uglyscot's VirtualTourist Home Page

FIRST THINGS
I was born in the middle of WWII to a Scottish mother and English father. My mother would be sent off to the north of Scotland with me whenever the bombing grew intense, so from my earliest days I have been on the move, and in those days by train.
TRAINS
I still love the journey north by train, though now by electric or diesel, not steam . And remember how high the trains seemed to be in France, how fast in Italy, and how slow in Sudan, how shabby in Egypt, and how uncomfortable the wooden seats were in Switzerland.
EARLY TRAVEL
In 1951 my family had their first holiday abroad, to France. This was most unusual in those days. The journey involved boat and train.This was followed in 1953 by a month in Norway. After this foreign travel took off generally, and my next trip was to Switzerland on a school trip; followed by Belgium in a student exchange.
ROAD TRIPS
In the 1950s the family bought a car , so from then on we did our Scottish holidays by road . This enabled us to take different routes, and we had other holidays in Britain itself.
One early day trip was to Stonehenge which sparked my interest in ancient history and geology.
[For more pictures of Stonehenge see my Stonehenge page and travelogue.]
AIR TRAVEL
My first experience of air travel was a month in Holland in 1963 to stay with a penfriend. I loved the experience of flying. Next was when I left UK to live in Sudan, and the trips to and fro. Travelling with young children is stressful and I only began to enjoy travel when I started to travel on my own after the children got married. Now I don't enjoy it any more. I sit looking at my watch to find only 5 minutes have passed!
BOATS
Crossing the English Channel is fun especially by hovercraft. When we went to Norway by boat everyone was seasick. Other than that I've pottered around in my father's boats, and been on a felucca and a large boat on the NIle. Don't know if I'd fancy a cruise though.

In 1958 the family re-located to Scotland with the intention of living in Mother's village, but we ended up elsewhere in the region. .
I then had the opportunity to see many parts of this beautiful part of Britain, that has always been my spiritual home. I love the Western Highlands with its bare mountains and lochs. The east coast is flatter and colder, exposed as it is to the winds from the North Sea, but has its own special charms. Trips across to Skye, before the bridge was built, was an adventure. Driving from Tongue down through the centre of Sutherland along narrow roads with passing places was a real experience. The rail trip via Perth offers spectacular scenery.The northern coast has rugged cliffs, and white sandy beaches.
To me, Scotland has everything to offer, and my heart lifts the minute I cross the border.

In 1968 I went to live in Africa. My travel then concentrated on flying between my home and Uk every few years. I did some short trips inside the Sudan and a trip to Egypt and another to Kenya.
With my children growing older and fares expensive, my parents would arrange holidays in Italy as a sort of half-way house. Then Spain entered the picture, as my parents annually travelled south in the winter for a number of years.
With my children grown up and married, my wandering life has really taken off. When my husband was working in Cairo, I travelled frequently to UK, Italy, and the Gulf so that I could visit some of my children [or should that be , see the grandchildren], I have also accompanied him on his official trips to Rome, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan , Cyprus ,Morocco and Lebanon.
Now that he has retired, it will be back to Sudan and my wanderings will cease.
Unlike other virtual tourists my world is rather narrow, but it is still an adventure to be told " I've booked you on ............ for the ........... to go to ......"

At the age of 15 I took an interest in Ancient Egypt , which has never completely left me. In Sudan I used to be a member of the Archaeological society and go on trips to some sites; and even spent a week washing potsherds and measuring beads, nails and stone instruments for an archaeologist friend.
Prehistoric sites interest me. I always try to visit ancient sites if any are in the neighbourhood where I am visiting. When travelling around Uk in the 1950s we'd look out for long barrows and round barrows, as well as standing stones. I'm lucky that in my part of the country , Easter Ross, there are a lot of Pictish standing stones [See my pages for Shandwick, Nigg and Edderton; and the Broch under Helmsdale.] Illustrated is an Ogham stone found in a friend's garden.
Now my main interest is in my own past. I'm obsessed by genealogy, but cannot break the barrier beyond 1750. I have started visiting places where the ancestors lived [Shandwick, Balintore, Navidale, parts of north and east London, and Canterbury] and summer 2006 managed to explore the villages of my Norfolk and Suffolk ancestors.

At university, a course in Geology instilled in me a fascination with stones , minerals, fossils and rock formations. I collect interesting specimens from wherever I go.[see Cyprus warning]
And since I got my first box camera at age 9, I have always taken photos. Admittedly not very good ones until digital came along. As long as you have enough memory you can click away until something good appears.
I used to take a lot of snaps of our various animals but prefer to take pictures of my grandchildren nowadays. I have always liked taking pictures of places. I cannot understand people who flip rapidly through photographs if there are no people in them.
So, the vast majority of the photos on these pages are my own.. I only resort to borrowing when absolutely necessary.

Before the computer took over my life, books were my greatest friends. I still travel with a book wherever I go- except to go shopping. I once went to a disco and spent the evening in the cloakroom reading an Agatha Christie mystery [The Murder of Roger Ackroyd] , to the horror of my girl friends.
I read many different kinds of books- but nowadays the thicker the better. I have had phases of reading almost anything: British literature, Shakespeare, poetry, Russian literature, detective and mystery stories , science fiction, romance, sagas, travel books, biography and autobiography, parapsychology- almost anything except politics and self-help philosophy. Some of my students called me 'encyclopaedia' because I seemed to know something about almost anything, but it is all just picked up from books.
As a child I lived on Enid Blyton, Malcolm Saville and Arthur Ransome.
Then moved on to Dennis Wheatley, Dornford Yates and Agatha Christie.
I loved "Gone with the Wind", the book. . Nowadays I read between 200-300 books in a good year, but few really stand out in my memory.

My favourite travel book in recent years is Florence Nightingale's "Letters from Egypt'. The most recent was Michael Palin's 'Sahara', but I find him condescending and sometimes naive, especially in his documentaries! So, now I'd rather go to places than read about them before hand, even guide books. An exception is the guide to the Egyptian Museum which is absolutely gorgeous.

Not really a travel book but history was The biography of Florence Baker, describing in detail her travel to discover the source of the Nile. Gruesome and fascinating.
Another big read which I enjoyed was the book on how China discovered the American Continent long before Columbus.

I'm interested in people, but don't like being with a crowd.
I like swimming but am not keen on water.
I like seeing new places but am uneasy flying.
I like mountains to look at but am terrified of heights.
I like driving, but am a terrible passenger..

I'm a typical Pisces, except that I don't drink alcohol.
I dabble in astrology, and keep an open mind about many of the new age fads.

I've got an ear for languages, but no ear for music. There are a few singers I like, and a few songs; but that's it..

I'm my own worst enemy , and my own best friend.

And I'm still trying to know who and what I am.

On the other hand
I hate being accused of things I didn't do.
I hate being told how to run my life
I hate people who try to take advantage of me
and I hate violence

Since returning to live in Sudan in August 2006 my travel has been severely restricted. I take the odd trip into the Gezira province to places like Wad Medani and Abu Ushar.
I have been to Khartoum North and Omdurman, as well as Khartoum itself.
In February 2007 we went back to Cairo for 10 days but I was ill so it was a wasted journey.
June-September 2007 to Dubai to my daughter. I went for 3 weeks which became 3 months
August 2007 made a brief trip into Oman
October/November 2007 a week each in London and Wales. We'd planned a few days in Cairo but airport security/bureaucracy prevented that.
November/December 2007: Husband had business in India in November, and planned a week for us. We stayed in Delhi and visited Mumbai . Then planned our holiday to Agra, Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri. It was a nice trip except for me breaking my leg and having restricted access to sites.
We then spent a week with our daughter in Dubai.

2008: I made several forays into Gezira Province in Sudan.
In March we planned a trip to the north to see the new Merowe Dam, Jebel Barkal, the Pyramids there and at Nuri, and the tomb at El Kurru. On the way home we spent a few hours at the pyramids at Bejrawiya [Meroe]. A brilliant trip.
Next on the agenda:
April in Paris. I know it's shameful, but I've never been before.
May: Back to Britain- London for birth of my 5th grandchild; and Wales to see my daughter and her two children. [I won't forget you, Pattypoo]
Then a few days end of May/June to Cairo .

Future travel? A lot depends on what my husband has to do.. We just have to wait and see.
Did I hear a faint whisper of Thailand and Vietnam, or even Japan? Or was it France and UK?
We just have to wait and see.
At least here on Vt I can see the world through virtual travel.

Because my husband is a forester, I've learned a lot about trees and plants. I don't have green fingers; our garden is a disaster because of water problems and a ravenous tortoise, and , in our absence, neglect. The only plants that flourish are bougainvillea and cacti.
I like sweet peas, fuschia, snowdrops, rhododendrons and roses.
I like the willow tree, monkey puzzle tree, cypress, silver birch, copper beech, cedars, baobab and palms.

So don't be surprised if there are a number of pictures of trees and shrubs and flowers on my pages