The American Southwest is a beautiful place. There are so many amazing National Parks, State Parks and scenic areas to visit. I passed through this stunning landscape a little too quickly a couple of times on my 2008 to 2010 goal achieving adventure. I vowed I would return to spend some more time there. In […]
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We dropped down out of the mountains towards Denver, where we had arranged to meet with friends Val and Eric, along with Eric’s brother Josh and son Dylan. The meeting place was spectacular. Red Rocks Canyon is a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre surrounded by huge rock outcrops. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were playing that night, […]
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We had no real plans for the journey across I-70 into Colorado, but Vanessa did some quick research online and found that several of the ski resorts had lifts open for the last days of the summer season. We made a quick detour into Beaver Creek, a very upmarket resort, where we took the chairlift […]
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After passing through Moab we headed into Arches National Park in Utah. It was incredibly busy, even mid-week, and the campground was full. Once again we were very lucky, after hiking all day, to secure a last minute camping spot cancellation, which are offered on a first-come-first-served basis. We hiked around more of the spectacular […]
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I very rarely write anything negative about my travels and adventures, the places I visit, or the people I meet. I always try to approach the world with open eyes, open ears, and an open mind. I think few, if any, would ever call me a racist, and this blog is in no way intended […]
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We stayed for a night at Lees Ferry, Mile Zero on the Colorado River for those rafting downriver through the Grand Canyon – another goal has been added to our long term list. We watched a group set off on their long journey, then after stopping to photograph the amazing balancing rocks along the way, […]
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We camped for two nights at the South Rim in the campground there to rest, recuperate and re-supply. A visit to the back-country office provided the permits we needed, and we were off again, this time heading north. We descended the open and exposed South Kaibab Trail which offers awesome views all the way down […]
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Both Vanessa and I were keen to hike down to see the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, so after our visit to Zion National Park we headed for the North Rim. We had bought camping gear, and at the back-country office we booked two nights at the Bright Angel Campground, close […]
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I have visited Zion NP before on my “100 goals” travel adventure, and was keen to return to spend a little more time here. There were a few hikes I didn’t have time to do on my last visit. Zion is a beautiful place. From the National Parks brochure: Immutable yet ever changing, the cliffs […]
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Visiting Bryce Canyon meant a bit of a detour, and will involve doubling back after we leave, but it was certainly well worth coming here. It is equally as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon, but on a much smaller scale, so we have managed to hike around many of the trails below the canyon rim, […]
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We had a bit of a change of plans for early September, dropping the long detour to Las Vegas in favour of being able to spend more time in the stunning National Parks. We both wanted to add a visit to Bryce Canyon to the trip, so the saving of time and money if we […]
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The Grand Canyon is simply breath-taking. It is impossible to capture in a photograph what you see and experience here, but these are a few of what I consider to be my better attempts to do so. There are a few other random posts and pix on our social media sites, but this is a […]
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After several month in Texas the Lone Star State was starting to feel like home, but we finally crossed the state line into New Mexico. We were sad to be moving on as we felt there was still so much more to see, but as always, new adventures and amazing places lay ahead. There are […]
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We put quite a few miles under our wheels during the first half of August, and have seen some beautiful and amazing places. Texas has been absolutely wonderful, and we were both a little sad to approach the western border of the Lone Star State. With August being filled with travels and new places, I’ve […]
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July has been a lot of fun, but has posed a couple of challenges too. Plans have had to be changed a little, and rather than stay in Austin through August as we had originally planned, we are back on the road again. I wrote a couple of extra blog posts in July. The most […]
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I have been friends with Evan since the very early days of my eBay-life-auctioning adventures, and Vanessa and I were very excited and honoured to get an invite to help him celebrate his wedding to Teresa. The event was to be held at Huntington Beach in California. With our first 90 day US visa approaching […]
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One of my favourite Richard Branson quotes is: “Opportunities are like buses, there is always another one coming.” Some talk of “opportunity knocking” or about “opening the door of opportunity”. On this occasion opportunity presented itself to me in the form of an open gate. July 4th is a big day here in the States […]
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“Time flies when you’re having fun.” I guess Vanessa and I are having lots of fun here in Austin, as June just seems to have breezed by. We are fast approaching the two month mark on our US adventures already. As I said last month, I plan is to only write one travel update blog […]
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Vanessa has been hard at work in her role as publicist, and has booked our first talk at the Hostelling International hostel in downtown Austin. I have been hard at work putting together a new talk which will be a little longer and more in-depth than the talk I did for the TEDx event in […]
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As always, time seems to have flown by since I last sat down to write a blog post. It really doesn’t seem very long ago that I took the photograph of our suitcases, packed and ready for travel, in the front room of our little home on the island in Panama. However, we have fitted […]
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On 1st May Graham and his partner Casey returned to Bocas and we collected them in town after they had had a chance to do some shopping for their first week of supplies. We spent a couple of days going through the house and island, covering matters such as maintenance of the solar system, rain […]
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