2022: Home Comforts & The Midnight Plane to Georgia.

2022: Home Comforts & The Midnight Plane to Georgia.

Can it really be that another year has passed? Bear with me a moment (incidental music). I have just checked my calendar and yes, it would appear another twelve months have flown by. I swear, it’s going faster and faster every year. Thus it’s time for me to put out my annual year-in-review post, following 2020’s The Highs and Lows of a Nomadic Travel Blogger and 2021’s A Travel Blogger’s Balkan Odyssey.

Sladja and I had the first half of 2022 planned long before it arrived. After two years away from The UK, I felt it was time to pay an extended visit home. To check in with family and friends. Revisit some old haunts and explore a bit more of my own country.

It was Sladja’s first time in Britain, hence she was really excited by the prospect of immersing herself in British culture. Moreover, it would be the first time she’d meet my family and closest friends. No wonder we arrived in such good spirits, fuelled by the prospect of the adventures ahead.

Our base for the first three months of our six month stay was the little English village of Tean in the bucolic county of Staffordshire. Roughly twenty minutes by car from the city of Stoke-on-Trent.

We lived on The High Street in a beautiful old townhouse converted from a 19th-century post office. Tean was just what we were looking for: small and quiet, but with plenty of services, including a supermarket, pub, hairdressers, fish & chips shop, Chinese takeaway and cluster of cosy churches.

2022: Home Comforts & The Midnight Plane to Georgia.

Moreover, we had numerous hiking trails right on our doorstep. These included the leafy public footpath, Martha Ford Lane, and the gorgeous routes around Winnothdale, a small community of farms and stunning country houses.

For the most part though, Tean was a place for us to hunker down for the winter and concentrate on our various projects. And so the weeks rolled by, punctuated by supermarket deliveries, home cooking, movie watching, reading, listening to records and tending to the log fire. Already, we look back on this period so fondly. One day of course, although lord only knows when, I will blog about Tean in more detail and add it to the travel report library.

Winter or not, we still managed to do plenty of exploring. In this regard, we must thank our local guide Pete, a keen walker and passionate reader of crime novels. Kind, affable and conscientious, we quickly found Pete to be great company.

Under Pete’s wing, we walked the picturesque Dimmingsdale Circular trail. And explored the village of Croxden, where we found the ruins of a 12th century abbey. He also led us along the Barlaston Canal and through the pretty Ilam Park in The Peak District. Thank you so much Pete, one day I will write all these chapters up in full. Sladja and I are certainly looking forward to hitting new trails with you the next time we visit.

Croxden Abbey.

Independently, we made tracks all over Staffordshire with numerous visits to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. And to the modest but charming towns of Cheadle, Uttoxeter, Leek and Stafford. Just outside the latter, Sladja caught sight of her first English stately home when we spent an afternoon hiking around the pastoral grounds of the 17th century Shugborough Estate.

A few days earlier, my brother (pictured below) had driven down from Scotland to stay for a few days. The three of us had a great time exploring Shugborough, once home to the celebrated Royal Naval Officer Admiral George Anson.

In fact, we got so caught up in our wanderings that we didn’t make it out until after closing time. As a result, we had to climb over the fence that borders the estate in order to escape. Sladja was quite mortified.

Shugborough whetted our appetite for more stately elegance, so when my old friend Wonderboy came to visit, we spent a day touring the equally impressive Trentham Gardens. These gorgeous, historic grounds once belonged to the now ruinous stately home, Trentham Hall. Where, among others, the Dukes of Sutherland once resided.

Looking back, I’m actually surprised by just how much we managed to see and do. In February, for example, I cleared my work schedule so that we could have a… wait for it… holiday in London. And what a stay we had, with ten action-packed days exploring as much of my home city as we possibly could. It was exhausting, but so much fun, especially seeing just how much Sladja was falling in love with the city.

2022: Home Comforts & The Midnight Plane to Georgia.

Wading through our photos, I realise what a multitude of articles I now need to add to my already considerable London archives. Of these, it would be hard to pick a favourite experience. Rather, I’ll give special mentions to grave-hunting in Highgate Cemetery, a morning stroll through Dunstan in the East Church Garden and getting lost in Camden Market. Oh, and the hours and hours we spent drinking in the Royal Parks.

Before heading back up to Staffordshire, we jumped on a train to the town of Colchester for a day with my lovely 84 year old grandmother. That was a special afternoon. We drank tea, reminisced about “the good old days” and presented her with some plants we’d bought in town. Then took her to the local supermarket, so she could stock up on essentials. It was a criminally brief catch up in many ways, but I’m so glad Sladja got to meet Nanny Powell.

Towards the end of our stay in Tean, we embarked on another trip, this time to see my “favourite” uncle in the town of Carnforth. I hadn’t seen Uncle Dave, my aunt Liane nor indeed my cousin Mia in about three years, so there was much to catch up on.

The Canal Turn Pub.

Again it was a case of trying to do as much as we could with our limited time. I was able to show Sladja around Lancaster and the nearby Warton Village. Furthermore, I managed to cover some new ground with afternoons in the historic villages of Cartmel and Bolton-le-Sands.

However, the definitive highlight was when Uncle D drove us to the Lake District. There, we spent a few hours touring the stunning Hill Top Farm, once home to the celebrated English writer Beatrix Potter. Magical stuff.

In early April it was finally time to bid farewell to Staffordshire. So off we went on the train up to Scotland, where my dad lives in the town of Galashiels in The Scottish Borders. At long last the weather was improving, which was perfect for all the million and one hikes we wanted to do. To the estate of Torwoodle… across the fields of the Meigle Circular… to Yair Forest, Beaumont Forest and beyond.

Much to our surprise, and unbridled delight, this improved weather quickly turned into an actual heatwave that April. We definitely took advantage, with memorable day trips to the endearing Scottish border towns of Jedburgh, Melrose and Peebles.

2022: Home Comforts & The Midnight Plane to Georgia.

And yet, if push came to shove, I would handpick our visit to the estate of Abbotsford as my favourite of our April field trips. This is where the hugely successful and influential novelist, poet, playwright, historian and judge (among other titles) Sir Walter Scott lived between 1817 and 1825. This lavish home is absolutely dripping with history, its remarkable grounds immaculately kept. Can’t wait to blog this one up someday.

In May we packed up our bags again and headed to the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, for a fantastic two week stay. This time it was for a housesitting post looking after a Spanish couple’s cute cats, Coco and Mimi.

Seemingly as a punishment for all the good weather we’d had in April, that Edinburgh fortnight was riddled with rain, wind and chilly temps. But we didn’t care, we still hit the streets hard, doing as much as we could with our time.

As with London, there is way too much to mention in full. Among our many highlights, we smile broadly to think of our exploring around The Royal Mile. Of touring the Royal Yacht Britannia and tracking down the so-called Harry Potter graves of Greyfriars Kirkyard.

The Royal Yacht Britannia.

In mid May we left Edinburgh and took the ridiculously scenic train journey to The Scottish Highlands for the last leg of our UK tour. There, we lived with my mum for a month in the pretty village of Spean Bridge, just outside the town of Fort William. With my sister, brother-in-law and niece living nearby in the settlement of Banavie, this was a proper family reunion.

To celebrate being back, meeting Sladja for the first time and indeed as a belated wedding present, the five of us set off on a magnificent boat tour of Loch Linnhe. It was a great day, the weather firmly behaving itself as we sped through Linnhe’s handsome waters racing the Jacobite Steam Train and spotting a colony of seals.

Unfortunately, within days, we all came down with COVID. Sladja, my mum and I got it quite bad and we were knocked out for the better part of two weeks. It was unbelievable, we’d managed to avoid COVID for over two years bouncing around the world and then we got it on the first day out with family.

COVID of course hampered a chunk of our travel plans. And yet, with what time remained, we managed to cross off some wondrous local day trips. Indeed, we embarked on a half day journey on The Jacobite Steam Train from Fort William to Mallaig. We also enjoyed a fantastic day in Glenfinnan and an unforgettable day hiking around Loch Ossian in the isolated outpost of Corrour.

2022: Home Comforts & The Midnight Plane to Georgia.

Overall, it had been a great six months, a period of cultural reconnection and home comforts. From the familiarity of the language and visits with family, to all those favourite foods like Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, Double Decker chocolate, fish and chips and all my favourite Indian dishes.

On June the 24th we arrived back in Serbia for another extended stay with Sladja’s parents. There, we knuckled down with work for a couple of months, rarely leaving the little town of Obrenovac. It was also an opportunity for us to think about where we would head next. Ideally a new country that offered a longer visa than most. Hmm.

It was fiercely hot in Serbia that July and August. No, we didn’t have air con. Rather, we battled on with fans and an endless supply of cold drinks and ice cubes. Along the way, we watched Wimbledon tennis matches on the balcony and broke up the general drudgery by celebrating no less than four birthdays. Sladja and I in July, her mum and dad’s in August.

Obrenovac, Serbia.

After much deliberation (bouncing back and forth a hundred times), we finally decided to spend the rest of the year in…. Georgia! That’s the country folks, not the U.S. state. Instead of a midnight train, we took a midnight plane from Belgrade that gave us an overnight stop in our old friend Istanbul. We spent our first two months in the coastal city of Batumi, a curious, rough-around-the-edges metropolis with a lovely stretch of coast that allowed us to regularly swim in The Black Sea.

While it’s fair to say we were less than charmed by numerous aspects of life in Batumi, there is still much to look back on with fondness. Some of the food was magnificent, the architecture of the old town calming and photogenic. And there was so much greenery, from the extensive Batumi Boulevard in the city to the absolutely breathtaking Batumi Botanical Garden.

Batumi, Georgia.

In mid October we relocated to the understated town of Tskaltubo near the city of Kutaisi. In truth we hadn’t come with the highest expectations, but were pleasantly surprised by how peaceful and laid-back life was. The town itself is utterly nondescript and barely even worth a look. But the surrounding history kicks ass.

Back in the 1920s and 30s, Stalin unveiled Tskaltubo as the Soviet Union government’s primary resort town. During these decades, over twenty grand spa hotels sprang up. Some for Stalin and his cronies, others for the military and Russia’s rich and powerful. What a month we had exploring these now abandoned ruins, which lie scattered around town and the wonderfully green Central Park.

We also spent some days getting to know the lovely city of Kutaisi, with its fine collections of churches and cathedrals. This charming river town also has plenty of greenery and honours its cultural heritage everywhere with countless statues, sculptures and historical plaques. Truly, there is so much to tell you about on these pages, when the time comes.

In mid November we relocated to Georgia’s handsome bustling capital, Tbilisi. Renting a tiny apartment on the outskirts of the city, this is where we hunkered down for a spell, like hibernating squirrels. For around a month we pretty much stayed at home teaching, blogging and watching what turned out to be a magnificent World Cup in Qatar. It was a comfortingly intimate period fuelled by French press coffee, home cooking and late night card games.

2022: Home Comforts & The Midnight Plane to Georgia.

With Argentina as World champions, we emerged from our cave and set about investigating the terrific city of Tbilisi as 2022 jogged to a gentle close. Blogwise, it could be easy to feel overwhelmed by just how many spots and experiences we have to share. From climbing Narikala Fortress and seeking out the unfinished historic sculpture, Chronicle of Georgia, to experiencing a traditional sulphur bath and absorbing countless parks, markets, cafes and unusual buildings, Tbilisi has certainly delivered.

Well done for staying with me throughout this somewhat bloated article. As you read this 2023 has just come into view and we’re preparing ourselves for the end of our Georgian adventure on January 16th. So far we have the first quarter of the year mapped out, with three stays booked up across two countries. At the risk of sounding a bit coy, I’m gonna hold back the details for a later piece.

Have Passports Will Travel.

As always, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their amazing support of Leighton Travels. Once again the blog has grown considerably in all the various ways laid out on my WordPress stats page. Soon enough, I’ll be hitting 2000 WordPress followers, which is a nice round number, though I don’t place too much importance on these things. Elsewhere, I’m expecting to pass the quarter of a million mark for overall hits since the site was launched.

However, most importantly, it’s the growth of what I consider authentic engagement that feels most special. Those folk who always read each piece in full. Who take the time to leave thoughtful comments and build relationships. Truly, I know who you are, and it makes all the hours that go into blogging worth it.

Blog Plans for 2023.

Regarding content, I’ll be adopting a new approach from March onwards. Having spent so much of this year redoing old articles from my earliest travels, I believe it’s high time to focus on the adventures Sladja and I have had over the past few years, post 2020 Cambodia. It’s going to be a long haul trying to catch up with the present, but I shall do my best to bridge some of the gap.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Sandra Dawson. And to my dear friend Emma Dawson, whose friendship means so much to us. Emma, here’s hoping for a happy, healthy and healing 2023.

“Words seem so feeble in moments like these. Life is so precious, and death such a thief. The depth of your pain I cannot comprehend, but I’ll stand alongside you in the darkness, my friend”. – John Mark Green.

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