Sweet Dreams I’ve slept in some interesting places when cycle touring: from the entrance path of a modern French school, with its sinister flashing lift-door always poised to open and reveal some unknown fate; to a Miami-esque Police station garden in Georgia, complete with pond, pink flamingos and neon lights. I have respectfully borrowed the …
Europe 2018 - Same as it ever was? The cry for walls rebounds against the hollow stones and before long we all find ourselves prisoners. Not much more than serfs, bonded to the lands of our births. Miserably gainful - working local jobs, for local workers. Surviving day-to-day, putting a bit away, treating ourselves now …
"Non! Non! Non ... Répète après moi ...P-A-I-N A-U C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E!" We are in France and I am being chastised by a sanctimonious baker. He refuses to serve me the product I desire until my lesson is complete and my garbled request for a "choco pain" has been transmuted into perfect French, through the alchemy of shame. …
A Real Transcontinental Race I do not know where this compulsion to travel down unknown roads comes from, but it has always been there. As a child I wandered off the path, up into the trees to see what lay beyond. As an adult I have never really settled in one place, never had the …
For the past 12 months we have roosted on the 9th Floor of a communist era apartment block on the edge of Cluj Napoca. We face east, rising early as the sun slits open the sky and illuminates the hills of Ardeal, Erdely, Transylvania; this is a land of many tongues where history is far …
A woman walks along the sand pulling a red thread behind her. She wears a purple sari printed with yellow daisies and pink trim. Her flip fops, 'flip flop' on the damp sand. The red line stretches back to the estuary where a man stands, patiently attached. The woman drops the line and walks back …
This is written for our friends, far and wide, who feature on this blog and have asked to know more about our lives back home...... Welcome to Romania! A parental visit is always preceded by a fair amount of flapping, a time to do all those things you've been procrastinating over. In our case this …
I had kind of vowed I would never ride on a camel. I'd managed to avoid it at the camel fair in Pushkar (see Life on the Edge) and didn't think that there would be any circumstances that would challenge this. It just seemed so ungainly - the camels never look too impressed and people …
''Ioan-Sir! Wake Up! Leopard is here." We fumble with the zips on our sleeping bags, pull on our jackets and hats, a bit more zip fumbling releases us from our tent and we scramble out into the half-dawned day. 'Hurry Ioan-sir!' And they're off, past the large open well where the pigeons roost, past the …
There are places you will visit in your lifetime where your soul will sing. Where you will be surrounded by love and laughter will fill the air. This place may be far from home or just around the corner. It will be a place where despite the challenges of life, and apparent differences, you will …
Hello Human 