After spending a pleasant evening in Porto Moniz on the north-western tip of Madeira, our Feb 29th was to be spent going up into the mountains, crossing the central high ground’s so-called “Desert Plain” to wander along few more levadas…
Having survived our leg loosening walk on day one and stayed overnight in Santana on the northern side of Madeira, today was to to be a walk from Queimadas via a waterfall at Caldeira Verde to Ilha which would introduce…
OK, so we’re not actually on Madeira to dance the lambada. We are actually here with Explore! to walk, amongst other things, some of the famous levadas. Levadas are irrigation channels but more of these later. Madeira is essentially a…
4:40 AM is not a very friendly time for check-in desks to open at London’s Heathrow airport. I started investigating my travel options and discovered, according to one friendly parking service lady, that “they” had only recently begun opening check-in…
Sorting out pictures from summer trips can be a useful pastime for otherwise dull winter days and evenings. In that respect, it is a benefit to have the task to do. The downside is that remembering detail from summer trips…
We’ve been travelling to the Marais Poitevin, a.k.a. La Venise Verte, a few kilometres inland from La Rochelle, for many years. We used to stay at a very pleasant campsite in Damvix; we even became recognised by and struck up…
In Nouvelle Année, Nouveau Guide des Papillons, I introduced my speculative purchase of a French field guide to butterflies. I had wanted to replace my aging Collins Field Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe for some time and…
As a purist, I was a relatively late convert to digital photography. I soldiered on with V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W Fuji Velvia slide film (nominally 50 ASA but more like 40 ASA in reality) for ages before finally converting to digital in…
We live in a perverse country. I’d never really recovered from the disturbing discovery that Leeds Castle is in Kent. Today, I could have been forgiven for thinking that February 1st was actually April 1st. Carol announced that she would…
I can never think about moths without thinking of Jethro Tull – track 4 on Heavy Horses: Moths, which has a line including, “… the first moths of summer…”. I’ve put it on now. 
One of these characters certainly…
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