London

I beamed like a child landing on home ground. So many different and amazing experiences in 70 days away, but after an emotional goodbye in Quito 10 days I was ecstatic to see Sarah at Heathrow arrivals. Driving home in the sun I loved seeing both familiar London sights and new ones (some of the roadworks had moved at least 100 yards since April). Its great to be home!

Sailing the BVI

Arriving in the Caribbean paradise that is the British Virgin Islands 24 hours late, Richard boarded the 47 ft yacht for his Day Skipper course, to meet the English 56 year old Delboy sound-a-like instructor Alan. (Late mainly because flight 1 of 3 was delayed by 14 hours. Admittedly missing flight 3 because I was watching the Ghana-Uruguay thriller didn’t help...oops). The other 3 crew were good fun hearty-laugh-a-minute Caribbeans, especially once I realised that I wasn’t supposed to understand all of things they said in Creole. (Creole sounds a lot like its just heavily accented Caribbean English to the uninitiated. As I was.) The heat was gorgeous when tempered by the constant trade winds on the water during the day, but at night while we enjoyed moorings at picture-postcard white sandy beaches the unrelenting heat with no breeze wasn’t fun, especially when the hatches were closed to keep the light rain out. Although Alan taught us well, he was one of those irritating people who always starts with “no” before explaining to you what you just said, and gems such as “I never really understood centimetres, me” occasionally made me feel like being in one the opening scenes of Casualty. We did a lot of sailing around incredible islands, but also found time to relax in the sun and water. Truly a week in paradise to hold onto when I get back to work.

Cycling Ecuador’s mountains and jungle

In 5-day cycling trip around central Ecuador, we rode down snowed-capped mountains in the snow and rain as well as sweltering in jungle terrain visited by parrots and a massive wild Macaw, and cycled past a (gently) erupting volcano billowing enormous dust clouds. Breakfast time in a little town called Banos was also where we watched England loose 4-1 to Germany in a small cafe, along with 4 Brits, 4 Germans, and our football-mad Ecuadorian guide, Fernando, strategically cheering for his clients’ team, but we could see his heart wasn’t really in it! After a day trip white-water rafting, and Sarah’s 20km solid uphill training session on the way back to Quito we celebrated our last night together before Sarah headed home to London. I think Ecuador deserves a higher profile as a holiday destination - its like the whole world in one country: cold 6000m mountains, hot amazon rainforest, boiling coast and incredible Galapagos. It’s also home to Chimborazo (6310m), which due to the earth bulging at the equator is the highest mountain on the planet when measured from the centre of the earth. Fact.

Cycling Ecuador

Tomorrow we start a 5-day cycle trip around the mountains and jungle of Ecuador. Off to pack...

Other sights from Galapagos

Hammerhead sharks we saw whilst diving (North Seymour Island)


The blue-footed booby. No gags there then.

A lucky sighting of a Galapagos Owl. Taken a-back by Rich's choice of haircut.

The playful sealions are everywhere. One tried to play with us whilst diving, and chewed at Rich's fin. Another is seen here instructing a fishmonger on correct preparation of his catch, whilst the Pelican supervisory board look-on.

One of the many white-sanded crystal-watered beaches. Home to Pelicans, Frigates, Albatross and Boobies fishing.

Lonesome George

He looks so sad, and its such a sad story. He's the poor chap who's the very last of his particular sub-species from Pinta island. Aged around 90, he is surrounded by scientists supplying him with females of different sub-species, encourging him to do his best. If he doesn't reproduce the sub-species will be extinct. Puts a different spin on "not if you were the last man on earth".

Galapagos Giant Tortoises

The amazing giant tortoises, unique to Galapagos.

They're funny.

They're hard to copy.

And no wonder they're endangered; the females know all the tricks in the book, simply rotating to scupper the advances of the enthusiastic-but-certainly-not-agile male.