Walking through Waterland
October 2016
The Fen Rivers Way follows the Cam and then the Great Ouse for fifty miles from Cambridge to King’s Lynn on the Norfolk Coast, an ancient Hanseatic port.…
Santiago de Cuba to Havana by train
December 2013
In Cuba you can only buy a train ticket at the station you’re leaving from…
Southern African Safari
October 2013
A journey by Mike Ewart & Sally Anderson.
The Isle of Mull
Scotland, August 2013
On the overnight sleeper to Glasgow which leaves London an hour before midnight we got into the mood in the bar with a couple of wee samplers of single malt…
Walking the Norfolk Coastal Path
May 2013
When we closed the door behind us on Monday the forecast called for heavy rain all over Britain for the entire week, apart from a narrow strip along the East Anglian coast – which is where we were headed. So our first day started auspiciously.
Peregrinations in Peru
April 2013
A journey by Mike Ewart & Sally Anderson. Up and out in time for the 04.00 night bus to Edinburgh Airport; a light frost and thin snow falling to encourage us in the wish to be somewhere else…
Postcards from Andalucía
September 2012
Last week we enjoyed one of the best meals we’ve ever had. And it came as a total surprise. Via Málaga and Ronda, we arrived by bus in the country town of Olvera, the start of the Via Verde, a 36 kilometer stretch of abandoned railway that declines gently down to Puerto Serrano. The former railway stations at each end are now rustic hotels, and there’s another one approximately midway at Coripe…
The South Downs Way: an epic of endurance!
April to August 2012
The South Downs Way wanders a hundred miles along the south coast of England from Eastbourne westward to Winchester. It’s an easy walk because it runs mostly along the top of the downs. We would do it in four sections, each time travelling by train down from London to the starting point. We reckoned we could complete the whole journey in a few weeks. But there was the British weather to contend with. So it took us four months!
Discovering Myanmar (Burma)
December 2012
Apparently Yangon airport is not equipped for instrument landing. Another hour was added to the flight from Doha as the plane floated in lazy circles waiting for the sun to rise high enough to burn off the mists rising from the green Irrawaddy delta…
Mar Mousa
Syria, April 2011
Two hundred meters above the desert floor an organic growth of buildings clings to the dun-coloured cliff. When you reach the top of the stone stairs you are at 1300 metres and the air is chilly. There is an unmarked door 40 inches high. You still have to keep your head down inside the dark rock labyrinth which leads to a sunny terrace. To the east is a limitless biblical wasteland.
Judith Gets Her Just Desserts
Syria, April 2011
It was past ten p.m. The shop in the souk where we got our decadent vanilla ice cream cones slathered with chopped pistachios would be closed. Our route back through the Old City of Damascus took us past our favourite pastry shop with its shelves loaded with outrageously naughty honey and nut confections, but this was closed, too.
Mexico
October to December 2005
Mexico City is an entrancing cultural grab-bag. A benefit of dictatorships is the architectural legacy of monomania they sometimes leave behind. The Palacio de las Bellas Artes was erected by Porfirio Diaz, who ruled the country for thirtyfour years from 1876. Its façade is classic revival, but the interior is a triumphant display of art deco, including huge, dynamic murals.
Is Albania Safe for Tourists — and Why Bother?
September 2002
Albanians are still seething about the travel book "The Accursed Mountains", written by Robert Carver who visited in 1996. From the end of the Second World War Albania was isolated from the mainstream of European culture for fifty years and Carver's book is a terrifying account of a bankrupt, lawless country devoid of infrastructure, riven by blood feuds, and oppressed by a thoroughly corrupt police force.
Along the Andes
December 2002 to February 2003
- Atacama desert
- Lima
- Nazca, Arequipa and the Cañon de Colca
- Torres del Paine
- Southern Chile to the Chilean Lakes
- Across the Andes from Chile to Argentina
- Chilling out in San Juan, Argentina
- Through Northwest Argentina
- Bolivia
- Potosí – The campesinos are revolting
- La Paz
- Lake Titicaca
- Peru: Cuzco and Machu Picchu
- Cajamarca, Pimentel and Huanchaco
- Ecuador
Down the Nile by Felucca
Egypt, October 1999
We had reached Aswan by rail. Now, sitting at the water's edge on the terrace of the Isis Corniche hotel, we wondered how to get back. We fantasised about cosy, oldfashioned steamers hosting a handful of Agatha Christie suspects. They don't exist anymore. The glistening five-star, five-tier floating wedding cakes that now ply the Nile have at least 80 cabins. And all of them were chockablock.
Journey Around the World: I. India
October 2000 to April 2001
Part 1: Mumbai – Matheran
Part 2 : Nasik – Aurangabad
Part 3: Hyderabad
Part 4: Hampi
Part 5: Escape to Goa
Part 6: The Malabar Coast
Part 7: The Cardamom Hills
Part 8: The Backwaters of Kerala
Part 9: The Temples of Tamil Nadu
Part 10: Pondi to Puri
Part 11: Down the Ganges
Part 12: Meandering Back to Mumbai
Part 13: Gujerat
Part 14: Leaving India for Thailand
Journey Around the World: II. Southeast Asia
October 2000 to April 2001
Part 15: Down the Mekong
Part 16 : Up the Nam Ou
Part 17: The Backpacker Trail to Vientiane
Part 18: North Vietnam
Part 19: South Vietnam.
Part 20. Cambodia
Part 21: Indonesia
Journey Around the World: III. Australia, Fiji & USA
October 2000 to April 2001
Part 22: Australian Cities
Part 23: More Bloody Australia
Part 24: Fiji
Part 25: USA