The long and winding road that led to the gnomes was not always easy to follow.  At one point we stopped to ask this delightful old man if he knew where it was, as we had run out of brown rose signs to guide us.  ”Never heard of them” he said. “Although if you carry on this road and then do a left, there’s a forest where the little people live.”  With huge smiles on our faces we drove on and then suddenly saw this sign (in the photo on the right) by the side of the road. Oh, if they were warning motorists to go slowly then perhaps the gnomes were being well looked after. With hope renewed, we carried on and turned into the car park.

At this moment I was thinking of a dear friend, Zoë Dawes, who is the Quirky Traveller, as this would have been just perfect for her travels!

A pleasant welcome and more of Devon’s beautiful scenery greeted us. The house set in the gardens was one of faded grandeur and something about it made it look ethereal, yet still full of homely charm. As we entered, a voice called out a greeting to us and we met a delightful lady, by the name of Ann Fawssett Atkin, who was sitting in one of the rooms painting pixies. Ann is an absolutely wonderful and mesmerising lady and is the founder of the Gnome Reserve. We chatted for a while and then Ann told us to go into the other room and choose our Gnome hats to wear ~ you better believe it ~ she also added that it was almost compulsory to wear one.  Oh, I am loving this adventure :-)

Look at the photo – how funky is my hat??!!  Out to wander in the woods and it was like entering another realm; lots of gnomes, hundreds of gnomes, young gnomes, old gnomes, athletic gnomes, lazy gnomes, naughty gnomes and, oh my, you will have to visit yourself to get the full splendour of it all.  I have never really gone past 6 years old so I was in my element.  You can follow the path or go your own way – you can even get help with your lottery choices by fishing for pebbles.with numbers on the bottoms.

And deep in the heart of the wood was a magical fairy circle with the remains of an ancient tree (looking like a chair) in the middle.  The photo to the right shows the sign by the path, isn’t it wonderful? I flew away through the trees with the fairies, which will come as no surprise to a few people! The quote from Lord Byron says:

The beings of the mind are not of clay; essentially immortal, they create and multiply in us a brighter ray and more beloved existence.

When we’d finished our walk, we returned to the house and gave our hats back and were given a clip board with a question sheet on it, to show how observant we could be when walking around the Fairy & Wild-flower Garden. Somehow this just seemed so normal! We got the correct number of fairies, but failed to see three of the cuckoos ~ all will become clear if you visit! And to top the day off, we then had a sandwich followed by a Devon cream tea; all freshly made and delicious.  What a happy experience.

Pembrokeshire, near Castlemartin – with thanks to Dr DJ Davies, Historian & Author. www.jddavies.com

Recently, we published a post on the beautiful coastline around Britain.  A question was asked on Facebook and Twitter as to whether anyone had any relevant photos and the ones published were given by the photographers. The co-incidence was, they were all of England, which actually, was very pertinent as it was St. George’s Day!  But there is so much more!

Pembrokeshire, Porth Clais to St Justinian 5 Mile Walk – with thanks to Mike Hillen.

Today, to redress the balance, here are some piccies of the amazing Welsh coastline. Wales is leading the way with coastal pathways; this weekend you will be able to walk the entire coast ~ an incredible feat and deserving of much praise.

Mumbles, Gower Peninsular – with thanks to Dr DJ Davies, Historian & Author. www.jddavies.com

Tenby Lifeboat RNLI 16 – 02 – with thanks to Mike Hillen.

It will run from the outskirts of Chester in the north to Chepstow in the south, via the major town and cities, small villages, cliff tops and beaches, a total of 870 miles (1,400 km).  What is refreshing is that the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) has co-ordinated the development of the path with 16 coastal councils and national park authorities. A clear case of ‘Winning By Sharing’ :-)

Deganwy on the River Conwy looking over to Conwy town side – with thanks to Coastal Joe

Cornwall - with thanks to Andreas Øverland, http://www.andreasoverland.no/

Britain has spectacular coastlines, gentle downward gradients to the sea, crumbling coasts into the sea and phenomenally dangerous rocks waiting for the unfortunate and the foolish.  Our coastline is one of our jewels in the crown of this scepter’d isle And, in this glorious travel and tourism industry of ours, we actively encourage people to stay in the UK for their holidays and to visit our seaside towns and villages.

Beachy Head - with thanks to Simon Falvo www.wildabouttravel.com

Visit Britain is currently running an impressive international ad campaign to entice travellers in other countries to visit us. Great for us to show off how lucky we are to live in such a gorgeous place, on this wondrous planet of ours.

Land's End - with thanks to Bruna Zanelli www.brunazanelli.com

When I was young (many moons ago), we always went to the seaside in the school summer holidays.  And, as far as I can remember, we always had a fabulous time. Caravanning in East Runton, near Cromer, Norfolk; staying on a dairy farm in Seaton, South Devon; exploring along the Lincolnshire coast; going across to the Isle of Wight (I can remember writing England on my postcards ‘cos we had gone across the sea!) so many wonderful memories.

Land's End - with thanks to Walks Britain www.walksaroundbritain.co.uk

And when my children were young, we went to these wonderful places again, and many more, Tintagel to visit King Arthur’s castle and Merlin’s cave; St. Michael’s Mount to beat the tide back to the mainland; Lynton and Lynmouth to catch crabs and chase the waves; Hunstanton to run free with kites along the coloured cliffs; Cromer to walk along the planks of the pier and keep a watch for pirates, Happisburg to climb the red and white lighthouse for a better view of the sea pirates; so much fun, so much happiness and such wonderful places.

Exmouth Beach, thanks to Serena FitzGerald, Facebook

The wonder of social networks, is that people respond to questions and pleas for help that you post. I got these wonderful photographs through Facebook and Twitter. Lucky me, all the above were sent. A huge thank you. Co-incidentally, today is St. George’s Day and all these pics are of gorgeous places along the English coast.

“G Adventures invites you to join us at the Future of Tourism, an evening of lively discussion about the future of the travel industry and sustainable travel, with visionaries from across the tourism spectrum.  We’ll be exploring the future of travel and how sustainable tourism plays such a vital role in giving back to the places we visit.

RSVP to join us and enjoy a top line-up of speakers:  Bruce Poon Tip – Founder, G Adventures  :::  Richard Hammond – Chief Executive and Founder, Greentraveller  :::  Gary Arndt – Travel Blogger, Everything Everywhere  ::: Paula Vlamings – Associate Director, Planeterra

While there is no official charge for the event, we are suggesting a donation of £5 which will benefit the Planeterra Foundation. Founded by G Adventures, Planeterra is a non-profit foundation supporting social and environmental solutions in the destinations our travellers visit.
We look forward to seeing you there!   

The team at G Adventures”

The evening was introduced by the delightful Lyn Hughes, co-founder of Wanderlust. Hardly any seats were empty and the audience was in sparkling form.  Behind the presentation podium was a large screen showing the presentations, etc.  Either side of this was a smaller screen with live tweets being shown with the hashtag #futourism, or, as Lyn said, easier to remember if you say FU Tourism!

The tweet screens were well used during the evening and there were some very witty people attending and participating. They were very amusing and chuckles abounded, but sometimes to the detriment of the speakers as they could not see them and when they did look round, the screens were on the next tweet.

Richard Hammond was the first speaker on and, as one of the tweets said, ‘he didn’t mention TopGear once!’. Richard is the Chief Executive and Founder of award-winning website Greentraveller, the travel editor of GREEN magazine (distributed by The Guardian) and writer of the ‘Go Green’ column in National Geographic Traveller magazine.

Richard was an eloquent and very interesting speaker and was not distracted by tweets or chuckles once – a credible feat!  I’d not heard him before and learnt a lot, mainly from the passionate way he was speaking, I was definitely engaged!

Gary Ardnt spoke next. Gary is the creator of one of the most popular travel blogs in the world, everything-everywhere, and one of TIME’s “Top 25 Best Blogs of 2010″. He has been travelling the world since 2007. An amusing speaker, Gary has a wealth of travel experiences and stories to share and spoke about the joys or otherwise of communication whilst travelling. He ended his talk by saying ‘Travel is a right.’

And that is where I disagree entirely; I believe travel to be an absolute privilege. Travel as a right can be destructive- conscious travel, eco travel, local travel, is what we should all be doing.  There are some inspirational pioneers in this field, but that subject is for another post :-)  Suffice to say there is a very small number of countries that is virtually unspoilt. Bhutan is right up there in cherishing its place on our wondrous planet. Bhutan limits its tourist numbers and looks after every living thing.  The gross national happiness that the kingdom measures, is a clear indication that happy people are caring people, lucky country!

The third speaker was Paula Vlamings, Co-Executive Director, Planeterra. Through her work at the environmentally focused Institute at the Golden Gate, Paula became involved in sustainable tourism and the power tourism has as an economic development tool. At Planeterra, Paula works to create lasting benefits in the communities G Adventures travels to.  An admirable organisation, working with the local communities towards sustainable tourism.

The final speaker, and the finale, was the man himself, Bruce Poon Tip. A true pioneer in the travel and tourism industry and a confident & competent presenter. Bruce founded G Adventures in 1990 with the belief that other travellers would share his desire to experience authentic adventures in a responsible and sustainable manner. He was right, it’s grown from a one-man show to a company of over 1350 world wide.

The next event in the series is in Melbourne on the 18th April, it sold out ages ago!  G Adventures is to be applauded for these events and all that it does in the field of sustainable and responsible travel and tourism, long may the company carry on!

Taktsang

For as long as I can remember, the magical kingdom of Bhutan has been one of the countries I’ve most wanted to visit. One of the world’s leaders in the future of tourism, Anna Pollock, gave the opening keynote speech there last month at the PATA Adventure Travel & Responsible Tourism Conference, Anna is the founder of ConsciousTravel and is very highly respected in the travel and tourism industry.  After the conference, she wrote a post entitled, Why Bhutan IS the First Conscious Travel Destination. One sentence stands out for me -

Pull not Push: the hallmark of a Conscious Travel Destination is its ability to attract the right customer – the visitor whose values match those of the host. Bhutan isn’t for everybody. Bhutan is for the visitor seeking a unique, and some would say, exotic experience of a vibrant culture expressed in a pristine setting.

Blue Poppy

At the World Travel Market (WTM) last year, Zoe Dawes (The QuirkyTraveller) and I were fortunate enough to talk to one of the tourism ministers and some of the tour operators on the Bhutanese stand. Both of us have Bhutan right up there at the top of our bucket lists! In fact, after WTM, Zoe was asked by First Choice to respond with her choice for ‘The End of the World Bucket List’ and, naturally, she chose Bhutan.

This Monday, representatives of the UN attended a high-level event in the UN General Assembly hosted by the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan to look at the happiest countries in the world and discuss how to put happiness on the global agenda. It is all the rage at the moment, countries trying to measure happiness and not just economic growth. Bhutan has been doing this for nearly forty years now, when the grandfather of the current constitutional monarch, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel, initiated the idea of an alternate model to gross national product as a measurement of national progress. How refreshing, how wonderful to be the country that started it all, that had the foresight and understanding to give birth to such a valuable concept.

Looking back

This post has been spurred on by being part of the Trippando’s and Travel – Moments in Time’s contest about the subject, Beach. Outside the rain is beating down and the wind is blowing, standard weather for the UK in January! Time to dream of the sun and beaches. I still have two or three posts to write about Barbados and how beautiful the beaches were, so here goes!

The view of the beach at the Hilton Resort that greeted us when we stepped onto the balcony the evening we arrived was just lovely. There has always been something magical about a beach, be it serene with beautiful sand, or wild with rugged rocks, walking barefoot in the sand is just wonderful. I’ve not stepped on such white sand before and the colours in the sea ranged from turquoise to deep blue.

On one of the days there, we walked along the beach to Bridgetown and this is the view looking back to the Hilton. Small cotton wool ball clouds floating serenely across the blue sky. And everywhere there is joy.  It’s a wonderful life.

Elba

The first prize in the competition is a week’s stay (with b & b) at the Hotel Acacie on the island of Elba.  Now that does look good!

Elba is another small island that is proud of its history, tradition and the nurturing of nature; and has benefitted from the comfort and tools provided by technology. Definitely one on the bucket list!

Click on the following links for more information -

Trippando’s (http://trippando.wordpress.com/) and Travel-Moments in Time’s (http://travel.prwave.ro/) blogs and to the Acacie’s web (http://acacie.com).

Tuesday evening was spent at Lobsters Alive, the restaurant on the way to Bridgetown. A return visit after a fabulous Sunday there. But I could not bring myself to be responsible for one of these gorgeous lobsters in the tank, so I had tuna instead and it was melt in your mouth delicious. Art, the Australian owner, flies to the Grenadines and brings the lobsters back fresh.

Roger

Once again, the smiles of the team there were welcoming and friendly and the jazz quintet started playing later.

The baby of the band is Roger Gittens, the piano/keyboard player. Born here in 1964, his Mum sent all the children to piano lessons and that’s where it all began.  Roger is now a music teacher and lives nearby with his wife and 2 boys. He can surely do magic with the ebony and ivory keys!

Elvis

The bass player is Elvis Edwards, who was born in 1961. Elvis used to be in the Police Force and he started his musical career when joining the Police Band as a clarinet player. He switched to playing the bass guitar and strums those strings beautifully.  He and his partner have a small farm where they grow ‘erbs such as, majoram and thyme.

Vere

We mustn’t forget the drummer ~ Vere Gibson. Great guy with one of the most contagious laughs I have ever heard! Vere was born on this island in the year 1939 and he’s still got the mischievous little boy inside him! His family lives in Vermont and he says they come over to check him out every so often! His ability to stroke the skins to drive the beat is memorable, but it is the irresistible smile and chuckle that I shall remember most ~ and the twinkle in his eye!

Lord Jenkins

And, last but by no means least, is Lord Jenkins – Stuart to his friends. Born in England in 1933, Stuart went to Art School, and, when a student, lent £5 to a classmate, who was then unable to repay the debt. He gave Stuart his trombone instead and as he says, what good is a trombone if you can’t play it?  So he taught himself, which was made easier by the fact he was musical and could play the piano. Later, he was given a government contract to establish Art teaching at the Bridgetown community college for the ’A’ level Art exams and has lived here since. His three children live in Germany, Crete and Barbados, respectively.

With four great players, the band should be good anyway ~ but add that ingredient of joy and there is magic!  Two of them play on a Thursday evening, along with Art (a pianist),and others, at the Waterfront Cafe in Bridgetown ~ they are called the VSOP band. Very Special Old People ~ how great is that?

Oh, men in suits too, with their earpieces in, around the lobby and outside the hotel! Had someone told them I was coming back? But no, as we found out later (after being told, by one of the polite men in suits, ‘Sorry Ma’am I cannot tell you that’), it was for the US Attorney General, Eric H. Holder, Jr. And what a very distinguished gentleman he is too, carries himself with great dignity. He was staying overnight and so we slept that night knowing we were in one of the safest places in the world :-)

Another lazy morning for Tuesday.

Barbados Tourism has a strap line on its site ~ The official ambassadors of how to live life.

Love that, and it is so true ~ their culture is one of smiles and friendliness; of laughter and joy.  There is no ‘London Underground’ culture here, you make eye contact and speak, it has such an uplifting effect.

Tuesday we turned right and went to Hastings - we walked past the Garrison and the Savannah Racecourse onto past the Savannah Hotel and then we came across this, well how can I put it, expensive, ostentatious blot on the landscape.  This is the HQ for the European Union Executives Office; good to know the taxpayers’ money is being used wisely! Built on a premier location above the beach, the picture is of the righthand side of the building.

Moving swiftly along, we kept to the beach road and it was gorgeous. The next post will be about Tuesday evening and all that jazz!

Other than this, we sang and danced in the rain with Gene Kelly! Just love that song :-) The temperature was fine, it was just wet and if you’re dressed for the rain, t-shirt, shorts & flip flops, then you can have a wonderful time. We walked into Bridgetown and we walked back, with taxis beepings their horns at us every few minutes and asking if we needed a lift. The look on their faces showing their disbelief in these strange people wanting to walk! It continued to rain for the day and evening, the Hilton being a great sanctuary!

Sunday morning did not disappoint, it dawned with a beautiful glow everywhere, yes!  Oh my goodness, the different hues of blue in the sea, from turquoise to deep, deep blue. I could get used to this! We had nothing planned, so stopped at the concierge desk to chat about what to do. We struck gold with Pauline, what a star! So much to do and, as the old cliché says, so little time to do it! Pauline recommended we go for lunch at Lobster Alive as on Sunday lunch times they had a jazz band playing. That was one of the best recommendations we could have been given, and, luckily, there was one table that wasn’t booked! The team working there was great; helpful, professional and so friendly. As for the food, suffice to say that my diet has been blown to pieces! Gorgeous! And then the band started playing, oh my, but they were good ~ bass guitarist, trombonist, keyboard player, drummer and vocalist/steel drum player. Lunch is served from 12 noon until 4 p.m. and I guess we were there most of that period. During one of the breaks, I was emboldened to ask if they would do a Sam Cooke number.  This pic is the vocalist singing ‘You Send Me’ - oh, and I was, it was beautiful, my favourite singer & song of all time, done with a jazz twist. What made the whole experience even better was you could see the joy the guys were getting out of playing together. That’s the word that comes to mind when thinking of Barbados, JOY!  And when they sang ‘What A Wonderful World’, the words seemed more vibrant.

Fortunately, they’re playing again on Tuesday evening and we’ve already booked the table! How can you beat good service, good food, good music and joy???????

Delightful, smiling girls as the cabin stewardesses, and the food was okay.  Was an hour into the new Woody Allen film, ‘Midnight in Paris’, when suddenly a passenger announcement came on to say the entertainments system was not working properly and so they had to reboot it, would be about half an hour. These things do happen. Back on and fast forward to where it had been interrupted – oops, not for long, blank screen again.  Loading, loading, loading  . . . please wait. Reading fonts . . .  please wait.  Verifying configs . . . please wait.  Uh oh, a blank screen again!  It did come back eventually and I  managed to watch the end of the film and went on to use up quite a few tissues watching the film ‘The Help’!

Finally we arrived to be greeted by a series of fabulous Malibu Rum posters; the first of which said, ‘Welcome to Finland . . . only joking!’. Ha! I immediately thought of the lovely Zoe, The Quirky Traveller, when I saw that. J  Quite a wait to be checked through customs and then caught a taxi to the Hilton.  My Aunt Selina had said that she stayed at the Hilton when visiting Barbados many years ago and there was a tree in an atrium growing up in the middle of it.  Not there now though, the hotel was knocked down and completely rebuilt in 1999.

The Hilton is, as one would expect, very plush, and we had greetings from so many friendly and professional personnel.  The room is gorgeous and this is the view that greeted us as we stepped onto the balcony, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

So far we have met Swaine and the lovely Cheryl from the team at the hotel; both definite assets to the
Hilton.  More to come . . .