Day One: Europe

Sheffield to London Arrived at Sheffield Midland Station on time to find that someone had stolen the electrical signal cables at Clay Cross and all trains were cancelled. My first thought was perhaps they wouldn’t have had to if Thatcher hadn’t closed the mines and destroyed the only source of work in the area. ….. […]

Day Eleven: Turkey (Asia Minor)

Day 11: Istanbul. Wednesday 3rd October Fell in love with the city the moment I stepped out onto the cobbles of the Sultanahmet district and stood outside the Orient Hostel, our home for the next two nights. On the surface it’s just another mad, bustling, chaotic jungle of cars, yellow taxis, buses and trams all […]

Day Twenty: Iran

Day 20: Dogubayasit to Tabriz Iran   Friday 12th October I have been lucky to be task free on the bus but since Tuesday I have been a packer. Today is the first time we the team have had difficulty packing all the bags, rucksacks, sleeping bags and tents into the holds. Things this morning […]

Day Twenty Eight: Pakistan

Day 28: Zahedan to Quetta Saturday 18th October My PDA lit the coal black bedroom at 4.00am as its alarm started to do an impersonation of a dog barking. Anne wasn’t impressed, not so much with the barking but the unearthly hour. Within a couple of a minutes the Imam was calling everyone to prayer […]

Day Thirty Four: India

Day 34 : Lahore – Amritsar Friday 26th October Another early start after our rest day and time to say goodbye to Pakistan. Although the journey to the border took less than an hour the early start was needed to offset the time wasted going through customs. It took over an hour to officially leave […]

Day Forty Three: Nepal Darjeeling Calcutta

Day 43: Sunday 4th November: Varanasi – Kathmando This was the earliest start yet. I haven’t been up this early since the 6 till 2 shift at Handsworth Pitt. As we left the hotel grounds, bang on time, at 5.00am and turned into the main street outside I was not surprised to see it occupied […]

Day Fifty One: Thailand

Day 51: Monday 12th November: Calcutta – Bangkok The sombre atmosphere carried on into the morning. For the first time in forty years I couldn’t wait to board a plane just to get out of this country and yet it was very upsetting to leave JaennPol after so many good nights shared drinking beers and […]

Day Fifty Nine: Malaysia

59 Day: Tuesday 20th November: Songkhla – Penang, Malayasia Crossed to the island over the 13 km bridge. Passed the fort built by the British and many good looking colonial buildings but many in need of renovation. It’s very pleasing and somehow reasuring to be surrounded by reconisable archetecture even If much of it is […]

Day Sixty One: Indonesia

61 Day: Thursday 22nd: Melaka – Ferry to Dumai – Pekanbaru The drive from the Hotel Wisma Indah to the ferry port took only a few minutes and so it was hard to know why we’d had another reasonably early start when the ferry departure time was 10.30pm. The ferry journey to Somatra was two […]

Day Seventy One: Australia

71 Day: Sunday 2nd December: Bali – Darwin and the final country Australia. Went for breakfast but settled for a couple of pieces of fruit and a cold cup of tea. We considered hiring a car to go and see the paddy fields but had no idea of where to go and we had a […]