Tag: photography

Caribbean 2024 Day 1 & 2

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Yesterday we set off from home for a 3 week holiday. It is to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Those of you who know us will remember John proposed to me in the Caribbean.

We flew directly to Miami..good flight…spoilt by the huge queue to get through immigration….just under 2 hrs we made it through…for the first time ever we used Uber for a lift to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale…it was $68 a good price…..how were we to know that there are several Marriott Courtyards of Federation Highway !! Another Uber for $21 got us to the right one. We were exhausted and went straight to bed…..Unfortunately our old red 10 year old cases had expired and we had brand new John Lewis yellow ones….one is already smiling at us!!

We woke up very early 3.00am ….Uk time was 7.00 am body clock all adrift!
After the necessary trip to the bathroom we both managed another long sleep and finally made it down for breakfast at 9.30am…USA time. We used our new skill to call another Uber and for $45 he took us to the port…dropping us at pier 21 to embark on the Enchanted Princess. Wow!!!… to say we were amazed is an understatement…the queue for the terminal went right the way to the end of the pier and back around again. It took us an hour to join the end of the queue and another hour and three quarters to embark on the ship…nearly 3 hours most of it queueing in the hot sun….come on Princess that is not good enough…..they should have allocated embarkation time slots like they used to, so that customs scanning doesn’t get overwhelmed … the actual embarking with Princess staff and getting our medallions was only a matter of minutes.
After dropping our carry-on bags off in our cabin…..an obstructed view balcony especially selected as it looks over the middle of the roof of the lifeboat…so I can’t look down and feel seasick…..there is always method in my madness!!! ….we hotfooted it up on to the sun deck for a Key West Cooler mocktail…”Cheers everyone!” And a light lunch – hummus, pitta bread, olives salad. Followed by fresh melon and pineapple…….lovely….two glasses of water and we are ready to fight the crowds for a slot on top deck to watch the sail away……..The usual array of singing, dancing, shouting, cheering, the “love boat tune” played on the ships horn and the pilot boats guided us out of the port 50 minutes late but yeah!!!! We are on our way.

Deciding we needed a rest we descended to our cabin….and our suitcases were already inside awaiting the unpacking….John kindly helped me and we soon had it all in the draws and wardrobes and the cases stashed neatly under the bed. Our cabin Steward for the next 20 nights came and introduced himself…”Lucky” from the Philippines. I think we are lucky because he instantly said he’d change the bar fridge for Diet Coke and he went and got us a kettle for our early morning coffee….which incidentally I bring with us….he also made certain that our shower has a flexible removal pipe, as I don’t like the fixed ones which don’t allow you to deep clean individual areas!!!!! I was very impressed with him so he will be lucky as I can already feel a big tip going his way..

So far so good….we have booked a table for supper at 6.20 every evening, so hopefully we won’t have to queue…but if we do we do…..

Two sea days now, then an island which is new to me..Tortola….but in the mean time let’s eat, drink and be merry…..

New Forest – Hampshire/Wiltshire, UK – Day 1 27th September 2024.

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Today we set off from our home in Bedfordshire to the New Forest some 150 miles South West. We often visit this area of outstanding beauty. My parents visited for many, many years and my mother loved it. So once a year we come down with my Dad and continue to create happy memories.

The New Forest  is one of the largest remaining areas of unenclosed pastureland, forestry and heathland In the South of England. The Domesday book states that William the Conqueror proclaimed the area a Royal Forest……. It is an area where livestock, in particular ponies roam wild and freely. They are known as New Forest Ponies and never referred to as horses…I had this drummed into me at a very early age by my mother !!!!….. Over my lifetime the ponies have been joined by cattle, donkeys and also pigs. Although the pigs are only let out to forage the acorns, which are poisonous to the ponies, they call this the pannage season, occurring in the autumn.
However!! I digress…….We set off from home at 10.18am having picked Dad up and participated in the usual strategic jigsaw puzzle of fitting everything into the car. This has become slightly more challenging as we now have to fit in Dads fold up mobility scooter as well as my pillows…..Job done and we were on our way.

Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire have, according to the TV news, been hit the hardest with flooding from our continuing heavy rain. Having done our research into which roads were open and which were not, we departed in a Northerly direction. Alas …… we were foiled and only 30 minutes after setting off horror of horrors!!!! we actually had to U-turn…something 2J’s pride themselves on rarely having to do………. We slowly weaved our way through some back roads. At one point we put 2 wheels on the pavement as we couldn’t tell how deep the water was….we realised that we were being used as ‘the outrider’ for several cars behind, who obviously wanted to see if we made it through some flooding of the roads…..we did!!! An hour and a half after we had set off we made it into our adjoining county, Buckinghamshire. Although their rivers and fields were flooded the roads were on the whole free from standing water. We were finally really on our way… we knew we were on the right track when we saw the beautiful topography gardens which always make us smile.

The rest of our journey was quick and fairly uneventful. Several hours later we arrived in the New Forest……what a pleasure to navigate around ponies blocking the road, a sight which always makes us smile..

We knew we were nearly at our destination when we went through the delightful village of Beaulieu. It’s always a favourite of ours as the ponies wander through the main streets without a care in the world.

On arriving in Lymington we soon found our rented house. Surprisingly it’s not our usual quaint and quirky accommodation . It is a newly built house on an estate……..we have however stayed here several times before ……..it has exactly what we need…1 double bedroom with dbl bed next to bathroom with bath and shower over it, 1 kingsize bed with en-suite bathroom with shower and a single bedroom with bunks suitable for putting case on. The kitchen is very well equipped with a dinning table for 6 and the lounge has 2 big sofas with PowerPoints in convenient places, …… there is also a downstairs toilet….it has heating and air conditioning throughout which is easy to adjust, big smart tv, WiFi throughout, a microwave, double oven, dishwasher, washing machine etc….so really great for a week of relaxation. It is also in a really convenient situation for getting out into the forest and for getting to the coast……if you look at the picture below…no I am not breaking in…New Forest Cottages email you a key code for the key safe a couple of days before your booking. There is also a really easy to navigate ‘Welcome’ file which tells you quite simply how everything works and also gives you all necessary emergency numbers such as dr, dentist, nearest hospital, shops etc.

John quickly unpacked the car and we were soon getting comfortable in the lounge. I had booked a Tesco delivery with the weeks food…menus are all good and we’ll probably eat out a couple of times…a great start to what is going to be a great week not least because it’s not raining yipeeee!!! And there is some wonderful blue sky yeahhhh!!!!
Happy holiday one and all..

The Arctic Circle – BEEN THERE GOT THE T-SHIRT

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The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line encircling the earth. This line is located at latitude 66 33′ North. In the Arctic Circle, the sun does not set on summer solstice (June 20 or 21) and is does not rise on winter solstice (December 21 or 22). There are eight countries which extend into The Arctic Circle. These are Greenland, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and Alaska (USA).

Approximately 4 million people, of which 10% of the inhabitants are indigenous, live with in the Arctic circle today. It had been on our ‘bucket list’ to visit and understand some of the cultures of those who live within the Arctic circle for sometime. We decided to achieve this by flying from London to Vancouver, cruising from Vancouver up to Whittier, Alaska, and then take the train to Denali and continue by coach to Fairbanks, from there we decided to take a small plane into the Arctic Circle. It was all going swingingly well up to Fairbanks. We had magnificent views from the train, which slowed for us to take, evidently, unusually clear pictures of Mount Denali.

The weather was kind to us and we got further views of the majestic mountain from the early morning bus to Fairbanks.

Alas! arriving in Fairbanks we were not so lucky…we had allowed two nights in Fairbanks thinking that we would be able to fly in to The Arctic Circle on one of the two nights….more fool us!!! The weather was appalling and we were told on our first night that they were not flying so on our second night as we waited in the small office on the edge of the airstrip we had high hopes. However! It soon became obvious we were going nowhere……they only charge ( it was about US$1000 for two people) if you can actually land in The Arctic, so although we didn’t loose any money by trying, we were bitterly disappointed…we couldn’t stay longer because we had restrictions such as return flights and work to consider……we returned to the UK without completing our ambition..

Two years later we took exactly the same route only this time, on advice, we booked into a Fairbanks hotel for a week. On our first night we found ourselves back at the office on the runway…our chariot awaited us..it didn’t half look small as we boarded our 6 seater plane. Handbags were stashed in the lockers in the wings. We squeezed ourselves in, with John next to the pilot and me behind him, 4 others joined us and we were soon in the air. The flight time is just under an hour. Looking down we had a good view of The Dalton Highway and the Oil Pipeline.

About 40 minutes into the flight the pilot told us he was detouring to circle another small town, which had a landing strip, because some heavy weather was moving in. We circled for about 30 minutes before the pilot said it was safe to continue. We were heading towards ‘Coldfoot’ a town within the Arctic Circle. As we entered into the Arctic circle the pilot told us we could take pictures of the planes dials..which we did.

Again we began to circle and the pilot said he couldn’t land until he could see the landing strip. The weather wasn’t great and the pilot said he’d circle once more before taking us back to Fairbanks and we could try again tomorrow!! We had been in the air nearly 2 hours and he said he had enough ‘gas’ to get us back to Fairbanks….we were just a little nervous!!! Suddenly the pilot said he could see the strip and he was going in…….all we could see was the Yukon River!!! Or was it a fork of the Koyukuk River ??? So we just prayed for longevity!! Thankfully our skilled pilot landed us safely and we disembarked in Coldfoot.

Coldfoot reminded me of some of the towns Dana Stabenhow writes about in her Kate Shuga Novels!!!!! Coldfoot came about when In 1899, gold was discovered in Slate Creek, and a small rush began as prospectors arrived to pan for gold. As winter approached, many of the prospectors got “cold feet” and decided to turn around and head back to warmer climates. The name stuck, Coldfoot’s gold rush only lasted around 5 years and the small town was quickly abandoned when gold was discovered in Wiseman only 10 miles north in 1908. Many of the buildings in Coldfoot were hauled north to Wiseman and rebuilt there. However Coldfoot was resurrected in the 1970s as a construction camp for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and as long-haul truckers began driving the Haul Road (later renamed the Dalton Highway), a full-service truck stop was established in Coldfoot. Coldfoot is now a place where travelers can find lodging, dining, gasoline, air service, and even a post office. It is situated nearly 200 miles away from the next largest community. We used its facilities, which could only be described as basic….this really is a ‘one horse town’ with the truckers stop being the one horse!!

Having used the ‘Ladies’ in the truck stop/bar/restaurant/lodgings…we got into a vehicle which took us down the highway for thirty minutes and then off to the right to a place called Wiseman. Wiseman is situated in the Arctic Circle, Northern Alaska it is on the edge of the beautiful Brooks Range mountains near the Gates of the Arctic National Park, along the Middle Fork of the Koyukuk River. The community population has fluctuated over the years from a robust mining/trading outpost to current times, with a few families making it their home, when we visited it had had a population explosion!!! Increasing from 12 residents to 14!!! There are no services in the town. We were greeted by one of the residents who took us into the meetings/community centre…it’s still used for village functions but also for tourist group talks.

Another of the huts is set up as a museum. We browsed the village. The residents grow their own vegetables…they are hunters/gatherers. They hunt their allocation of meat..usually Caribou and Moose, which they store in areas deep under their huts, this space acts as a deep freeze all year around. They also store fish they have caught. This helps see them through the winter months when they are snowed in and the river turns to ice.

There are also a few huts which act as Bed & Breakfasts for tourists wishing to experience a few days “off the grid” in the middle of nowhere.
After a couple of hours we returned to Coldfoot. Our pilot was waiting for us. The weather was still not good. I nervously asked how he would see to take off…his response was he didn’t need to see to take off only to land!!!!! 52 minutes later we landed back in the modern day town of Fairbanks.

We were totally delighted to have achieved our ambition. Learning about the way the small population lives was amazing. Wiseman is a village where time has stood still…a wonderful adventure.