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Welcome to Taffy's Travels Welcome to Taffy's Travels - and to a world of outlandish adventures and exciting voyages of discovery. Come with me as I traverse the planet in a way that no ordinary mortal would ever dream of - unless like me they are crazy of course! Now with the release of my first two books entitled "Battle of the Greyhounds, America - Part I" and "Battle of the Greyhounds, Australia - Part II", you too can enjoy reading about my unbelievable encounters and my never-ending list of trials and tribulations - all from the comfort of your own arm-chair, or on the canvas of your latest sun-bed. Originally entitled "Around the world in 80 ways", the challenge I set myself was to find 80 different modes of transport in which to circumnavigate the Earth. From buses to go-carts, sailing boats to skate-boards and aeroplanes to elephants - in fact anything that would transport me from point 'A' to point 'B' by one form or another. In America I managed to notch-up a total of 17 ways (besides primarily using buses of course) and a few more were added in Australia, but it is when I finally visit the Far East that I intend making-up these numbers considerably, as our oriental friends seem to insist upon travelling in (or on) just about anything and everything which is capable of moving! It was back in 1981 when I first began my travels in earnest, only then it was on motor-cycles, as I journeyed my way through Europe and across to North Africa, notching up a total of 13 countries, several islands and travelling over 10,000 miles by road (and nearly 4000 on ferries) via 3 holidays in just over 2 years. Nearly 10 years later, and after having read the best-seller "Jupiter's Travels" by Ted Simon, I transposed his 4-year motor-cycle journey around the world into a movie called "Freedom Run" and shortly afterwards I flew out to California to Ted's home, where we worked on the idea together, contacting film and television companies on both sides of the Atlantic, before finally leaving to travel south into Mexico. Although the film idea received rave reviews in the U.K., the BBC decided that a 6 part series for television entitled "Steps of Jupiter - 20 years on", in which I would emulate Ted's journey, only in various stages and Ted would then meet me at strategic points along the way, would be a more 'affordable' project and so we set about planning and preparing the first programme, which involved me riding a motor-cycle from Cardiff to Cape Town. Unfortunately the BBC pulled-out at the eleventh hour and so my days of fame and fortune ended right there and then - along with my marriage! Realizing that the only way I was going to see this big wide world was by personally funding the trips, I moved out to Tenerife in 1998, to work in the lucrative world of time-share - which is another story. Now, 10 years later I am a professional travel-writer currently working on more journeys to undertake and subsequently more books to write, such as "Battle of the Greyhounds, Canada - Part III" perhaps - or maybe even "Mexico by bus" - who knows? (I am also toying with the idea of travelling through South America, Africa and all the way along The Silk Route on a push-bike!) Sally, my fiancee, wants me to write a book about our 'unbelievable' lives in Tenerife, including our 'Shirley Valentine' romance and how we ran away together - around all 7 of the Canary Islands - or I could write a book about our 15 months working in Cyprus, including our Turkish, Egyptian and Greek island cruises. And then there are my motor-cycle diaries of course, including my European escapades, which were truly amazing. While I stop to ponder, please take time out to follow the links above if you wish to learn more about the items I have briefly discussed here - and feel free to drop me an e-mail via the contact page with your comments (good or bad!) on either, or both of my books, once you have read them of course - and also what you might like to read next? |
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