Dear All Greetings, from London! Although I am currently back in London again, I have just returned from an amazing four-day trip to Northern Ireland, it currently being our half-term break here in London. I really did have an amazing time over there in Northern Ireland, and although I only initially intended to write one Travel Blog entry upon my return, I have decided that in order to be able to do the trip, and my experiences there, justice, I plan to write it up in a total of three Travel Blog entries, based mainly on my three full days of travel over there. The idea for this trip came towards the end of 2017. Having recently returned from West Africa, and it still being many months away until my next planned big summer trip, I ... read more

Dear All Greetings! Greetings from… Croydon…! This blog entry is going to take a bit of explaining, but may be the start of a few more similar blog entries to come. I am now around four months into my return from West Africa, and have settled down very much into my life again. As I expected, many of the negatives of my travels in West Africa have since faded from memory, although unlike India with its similar types of negative travel experiences, I doubt the desire to return to the region again will resurface at any point soon. I am currently in that place which could be referred to as “Traveller’s No-Man’s Land”, the long distance of time between travels, which have over the last few years only been once-a-year as opposed to three-times-a-year in my ... read more

Dear All Greetings once more from Senegal! I have made it full-circle on my trip, and am currently writing this one again from Dakar, from whence my journey began, and funnily enough, the exact same room of the Hotel Oceanic (Room 206) where I began this journey five weeks ago today. It feels a long time, I have come a long way since I last wrote, and if I’m honest, I’m really quite tired now…! This has been a wonderful journey, a really enjoyable one, full of really amazing adventures and places, though I will save my post-trip analysis for when I write my final update once touched down back in the UK and safely returned to my beautiful little Victorian terraced home again. I believe it has been a bit longer since I last updated ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Santo Antao, the second largest of the Cape Verde islands, and my third out of the four which I have planned to explore. All three so far, whilst all stark, barren, and mesmerisingly beautiful, have also been quite different, and a real pleasure to explore. Whilst Santiago was undeniably the most developed and centre of the archipelago, both politically and economically, and Fogo was the stunning volcanic cone surrounded by black sand beaches and crashing ocean waves, Santo Antao is towering, mountainous and rugged, deeply set throughout by kilometre-deep ravines and river valleys, and the north-eastern part which I am based in is by far the greenest area I have seen so far in this country. I believe I last wrote from the serene and remote Tortuga B&B, passing away my final ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Cape Verde, country number 76! And what an amazing country this seems to be. Cape Verde consists of a group of nine sizeable islands, and countless smaller ones, stretching out in a semi-circular archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. My impression so far is only of its main and largest island, Santiago, and based on this first impression, these are bleak, desolate and actually quite stunning islands surrounded by an ocean of impregnable blue. They are spectacular, and they have come as a very welcome relief from my travels in Africa. I have certainly enjoyed traveling in Senegal and The Gambia, they have offered new experiences and it has been pleasurable exploring a region of the world I’ve not yet set foot in, but in all honesty the two countries ... read more