About Us

Barry and Margaret Williamson

Turkey, May 2008

Thanks to Rebecca Watts, who built this website, we now have a place for the images, logs and published articles generated by 20 years of travel. We first met Rebecca and Kevin in Alexandroupoli, near the Greek/Turkish border. Taking time out from their home in Australia  (seen left) to tour Europe in a VW Kombi, they had travelled east through Bulgaria and were about to head west through Greece. We were motorhoming into Turkey for a 2-month tour. We've met them twice since then, visiting their house-on-stilts high in the tropical rain forest above Cairns in northern Queensland.

Our own travels together started in 1987 whilst we were both teaching in higher education in West Yorkshire. Margaret's background is in modern languages, archaeology and business administration. Barry graduated in physics, chemistry, education (see our other website about Barry's College) and business management, but always preferred riding his bike, rock climbing and just being out and about, exploring. The photo right shows us on our wedding day in Methoni in the Greek Peloponnese.

For 8 years whilst still at work, we spent time travelling as and when we could. We cycled in the Yorkshire Wolds, Moors and Dales at weekends, or in the Lake District, Ireland, Scotland and Wales for short breaks. For longer holidays we rode out into mainland Europe to see how far we could get before catching a last-minute flight back to the UK for the start of another term. We cycled across the USA one summer; we rode north through Scandinavia as far as Tromso (returning by ferry); three times in 1990 we took a truckload of aid to Romanian orphanages, crossing the Carpathians to Moldavia; one Christmas and New Year was spent circling India by train; another summer we drove to and from the Black Sea. Work was an interlude between journeys! 

After early retirement in 1995, we let our house to tenants and began long-term travel throughout Europe in a 27 ft Four Winds motorhome. We always carry our 2 touring bicycles, but also use walking boots, motorbike, bus, train, truck, ferry, plane and hire car. In fact, anything that moves!

We have written about 20 illustrated travel articles for the MMM (Motorhome Motorcaravan Monthly), the UK's premier magazine in its field. The text of many of these articles is reproduced in this website. We now act as the MMM's voluntary Travel Consultants in the following areas: Long-term Motorhoming in Mainland Europe; Albania; Bulgaria; Croatia; Romania; Slovenia and Balkan Routes to Greece. 

Since the year 2000, we have also made three 12-month round-the-world journeys, while the motorhome languished in a farmer's barn. The first (to Singapore, across Australia, all round New Zealand, Fiji, then across the USA) was 12,000 miles, entirely by bicycle. The second took in South Africa, a complete circuit of Australia, New Zealand, California and New York, by car, train, motorhome and bicycle. The third itinerary, in 2005, included India, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Hong Kong and Singapore, followed by motorhoming across Australia, around New Zealand's North Island and through 7 of the USA's western states.

The summer of 2007 saw the replacement of both our touring bicycles and our motorhome. Paul Hewitt in Leyland, Lancashire built 2 splendid new bicycles to our specification under his expert guidance. They replaced machines that had given us 20 years of excellent service, carrying us (and up to 5 pannier bags each) over the roads and tracks of 5 continents.

Motorhome Medics of Cheltenham found us a great replacement for our beloved Four Winds. Specially imported into the UK by Darren, who selected it on one of his visits to the USA, the 26 ft Fleetwood Flair could not have been better designed and suited to its purpose and use.

Re-equipped and reinvigorated for travels which can have none but the most permanent of ends, here we are at the end of another Winter in Greece. Our next moves will take us east, into Turkey.

Barry and Margaret Williamson

May 2008