Only the Washing Up!

The tour de France. The most famous, popular bike race ever. 19 teams, 219 men, a 50 car long caravan and thousands of fans.

There are four jerseys, Polka dot for the king of the mountains, Yellow for the most points, Green for the best sprinter, and White for the best young rider. The aim is to try and get one of the jerseys and maintain it until the end of the tour. You can watch the tour on ITV 4 if you want speed, drama, and crashes!

My favourite riders this year are: Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) Frank Schleck (Leopard Trek) Mark Cavendish (HTC Highroad) Mark Renshaw (HTC Highroad) Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank).

Anyway, today we were at the start of a stage so I got to see loads of the riders warming up. There is also a caravan of huge floats that chuck out freebies for people to catch. It was really fun so if you go to France, check out the route and see when it is coming near you because I would definitely recommend it!

See you soon, Charlie XoXoX

Hey everybody

This blog is just to say; a) I am still alive, b) I’m still having a great time and c) I am now in Italy.

We are by Lake Maggiorre and it is baking hot.  The town is beautiful and we have found a place to camp for the night just on the outskirts.  I am writing this in a hotel lobby whilst mum listens to the tennis on the internet.

I am going to go and buy some delicious ice-cream in a minute, and if you haven’t been to Italy before I can tell you that the ice-cream lives up to its reputation,  I know this after extensive research (ie eating loads of it at every opportunity!).

Love you all and see you really soon now (only 2 weeks!!)

Charlie xoxoxoxox

Yes, I am still alive and yes, I am sorry I havent posted a blog in a while.

I hope you all liked my poem “Muddled and mixed up.”

Right now I am re reading Harry Potter series for the third time I have also read Percy Jackson, Alex Rider and Emily windsnap three times already so the books I own at home will be brand new!

Lots of love

Sorry it’s so short but I dont have any crazily exiting news to tell,

Charlie xxxxxx

I am all muddled,

I am all mixed up,

Yes I love travelling,

No, I’m not willing to give up.

I miss you all so much,

I can’t wait to get home,

But there’s nothing I can do about it,

The traveling seeds are sewn.

I’ll give them water and sun light,

Everything they need,

Until a traveling flower,

Has grown from the traveling seed.

And yes I miss you all dearly,

So I’ll see you when I get back,

One thing I want you to is,

My love for traveling will never lack!

A five pm wake up call started off our day. We dressed warmly, left our hostel (the vans heater broke and it was quite cold) and crossed the road to the hot air balloon centre. We had done this yesterday but the pilots had gone to take of field they called a no go because the wind was wrong so we were hoping to be able to take off. It was all clear so we piled into the mini bus and drove down to the take off area. We waited as first air and then flames were blasted into the balloon and then we clambered into the basket.

After a stunning hour of breath-taking views of the fairy chimneys unique to Cappadocia and a climb to almost two kilometres high, it was time to land. This was done expertly by out pilot Musrat as he lowered the basket on to the trailer of the support vehicle that was barely bigger than the basket.

The least I can say is that it was cool. Cxxx

Jumping off a cliff isn’t usually my idea of fun. But when it is over a calm torquoise sea and a national park I change my mind.

My parapenting partrner, who was called Hakan, and I ran down an extremely steep slope and took to the air. Once  my mind had finally got over the fact that I wasn’t plummeting towards the rocks below or hurtling to the sea  miles underneath my feet, Hakan let me steer for a while as we glided over the lagoon and past birds. Beautiful. After 40 minutes of flying against the will of gravity we landed after the brief instructions of “ When we land you stand up and maybe take a few steps,” my airborne experience was finally over. The way down was definitely better than the way up, seeing as the trip up was 18 people squashed in to the back of a landrover!

Love to you all, Cxxx

As I write this I can see a beautiful white cliff-face, but it is not white rock. Warm water flows down it and this water is packed with calcium (the substance your teeth and bones are made of) so after hundreds of years the calcium has hardend on the rock. On top of the cliff, are roman ruins and an old roman bath. They have renewed the baths but kept the fallen down pillars and filled the bottom with pebbles. We swam and pretended to be statues.

You have to walk up the cliff face to get to the ruins and baths so you walk up a gentle slope bare-footed on the smooth stone with warm water rushing by your ankles.

That’s all for now, so, bye……

In the

Turkish town of Sardis many Roman ruins lie, excavated by archaeologists. Blood red anenomies and brilliantly white daisies with fresh yellow centres carpet these ancient remains where the bright green grass does not reach.

It is a beautiful sight to see on a hot day when the cornflower-blue sky tickles the peaks of the brown, rocky hills that are speckled with bushes and cherry blossom.

The sand-coloured ruins of temples, shops, baths and houses contrast beautifully with the rainbow of colours that are here. While butterflies flutter overhead and skim over the grass. They really top off this beautiful, colourful scene.

Venise at Carniaval time is mad. There are people everywhere in crazy fancy dress costumes and bonkers masks. I brought a mask that was black and had black and silver glitter swirls on. To top it all off it has 2 long black feathers  on the top. I am on the ferry to Greece now so it is quite exciting. The other day we cycled round the city walls of Lucca so we had a view over the city’s roofs. I have just recived news that I am attending Redknock which I am pleased about.

My love to you all,

Charlie xxxx

So, its good bye Africa, hello Europe!

In Marrakesh we went to a Hammam, a place were you fill up a bucket, grab a small container, sit down on the heated floor and slosh water all over you. Bliss! In the main square I freaked out when a man put his snake around my neck which lay still and then suddenly moved.

Our plan has changed yet again. Tomorrow we are going to Spain to see our Spanish friends Juan, Reyes, Miguel and Lucia who live in Seville. After that we are heading up towards Barcelona were Dad’s friend Andy Moss is flying out to meet us. Then it’s 4 weeks of driving as we get across northern Italy and Greece to get to Turkey! After Turkey we have 5 weeks to get across 5 Greek islands so a week on each. Oh dear, what a difficult life were leading…………..

But as our last 6 months have shown us, anything can happen.

Love

C xxx