By Jane Wynyard, October 28 2012 Last Summer I returned to beautiful Brazil to a surf camp in Bahia, near Salvador called Bahia Surf Camp. My friends were coming a week later and I’d only have to spend 8 days on my own. We were staying in a surf camp so i was confident I’d meet other people. On the website, the surf camp looked amazing with hammocks, beautiful surf huts, blue sky, beach view, lush gardens and lots of visitors. The owner had assured me that I would meet lots of people and it would be fine to[…]
FROM THE BLOG
Riots Over British Gold At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics
It was an amazing Summer for Team GB at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Britain won 65 medals, of which 27 were gold. The British athletes left Rio on a high and there was huge congratulations all around on their success. Now imagine this is 1920, we’re at the Antwerp Olympics and the British Water polo team has just beaten Belgium to the gold medal. Instead of admitting defeat, being happy with a Silver and congratulating the British in the sporting spirit of the games, the Belgians have erupted and started a riot. Soldiers in full riot gear with bayonets and swords have entered the games to control[…]
The murdered millionaire and his Hampstead home
By Jane Wynyard, May 15, 2012 One of the best things about Hampstead are the houses and the stories they tell – some fascinating and quirky, some with sad and terrible tales to tell. One such sad story is an apt testament to our pre-recession world of greed and corruption. The above photo, taken a couple of days ago (May 2012), is all that’s left of the dilapidated home of an elderly recluse millionaire author, Alan Chappelow, who lived alone on Devonshire Hill. Mr Chappelow was battered to death in June 2006 in his house, known as Manor House, by[…]
Student protests and awe inspiring architecture in Athens, Greece
By Jane Wynyard, April 13, 2009 Athens with the BBC I travelled to Greece with BBC World for a panel discussion with cable operator, Skai Greece, about the future of news. A lot of work went into organising interviews for Jeremy Hillman, News Editor at the time, and making sure that everything ran smoothly. Arrived in Athens around 6pm and were taken to the King George, the most luxurious hotel I’ve stayed in a long time. It was located in Syntgma Square near the Parliament buildings. My room had a balcony that looked out cross the square and up[…]
The Ancestors
I had it drummed into me from an early age that family and knowing where your roots come from are vitally important. My Grandfather, Edward Gordon Gedge, told me fantastic stories about his aristocratic life and my parents often said to me that I had ‘blue blood’ in my veins although I had no idea what they meant, and that I could trace my ancestry back to William the Conqueror. Living in New Zealand, I didn’t have any appreciation of my ancestry until I first came to England and visited Whitmore Hall – my roots; the ancestral home in Staffordshire. […]
Giant storks and drunken bees in Marrakech, Morocco
Marrakech, Morocco 2007 Our trip began with the most amazing breakfast on the rooftop terrace of our riad. Birds and bees flying around and we were surrounded by pots of colourful bougainvillea and pink hibiscus flowers. Our breakfast consisted of brown bread and traditional rghaif – Moroccan pancakes, mint tea, fresh strong coffee in silver pots and home-made fig or orange jam which the bees went bonkers over while tiny birds bounced around the table snapping at the bread. The bees turned into clowns – they would perch on the edge of the jam pots and suck at the jam[…]
Thieving monkeys and grumpy vice presidents in Transylvania
By Jane Wynyard – Poiana Brasov, Transylvania, 2005 Forget Dracula, vampires and werewolves. The most menacing creature you’re likely to encounter in Transylvania these days is a thieving monkey dressed in a blue suit that hangs around nightclubs. A resident at the ski resort of Poiana Brasov in the Southern Carpathian mountains, the jittery, red-eyed primate with the sharpest fangs in the business, is usually shoved by its Dracula-like owner into the arms of gullible and unsuspecting tourists. If you don’t pay the 150,000 lei (three pounds, fifty) for a photograph, the monkey bares his fangs, extends his long spidery[…]
Fresh off the boat – the Adventure of a lifetime begins
December 24, 2003 – Roma The adventure begins!!! Had a great flight from New Zealand apart from the fact that I was bitten on the hip by a spider that was in my bed the night before. As a result my leg was in absolute agony and I had to lie across four seats and keep moving to stop the pain. The wound got really itchy and ulcerated . . .Amazing what a little arachnid can do to a leg! However, most of the plane was empty from Bangkok so slept most of the way. Thai airways is average –[…]
Caipriniha and Caiman: Travelling by riverboat on Brazil’s Amazon River
Roaming through the Amazon jungle with its piranha-infested waters and riverbanks crawling with caiman is no longer an adventure just for the Tarzans or Indiana Jones of this world. For a few hundred pounds and with an adventurous spirit, buckets of mosquito repellent and the willingness to smell as bad as a wild baboon for a while, tourists can now spend days, even weeks, travelling through the dense tropical forest. And you don’t need whips, primitive knives or swinging vines to venture through the trees. Eco-tourism in the Amazon has opened the door to a whole new world of[…]
Sailing down Egypt’s Nile
Egypt 2004Following in my grandfather’s footstepsMy grandfather grew up in the royal palace in Alexandria, Egypt so this trip was very poignant for me. Gordon, my grandfather, died at the age of 95 in 1991 and was an Olympic medal winner (Antwerp Games) and a decorated soldier. But it was his stories of growing up in Egypt that I remember the most.My great grandfather was an Admiral and naval adviser to the King of Egypt – Abbas II. He was also honoured with the title of Pasha in 1912. The family moved into the Royal Palace and my grandfather (we[…]