Thirteen Years
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.
I remembered how many years ago I slung a pack on my back and took off. The next day I went into central London and purchased a backpack and found an old Leica/Lumix camera locally. Snow had begun falling as I headed to a small town north of London to take some photo's and write the place up. I had written my own blog software and needed a first post. That was in November 2011, thirteen years ago and a lot has happened since.
For the better part of 2 years, I did my usual hikes and would occasionally write one up. Some pre London Olympic Games posts were done, but I really wanted something else. I found a few other people were writing travel blogs and looked at them. Seeing I have never been all that fond of England, time was taken wondering where I could go to. Many young people had this thing about South East Asia. So did I, way back in 1971, but it never happened when the powers to be had me penetrate a communist group in Frankfurt, Germany. Where could I go?
We all make mistakes in life and I am no exception. For three months I did a lot of research and decided that I needed to go to Madrid, Spain, where I took a wrong turn which has affected my whole life. It was early September of 2013 that I headed in that direction. I had mentioned that to someone who suggested going through Pamplona on the way. The original blog was stopped and I named the new one Simian Circles (up now for reference). A week in Pamplona had me really liking the place and I headed for Madrid.
The strapline for my old Simian Circles site was: "The adventure begins when the unplanned starts". The first unplanned was a few months later on the way back to Pamplona via the Eurostar train to Paris and French one to Biarritz. During that journey the train ride became quite dangerous in the town of Dax. The second unplanned was when I decided to head for Lisbon, Portugal. Summer 2014 saw me in pain for months when my spine played up. From there on I went to Pamplona and the Basque Country a lot over the following years.
I remembered how many years ago I slung a pack on my back and took off. The next day I went into central London and purchased a backpack and found an old Leica/Lumix camera locally. Snow had begun falling as I headed to a small town north of London to take some photo's and write the place up. I had written my own blog software and needed a first post. That was in November 2011, thirteen years ago and a lot has happened since.
For the better part of 2 years, I did my usual hikes and would occasionally write one up. Some pre London Olympic Games posts were done, but I really wanted something else. I found a few other people were writing travel blogs and looked at them. Seeing I have never been all that fond of England, time was taken wondering where I could go to. Many young people had this thing about South East Asia. So did I, way back in 1971, but it never happened when the powers to be had me penetrate a communist group in Frankfurt, Germany. Where could I go?
I decided to cover Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
We all make mistakes in life and I am no exception. For three months I did a lot of research and decided that I needed to go to Madrid, Spain, where I took a wrong turn which has affected my whole life. It was early September of 2013 that I headed in that direction. I had mentioned that to someone who suggested going through Pamplona on the way. The original blog was stopped and I named the new one Simian Circles (up now for reference). A week in Pamplona had me really liking the place and I headed for Madrid.
The strapline for my old Simian Circles site was: "The adventure begins when the unplanned starts". The first unplanned was a few months later on the way back to Pamplona via the Eurostar train to Paris and French one to Biarritz. During that journey the train ride became quite dangerous in the town of Dax. The second unplanned was when I decided to head for Lisbon, Portugal. Summer 2014 saw me in pain for months when my spine played up. From there on I went to Pamplona and the Basque Country a lot over the following years.
Onward
The subsequent years saw me returning a lot to Pamplona. It is a good travel hub and, for the first time in my life, I made a few friends. I also hoped to go to other countries and wanted to spend 6 months on the road and headed out in February of 2016 to Italy. My daughter gave birth to her second child in early April so I returned to England and left some weeks later for Porto, Portugal. The rest of the 10 years of Simian Circles was mainly in the Basque Country with a couple of journeys to there through France. I also took two trips to Israel during those years.From there
Figuring 10 years was a good time to close down my old blog, I began using this domain because it was just sitting around and will expire in 2027. Some stuff from Simian Circles has been shifted to here, but not everything. Things have changed, I've gotten older, my time is running out and I wanted to begin photographing wildlife as well as other stuff plus some trips. On the 30th of November I will fly out to Agadir, Morocco to spend winter in the warm sunshine and visit a large nature reserve south of the city. From there will take place as it happens.Fourteen, here I come
Nov 01, 2024
More posts from: On the road
Minar Back in Tangier again Winter on the edge of the Sahara Thirteen Years The ruins Macedonian mess Orkoien Barasoain Beriain old town Etxauri Pamplona's parks San Fermin 2024 Charf Castletown Asilah Ksar es Seghir On the hill Tanja Kasbah A time in Tanja Beer Sheva disaster Local trips from Pamplona Pamplona in the Fall Visit to the Negev First time in Jerusalem
