vickygoestravelling

my journey to health and well being via exotic destinations


1 Comment

The highs and lows of 2021

IMG_2682-1

In a year where there has been little travel and many health issues I am challenged where best to post and how to write this blog! For most of us it has been a year of great uncertainties and lows, with a few highs. On the whole we don’t share our lows as we maintain our oh-so-very-British stiff upper lip. So here goes – my year in review. Continue reading


2 Comments

Climbing Les Gorges du Dailley – not for the faint-hearted

235064346_10158916587333113_2615066483210271858_n

Somehow managing a grimacing smile

After a gruelling day walking to the Col de Cou – 12.6 kms and 4 hr 20 – I decide an easier stroll is required. Ross, basing his choice on Tommy’s recommendation of last year, picks on the scenic Gorges du Dailley which looks fine according to the website. I’ll have words with him when I get home! Continue reading


Leave a comment

Les Crosets to Village des Chèvres for lunch and back – on foot (mostly)

IMG_1504

Looking down from Les Mosettes beyond the Lac Vert towards Morgins. The GR 5 hut hut is in the foreground, just in front of the Lac Vert

The weather has turned glorious at last. We have been making the most of it and going on various favourite walks (more of those on another blog), but we decide to meet up with some old friends from Heinemann days (yes – that old) and to meet in our favourite ski rdv in France, Le Cremailleure. Continue reading


Leave a comment

On lockdown, publishing and green shoots

1F1E7DD4-D448-4C1A-8358-F945FBA60B9BLockdown life is different for everyone. I’m the first to admit that my cunning plan of going straight from the Maldives to Switzerland was a good one – no quarantine and a remarkably liberal attitude to social gatherings, restaurant, bar and shop openings up until Christmas, when the shutters come down on all but socialising privately with up to six people – and this is really a blessing. Continue reading


2 Comments

Remembering Louise in Moofushi, Maldives

7 December 2020

Louise would have been 31 today. Almost ten years since she died. It is simultaneously like yesterday and an aeon ago. This morning – 3 am to be precise due to jetlag – I flipped though her Facebook photos and her joie de vivre, sense of naughtiness and good humour shone out to me. Of course she had her moments – we all do – and I remember when she was about 14 or 15 regularly waiting on the stairs listening for the late night bus to rumble past in the hope that she would be on it…and at some point she would tumble through the front door and I would pretend to be asleep. Continue reading


7 Comments

Escape to & from Switzerland – just in time!

img_8640Last week it was announced that Brits had to quarantine on return from Switzerland. This quarantine business seems to be peretty arbitrary – for instance I discovered that Romania magically appeared on the list but has never been mentioned in despatches. I can’t help wondering if it’s got anything to do with the fact that the government consider Romanians who live in Britain as EU migrants rather than British holiday-makers, and don’t vote. Anyhow, to continue…here are some photos of the Dents du Midi in all their glory. Continue reading


4 Comments

Round the world in 113 days: 105-112 coffee country, archaeology & desert

18356049-8E8F-4BB1-B430-D06ABEF3537D

Wax palms at Cocora

57964827-C5D5-428A-88E8-D9E27D4A76B1

Tatacoa desert

The final stage of our four month trip takes us by air to Pereira capital  of the coffee country. Just as I say, ‘we’re all aboard and taking off 5 minutes early’ we find ourselves being asked to disembark due to a technical issue. It doesn’t look good as we are given drinks and snacks but suddenly we are asked to board again and we leave only an hour or so late. Phew! Continue reading


3 Comments

Round the world in 113 days: 100-105 Cartagena and Medellin, contrasts of rich & poor

 

A19F3F28-07F6-4D41-ABFC-E07DDFFEBDAE

Cartagena

C6A9F1F5-9575-485C-8500-AF3192C7FC94

Medellin from Comuna 13

So here we are almost at journey’s end. The last part of our trip takes us down the western side of Colombia and back to Bogota and then home! But it is so rich in experience that I’m splitting it into two blogs. We travel via a mix of plane and car, and see two extremes of this country – the very rich and the dirt poor and, in Medellin, some green shoots of transformation. Venezuelan refugees continue to be a major theme, always on the road – walking to who-knows-where, begging in the cities,  sleeping rough. Depending who you talk to there are between two to three million of them. Some find work undercutting local labour, but most rely on generosity and handouts in this poorest of countries.
Continue reading


2 Comments

Round the world in 113 days: 92-100 colonial Colombia & Tayrona

 

F0EC8596-83B1-42B8-BEC5-DC7B7EFBCCBF

In Villa de Leyva

The last leg of our world tour! Arrive here after a pretty poor flight on Avianca, the pride of Colombia – they don’t even serve tea. It’s a grey morning here but luckily our room is ready at 7 am and we manage a kip before venturing out to explore Candelaria, the colonial quarter of Bogota, a city of over 9 million people. Continue reading


Leave a comment

Round the world in 113 days: 83-89 tropical storms in the Cook Islands

 

D21422F4-7DC3-47AC-881A-9CE3DF1B26D7

The howling wind wakes me. It is midnight and we are in Aitutaki the second largest of the Cook Islands with a population of 2000; you can drive round it in under an hour. On our arrival in Rarotonga we were warned that they are expecting a humongous storm, just downgraded from a cyclone. They were battening down the hatches. Continue reading