Travels of the Boys 2012
The lads returned from their trip to Vietnam on the Orion 2 on New Year's Eve, just in time to welcome in 2012.
In March the boys lost their old faithful 'Toad' and acquired jazzy 'Corisande', a 2-seater BMW Z4, again bright yellow, complete with spanish registration - so no more annual visits to the UK for an MOT. They had a few days round Spain in that, staying near Salamanca and then Trujillo, thus allowing their father to let rip on the deserted Spanish motorways! .
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Click on small/middle sized photos below to enlarge
Late April they went over to Corisande to pack up the house, making sure that any stray Teds were included in the furniture container . They then had a week each in London- in the Kings Wardrobe near St. Pauls, and Ireland- up to Sligo to search for their 4xggrandmother, Bridget McGann, in Ballynafad, then back to Dublin . In May Joanna came out with Nicky for a week, and shortly afterwards our possessions from Corisande arrived .
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Kings Wardrobe |
Ireland |
David and Joanna |
Lots of treasures arriving | Big Teds settle in well |
Then Carol & Russell came to visit us for a few days in June, bringing two new friends, the Koala twins. .
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In July 2012 the Boys were off on their travels to Gallipoli, spending a week there whilst their father toured the battlefields. They were more than happy with their hotel, The Gallipoli houses. Then they flew on from Isatnbul for an adventure along the Silk Road. They were overwhelmed by the vast, ornate, bedroom in Bishkek, then taken aback by the primitive yurts in Songkul and Tash Rabat- but soon came to love these, being pampered by Marie-Christine and Martin, and loved to hear their stories about Rabbit & Dog. Then onto luxury in Samarkhand, Bukhara and Khiva -- well, apart from the minibuses! Finally that flight home on their magic carpet was quite something .
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"Our sort of hotel" |
Lost in their bedroom in Bishkek | This is a bear sized yurt |
but they got to know Martin & Marie-Christine well in this one | Foolishly allowed their mother out on an 8 hour horse ride |
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| Tucked up at Lenin Peak Camp | They find new friends: Amanda | & Sasha - being admired and |
admiring the view at Lenin Base | They were a bit scared in this tunnel of death & glad to get out |
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| Samarkand and a bit of luxury and a good wash living in a hotel | Bukhara was a great place for | them in a nice hotel. .And when | they got out into town they met | Sabrina who sold them a magic |
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| carpet - they were not sure it was until they tried it. | Then they found this donkey, which was much easier to ride | than those horses at Tash Rabat | Life in the Uzbek bus was very cramped even for 2 small bears | Compare with the first bus, that gave the boys first class seats |
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| But Khiva had lots of places to visit. And they had their photo | taken by a passing tourist. Great photo though, just like them. | They even pestered other punters to be photograhed with them | What an adventure, back home on their Bukhara magic carpet with Air2000 bear at the helm |
The Boys flew from London to Cairo on 11 Nov 2012, returning from New Delhi on 4 Dec 2012. They explored Cairo, visiting the Sphinx and the Pyramids, then went south to Luxor, before boarding the SS Voyager for 2 weeks, calling in at Jordan, & there visiting Petra and Wadi Rum; Salalah, Oman; Muscat, Oman; Fujairah, UAE; Abu Dhabi, UAE; Doha, Qatar, where they picked up new badges; Dubai, UAE; and finally they waddled ashore in Mumbai. Thence travelling, on a coach with the group - what was the world coming to?!, via Jaipur to the Taj Mahal, where they were refused entry on the grounds that thy were potential terrorists!. Finally they flew back from New Dehli to Spain on 4 December 2012.
They thoroughly enjoyed the food on the Voyager, and had a pretty swish cabin too.
Click on any of the thumbnail images to get a larger photo
