Durres Well, your blog brought back memories for me now! Durres out-of-season, shabby and fascinating, utterly beguiling I found. I recognise some of the buildings in your photos, I took similar pictures. Though the fisherman statue just looks out to sea now, maybe they removed the female nude one. I also saw the turkeys all around Albania, feeling sorry for them. And I love the highly optimistic train picture at the train station, that looks suspiciously like an Intercity 125!
Ledbury Wow, Ledbury looks lovely! I don't think I've seen so many black and white timber houses in just one blog entry before. I love the "Wellworth It" shop, these independent shop owners have a great sense of humour! Well done for not letting December's rainy weather scupper your plans!
Ledbury Thanks for reading. Herefordshire really is the hidden black and white gem - check out my other blogs from the area on the "Black and White Villages".
Dubrovnik Ah, you visited Dubrovnik while you still had to travel through Bosnia to get there. I would have loved that, but they'd just finished building the bridge that avoids that now. I love it when you find an old hangover from the communist days, kind of like a bit of nostalgia! I also miss the days when a gaggle of grannies would meet you off a bus in East European parts and offer you a room in their house - a very authentic and bygone era of travelling.
Gloucester I've never visited the city, your blogs through our Green and Pleasant Land are inspiring me for when I hope to do some home-based travels myself at some point in the future. I like your point on how dogs are often better-behaved than some children. Vera certainly likes her football matches!
Gloucester Kind comments. Our blog is very much a homegrown product these days (for reasons we have touched on previously), but always amazing to find what you have largely overlooked through the years. Vera is a constant companion as much as possible, so if you find me in a football ground she is normally there too. She has a count of 44 to date, but the target of either Harrogate Railway Athletic or Knaresborough Town yesterday were both victims of the freeze!
Tremisana Lodge Oh wow, I also stayed at the Tremisana Lodge this summer - fancy that! Sorry to read that the big cats continued to elude you, I say bring on the rehab centres to fill in the gaps!
The Big Five The leopard continues to elude me of the Big Five too, despite several safaris in several countries... Fingers crossed as I read your next entry on your proper safari in Kruger 😊
Geographical Extremities Wow, I'm honoured that our online conversation on Cape Agulhas may have inspired you on this trip to stay in the highest pub in England! It was just awful what those idiots did to the Sycamore Gap tree, sorry you didn't get to see it... Yorkshire is a wonderful part of England that I've barely scratched the surface of myself, despite being from there. I may leave that for my retirement years. Great to read about your short trip there, and Wensleydale and Wallace in particular! 😁
King of Swaziland Wow, you got to see the King of Swaziland! I got to see the King of Lesotho as he was on my flight there from Johannesburg! Together, we got to see them both then, yay! :D
St Lucia Yes, there must be something about travel agencies on the continent - every French, Italian, Spanish and German traveller I met in South Africa seemed to have been to St Lucia, yet I knew nothing about it prior to my trip. Glad you got to see some wildlife. And you saw wild dogs - amazing!
St Lucia It was without doubt, the place where we felt safest on the whole South Africa trip. However it isn't everywhere, that you can meet a hippo on the way to the corner shop after dark .... they might be the most dangerous animal on the continent, but you can smell them before any encounter. Let's face it, how many other places would you even think of going to the corner shop after dark? The Hluhluwe Imfolzei Park was up there with the places that will always be special to us.
Battlefields Ah, I didn't get to see the battlefields, though I would very much have liked to. I'm glad to have caught up on it with your blog entry here, thank you! It must have been quite amazing to have been in Rorke's Drift. Great that you were able to celebrate a birthday in style, and Durban being a cross between Miami and Redcar made me laugh - very true!
Battlefields When my sister and I were very small and left in the care of my Dad, he used to take us to the "pictures". My 2nd film apparently was Zulu. It subconsciously stayed with me and I was never going to miss Rorke's Drift. As a football fan, Spion Kop - the battle which named many a steep standing terrace in a football ground - was always on the list too! Durban : Miami : Redcar - perhaps I was being unfair ..... neither Durban nor Miami can boast a vertical pier.
Lesotho Yes, definitely a marked difference between South Africa and Lesotho! I loved the Mountain Kingdom - friendly people, and it felt like stepping back in time a couple of centuries. Always very interesting to visit a school, and to try the local brew!
Lesotho The memory of Lesotho that allways makes me smile was being proudly shown "the satellite dish" ...... attached to the house with no TV and no electricity!
Drakensberg Oh wow, you climbed the Amphitheatre! Well done! I was content with just admiring it from the bottom. It must have been an amazing achievement to have done it. And well done also on the ladders and abseiling - not for the faint-hearted...!
Drakensberg The Amphitheatre and Tugela Falls were a highlight. The chain ladders down a sheer rock face were super scary ..... it worries me to think about it, even now!
The original purpose of the blog was the 20th wedding anniversary trip in 2006 / 2007 - Ashes cricket in Oz, setting off early in April and going the long way round!
The trip came to an end in February 2007 and for a while retrospective blogging was the only option (for reasons that you can find in the Road to Freedom).
There are still two to travel and the passport is now back in use in 2009. We get distracted in more than the odd football ground along the way, but it is all part of the journey.... full info
Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
Love all the half timbering, if that's a word LOL