Christmas in Cornwall

Seasons greetings everyone.

Below are a couple of photos from our trip to Cornwall. Unfortunately we were both a bit on the crook side for our break so champagne and chocolates were replaced with cough mixture and panadol for the most part. Still, it's always good to get some country air in the lungs.

Tea at the Ritz

Morocco

Our first foray into Africa was a fantastic success. Morocco exceeded our expectations to such an extent that the photos or words on this site cannot do it justice.

Our huge thanks to Katie for arranging everything for us and for fighting a few battles on our behalf - we'd have had a big struggle without you! (For anyone thinking of going to Morocco, don't go past Intrepid).

The highlights of our trip were:

• Rubbing shoulders with many great locals who were friendly, willing to have us on or just plain strange!
• Drinking sweet mint tea with our various guides, nomads and anyone else who wanted to offer it to us.
• Fine dining and cocktails with the 15+ contingent of friends who all happened to have chosen the same weekend to visit Marrakesh.
• Cruising on camels into the Sahara sunset.
• Counting shooting stars from our mattresses in the Sahara.
• Walking through local gardens, gravelly hills and best of all the Todra Gorge.
• Bartering for pottery, dining al fresco and sucking sweet, fresh OJ in the centre of Marrakesh's Medina.
• Snapping photos of numerous kasbah's ranging from perfectly manicured (generally from Hollywood funding) to derelict, but stuffed with character.
• Surviving the reek of fish and rubbish along the beach of Essaouira.
• Getting lost in the alleyways and streets of the Medina's.
• Being pampered at Hammam's and flash Riad's.

Marrakech

Todra Gorge

The Sahara

Essaouira and Ait Benhaddou

Welcome (back)

Well it's been at least two months since we've put a post on here but our friends at British Telecom have finally cooperated in providing internet so we are now mobile again. It's been a good end to a drizzly summer with some nice wee adventures to keep us happy. Autumn days are here (photo from my morning commute in Green Park):

There are a couple of great new websites that may be of interest:

Che and Erin are now well entrenched in South America and have started a fantastic website with some incredible photos, Juliet and Logan are on the road again and Jake and Lou have been travelling well ... for ever. Check out their sites in the links in the sidebar or below:

www.traveleor.com/logzjulz

www.erinandche.blogspot.com/

www.louandjake.blogspot.com/

Toblerone for breakfast

A few photos from our long weekend in Lausanne, Switzerland. This was disguised as a weekend of running, but once our races were over, it quickly degenerated into an excuse for demolishing Lindt chocolate by the cake load (new favourite is the Fig & caramel!).

We took a beautiful drive around the vineyards alongside Lake Geneva on Saturday. It was a spectacular day but the sunshine in the photos hides the fact that a freezing wind roared up the lake all day and was a bit restrictive. I was pretty relieved to survive my first attempt at driving a right hand drive car on the right hand side of the road and equally as relieved to ward off some stern directions from my co-driver.

After gladly booming the freebies at the pre-race "pasta party", we watched with relief to see the Springboks lift the Rugby World Cup and then an early night before our race.

Gaybs started first at 10am in the 1/4 marathon and carved up in her international debut running for New Zealand. I had to wait until 1:30pm for the half marathon to start. It was a fantastic run along the shore of the lake and through some local villages with bands and good local support along the way so there wasn't much opportunity to dwell on being broken.

After the run we drove out to Gruyeres to have dinner with the Cruickshank gang and promptly put back on all the calories we had just lost by stuffing ourselves full of cheese fondue. I, of course purchased the obligatory kick ass army knife with all the trimmings that I will never use but for a man who has grown up with Macgyver, that is not a problem.

Drive around the vines:

Hanging out on the lake front with my beloved motorway visible in the background:

Gabrielle is easy to spot, one of the only people not in lycra!

To some these are just photos of animals in a paddock with bells on. To me this is a complete mystery.

Views of Gruyeres at sunset, with the cheese fondue at Le Chalet:

Dining with Jason, H, Lucy, Lana, Dan and G.