23 May 2010
Meghan Jude Bridges
The Big Day As every woman in her first pregnancy will tell you, no matter how many books you read, midwives you speak to, or gods you pray to, you…
The Diary
Every entry, from the first idea to the far side of the world
65 entries, newest first. Written at the time and kept exactly as they were.
2009
26 November 2009
All Good Things
Arambol Having used the HUBB to find an appropriate beach in Goa to chill out on, we found ourselves at the perfect resort of Arambol. Apparently…
17 November 2009
Sprint to Goa
Simla Shimla We left you at the last blog with us having enjoyed McCleod Gang and about to head off to Shimla (or Simla, depending on you position in…
8 November 2009
Hindustan Zindabad
Pakistan Realigned! We arrived into Pakistan with an inkling that we could soon be having to make some major changes to our plans, but we both knew…
30 October 2009
BAM BAM
A New Adventure So the breaking and exciting news is that since the beginning of September we have known that Jenny is pregnant!! We obviously…
7 October 2009
The Tao of Dino
Dino's Early Years When we bought Dino from Richard and Camilla, neither of us had a clue whether we were doing the right thing. We had only decided…
29 September 2009
Sober Reflection
Leaving the KKH After completing our trek to Rakaposhi base camp we headed straight to Gilget, which was our first Pakistani city. Although we had…
24 September 2009
On the Road Expenses
The Spreadsheet of Knowledge Almost every penny (cent, som, rupee etc) we spend is written down in a notebook that we keep in the front of the landie…
15 September 2009
Pakistani Smiles
Entering Pakistan So, after 6 days in China, we were happy to leave and enter the relatively free state of Pakistan! The Karakoram highway, otherwise…
2 September 2009
Crazy China
The Road to China The alarm went off at 6am, with our traditional Kyrgyz breakfast already prepared for us, the highlight of which is the fresh bread…
1 September 2009
Mountain Madness Part 3
Leaving Osh With Ollie in need of getting his head together (literally) and also a feeling we were "citied" out, it was time to hit some of the fine…
15 August 2009
Mountain Madness Part 2
The Road to the Festival Whilst in Osh we had a look around the busy market town as we slowly nursed Jenny back to health, and whilst doing this we…
7 August 2009
Mountain Madness Part 1
Nighttime Worry Due to the fact that the phone line was so bad to Russ all we could do was hang up and try and ring him again, finally after five…
24 July 2009
One Russell Cleasby
Nuking it to Nukus For those of you who don't know us so well, Russ is one of my oldest friends dating back to the prehistoric university period. He…
11 July 2009
Quick Catch Upt
Iran Abridged Because of the need to return to Tehran we had to miss out a little of Iran, and we decided to miss two of Iran's extremities, Mashad…
30 June 2009
Drying Out
Our First Real Border We left our familiar campsite at DoggieBiscuit with some nerves, but excited that our adventure was about to really begin. The…
29 June 2009
Iran in a Sack
It's HOT! The first rule that you have to contend with is the dress code; for female tourists this is currently a scarf, long sleeves, long trousers…
20 June 2009
Vive La Revolution
Tehran As you know, because of the swine flu issue we were forced to look at a new route and this involved getting new visas for Azerbaijan and…
18 May 2009
Asian Dreams
A New Plan As we left you on the last update we were on the side of a motorway just outside Istanbul, about to call our man on the Stans, David,…
13 May 2009
Overlanding Life
Daily Routine Most of the chores for the day are now a well established routine, divided up equally between myself and Jenny. Anything that involves…
12 May 2009
Ollies Delight
Amazing Memories Turkey has imprinted some great memories onto our brains, and we are both very glad that fate took our trip in the direction of…
2 May 2009
Roaming in Romania
Enroute to the Bear Cave We entered Romania at Oradea with a plan to head to a campsite that was listed in our book. We eventually found the campsite…
1 May 2009
Overlanding Toys
The Toys Well we have been away for over three weeks now, are we both are generally still in one piece. I (Ollie) have been keen to create a brief…
26 April 2009
Mooching in Magyar
Lake Balaton Keszthely We made a bee line down to Balaton as Jenny had been here before as a teenager and we had hopes of getting the canoe out on…
25 April 2009
Fame at Last
Ollie's Dream As regular followers of this blog will know Ollie is a proud Cornishman, who likes nothing more that a bit of world wide fame, and…
17 April 2009
Poland
Wroclaw This was our first stop in Poland where we stayed chez Dan & Lucyna. Firstly, a HUGE thanks to these two lovely people for letting us turn…
16 April 2009
Camping in Colditz
Leaving Party(11th April 2009) So, after so much planning and waiting we had to leave eventually. And to leave you must a) Be Ready b) Have a leaving…
31 March 2009
Tomorrow the Day
Start of the Journey Well, here I am, Ollie, sat in a house full of boxes, with a cleaned fridge and freezer, amongst other appliances, almost ready…
19 March 2009
Panic Stations
Tick Tock Goes the Clock I am writing this on my 2nd to last Thursday in Dublin, still a little bit hungover from my first leaving drinks, a lovely…
4 March 2009
Shiezer we Gotta Get Ready
Quick Update Hello again. I am sure that you can guess that as the clock ticks time away we are getting busier and busier with our plans. As I write…
2008
29 June 2008
Joggling the Route
The Route In our previous blog entry we mentioned that we were having ongoing discussions on our route, and which way we were to get to Australia.…
29 June 2008
Happy Christmas 2008
Mistletoe and Wine(Snogging 'n' Booze) [](../Images/christmastree1.jpg) Me and Jenny love Christmas, but this year it's extra special. We have said…
21 March 2008
Bread of Heaven
[](../Images/breadofheaven.jpg) Ready Steady Cook So, with just over a year to go before the off we are starting to step up our preparation. We have…
24 January 2008
Merry Christmas Happy New Year Sorry for the Delay
Quick Update Well it's been a long old time since we made a blog update, so firstly apologies for not keeping this up to date. Hopefully from here we…
2007
18 November 2007
Yani Puni Mayo
Russian Lessons Our classroom buddies Well we are now six whole weeks into our Russian lessons, and finally they are feeling less like slow torture…
7 October 2007
Vehicle Guide
Clickable Guide to Dino Having watched our website statistics for over a month now, we have seen that the most popular page, after the blog and…
9 September 2007
John O Groats to Lands End Charity
Charity Time Although Project JollyFollies has been moving forward in many directions, very little progress to the charity arm has been made since…
2 September 2007
Google Analytics
Google We have subscribed to a Google product, Google Analytics which keeps track of the visitors to your website, and also their behavior when on…
17 July 2007
Shaking Up the Shake Down
What Did We Learn Well after almost three weeks in Portugal we learnt a lot of great lessons, which we will try and list below: 1. Fridge We had the…
15 July 2007
Two Weddings and a Stag Do
Portugal and Back Well we are back after a great shake down trip to Portugal. Calling it a shake down trip seems a little unfair as it was a great…
10 June 2007
Shower Power
Dino to Foley's We finally managed to take Dino into Foley's, the most highly recommended Land Rover garage in the UK. We had sort of avoided taking…
28 May 2007
3000 Thank You
Ollie and Di Hello everyone. Before we start, we need to apologize for the delay in getting this update to the blog out, we seem to have discovered…
19 March 2007
Shire Land Rover Clubs Rocks
....and mud and trees and water and grass Oh yes we've been off roading. For real. And it is great! Although the weekend had been mostly talked about…
18 February 2007
Dinos got Big Nuts
Ups and Downs for Dino Well it's been a bit of a funny month for Dino. We've had to replace a battery and a tyre, and had lots of problems getting…
15 January 2007
Happy Sober New Year
Busy Little Bees Well since the last blog we have both been busy little bees. Whether we've been busier eating turkey (or nutroast) or busier…
2006
5 November 2006
Crumpled
[](../blog/uploadedimages/brokencar710760.JPG)Oops ... Just a quick update to say we didn't do our 4x4 driving course this weekend as an unnamed…
2 November 2006
Running Repairs
Repairs I After our Ireland test we discovered that our rooftent leaked under pressure from heavy rain and high winds. This was caused by the…
23 October 2006
Justgiving to Vso
[](../blog/uploadedimages/VSOLogoblack708922.jpg)As frequent guests to these pages will know, as part of our trip we want to raise as much money as…
12 October 2006
Road to Recovery Sydney
Operation Success (Who is that crazy fool?) To those of you anxious to know how Ollie's operation went, it was a total success. He is now recovering…
24 September 2006
And Now the Hard Work Begins
Big and Little Ols Celebrate! Well it's been another week of putting one foot in front of another to progress to our overall goal, quite literally.…
10 September 2006
This Ones for Jimla
[](../blog/uploadedimages/LandyonFerry773967.jpg) Dino's Ireland Test Well again its been a few weeks since our last entry, but we have been busy. We…
7 August 2006
Escaping the Prinson Bars
[](../blog/uploadedimages/SunSet768227.jpg) Where Are We Going? Well it's been a while since an update (thanks for all the reminders everyone!) I…
18 July 2006
Its Hot
Phew! Too hot to add anything. Anything interesting will be added when the outside temperature becomes less than my internal temperature!
14 July 2006
Arrival of Thunderbird 4
Dino and Thunderbird 4 I'm not sure that Thunderbird 4 is the smartest name for a canoe, considering that Thunderbird 4 was a submersible!! As you…
9 July 2006
Whats in a Name
Why Dino? We have been asked a few times now, why Dino? Well, we were looking for a name that reflected his character and age. We also owned two…
30 June 2006
Birth of Dino
We Have a Vehicle! Wow! What an exciting day yesterday! After lots of umming and ahhhing we finally decided to buy an expedition equipped 110 200tdi…
30 June 2006
Helping Vso Help Others
Why have we chosen to work in partnership with VSO? When it came to choose a charity to work with we both had particular criteria that we wanted to…
30 June 2006
Merry Hic Christmas Everyone
Grim 8 and More Well it's been a month since our last blog, so firstly apologies for the delay. It's been a busy time in the run up to Christmas, but…
17 June 2006
Bagsie be Ewan
Thank God We’re Not Doing it on Bikes :) To get us in the mood (with only 2.5 years to go!) we've been watching 'The Long Way Round' with Ewan…
5 June 2006
Slowly Slowly Catchie Monkey
Website Spent most of yesterday updating the website, and it is now ready (ish) for outsiders' eyes! It still needs a lot of work to make it look…
31 May 2006
Good News Comes in Twos
Today was a day back at work for me, after having 5 days off to play golf at La Manga in Spain. Quite a shock to the system, but had a couple of good…
23 May 2006
Website Design by Ollie Aged 15 and a Half
Website Design After staring at the chocolate brown design for two weeks I have updated the colour scheme to a pastel version chosen by Jenny.…
17 May 2006
Updating Format
Wednesday 17th May 2006 Updating the Format [](../Images/Ollie.jpg) Upon creating the initial skeleton of the website yesterday, today I decided that…
9 May 2006
First Blog of the Trog
Tuesday 9th May 2006 First Blog of The Trog After creating this website in this very rudimentary form I am going to start tracking our progress in…