Vagabonding

Wick Burnt Out

wick — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 16:53:00 GMT

Well, it seems the emotional baggage we were carrying was just too heavy! After nearly 12 years together, Wick are no more. Was it the stresses of traveling and on a teeny tiny budget that forced us apart, or was this outcome always on the cards? Who knows!

Nick is still bouncing around India, having met someone new.

Wendy is at home in Marlborough, NZ, enjoying friends and family, figuring out what to do next and generally enjoying the sense of freedom that comes from running around Nickerless!

Goa (by Nick)

wick — Thu, 8 Nov 2007 17:34:00 GMT

We have internet here at the Beach. Its is a lovely spot here, all the tourists tell us its the best beach in Goa. It is a smallish bay, maybe 1-2.0km long, with rocky bits enclosing the ends. Its pretty much rammed with coco huts (bamboo huts on stilts), with most having bars/rests. out the front. We have a nice sea view, with the nice sound of waves and magical sunsets. But also comes with the coco hut the problem of no sound proofing and some other people stumble in drunkenly from 12-5am, so we moved down the beech to a quieter place, but then we have other noises, birds and roosters, semi wild packs of howling dogs etc. I think in a few days we will sleep through all this though. the water is most warm and inviting. The food here is good but disappointingly a little bland and cooked by Nepalese whom come down from the winter to work here. Good for the belly, so touch wood no more upsets at the moment.
The sleeper train here was good, but the next one we connected on was only r10 ( NZ 30 cents, for 46km journey) and a rather harrowing experience to board. Hundreds of people all fighting to get on, literally climbing over one another to get on before the train had even stopped! I shoved my way on and to my amazement secured a seat only to realise the throngs of people were rushing to the next carriage and an angry guard with a big batten was smashing it around saying this was a reserved carriage! You should have seen how fast it emptied out. Thus we were supposed to be on the other carriage too. We ended up staying put with a nice English (indian) couple coming the rescue and comforting wendy, we paid the conductor a wee bribe to stay put. Things are going well still and it is very easy to live here apart from disturbed sleep. Not sure what we will do next, hopefully we can stay here for a week or two or four before we need to decide what to do next. We have found the people nice and usually helpful, although Mumbai and Goa are perhaps not real India yet, not the poverty and desperation in neither place.
Not sure what we will do next, hopefully we can stay here for a week or two or four before we need to decide what to do next.
We have found the people nice and usually helpful, although Mumbai and Goa are perhaps not real India yet, not the poverty and desperation in either place.

Gallery: Dubai

wick — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:55:00 GMT

Goa - Palolem

wick — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:48:00 GMT

We took sleeper train to Margao and then waited for a train to Canacona. Getting on the train was the scariest thing I’ve done in a while, everyone pushing, standing on each other etc, and with my pack I was at their mercy. I was shoved and pummeled and it wasn’t fun. Nick secured a seat and then a man with a baton was shouting through the window to everyone to get out as it was reserved seating (which we hadn’t paid for). All the locals legged it but we didn’t know where to go. A local man told me not to be frightened and looked at our tickets and explained things a bit. More shoving took place and next thing I felt a lady stroking my arm gently as she could see I was finding it all a bit stressful. We then sat with her and her husband (they’re English but she’s of Indian descent) and had a nice time with them for the 45 minutes the train took. We paid the conductor the demanded bakeesh (bribe/fine) and he allowed us to stay were we were. We’d paid 10 rupees each for the ticket and the bakeesh was 50! But we were beyond caring.

We got an autorickshaw to a beach hut place at Palolem prepared to spend too much for the first night then shop around. It was a pleasant place with little piggies wandering around and all hosted by the family (they wander past, you ask for a coffee, they bring it, it’s charged to your room etc). So it was easy and when we shopped around the next day we found we’d got a pretty good deal (450 rupees per night with attached bathroom – that’s about 7 quid, but it’s very basic). After three nights there though I became frustrated with the noise the other guest were making at all hours and I wasn’t sleeping well enough because of it.

So we went to the effort of moving (in the extreme heat) but last night wasn’t so good either – animals this time. So Nick reckons he’s going to order the chicken tonight at the attached restaurant, 6 of them so hopefully that will get rid of some of the noise!

Overall Palolem is beautiful, hot and the sea is warm. There are bar/restaurants all along and it’s not as remote as we’d like. Things are developing fast here so it’s no surprise it’s reasonably packed now. We’re not sure how long we’ll stay, we’re doing very little, just trying to sleep and keep cool. We can wander 10 metres to the bar restaurant overlooking the beach so that’s nice. For the first time this trip I feel like what I’m doing isn’t more effort than going to work each day. It’s also good here to chat to people about travel plans and get tips. There are lots of Nepalese people working here. And LOTS of Israeli tourists which I’ll make no further comment about.

Mumbai Continued

wick — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:45:00 GMT

Overall, Mumbai was really good and we were surprised how friendly the people were. We had a great time on our final night, in a local bar (only Indian men) near the train station. They didn’t object to our presence and literally welcomed us in, making space for us in the crowded seating area. Nick was a novelty with his dreads, and I being female was even more so. But we all had a laugh and I caught one bloke taking my photo on his phone we had a laugh over it and when he left he came over to shake my hand for being a good sport. We had some confusing conversations with the blokes next to us but in the end everyone made themselves understood and there was much laughing.

Nick cottoned on to an upper class waiting area we could use at the train station (clean and with AC) so we wasted some time there.

Gallery: Goa

wick — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:29:00 GMT

Gallery: Mumbai

wick — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:22:00 GMT

Mumbai (by Nick)

wick — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 22:48:00 GMT

We have had about 5 days in Mumbai and are off to Goa tomorrow on the sleeper train. We arrived at about 5am in the morning after only a 2.5hr flight from Dubai so did not have a very good nights sleep. We flew Jazeera Airways which certainly had cheap fares but was actually really good. We had a row of 3 seats each to sleep on and got a bit of a nap. We arrived with little hassle and wrangled with the Hotel Booking counter for a while and they could only offer us a room for about GBP30 a night! This was after some tooing and froeing (initally it was over 40 for the same hotel). We found our taxi and the driver was woken from his sleep to blast us into town. We ended up at our hotel -you would expect a 5star out here for that. But we were in the most over priced room in Mumbai - a construction site directly outside our room and in the corridor as well. A bit grotty too. Metal rebar being thrown around all day. After a catnap we wandered around and secured a similar room but 1/4 - 1/3 of the price for the next day. Things went pretty easy and we were suprised by the lack of hassles or beggars so far, but when they do approach they seem to smile if you do and leave us alone when told we are not interested. I seem to get a bit more attention because of the dreads, its all been positive and good though. They have wondering gurus here with dreaded hair and I guess wonder what a white tourist is doing here looking a bit like them.

More later....

Dubai

wick — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 22:24:00 GMT

It's a long story, but the easiest and cheapest way for us to get from Japan to India was via Dubai. My friend Helen live there with her partner Andy so it was a good excuse for visiting them.

Dubai has a reputation for throwing people in jail for little reason and it was no surprise although slightly nervewracking when the customs officers spotted Nick's dreads and pulled him aside into an isolate room for a wee chat. He managed to assure them in a few minutes that he was not stupid enough to bring anything dodgy into the country and we were soon on our way.

While Dubai is a muslim country it is less strict than some of the other arab countries. It has an 80% expatriate population and accommodates some non muslim practices (such as alcohol consumption). Andy has an alcohol licence for example so he can go to the specialised places and get booze. Apparently to get this you need letters from your employer, passport, proof of income etc etc. Then you buy quotas of alcohol based on your annual income.

30 years ago there wasn't much in Dubai at all, then the Sheik decided to get progressive and it's now a big trade centre. They have enormous malls and are building these crazy islands just off shore, out of sand from Iran (they have the wrong kind of sand in Dubai!). They in the shapes of palm trees or they're working on one called the world - you can buy property on the country of your choice. On land there are buildings going up literally everywhere. Enormous residential towers and the like, all trying to out do each other. One of the malls even has a skiing slope in it. It can be 40 degrees outside and people inside are skiing -it's totally mad - and an environmental nightmare. Apparently, Dubai is responsible at present for about 60% of the worlds carbon footprint. With all the concrete buildings going up (one of the worst offenders) this figure unfortunately seems quite believable.

One of the highlights in Dubai was visiting a mosque. There's only one here that allows it by operating an Open Mosque, Open Minds programme. The nicest thing about it was that we were by no means the only people there - there must have been 200-300 people. These days with all the bad press Islam is getting it was rewarding to know that there were still a lot of people with minds open enough to go along. The lady who took the tour was British, having converted 5 years ago (she'd been married to a local for 12 years before that). She gave very polished explanations although some things seemed a little superficial (particularly in respect to womens issues). For example, the ayaba (black covering robes the women wear) was portrayed as a form of the little black dress, more sliming than white etc.

The main highlight was a totally touristy experience - the desert safari! We were taken into the desert in a 4WD and then went dune bashing! Lots and lots of crazy four wheel driving over massive dunes (unfortunately I've left the disc with the photos in our hotel, I'll upload them later - they're fabulous!). There were 13 vehicles in all and we drove for ages, up down and around with a few stops (which was good as I went a bit green at one point). We watched the sun set over the dunes and then did more driving to a mock up bedouin settlement. There we could ride camels, get a henna tattoo, smoke sheesa (apple tabacco) pipes, dress in traditional dress, have traditional coffee etc. They feed us some amazing food and there was belly dancing to finish. It was a great afternoon/evening and although commercial, it was fun. We got totally stuck on the way out and our driver, having just pumped up the tyres again, eventually had to let them done so we could get over the dunes and out! Then later done the road there was an absolute scrum of 4WDs trying to get to the air hose to reinflate their tyres.

Other than that we did a bit of wandering around in the heat, looking at buildings, went to the beach and went to a comedy night with Helen and Andy. I met a colleague of Helen's from NZ who turns out to be from Morrinsville and her mother knows some of my family there... small world.

After 5 days in Dubai, we took a night time flight on Jazeera Airways (very good incidently) to Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).

Stand by for photos at some point.

Nara and Osaka

wick — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:56:00 GMT

The trains in Japan and reasonably easy to understand and relatively cheap so we took a day trip to nearby Nara. It bucketed down all day and we were soaked to the core by the time we got home. It was worth it though to visit Kohfukuji Temple Complex and Todai-ji Temple to see some great shrines, temples and to feed the deer. They can be quite forceful and are probably the only way you’ll get mugged in Japan!

We also did a day trip to Kyoto, to see another temple, covered in real gold! The gardens were nice too, very tranquil and at another temple we saw one of the best Zen gardens around (apparently).

All in all, Japan has been a great place to visit. The convenience stores have served as our kitchens with great sushi and the like for not very much money at all. We’ve eaten out several times as well and again, it’s not cost much. I love the vending machines with hot cans of coffee (or cold) and even vending machines for beer! We’ve had a few people try out their English on us and in each case their English was very good – they just lack confidence! One was an old guy on the train to Nara who said “English is universal, Japanese, only in Japan.”

It feels very safe here and the streets are very clean. People seem to conform but also not to conform – there are loads of people, particularly the young, who dress with distinctively individualistic style! It makes it much more interesting walking down the street or sitting on the train. They’re big into baseball and seem to be even bigger into dressing animals up – the number of poor animals we’ve seen wearing dresses etc. We even saw two dogs the other day in matching boys and girls outfits (the girl had a fluffy miniskirt on and the fur on her ears had been fluffed up and dyed orange!).

Well that’s a quick catch up before flying off to Dubai to visit Helen and then onto Mumbai, then hopefully to Goa for a ‘holiday’. We won’t have access to internet so readily so it could be a while before there are any more updates, we’ll see…

Gallery: Nara

wick — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:31:00 GMT

Gallery: Osaka

wick — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:13:00 GMT

Japanese Birthday

wick — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:45:00 GMT

Eventually we made it to Japan and I did the conference talk.

Thursday was my birthday and I started it off in fine style by missing the first 9 1/2 hours of it sleeping! A much needed lie in.

After a full Japanese breakfast in the hotel I opened my present from Nick (nifty Japanese bits and pieces!) and we eventually headed off to do some shopping. Nick was very patient while I looked through almost every shop and chose some pieces of fabric for making stuff with.

By 2pm we were hungry so we went to a place Nick had already sussed out and got some fine bubbly wine (and not too expensive either). We then frequented one of the many convenience stores - and boy are they convenient - and got some quality sushi etc for not many Yen at all. We took the whole lot to a nearby park, beautifully manicured as you would expect. I don't think it was just the wine but on the way out there seemed to be not just a 'pussy dog' (dog that looks like a cat) but a 'ratty dog' complete with Minnie-mouse dress! Dearest ones, if I ever do anything like that please lock me in a dark room until I come to my senses.

Reinvigorated we went back to a huge shopping street and revisited some cool shops and bought loads of cutesy stationery and the like. In the Daimaru shopping mall we were impressed by the lady whose job it was to announce the lift at each floor and welcome you to the Daimaru lift and thank you very much for taking the Daimaru lift etc...

We shopped until we nearly dropped and needed refreshment. Water wouldn't cut it any more so in a maze of clubs and crazy looking places we found a tiny bar with just one Japanese man in it and a lady behind the counter. After a bit of initial confusion we managed to get across that we wanted two beers - the Japanese man helping a little with translations. The lady was making some intricate stuffed mashed rice ball things and in due course we were offered a couple each for 'no money'. We tried hard to converse a little and I showed them some of the recently acquired birthday treats.

The man was chatting away to the lady (who turned out to be his 'Mrs'), and the only word we recognised was 'Americano'. So it was a surprise to him, when he asked where we were from, that we replied 'Nu Jirando' The 'Mrs' was making some dumpling thingys and we were asked if we wanted some. So we ordered another beer each while we waited (slow food!) and gave the Japanese phrase book another work out. The food, when it was ready, was terrific and we said as much, mangling the Japanese language along the way. The man then started rumaging in his briefcase and presented us with the back of a piece of paper to sign. He wanted a message and signature from us as we were from New Zealand! When it was done he hung it, pride of place, on the wall! He stopped to write the date on it and I commented that the date was my birthday - which excited them even further. Bless them, he even asked if we speak English in New Zealand, so I lied and said 'Yes'. I know we think we do...

After a short time the man got up and asked us in good English to wait a few moments - then he disappeared (ironically 'just one moment please' is one of the few phrases I can understand in Japanese!). He came back in about 10 minutes with a lovely bunch of flowers, 6 white roses, for me for my birthday!!! So then we all got cosy and photos were taken in true Japanese style. It was so sweet and we eventually left there hardly believing what had happened.

I'm sure I'll never forget that one!

Paperwork dramas

wick — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:58:00 GMT

Before we knew it we were back in the company of Kim and Ainslie, then Guy, Shelagh and Anna. We spent a last few nights in Vinnie, organising the trip ahead and get our packs ready for the next bit.

With a distinct lack of bravery I said goodbye, Vinnie’s minder Chester dropped us in town and Ainslie came down to the bus stop to say goodbye (Kim had ‘flu).

We arrived in London in time to see the last of the England/Australia rugby and then of course the All Blacks v France (enough said about that).

It was nice to have some time with Reuben, but it turned into a stressful time. Our passports were still with the Indian Embassy in Birmingham and no matter how many phones calls we made, they held onto them day after day. Eventually we realised we would miss our flight to Japan and that I wouldn’t be able to do the talk at the conference (and would miss out on the financial support for that part of the trip). It was a great disappointment as I’d never been to Japan and was really looking forward to all the sushi!). We kept an eye on Emirates flights in case we could get a later one, but the only ones available were massive upgrades making the whole thing uneconomical.

Just as we’d given up, cancelled our tickets and decided to rearrange the plans to go straight to India when the passports turned up, after a bit of time back up in Cambridge, we got word that the Visas/Passports were ready. I had another look at flights and in some kind of semi-miracle, several flights in our price bracket had become available. Nick took the bus to Birmingham on the Friday (Royal Mail strike was on so we didn’t want to entrust them to that service) and we were on a flight on Sunday. We left Reuben feeling poorly, he says he had ‘flu but I suspect an intense case of World Cup Grief ;)

Vinnie makes a full recovery

wick — Wed, 3 Oct 2007 18:56:00 GMT

£160 later (not counting the emergency RAC membership) we're back on the road. We've noticed a dramatic improvement in Vinnie's health - he had always been very heavy in the steering (so much so that I was reluctant to drive him) and now it's a breeze! The whole vehicle seems lighter and more manageable which is nice, although the main beneficiaries will be the people who are going to babysit him for several months for us while we are in Asia.

We leave for Japan next Wednesday for 11 days, then have a few days in Dubai visiting Helen then on to India!

Dorset, Devon and Cornwall

wick — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 20:16:00 GMT

After a rest for a week or so at our favourite campsite in Glastonbury (including a visit from Bill and Amanda and an epic walk through neighbouring Somerset countryside one day), we headed down to Dorset for the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival. The weather was superb, the cheese sublime and the ale, as always, delicious. They also have a fantastic shop in Sturminster Newton that has what has to be the largest range of quilt fabrics I’ve ever seen!

The following day we had a nice trip through the Dorset countryside to the coast at Eype. We set ourselves up at a great campsite there, overlooking the cliffs of the Jurassic coast. Fossils abound there and on our third morning there we took ourselves fossil hunting. We found all sorts of fossilised bits of sea creatures and convinced ourselves we’d found a dinosaur bone!

We also did traditional fish and chips on the beach for lunch and soaked up the English sunshine that can present itself at opportune moments! The weather that day was great and a couple of people were parapenting at the cliff face, swooping right over us and Vinnie.

When we finally convinced ourselves to leave that lovely spot we headed towards Exeter via A La Ronde, a crazy 16 sided house built by two spinsters after their 10 year grand tour of Europe. Unfortunately it was closed but I can jump ahead a few days and tell you we made it back there later and had a look around. They even have a shell gallery where they constructed massive murals from shells and feathers in the ceiling mezzanine.

As we headed southward we detoured into a village called Ashburton, (I have to say it’s a bit nicer than our Ashburton) to find a picnic spot. A winding trail led us to a picnic spot that turned out to be a great campsite, so that was us sorted for the night. Right on the river Dart, the site had amazing adventure playgrounds, flying foxes and the like. Nick went nuts while I observed – my toe was playing up again so I had to be nice to it. They also had a great hydro scheme to generate power for the site, a pirate ship, sandy beach and a load of other things. Being term time and more or less the end of summer it was really quiet too. We met a lovely lady, Ruth, who does fantastic stained glass work in High Wycombe and has a super cool van she has ‘girlied’ up.

Exeter excluded us from their Park and Ride facilities (Vinnie to too high for their barrier) so we excluded Exeter from our sightseeing itinerary this time!

We dropped into Totnes to have a look around (nice place) and start trying to get airfares sorted for the next leg of the journey – to Asia. Not too far from Totnes we found a campsite down numerous narrow lanes and it turned out to be so cheap and quiet that we had two nights there, giving us a bit of time to start planning our itinerary for Asia.

The Lizard is the most southern point of mainland Britain and a gorgeous, wild spot. The National Trust guy there was super friendly and we learned a few things J We went to Land’s End a few days later, which by comparision is nasty! The National Trust leave things all nice and natural but unfortunately they were outbid by some guy for Land’s End and he built a big commercial complex there to extract money from tourists.

At The Lizard we stayed at one of those big campsite complexes with evening entertainment, pools, 10 bin bowling, bingo etc. It was quite a hoot although we didn’t really participate in any of it. That night was COLD, and we knew this part of the trip was drawing to an end.

The next day we visited St Michael’s Mount – a great castle on an island near Penzance. We took the boat across, but the tide was low enough on the way back to take the causeway. It’s an amazing spot.

After the previously mentioned visit to Land’s End we went into Penzance and actually had a bit of a nightmare trying to book some airfares with Emirates. It turns out (after a week or two of frustration) that there’s now a process called Verified by Visa near the end of the transaction and of the three Visa cards we have, none can be registered for it. Grrrr…. It means that we can’t use our Visa’s for online purchases with any company that uses Verified by Visa. And both airlines we’ve been trying to book with, use it! We got around the problem with Emirates by arranging to go to Birmingham to pick up manual tickets.

Before heading northward we had a couple of nights at a campsite overlooking St Ives Bay. For only 7 quid a night it was an incredible spot. We had a great view of the dunes, beach, sea, light house and there always seemed to be people out surfing or windsurfing, despite the cold. The beach is enormous and just beautiful and it now has to be one of my favourite places.

We’ve also been doing the rounds of a few National Trust places and Killerton House was one of the highlights. It’s an enormous Victorian house with lots of Arts and Crafts type décor. And being rebuilt after a fire in the late 1800’s it’s a contemporary of many of New Zealand’s oldest homes so there was a certain nice familiarity about it. One of its features is that it clearly shows the behind the scenes aspect of running the house – servants quarters, kitchen, dairy etc. We really enjoyed our time there.

We then headed back to Bristol to visit The Boys – Harry had been on the Trans Mongolian since we’d been there last and we wanted to chat to him about Mongolia etc. Despite our intention to stay only one night, we ended up there for three as Paul (former flatmate) was having a housewarming and then a street party was held in his street the following day. The weather was miserable for it but the few hardy souls that ventured out were pretty interesting people. It’s a very multicultural street and we met Ali who’s a Kurdish guy, Pearl from Jamaica (who’s lived in the street since 1957), another lady from Botswana and of course a few English people! Unfortunately it was Ramadan so many of the people on the street were fasting and couldn’t/didn’t join in.

Next we headed across the Welsh border for a brief catch up with Andy (see Wychwood blog). He took us to a cool pub that does excellent food and we totally blew the budget that day!

We passed through Hay-on-Wye on the way, which is known for having a disproportionate number of second hand bookshops. It was great! If only the budget and the backpacks were a little bigger….

We totally blew the budget the next day when we went to Birmingham for the air tickets! It was a bit of a hassle but we also had to apply for travel visas for India and this can only really be done in Birmingham or London, so we combined the two. That also turned out to be a hassle and we ended up paying a travel agent a bit extra to do it for us (107 quid all up). They were great too and gave us a much needed cup of tea, some books on India to look at while we had it (to make it all seem worthwhile) and some top tips for travelling in India (e.g. no water but plenty of tea for the first 2-3 days)! The guy that ran the place was so nice that we left feeling pretty great and looking forward to India.

After a couple of nights hanging around in the Stratford-upon-Avon area, not really doing the things we should have been doing!) we headed across country to stop in on people in Tring (family of friends of my family!) before heading to Cambridge again. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that way, as Vinnie started to make horrible noises, the steering became heavy and when we stopped at Morrison’s supermarket, we were unable to get going again. Panic ensued as on a Saturday we found it really hard to get someone to come and have a look at him. After much flapping and phone calls to Guy (Cambridge) and Jules (Tring) we joined the RAC at the roadside which costs exactly one arm and one leg! We did a lot of waiting but the eventual outcome was an assessment by the RAC guy that the ball joint in the front suspension/steering had worn through and was about to collapse completely (which would have been a bit nasty) so Vinnie went to hospital on a huge flat deck truck. It was all a bit traumatic and exciting (and expensive), all at the same time. Fortunately we had calm words from Guy and Jules on the other end of the phone and Jules and Nick (her husband is Nick also – don’t get confused!) very kindly offered us a refuge with their family (including Ellie and Matthew) while we waited for Monday and the mechanics to have a look at it. Now we just wait to hear when they can look at it and get the part – fingers crossed it’s soon! In the meantime the Wake Family keep extending our Tring visa’s so we don’t have to camp in the van in the mechanic’s yard!

While here though we’ve been able to look around Tring a bit. It’s a nice quiet town and has an interesting history. Once owned by the Rothschild’s there’s obviously been wealth here, and where’s there’s wealth, there’s often eccentricity! We like eccentricity! One of the Rothschilds like to collect stuffed animals, which sounds rather low key – but he gathered the greatest collection of animals species ever collected by one man and many of them are in a small museum here. It was fascintating! Its not nice to think that these were once living animals, but the damage is done now and it really is an amazing and interesting collection. The first you see are lions, polar bears, thousands of birds, followed by monkeys, gorillas, just about every thing you can imagine. My favourite was the Tibetan Lynx, such a beautiful creature – I want one! (So I’ll no longer be hassling for a pony!) And I’ve also identified what I want to come back as – a Sportive Lemur (see photos!). Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild also had a park here with Zebras and he trained them to pull a cart! (google Tring National History Museum and you can see some pics). There’s even a photo of him, in local books, on the back of a giant tortoise here dangling lettuce in front of it from a stick, like the proverbial carrot and donkey. Apparently when he went up to Cambridge he took 30 live kiwis with him! It all seems a little cruel, but the whole thing was inspired by a love for nature and a desire to set up resources for scientists to study and understand animals and evolution better.

Well that’s it for now - a rapid summary of a month of travel! I’m sure I haven’t done it justice and there will be things I’ve missed – you’ll have to wait for the book to hear about those!

Now we just sit with our fingers crossed that Vinnie gets better quickly….

Gallery: Tring

wick — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 20:06:00 GMT

Gallery: Wales

wick — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 20:03:00 GMT

Not England! (just briefly)

Gallery: Cornwall

wick — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 19:55:00 GMT

Gallery: Lacock

wick — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:23:00 GMT