Hi, Time to revisit South America after a six year absence. On my previous trip I had been given rave reviews of Patagonia by fellow travellers and I had been aware of the Scottish/Welsh connection but had not explored it. However in 2006 the weather was closing in for the winter and I was further north so made a note to pencil in a trip back sometime in the future. I had discussed the possibility of hooking up with Norman Schouten from Inverness who has been...

Hi, Just back from a week of sun and family time on the Costa Blanca. Unfortunately our eldest sibling didn't manage to make it over from NZ so the party was cut to eight. Flights from Edinburgh, Manchester and London led to us meeting up at Alicante where we took two hired cars north past the ugly looking structures of Benidorm to the beautiful beaches of Calpe, dominated by the huge landmark of Penon De Ifach, where our villa was situated During the week I ma...

Hi, This is just a brief blog to accompany the photos of Malta, which I visited in September 2010. As most of you will know, Dad passed away in August of that year and it was important to get some time away after that traumatic event. I had visited Gozo for scuba diving a number of years ago and had thought that I would see some parts of Malta when I was there. However, Gozo proved to be so interesting I didn't leave it during my stay so had promised myself I...

Hi, When things have reached the stage that the 'baby' of your family is due turn fifty, you may need a holiday to recover from the dawning realisation of how all of your ages are moving up. Funnily enough, my 'wee' sister Rachel suggested a trip to celebrate her milestone, so Helen and I joined Rachel and her family for a two weeker in Crete, which I had last visited 24 years previously. One event which made the holiday was the hotel deciding to upgrade us to ...

Hi, Just back from a busy week up north. With ash cloud spreading over Europe, the A9 and Cal Mac do have their advantages at times! First stop was Balloan Farm for a good social catch up with the MacQueen clan which took place over two days. On Monday night I visited Iain and Maureen MacPherson for the first of my Israel 2011 trip reunions and relived some of the highlights over a pleasant dinner. Tuesday was spent mostly at Balloan which meant a four mile run ...