M0B1US's VirtualTourist Home Page

So after finishing Uni and getting my degree, I thought a little reward in the shape of a holiday was called for...

Friends of ours had invited us to take advantage of free use of their flat in Toulouse, so we decided on going for a little over a week spending the first couple of days exploring the city before getting a hire car to go further afield including Carcassone, The Dordogne, Cathar Country and a quick nip over the border to Spain and Andorra. The weather was beautifully sunny in the mid twenties all week and I have a nice tan to prove it!

Earlier in July we made it up to Staylittle in Mid-Wales to stay with a friend for about a week and got to do a bit of kayaking, hiking, camping and white water rafting as well as a bit of sightseeing...

In late April we had a fabulous little sojourn in Belgium (4 nights Brussels & 2 nights Antwerp) doing the whole sightseeing and culture thing (BEER!). My enduring memory will be the sampling of so many beers and finding out so much about the Trappist beers, having tried Orval and Chimay in the past I acquainted myself with the rocket fuel of Rochefort and the sublime Westmalle Dubbel and Tripel - and yes I bought the glass!

My other major trip of 2006 was to Tenerife for a fieldtrip and boy was it hot! I've never worked so hard in my life, but I had a great time!

And before Tenerife I was up in Snowdonia for a weekend camping and looking after some Duke of Edinburgh's people - it was cold!

Recent trips include a trip to Bath with friends for Lamb_Chop's birthday, and Gloucester to avoid the Severn Bridge Tolls...;-)

Our most recent overseas trip was a long weekend driving holiday across the Ferry to Rotterdam via Belgium and France to meet friends. We also managed to fit in Dordrecht, Oostende, Gent, Brugge and Calais - weren't we busy...;-)

Prior to that we managed a long weekend just across the Irish Sea in Dublin and a group of us rented a converted chapel in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales for five days in September...

In between those trips, Morgan (Lamb_Chop), my partner in crime and co-conspirator and I have had plenty of free time to conduct mini driving explorations across the length and breadth of southern Wales and England including a mini meet with VT's Iandsmith and his partner in Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswolds...

Major trips of 2005 included Iceland over Easter, managing to get in quite a big chunk of the country by doing a circumnavigation of the island!

The weather was great - temps down as low as -7C - -12C and snow laden gale force winds cutting visibility to near zero and icing up the roads!

Wouldn't have missed it for the world! :-)

Planning the next journey by ferry via the Shetland Faroe isles...

Also at the beginning of 2005 got back from an awesome trip of almost a month to Egypt covering practically every corner of this great and colourful country...

Unfortunately I don't have any time to write up my Egyptian pages for the near future either so my pics will have to stay under wraps for the time being. Hopefully sometime soon - inshallah!

Ma'a Salaama!

RECENT TRIPS!(2004):

My other overseas trips in 2004 were to Rhodes in June braving temps up to 43 degrees celsius, and Prague in January where the weather was decidedly snowy - and I have to say *WOW!*

Visit my latest updates, Wales, St Fagans, Tenby, Penarth, Caerphilly, St Davids, Cardiff, Bridgend

Most of my pages are still a 'work in process' being updated as and when, however listed below are the ones that I can truly say are finished - until I go back again that is!

Daylesford in VIC, Australia
Krabi in Southern Thailand
Big Sur in California, USA
Lone Pine in California, USA
Sequoia National Park, in California, USA
The Florida Keys in Florida(!), USA
Watkins Glen in New York State, USA
Intercourse in Pennsylvania, USA

Also included in this list are my Australian Outback pages listed below...

AUSTRALIA'S OUTBACK:

I have just 'completed' my first tranche of pages by uploading all of my little Outback Adventure last december! It was a fantastic experience and certainly a unique one, as I have never been to anywhere quite like this before! Please check out my Wilcannia, White Cliffs, Broken Hill & Silverton pages to gain an insight as to why I found the Australian Outback such a marvelous place! These all flow onto each other in the order that I have described...

TRAVELOGUES:

While most of my travelogues are merely repositories for extra pictures, there are some that actually tell a story and those are, in order of quality: Budawang Bushwalk, London's Southbank in B&W, Las Vegas, Around Maui, Borough Market in London and Tucson Arizona... Why not check them out?

UNIQUE PAGES:

I am proud of the fact that my Budawang Ranges, Canowindra, White Cliffs and Wilcannia pages are all unique at VT - yes folks, the only place on VT you can find out about these incredibly interesting locations is right here in my travel pages!

Home Sweet Home!?:

Currently Lamb_Chop and I are living in Cardiff (Wales) attending and hosting the odd VT drop-in session, whilst I finish my final year of a three year degree course in Environmental Geoscience! It's Crunch Time!!!

Why a degree so late in life!?

After coming home from my travels around the globe I was a little lost and feeling more than a bit directionless in my life.

The opportunity presented itself and I grabbed it with both hands, as doing a degree at University is something that I had always intended to do with my life at some point but for some reason, the time had never been right - or I'd known exactly what I wanted to do...

After years of 'doing IT' cooped up in the offices of big companies in London, I finally decided that a corporate existence was not the thing for me and, along the way, I had developed a keen interest in the environment and humankind's impact on it.

Is this what I want to do with my life? I'm not sure, but I sure as hell am not going to continue sitting around waiting in vain for the right thing to come along!

Another reason for coming to Cardiff is that a large chunk of my family is Welsh and I have a Welsh name, so it would be nice to have actually lived here and maybe even get to grips with learning a little of the language...

Cardiff is Europe's youngest and most rapidly growing capital city - there is a buzz about this place, and believe me, in the coming years you will begin to hear about this place!

I love the change in pace from coming from London - you can get places without seemingly spending half the day to do so and everything seems to be at your fingertips here, especially living right in the centre of town! But don't get me wrong, I still love London and no matter where I end up in the World, I will always be a Londoner at heart as it was this great city that nurtured me and made me who I am today - why not see what I mean and visit my London page?

My most recent trip was a 'taster' in SE Asia, taking in Bali and Singapore, with a land trip along the length of the Malay Peninsula through western Malaysia all the way up to Bangkok.

It was a fantastic time, and I really wish I had longer and I will - next time! These adventures will be put on the VT pages in good time...

A little bit about me:

Hmmm, I can see this part becoming the 'warts and all' part, finally turning everyone off me after a promising start... ;-)

Lets see...

I have an appalling sporting record of supporting teams that are consistent underdogs such as West Ham for English Premiership Football ***BACK IN THE PREMIERSHIP AFTER WINNING THE PLAYOFF FINAL HERE IN CARDIFF***, and only narrowly missing out to Liverpool in the FA Cup also here in Cardiff (Boo!). Wales for Rugby (though we did win the Grand Slam in 2005!) and International Football, and the Cincinnati Bengals for American Football - so you can never call me a glory hunter! ;-) Well actually, after 15 barren years as the NFL's 'losingest' team the Bengals had a banner year and finally made it to the Playoffs. Here's hoping Carson Palmer can bounce back from that horrific knee injury sustained against Pittsburgh...!

My interests include:

Extensive Traveller - Including two long round the world trips, amateur travel writer and photographer.

Avid Film & Theatre Buff - Appeared as reviewer for Moviewatch on CH4 in October 1997. Also been an extra a couple of times.

Bon Vivant - I just love great food and drink, being a bit of an amateur connoisseur of wines and a dabbler in the kitchen. My favourite cuisines are Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Italian...

Physically Fit - Regular Mountain Biking, Hiking, Thai Kickboxing & Five-a-Side-Football.

Knowledge - I love learning about new things in any field, History, Geography, Science, Culture, The Arts, Politics, you name it...

If you absolutely cannot wait for more pictures and a fairly detailed travelogue of my entire trip across the US(who am I trying to kid!?), check out the Photo Albums on my Website. I have also created a gallery of my Australian trip, and one of SE Asia - they say a picture says a thousand words, I figure you easily have a couple of hundred thousand 'words' to get through in there... ;-)

Except I haven't updated it in over a year! I feel another project coming on... ;-)

I hope that gives you a little insight into my World... :-)

MY FRIDGE

After returning from the continent...

Needless to say, apart from the odd fugitive bottle of wine, my beer fridge has been well and truly drained... ;-)

Mmm, time for another 'cultural' trip...!

Inspired by Fridge pics across VT!

A FINAL POLITE NOTICE:

I have been getting a number of people emailing me for help with information lately - priority is made helping those who have made a commitment to be a part of the VT community, as opposed to those who have merely created an account to ask said question. If you catch my drift...

WHY I LOVE THIS SITE:

It's amazing some of the gems people post on this site, and this is my favourite: Very Big Wheel

Never even knew this existed until I came across it here! :-)

WHY I'M ON THIS SITE:

These pages will hopefully represent in some part that which I have achieved so far in the realms of travel, as well as an insight as to who I am and, hopefully, what makes me tick...

I intend my pages to educate and inspire you in the same way that my experiences of these places, close and far away, have educated and inspired me. My pages will contain in depth descriptions and narratives of my encounters, good or bad and a little of the history and background of the place in question including my thoughts at the time and the odd amusing anecdote...