Dear All Greetings from the Galapagos Islands! I can’t believe I’m writing that! I’m actually here on the amazing, stunning, unique and mysterious Galapagos Islands. There have been many highlights of my trip so far, and being here is certainly one of them. I’ve read and heard so much about these islands, and in preparation for this trip, watched three separate nature series on this amazing archipelago. And now I’m here! In actual fact, I was quite emotional upon landing at Baltra Airport here on Friday afternoon, I nearly cried if I’m honest! These islands are just so special. I’ve had the most amazing first few days on the islands, basing myself in its main settlement of 20,000 inhabitants on the main island in the centre of the archipelago – Puerto Ayora, on the island of ... read more

Dear All Greetings from the Amazon jungle! Wow, it feels so amazing to be able to write that! I am currently in a city called Iquitos, and with nearly half a million inhabitants it is the world’s largest city unreachable by road. The only way in or out is by river or by air, and since the former takes about five to seven days by riverboat from the nearest roaded settlement, Yurimaguas, I chose the latter. On Thursday morning, I took a taxi to the airport and flew LATAM airlines the one-and-a-half hour flight to here, and what an amazing few days I’ve had here exploring the jungle! The adventure kind of started at the airport, however – not really an adventure, though, I’d say. The hotel I was staying in booked for me a “taxi” ... read more

Dear All Yay! Greetings from Peru! I have arrived safely, and have had an amazing first few days in this magical, mysterious country. On Wednesday early afternoon, I boarded a British Airways flight direct from London Gatwick to Lima, Peru, for what was really quite a long 12-hour journey. I was really very fortunate though, as two people who were sitting in two seats right at the back of the plane, just opposite from me (I had an aisle seat in the middle group of seats) were somehow bumped up a class, leaving their two seats vacant. On what seemed otherwise a full flight, I ended up switching to these two seats, and had them both to myself for the whole 12-hour flight! Perfect! I had no-one behind me (I’m not the most patient of passengers ... read more

Dear All Hello again from London. I have just arrived back from a family visit to Ontario, Canada. I thought I’d write a travel blog entry on a wonderful three-day trip I took from my family’s country farmstead not far from Toronto, up north and west towards the stunning shores of Lake Huron. It was a lovely little trip, and seemed also to be a positive test-case for potential future short, ten-day trips to North America over future Easter holidays. This is very exciting, as although I have been to both the USA and Canada, I’ve only seen very small parts of each, and there are so many other areas in these two huge countries that I would like to explore. Perhaps an annual mini-trip there every year for the foreseeable future may enable me to ... read more

Dear All Greetings once more, my second of three blog entries on my lovely little trip to Denmark, reporting this time on my second full day there, on the Tuesday. After a full day exploring the tourist sights of Copenhagen, along with many other international tourists, I felt that on my second day I wanted to explore more provincial tourist attractions, hopefully more off-the-beaten track. The tourist crowds in Copenhagen weren’t overwhelming, though I’m sure they are in the summer, but I always feel I want to explore the “real” country when I visit a place. On my second day I feel I did just that – I had planned to spend the morning in Hillerød visiting its amazing Frederiksborg Slot, and then head up to Helsingør in the afternoon, to visit its stunning Kronborg Slot, ... read more