Pseudo Travelling

Pseudo Travelling

By roychinnorNo Comments
It's Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK. Had Bridget and I left as planned in June we would have been arriving in Vladavostok, Eastern Russia, this weekend and preparing for the ferry crossing to Japan in a weeks time. Instead I am working five days a week as the Club Manager for the MG Car Club in Abingdon and have only myself and the Covid pandemic to blame. I apologise therefore, for the lack of genuine travel reports and can only tell you of what had been planned on this first leg of this journey. As with most of my adventure runs it would have started routinely with a run across Europe to Turkey. I had planned to take in a few countries that I hadn't included on previous runs such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia. Then through Bulgaria and across the Turkish Border. From Istanbul I was going to follow the same route as I...
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JUNE 2022

JUNE 2022

By roychinnor2 Comments
  Since arriving back in the UK early in February, I have been finalising the plans for Bridget's Swansong Tour. Bridget is road ready, the route as finalised as I ever do, with the usual provisio that should the road to my left or right look more interesting then I shall follow it, and I have approached the embassies of many of the countries I shall travel through. I have kept one eye on Covid developments the whole time. Regrettably, I have had to face the fact that I am very unlikely to be able to enter many of the countries on route this year! Many borders are currently closed to leisure travellers, which is what they class me as, and those that will open before the end of the year will probably insist on a period of quarantine. A quick calculation of the number of border crossings on the planned route means quarantine at each would add 6 months to the...
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Winter Update

Winter Update

By roychinnorNo Comments
My winter sheltering is almost over. I know that originally I was going to stay in the Canary Islands until the end of March, but changed that to 1st March to give me plenty of time to prepare for the tour in June. Well, British Airways, who undertook to fly me to the islands and fly me back again, has changed that plan! I received an e-mail informing me that the return flight was cancelled; no alternative was offered or reason given. I contacted them and after listening to a recorded announcement assuring me amongst other things that I could " book with confidence", spoke to an operative who, after some prompting, transferred me to a flight scheduled to leave eight days early on the 20th February. One week later British Airways cancelled that flight too. This time they offered me no other flight in the e-mail and when I spoke to them was informed that they have "suspended the route for...
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Help Required

Help Required

By roychinnorNo Comments
Much as I am looking forward to travelling again in June 2021, it is with a guilty conscience. Bridgets’ Swansong tour has a budget of almost £38,000 for the first leg to Australia. Some £8,000 of that would otherwise have been spent living at home for the eight months, but £30,000 could have been a cash donation to Save the Children! I have gambled that those of you that like to follow, and live my adventure vicariously through these blog posts, would help me make up those lost funds by making donations whenever you can. Any sponsors I manage to persuade to join this final adventure of Bridget’s Swansong will be making donations in support of Save the Children. You will have noticed in the sidebar of this webpage, or near the bottom of the page if you are browsing with your mobile, that there is a link to my Save the Children fund-raising page. I have tried to explain on...
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Bridgets’ Swansong 2021

By roychinnorNo Comments
I started my last post by mentioning another, and final, long distance tour for Bridget, and myself for that matter! Since then I have been fleshing out the plan and, in doing so, confirming that it will take place, Covid-19 permitting. The main itinerary now includes visiting Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. I have not as yet firmed up on the route across Europe as I have a tendency to change my mind on that as I leave England, but it will include some countries Bridget has not yet visited! Currently, she has driven through, around or across 52 different countries, so it is somewhat bizarre that there are still countries in Europe that she hasn't been too. We will be including Switzerland, possibly Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and either The Ukraine or Belarus. As I don't make detailed date, or even route plans, but leave these to the day I am there I won't commit to what I...
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