When our boat sailed into Patmos, we used the harbour at Grykos, rather than the main harbour at Skala. We shared the jetty with the Old Fisherman. The crew of our boat said that he was almost always there, patiently sitting in his little red boat, mending his nets. When he was out fishing, you know he’ll be back, when you see his three friends waiting for…

A television programme dealing with the some of the thousand-odd islands around the British Isles caught my attention. Brief visits were made to many of my favourite islands, including one to my very favourite, the little-known but fascinating Piel.

Piel lies off the Cumbrian coast, at the mouth of the Walney Channel, near Barrow in Furness. It isn’t a large…

I visited Tunisia before the disturbances which resulted in the overthrow of the government. However, I believe the country is now safe for tourists, as several tour companies are now advertising trips there again. I would, however, advise consulting your Foreign Office or equivalent to check the current situation.

If you look at a map, Tozeur seems to…

Australia Zoo was established in 1970 by Robert Irwin, as the ‘Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park’, on the grounds of a former macadamia nut farm. From an early age, his son, Steve, helped his father with the animals, both looking after them, and rescuing and relocating them.

As most people know, Steve became a familiar face all around the world with his excellent…

I never really considered Lanzarote as a holiday destination. From seeing various advertisements, and hearsay, I’d formed the impression that it’s a tacky haunt for the package holiday sun-seeker, and not my thing at all.

But, a recent cruise stop caused me to change my views, and realise there’s a lot more to the island when you get away from the sun, sea,…

Some Greek islands suffer from the effects of ‘kalimari and chips’ mass tourism. But, sometimes, you only need to take a short trip in a ferry or a kaiki to enter a different world altogether.

Let’s look at one of the lesser-known islands, Leros. There are jails and mental institutions here, and the name is similar to the Greek word for a rogue or a rascal. This…

It’s not uncommon to visit a hotel that wasn’t here last year. It’s less common, though, to visit a hotel that wasn’t here last year … and won’t be here next year. That’s how it is with Scandinavia’s ‘ice hotels’; they’re actually dug out of a snow bank at the beginning of winter, and are gone with the first thaws of spring. And, usually, they’re completely rebuilt the…

Avgas Gorge, on the western coast of Cyprus, is a magnificent fissure in the limestone cliffs. It lies in an unfrequented part of the island where tourists rarely went.

At the time of my first visit, I lived in Yorkshire. So, my first sight invited comparison with the limestone country of the Pennines. But, after the first section of the gorge, guarded by a cold, dark…

William Wordsworth once said that the best way to view the mountains of England’s Lake District was from the surface of one of the lakes. Three of the sixteen lakes have…

When I first visited Turkey, I did something I won’t be able to do again. I gave the coach driver a 2 million lira tip! Shortly after my visit, the revalued their currency, simply by deleting the word ‘million’. The Turk with the price of a packet of cigarettes in his pocket is no longer a…

When we visited Jordan in 2002, we ate lunch in one of the lowest restaurants on earth. But, it wasn’t low in the sense of being cheap, or because not very nice people eat there. Jordan’s Dead Sea Spa hotel is 400 metres below sea level, which is as low as you can get on the surface of the Earth. I did hear that, since our visit, another hotel has been built even lower…

‘Went to the centre of Australia. Saw a big rock. Had lasagne for dinner’

This morning, a brochure came through my letter box, promising an ‘Uluru Experience’. We could travel by four wheel drive, and camp under the stars … in fact, we could visit exactly the same places we visited six…

I’m probably unique in that I visited Jordan twice before I saw Petra. My only excuse is that, on the two previous occasions, I was there on business. But, this time, I was on holiday, and determined to see this ancient city, which features high on everybody’s ‘must see’ list. The year was 2003, and things weren’t too stable in the…

From Kenya’s capital, Nairobi to the Samburu Game Lodge is about 150 miles as the crow flies. But, if you leave Nairobi in the middle of winter, and you’ll arrive at Samburu in midsummer. However, that’s not because the roads are so bad, or the little Nissan safari buses which most tour operators use being anything other than quick and efficient.

The reason for the…

Almost since the dawn of recorded history, Man has been crossing the Aegean Sea by boat, and this remains the best way to do it. We could paraphrase the words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: ‘If you just want to get there, you could fly, but to travel, you must take a boat’

There are boats of all description plying this sea, and I’ve sailed on a lot of them.…

Kangaroo Island, or ‘KI’, as it’s known locally, is more noted for what it hasn’t got than for what it has. Unlike mainland Australia, rabbits and foxes were never introduced, so the indigenous wildlife has less competition for survival.

Another thing the island doesn’t have is something a…

It’s difficult to talk about La Alberca without lapsing into cliché. The moment I walked into the cobbled Plaza Mayor, the main market square, surrounded by three- and four-storey, half-timbered houses, I thought of a film set for a mediaeval epic.…