Blogs from Cheshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 24

I think the reality of what we have ahead of us is very slowly starting to sink in. We spent last weekend throwing away stuff from the house that we won't be taking with us - we ended up with 15 black bin bags full!! I just can't picture me, Doug and the dogs living in Australia yet - it feels like a bit of a dream! Doug's works have been great and will work around him when he wants to go. We have started to tell people now as well what we are doing and have got very mixed reactions from 'Good On Yer!' to 'What are you doing that for!' We had the quote to get the dogs out from a doggie travel agency (how cool is that!) and it looks like it is ... read more

Well here's a turn up for the books, we are no longer in South America as the title may have given away. There are a number of reasons for our early departure from this part of the world but by far the dumbest is the simple fact that we failed to cancel an internal flight and the kind people at Lan airways took it upon themselves to cancel all of our onward flights including the incredibly overbooked leg from Santiago to Auckland. Long story short, we would have been stuck in South America for much longer than planned or budgeted for so we bailed. Having seen Macchu Pichu and countless other wonderous things I felt satisfied that we had made a decent fist of our first trip to South America. We couldn't afford the Galapagos and ... read more

Back at home now, and have read the "safety for travellers book" mum got me. Related the chapter on deadly australian box jellyfish to said mum, who suggested i went to somewhere sensible like france for a month. Things i've done 1) Got a passport yesterday (emergency one as mine wasn't valid and i hadn't checked) 2) Got a visa for Australia (didn't know I needed one until yesterday, got one this morning) 3) Got all my jabs and medicines. Just. 4) Transferred some money to useful currencies. don't know what they use in South America though. may buy a goat at the airport for trading purposes. 5) Booked somewhere to stay in Australia (My hotel). Am no longer sleeping rough I don't think. Haven't got anything confirmed by them though and was quite a suspect ... read more

With every departure their HAS to be a leaving party surely. That’s the way I look at things anyway and consequently this week, prior to my going away, seems to have been just that, one big party. Things got underway on Wednesday. Having said my goodbye’s earlier in the day to my wonderful colleagues who generosity provided me with the camera that has taken the snaps on this blog, it was my last opportunity to bid au revoir to all my piglets. For those of you unaware of the name Metal Pig (shame on you), it is the weekly rock night I founded over six years ago in Chester and which has taken up every Wednesday night, holidays excluded, ever since. During those years I’ve made formed some good friendships, albeit with people a generation younger ... read more

I have now completed this travel journal 'blog' so unfortunately will not be adding any more entries. However ! I have created my own website that covers my journey and includes previews of my book that I have written which is based on the original content of this 'blog' which has now been removed, click here to visit it : 'A Journey On The TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY' . Alternatively you can see details of the book by visiting the printers website at 'Trans-Siberian Railway Shopfront' I wish everyone well on their future adventures ! Regards Clive Simpson ... read more