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http://www.gardenscoventry.com Call us now on 02476 998768 Block Paving Specialists, Fencing, Decking, Conservatory’s, Driveways, Patios Duration : 0:1:43
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Danielwoods’s travel blog entry: “3/05/07 64.74kms A cup of tea on the patio with Howard before he went off to work and I joined Nancy in the dinning room where breakfast was laid. Grapefruit, muesli, tea and toast set me up for the day before I packed up the bike and peddled into town. Leaving the bike locked to a railing on the pavement a local told me it’d be nicked if I didn’t move it. So taking it to the shop entrance and asking the guard to keep and eye on it, I went in searching for chocolate. Cadburys milk was available for a painful 23,000Z$; or so it said on the shelf — but by the time I’d taken it to the checkout it was upto 60,000Z$ (I’d paid 80,000 for a nights camping 2 nights ago) So choosing a cheaper local variety that wasn’t partial to the same inflation, I again approached the till. The lady there is praying for me as I type — and she also offered practical help by giving me her sisters number in Blantyre. Out of town I turned onto the quiet road to ‘Great Zimbabwe’. After 30kms of hills, wind and increasing heat I reached the ruins. The office wouldn’t accept Z$ unless I had an official exchange receipt, so I paid 21US$ for admission and a guide. Chris was a totally professional guide, who’d learnt his script, manner and colonial English vocabulary perfectly. He showed me around the ‘Old pile of rocks’ as Howard had called them, giving different possibilities for their existence. Due to plundering, looting and terrible archaeology no one really knows what the place was for; who built it, under who’s instructions or why. He thought it was built by the local Shona people, for their Kings between C13 and C17. 8 Kings are thought to have lived there, accumulating roughly 200 wives each that lived in the lesser structure down below. The main place is on a 100m hill, overlooking the lake and stunning forest. Its a castle like enclosure, with giant granite brick walls held together without mortar. Various chambers are thought to have been used for things such as gold smelting and music and used by a median and advisors. Giant natural rocks are incorporated into the design, making it thoroughly imposing. It overlooks the wives domain, which although built in the valley is similarly grand. The walls there are 10-13m high and 4-7m thick! I’ve been told that Africans don’t like snakes, but this is the first time I saw it. We were plodding down the mountain on a narrow footpath; me in front when a snake slithered across the path into the grass. Chris screamed a shrill ‘****’ and turned running back up the mountain, looking pale and petrified. Through my guided walk I couldn’t find any Zim flag stickers for sale, so I peddled up the dirt track to the ‘Great Zimbabwe Hotel’. They didn’t have any there either and even told me that they’ve stopped making them! So I looked into the possibility of lunch which would have been another 20US$ without a conversion receipt. So I settled for a coke, filled up my water and asked about the road to the damn. No one had taken it, even though it was ‘out the gate, turn right’. But they pandered to my assumed SA origins by sincerely warning me it’s ‘not safe’. Back along the track avoiding colobus monkeys and baboons, I turned right out the gate. The road wound up and up- with tired legs from yesterday I typed my diary under a tree before continuing in the afternoon cool. The road became more and more beautiful giving me plenty of excuses to stop for photos. The lake to my left was shimmering with the sun behind a collage of green trees and meadows. After passing a (built by the British for irrigating the local area) I climbed up the steep valley, pushing the bike until I gave up and ate an orange (from Nancy’s tree) overlooking the stunning scene.” Photos from this trip: See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0160-c620-0285?ytv4=1 Duration : 0:2:2
Michdan’s travel blog entry: “After 9 hours of an overnight bus ride from Medellín, I arrived in Bogotá. Bogotá´s weather was much colder than Medellín´s. It almost felt like winter weather in California and I was thankful I had brought a fleece jacket and a beanie. My Favorite Hostel in South America Fellow Travelers Bike Tour of the City Political Graffiti on the National University Campus Public Transportation Good Bye, Bogotá Photos from this trip: See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0149-841a-4096?ytv4=1 Duration : 0:2:30
Laine’s travel blog entry: “17/12/08 – 24/12/08 We were now heading for Peru. It was sad to leave Ecuador, it had been a really cool country and the people had been really nice. We had about a 5 hr bus ride from Cuenca to the Peru- Ecuador boarder. This has to be the craziest boarder I have ever been to, for starters the distance between where you had to stamp out of Ecuador and stamp into Peru was kilometres. In-between you basically had a whole town. The actual boarder was a road where the only reason you knew you had reached the boarder was that the taxis wouldn’t cross. The amount of people was amazing, but not as amazing or crazy as the way people were crossing. Most people were pushing or pulling carts, made out of absolutely anything, laden with goods from fruit to TV’s. It certainly made a change from the European boards, even the Albanian boarder was orderly and tidy compared to this! We were spending the next 4 days in Punta Sal, a small beach town near Mancora. This was one of the high lights of out trip so far. We did nothing except sun bake, swim, drink and eat. There were a few games of volley ball ( I even played a game or two!) and a few walks along the beach, but that was it. Our room was lovely, with a hammock out the front and ocean views, and we ate affordable sea food. Leaving Punta Sal was sad and the fact we had the first of three over night bus rides that night made it even harder to say good bye. After killing time in Mancora (the bus didn’t leave until 11pm) the night bus was actually quiet good. We had semi cama seats and I slept quiet well. We were now in Huanchaco, another beach side surfer town. I was quiet keen to go for a surf, but the weather on day one was cold and day two we checked out the Moon temple and Chan Chan ruins. The moon temple was quiet interesting, with some very well intact wall carvings and paintings. The moon temple was built by the Moche people around AD 700 and is a pyramid like structure completely made out of mud bricks. Every time there was flooding or very heavy rains the temple would be partly destroyed and the people would fill in the old temple and start to build the new one on top. This is the reason that some of the walls are in such good condition. Chan Chan was built around AD 1400 and in its hey day was the largest city in the Americas and the largest adobe city in the world. Chan Chan more or less looks like a huge pile of crumbling mud brick walls, but they have partly reconstructed one of the 10 palaces to give you an idea of how it must have looked. It was cool walking around the labyrinth like palace looking at the intricate carvings and stumbling upon the oasis like pool in the middle that they once used for drinking water. Another overnight bus (this one much worse then the first) took us to Huaraz a big city back up in the Andes. The main reason to come here is to hike in the amazing mountains that surround the town. We booked with a company to do a hike the next morning, they promised us that we would be picked up at 5:30am and would be provided with an English speaking guide. Our last overnight bus was cancelled as no buses were running on Christmas Eve night, so we had to bring the bus forward to an afternoon one. After the biggest breakfast I have ever had a few of us looked about the shops bartering in Spanish with the locals, it was quiet a fun morning. We all got up nice and early the next morning looking forward to a high altitude hike. By 6 am we were all starting to get **** off, as neither the guide nor the transport had turned up. The guide finally turned up hung around long enough for us to work out that he was completely drunk and didn’t speak English, before dropping his bag and disappearing. The transport turned up at about 6:10 and the guide was no where to be seen. Robo looked in the guides backpack and found the only thing he had bought with him was a small map. We told them to bugger off, and went back to bed determined to get our money back when the shop opened. Well to make a long story short, the guy wasn’t at his shop, we were told to go to the police who would take us to his house. When the police found out who it was they informed us he was an illegal operator and was meant to have closed his shop …” Photos from this trip: See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0149-8a8c-4e00?ytv4=1 Duration : 0:2:20
Hermamma’s travel blog entry: “We are staying at the old Ottawa Jail! They have converted it to a hostel and it is AMAZING. The building has these great old THICK brick walls and deep window which means it stays pretty cool in here. It is only about 22 degrees outside (or it was yesterday), but the humidity makes it feel much worse (ok, ok, I know nothing like the 33 I heard it was in Edm yesterday, but the humidity is bad too, ok?) We got off the train from Toronto one stop early (in Fallowfield, a suburb) so that Kirsten could go straight to the mall that houses the BRAND NEW build-a-bear… because when you are 12 that is MUCH more important than seeing the sites or anything, lol. We got to the mall about 5pm, and shopped and had dinner until almost 9. Then it was ONE bus from there to the hostel, even though we were at the opposite side of town – not only that it was an express that had us here in about 20 minutes! They use a “Transit Way” system here… roads that only busses are allowed on (Think: what Mayor Mandel wants to do out to WEM). Some of the roads were built for that specific purpose! Anyway, to day we are off to the Museum of Civilization, and then in the evening we will probably wind up at the BIG mall that is right across the street from the hostel…because at 12 there is nothing as important as shopping in as many malls as you can *roll eyes* LOL.” Photos from this trip: See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-013a-51c0-953f?ytv4=1 Duration : 0:1:2
Skintsaint’s travel blog entry: “We arrived in Moscow airport teary eyed after leaving London and also very tired. The three weeks in the UK were very rushed and stressful no thanks to the Russian and Chinese Visa offices. As soon as we touched down we already saw how much snow was still on the ground and immediately decided to get our hats and gloves out of our bags!! Also at the airport while going through immigration we had our first taste of Russian hospitality when we were greeted with service with no smile and not even eye contact — just a grunt to say go through the gates. We were swamped with dodgy taxi drivers as soon as we got through customs but after reading a few websites about Moscow it is safer to use the official taxi stand, although it costs a bit more! It took us about an hour to reach our hostel and the taxi left us down a side street with this ominous black metal door as our entrance to our hostel, we thought we were in the wrong place but the taxi driver insisted it was the right address — there was no signage outside and anyway the taxi driver didn’t hang about and just drove away. Luckily for us we rang the bell and it was indeed our hostel, we weren’t impressed about the appearance from the outside as we walked into this dodgy looking building with broken stairs leading up with a faint smell of damp. Actually once inside the hostel it was very nice, all new with all mod cons so couldn’t really complain, would never have guessed it looked like that from the outside so we were releaved with that!! As it was late we basically crashed for the night ready to wake up ready to go in the morning. Photos from this trip: See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0134-a9fa-6d0b?ytv4=1 Duration : 0:0:53
Schnitz’s travel blog entry: “So here begins the trip! August 6th: I boarded my flight that connected through Copenhagen. On the second plane I sat next to a british couple, and while i was pretty much passed out for most of the flight, we got chatting: they were Tristan & Claire from Suffolk. The best bit came when i asked what they were doing in Russia, cos they said “Trans-siberian, leaving tmw”!! So before i even arrived in Russia i already had ppl to travel with! Once we landed in moscow we felt like we’re in a diff world already, for one thing the first thing u smell when u walk into the terminal is cigarettes! We had no idea how to get to our hostels from the airport, and so resorted to talking to the multitude of taxi drivers that loiter around and (as it turns out) rip off tourists, since they were asking for $70 per person! Instead we took a bus, that landed us in a completely unrecognisable part of moscow. When we got off we were really bewildered as to what to do next. We met this dude called Arnou from Switzerland, who was in same situation as us. But to our rescue came our guardian angel! A Dr Ruslan Shishkin, a moscow local who just came back from a 2month backpacking trip, who told us where we were, bought us street and tube maps and, since he was going the same kinda way, accompanied us on the metro and told us where to get off! Tristan & Claire were staying in a plush hotel in a different part of moscow, so they got off a lot earlier. On the other hand Arnou had no place to stay, so i told him to tag along to my hostel. We could not find my hostel for neither love nor money! It was tucked behind one of the main streets, down two alleys, and the front door was so well camouflaged we nearly asked for a bed in the post office next door! The hostel ended up pawning us to another hostel around the corner (on the main street), that was a total slum! There was an elevator with 12 buttons for only 8 floors (the dude told us top floor, and when the “12″ button didn’t work we thought **** climbing 12 stories with backpacks!). After settling in, we went walkies in search of a local restaurant. We found one that looked like the entrance to a cellar, but with a menu on the wall outside! We get in and the place is seriously plush, orange sofas, brick walls, a real gritty feel. The menus were in russian and no one spoke english! In the end we managed to communicate by French (thank god Arnou was there). Afters we just went walking in what we thought was the direction of Red Square, but turned out to be the complete opposite, but it was cool to see. August 7th: I was on my own, since Arnou went to sort out some train tickets fairly early. I just decided to go walkies all round town, see what Moscow had to offer. It was very hot and sunny, walking round the Kremlin (wasn’t standing 2+ hrs to get in tho), Red Square, St Basil etc. But tbh i wasn’t all that impressed with Moscow! It was packed with tourists and little else. The russians seemed to be completely bi-polar, either being really nice or complete bastards! Half way through my walk the sky suddenly clouds over and a full blown thunderstorm began! I’m talking about serious rain and lightening action, roads turning into rivers and every conceivable bit of shelter occupied, and there i was in shorts and t-shirt! I got completely soaked, tho met a random cross section of russians while taking shelter including a homeless guy, a police officer with an uzi and a babushka! I finally managed to escape the rain by getting into an underground road crossing, and while i was waiting i suddenly discovered that there was an underground shopping center there! And this thing was massive, filled with western looking shops covered in cyrillic writing, i walked around till i found a metro station in there and went back to the hostel. Once back, i went to get something to eat, at which point i randomly met up with Arnou again who …” Photos from this trip: See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0134-b30a-77fb?ytv4=1 Duration : 0:2:30
Monning’s travel blog entry: “So we drove from Mossel Bay to Wilderness and called into a shopping mall en-route for some proper shampoo and deodourant! We arrived at Wilderness ‘The Beach House’ and found ourselves booked into an 8 bed dormitory with a beautiful deck balcony overlooking the ocean. Once showered and refreshed,we booked ouselves in for dinner which was fire oven pizza cooked to your liking,, it was yummy! Whilst at the Beach House we took ourselves on a canoe trip in the national park and watched dolphins and wales in the bay. The weather was overcast for the first two days but turned nice on day three.We drove to our next stop for one night at Buffalo Bay…and spent the day on this rugged beach of rockpools and beautiful white sand.. I managed to cut the end of my big toe on something sharp which was pleasant, so we had to go back to the accomodation whilst I patched myself up.. no more swimming for me this week then! Our accomodation is two double bunks in a tiny room with whitewashed brick walls.. Just imagine a cell from the series Porridge and you’ll get the idea! Clean and basically comfy and it had a power point so I couldn’t complain… Photos from this trip: See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0134-eaf0-2e01?ytv4=1 Duration : 0:1:23 |
Gardening service located in Coventry.
OrangeCraft -savior of the universe- is a minecraft classic serer, just for building and relaxation, we have inentie systems and awesome players and mods! Quite a cosy and small server! Further details are on the website: hyyp://www.wix.com/rapiidzz/OrangeCraft – created at http://animoto.com
Just some pic’s from around the lake this summer … will be building here very soon … yes I need a bigger boat!!!
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Nyamapanda, Zimbabwe by TravelPod blogger Danielwoods titled “Amazing times – Zimbabwe”. TravelPod is a company of TripAdvisor™.
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Bogota, Colombia by TravelPod blogger Michdan titled “The Colombian Capital”
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Mancora, Peru by TravelPod blogger Laine titled “Peru”
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Ottawa, Canada by TravelPod blogger Hermamma titled “Well it happened, they finally locked me up!”
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Moscow, Russia by TravelPod blogger Skintsaint titled “Red Heat”
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Moscow, Russia by TravelPod blogger Schnitz titled “The Trip Begins!”
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Wilderness, South Africa by TravelPod blogger Monning titled “Praying for a comfy bed!!!”