Travel Photos - Wiltshire, UK

This is my home, it has been since 2003. I've worked for Wiltshire based companies for over 20 years but only took the plunge to move here a few years ago. A far cry from Birmingham! Probably rather disappointingly, I haven't got any decent photos of Stonehenge or Avebury or Salisbury Cathedral but I'm determined to get some one day, honest!

The countryside here is amazing, great places for riding (Helen loves this) and cycling, one of my passions - both road and mountain biking are equally accommodated here. Quiet lanes with little traffic or steep, chalky tracks off Salisbury Plain, take your pick.



Crop circles are another thing that Wiltshire is famous for - I'm not too sure about these but they pop up all over the place - the one above appeared not too far from us in 2009. They come in all shapes and sizes with people travelling from miles around to see them.

We also have some great country pubs such as the Kings Arms in all Cannings (http://www.kingsarmsallcannings.co.uk/) or the Millstream in Marden (http://www.the-millstream.co.uk/). The Kings Arms serves great food and wins prizes for its Beer - Wadworths 6X is my favourite. The Millstream has a lovely garden, is quite a bit more pricey but is great for an afternoons drink in the summer sunshine or a meal on a special occasion.

Walking on the Marlborough Downs or in the Pewsey Vale is wonderful and we often take Herbie (our dog) out there for long walks, it's such an idyllic place and the scenery is just so varied.

We love Wiltshire, wide open spaces, nice people, great pubs, we couldn't ask for anything more!

Travel Photos - Sailing in Gibraltar & Morocco

I'd never been to Gibraltar and hadn't really read too much about it, so I arrived with a completely open mind. Gibraltar town is quite quaint, the shops on the main high street are mainly touristy - alcohol, watch and souvenir shops but there is a Marks and Spencer if you need the real comforts of the UK. Yes, there are red post boxes, yes all the bobbies look english and yes everywhere takes sterling.

We came here on a sailing course, namely the RYA competent crew and day skipper courses - this was no holiday, we were here to learn and to do 2 exams in the process! We'd booked it through Hot Liquid (http://www.hotliquid.co.uk/). These are a friendly bunch of guys who have just opened up in Gibraltar but who have been running courses in Southampton for some years now - the reason for Gibraltar is that its tidal and you really need this to get your day skippers ticket. They are thinking of opening up in Antigua aswell. Their instructors are top notch, Simon was ours and he was brilliant.

We arrived and got to know our fellow sailors (Louise, Christian, Joe on our boat and Melissa, Peter, Mark, Steve and Sam on the other boat) over a beer or two and we were then introduced to our boat - ours was a 36' Bavaria called "Liquid Inferno" which was comfy enough.

We had 5 days of competent crew practical - this was all about crewing a boat including handling a boat under sail and engine. The layout of the days was very casual, we'd set sail from whereever we'd moored up, sail around, learn some drills such as man over board, use of the dinghy tender, reefing sails etc and then head into a port. We didn't always return to Gibraltar, we sailed up the coast to Spain, visiting a few ports including Sotogrande (see 2 piccies below). Once we'd moored up, we would put the boat to bed, wash her down etc and then head off for a much needed beer and some food.




The next 4 days was back to the classroom to learn the Day Skipper theory. We were staying onboard the boats so we didn't need to move accommodation. This was very intensive but the first 5 days we'd had made it easier as we'd covered a lot of this in the practical competent crew course.

At the end of the 4 days we had to sit 2 exams - aaarghh! The first time I'd sat exams for over 20 years. For the theory course we had some new recruits - Kate, Ruth and Jack and we lost Peter and Mark (not literally).

We had some R&R to discover Gibraltar - we decided to go and visit "the Rock" and see its famous inhabitants.

path off the rock with Africa in background




After this it was back to the boats for the practical side of day skipper, we pottered around in Gibraltar Bay dodging the ferries, fast cats and tankers - all great experience. We also crossed the Straits of Gibraltar 4 times, once at night. The wind varied considerably from no wind whatsover to a force 6 - the force 6 was at night! The night crossing was great fun, but serious still, we had to spot the ships just from the light configurations we'd learnt the previous 4 days and alter course accordingly . We got to Ceuta (Morocco) by 1:30 and proceeded to the bar arriving back onboard at 6:30am - a good night was had by all!




Another crossing of the straits took us to Port Marina Smir, also in Morocco - this was a more laid back affair with beers onboard in the evening.


Our return was supposed to be up the coast to Spain but a valuable lesson was learnt in tidal currents on our way back. We hadn't set the right course to steer to make Spain and so back to Gib it was - this wasn't too bad as we were getting quite used to dining out at the Waterfront Restaurant at Queensway Marina (http://www.gibwaterfront.com/) - very nice!


All in all, we had a thoroughly great time and got our day skippers ticket into the bargain. I can thoroughly recommend Gibraltar and Hot Liquid for sailing - tremendous fun.

Dolphins off the bow of Liquid Inferno courtesy of Alan Briggs.

Travel Photos - Sailing in the Whitsundays, Australia

This is a must do if you get the chance. We chartered our yacht from Charter Yachts Australia in Airlie Beach (http://www.charteryachtsaustralia.com.au/) - they are a friendly bunch of guys who are keen for you to have a fantastic time aswell as being safe. They took us through a safety briefing and over the yacht. We took out a 40' Catalina called "Satori" - very roomy down below and a real comfortable boat for the 2 of us to sail albeit a little large for our needs but that made it that much more comfortable.

We loaded our provisions on board and we were off - how scary! We anchored the first night just round the corner in a bay, this gave us time to get used to the boat.

As you can see, below decks was very comfy and we had all the room we needed. The next day we headed over to Hook Island and dropped anchor in bay over here. After an evenings snorkel towing the tender behind us we had dinner and then a drink up on deck watching the sun go down. It was fantastic to have sailed to this place ourselves, dropped anchor, had a snorkel and then just to have drinks and be here all on our own. We were loving it.

"Satori" moored to a buoy at South Molle Island.

The next few days we had to meet up with the guys from the charter company as we had a problem with our water on board. After this we decided to head through the straits between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island on our way to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. We came across a family of whales just before the straits, we stayed and watched them for a while and then headed off to Whitehaven Beach - what a fabulous place this is, one of the best beaches I've ever been to. We got there before the day trippers and had the place to ourselves - we dropped anchor and boarded the tender and headed off to the beach. The sand was silky smooth and practically white - what a fabulous place. We played around for the morning here and had lunch onboard.

Whitehaven Beach

As we headed back up to Hook Island we encountered some more whales - a mother and calf this time. We dropped the sails and put on our motor and just pottered around here for a while. The whales swam under our boat and were just as curious about us as we were of them. We were there for about 45 mins just watching the whales. A fabulous experience and even better for the fact we hadn't had to go on a trip or excursion to see them, they were just here, with us.

We headed back up to HookIsland for more snorkelling and watched the sun go down - with a drink on deck obviously.

We crossed the sea towards South Molle Island - we had a fabulous crossing, the wind was a south easterly and this meant that we were on a beam reach for most of the crossing with a force 4 wind, it was perfect sailing conditions. (see photo above) - even Helen had a turn on the helm! This was amazing and made me want to take sailing up further.

We moored up at a buoy at South Molle, jumped in the tender to pay our mooring fees and then climbed up the hill on South Molle to take a look - see photo above. What a view!

All in all, we had a fabulous time around the Whitsundays, we'd highly recommend it to anyone, its perfect sailing even for the novice and the views are out of this world.