey-coloured stone cottages and thatched roof houses in green rolling hills (no drought here). We stopped at various little places with cutesy names, such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Campden and Upper Slaughter (well, maybe not that one). Mum and Pat, you would be in pensioner heaven, as most of these places ... read more

Wednesday September 8, 2010 Episode 5 (I think): Southern England Greetings from England. We flew from Amsterdam to London Gatwick then picked up a hire car. After driving in circles for about 20 minutes, we finally got out of the Gatwick airport area and headed East, bound for Canterbury. Ross has been doing an excellent job driving, given the umfamiliar car and road conditions, however, he has had a masterful navigator. In Canterbury, we checked into the Falstaff hotel (named after my fave Shakespearian character, the drunken rotund Falstaff). It was charming, with low ceilings and exposed timber beams etc. Canterbury is the site of the world heritage lised Gothic Cathedral, which was awesome. It is, of course, the seat of Christianity in England, and where the Archbishop Thomas Beckett was slain by the King's henchmen ... read more

Episode 3: Paris and Belgium Thursday September 2 , 2010 (by Craig) Hello everyone. I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Thanks to all who left comments (Rodd, Leon; Colin et al). We left the Loire Valley last week and headed by train to Paris. Before leaving, we spent half a day at two of the nearby chateaux (medieval French castles/palaces). Chateau Villandry was amazing, primarily for its magnificent manicured gardens, which looked like a huge patchwork quilt of colours. The best gardens Ive ever seen anywhere (Google Image: Villandry). The whole of Loire Valley is world heritqge listed ; if you come to Paris, be sure to go south by 2 hours to see the chataux here. We spent a weekend in Paris. We had seen all the major sites in ... read more