Travels 2010

Photos: KIlimanjaro

beno — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:58:00 GMT

The Rongai route

France

beno — Mon, 1 Nov 2010 07:23:00 GMT

I love France; they certainly have one of the best lifestyles going - the only place I know where you can get a four course lunch with plenty of wine (often all you can drink... which is a a bit !!) for 20/30 EUR.

However they are busy fighting a loosing battle to maintain this life style so the unions are always striking (and I hate strikers and unions).... which is such a pain !!

Mum's birthday so I took the partents to Le Gindreau which was fantastic, great wine and food. Although I huge hornet liked the wine too and decided to drown itself; what a waste !

http://www.legindreau.com/

Photos: France

beno — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 02:06:00 GMT

Photos: Sweden

beno — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 01:48:00 GMT

Stockholm, Lulea and Artic circle

Sweden and the artic circle

beno — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 01:24:00 GMT

Flew into London Heathrow from Miami and then straight away on to Stockholm; meeting Frida, Jiri and Alexander at the airport.

We went on to our hotel which was well located and then had a wander around trying to find somewhere to eat (which with a push chair in tow wasn't easy but we eventually managed). I enjoyed my first Swedish food (Reindeer)

Wandered around Stockholm the next day going to a place where they had a lot of old Swedish buildings from various parts of the country; was great weather. In the late afternoon we picked up some drink to take back to Lulea (better selection in Stockholm) as Sweden has a state run monopoly on selling alcohol.

Lovely dinner at Operakällaren, their main chef created the menu for the Swedish Royal wedding recently - Frida and I had the same menu as they had at the wedding with a few nice bottles of wine... mmm

Just to rub it in a bit (sorry Jiri - who got babysitting duty)... it was

Langoustine tail from the west coast served with truffle caviar, lemon marinated cod in flowers with cucumber jelly and cold green peas soup with “Kalix löjrom”
“Landö” char served with fresh herbs, poached quail egg, green asparagus, beetroots, nettles and wild garlic from “Gotland”
Fillet of veal from “Stenhammargård” with a roasted shallot crust, potato and “Allerum präst” cheese gratin, tomato terrine, thyme scented carrots wrapped in white cabbage flooded with a taragon sauce
Strawberry mousse with a rhubarb center accompanied with a vanilla and white chocolate icecream
Yellow Bourbon, Lot 6 Fzenda Brazil served with pastry delicacies

Next day we got a taxi to the airport to go up to Lulea - typically a small taxi; I don't Frida travels light normally but with the addition of Alexander and all his things (push chair, cot) it was a real squeeze in the taxi. Luckily a short journey.

The flight was an easy hop to Lulea and Alexander behaved well with no crying so pretty uneventful; Jiri cooked a good BBQ - he's a bit of a wizz with the old BBQ.

Lulea's biggest claim to fame was the sweet shop; although there were a few too many liquorice choices for my liking

Next we drove up maybe 4 or 5 hours from Lulea going above the artic circle where we would be staying in lodge type accommodation - stopping off for lunch in a very scenic spot where Frida's sister is due to be married.

The lodge was amazing - great wilderness and tracks; near a lake where we did more BBQing (or Jiri did...); really enjoyed myself. Got some great photo's and the sunset on the first night was spectacular (sadly no Northern Lights)

When back in Lulea had a final big dinner and myself and Jiri polished off most of a bottle of whisky - I didn't have a very fun onward flight (or car ride to the airport) the next day

Thanks Frida and Jiri was great seeing you (and Nikolai and Alexander)

Photos: Miami

beno — Thu, 5 Aug 2010 03:53:00 GMT

Miami vist

Miami

beno — Thu, 5 Aug 2010 03:52:00 GMT

I arrived the first night, met Rob and Sean at the airport and we headed over to the Polley Compound; it was Ruth's birthday and the first of a few parties. Considering Sean had just flown in from Hong Kong he was in good form and dragged everyone out until 3 or 4 am - for those who were out I have a feeling we might have broken a server that night, luckily there was a repairman with us... good job Bert.

Next day after getting up to the in-house alarm clock (WHAT YOU DOING, sleeping, WHY ?) I went for a swim before we headed out for another party; good fun although I got absolutely eaten alive by the Mosqueto's - I was bitten almost 30 times and they all went very red and stayed that way for almost 3 weeks.

Penultimate night went out in Miami to dinner, an Irish pub and the Mac's Club Deuce which was legendary; think we probably got in around 4/5 oclock in the morning. I didn't feel wonderful.... but was a great night and I did get a T-Shirt out of it.

Rob, who has a couple of guns, offered to take us to the gun range so that I could try shooting. My god, most of the people there I am not sure should be allowed to have guns at all (or even pointy sticks). I did a few good shots on my Zombie target but overall if there's a war you probably want me on the other side - especially considering I jammed Rob's gun twice; I have a horrible feeling the zombies would have got me by the time it was fixed.

Thanks Ruth, Tab and Jerome for the hospitality and Rob for picking us up and offering me a roof over my head when I pass through next.

Photos: Canada

beno — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:35:00 GMT

Hiking in Canada

Canada

beno — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Arrived in Toronto last night; with Spain winning the World Cup last night it was pretty busy around time - the hotel is nice and central. The customs official was about 2 years old and was a bit of a pain asking questions but got in without much issue...

The high level plan of action is 2 days Toronto, train to Montreal and a couple of days there. Then get a hire car and travel up and round back to Ontario spending a week in a cabin near Algonquin National Park (http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/) and then back round to Toronto stopping for a night to see Niagra falls.

Wasn't able to find a proper wilderness cabin just for me, all the fly in cabins are fishing or hunting lodges (not interested) and need more than one person. I don't think I am a good enough wilderness man to go camping by myself into the middle of nowhere and it's not recommended by yourself.... will hire a canoe for a day and see how I do; I will try a 2 day trek at the end of my time in Algonquin park - really looking forward to this bit, have been reading up on my Black Bear safety tips.

Sadly not going to be doing a Sky Dive in Canada; there is a weight limit of 100 KG for a tandem jump even in the US and sadly not likely to be hitting 100 KG while I'm here (or ever probably) !!

Spent my day in Toronto wandering around the underground tunnels

Got the train to Montreal; really liked the city - it had a good vibe. Wonderful weather so I climbed up to the top of Mont Royal (unsurprisingly where the city got it's name) and it was a great walk. There were 2 ways up to the top - the sensible one which went round and round, and the direct route straight up. So naturally I took the direct route; this would have been OK but for the shirtless students who'd be jogging past me and then stopping to do 20 pressups before moving on while struggled with the slope (sadly it was only the men who were shirless otherwise it wouldn't be so bad)....

Next day went to the airport to pickup my hire car; drove up to a place called Le Village Windago in Quebec - only there for a couple of days but was a very nice setup; was around a 3 hour drive and luckily was able to stay awake without a problem !! I am surprised how similar everything was to France, from the style of Supermarkets to the fact that some people did not speak any English (strange for a country where both languages are spoken). The resort was in a nice remote location with lots of hikes - although I managed to get completely off track a few times.

Next step was the drive to Algonquin park which was a 7 and a half hour drive; again I was surprised that I stayed awake without much problem - must be because I had got a much bigger car than previously and had a much better kick; so was fun to drive. Was a big disappointed with the cabin I had organised as it was a bit run down and was full of kids etc but it was summer holidays so I shouldn't have been surprised.

Overall in Algonquin Park I managed to hike a little over 40km; beautiful countryside but not quite as remote as I had hoped for, back in the day the park was only accessable via canoe - highlights were seeing a Black Bear which the park rangers say they only see 2 a year so was very lucky. It was probably an adolesent therefore wasn't huge but still moved gracefully (and thankfully ran away gracefully too)

After the week I drove down to Peterborough; which was a bit of a disappointment and was slightly run down with plenty of beggars - clearly had seen better times. Next step was down to Niagara falls which was amazing in itself if slight crowded and cheapened by all the tourist stuff going on. The falls kicked up so much spray that there was a permanent rainbow which was pretty cool.

Canda is a great country and if water becomes the next oil then they will be Saudi.

Photos: Las Vegas

beno — Fri, 9 Jul 2010 17:20:00 GMT

City of Sin

Las Vegas

beno — Thu, 8 Jul 2010 09:11:00 GMT

The flight from New Zealand to LA really messed up my body clock - was about 12 hours long and you arrived before you had left....

Hired a car in LA to drive down to Vegas and this proved to be slightly ambitious. First off it ended up being a tiny car which I could barely fit into, secondly it was my first automatic, thirdly my first time driving on the wrong side of the road, forth it was a longer trip than I had anticipated, fifth I had forgot it was Independance Day Weekend so the roads were heaving and finally I was half asleep due to jet lag.

So all in all there were a few near misses and I had to stop a couple of times to try and wake myself up before falling asleep at the wheel but I got there safely around 8pm and returned my car - I decided that I would fly back to LA at the end of my time here.

Arriving at my hotel (the Tropicana) I discovered it was a bit of a dump - it was bambo themed furniture and a mirror over the bed (classy, always wanted one of those); but it's cheap and generally OK... it's easy to walk over to the nicer places anyway for the buffets etc

So far not much luck on the gambling and poker tables; must have used it on the drive down !!! World Series of Poker just kicked off although don't think I'm up for the $10k buy in at the minute.

Went to see the Bellagio fountain this evening (pictures attatched); all in all pretty impressive.

Overall sadly no luck on the gambling front; although I did focus on the progressive jackpots (>$10m) based upon the theory that there is no point gambling unless it would make a real difference if you won.... so no real surprise I didn't !! I'm guessing that I probably used most of my luck up on the drive down to Vegas.

Time to make another move; next stop Toronto Canada.

Got a flight back to LA and then onwards; sadly the main flight was American Airways who's business class has to be one of the worst. Got told in LA that Canada is not considered to be an international flight so they didn't think I qualified for the lounge - I don't remember the US invading Canada; must have missed that (although they let me into the lounge anyway). The flight was not much better; the planes were so old that even in business you didn't get a TV screen and they dropped a glass of red wine in my lap - however the view outside the window made it up; it was spectacular and a cloudless day so you could see everything.

LESSON LEARNT

* American roads aren't well designed; surfaces are very rough and there is usually gridlock at each junction.

* Don't fly American Airways.... they've knocked Quantas off the bottom spot.

Photos: New Zealand

beno — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:43:00 GMT

New Zealand 2010

New Zealand

beno — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:29:00 GMT

10 hours of driving so far in New Zealand; I haven’t driven for at least a year (and even that was only one trip over Christmas) so it's been a bit challenging but am still alive !

Luckily the roads in New Zealand are not exactly busy; there were long stretches when I didn’t see any other traffic at all once I’d got out of Auckland (and even that is a about 1/30 this size of London on a weekday). Fantastic scenery, some cases remind me a lot of England (without all the people) and some are just unique.

However my first trip took around 6 hours and it was pitch dark when I arrived thanks to the Sat Nav deciding to take me on a scenic tour of the New Zealand backroads (dirt tracks, gravel tracks); although with hindsight was interesting I did end up spinning the car on one gravel road luckily nothing else was coming and I didn‘t hit anything… (sorry Budget don‘t think I did too much damage - will get the car washed before I give it back so it doesn‘t look too bad as I am not meant to go on the backroads !!).

Have been to Okapere; the region is described by Lonely Planet as ‘of all the parts of the Northland this is the pocket that feels the most removed from the mainstream’ - they also mention that ‘many of the roads remain unsealed and in poor repair after decades of neglect’…. this I have certainly experienced !

Had a beautifull room by the sea looking out over the ocean and surprisingly cheap; went on a hike to Wairere Boulders National Park (www.wairereboulders.co.nz) and then on a Mauri cultural walk in the evening.

Another day of driving down past Auckland to Tauranga for about 6 hours - managed to avoid the detor on the back roads this time; am going to start spending more time in locations and less driving...

Went on a good hike around Tauranga but sadly forgot my camera; unfortunately there had been a lot of rain and there were a few tree's down and mudslides that made the route unpassable at a point - ended up getting covered in mud and sopping wet trying to bypass the obstacles before having to turn back.

Drove up to Pauanui for a few days; resort didn't quite have the internet connections that it mentioned online - actually just the oldest Dell computer I have ever come across. Luckily a good cheap restaurant with a roaring fire; unsurprisingly the lamb was fantastic.

Sadly England are now out of the World Cup; well beaten by Germany - which mean I lost the bet with the German who works in the Lobby... Damn. They looked old and without any real spark, bunch of overpaid prima donna's

A great hike in an area called The Pinacles; walked for a good 8 hours and barely covered any of the available hikes. Sadly it's really out of season for New Zealand so most of the sites on the route are closed.

Drove back up to Auckland and returned the hire care - managed to keep the car in one peice which was a good result.. next stop LA on Quantas; I hope the plane is better than the one I flew with them to Brisbane on in the past..

Overall barely scratched the surface of New Zealand, barely scratched the surface of the North Island - definitely a place to go back to at some point.

Lessons Learnt

Never trust Sat Nav; check a map for a logic check before ending on the back roads ….

Drive slowly on gravel tracks (as I found out when I spun the car !!)

England football will always disappoint you

India

beno — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:10:00 GMT

Some of the items I have already learnt

Always take lots of medication with you
American's always have lots of medication if you don't (thank god for Ruth otherwise I think a couple of our 5 hour drives would have been a lot longer and more painful)
Even I can get sick of curry (surprisingly quickly)
Pizza Hut can be a life saver
The poorer the country the more expensive the hotel you should stay in

Photos: India 2010

beno — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:47:00 GMT

Going around a well worn path in India of Dehli, Agra and Jaipur