Travel Blog

Lying just 71km south of Suva was one of the smaller inhabited Fijian islands called Dravuni Island with a population of just 125 and an area of 0.8 square km. Tiny. No roads, no cars, no multiplex cinemas.  We were tendered ashore which normally involves getting a tender ticket for…

Our first Fijian stop was the capital, Suva, which was reminiscent of the Caribbean capitals - Castries, St Johns and Bridgetown. Lots of hustle and bustle, masses of people selling curiously shaped vegetables and a general scruffiness.  Suva us the largest city in the South Pacific with around 300,000 people.…

Pago Pago pronounced Pango Pango on the island of Tutuila is the capital of American Samoa which as the name suggests in an American territory and one of only two below the equator. The island group is roughly the size of Washington DC with a population of 55,000 people. American…

This was my second visit to the Hawaiian Islands and I have a feeling I will come back again to do Big Island and Maui. Also a longer stay in Waikiki would be rather jolly good.  Susan and Brenda thought it would be a good idea to hire a car…

I joined the Maasdam as a 4 Star Mariner which entitles me to half-price wine packages, tender priority and of course the biggest boon of all, free laundry. They'd taken my Swiss Army knife away at security. Apparently they'd changed the rules from allowing a four inch blade to 2…

We left early as we had a 1pm lunch reservation with Brian at a golf club in Palm Springs and he thought we wouldn't make it. Dora expressed an interest in seeing Joshua Tree National Park which was on the way so we did a quick tour of that and…

Arriving in Vegas on a Saturday night is not the most fiscally prudent move one can make but it is the most happening night of the week (and we all know how much I enjoy happening). Dora's flight arrived at 1pm and I was there to greet her (first time…

Lake Powell straddles southern Utah and northern Arizona and I do like a straddling lake. The Powell is a curious lake not only because of its straddling qualities but also its shape. Like tentacles spreading in all directions rather than one big solid body of water. This cephalopod shape combined…

I awoke early at my 2 star hotel and was on the road by 6:30. I drove back through Monument Valley as the sun was rising and it was a splendid experience. I arrived at Lake Powell at what I thought was 10am but was really 9am as Arizona. I'm…

So after a night on an Indian reservation albeit in a plush hotel (not a wigwam) I'm heading to Bluff, Utah which promises to be one horse short of a one-horse town. I was looking forward to the nightlife. Perhaps a game of Parcheesi.  I realise that Ignacio to Bluff…

I awoke early, showered, had breakfast and decided it was time to get out of Dodge. I've been waiting ages to say that. I had a mammoth drive ahead of me. 500 miles so a mighty long day behind the wheel listening to radio religion. Well, it was Sunday. Who…

Today I managed to drive another one of America's most scenic drives across Kansas. I'm not sure who voted it as "scenic". In fairness, the towns are the best parts of the drive. Kansas is big and flat (not as flat as Florida though) so there wasn't much change of…

I decided to mooch around St. Louis before heading off as I wanted to avoid the rush hour. Now here's a thing. I would have thought that St. Louis was in the top 20 biggest cities in the US. It's actually number 61 with only 311,000 people - the same…

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.…