Travel Blog

I left Clarksville early, and I mulled the accuracy of the lyric from the Monkees song, "and I don't know if I'm ever coming back" and wondered how many others had sung that same line to themselves.  I was meant to be heading to Columbia, Missouri but after one night…

After the Biltmore Estate I'd planned a relatively small 370 mile drive to Clarksville in Tennessee. What was I thinking? 900 miles in two days.  The journey started out as an 8 on the pleasant scale as I drove through the Great Smoky Mountains but it wasn't long before the…

Day one of the road trip turned into quite an ordeal which has called into question my planning skills. 10.5 hours in the car covering 530 miles and I was cream crackered. I took the longer route in order to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway via Charlottesville (white supremacists in…

After a 7 1/2 hour train ride from New York I arrived in Williamsburg on Thursday evening. I've not been here to for eight years and it was good to be back in one of the most beautiful residential settings I've ever seen.  It was lovely to spend time with…

As long as you can count, New York is an easy city to navigate your way around and in three and a half days I managed to do most of the sights including some repeats from my last visit 30 years ago.  Flying in to JFK we aborted the landing…

Liaising with the chaps at Dubrovnik airport was seamless and my "hand luggage only" friends and I were on our way to the Sunsail base at the ACI Marina within minutes of them landing. Our boat for the week was a 47ft Jeanneau and we were one of ten yachts…

After dropping Georgia at the airport I walked about 100 yards to pick up a car for three days. There's something satisfyingly convenient about a small airport with everything close at hand. They didn't have the car I wanted so they gave me a Mercedes C Class instead. Blinking lovely.…

After the BA computer malfunction on Saturday which caused chaos to thousands of travellers flying from Heathrow and Gatwick we were lucky to get away early on Sunday morning without incident. It was an early start which also means an early snifter and I can report the first glass of…

Guadeloupe is the first island in the French West Indies that I have visited. Others include Martinique, Saint Martin and St Barts. There are two main islands - Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre which are both much bigger than I'd thought. Not that I've ever lay awake mulling over the size of…

After a couple of sea days we reached the Salvation Islands which are a group of three islands - Devil's Island, Saint-Joesph and Ile Royale. We visited Ile Royale which is the biggest although it still only took an hour to walk all the way round. They were known collectively…

After leaving Fortaleza we had another sea day as we headed north to the Amazon for a week visiting five different ports. Sea days are great for relaxing and possibly taking part in a new activity. During my morning walk I pass by the Tai Chi folk moving gracefully and…

Well Brazil is living up to its reputation as one of the most dangerous countries in the world. We'd been given numerous warnings about not going ashore wearing jewellery or watches and to be discreet with cameras and other electronic devices but some guests obviously didn't get the memo. There…

Simply stunning. Rio must rank as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Geographically it has advantages with islands, mountains, water and beaches that would make it attractive from the get go. The climate is also rather pleasant and we were blessed with two terrifically hot sunny days…

We now have a new batch of people onboard. In Buenos Aires 91 left the ship and 31 joined so a net loss of 60 and we're down to about 570 in total. Of course you can't say to someone "have you just joined" because it might be someone who…

I was really looking forward to Buenos Aires and it didn't disappoint so it gets a blog of its own. A fabulous city and by far the most returnable place I've visited this trip. Lydia, Sheryl and I did the hop on bus thing for about three hours and we…

Sunday 5th February marked the halfway point of the cruise as well as Super Bowl LI and a return to decent weather after two weeks of layering. I'm starting to realise the importance climate plays in my life. Not just the sensory experience but also the psychological effect it has…

The return journey across the Drake Passage was just as smooth as the outbound trip and many people were disappointed not to have experienced the rough seas that Cape Horn and the surrounding waters are famous for. Not me. I'm still trying to shake the memory of Montserrat.  We had…

On Sunday evening we started our journey towards Antarctica where we will arrive on Tuesday for three days of scenic cruising. In preparation for this a series of lectures began on Monday about various Antarctica related topics and the theatre was packed. So armed with some fascinating facts this is…

We'd already passed Ushuaia on the way to Cape Horn before heading back for a port stop. I left the ship late as I was watching Federer vs Nadal which went on a bit, but we were there until 8pm so I had plenty of time. Ushuaia is the southernmost…

I'm really enjoying ship life, constantly on the move travelling to new and exciting places. When I'm at home I spot things - a crack in the ceiling, a weed or two (usually more) on the patio, something that needs painting or fixing or changing or moving - you get…