What a phenominal time!

The reality is that I am back from nearly 5 months of travel with a 3-week break in April. It is good to sleep in my own bed, and in the same place for more than two nights I a row.

I am not sure that I can say that I miss my itinerant lifestyle. I am sure that I never got tired or bored with it.

I am hugely grateful to the wonderful friends I have around the world who were such fabulous hosts. Many of them I met through work, and as they moved in to overseas assignments they said “come and visit” and I took them up on the offer. I would not have enjoyed the experiences I did without them, and am profoundly grateful for their incredible hospitality. Thank you one and all from the bottom of my heart.

The most common question has been “where did you enjoy the most?” I can honestly say that each place was so different that I could not come up with a favorite, except maybe New Zealand. I was there almost a month and in reality saw (or scratched the surface of) about half of South Island. It is a truly amazing place in terms of the people, the fabulous and pristine scenery, and the ease of getting around.

Part of me wanted to go to see if I should have gone there 40 years ago, but another part says that I am a very different person now and New Zealand is a very different place. I would love to talk with my friend Roy Vinden who spent a year there in the 70s and would have a much better sense of how life was in those days.

Perhaps my greatest realization was that my son Gavin is in a great position to go and experience some of what I saw. He is, like many other graduates not able to get interviews for a job that matches their education. I met lots of people his age in similar circumstances that were traveling and learning, and generally having fun. Gavin is laid back enough to be able to do this and enjoy the experience and will return with a wealth of experience and a level of confidence you cannot achieve under normal circumstances.

The travel bug is alive and well and the list (call it a bucket list if you will) is no shorter today than it was five months ago. It may be slightly different but no shorter.

Future plans or concepts include learning Spanish in Guatemala, visiting Nepal and flying in and out of Lukla (basically a short runway on the side of a mountain) and visiting Peter’s uncle (from my French visit) who has two lodges one of which is a rebuilt farmhouse. They also do adventure trips like hiking and white water rafting in the Himalayas, and maybe a trip to Darjeeling in India. My brother Steve wants to go there so we may meet or he may like to join me in Nepal.

There is still a huge amount of the USA that I have not seen and the Northwest is of great interest to me. Mountains again and remote less traveled areas.

The thing I really discovered is that each place has it’s own personality and manages their issues in very different ways. Moving people around in Tokyo and Mumbai are similar in ways but how it is done is hugely different. I think I did a post on transportation after my Japan visit. I should go back and read it.

Many thanks to all the readers and followers who have commented (even when it was difficult to do so). The blog has been a true learning experience both in how you do it (like adding video clips) and what it has taught me about writing style and trying not to be just a travelogue..

I need to see if there is a way to print it out and kind of make a book.

Hang in there for the next round when ever that is.

The final week of the world trip

I have just completed my last week of travel for a while.

I was able to catch up with family and friends. My sister Mags and I along with her grand daughter Ellie went to Chartwell House, which was Winston Churchill’s home. 

Beautiful gardens and a house that has a superb view of the Weald of Kent. Some parts date back to the 1500s, and a large addition from the 1920s.

Back home for a final visit from the latest addition to their family, a daughter Erin for my lovely nephew Piers, and his lovely wife Marion. I have been to Ireland with them twice on vacation and love them dearly. Erin is a wonderful addition.

I actually broke down and rented a car for a few days and saw my cousin Barbara and also some other friends. Cleone, who spent a couple of summers with us when the kids were little. She is approaching her 40^th with a 16 year old and a 14 year old, and her Mom Jackie who I have known since she was 8 and I was 10! It is funny that we basically could not stand each other at that time but of all of her siblings we have remained closest over the years. Cleone lives in Market Harborough a nice small market town.

I wandered around town on Saturday morning and saw a building that is now the town Council offices but used to be Symingtons factory. One of my best pals when I was small was Robert Symington, and they lived at the big house in the village. Robert and I got into all sorts of trouble as kids. His Dad owned the factory, which I think he had inherited from the family. They made ladies corsets and other mysterious garments!. It closed in the 70s, but I discovered on this trip that during WW2 they made parachutes and apparently made over a million of them during the course of the war. The current building houses a museum, which I did not have time to visit.

I then spent the weekend with Andy and Chris Corner, and our mutual friend Barbara (with whom I did the narrow boat trip). 

We have all been friends for 46 years, and manage to get together every couple of years at least for lunch or dinner.

It is both gratifying and very satisfying having friends like this, where the relationships have been sustained over that length of time and where you can essentially pick it up and put it down at short notice. There is no doubt that we have all had our challenges in life and that those challenges have been different for each of us, but we all have kids who are successful in their own professions and are good role models for their kids or others around them. 

That is a huge accomplishment. I am very proud of all the friends I have and in particular these ones, and my long time buddy in Scotland Geoff.

We had lunch at the pub next to their house and I also saw the recently opened “Village shop” which is actually owned by the villagers and manned by volunteers. Quite an interesting little venture. It is located in the pub car park.

I am going to do one more post with some overall thoughts about the last 5 months and what I have seen and learned. I would not have missed it for the world, and can only think of two days on the whole trip when I was a little down.

Thoughts on French strikes and the PIIGS economic situation

Getting caught up in one of the regular French strikes on the railways (or anything else for that matter) caused me to talk with Peter about French attitudes and their workers expectations. In another post I mentioned the amount of vacation that most people in France are entitled to, and I learned more about the apparent inflexibility that most unions have to change. They appear to be highly protective of the workers and the jobs that they have and pretty much to hell with anyone else. It is incredibly difficult to fire anyone even if they are grossly incompetent, and there is level of mistrust between workers and management that is not seen elsewhere. The end result is that employers look for ways to automate jobs, and will do about anything to not increase the workforce, and international companies like Caterpillar and Volvo would likely not give France a second look as a potential site to expand or relocate a part of their business.

The unemployment rate amongst young people, particularly the disadvantaged youth in the northern Paris suburbs like St Denis, who are mainly of North African descent is about 45% and a proposal a couple of years ago to modify job tenure laws to improve their chances was defeated by the unions. I will find a way to link to the article as it is indicative of a larger problem that Europe is just beginning to come to terms with.

Link to the article referenced above

French unemployment article

The other thing that struck me was that to a large extent the way of life in the villages and small towns has not changed substantially. Small farms still dominate the landscape and school kids still come home for lunch. Shops close for an hour or two in the middle of the day and close at 12 on Saturday for the weekend.

You could well argue that they are the smart ones and those people who take 20 minutes for lunch, or even worse, eat lunch at their desk are the ones who need to change. In a perfect world that is probably true, but in the world of cost cutting, job cutting and outsourcing to India, China and Malaysia it cannot be sustained.

We have just had the Greek currency crisis, and that is likely the first of many as the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy Ireland Greece and Spain) finally realize, along with the UK and the USA that life as we know it will be fundamentally changing. Greece has a huge public sector employment and a lousy rate of people actually paying their taxes, and I suspect that most of the others will have similar problems that will have to be tackled at some point. I just read an interesting article about why more people should be audited. It might be a useful strategy for some of the PIIGS countries

Tax audits and the benefits of same

It will be interesting to see what David Cameron comes up with in his emergency budget in the UK on June 22^nd (I think).

Does Britain really need nuclear submarines and new tanks? Wars do not seem to be fought that way anymore, it is more by drones over Afghanistan operated by someone sitting at a console in Tampa Florida.

What started out as an observation of life in France has morphed into a more general rant over the serious economic situation we are ALL in. I hope my pension survives!!

More of the Haute Savoire and Annecy

Because Peter works in France he is entitled to 35 vacation days a year!!. There does not seem to be any rollover provision, although it would be difficult to determine what you would need to roll over for.

Anyway as his vacation yeat ends at the end of May he still had plenty of days and was able to take Monday as well.

We wanted to go to Annecy, which is about 30km towards Geneva, but as it is holiday season and it is a very popular place we decided to go on a weekday. A good decision upon reflection. Peter took us on a country route that went through more superb scenery in the Haute Savoire region. 

There is another range of mountains to the west of the lake and a tunnel to go through the mountain. I would say that the French like their tunnels and we went through plenty and I did the same again on the train when I left on Tuesday going back to Geneva.

We stopped and wandered in a couple of villages, and through a gorge with a swollen river and a small dam with the gates opened. It was reminiscent of the Buller Gorge in New Zealand and with the overhanging rock also reminiscent of the Connor Pass in Ireland. 

We arrived in Annecy around 1pm and decided we had better get lunch before everywhere closed up.

It is not so prevalent in the tourist towns, but in general most stores close for an hour or an hour and a half at lunchtime and always on Sunday. Peter told me that he believed it was illegal to cut your grass on a Sunday and he was not sure if that was all day or just Sunday afternoon. Imagine a peaceful Sunday afternoon with no mowers or weed eaters at work!!

Annecy is reported to be the second most expensive city in France, and is located on a beautiful lake and the old part of town is well kept, including the old jail that sits in the middle of the river that flows out of the lake. 

There has been a lot of rain and the river was high and fast flowing. This all made for a picture book scene as we sat outside in the sun and ate a delicious lunch.

We wandered around town for a while and enjoyed the sunshine and breeze, and then headed home via the supermarket. I took a shot of the cheese and yogurt aislejust to see the amazing selection

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French Alps

Peter and I worked at Cat together and he left a couple of years ago to work for Volvo on their Backhoe Loader program. He is based near Annecy, which is about 60km from Geneva in the French Alps and close to some world class skiing.

He is in his early thirties. His level of maturity, a result at least partially of his extensive traveling after University has always impressed me.

He has a very nice house just outside a small village. 

When I arrived I met his partner Rebekah, who is a veterinarian originally from near Brisbane Australia.

The house backs up to an impressive range of cliffs that reach up to about 4500 ft (15150 m) from the house height of about 1000 ft (300m)

Below and about 5km away is the largest natural lake in France Lac de Beregrat.

Friday morning Peter and I hiked a little around the villages in the immediate area and in some respects it is like stepping back about 50 years. There are lots of small farms and old (sometimes dilapidated) barns, small pastures that do not seem to have any particular care or animal rotation, but plenty of contented animals. We saw several herds of Abondonce. 

This is a breed of cattle that are kept and the farmers make a local cheese called Reblochon specifically for a local dish called “La Tartiflette” which is a specialized potato bake. (Rebekah made this for us on Sunday evening) The cheese looks like a Brie and has a similar consistency but is a little milder. 

 On Saturday went all drove up the mountain and then hiked out to a point that overlooks the valley. It was about 4 km I am guessing but a rocky trail with plenty of ups and downs. Truly spectacular scenery and there was lots of glider and parasailing activity. We were able to look down on the whole of Lac de Bergerat, and see the activity at the local Chambery airport and get a good appreciation of the local geography. The hike was only about an hour each way but a great way to spend an afternoon. 

Saturday night we ventured out to Chambery about 15 km away for dinner.The restaurant L’Atelier was quite small but had a great ambience and a very simple menu. There were two appetizers, two main courses and two desserts all for a set price (there was a supplement for the steak choice). The other option was “Menu Surprise” which is what it suggested. We are all sharers so the math worked out and we all had something different. It was fantastic and the amazing thing was how well each of the ingredients complemented the other. Rebekah had a vichyssoise  (chilled soup) that tasted bland if you just gently dipped your spoon in it, but if you went deep and got a little of the crab meat and other ingredients it was a whole different story. The “Menu Surprise” came with Fois-gras and a small spoon of a sort of mango chutney. Very rich but fantastic.

 A great find and we have all promised to do a Trip Advisor post on the place.

The weather for the first couple of days has been good but Sunday morning bought some rain, and a lazier day. In the afternoon we ventured down for a walk by the lake as the weather had improved and there was lots of sail boats on the lake and groups of guys playing “boule” the very French game played with steel balls and a small jack ball. Interesting people watching.

At the house all the rooms have external shutters that serve to block out the light (very effectively) and also for security if desired. I have been sleeping with the shutters up and the door open. The shutters are (in this case) electrically operated and are a regular feature of houses in France I believe. I asked about how you would get out of the house in the event of an emergency (fire) as the bathroom windows had bars on them and if you had the electrically operated shutters down and the power failed I do not know how you would get out. Logic says there would have to be a way (particularly in the regulated and safety conscious EU) to get out but we did not come up with the answer. It is interesting in that crime was not a particular problem in this part of the country but shutters and barred windows seemed to be the norm.

Peter commented that most modern construction here is poured concrete, and this house is certainly constructed that way. There is a big basement that includes a double garage and the laundry room. Upstairs has a fairly small kitchen, dining room and living room separated by double doors and then three bedrooms on one side and a single bathroom. 

There was an enormous corridor that went all the way down the side of the house and seemed to be disproportionately wide but is apparently quite normal. The only logic I could come up with is that it was somewhere to store some firewood inside for the immediate needs. 

There is plenty of evidence that wood is the primary heat source. Lots of log piles and cutting/splitting activity in the villages and countryside. 

More of France and Annecy in the next post, hopefully later today

Switzerland

After a couple of glorious days in the UK I headed to Geneva to spend a couple of days with Cliff and Sharon, whom I have known since I moved to Douglasville Ga in the mid 80s.

Cliff is wrapping up a 19-year stint in Europe after initially agreeing to a 2-year stint in Germany. They lived for most of the time in the UK and loved that as well as the time in Germany and Switzerland. Cliff works for Diebold and was largely responsible for developing the market (and their success in those markets) in the former USSR states including Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. My timing was good as they are packing up to move back to the Atlanta area in the next 30 days.

Sharon and her friend Jean were in fact leaving the morning after I arrived (not a coincidence I would like to think!). We had a wonderful dinner of planked salmon and orzo pasta complemented with some good wine from a local (as in 200 meters away) vineyard. I do not know much about Swiss wines as they seem to be grown and bottled mostly for local consumption.

Their house is out in the country about 25km from Geneva with good Motorway access close by and they are about 100 meters off the lake with the access to be able to walk down to the lake.

Michael Schumacher (F1 driver) has his estate about 4km down the road.

On Wednesday Cliff did a couple of airport runs and then went to work so I had a quiet day catching up and reading and also walked down to one of the nearby village for some exercise and the general excitement. I got the exercise but no excitement!

As one would expect in Switzerland everything is neat, orderly and clean. There is no litter and everything appears to work well. In many respects it is a European version of Japan.

I am not sure where the poor people live but the cost of living is high for many things, but a coffee and a croissant at a café in Geneva was less than $4.

Weather was good during the day but clouded up overnight and we had a thundershower as Cliff and I had dinner in a local restaurant last night.

Today (Thursday) Cliff bought me in to Geneva on his way to work and I checked my bag at the train station and headed in to town.

I s

I booked a 14.15 train to my next destination in the French Alps. I walked over to the Cat offices and had a pleasant lunch with Greg Gardner a long time colleague and friend.
I also stopped for a crepe on the way back to the train station. I resisted the Nutella and went for lemon juice and a little sugar. Very good it was too!

The well-crafted plan was to return to the train station and take a train to Aix Les Bains about a 75 min ride. It is close to where my friend Peter lives in the French Alps. Quelle horreur!! The French train drivers are on strike (apparently they were not when I bought my ticket at 9am this morning!) Anyway a change of plan and Peter was inconvenienced by having to drive to Geneva to collect me. I will post some more about where they live and reflections on some conversations in the next post.

More about Hippo Lodge

Somehow this one got lost and was never published! Sorry

We basically have two complete days in  the bush and while we want to have a relaxed time with family, we also want to see what we can and see the bush and animals.

I was up not a whole lot after it got light and went down and got the remains of the campfire started as it is certainly cool in the mornings at this time of year. Maybe 8-10C (around 50F).The picture in the previous post was actually taken in the early morning and you can see a little mist on the river where the relatively warm river meets the cool air with just enough wind to form advection fog.

Over the next hour or so various bodies started to appear and we had a good cooked breakfast planned.

Although the chalet is self catering, Hippo Lodge supplies a kitchen helper who also keeps the hot water heater supplied with wood. His name is Brian and he was a great guy. There when needed but unobtrusive and efficient. We had heard a loud bang around 8 the previous evening and it was our water heater, but a crew arrived and had it fixed and the water back running in an hour or so. Highly unusual for Africa that anything gets fixed that quickly so kudos the to Hippo Lodge team.

A team effort (mostly the ladies I will admit) produced an excellent breakfast complete with toast from the newly created Zambian toaster. 

This was the grill (charcoal of course) that was flipped over and the grid portion placed over the embers of the fire. It even had a heat control (Wolf lifting the grid up and down with a stick) and cousin Fan made some excellent toast!