Touring Morocco

After two nights in Marrakech, we took a 3 day tour to the Sahara & back. We saw some incredible scenery, spent a night in the Sahara desert & rode camels in the moonlight, watching the sun slowly rise above the dunes. It was an awesome experience & was nice to escape the hustle and bustle of Marrakech for a few days.

Stopping to take in the incredible views...




Camel time!





Our tent in the desert




Watching the sun rise on our camels, Jimi Hendrix & Bob Marley.


With our guide Jusef, who named us Ali Baba and Fatima Cous cous

Bath, Stonehenge & Avebury...

We spent three nights in beautiful Bath and took an excellent day tour to Stonehenge, Avebury & Castle Combe (it was minus 7 degrees that day!!) this area of England is so gorgeous. I was able to see a few Harry Potter film locations (win!!) - photos of those to come in another post - and was hugely embarressed when the tour guide kept calling me Mrs Harry Potter (trust me, I was NOT the only one excited about Harry Potter related sites - I saw those sneaky photos lots of others were taking!)




Bath Abbey


Roman Baths





Stonehenge -




Avebury -






Castle Combe -









Sweet treats from an 'honesty system' table

Iceland...

As we descended into Iceland, all that could be seen was endless lava fields, dotted with clumps of snow. On the bus trip in it felt like another planet - the landscape was dull and empty - no trees, no colour. But it would be wrong to call Iceland ugly - it is such a beautiful country, so wild but so welcoming and safe. The weather was mostly awful while we were there but we tried to see as much as possible regardless...

Dog sledding...

Despite the lack of snow, we decided to stick with our plan to go dog sledding, although on this occasion it would be better named dogs-pulling-us-along-in-a-little-cart-on-wheels. Nevertheless the dogs were gorgeous and it was a pretty fun experience (but I presume it's more thrilling WITH snow!)

Dressed for the occasion -

Oxford...

Oxford was such a wonderful city,the kind of place we wanted to spend more time exploring - finding the perfect pub, a cozy cafe, the best bookstore. We both would love to live in Oxford, surrounded by beautiful buildings, history and really, really clever people! We only spent two nights here, but would love to visit again if we get the chance...

Hot air ballooning

It's difficult to talk about favourites when you have been exploring incredible countries for over 5 months, but without a doubt, hot air ballooning in Cappadocia has been a major highlight of our trip. It all started on a Friday morning before the sun rose - we were up before 6am (how rude! I thought this was a holiday?!) and waited, without much hope, staring at the fog and snow surrounding us. Our pilot, Suat, remained positive and before we knew it the skies had cleared and they were preparing for take-off!














No tears!



The incredible views...








Celebrating a safe journey with a glass of champagne!