If you’ve watched this blog you’ll know what this picture means

Yes, another travel adventure is about to begin. It’s been quite some time since I traveled anywhere out of the ordinary.  Spring of 2018 I visited South America (Ecuador including Galapagos and Peru) and you can scroll down to see those blog posts.

But I had a very good reason for not travelling in the later part of 2018. On November 7 my first grandchild was born. I was so very honoured to be in the birthing unit with Gill and Phil when Benjamin Edward Cartwright entered the world, peeing all over everyone to mark his turf! I was shocked by how much love and joy could fill my heart by this tiny bundle.

Ben is now almost 10 months old (where did THAT 10 months go!), and is just the most wonderful, gentle, loving, rambunctious, curious (downright nosey really), funny child. Of course, I’m his “Gram” so it’s my job to say nice things.  But really they’re true. I’ve loved spending time with him, and we’re becoming fast friends. He’s scooting and crawling and it’s my job to chase him. His giggles make the effort so worth while. So travelling is going to be more difficult now.  Could you leave this little man?

I’m hoping his parents will sent pictures and videos for me to see while I’m away so I can watch them over and over. I do that even when he’s just across town.

So, where to this time? Another of the regions of the world I’ve never been before – MENA (Middle East – North Africa). I didn’t even know “MENA” was a “thing” before the planning started. More specifically we’ll be touring Morocco (15 days), Israel (7 days) and Jordan (7 days), in that order, with our favourite small group travel company, G Adventures. I’m once again travelling with my “travel buddy” and friend, Nanci and we leave for Casablanca through Frankfurt on Thursday, August 29th. I won’t go into too much detail here, but below are the maps of the three trips to give you an idea of our routing. All of these trips look jam packed so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to write, but I’ll try my best.

If you’ve travelled to this part of the world, please share your thoughts with me and if there is anything I should watch for along the way. Our routing is set, but we do have some free time in some of the places we stop.

Now it’s time to step away from the keyboard and get organized.  Only 4 more sleepies.