Rolling Around with The Gnu

02/09/16 And so it was that our 12 594km cycle ride came to an end in Talkinn/Estonia and only just in the nick of time for Jan's (now threadbare) back tyre had to be elastoplast on & over the rim, for the final few kilometers, just to get there ! We ferried to Helsinki/Finland to soak and pamper both our bottoms and feet awhile in the comfort of a lush city & taking in a few luxurious comforts before making for the UK. To walk with some of our previous Camino Compostela mates, part of the South West (UK) pathway from Glastonbury to Penzance. Finland & Helsinki in particular certainly turned on with typical Finish understated confidence a quiet, peaceful, calmness about everything be it seaside drinks along the foreshore pools, the cylindrical entirely timber construction ... read more

17/06/2016 Flowers, flowers everywhere......... after arriving in Amsterdam, we made for the world renowned flower market & auction rooms........flabbergasted would be an understatement. Better decribed as immense, amazing and mind-boggling. Every conceivable variety, colour and length as far as the eye could see. Staff whizzing about on one man stand up segway looking vehicles, weaving in and out like a multi lane freeway, few hand signals here and there, collecting their computerised orders & stacking them collectively on the trolley in tow, to be consolidated, containerised and delivered to clients around rhe world. Sophisticated, polished & a spectacle (as only the Dutch can do) to watch, almost a ballet in operation. Well, as one would have it, the morning the 4 of us started on our ride North to Hrtsals/Denmark, it clouded over, grey & gloomy ... read more

Now on our last of the three legs of our African sorjourn, having driven 6000km up through Namibia, then safaried across Botswana into Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls. We are now flying from Vic Falls to Johannesburg to start our 4500km drive South via the Drakensberg mountians & Durban to Cape Town completing a full circle. Having all heard of the bribery & corruption in SA & knowing how it works, I was completely blindsided when having collected our diminutive 'sewing machine' hire car, and still under cover of the airport building, I was waved over by the police, only to be told I had not stopped ! After a brief discussion of :- I did, you didnt, I did......etc the fine book firmly ensconced under his arm, was told I would now need to drive into ... read more

This 'late' blog post is not because we are Namibia, but lack of wifi facility in current camp sites, apologies ! Ah Africa.....I can smell it & taste it, once you have some of it in your blood - it never leaves you ! And so to one of my favorite places on the planet - Cape Town, and the first day to one of my favorite people 'The Cape Coloured' and to Bokaap. They are a bright, colourful, cheerful, energetic, musical mob generally and their lifestyle, homes & dress reflect it. Then on to the old railway building & Green Market Square, where we were greeted to a black brass jazz group to schmooze our beers down with, before an African drumming, dancing & chanting group enticed us to stay for lunch to see the ... read more

No you are not halucinating, although we might have been at the time but Jan & I decided to continue our stroll across Spain & finish 90km further on in Fistera (at the end of the world - as it was presumed) in the day of St. James. We then bused on to O'Porto in Portugal (we were going to walk from Santiago, but considering our last 4 days in drenching conditions & knee deep mud we succumbed to the conditions. Oporto was quaint, cultured, artistic & modern but with a well preserved past. Particularly of its fishing & naval history. Making our way South, it was on to Coimbra, a messy discheveled, unkempt university town with all the associated cultures that students attest to. One of these such edicts was an evening at the 'Fado' ... read more