So back home. Just in time for the clocks to go back so it's dark as I write at 5 o'clock. It all adds to the gloom of being back from a fantastic holiday. People ask what was the highlight? It's impossible to pick just one - the Iguazu Falls, the birds in the Pantanal, the salt flats in Bolivia were all amazing. Visiting Paraguay, a country I've wanted to go to for years was interesting as was Potosi. Sucre and Paraty were very relaxing whilst Sao Paulo and R...

Several people have, quite rightly, pulled me up for my grumpy blog from Gatwick Airport yesterday. Well they will be pleased to know this is now a grump-free zone! We arrived in Lisbon after a trouble free flight. The British media recently has been full of stories about long queues at several European airports because of new more rigorous identity checks and Lisbon was cited as a particularly bad example. This was all, of course, another example of how hopeles...

What is it about airports that makes them such dreadful places? Railway stations and ports I find fascinating. Watching people and wondering where they're going, the comings and goings of trains and ships, pregnant with possibilities of travel to other places - they are exciting places. Even bus stations, although generally rather sordid and run down, can be interesting. But airports! Maybe it's because nowadays they are essentially just large shopping centres wi...

Or rather on the rails, as we begin our trip by getting the train to Gatwick. This is the only part of our journey which will be in first class and we take advantage of Richard Branson's generosity with a gin and tonic. Start as you mean to go on. There will, however, be plenty of 'on the road' during our seven week journey as we are taking several long-distance bus trips in South America. I can't say I'm looking forward to those or the long-haul flights across t...