http://mcgresty.com/index.html Wildlife as it happens en Sat, 15 Mar 2025 15:14:10 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/cold-walk.html Once I had settled back into home a few days, a walk was taken. The morning was cold, only a couple degrees above freezing with a lazy wind, the kind that goes through you instead of around. Three stops on the rails from where I live is a large country park of about 125 acres. In summer you can hardly hear a thing, winter is another story. Normally this time of year it's a sea of water and mud but was quite dry, which was nice. Sat, 15 Mar 2025 15:14:09 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/cold-walk.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/facing-up-to-reality.html There comes a time in everyones life which requires you to stop. What that moment is depends on the person. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo remained in Bag End, writing down his adventure. Eventually it was time for the Grey Havens trip and board the boat into the west. Some people never leave the town they were born in, travel is an unknown factor. Others go to some places on vacation or for business. Then there are those whose life involves a lot of moving around for one purpose or another. It may be due to: the financial climate, their parents work or some other reason, but changing locations is normal. My father was a Lt. Colonel in the US Air Force, travel was something I began at around two weeks old, it was part of my life. Now my conclusion has arrived. Thu, 13 Mar 2025 17:45:59 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/facing-up-to-reality.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/time-to-draw-the-line.html The sun was out, my sleeves rolled up and off I went to do a write of up a small town in the Rif Mountains named Hasaneh. It should have been simple, one man even told the bus driver where I wanted to get off. The bus stopped four to five kilometers past the town. On my about page I say that any place I visit must have, excellent public transportation there and back, this did not. So what do I do? The line has to be drawn somewhere. Sat, 01 Mar 2025 08:01:48 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/time-to-draw-the-line.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/minar.html Looking out my window across the bay at Tangier, I could see a smallish town on a hill at the end of the bay. Needing something to do I found that the number 16 bus went there, but was unable to ind out where it stopped so I could board it. There are taxis which have several seats and one was going by the town. It cost me 20 Dirham, but the real price was 5 Dirham (I found out later) and me being a Westerner got ripped off yet again in Tangier. Fri, 07 Feb 2025 08:51:05 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/minar.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/a-nice-little-surprise.html Another nice warm day had begun and I needed to have a good think over breakfast near where I was staying in Tangier. Often a mint tea was enjoyed at this one restaurant and I would normally face the Straits, but for breakfast I sat facing the other direction. Following the preceding disasterous attempts to achieve going to some places and the considering whether or not returning to Morocco, I noticed a set of steps with all kinds of colors off to my right. Not having seen them before it was decided to take a look. I was in for a surprise. Fri, 31 Jan 2025 11:30:02 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/a-nice-little-surprise.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/a-few-days.html This is something I have not done before, a bit like a diary but also a starting place. Usually I have an article regarding a specific place or creature but thought I would approach things from a different prospective. My time in Tangier is taken up with relaxing, writing another book and walking about a lot. Fri, 17 Jan 2025 09:23:41 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/a-few-days.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/back-in-tangier-again.html While the sun was nice and hot, the rest of my time in Agadir was very poor electricity which finally blew out and would not work for more than about 20 minutes. Then the useless taxis messing me about so I could not get to the national park where the flamingos and other wildlife were. I walked out and headed back to Tangier. Tue, 31 Dec 2024 19:22:23 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/back-in-tangier-again.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/winter-on-the-edge-of-the-sahara.html January and February 2024 were spent in Tangier. I wrote two books, yet to be published, did a few wander abouts finding some interesting places and people. Winter in London was on the way with me being fed up and tired of the cold wet weather decided to spend winter in Agadir, Morocco, on the western edge of the Sahara Desert where it is a lot warmer. The sun is higher here, so all I wear when out is a t-shirt. A room was found to stay as a first step. It was in Charaff in the northeast of the city. Sat, 21 Dec 2024 11:30:15 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/winter-on-the-edge-of-the-sahara.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/5-reasons-for-traveling-light.html Some people travel light because they want to, I do so because I have to. Being hit by a van many years ago resulted in a serious spinal injury and my doctor said that what I carry on my back must be around ten pounds. After lugging an eighteen pound pack this year has taken it's toll, so set about losing the weight, you can too. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:12:14 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/5-reasons-for-traveling-light.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/thirteen-years.html I sat on my balcony, filled up my pipe and had a smoke. Some blog software for a Hewlett Packard data handling pitch had just been finished and was wondering what can I do with myself. The apartment I lived in was near the end of a street on a T-junction. The main road people used mainly to go into the center of London, many miles away. Hiking around in the countryside had become boring and with winter not far off something was needed to stop me going stir crazy. A couple of good puff's smoke cleared away just as this guy with a fair sized backpack crossed the end of my road, probably heading for the train station about a hundred yards further on. My thoughts were about his possible destination, maybe he was going to somewhere totally different, where it was not cold with snow forecast. Fri, 01 Nov 2024 02:06:20 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/thirteen-years.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/the-ruins.html The day was extremely windy as I went for a walk eastward from where I was staying while in Morocco earlier this year. A good two miles down the road I ran across this ruin and went over the very uneven ground battling thirty to fifty mph gusts of wind. Tue, 01 Oct 2024 13:32:35 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/the-ruins.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/macedonian-mess.html In May 2024 I spent a few days in the Isle of Man, where I was born. My trip to Pamplona had already been booked, via Madrid and train from there. Most of you know that booking flights well ahead can save you a lot of money, so I needed somewhere outside of Europe before my time there expired. It was one of those spur of the moment things and Skopje, North Macedonia looked the most likely. Trouble is most airlines websites kept breaking and a local travel agent did it all for me. Three months in Macedonia followed by winter in Agadir, Morocco were booked for a very decent price. Mon, 09 Sep 2024 09:27:11 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/macedonian-mess.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/a-reality-check.html Many people nowadays are used to backpacks and many do their traveling with one, but it wasn't always like that. When young, I didn't even know they existed, I used small suitcases. My first pack was a dirt cheap thing I bought in the Mission District of San Francisco back in 1968. I was twenty two years old, just finished four years in the US Air Force and took off. A lot has happened since then. Mon, 02 Sep 2024 18:44:47 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/a-reality-check.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/orkoien.html Summer of 2024 say me losing out on a lot of places because buses had been dropped to many small towns. Some I could get there from San Sebastian which meant train to the city, stay the night for 200-400 Euros per night so it was just not worth it. There are some towns I can go to from the intercity bus station and also Pamplona's local bus service. Here is one of them. Sun, 25 Aug 2024 11:30:13 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/orkoien.html http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/barasoain.html About 16 miles south of Pamplona is the small town of Barasoain. It was a fairly cool day and I set out from the main bus station to visit it. It's not very large, about 630 people and architecturally a bit of a mixture. i wasn't sure what to expect as I left the bus and took stock of what was around me. Sat, 17 Aug 2024 12:40:18 GMT http://mcgresty.com/mgrp/barasoain.html