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Here’s a variant on a couple of walks I’ve done previously: a 24 mile jaunt from Cholsey near Didcot to Newbury along a bit of the Ridgeway and through the North Wessex Downs. I’d really recommend it actually: scenery on the downs is lovely and the detour at the end avoided a boring trudge down […]

A few weeks ago I went to stay with a friend who lives in St Neots. Now, St Neots itself does not have a whole lot of attractions except a nature reserve and a pleasant market town centre, but it is close to Cambridge so I went there for the day on Sunday. I can’t […]

Due to an unexpected hiccup at the factory I had to extend my trip by a week and so had a weekend to do some sightseeing. Now, this being my fourth visit to Suzhou I’ve done most of the attractions of the city and surrounding area, and plus there was a typhoon threatening to ruin […]

I seem to be visiting China every few months at the moment. Which good for accumulating air miles but since I always go to the same area finding new things to do at the weekend is becoming harder. So on the Sunday after my arrival in Shanghai, slightly jet-lagged, I went to a museum seldom […]

A hot and sunny summer day meant it was definitely time to go adventuring in the Chilterns. So last Saturday I set of a not particularly adventurous adventure from Henley to Wallingford and back again. This is a lush meadow heading out of Henley. So many flowers and bugs! I’ve visited Wallingford a couple of […]

I had one last day in Shanghai after my holiday before flying back home. I arrived really early on the overnight train, so I had a great opportunity to beat the queue and go up the Oriental Pearl Tower which I had shunned before. I went to the “middle” globe (which is actually quite near […]

Back to holiday blogging! This time I’m visiting another traditional village in Anhui called Hongcun (宏村). If it looks vaguely familiar it’s because it’s often used as a film set. Most notably for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. This scene with the bridge reflecting on the lake is a favourite among Chinese artists. The village was […]

I tried to escape the post-Brexit gloom on Sunday by going for a little walk from near High Wycombe to Gerrards Cross. Was pleasant enough, if uneventful. There are a lot of very nice houses, or rather mansions, in this area. I haven’t been doing very well with adventuring this year. A combination of a […]

Qiyun Shan (齐云山) is one of the Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism and about 30 minutes drive or 45 minutes bus ride from where I was staying in Tunxi. The name means something like “level-with-clouds mountain”. Although it wasn’t raining when I arrived, I was ominously the only passenger on the bus up to the […]

Due to a catastrophic lack of forward planning I’d only planned one day out on my trip to Anhui and figured I’d leave the rest to happenstance. The guidebook mentioned this placed called Jixi Longchuan (绩溪龙川) was worth a visit. So I set about trying to get there. The great thing about China is that […]