Last year, when no one really knew when we could travel again, Glyn and I started making tentative plans to travel to Georgia because the flights were cheap. So less of a risk. We both knew little to nothing about the country, and so thought it a good idea to learn for ourselves. There’s very few guidebooks too, I couldn’t find any visual style ones that I prefer and Glyn’s Lonely Planet guide is also for Armenia and Azerbaijan, so not even a book to themselves. After a 4.5 hour flight to Istanbul, then under 2 to Georgia, we arrived in Tbilisi at around 5am, where a guy that Glyn had pre-booked waited for us wearing a recognisable red scarf. Despite being dark and early, quite a few people were about in the streets, hanging out ... read more

Ever since I read a book, ‘500 places you must see on the British Coast before your die’, (as if there’s an option afterwards!) I’ve been wanting to visit Muck and Eigg, small Scottish islands off the west coast of Scotland. It wasn’t guaranteed during winter, so we were lucky to get a ferry to Eigg today. Once we were out of the port, Glyn received a text saying that the ferry maybe cancelled due to the weather. This was a concern in case the return ferry got cancelled and we would’ve been marooned. Eigg is about 5.5 miles long and 3 miles wide. With a population of 110, there’s no central hub, just houses scattered randomly over the hills and by the shore. A single lane road traverses from top to bottom with a few ... read more

I awoke to the sound of sheep baaing and the rain pattering lightly on the roof of our wooden pod. The blue, low light surrounding us was thick with mist and rain, and it was beautiful in a cold, dark way. We drove to Mallaig to find out what’s going on with ferries and boats. Not much hope with the ferries to any islands as even though one was sailing to Eigg, due to the weather, they couldn’t guarantee getting us back today or tomorrow even. I was disappointed because I really want to see the islands but I don’t fancy being marooned on them in the winter and I hadn’t brought my book. There’s no ferries tomorrow as there’s charter boats instead, the day after there might be a ferry to Eigg, no one knows ... read more

The reason we’d decided to holiday in Scotland during January was in the hope of snow. Not because I’m a big fan of the stuff but because polar bars are and polar bears are very hard / expensive to see in the wild, with snow. So the next best thing was to go to Highland Wildlife Park in the Winter as they have the only polar bears in Scotland, but just to wind me up it was a beautiful sunny day; seven ruddy degrees! Not even a ground frost in the morning! Gah! Scottish weather likes upsetting me, the reason I chose to do the Edinburgh marathon in 2007 is that I assumed the weather would be cool, but no, there was a heatwave that day. Typically we were the first to arrive and had to ... read more

Today we set off for our first holiday since July 2019! Woo hoo! Leaving home at lunchtime meant that we had beautiful golden light dappling the amazing landscape around the Lake District. There’s many motorways I hate, but the bit of M6 just north of Kendal is awesome. And it’s always been pretty empty when I’ve driven on it. The more north we got, the closer to we were to dark clouds. This is probably due to the North being uphill, or so Glyn says. There was intermittent rain but nothing heavy. To be honest I’m disappointed by the lack of snow. I saw a bit on distant mountain tops, but nothing worth writing about. Oh…. Arriving in Glasgow during the early evening, we found our Budget Ibis hotel on the Quays quite easily. The area ... read more