Blog – Page 4 – Fergy's Rambles.

Another day, another travel debacle and another city.

The 9th May started early as I had determined to keep heading South in search of the still elusive sunshine and again decided to take it in easy stages so Lyon looked like a place to aim for. To live two hours train ride from Paris I really have visited France remarkably little, basically a cycling holiday in Normandy and Brittany about 30 years previously, and I was determined to rectify the situation now that I had the travelling head back on.

Whilst I described in the previous entry here that I had never heard of Macon, which provided me with enough reason to go there, I had most certainly heard of Lyon and was keen to see it as it is, if I have it correctly, one of the more important towns in the country. Again I had booked a carpool at about €9 or thereabouts which is roughly comparable to the bus and considerably cheaper than the train. Besides that, I was getting quite cosy with the concept. It is comfortable and you get a chance to chat to people as well, which I love to do. Try doing that on a long-distance bus and you are likely to be thrown off as a stalker! I had taken the precaution this time of finding out precisely where I was to be picked up and where I would be dropped off in Lyon and picked my hostel accordingly so that I was not going to have the trek I had endured in my last location. Continue reading “Another day, another travel debacle and another city.”

Macon? Never heard of it, let’s go.

A last look at lovely Dijon. I do love that place.

The 7th May arrived, a Sunday. I had decided I was going to move as I was in imminent danger of falling foul of what I term “travel inertia” which constantly manages to creep up on me. As I believe I have mentioned previously in this blog I went to Dumaguete City in the Philippines for two or three days back in 2012 and was still there five months later! In truth, it caught up with me later in Rome but that is a long way down the track in this saga. Hopefully I’ll get to it sooner or later. Continue reading “Macon? Never heard of it, let’s go.”

This really was the end.

I woke well rested on the 21st to a lovely Devonian July morning. I skipped breakfast as I did in those days, said goodbye to the lovely landlady and took off into town. I had been sad to leave Lundy but had delayed the “end of trip downer” by my very pleasant day in Ilfracombe and had even planned a lateish train to eke another few hours out of it. These days, I would probably just have kept on moving but I didn’t travel like that then (well, only occasionally). Continue reading “This really was the end.”

I finally had to leave.

I awoke on the morning of the 20th July which promised to be another lovely day and so it proved. I was a little sad as this was my last day although the positive was that the boat does not leave until the afternoon so I had a few more hours before I had to go. Continue reading “I finally had to leave.”

I fly solo on Lundy and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

After another excellent night’s sleep in John’s place and a cup of his almost lethally strong morning coffee, I was up and ready to face the day. As I mentioned earlier in these travelogues, John had been kind enough to take his day off to coincide with my visit but had to return to work that day. No problem, I had more or less got my bearings by then and knew I couldn’t really get that lost on such a small island. Having had a wonderful tour of the Northern portion of the place. I had determined myself to take on the much smaller Southern portion i.e. that part South of what passes for a village. Continue reading “I fly solo on Lundy and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

First stop on the journey.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is where the fun really starts.

I do hope you have come upon this page by way of the introduction I spent two weeks constructing and which represented the first entries on this brand new website which I have started in spite of a serious case of technical incompetence. Here it is. After those twin disasters I took this rather drastic step as I have had two commercial travel sites (Virtual Tourist and Travbuddy) closed down on me in just over a year and I do not want to achieve a terrible hat-trick so I am going it alone.

The site is predominantly travel themed and this represents my first actual travel blog referring to a wonderful trip I took to Lundy Island and other parts of Devon in the beautiful Southwest of England back in 2013. I have several reasons for choosing this as my start point and I shall explain my thinking here. Continue reading “First stop on the journey.”