Why be like the other sheep?
Exploring caverns and mines in the Peak District seeking a special kind of rock.
The southern half of the Peak District is known as the White Peak because of its limestone geology. As limestone is porous, the area is riddled with caves and mines. Continue reading “Looking for Blue John”
Dubai didn’t live up to my expectations. This was a good thing.
Dubai had never appealed to me as a tourist destination. I’d considered living there and using it as a base for travelling around the region, but not as a destination in itself.
I mean, what’s the point in going all that way just to go to a shopping mall right? Continue reading “Friday Flickr – Dubai”
This museum is about everything Västerbotten
I was only in Umeå because that was where the bus ended up and it was where I could pick up the night train back to Stockholm. I’d spent the summer walking northern Sweden’s Kungsleden trail and now I was on my way home. Continue reading “Västerbottens Museum, Umeå”
The world’s largest Buddhist temple is Indonesia’s most visited attraction.
For this week’s Friday Flickr I’m going to Indonesia to showcase the country’s most visited tourist attraction.
Borobudur is a Buddhist temple on the island of Java. It was built in the ninth century and abandoned in the fourteenth. Five hundred years later it was ‘discovered’ by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Continue reading “Friday Flickr – Borobudur”
I’m so glad I don’t live near Borough Market. I’d spend all my money on cheese and licorice.
Last Saturday morning I arrived in London far too early for my afternoon tea at the Ritz, so to while away a few hours I went to Borough Market. I couldn’t believe I’d waited so long to pay this foodie haven a visit. Continue reading “Friday Flickr – Borough Market”
Photographs from the final section of Sweden’s Kungsleden trail.
This week’s Friday Flickr album has the photos from the final stage of my Kungsleden hike. On this section I stayed in huts for the first time and experienced my best ever sauna. I was also hit with the worst weather I’d experienced on the trail since starting in Abisko two years ago, though from my photos you wouldn’t guess this as there are plenty of blue skies on show.
The total Kungsleden is around 440km (depending on which source you read). This section is 78km long.
Would I recommend it? Definitely. Would I go back and do it again? No. But only because there are so many other places I want to see.
Click on the image below to access the Flickr album.
The Kungsleden is a trail that begins in Abisko above the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden and finishes 440km later in Hemavan.
It is divided into five parts with the breaks in the sections falling where there is a road and access to public transport.
Although most people walk one or two sections, there are plenty who walk the whole path in one go. I’ve met people walking the whole way in as a little as two weeks (my mind boggles at this), but most take at least a month.
Even if you’re only walking one section you are going to have to think about what food to take with you. Continue reading “Food to Pack for the Kungsleden”
Photographs from the fourth and penultimate section of Sweden’s Kungsleden trail.
This week’s Friday Flickr is an album of photographs I took whilst walking the fourth section of the Kungsleden this summer. I’d walked the first two parts of the trail two years ago and had returned to finish it.
Last week’s Friday Flickr shows the first part of this year’s walk (the third section of the trial) and this week’s is the continuation from Jäkkvik (pop = 90), where I stayed in the village for a couple of nights, to Ammarnäs (pop = either 95 or 250 depending which source you believe).
This section is one of the quieter sections as, apart from the small village of Adolfström with its one shop, there isn’t anywhere to buy food along the way. There are a few STF huts, but as these are not manned, staying in them means arranging to borrow a key before setting off.
I spent about 10 days walking this section camping along the way.
To access the Flickr album click on the image below.
The Moravians have been in my home town for several hundred years, yet many people have no idea this beautiful settlement exists.
The place I live isn’t known for its aesthetic beauty, trendiness or cultural delights. If anything, it attracts more bad press than good. So it’s all the more surprising that somewhere like the Moravian Settlement at Fairfield exists here. It’s hidden away between two main roads and you could easily drive past it every day without realising it’s there. Continue reading “The Moravians at Fairfield – A Photo Essay”
If you haven’t got naked in a sauna with a group of strangers then you haven’t experienced Sweden properly.
Be honest now. Did you click on this page expecting to be titillated by erotic tales and salacious images? If you did, I have one thing to say to you … Continue reading “Getting Naked in a Swedish Sauna”
