My Trip to Utah (USA)

 

So through a friends recommendation I visited Salt Lake City and I also checked out the amazing landscape in Utah State I went camping by a stream in the Rocky mountains and later visited Moab where you have the arches as seen in the photos I saw many amazing features. Even Salt Lake City itself is an unusual city when compared to other cities in the USA. Some might even say idiosynchratic with people greeting you on the city streets and the fact that the Mormon church has a lot of influence, visit the Temple in downtown SLC and you would see what I mean. Interesting city indeed

 

My Trip to Europe by Bus (FlixBus)

 

So recently I booked a flight to Cologne or was it Frankfurt. The carrier I booked with was Eurowings because they fly via Heathrow. The other options were EasyJet and Ryanair and I wanted to avoid flying from one of London’s far-flung airports of Gatwick, Luton and Stansted cos of (lots of train strikes going on) and it'll cost a fortune by taxi to there. Also, I’ve become nervous of budget carriers these days, as they can charge you for anything. I vaguely remember when one airline was looking at charging for using the toilets. Oh I once had to cough up $70 because my back pack was 3 Kg overweight for carry on luggage.

 

Even worse my brother-in-law was prevented from flying with a budget airline all because he complained apparently too vehemently about the extra charge because his bag was too big for the carry-on. Apparently the person who he complained to got upset.

 

Anyway I digress so I booked with Eurowings, and two days before I’m about to set off. Eurowings send me a notification 3 am Sunday morning that my flights been cancelled. No reason was given but it said I was entitled to a refund or voucher. I opted for the former considering my previous experiences of losing out of a cancelled flight. Flight details went missing after a while.

Now, purpose of travelling was to attend a Book Exhibition in Frankfurt that a promoter had suggested to me. So I was intent on getting to Frankfurt no matter what as I just published a book, so I had to search around and unfortunately, short-notice flights where either unavailable or exorbitantly expensive unless there was a last-minute cancellation, I never was that lucky.

 

So after fruitless searches on metasearch engines related to flights, I looked for other means of transport to Frankfurt. That’s when I came across the Flixbus from London to Cologne. Considering I’d driven from London to Cologne before, I decided the distance would not be too painful by bus. Plus I get to travel on the ferry crossing of the Channel for free.

 

So I check the prices from London to Cologne via Arnhem, Belgium where I would have to change to another bus taking me to Cologne.

One caveat of bus travel, is that you don’t have to worry about luggage size or weight. And with some research and timing, it can be much cheaper than a flight, plus, you can take your bicycle.

Not all buses come with this option though and taking a bike incurs an extra charge.

 

So the journey itself to Cologne was fine, though long about 16 + hours altogether. 

We left London Victoria at 7 pm got to Dover ferry around 10 pm and into Europe (Calais) around 1 am this was with all the passport checks.

 

I would consider doing the bus as a day trip adventure as we went through and stopped in a few cities.

 

I would like to have seen more of Amsterdam and Brussels for instance during daylight.

The fact you can travel with as much luggage as you can is a real plus…I met one guy travelling with three massive suitcases. Which he could not haul by himself.

 

Another perk is the many destinations and permutations available, so you can change destination en-route via one of the layovers. I saw many other bus destinations, on some of the buses at layover stops including those going to Czech, Hungary Poland and Switzerland.

 

Mind you I soon became aware there are quite a few stopovers of dropping and picking up passengers. And this adds substantially to the journey time.

 and a few buses I travelled with did not have in-bus entertainment. So make sure your phones are fully charged and get some downloaded stuff for your own entertainment for a long journey.

Other buses did have USB sockets that worked, so I was able to  charge my phone and tablet.

 

One more thing some of the layovers for the next bus can be hours so you could be waiting at an open bus stop under the elements of weather so make sure you have something to keep you warm just in case.

 

But overall on average, I would give my three trips with Flixbus into Europe and back an eight out of ten, mostly for fun and safety.

One of My Favourite Trips

South Africa

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I drive out of Port Elizabeth, And I hit the long winding road. I’m not expecting much but to my surprise as I drive along I see natural beauty almost every mile after leaving the city.

The city isn’t too bad in itself by the way.

From driving along beautiful beach roads you are soon thrust into mountains and deep canyons I am constantly distracted even the roads are gentle drive as drivers are courteous enough to move to the side if you want to overtake on the narrower roads.

But what captivates me the most is the sea I see whales splashing about and occasional seal.

I stop the car as just to see nature at its most pristine. Who know I may never get to see such sights again.

After another hundred miles on I am driving up narrow roads through mountain country. The roads are narrow with hundred metre cliff drops. I am nervous but also excited at the same time.

A few hundreds of miles more I see Ostriches foraging on the beach just by the sea. It’s a mother and her babies, the babies are so cute. I stop the car and try to get closer for a photograph. Suddenly mother Ostrich raises her head and looks at me, I realise I am too close, I back away. And drive away bye bye Ostrich family

A few miles up the road I come across cheeky baboons, they want you to get close to them or they will get close to you. After all they are looking for rich pickings of food

Then a few miles later I see the beautiful table top mountains. I soon realise I arrived in the beautiful city of Cape Town

 

And that was a drive along the garden route.