My virtual trip has taken me to Denmark . Another country added to the list and another magnet purchased for the board in the kitchen . So thoughts on Denmark . I wonder what the roads will be like. Will they resemble the de dum de dum roads of Belgium or

Wednesday 26th June 2019Dark clouds greeted me this morning as I woke up on my 40th birthday in Japan. Not a great start for me as I had planned to commemorate this special day with a crossisland expedition between Honshu Shimonoseki and Kyu

Wednesday 26th June 2019My second half of the day was spent onboard the Nozomi N700 Shinkansen services to the city of Himeji some 455km away on the island of Honshu. It was amazing that the journey only took slightly less than two hours to co

Day 23 Gabby the motorhome is still on furlough . We keep checking on her . To make sure she is Ok . That she is not missing us as much as we are missing her.Walking makes you stop and think . Instead of a mind racing on important things it goes i

AMUSING FAMILY CONNECTIONSA girl named Laura Ingalls was born in 1867 and grew up on the prairie. One of the first places she lived was on a hard scrabble little farm a few miles southwest of Independence Kansas. Her dad Charles Ingalls was a

I love walking on my own. It is never a lonely experience. There is too much to see and too much to take in . Even on Day 24 of the lockdown I am still finding nooks and a cranny or two in our village that I have never investigated before . Yes I am coveri

I take a sharp intake of breath as I test what the air temperature is outside . The chill of the frosty night has not yet been burned away that frosty morning feeling. My breath comes out like a thick wisp of smoke. I need my gilet on today to keep me warm

Around the main island of Lombok there are many many Gilis islands. Some of them inhabited some just some rocks bushes but all having wonderful white sands turquoise waters and stunning views. Being on search for a nice Gili we finally decided to

I don't believe it's been 5 years since I last posted anything. I guess Life got in the way but I promise travelling never stopped. The current Pandemic got me thinking about what freedom really means Freedom of movement freedom of choice freedom t

Sometimes you have to try something different . Chesterfield area is not all Peak District pretty . Nor is full to the brim with pretty stone cottages . Stone walls fields and Bluebell Woods . There is another side . The A61 divides the two halves . The P

THE LION OF MISSOURIAs part of the Missouri Compromise in 1820 the State of Missouri was admitted to the union as a slave holding state. Slavery was part of their statehood charter. When the Civil War fetched loose in 1861 Missouri did not have

Snuggling up inside the duvet it was hard to make the decision to wake up fully and rise . The sun was slowly rising above the trees . There was a hint of a chilly morning out of the sun . Walking early is a pleasure before the rest of the world has woken

The brain this morning does not want to function . One side is saying get up get moving get out . The other side replies in a negative fashion . Let me stay in bed a bit longer. My foot aches . Underneath and on top. Shoes are rubbing toes from so much

BAPTISM OF FIREOur sixth cousin four generations removed was a fellow named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain from up in Maine. At the beginning of the Civil War Joshua was teaching the German language at Bowdoin College conducting Sunday school le

Are you getting up The navigator woke early this morning . I never heard him getting up . He was standing at the bottom of the bed What about your walk Are you bothering this morning I had made plans yesterday for todays walk . On the way home

It is Sunday. The shine is shining . It is a day of rest . But each day feels like a day of rest . Everyday feels like a Sunday. I could turn over fall asleep and have a late breakfast . Somehow along the way over the last 30 days walking has become an

WE HAVE RUN AGROUND CAPTAIN RANEYThe Arkansas and Colorado Rivers originate only a few miles apart in the Rocky Mountains near Leadville Colorado. They are however on opposite sides of the Continental Divide. Snowmelt in the Arkansas River d

Morning all I guess you will all be up and greeting the dawn . Sleep did not come easy last night . Tossing and turning . You get nights like that at times . Hoping that once your head hits the pillow you will fall asleep . Some nights you do. Others the

The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough Rabindranath Tagore one of my favourites. I saw the first butterfly of the season today . A Cabbage White the scourge of gardeners who love their cabbages . The pretty white things lays

I won't lie to you. My brain was Ok this morning accepting the fact that a walk was on the way after breakfast . It also knew that today was shopping day . The day of a telekit from work. It was my feet that were complaining . Complaining loudly at that

THE GREAT SPACE ALIEN MICROBE CONSPIRACYIt remains a mystery how space alien microbes arrived on the planet. It seems likely that they may have hitched a ride on cosmic radio waves. Rotation of the planet as it revolves on its axis and orbits ar

It was another amazing 3 hours flight over beautiful Indonesia. We spotted Mount Agung on Bali the crater lake of Mount Ijen and Mount Merapi on Java. There were no clouds no wind just sunshine when we touched down in Kuala Lumpur at 10 am. It was the 6t

The early morning dawn light was streaming in through the window . The time seemed irrelevant . It was still not quite light enough to rise . Looking at my watch I hoped the green luminous fingers would give me a clue to the time . It felt like 5am. The fi

After a good night's sleep in the lovely warm room I headed down to the breakfast room to get breakfast. I love that this guesthousehostel is in a traditional old building and is full of character. The breakfast room is no exception as it has the origina

Madurai was originally a forest called Kadambavanam i.e. a Vanam forest of Kadamba trees.One day Lord Indra spotted a farmer praying to a Shiva linga in the forest and told King Kulasekara Pandya about the linga. The king built a temple around the

Friday 28th June 2019I headed to the city of Takamatsu on the eastern end of Shikoku island this morning. This is as far as my railway pass could take me given that I had only purchased the limited SanyoSan'in Area Pass rather than the all Jap

Yesterday it was horses birds coots on the pond rabbits and squirrels . Today chickens. Guinea Fowl a bit of an odd sight around the village as they walked alongside me. My plan was to head out into the countryside . Luckily living on the spine of Eng

Friday 28th June 2019 From Yashima I made a trip back to the city centre where the Takamatsu Symbol Tower is located. Towering 30th stories above ground level there is a public observatory where free views of the city could be had. Following

When I visited China for the first time many many years ago. I remember going to a place that I really liked but couldn't remember what it was called. I remember me and one of the guys I travelled with sat at an outside bar by a lake and it was really nic

The work of fiction known as the weather forecast has been giving us a sandwich message the last few days. The good news the bread of the sandwich has been that April has been a lovely month . No April showers. Wall to wall sunshine. Then came the fillin

Thankyou to my travelblog friend you know who you are for introducing the colour Borage Blue to my collection of colours . She told me that the plant I struggled finding a name for yesterday was Borage . An electric blue and a stunning plant .Anothe

SPORTS HEROESIf I had to make a list of family sports heroes it would be a short list. Jim Forsberg would be on it for football. Jim is also a war hero. Jims brother Richard and Richards son Andy would be at the top of it for over 50 yea

Shall I let you into a little secret oh go on then . I am quite enjoying this walking . Lying in bed unable to drop off to sleep I sorted out in my mind where I was walking to in the morning . The weather whas a let down . Over the past few weeks someone

Is that rain I hear Gently tapping on the window . I cannot hear anything as I lie under the bedclothes . I am sure it is raining . The work of fiction the weather forecaster got it right . April is going out in the way April should go out . Light ra

It was not the aching feet that were stopping me in my tracks . To be fair they were burning . This walking plays havoc with the arches of your feet . It was not my brain working overtime thinking of reasons not to go out . Although it would have been easy

To keep your mind off this terrible pandemic here is some totally worthless facts from Travel Trivia MSN and others to fill your hard drive. Although several countries lay claim to the worlds oldest flag the Dannebrog or Danish cloth h

Rain it can be quite therapeutic . When it patters on Gabbys roof it can lull you into sleep . When it hammers down it is worse than listening to Ginger Baker and Keith Moon on their drumkits on the roof. It does the garden good . But lying in bed listen

FORT GIBSONThe 1830s would have been amusing times to have gone forth in America. In 1821 the Mexicans finally kicked the Spaniards out of their country and began to move forward with plans to settle Texas. In 1824 America responded to Mexican e

Today should have been the day. It is going to be a day of would have could have and should have again. We would have been waking up on the park and ride paid our fee to exit and driven the M2 down to the tunnel . We should have been sitting in the car

Saturday 29th June 2019Before heading to Hiroshima in the afternoon I made a brief stop at the town of Tatsuno. This is home to Japan's only Soy Sauce Museum. Access to Tatsuno is relatively straight forward with frequent trains departi

Sunday 30th June 2019Breakfast was a happy affair at Royal Host one of the nicer restaurants in the city that opens early in the day and closes late into the night. I liked how well my scrambled egg turned out to be creamy soft and f

Friday 9th August 2019And so here we are on our annual MC retreat to the state capital of Sarawak with some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. About 40 of us assembled at the airport on National Day 2019 for our flight to Kuching.

Goedemorgen to you all . We would have probably woken up in Belgium this morning having dined on waffles or frites last night . I am sure that the sun would be shining as we rose . The sun has arrived here so the chances are Belgium would have been just as

SOMETHING FOUNDOne of the best western movies ever made was called ltem stylemsobidifontstyle normalgtThe Searchers starring John Wayne. It was about a little girl named Cynthia Ann Parker who was abducted by the Comanche

Did you know that there was a connection between our large 7000 inhabitant village of Wingerworth Randolph Hearst and the a museum across the pond in St Louis No neither did I until I treated our village as if I were a visitor on a first visit . As a v

When the news came out that the pandemic had take over Europe I was still working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Now almost two month later we are still stuck on the ship. I know that this is a very hard time for everyone and while I would have lik

KNOXVILLEThe Department of Energy got underway as a branch of the Tennessee Valley Authority beginning in about 1940. The Manhattan Project in which we developed the atomic bomb originated at the Oak Ridge Laboratory outside of Knoxville. Scie

According to our Shiva Mahapurana one day Vishnu and Brahma had an argument over their superiority. Shiva appeared in front of them in the form of a raging fire and asked them to each find the tip of the fire. Whoever reaches the tip would be superior bet

Yesterday was Day 45 Our five o'clock briefing was delivered by the less than charismatic Mr Gove who told us more of the same . He spelled out the numbers of deaths the numbers of tests that had been undertaken. The numbers rolled off his tongue . Traf

Reaching Blog 100 on Chesterfield who would have believed it Not me. Sometimes I would write something about my home town. Most of the time though blogs were about somewhere else . Covid 19 has scuppered any chance of a blog from out of town for a whil