The many layers of Malta
When my father’s family migrated to Australia from Scotland in 1927, their ship stopped in Malta. He kept a couple of old photos in his photo tin that always fascinated me. It looked so beautiful […]
Moving to Bulgaria
The English summer came and went in the blink of an eye, suspended in an anti-COVID bubble. There’s nowhere prettier (or more fun) than England in the summertime but this time there were no parties, […]
House hunting in Bulgaria
When ‘the virus’ exploded across the world stage, we were house hunting in Bulgaria. A bit random you might think, but we’ve had this idea for a while – or more of a ‘wish’ really […]
From the Black Sea to Bignall End
In my last post – Good times in Georgia, we’d just crossed the Black Sea by cargo ferry and arrived in the Bulgarian port of Burgas. The sea wasn’t black at all in Bulgaria but […]
Good times in Georgia
Georgia is a breath of fresh air. We seem to have been crossing the hot dry desert for ages and ages. Now that we’re in the green mountains, it feels like coming home. At last […]
Oil, fire and pomegranates
We were rudely awoken from our cabin on the Caspian Sea ferry and unceremoniously dumped in Azerbaijan at 4am. I was still asleep on arrival and would have really liked to just curl up in […]
From the Aral to the Caspian Sea
I hadn’t heard of Karakalpakstan (Qaraqalpaqstan) until I found myself here. It’s actually the ‘Autonomous’ Republic of Karakalpakstan but since having that name it’s been part of the USSR and now part of Uzbekistan. ‘Autonomous’ […]
The wonders of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva
There is no straightforward overland route from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan to Tashkent in Uzbekistan. You have to go the long way ‘round – either all the way back down to Osh in the south and […]
The Circumnavigation of Issyk-Kul
Kyrgyzstan is just a little bit scruffy. Not in a sad, rundown, slummy, dirty kind of way but in an offhand, cool and slightly messy, ‘don’t care what the neighbours think’ kind of way. It’s […]
Camping in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan is all about the spectacular scenery. The Tian Shan (Heavenly) mountains cover most of the country. Pretty much the whole country is above 1500m and almost half is between 3000m and 7500m. In between […]
