The Cave
Hello one and all! Welcome to The Cave, my little slice of virtual-real-estate that has been lurking in the ether of the internet long enough to start toddling on its own... There's no escape now!
If you don't know who I am (or even if you do, and want a bit of an update about what I've been doing), the following page may be worth a look... Meet the caveman.
Travels from Base Camp (May 2006 - Present)
Returning from not one, but two trips of a lifetime after a period living in the randomness of Japan (see below) should be setting me up for a dull period in my life... Um... Sorry to disappoint!
It took the cavegirl and I about ten days to find and move into our castle - from where we intend to continue our adventures.
Last time we checked in...
...was on Saturday 11th of April 2009 at 23:39 (GMT)
...that was 83 days, 23 hours and 29 minutes ago.
..and at that time we were enjoying the sunshine and pottering in the garden
The Phase 4 photos have been updated. Check out the link below!
We are always open to new experiences, and more than happy to help if you want any prehistoric advice about travelling - so feel free to e-mail me.
Wanderlust (February 2006 - May 2006)
The culmination of years of hopes, dreams and planning, our itchy feet took us to STA Travel with a bucket of cash (also known as a credit card) and a list of the places on this earth we wanted to visit.
A few months later we found ourselves at Heathrow airport, embarking on a trip that took us through Jordan, Egypt, Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Easter Island, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador (including the Galapagos Islands), the USA and Canada.
Methods of transport included aeroplanes (in various states of repair), buses (again in various states of repair), trains, boats, cars, taxis (the ones in Egypt definitely do not go under the heading of cars), tuk-tuks, scooters, cycles and a random selection of smelly noisy beasts (myself not included).
We were privilaged to meet some fascinating new people and particularly enjoyed visiting some old friends in the USA and Canada - Thanks for putting up with us!
Needless to say, we had a fabulous time and the memories will last forever!
You can read all about the trip in the Travel Diary bloggy thing, and see where we went on the world map.
The Long Route Home (July 2005 - September 2005)
In July 2005 it was time to head back to the UK with the Cavegirl, after a couple of years teaching English in Japan. However, being the people we are, we thought it would be a bit of an anticlimax to just hop on a flight, so we pottered over land via the slow boat to China, then the Trans-Mongolian train through Mongolia and Russia - YAY!
Just before we left, I wrote the following on this website:
"The journey should take in the region of two months, depending on tropical storms, interesting food induced stomach disorders, scary officials on the siberian border, mafia encounters, muggers, train derailments and anything else the man upstairs wants to throw at us!"
Well, we experienced pretty much ALL of the above (if you consider pick-pocketing akin to gentle mugging, and stopping-the-train-while-fixing-the-line-in-the-gobi-desert akin to quasi-derailment) - and much much more!
The train journeys were very civilised, and we met some really interesting people along the way. Any rumors that we became addicted to Armenian Cognac are totally unfounded.
You can read all about the trip in the Travel Diary bloggy thing, and see where we went on the world map.
Japan (October 2003 - July 2005)
In October 2003 I flopped into a seat on a Lufthansa flight to Osaka, via Frankfurt to join my beloved Cavegirl who had been living in Fukui city on the west coast of Japan since July 2003 (trying to escape - she should have known she'd never get away!). One cancelled flight, a swift ticket exchange and a couple of flights (via Dubai rather than Frankfurt) later and I made it to my home for then next 21 months...
Sometimes I used to stop and think "How the hell did I get here?". This usually happened after another random Japanese adventure - such as standing, freezing cold, on the side of Mt Fuji "Banzai-ing" the sunrise. The answer has eluded me to date, but one thing I am certain of is that my time in Japan was not wasted. The sheer number of experiences thrust upon me and the once-in-a-lifetime nature of many of them will ensure they stay with me for a long time to come.
You can see plenty of photos and accounts of our mishaps in Japan on the Cavegirl's website.
I was sad to be leaving Japan and the list of things I will miss is probably too long for this page, however I am certain that in the future I will see many of the people who have made my time here what it was. Let's enjoy e-mail until that happy day! (that should be a T-shirt from Jack!)
