Covid travel restrictions are difficult to follow. They change, they mutate, they annoy but they are an integral part of contemporary travel. To a great degree, we have become more fearful of bureaucracy than the virus itself. On my way home from France, I was wandering past the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, checking on its progress, when my phone pinged and an email arrived. This email came from the PCR testing laboratory, and would tell me if I was able to return to Canada or not. I opened the email with slightly more trepidation than I had anticipated, and breathed […]

Tourism is a very, very complex industry that has been designed to look simple. Hundreds of interlocking components come together to deliver the illusion of the simple life. The image of azure seas lapping against yellow sands patrolled by Beautiful People carelessly shaking their hair takes a great deal of work.   A simple vacation requires airline seats, transfer vehicles, hotels and restaurants, attractions and a great deal of food and drink. Add the vast army of people needed and a stupendous amount of capital, you have the tip of the iceberg. These Dark Days of Covidry have hit the tourism […]

The Trip to Saskatchewan Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’s primary cities, are fun; not, perhaps as scintillating as Paris or Bangkok, but fine places to spend a day or two in search of distraction. The idea of spending a couple of nights in the Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina and the Bessborough in Saskatoon, two rather elegant properties of the Old Railway Era, was enticing after so much lock-down. So, following guidelines assiduously, we drove 600 kilometres west (four traffic lights) to get away for a brief escape. I like museums. Probably a later-life compensation for ignoring my teachers at high school, […]

Thirteen kilometres east of Elbow lies a true Saskatchewan surprise: The Smooth 42 Craft Distillery. And it is well worth pulling over to visit. This the third day of the trip, and yes, I know that Day 2 is yet to be published, was a day for small-town-exploration. It was a day to look at some of the province’s more esoteric museums, from which there are many to choose. Sadly, the Covidry nature of the expedition meant that many were closed, some even thought to mention this on their website. One was particularly interesting. Located in a community called Morse, […]

A Prairie Road Trip Saskatchewan offers some terrific opportunities for a Road Trip. The Prairies are not my normal beat, I will admit, but in these Covidry Times, needs must. Canada’s patchwork regulations allow travel to and from a bewildering combination of Provinces without quarantine. At  the moment, Manitobans are only permitted to return from the four Western Provinces without two-weeks of self-isolation. Given the vast distances, and the almost Newtonian Law that every mile driven away from home must be retraced, Vancouver, while tempting, is a long way away. And let’s be honest. The Prairies while dramatic, are best […]

Turkmenistan is fascinating; from the quirky capital of Ashgabat to the ruins at Merv in the Karakum Desert, there is always something of interest to see, do or hear

For some reason, I have been to this curious corner of the Sahara twice. Once deliberately, as I have long been fascinated with odd places, and once as part of the drive from Spain to Sierra Leone.

Guinea is loud and unpredictable; the countryside is raw and overwhelming; its people are friendly yet reticent; and its roads, dear God, its roads ……