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Kat & Ben's World Adventure

a travel blog by Kat and Ben


A place for you our friends and family to keep up to date on what where when and how we are doing.

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Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh, United Kingdom





permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 11, 2009 from Bamburgh, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Kat & Ben's World Adventure
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Angle of the North

Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom


It was time to say bye bye to Edinburgh and head to Ben’s little sister’s place in Stoke-on-Trent, however en-route we drove via Newcastle (Angle of the North), Bamburgh Castle (For the largest or longest sand dunes), Lamberton (by fluke James) and then landed in Stoke in time to watch the Rugby. We stayed over one night with Lizzie in her student gaff and unfortunately didn’t get to meet ‘the beasts’ whom she and two of her friends share the house with, but had fun getting to know her friends.

permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 13, 2009 from Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
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Goodbye Lizzie

Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom


It was time to say bye bye to Edinburgh and head to Ben’s little sister’s place in Stoke-on-Trent, however en-route we drove via Newcastle (Angle of the North), Bamburgh Castle (For the largest or longest sand dunes), Lamberton (by fluke James) and then landed in Stoke in time to watch the Rugby. We stayed over one night with Lizzie in her student gaff and unfortunately didn’t get to meet ‘the beasts’ whom she and two of her friends share the house with, but had fun getting to know her friends.

permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 13, 2009 from Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
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Goodbye Bens Parents

Rollesby, United Kingdom


From there we were off again to Norfolk for a few nights R&R with Ben’s parents. After managing to sly talk our way into leaving one or two things up in their loft, we repacked the car so we could actually see out of the back window, albeit slightly. We found a really cheap ferry crossing on the 18th March from Dover to Dunkirk around £25 for both of us and the car and it was only a 45min crossing - not enough time for a little sleep after setting of from Norfolk at 6am.

permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 14, 2009 from Rollesby, United Kingdom
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Goodbye ENGLAND

Dover, United Kingdom



We found a really cheap ferry crossing on the 18th March from Dover to Dunkirk around £25 for both of us and the car and it was only a 45min crossing - not enough time for a little sleep after setting of from Norfolk at 6am.


permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 15, 2009 from Dover, United Kingdom
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Hello France

Dunkerque, France


The ferry docked on time at around 2pm and we set of on our journey to just south of Paris to a small village called Dravail where even the Chinese didn’t speak Chinese let alone English!

permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 15, 2009 from Dunkerque, France
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Dreaded Draveil

Draveil, France


So we both had difficulty ordering our meal after being stuck in rush hour traffic around the Paris ring roads for 2 hours making it 9:30pm when we eventually sat down to dinner, but more importantly a cold beer.
We stayed at ‘Hotel Crap Hole’ (we forget the name) which was bloody awful. Nothing worked, it had bare wires in the light fittings, a window that wouldn’t open or lock for that matter, the toilet and sink was grubby and, Ben would have complained that it didn’t have free wifi as advertised! The last straw was when Ben tried the shower in the morning the pressure of the water blew the fixtures apart, so we packed up early complained at reception about the shower and he offered us use of a shower from another room. However, having been dressed packed and ready to go we told him we wanted discount for the inconvenience and knocked off a couple of euros.


permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 15, 2009 from Draveil, France
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Kats Parents and Friends

Vouleme, France


Having left earlier than expected and the French speed limits being 130km on dry days we made it to Kat’s parents (Louise & Steve) house in Nieuillet in good time. We arrived on the 19th March about 2pm, just in time for French bread, cheese and a cold beer as the weather was boiling hot. They had converted their upstairs game room to accommodate a bedroom for us to stay in whilst we were there, which was cornered off from the rest of the room with a curtained wall. It was really cosy and it gave us a little space from Kat’s parents so we didn’t end up killing each other as previously anticipated due to it being 5 years since Kat had lived with her parents.
Funnily enough we all got along really well and the rest is history as we stayed there for about two months preparing for the next step of our travels around Africa, getting Ben’s rabies jabs, sorting out anti-malarial tablets (what a nightmare) and going through all of our belongings again to get it all to fit in two 65litre rucksacks. When we were not pulling our hair out about visas etc.
we helped Kat’s parents restore all of the brick work in their courtyard which was once an out-building. It had previously been knocked down to one level and all cleared out of rubble ready for us to start mucking out the shit between the stones and begin pointing. Our friend Kelly came over for a few days and got roped into the work where we all had a laugh and Kat managed to catch up on some girlie time.
We loved working outdoors and the weather was really good most days. Although the physical work was meant to make us fitter, we found ourselves putting on weight! No doubt it was from all of the cheese, bread and alcohol consumed… best get it all in now and make the most of it!
Life in rural France has a lot more of a slower pace than what we were and are used to, but we mixed in well with the locals and played boules on Thursdays and were regular visitors at the local café, Edna’s. Everyone was really friendly and made us feel welcome; Kat even managed to learn some notes on her guitar from Jim (mad Scotsman) which she’s sadly had to leave with her parents.

We definitely had some experiences whilst we were in France, one of which was catching a meter long grass snake in the garden so Kat’s mum wouldn’t freak out at the sight of it. Another sight we won’t forget is Kat’s dad doing the hula hoop on Julia and the girls’ Wii Fit… So far we have been very lucky and were sad to say goodbye to the friends we made out there, especially to Kat’s parents neighbours who seemed like family when you got to know them and run a really lovely B&B if anyone fancies a mini-break in the future…

Kat’s parents had left for their villa in Spain about a week before we left so the house seemed really empty without them, but it gave us time to have a last flap about what we needed to pack, throw and store. It was also Ben’s birthday in the 17th May so we went over to Julia and Bob’s for a Sunday roast and went to the pub quiz after to meet our team buddies, Jim and Margaret. We cut it fine with the timing and apparently held up the quiz from starting (oops), but as we entered everyone started singing Happy Birthday to Ben. It was also Jim’s birthday that day and Margaret’s the day after so there was quite a bit of celebrating and ended in the two of us zig-zag walking the very dark and spooky way home in high-res jackets and using the torch from Ben’s camera.
Making it home in one piece and after Kat suffering a hangover from hell the next day, we found ourselves getting to our last day in France.

After going through all of our possessions during our last day we popped down to Edna’s one last time to say our goodbyes, before going back to the house and finishing the packing and tidying 2am. The majority of it was done, but ended up sleeping in until 7am, which was our original leaving time. Rushing around like crazies to tie up all of the loose ends, we packed up the car, said ‘au revior’ and left at 10am for Barcelona.


permalink written by  Kat and Ben on March 16, 2009 from Vouleme, France
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The Tunnel

Andorra la Vella, Andorra


Avoiding the toll roads or ‘Peages’, our journey took us through some beautiful coastal and landscape scenery, one being the Pyrenees mountains on the outskirts of Andorra and along a minor road through a small village that acted as the border between France and Spain. Going through Spain’s backdoor was so surreal, there was just as sign saying ‘Espana’ to indicate that we were now in Spain. We got to Barcelona for about 7pm, with no idea of where we were going to stay and no idea of where to park the car with all of our things in. Ben was so desperate for the loo at this point after being in the car for hours, he Christened the streets the minute we stood on Spanish soil.

permalink written by  Kat and Ben on May 24, 2009 from Andorra la Vella, Andorra
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Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain


We left the car in an underground car park, made our way to an Irish bar on the Rambla to ask around for places to stay. It was a culture shock when the waitress lit up a cigarette in the bar, didn’t happen to be Irish and had no idea what a hostel was. Needless to say we ended up walking along the Rambla,
having some drinks, eating a really shit Chinese that Ben found a bit of china in and sleeping in the car outside the local University and just diagonal from the police station (something we found out in the morning).

Our next day in Barcelona had us walking all over the place to see as much of it as possible. We had found a few hostels the night before and had decided that they were too expensive for a night in semi-Comfort (€55 was the lowest we found)! So we went to the harbour and went to the beach and saw not only a naked man sunbathing, but another naked man riding a bike. Interesting….
On the beach a man caught a Jellyfish in the sea and brought it ashore in a plastic bag.
Unfortunately Barcelona wasn’t really doing it for us, with the expectation of bright colours and festivities all day and night long, we faced extortionate prices for awful food, lots of tourists and drunks ready for a night out that wasn’t as buzzing as we’d hoped. Maybe it was the wrong time to go or the Rambla was just another ‘bar street’ like you get in Pathos (Cyprus), either way we decided to head on after another night of sleeping in the car.


permalink written by  Kat and Ben on May 25, 2009 from Barcelona, Spain
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