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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Bertie To Go

Bertie To Go

By roychinnor2 Comments
My last post suggested I was considering another long range adventure and that has now evolved into a definite plan. Leaving in June 2021 I will take Bridget across Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. I shall continue to develop the journey over the winter months taking into account the developments of Covid-19 insofar as lockdowns effect where I can go, and keep you informed of developments as things firm up. The main constraint I have had in deciding to embark on what will probably be my final adventure has been financial which brings me onto the reason for this post. I'm afraid Bertie (above) must contribute to the coffers! I bought “Bertie The B” three years ago and those of you that follow this blog will know, soon decided that he would require a total rebuild on a new body. As it transpired the Oselli balanced fast road engine was the one thing that didn’t need major work and with only...
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All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go

All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go

By roychinnor2 Comments
After ten weeks of lockdown, unsurprisingly the cars are ready to roll. I think I have completed every job there was to be done, with Bertie now sporting hazard warning lights and Bridget showing off a new tonneau cover. I have no problems with 'social isolation' but being confined to one location does challenge me. Being physically restricted tends to send my brain off on hypothesized journeys and so I find myself, once again, considering another 'tour' once lockdown is lifted. It has been seven years since the last tour that took me into the Arctic Circle and then St. Petersburg. Since then I have only done some 'local' tours taking both cars to my Winter Quarters on Gran Canaria, obviously on separate occasions, and Bertie took me to Northern Italy and Switzerland last year (all reported on here). So now, where to, when and which car? There is one location that I remember learning about at school that has always been...
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Travel Preparations!

Travel Preparations!

By roychinnorNo Comments
"The following are the thoughts of the author, but not necessarily the practices" Without doubt the most enjoyable adventures that I have experienced are those where preparations were almost non-existent. This way of travelling means that you may miss many events, views, sites and even people, of interest, but the other side of the coin is that you discover just as many unexpected delights as well as people in their natural, cultural surroundings. I prefer not to know where I will be next week, or what I will eat, or what I will be doing. This type of adventure does require a total removal of time constraints however, no scheduled events, ferries, or flights to catch, and definitely no planned date by which you must be back at home. Very few people are able to unshackle themselves from these obligations and so I have assembled the following thoughts on what preparations are necessary for those that are time constrained, but would still like to be more adventurous....
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