I didn’t plan to blog about Egypt but after being here a couple of weeks I decided to record some of the quirks of Egypt and the Jaz Fanara hotel in particular. I had decided to spend some time in Egypt, at a hotel on the beach and close to a reef where it is easy to spend a lot of time snorkelling. The plan being not to leave the hotel, but snorkel, read and plan more trips which is why I called the blog a little patch of earth. A few weeks before leaving Gillian found she was free to join me so we added her on to the booking with Tui. The airport experience was still chaotic and surprisingly Tui handled it less well than easyJet. The queues were long, only 2 check-ins open ... read more

Sorry about the technical difficulties with the last blog. I panicked when I realised that I was seeing & doing so much that the blog would go on forever and I would never get to the end so I decided to split it and post one straight away. Hence the chaos! I intend to stay calm and try harder this time, let’s see if that happens. The first 3 pictures are of Kakapetria in the Troodos region which should have been in the last blog. I called the last blog Complex and Surprising Cyprus. Complex because of the history, ancient and modern which has resulted in a divided island and surprising because although small it has a mix of areas ranging from traditional villages, towns, tourist resorts, cities, forests, mountains, gorges, beaches, and ‘alpine’ type villages ... read more

April/May 2022 Finally the world seems to be opening up again and I have been able to confirm travel plans to Egypt & Madagascar, however the planned stopover of two weeks in Ethiopia en route to Madagascar has been cancelled as the travel compamy decided it was still too great a risk to take people there because of the civil unrest and fighting in Tigray. Ethiopians in that area are really suffering and having a struggle to find food & stay safe. Sadly they have experienced suffering in many different forms over the years. In the early 80s East Sussex County Council acted as hosts to some Ethiopian visitors who worked in Local Government there, as part of an Aid Programme. One man was placed in accommodation in Eastbourne and as I commuted from there each ... read more

Chile 13 – 24 February 2020, Mexico 26 February - 3 March This is the third and last blog about the cruise. Sorry it took so long but the last week on board comprised lots of port days, so much to see and record. The southern part of South America which ends in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago is a strange place, lots of islands and channels and if you look closely at the map you see that it is divided between Chile and Argentina. But as the area is narrow you are never far from the other country. However as soon as we were in Chile it felt a friendlier place than Argentina but that might have simply been the Usuaia 'cold shoulder' colouring our perception. By contrast Buenos Aires had been a lovely place ... read more

Buenos Aires, Montevideo & the Falklands 28 January–7 February 2020 There are 3 blogs coming in quick succession as we did not have good enough wifi while travelling. The penguins on the Falklands are at the end of the pictures so click through all pages to see them. Arriving in B. Aires three days before we were due to embark on the Zaandam for our cruise down to Antarctica gave us plenty of time to visit the city. After purchasing our Subte card for the underground we set off to visit the Eva Peron museum and the Recoleta cemetery. It may seem unusual to visit a cemetery but Recoleta is the top tourist attraction in B A and city residents are very proud of it. The cemetery is fascinating, a true city of the dead, streets ... read more