Dakota Hotel Nottingham

Wow - only one week to the day before we make our way down south to London town to stay in the very affordable 'heathrow' travel lodge.

Liz in in Manc saying goodbye to friends and family and i'm sorting the last bits out for the fresh box before we go.

Just wanted to say thank you to Ron and Sue for ...

Boulder Paths

"Over the boulder, down the boulder, **** the boulder, **** THE BOULDER!!!"

There are some points where the paths are naturally made of boulders or large rocks, fine I'm on a mountain I get it. However one day we hit some hard going with a path covered in boulders which, after about twenty minutes, I noticed there weren’t any boulders OFF the path, only on it. A neat line of ******, leg-twisting boulders was ...

Well the day has finally arrived! The alarm was set for 6.00am but we were both awake before it went off. After a quick breakfast we were on the bike heading for a rendevous at Colin's house in Halling in the rain!

After a quick cup of tea, Leigh up turned on his Triumph Tiger and it was time to set off for the Marsden to meet Lyndsey & David & guess what it ...

... 45 minutes while he takes his break, what a joke! We stop at a service station and I wait around while he takes his break and we get on our way again. Finally I arrive at Helena and Phil's house at 00:30 and sneak in a get straight to bed. What a day!!!

... who has come to return us to normality.

Normality? Whatever’s that going to be? The stay in Portugal may have offset any kind of celebratory homecoming or did it help to ease us gradually back down to earth, after what has undoubtedly been the adventure of a lifetime? We’ve seen fantastic sights and experienced amazing things that will stay with us forever. This was a trip that was only in our dreams and was never ...

... we decided we were driving the right way after about 1hour & we could follow the map phillipa had given us, quite simple after that as it was a straight road with loads of bridges named but going through many of the villages it must have been friday market day as it was so busy, the drive should have taken us about 1 hour, we found out later but took us 3 hours,we found a very dusty track with a signpost stating heia ranch with a guard on the gate & ...

... people who have been in my life for years but, due to all sorts of hilarious reasons, I never made time for. So it came as a pleasant surprise to realise that there are a lot of people here that I'm going to miss. I'm still off though. I can't go into the details as they contravene at least one of the Holy Trinity of reasons not to write about something on Travelpod, but I'll be gone a while. But Karim gets married next year, so I'll be back. And I hope I'm not lying.

... down to Friday night). I am so excited to see everyone, i am sure it will only take minutes for me to slot back into the ins and outs of Melbourne life! The last six weeks have been the icing of the cake as i have spent them traveling to the most amazing places, seeing the most beautiful things, and experiencing adventures i never thought i would. I could spend the next few hours typing ...

A few weeks back, Karim and I met up for our birthdays. We reminisced, as you do in these situations, and he asked me if I still felt the same about the whole thing. He was wondering if in the months since we had completed it, the unpleasantness of the whole thing had melted away, and been replaced by some warm glow of accomplishment. I told him that it hadn't. He was relieved - he felt the exact same way. So there we have it ...

... thought about going to pub around the corner to watch Middlesbrough vs Manchester United on TV but noticed a lot of people in Nottingham Forst shirts heading to the City Ground. We decided to see if we could see the game, finding out it was free to get in we followed everyone into the grandstand and found out it was a reserve game between Forest and Derby County. Game ended 2-2 and was very entertaining, pity we didn't take our camera!