Men of Other Centuries - Quote

Terracotta Warriors- As impressive as I'd hoped.

There are places in the world, famous travel destinations, that I have heard of since I was a kid that seemed spectacular, exotic and beyond any hope that I would one day visit them. The home of the Terracotta Warriors is one of those places. When they were found in 1974 by local farmers of Xi Yang village and soon came to the worlds attention, China was closed off to the rest of the world. The Cultural Revolution was coming to an end. Travelling anywhere overseas seemed beyond me, travelling to China was never going to be possible.

So when our Chinese friends offered to show our group of travelling friends their country and the opportunity to visit Xian specifically to visit the soldiers, I was both thrilled and a little nervous.

Birds of Prey in Scotland

When travelling with a group of friends, there are many opportunities to do group activities, in your own time and in the space of your choice!  You can always go on group activities when you are travelling of course, but it's pretty much the luck of the draw whether you find you fellow group members pleasant and engaging.

When we stayed at Drumkilbo House in Scotland, there were endless opportunities to undertake group activities, as the lawn outside the magnificent house seemed to be calling for a lovely day outdoors. 

Lesley has a passion for Birds of Prey, so it was arranged for Kingdom of Fife Falconry to come and provide a display. 



When the cost is divided among the group, it is a wonderfully inexpensive way to spend a couple of hours in the rare Scottish sunshine.  We were blessed with a particularly glorious day, so much so that the handler needed to spray the birds with water to stop them from becoming stressed in the heat.  The birds ranged in size from a tiny barn owl called Boo, to the Russian Steppe Eagle you can see here; there was also a rather inelegant vulture named somewhat unfortunately Vomit.

The barn owl in flight was a favourite with everyone, but somehow the Russian Steppe Eagle seemed just a little more menacing!  Everyone had a turn wearing the gloves and experiencing the thrill of the birds approaching!  The bird handler hires out this barn owl at weddings, where you can arrange to have your wedding rings carried by the owl to the waiting best man.

Group activities such as this add considerably to the memories of a holiday, even for those who chose not to participate due to a particularly healthy respect for talons and beaks!!  Not all activities have to be so flamboyant; on that same holiday we also arranged a formal dinner, and made impromptu trips together to the surrounding areas.  Our daily adventures always made for entertaining banter in the evenings!

If you have always wanted to do something like this, get planning! 

Beijing Hutongs

The Hutong laneway we stayed on.

During our recent visit to Beijing with a group of travelling friends we were fortunate to stay in one of the Hutongs near the Forbidden City. The Hutongs, first created in Yuan Dynasty the times of Kublai Khan, are residential areas that are made up of small alley ways that sit between the main roads.

Aristocrats and Ministers of the Forbidden City were housed here in courtyard homes or Si-He-Yuan. These large elegant homes that were originally built for one family around a central courtyard were subdivided during the Cultural Revolution and again to house thousands of homeless people following the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. In recent years huge areas of Hutongs have been replaced by modern developments.

Uluru and the Great Central Road

Not all of our group travel is to international destinations; there is an awful lot of Australia to see, and it is all the more fun when travelling with others!  In 2011 a large group of us, in appropriately equipped Four Wheel Drive vehicles, set off on the great adventure of driving from Perth in Western Australia to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) in the Northern Territory and back again; a distance of some 3500kms (or 2200 miles) plus a little for deviations!

What a sight to behold, but first we had to get there!

A few suggestions to ensure a safe road trip:

(a) always ensure you have appropriate visas to travel through Aboriginal owned land.  The permits are usually free but are designed to help protect the privacy of Aboriginal communities, preserve Aboriginal heritage and culture, safeguard the natural environment and to promote visitor safety

(b) always ensure you have appropriate safety equipment - the vast majority of roads along the way are unsealed and you may need to dig yourself out or make minor repairs to your vehicle from time to time

(c) try and book campsites ahead when you can - for example Kalgoorlie is a busy mining town with high demands on the existing accommodation and Uluru itself is a popular tourist destination (though there is a variety of accommodation there from camp sites to 5Star hotels)

(d) take whatever food you can; isolated communities en route are not famed for their quality produce and chocolate is very expensive!

(e) try and be prepared for ANYTHING (always a good mindset when travelling anyway)

In our case the ANYTHING was the heaviest rains the desert had seen in a generation, making the area beautiful and lush, but flooding the road, making it almost completely impassable!  As the authorities had closed the road we were stranded for 3 days at the Tjukayirla Roadhouse (pronounced (very roughly) Chook - ee - yurla) - a sort of service station/ campsite/ general store. An oasis in the desert for weary travellers! 

While there we decided to explore some nearby tracks, which resulted in us all getting dreadfully bogged, requiring a mighty team effort to move the cars!  I have to admit as a traveller that I do not care for being bogged, and whereas it makes for an entertaining tale now, I was less than amused at the time!




If anything it reinforces the point that if you are going to undertake this sort of travel, you should ensure that you have the essential equipment to get yourself out of trouble!

It was a fantastic adventure, the trip of a lifetime.  Australia's outback can be daunting, as the distances are vast and the terrain unforgiving.  But if you travel well equipped, and you are with a group of good friends who make you laugh and who can share your stories, it will be an experience you will remember forever.

The Fine Art of Arranging Group Travel

One of the pleasures of travelling with a group is that you can usually stay in places that you could never afford by yourself, particularly grand houses.  In 2014 we are off to Malta, that beautiful jewel of the Mediterranean, and we will be staying at Casa San Rocco

But first steps first.  Who wants to come?  It is always better to give as much notice as possible, both to secure the house and to give people notice.  This requires some logistics, some reminders and a good spread sheet!  Remember if people decide at the last minute that they would like to be a part of the fun but your accommodation is full, there are always other options to be found nearby and they can still gather in the grand formal areas of the house.

For the most part our friends do their own thing.  But there are opportunities for fun group activities.  Fishing?  Cooking?  A grand dinner and musical evening?  These things are always good fun, but the success of spending a week together is to allow people to go off and do their own thing - there is a good chance that you will be interested in something others are not, and throughout the week friends wander off by themselves or small groups.  It always makes for entertaining dinner discussions when the explorers return in the evening,

When we first did this, it was a bit of a leap of faith.  The people you invite are all YOUR friends, but will they like each other?  Thankfully this has worked well for us, and new friendships have grown.  I guess the secret to this is try not to befriend anyone who is particularly obnoxious or aggressive, and if you have try and avoid inviting them to group holidays.

Oh and another tip, as the owners of international holiday homes like to be paid in the currency of their choice, determine an exchange rate and settle on it.  As host you will likely be a little out of pocket but it is worth it for the pleasure of travelling with your friends, and you will only retain your sanity if you don't worry about the minutiae of the ever fluctuating exchange rate.

Get planning!!

Kilt Rock, Skye

Mealt Waterfall plunges 100m down the sheer cliff into the sea. The dramatic basalt cliff face of Kilt Rock forms part of the spectacular scenery of the Trotternish Peninsular on the Isle of Skye, the largest of the Inner Hebrides island off the west coast of Scotland.

Photo- Xian Sandstorm

It is hard to believe that surrounding the ancient City Wall in Xian, China, is a modern city of 10 million people. For several days in March the city was covered by sand blowing in from the Gobi Desert. In the strangely beautiful eeriness you could imagine a time when the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty patrolled the battlements. The sandstorm reduced the distance we could see to about 200 metres. The effect added to the experience of travelling around the 13.7 kms of wall.

Planning for Spain - Ronda

Once it was agreed that Malta was our next destination for us to rent a big house for a week and invite one and all, the next question was "where else to go?". Coming together for a week in foreign lands allows for travel before or after with friends or just my husband and I. Travelling to the other side of the world from Perth the possibilities are endless. This time three more weeks of travel are possible and we have chosen to go to Spain. One week in Malta then three weeks travelling through Spain.


Out came the maps, google searches, checking out other peoples blogs and talking to other travellers. I knew that I wanted to go to Granada, my daughter went there a few years back and the photos were stunning. And my husband wants to go to Gibraltar. When I was looking at how to get between the two by train I stumbled across Ronda.

Photo by Miradas De Andalucia on Flickr

Having never heard or seen anything about it before coming across spectacular photos like this, it is definitely somewhere we need to see! One of the white towns of Andalusia it has a gorge that runs 100 metres deep and 500 metres long running through the middle of the town.

With a bit more research that included exploring the history of the town as one that has included being ruled by Moors, Christians and Napoleonic Armies, and working out an itinerary for our three weeks in Spain, Ronda is on the list.

This is the great pleasure of researching a trip, finding new and interesting places to explore. We will stay there for two nights in March 2014.

Can't wait to be the one taking the photos to show on the blog next year!!!


With a bit more searching I have booked Hotel San Gabriel.


For more information on Ronda I found these sites useful: Wikitravel, Rome2Rio, travel info


If you've been there and have any tips please let me know in comments.