Author: jane

Iceland

April 1999

A group of 4 of us decided that we wanted to spend a weekend somewhere with proper snow. After seeing an advert in a newspaper we decided on Iceland and started looking for a trip. We decided on a 3 night break in Reykjavilk staying at the Hotel leifur eirkison, located near the Halgrimskirja.

The flights were with Icelandair and were great. We were met at Keflafik airport and taken to Reykjavik, about a 50km drive. The scenery is really bleak, lots of rocks and not much trees.

The hotel was great – it was fairly basic with twin beds, tv, ensuite bathroom (with shower no bath) and without a kettle or mini bar but the location was brilliant.

Friday was spent aquainting ourselves with the city, and getting used to the temperature (about -4 deg C). Before leaving England we’d booked a trip for Saturday with Geysir for a skidooing trip. So, we were picked up at 9.30am, taken to collect some warm clothing for our ride, and were then driven in a Toyota 4 wheel drive to Hrauneyar where we had lunch. We then collected our skidoos (none of us had ever been before) and went off to Landmanalaugar. The ride took about 2 hours and was great fun. At Landmanalaugar there is a hot pool in which people were bathing. This was half way through our trip and before very long we were back on the skidoos heading back. All in all we had a 4 hour trip and covered 65 km. It was great fun and I’m planning another skiddoing trip in Iceland next March. Geysir were excellent and took us to see a waterfall before stopping for a coffee in a beautiful coffee shop in Selfoss. We finally arrived back at the hotel at 8.30pm and we were all exhausted. We wandered into town and decided to eat at Caruso, an Italian restaurant. The food was lovely, but we were all too tired to stay out for long so headed back to the hotel for a beer at the bar before bed.

Sunday was a sightseeing day. We headed off up the tower of the Hallgrimskirja which afforded excellent views over the city. We took a walk around the pond and to the harbour. In the afternoon we went to the Volcano Show, two films about the volcanic aspects of Reykjavik. It was quite interesting in a 1970s sort of way. the evening was spent at a restaurant recommended by the hotel owner. A fish restaurant, and it was lovely. Food is expensive in Iceland, but it is of very good quality.

We returned to England early on Monday morning, and were collected from the hotel by the “meet and Greet” service arranged by our tour operators, Regent Tours. Again, the flights were great and we arrived back at Heathrow on time.

Iceland is beautiful, and the plans are to return for a week next March and get some more skidooing in.

Biyadoo, Maldives

December 1998

Biyadoo is a small island, situated about an hour away from the airport on a speedboat. It has a sister island of Villivaru, and a small dhoni ferry boat operates between the two islands as a free passenger ferry (and laundry boat). Biyadoo (and Villivaru) are both full-board resorts and the food on Biyadoo was very good. As with all Maldive resorts alcohol is expensive, but we found that the lager was okay and not too badly priced (wine is very expensive at around $30 per bottle due to it mainly being imported from Europe).

On arrival at Biyadoo one of the pieces of paper in the Welcome pack is a map of the island showing the passages out to the reef. On Biyadoo I think all but one of the passages was very clearly marked with a flag marking the entry points. We snorkeled at 4 of the passages and the fish life was extraordinary. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a “fish guide book” with us and so it was a bit hit and miss identifying them. We did see Parrotfish, Black tip reef sharks, sting rays to name but a few. The visibility was excellent, but the coral wasn’t as vibrant as I had been expecting. As you swim out over the reef, the larger fish can be seen coming to feed from the open sea and the experience of watching shoals of fish being herded along like sheep was excellent.

We took advantage of the ferry to Villivaru one day and snorkelled out of Passage 2 on that island. It wasn’t marked very well at all leading to me getting lost coming back in and finding myself in a coral field. Having said that, again the quality and quantity of fish life was excellent.

We didn’t go on any of the excursions as we were only there for a week, but one of them (Island hopping) does offer the chance to visit an uninhabited island and apparently offers some great snorkeling opportunities.

We took two underwater disposable cameras with us, and the photos have actually come out pretty well. I would recomend them as a cheap way of getting reasonable snaps of your trip.

We will probably be going back to Biyadoo some time.

For a more detailed report see the Maldives Travel Diary

Maldives Travel Diary

December 1998

Day 1: Sunday 6 December

After spending the weekend in Brighton, we drove up the M23 to Gatwick. We parked in the South Terminal NCP car park. We arrived at the terminal at about 5pm and waited in the queue to check in. By the time we got to the front of the queue the chap told us there were no seats by the window left. I asked him to check seats 3A and 3B, the ones Lesley had arranged for us, and sure enough they had our names on them. It certainly pays to have friends in the industry!

After a quick walk around the Gatwick village area (the non-duty free side) we went through and into departures. We stocked up on batteries, films and the like and then decided that if we’re buying ourselves a playstation for Christmas then we could get some games for it in duty free. This we did and bought “Tombraider III” and “Coolboarders 3”, we also bought a second controller for it.

We stopped shopping and sat down at one of the eateries and had a couple of soft drinks. I rang home to find out who Hull City had got in the 3rd round draw of the FA Cup. Dad told me – Aston Villa away! yikes!

We boarded the plane and it became apparent that seat 3C was empty so this gave us a bit more space. We eventually took off and drinks were served so I had a Gin and tonic, Rich had a lemonade and we shared a packet of Pringles. Dinner was served at around 11pm (chicken type stuff) with a bottle of red wine. They showed “Primary Colours” on the screens and we tried to get a bit of sleep. I’d slept for a little while but woke up feeling quite ill and so got some water and sat quietly for a while. A bit dehydrated I think.

Day 2: Monday 7 December

We arrived at Bahrain at about 6am local time (3am English time and 8am Maldives time). We all had to get off the plane whilst it was refuelled. We wandered through Bahrain airport and sat and had something to drink. We got back on the plane and took off again at around 7:30am. The film on this leg was “Godzilla” which was okay, but very much a clone of “Jurassic Park”. We were served a breakfast about an hour and a half before landing.

We landed at about 2pm local time and walked into the terminal with our immigration cards filled in. It took ages to clear that. We collected our bags and went and reported to the Hayes and Jarvis rep who we were. He sent us to stand number 21 who dealt with our island and who in turn sent us to stand 19 for transport to the island.

We waited for a little while for our transport, having a bottle of sprite in the mean time. We joined all the other people going to Bi ya doo and Villi Varu and were taken to the jetty and loaded into a motorboat. From the airport it was about a one hour journey to Bi ya doo. We got off the boat, checked that our luggage had come off the boat and went to the office. Here we were given a coconut to drink out of and given cards to fill in. We were allocated room 87 and 2 porters picked up our bags and took us there.

We unpacked our bags, had a shower and then went off for a look around the island. We also took our passports and stuff with us and put them into a safety deposit box. We then went back to our room and had a nap until dinner.

Day 3: Tuesday 8 December

Breakfast was a buffet style with an egg chef doing omelettes, and hash browns and toast being kept warm. We were given a table, which is ours for the rest of the week. We also chose our evening meal from the list.

We took a walk around the island back to the room and then sat on our patio and watched the sea. We went for our first snorkel and saw loads of fish. Oh and a shark (a black tip reef shark we think). It was great fun. The reef is vast. We explored around Passage 3 going out to where the reef started to deepen.

We came back in and got dried off and read our books for a while before going to lunch. Lunch was a buffet style, with quite a large choice.

After lunch I took my book and went and lay in a hammock and read for a while. Finished my book “Net Force” by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. Then back out for another snorkel. The tide was coming in now and the current was a bit stronger. We stayed in the same area as this morning, but went a bit further out. I tried a “duck dive” to see some stuff a bit clearer. After a while we came back out and dried out. We cracked open a beer and read a bit.

We had showers before heading off to dinner. Tonight we had a pasta in tomato sauce starter, a mixed curry with rice main course and madeira cake for dessert. All washed down with another beer.

After dinner we went to look on the notice board about the ferry times to Villi Varu, and then went and stood on the main jetty and watched the fish swimming around and the small sharks too. Around the jetty the reef looks to have a really steep edge. We had a look at the fish books in the gift shop but they are, un-surpisingly, very expensive at around $20.

We headed back to the room and collected the astronomy book, torch and binoculars, as the sky was clear and very full of stars. Incredible. Then back to the room to crack open a final beer before bed.

Day 4: Wednesday 9 December

It was raining and really windy and so we were a bit damp by the time we reached the restaurant for breakfast. Fortunately there was an umbrella provided in the room. After breakfast Rich collected the brolly from the stand and went to shake it. Unfortunately the handle fell off – oops!

The rain abated for a while so we went for a brief walk along the beach, watching some fish and some more black-tip reef sharks.

The chap came to do the cleaning, and brought us a new umberella. I asked him where the sun was, “Maybe tomorrow” he replied. The water was really rough too, so there was no point in trying to snorkel.

We both fell asleep and woke up just before lunchtime feeling a bit dozey headed. I dug my cagoule out of my bag and so, yet again, the cag comes in useful.

It rained for the rest of the day, so we just read, slept, ate and drank beer. There are worse things to fill a day with.

Day 5: Thursday 10 December

After breakfast we sat and read for a while. I finished reading “The Tortilla Curtain” by T. Coraghesen Boyle. We went for a walk along the beach, paddling in the sea. The sea was lovely and warm on the toes.

We sat outside our room for quite a while until the cleaner appeared. Once he’d done inside and wanted to clean the patio bit we decided to go and lay in the hammocks for a while. I was reading the Conde Naste Traveller magazine which had an article about “La Digue”, an island amongst the Seychelles.

We went off for an early lunch and then sat around reading. The sun came out for a little while and so we kitted ourselves up and went for a snorkel. The sea was very choppy and it was hard work. We went out Passage 4 today, which has a sheer drop at the age of the reef, not as gradual as Passage 3. We took the camera out with us. We saw loads of fish again, and one weird long thin grey thing with huge eyes. Don’t know what it was.

After about 30 mins we came back in, it had been really hard work due to the strong current. We both showered and had a celebratory beer and some shortbread. We sat and watched the waves for a while until we both fell asleep until the man came to see if we had any laundry to do (this happens each night, closely followed by the man with the insect spray).

After dinner we went off to the Main Jetty to see what fish-life was about. There were a lot of boats moored there tonight, 2 dhonis and 4 others. Looking over the side of the jetty we could watch the crabs eating something from the edge of the water. Also swimming around were some baby Black-Tip sharks, lots of other fish and a Sting Ray. The Sting Ray was really hard to see until it moved.

We then wandered back to the room, drank another beer and read some more.

Day 6: Friday 11 December

We decided to brave the rain and wander around the island to see if any of the other reefs and passages looked any calmer than the ones out of our window. As we were wandering we discovered that Passage 1 looked a lot calmer than either 3 or 4. We wandered back to our room and sat and read for a while, waiting for our breakfast to digest. When the man came to clean the room we decided to take a walk around to passage 1 and see how it looked. It looked okay and so we headed back to the room and collected our stuff for snorkelling.

We were out for about half an hour and saw a couple of Black Tip sharks and another of the weird pointy fishes with big eyes. Somehow or other we missed the passage and so were just snorkelling around the coral. A bit of a disappointment really. We got out, went back to the room and then headed off to lunch.

After lunch we fell asleep again for a while, and on waking decided to take a wander again. We walked across the island, walking past some of the staff buildings including a temple. We arrived at the football pitch and volleyball court (there were a group of people playing volleyball)

We stood and watched a few people diving and snorkelling around Passage 1 and decided that we’d worked out where it was (Passage 1 doesn’t have a flag or pole like some of the others). We decided that we’d give it another go and headed off for the stuff. We found Passage 1 and were amazed at the drop, it was incredible, just like a cliff face. Lots of huge fish. After a while I had a mask problem and took in water, whilst trying to sort it out I grazed my knee on some coral which stung. We got out after this and headed back to the room for shower and beer.

We sat around reading before dinner and I finished reading “The Edible Woman” by Margaret Atwood. Then off to dinner. After dinner we went to the main jetty again and watched the Black Tip Sharks playing, there were also two Rays sitting on the bottom. We had a look at the fish charts that are around the diving centre and then headed back to the room. As I’m writing this a massive storm seems to have arisen.

Day 7: Saturday 12 December

We woke up this morning to the sound of yet more stormy weather. After breakfast we decided to brave the weather and went for a walk around the island. We decided that the route between Biyadoo and Villi Varu didn’t look too bad.

So at 10:30 we stood on the main jetty with our flippers in one bag and towels, snorkels, masks etc in the other. We watched the boatmen push some large parcels wrapped in green cloth. These were loaded up into barrows and hidden in the island.

We got on the boat (we were the only two passengers) and sat down whilst the boat took us on our 5 minute trip to Villi Varu. We got off the boat and followed the signposts to the office. At the office we asked if they had a map of the island which they duly provided. We continued our walk around the island and then identified likely looking snorkel spots to match the Passages marked on the map.

We chose Passage 2 and prepared ourselves to go in. We snorkelled out through a narrow passage and found ourselves at a steep cliff face with loads of fish. Rich managed his first duck dives, and I did some too. Between us we finished off the film in the first underwater camera and decided it was time to head back in. Unfortunately the Passage wasn’t marked with a flag or pole and so we had to try and find our way back in. Some others were just coming out and so we watched where they came out and headed there. Somewhere along the way I got lost and was in amongst the coral with the water getting shallower. I had to stop and try and work out where the passage was. So I stood up disturbing as little coral as possible and watched Rich snorkel his way out. I waited till he stopped to look for me (he’d been following someone else with a yellow pipe) and then I tried to join the passage by snorkelling between the bigger bits of coral. I caught my ankle on a chunk on my way out which really hurt and bled quite a bit once I’d got out.

After this excitement we dried ourselves off, put on t-shirt and shorts and wandered back to the jetty to get the boat back. As we walked down the jetty we could see them mending one of the guardrails. Just before 12:30 a man appeared with a barrow with another 3 large green wrapped parcels. This time it was obvious what they contained, towels. The ferryboat is obviously also the laundry boat. So, at 12:30 the engine was started and one other person and us were ferried back across to Biyadoo. The ferry had to moor itself next to a delivery boat and so we had hop across the other boat to get to land. We headed straight back to our room so we could put our stuff down and change into dry clothes, our swimmers were still somewhat damp. As we were changing another batch of stormy weather appeared and the rain came down in torrents. We grabbed the room brolly and my cag and made our way to lunch.

After lunch we had a rest for a while before heading off for a walk around the island. We ended up sitting at the bar having a couple of beers which was most pleasant. After our drinks we wandered back to our room and collected the frisbee. We stood on the beach outside our room and played frisbee in high winds, which made it really interesting (and wet as it kept landing in the sea). After a while we gave up, returned to our room and read our books for a while before dinner.

After dinner we stopped off at the office to find out how much a phone call to the UK would be (it’s Rich’s Mum’s birthday) – $20 for 3 minutes. Rich decided that was too much. We went to have a look at the Main Jetty and stood and watched the BlackTip sharks again, the heron was around too. We then walked around the rest of the island back to the room, taking a detour to see if there were any interesting fish life off the jetty next to the boatyard. The lighting isn’t as good and so nothing could be seen. We ended up back at the room and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Day 8: Sunday 13 December

This morning we woke up to a storm-free sunny day. After breakfast we sat around and read our books for a while, until the P-20 had had it’s hour and a half to soak in and for breakfast to settle. Then it was snorkel time.

We wandered between Passages 3, 4 and 5 to try and choose which one to go out of. We chose Passage 5 as we hadn’t been out of it before, and it had a really clear entry point – a yellow flag flying in the breeze. We put our gear on and went out the Passage and snorkelled around for about 20 minutes. It wasn’t all that exciting, only a few fishes about so we decided to move on. We walked up the island to Passage 4. We sat on the shore and put on our fins in the company of a really small Black-Tip Shark and then swam out towards the passage. There were loads of fishes and we both did some duck-dives to see more. There was a whole school of little fishes being herded by 3 or 4 bigger fishes. They were turning from one direction to the other, occasionally speeding up and zooming off. We couldn’t decide whether it all meant there was a predator about. After about half an hour we decided to come back in having really enjoyed that one. We went back to the room and had showers at which point we discovered that despite the P-20 lotion we were both sunburnt on our backs, shoulders and backs of legs.

We went off for lunch and then took it easy for a couple of hours. Later we went for a walk around the island with the cameras trying to capture some of the colours and views. When we got back to the room we covered ourselves in Waterproof factor 25, put t-shirts over our swimmers and went for a snorkel to Passage 3. We only stayed out for about 15 minutes but saw some huge fishes. This passage wasn’t as good as we’d remembered which means that so far Passage 4 gets the “Richard & Jane Best Snorkel” award.

We came back in, showered and then starting rubbing in the aftersun. We then had a celebratory beer and read our books until dinnertime. At lunchtime, amongst the fruit there had been some small bananas which had a wonderful flavour. I’d brought one back to the room and so ate my celebratory banana. We had a short break to listen to the “World Service” sports news to discover that the 3rd match of the Ashes series appears to be going Australia’s way.

After dinner we went along to the office to get a $20 note changed so we can leave tips. Technically, we are supposed to leave $10 for Hassan our waiter, whose service hasn’t been the best, and $10 for the Room Boy, who has been great, always smiling. Our $20 was changed into 20 $1 notes and so we may decide to do a $9/$11 split.

Day 9: Monday 14 December

We woke up earlier than usual and headed off for breakfast. We gave Hassan his tip, we decided on $9 in the end. Then we went to the office to collect our stuff from the safety deposit box and headed back to the room to pack the bags.

We decided to give a tip for boy who has brought us water to wash the sand off our feet. We gave him $2 and he seemed delighted with it. We give a tip for the boy who cleaned the room of $11. He continues smiling.

At 11:15 we left the room, left the luggage outside door as instructed when we called the front desk “They will be collected by the boys”. We paid the porters $2 per bag.

We went to the front desk and checked out – the cost of extras during week was $92. Get a $50 note changed into smaller notes for the airport.

The boat arrived and our luggage was put on board. Whilst we were standing waiting, we were handed a white cardboard box containing a packed lunch for the journey. Excellent parting gesture.

The journey to the airport was about an hour, an out of the window we were watching some flying fish. They are incredible as they really travel some distance out of the water.

We arrived at the Airport and paid our Airport tax of $10 each. We went through to check-in. Our prebooked seats 3A & 3B were there waiting for us. We then went straight through to departures. We wandered around the duty free shops and ended up buying 2 calendars as presents for our parents.

We boarded the plane and had to wait a while for some of the passengers, apparently a connecting seaplane was late arriving. We had drinks from the bar of a sparkling water and a pineapple juice.
We settled back for the flight and watched “Father Ted”, and then “Armageddon” on the screen.

Flying over Oman and other parts of the Middle East I was watching the sunset out of the window. It was beautiful. A rainbow of colours across the horizon with a single star visible.

We stopped at Bahrain airport and spend some time in duty free buying Gin, Vodka, 2 CDs and 2 bottles of “Highland Spring” water imported from Scotland.

We re-boarded the plane had 2 G&Ts before watching “The Mask of Zorro” on the screen.

We landed at Gatwick at around 11pm UK time. We went to the baggage collection point to discover that ours was almost the last luggage off the plane, then through customs and off to collect the car and drive back home.

Scotland

September 1998

When searching the internet for good places to see dolphins I came across the website for Dolphin Ecosse in Cromarty. This started me thinking and we planned a 4 day trip around this.

After considering the various alternatives we decided to travel on the Caledonian Express overnight sleeper train from London Euston to Inverness. The cabin was about 6ft by 4it with two bunk beds on the side, a sink and “overnight packs” containing soap, nail file, face cloth, toothbrush an tooth paste. The lounge car was really busy when we went down to have a look, so we stayed in our cabin with the bottles of pre-mixed Gin & Tonics that we’d brought with us. On the journey to the highlands I had the bottom bunk and didn’t sleep particularly well.

We were woken up by the guard bringing us tea and croissants. We arrived in Inverness at 08:40 and decided that our first task was to get a street map of Inverness. This we found at the newsagent at the station. Armed with our map we then went in search of Alamo car rentals to pick up the car which we’d reserved over the internet. We had the street name but wandered up and down until we noticed that the National Car Rental offices had a tiny Alamo notice in their window. We entered the office and went through the normal admin before driving away in a Renault Clio 1.3.

Our first mission was to drive and find the Brae Ness hotel where we were to stay for the next three nights. We located it but decided that we were probably too early (only just 9am) to check in, so we then took ourselves off for an explore.

We headed off towards Loch Ness and driving along that road was wonderful. We took a break at one of their view points and the water was so flat and calm. After heading off again we stopped at Drumnadrochit at the “Original Loch Ness Museum” and had a rest at their coffee shop. Feeling more human after a cup of tea we decided to head off over to the West Coast of Scotland towards Skye. We were in no rush and so stopped at whatever viewpoints looked interesting. We stopped at a place, in the middle of nowhere, called the “Cuanie Inn” where we had some lunch before heading off the rest of the way. We arrived at the Kyle of Lochalsh and soon discovered that the Bridge to Skye costs £5 per car each way. As we were only out for a day trip we decided not to bother as we didn’t feel we could do justice to the island in a few hours at a cost of £10. Instead we stopped in Lochalsh for a while, visiting the tourist office and buying a map of the Highlands (we’d been using the map the car rental people had given us). During the second world war my Great-Uncle, Geoge Duffield, had died whilst working in the Navy and was buried somewhere in Lochalsh. We decided to investigate and suceeded in locating the grave. The graveyard was really nicely situated and very calm.

Having found that, we decided to take a leisurely ride back towards Inverness. We arrived at the hotel at 5pm and checked into our room. Having checked in, we decided to rest a while and then woke up at 10pm, by which time neither of us could face the idea of going out looking for food, so we just turned in for the evening.

We woke up on Saturday morning feeling refreshed and went down to a much needed breakfast. The weather didn’t look very good but we hoped it would clear up as this was the day for us to go with Dolphin Ecosse out in a boat looking for dolphins. After our breakfast we took a walk into Inverness before we had to move the car (free parking only until 10am Mon- Sat) allowing me to buy some new sunglasses (poor misguided fool).We started the drive towards Cromarty and decided to stop off at Chanonnry point, a good spot for dolphin spotting apparently. The weather was prety grim and we didn’t see any dolphins. We then took ourselves off to Cromarty and decided to track down a cup of tea in the “Country Kitchen”. This was a really nice little tea shop but we couldn’ t stay there all day and os we decided to go for a walk around the town. We then took a break in the Cromarty Arms for a beer before moving off to the “Thistle” for lunch. By now it was time to report to Dolphin Ecosse so that is what we did. There we were shown an introductory video and given time to browse around the shop before going down to the harbour to get onto the boat. The weather had at least dried off so although it was still quite chilly we weren’t going to get soaked. We got on the boat and went for our trip with another 4 people, but unfortunately there were no dolphins to be seen. We drove back to Inverness and ate that night at a bar not far from the hotel “Nico’s bistro”. After that, and a stroll along the river we retired to bed.

On Sunday, we had a walk around Inverness before getting into the car, going to Tescos and then heading back to Channonry Point to see if we could spot any dolphins, unfortunately not but we did see some seals. We then headed of to Nairn, still in the hope of seeing dolphins, and still not seeing any. After Nairn, we headed off to visit Culloden Battlefield, and walked around the exhibitions and into the battlefields themselves. We stopped for a cup of tea and a sticky bun in the visitors centre before heading off down the road just a bit and visiting the clava cairns – a set of ancient stones, which were really interesting. It was starting to get dark by this point so we headed back to Inverness and went out for our tea to Bella pasta.

On Monday, we checked out of the hotel and drove along the other side of Loch Ness, and ended up in Aviemore. We drove up and around the area, up to
We then drove back towards Inverness via loch Garten which was really beautiful. We dropped the car off, having clocked up around 500 miles in the 4 days and then stopped in a pub near the station for a bite to eat and a drink. Then onto the train and straight into the lounge for G&Ts. The train made it’s way back south towards London arriving in Euston at around 8am.

Fuertaventura

June 1997

Basically this was a beach holiday to recover after a very hassled few months – a car accident being the cause of most of the hassle, and as such it was an okay holiday. We took one of the operators day trips, a jeep safari, which was great fun, although quite dusty as we were driven along small tracks. We hired bikes one day and cycled along to the sand dunes, which was really hard work due to the heat, but it did mean that we got to see a little bit more of the island under our own steam. Corralejo alternated between being really hot, and quite windy, after all the island name means “Heavy Wind”. There were no shortages of restaurants and bars, and although our hotel, the Corralejo Garden wasn’t in the middle of them all, it wasn’t a very long walk, and some of the fish restaurants near the harbour were great. The hotel didn’t have an entrance on to the beach, but did have a swimming pool with water features, although there was no heating to the water and consequently only the very hot or very brave were to be seen in it.

Gran Canaria

September 1996

This was a “between jobs” holiday and as so was booked about a week before we left the UK. The hotel was okay, we were on half board and the food was a selection of hot buffet dishes, it was okay but nothing special.
We spent a lot of time just lazing in the sun, and the there were 2 pools, one for swimming, and one plunge pool, with a slide (great fun). The vilage of Playa del Cura is not very far away
from Puerto Rico, but doesn’t have a huge selection of bars or restaurants.

We went on three trips with the operator. The first was to one of the Water parks, which was great fun. Lots of slides and the like. It was a gorgeous day as well. The second trip was going pony trekking, which again was great. This included a barbeque meal afterwards and the food was okay but nothing really special. The third trip was going on a pub crawl around Puerto Rico, which turned out to be quite a laugh, but we didn’t stay until the end.

Overall opinion: it’s quieter than Puerto Rico, and some of the hotels which the operator were offering in Puerto Rico were at the top of a big hill so more convenient in that way.

Brittany and Normandy

August 1995

This was a “let’s take the car and a tent over to France for two weeks this summer” idea. I arranged the trip across the channel through the Hoverspeed Sea Cat between Dover and Bolougne. We had got a set of information from the French tourist office, which included helpfully enough a set of leaflets detailing the municipal camp sites in the Brittany and Normandy regions of France.

Before leaving the UK we decided that we’d go to Eu for our first night as it didn’t look too far from Boulogne, which should give us a chance to driving on the “wrong side” of the road. We had made no reservations at any campsites as we hadn’t really worked out where we were planning to visit. We arrived at the camp site in Eu, pulled up at the reception desk and I asked for “une emplacement pour une tente et une voiture pour deux nuits s’il vous plait”, which seemed to do the trick. We put the tent up and sorted ourselves out. We spent the two nights in Eu very peacefully, just relaxing and winding down. The campsite was very nice, not too many people there, the showers were free if simple, and all in all it was a very pleasant introduction to French campsites.

After consulting the Rough Guide to Brittany and Normandy, and the camping leaflets our next stop was Arromanche. We stayed there for three nights. Whilst there we ventured to Bayeux for a day trip and of course had to go and see the tapestry. The Arromanche campsite was busier than that at Eu, and the spaces for camping were slightly smaller, and the showers had to paid for. But, the town iteself was busier and did a roaring trade in pancakes and galettes.

From Arromanche, our next trek was down to Carnac Plage on the west coast of Brittany. Carnac Plage was very busy, as it seems to be one of the places that the French go for their holidays. Condsequently we couldn’t get into the first camp site we visited, this was partially because we wanted to stay for 5 nights. We found a campsite in the end which was quite a walk from the town, but was quite near the sea and so all was fine. On our first afternoon we walked into the town and stopped at a cafe/bar place for some food and ordered pizzas, we ordered a forestiere (mushroom pizza) and a hawain pizza – this turned out to be cheese and tomato with a beefburger on the top – strange… So during our 5 days we spent a lot of time on the beach reading and swimming, hired bikes one day and cycled off to the monoliths that are around there, and generally took it easy. We treated ourselves to a meal in a little french bistro, and has “assietes de fruits de mer” as a starter – we hadn’t anticipated the number of shellfish that you can get on a plate, it was a very entertaining experience and I have no doubt that our faces were a picture.

After the 5 days there, we moved on back into Normandy and stayed in Fecamp. Again I strolled up and started off in French asking for a placement for the car, tent etc and was asked if she could speak to me in english as she found it easier. So, we stayed there until we needed to get the crossing back to Dover.

All in all a very pleasant break. The standards of the French campsites are much better than the English ones and it was great to have the freedom to decide where to head to next. We made the holiday cheaper by alternating going out for dinner, with buying things from the Supermarkets and cooking them on the gas stove, or the two disposable bar-be-ques that we’d brought with us. We also discovered a liking for red wine! We left Fecamp and drove to Boulogne stopping at a hypermarket to pick up some wine to take back to England with us, some cheese, and presents the families and then spent a little bit of time wandering around the streets of Boulogne before getting on the sea cat back to England.