With the Travel Biography completed this week, I'll assemble an index of all 129 weeks. The idea is that if you wish to read one or two blogs or a whole section (e.g., America 1995 or Round the World 1997), you can access the appropriate week without the need for excess scrolling. Since indexes don't make exciting reads, I have added photos of myself to this blog. All of them are original, either taken by a family member or by a passing stranger.
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| Grand Canyon Hike, 1995. |
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Weeks 1-3. Childhood, Holidays with Parents, College Life, First Trip without Parents in 1972, First Backpacking Trip to Italy in 1973...click here.
Weeks 4-8. The 1975 Trip to Rome. The first Backpacking Trip to Israel in 1976...click here.
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| Around 2 or 3 years old, circa 1954. |
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| Around 19 years old, 1972. |
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| A little older, aged 20, taken in 1973. |
Week 10. Trying to get a Visa from the US Embassy in London, 1977...click here.
Weeks 11-16. First Transatlantic flight to North America in 1977, landing in Toronto and then entering the USA at Detroit...click here.
Weeks 17-23. 2nd Trip to the USA in 1978...click here. The start of my first Grand Canyon Hike...click here. Week 24 is a pictorial not related to the 1978 trip to America. Weeks 25-26, the 1978 trip to the States resumes...click here.
Weeks 27-29. Backpacking northern Italy, 1981 - Pisa, Florence, Cinque Terre, Italy before the rise of local tourism...click here.
Week 30-35. Backpacking Southern Italy, 1982, including up Mt Etna...click here.
Weeks 37-40. France, Cycling across Western Europe, mid-1980s...click here.
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| Inside Hezekiah's Tunnel, Israel, 1976, aged 23. |
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| Hollywood, as it was in 1977. I was 24. |
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| Niagara Falls, Canada, 1977. |
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| About to hike the Grand Canyon, 1978, aged 25. |
Weeks 42-45. John O'Groats to Land's End, or End-to-End Cycle Ride, 1990...click here.
Week 46. The 1991 Lulworth Cove-Dover Cycle Ride plus crossing into France...click here.
Week 47. The Lake District with Gareth, 1992...click here.
Weeks 48-51. The 1993 Trip to Israel begins after a review of past trips...click here.
Weeks 52-55. Staying in Israel as a volunteer, 1994...click here.
Weeks 56-72. the 1995 Trip to the USA, including the 2nd Hike down the Grand Canyon. Weeks 58-61...click here for the hiking details. San Diego, weeks 63-66, including Tijuana, Mexico...click here. Weeks 67-70, Santa Monica, Disneyland, Downtown LA...here. Weeks 70-72, San Francisco...here.
Weeks 74-107. The 1997 Round the World - Singapore, Australia, California...click here.
Weeks 74-78 - Part One: Singapore...here.
Weeks 78-96 - Part Two: Australia.
Weeks 78-81 Cairns, Green Island Coral Cay, Low Isles Coral Cay, Great Barrier Reef...here.
Weeks 82-87, Townsville, Arlie Beach, Fraser Island, Brisbane...click here.
Weeks 88-92, Byron Bay, Coffs Harbour...click here.
Weeks 93-96 Sydney, Blue Mountains National Park...click here.
Week 96 - The Trans-Pacific Flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, the domestic flight from L.A. to San Diego...click here.
Weeks 97-107 - Part three: California.
Weeks 97-100 - San Diego 1997...click here.
Weeks 101-104 Santa Barbara...click here. San Luis Obispo, Avila Beach...click here. Hollywood 1997, click here.
Weeks 105-107 Santa Monica 1997...click here.
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| My fittest years, 1986 |
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| At the Grand Canyon, 1995, aged 43 |
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| Cairns, 1997, aged 44. |
Week 117 - The 1998 Hadrian's Wall Hike with Tim and Dan...click here.
Week 118 - The attempted cycle ride to Llangollen, North Wales, 1998...click here.
Week 119 - My future wife Alex joins me at the Stoneleigh Bible Festival...click here.
Week 120 - My final backpacking holiday as a singleton - hiking at the Lake District from Kendal to Keswick, 1998...click here.
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| Our Wedding in 1999, I was 47. |
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| Wedding suit long gone! This was Eilat, Israel, 2000. |
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| The birth of my 3rd Daughter, Victoria in 2008. |
Week 121 - Our Wedding and our Honeymoon in Rhodes, Greece...click here.
Week 122 - Tim and I take a weekend away at Corfe, Dorset. Little did I know...click here.
Weeks 123-128 - Alex and I celebrate our first anniversary in Israel...click here.
Week 129 - The birth of our firstborn Daughter...click here.
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Correction of Error.
While I was composing this index, I unintentionally deleted a week's blog due to a bug in the dashboard displaying two identical blogs. The blog that was deleted was Week 31 which was about backpacking in southern Italy in 1982.
This covered my journey to Naples from Milan, then on to Sicily, the destination I had in mind to set foot on for the first time in my life. From Naples City Centre, I boarded a local train to Pompeii, where I spent a day at the excavations, walking through the Roman streets, empty of tourists, of a town which perished under the ash of the AD 79 eruption of Mt Vesuvius.
By the time the sun was setting, I then boarded another train out of Naples to continue my journey to Brindisi on the Adriatic Coast. After arriving the next morning, I spent another day at this port, where ferries sailed out to Greece. At the beginning of the coming night, I boarded a train to continue with the journey, economising on night travel rather than hotels. From Brindisi, the train I was on followed the coastline of the southern section of the Italian Peninsula. At the small hours of the morning, I had to change trains at Taranto Station, and there was an hour's wait for one to arrive to take me to Reggio Calabria to cross the Messina Strait, where this part of the journey is then taken up in Week 32.
While waiting for the train at Taranto, I decided to walk down a narrow deserted street lit by streetlamps. A few metres further along, a huge dog blocked the street. As it turned to look at me, having attracted its attention, I returned to the station. I didn't run, as that would have provoked the dog to start chasing. When I finally passed through the barrierless station forecourt and onto the platform, I breathed a sigh of relief.
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This is just a summary of the deleted blog of Week 31. Next week will be the last weekend before Christmas, therefore, I plan to create a photo extravaganza on the entire biography. I like to include the photos that would have been featured in the deleted Week 31.
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Great News!
Having gone to Settings, there was a prompt for Bin, Week 31.
Therefore, I managed to restore Week 31 back to its original place in the Biography, making it an unbroken read.
Dear Frank,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing and indexing your travel bio. What an accomplishment! Looking forward to a recap of the photos and wishing you all the best for your next writing project. Perhaps a return to "Frank's Christian Thoughts?" As the Lord leads.
May God bless you and Alex,
Laurie