Why have I not written any blog posts for a year? A very good question. A series of life events have curtailed our travelling somewhat, but that is no excuse. The answer is that I just don't know! I could make all kinds of excuses. No time. Getting older and more tired??? Nothing exciting going on? Illness.
However, the reality is, I have just got out of the habit of writing, and I still find long form writing tricky on my phone. So much is done these days with a 2 line response on Whats App, or an Instagram post. I have been doing a lot more of those, on @explore10milesfrom but it isn't the same as writing up an adventure in full. I started doing these blogs as a diary of our trips for us to look back on. It is amazing the number of times we have have been trying to remember the name of a guest house, or museum, and found the answer in our blogs. Then we read on, and realise how much of the trip we had forgotten about!
I am crossing my fingers tightly as I write the next sentence - which makes typing tricky! We hopefully have some very exciting travelling coming up in the next 7 months, and I am keen to record it as fully as possible. However anything can happen to thwart the best laid plans, as we found out this weekend, when I suddenly started feeling ill, and tested positive for Covid again. A big nuisance as we had to cancel Chris' 70th birthday party which should have been today.
So maybe that is why I have some time for writing!
Since writing our last blog in June 2022, we have done a few short trips in the UK in Buzzbee, and a trip to the very peaceful, but colourful, island of Tobago, with 2 bonus nights in Antigua. We took advantage of some very cheap flights, and used Air B&Bs, which kept the cost right down, and let us experience different facets of the island. There were some beautiful beaches, but we loved the small, local haunts the best. One cafe, Shore things in Lambeau, was so good that we went back 3 times! One Air B&B, Bayview cottage, was a basic traditional wooden house on stilts overlooking Englishman's Bay. Utter serenity.
We loved this side of the island, and stayed a few nights in very bohemian Castara as well.
Lots of bird watching including a visit to Little Tobago Island to see the Tropic Birds, and their assailants, the Frigate Birds. This is quite a spectacle. The Frigate birds wait until the beautiful Tropic birds have dived and caught a fish. Then, the Frigates swoop down and catch the tropic birds by the tail, hanging on in the hope they will drop the fish.
Other places we enjoyed in Tobago were the Corbin Local wildlife reserve, the Adventure Farm and Nature reserve where the hummingbirds are fantastic to watch, and the Cuffie River Nature retreat and Bird walks. Tobago was a wonderfully relaxing break in March, and just what we needed!
On our way home, we took advantage of our flight transiting in Antigua, and spent 2 nights there.
Our greatest find in Antigua was Mr Almond Peters!
He became our guide and took us bird watching, and then on a brilliant full day tour of the island, including the Viv Richards Cricket stadium, an historical sugar plantation, Shirley Heights and Nelson's Dockyard dropping us at the airport for our flight home.
A really great trip.
So, watch this space for, hopefully, some more travel diaries and photos soon!
Take Care