A BUS TO NOWHERE

A YEAR has passed since my last post, about half of that time spent travelling. One of my predictions turned out incredibly wrong: Saudi Arabia was actually really disappointing. Bland, inauthentic, with nothing really coming close to expectations.
On the other hand, I was right about feeling traveled out. I just don’t feel like it any more. Too much of a good thing, no doubt, but the disappointment of Saudi, followed immediately by more ho-hum in Azerbaijan really killed it for me. Thankfully, both Georgia and Armenia were excellent. 6 days in Bulgaria was about 5 days too long. Finally some unfinished personal and travel business a month in Vietnam after all that was excellent. Pics from that Vietnam trip, and from Georgia, are on the way- eventually! Now, I’m just enjoying being in one place.

THREE SUMMER Months in Australia went by fast and we find ourselves again living out of backpacks. Last year, we stayed around Asia, with 3 months in India being maybe too long. Indonesia, after 30 years was still good.
This year, we have taken two big plunges: Bhutan and Saudi Arabia. Two weeks in Bhutan was fascinating, cold, expensive and unique. Saudi Arabia will also be like nowhere else, I suspect.
From there, a couple of months in the Caucasus, returning to familair ground via Bulgaria, and I reckon we’ll be travelled-out and ready for rest.

WE’RE HALF way through 3 months in India, on the home stretch of almost 9 months of travel. Seen and done and eaten and spotted some remarkable stuff, but as the home stretch appears, there’s some things I look forward to when it’s over.
Like shower-screens. And salads. And not having to find somewhere to stay.
Of course the strange, foreign and unknown is good, but so too is knowing where to get what you want to eat. And being able to choose from a huge range, rather than make do with whatever can be found.
6 more weeks of moving and wet feet and veg/non-veg will go so fast.

Africa, predictably, was awesome. Eswatini and Lesotho were both surprising in different ways, and Zimbabwe did not disappoint. OK, no leopards or cheetahs, but we got to track rhino on foot, saw lion in all the parks they were present, camped and walk in Mana Pools, with elephants, lions, hyena and leopard passing through our camp. More time in South Africa next time.
But now, the trip Covid interrupted, we are in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Australia is privileged to have this vast, wonderful country on its doorstep- yet we neglect 99% of it. The food, the wildlife, the scenery, the people have all been great.
Our tip began in Thailand, and continued in Korea, which was so-so. The Philippines continues to grow on me (thanks Pete). We even ate reasonably well this time.  Java and another big must-do destination- Malaysia’s Taman Negara National Park- coming soon, and southern India to round out the year

From the Arabic “safar”, comes the Swahili word for journey – “safari”. Yep, I am off on safari! Back to Africa after a decade. Big skies, big smiles, big game parks and big wildlife.
See ya. Take a look at my north-east India pics while I’m gone.

AFTER A REASONABLY mediocre trip around the Balkans, I’d had enough of travel, at least temporarily. Getting robbed didn’t help. Neither did a dangerous fall at the top of a cliff. Or….or…or…
So when you’re tired of travel, the only way back is to ease back in with something mild: India!
Pleasingly, the trip, through the hilly north-east states, went pretty smoothly. Better yet, I enjoyed it, lots. Plenty of wildlife, very good food, far-out locations, colourful markets, and some really first-class people.
Probably missed out on a few things and places that we’d wanted to see, but so be it. Better too short than too long when it comes to holidays.

That’s how I felt after my most recent and second covid-era trip. Like the lovable oaf in the Canadian Dry ad, something I loved – travel- just wasn’t working for me.
Our first trip, 2 months in Thailand was pretty good- lots of wildlife, friends, countryside motorcycling, food. The hot season did wear us out. So what did we do? Went to Europe in peak summer!
A few things went wrong. Crowds, smokers, heat, booking.com overload, sight fatigue. We did go to some pretty cool places and see some spectacular sights- pics to come- but the lure of the couch was strong.
Travel fatigue will pass. And to ease ourselves gently back into it, we will head back to India in 2023.
I never finally got around to finishing my last two galleries, from Siem Reap, and now I have truckloads more Thai pics and four Balkan nations to work through.

I APPLIED FOR A visa- permission to enter a different jurisdiction- and crossed over an actual border (complete with customs inspection) into a foreign land!
Travel! A journey to the unknown!
South Australia!
Our first trip interstate on over a year was well over-due. A spot of bird-nerding at Gluepot Reserve came first. Then the main event, the Flinders Ranges, some of the oldest land on earth, some stunning hiking routes, and plenty of wildlife -euros, birds, yellow-footed rock wallabies.
And, yes, we took to the air in one of those new fangled flying machines, as seen in the picture. Wilpena Pound, part of Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, from the air is pretty mind-blowing.
Sadly, crossing an international border remains a pipe-dream, at least until the Cock-Womble In Chief Prime Minister has called an election. Fortunately, there are plenty of magnificent places to see in Australia, and, for the time being at least, we can visit them without fear of kissing the pangolin.
For now, that’ll have to do.

WHILE IT IS TOO early to call “light at the end of tunnel”, perhaps the tunnel is not quite as dark as it was 6 months ago. Unless of course if you live in most of Europe, The United States, India and many other countries, in which case, it is still quite dark.
Scientists, those underpaid, under-appreciated saviours in labs, have given us hope to get through this bullshit pandemic. Please don’t call vaccines “miracles”. They are the product of hard work and science.
I still don’t think I’ll be travelling in 2021, although I did get about 250 kms from home, to Wilsons’ Prom’. Thankfully there are some nice places to visit nearby, but no cobbled streets with Ottoman era mosques or glittering spires across the rice fields.
I’m half way through my Namibian pages. India is up. All of Central Asia. Some dodgy B&W stuff from Morocco captured on film. Work has been slowed as I turned inwards to books. Thanks to my local library, which made lockdown much easier.
Rule #2: don’t forget Rule #1.
Rule #1? Don’t get Covid.

Loving lockdown? Sounds weird, but, yeah, I reckon it’s alright.
OK, so I’m not in Bulgaria or Zimbabwe, but you want me to stay at home all day doing nothing? OK. I can do that. I’ve read quite a few books and pottered in the garden. I’ve even read a few books in the garden.
I long ago gave up any hope of travelling again until 2022. It’s out of my control, worrying won’t change it. And it -travel 2020- doesn’t look like much fun anyway.
Book your visit to the Coloseum online for a pre-arranged time, move in one direction only. Cafes and stuff are closed. Spontaneity is dead. Borders are open today closed tomorrow. Quarantine.
Nah, I’ll wait.
What’s new here? Lots. I finished Thailand, Uzbekistan and Taiwan, three of the biggest jobs I had. A couple of smaller pre-digital destinations, Mongolia and Sri Lanka are up. Australia! Lots of bush and birds and bugs from the outback. And the themed galleries (people, culture, nature, man-made etc) are getting bigger.
15 years of film has all been scanned, picked over and edited. Two years of stuff from Vietnam and Cambodia is a big body of work, probably the last to see the digital light of day.
Others in the works include Namibia, Philippines, Morocco, India and Burma.
Stay tuned. Stay sane. Keep drinking the bleach.