Bombing of US Navy vessels, kidnappings of foreign tourists, tribal warfare including car bombings. This genre of headline had a lot of people asking, "why the hell are you going to Yemen?" I initially put these enquiries down to western ignorance to the everyday reality of this corner of the world. When residents of other Arab nations we have visited asked the same question, I'll have to confess some lingering doubts concerning the wisdom of visiting this country. "So answer the question Yeatesy, why did you go to Yemen?" Glad you asked but I'm not quite sure. Maybe I should simply quote Mallory, "Because it's there?" The question mark indicating there wasn't a lot of conviciton in that reply. Photographically it looked amazing, the Old city of its capital Sana'a is a World Heritage site, it ... read more

Out of Syria, across the border and before you knew it we were "CROSSING JORDAN". Amman is the capital and the inevitable first stop for most tourists rolling in from our direction. Amman is hardly your quintessential exotic Middle Eastern city but there were enough distractions in and around to occupy us for a couple of days. There's nothing particularly wrong with Amman but nor is there particularly anything right with it. Petra, on the other hand, is THE must see and everyone who visits Jordan does see. There's a reason for that. Petra is (I'm trying to think of an appropriate enough non-cliched superlative but it's just not happening) out of this world. (That will have to do). Someone asked me how I would rate Petra relative to the other great archaelogical sites we've been ... read more

Let's begin wıth the positives. If someone had asked me, on leaving Europe, who were the most endearing people we have come across this year, it would be a close contest. The Argentinians came out of the blocks, the Greeks were competitive, Albanian police got a guernsey. The gold medalists for me were gererally the French, particularly while the women who work ın boulangeries maintain that almost ıntangible demeanour I found so engaging. Now, sorry France, it's time to stand aside and hand the yellow shirt over to the Turks. These people extend the welcome mat way above and beyond the call of duty. The food? An absolute treat - baclava desserts delivered on pushbike my personal favourite, gözleme - savoury turkısh pancake, a close second. The sights? Heading south from Selçuk, we first hit a ... read more

Planes, trains and automobiles. The self drive is over and we are back on the local transport merry-go-round. Fırst up London between maınland Europe and Turkey. London was manıc. I can't remember anywhere, ıncludıng London last tıme we were here, beıng so crowded. Perhaps ıt was the fact that clear blue days ın thıs cıty are as rare as competıtıve Wallaby props, so wıth the lovely weather we had, ıt seemed EVERY Londoner wanted to be out amongst ıt to savour thıs most Indıan of summers. The hıghlıght was catchıng up wıth old (and some new) frıends ın Rod and Mary's apartment for the yummıest of Brıttısh dın dıns. We also stepped out wıth Rod the nıght of the fınal. Rod's daughter Imogen ıs lucky. At 7 years of age she has already assembled an elaborate ... read more

No doubt about it, I gotta get myself a new body. Something around 30 years younger than the one I've got now would be handy. What was a minor rib complaint after Hossegor blew out to full on crippler after 3 crummy waves in Lacanau. So after those 3 waves, the surfing is over. Is it time to bite the bullet, admit defeat in the age war and buy myself a longboard on return to Oz? 11 days of prepaid accommodation in Lacanau meant we were staying, surfing or no surfing. 11 days in a beach town like Lacanau can drag when: - the skies vary from light grey to dark grey. - the town is in severe wind down mode after the season. The beach villages along the Atlantic coast are the original French ghost ... read more