48. 60 Travel Memories 1

This is a completely random selection of memories of travels to all sorts of places, some wild and exotic, some near to home, some recent some long-gone, but all personal and exciting in their own ways. An extra after thought could be the wish to go to Timbuctu, as a child it was, with Hong Kong and Kota Kinabalu, the sort of place that hovered between reality and fantasy. I've been to the other two, one to go, as well as The Solomon Islands and Fijii where two of my school friends lived. I could add New Caledonia to the list for the number of unique plants.

1. The rattly 1950s ferry from Sandbanks to Purbeck. It doesn't seem to have changed much.
2. Parents, 2 children, 1 aunt, 1 golden retriever (proper gold, not the platinum blondes one sees nowadays) + camping gear in a pale blue Morris Minor, OBP381
3. Mother, Aunt, aforementioned golden retriever & me travelling by sleeper, the "menfolk" driving, to Scotland, & seeing the car trying to race us.
4. Farmer McKenzie letting us camp in his field at Red Point, collecting water from the spring we had to re-dig each year. Giving us ALL whisky when it was horribly wet&windy.
5. Getting salty milk from a farmer, the "coo" had been eating seaweed.
6. Pollock cooked over a driftwood fire minutes after being caught.
7. A campsite in Santa Maria Castellabata with unlimited fresh-ripe-succulent figs, never been able to eat dried ones since; nasty!
8. The Blue Grotto really being blue.
9. The smell of Solfatara & Vesuvius. I still use pumice from the beach.
10. All our holiday souvenirs and films being stolen in Domodossola.