Tag: books

September 2024 update

Published on by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

Just a little update so our faithful followers don’t think that we’ve forgotten them….

John and I tend not to travel very much over the British summer months..Why? You may well ask…Well! It’s when everyone else travels and we tend to have visitors at that time of year…..it is also our holiday planning time as well as our book writing time…..some of you may know that John has had 26 books published by Amberley Publishing Company. We have had our first jointly written book published and we are working on another for which we are contracted to deliver at the beginning of 2025. John, as usual, has more contracts spread out over the next few years. So the British Summertime tends to be a busy time for us.

What’s on the cards for 2J’s World of Adventure…..

We are about to spend a week in The New Forest with my 92 year old Dad. We hire a house in Lymington for a week…. I will blog some of the week so it can give ideas of what to do and where to go in that area of ‘Our green and pleasant land’. We use a company called New Forest Cottages to rent a suitable house. We have used them for several years and can thoroughly recommend them as a highly reputable company.



In November we will be off cruising in the Caribbean for 21 days in celebration of our 10th Wedding Anniversary…an area of the world we both love. We will again blog our daily activities, although I suspect much will be sea and sand !!!

The planning for 2025 has started. We had been looking to Safari in Namibia as well as South Africa. However, Namibia seems to have become increasingly expensive and trying to book accommodation within Etosha National Park has proved a frustrating and unenjoyable experience. So, I have ditched it for next year and we will instead stay in a South Africa, spending a month in Pilanesberg and Kruger National Park.

We are also investigating and planing two other adventures….. A trip around Spain, Portugal and Morocco and also a trip to Uzbekistan-the silk route. We are looking to do both of these with tour companies. ……more on this soon as I am trying to secure good prices for both of these trips so that if you decide you fancy one or the other of them you should be-able to get a really good deal. One of the companies starts the tours in the country of the tour, which means our readers across the world will be able to access the same price regardless of their country of origin …you would then be able to book your own flights, direct or indirect depending on what you want to add on, do and of course your budget.

Well that’s all for now….watch out for our New Forest blog and of course the occasional ‘Been there got the t-shirt’ blog.

Many thanks to those of you who have purchased our framed prints. We have been delighted with your highly complimentary responses and we are so pleased that they have all arrived safely and you are enjoying them on the walls of your homes….

Thanks again for your continued following and interest in our travel adventures.

Day 5 – Tuesday 14th May 2024- Bodmin Moor – Cornish Staycation.

Published on by 2jsworldofadventure2 Comments

After a nice lazy start to the day we set off about 10.30 am for a day out exploring Bodmin Moor and surrounding area………it’s definitely the right time of the year to be in Cornwall, it’s quite quiet, with not too much traffic on the lanes. Driving the Cornwall lanes is not for the faint hearted…they are very narrow with passing places every 50/100 yards or so, steep sides, which although are very pretty, they don’t allow you any chance of seeing oncoming traffic. The locals know the lanes and travel at high speed looking surprised when tourists crawl towards them.

We set off towards Lostwithiel and then turned up left heading for Bodmin town. The hedgerows were really colourful …not just the wild bluebells, bright green ferns,campions, and cowslips but also some purple and pink rhododendrons, pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, and yellow bougainvilleas, pink and orange Azalea Japonicas and even a bottlebrush in flower… what a horticultural show.

It appeared that we were definitely on a ‘Jackson’s Mystery Tour’ , or as John called it today a ‘lost in the middle of nowhere tour’!!! It’s great when you come across small caring communities.

Arriving in Bodmin we went to the preserved railway station. We didn’t intend to go on a steam train today as we had done it the last time we were down…but we did intend to have a wander around the station but there was absolutely no where to park, so we gave it a pass

…..more about it at the end of the week when I’ll post a page of sights and things to do.. We drove up to the Keep which houses The Cornish Army Museum.

……..it looked interesting and we hadn’t been before but once again the parking defeated us and as it was just starting to drizzle we didn’t fancy the town car park and the quite long walk…so on we went….John routed us through more little lanes, small communities before we arrived up on the moors.

They were absolutely beautiful…the yellow gorse, lambs, sheep, highland cattle, calves, and a few ponies all wandering wild…what a picture.

We stopped at Colliford Lake for Coffee, before meandering on. A while later we returned to the lake for our picnic lunch.

With the gale force wind it was not the sort of day to find an big bush!!! so John very obligingly routed us via Jamaica Inn located high on Bodmin Moor by the A30 about midway between Launceston and Bodmin.

The Inn is a traditional inn which was built as a Coaching Inn in 1750, and has a historical association with smuggling. It has been made famous when it became the setting for Daphne Du Maurier’s 1936 novel  Jamaica Inn which is about the nocturnal activities of a smuggling ring. She evidently was inspired into writing it during her stay at the Inn in 1930. Many of her books were set in Cornwall She died from heart failure in her sleep on 19 April 1989, aged 81, at her home in Par, Cornwall.

Jamaica Inn is also referenced in “Jamaica Inn”, a song by Tori Amos…. she is said to have written it while she was driving along the cliffs in Cornwall, and was inspired by the legend she had heard of the inn. Today the Inn includes a gift shop, farm shop, hotel and restaurant…..it’s name has certainly made it into a very viable business. John treated me to a new Teddy to add to my collection…. We have called him Will, after the Duke of Cornwall !!!!

After leaving Jamaica Inn we headed back to Par, only managed to get lost once….again a lovely day out, seeing some new, old and unexpected sights and scenery. Another night in today…I’ve had to move ‘Stirfry Monday’ to Tuesday this week !!! And yes for once I did remember to bring the wok!!