Globalwanderings is the personal photoblog of Richard Cain showcasing some of the amazing places I have experienced while living and working throughout Asia and more recently, Europe. In 2009, me and my wife Jackie left Asia to renovate a farmhouse and live a new life in deepest Portugal. We are now renovating our second house and that story is told on a blog called The House on a Hill. We also run the podcasting site podcastsinenglish.com for learners and teachers of English as a foreign language.

Latest posts:

Picos de Europa

18 Sep 2024

Ever since watching a stage of La Vuelta de Espana some years ago we had wanted to go to the Picos de Europa and this was the year. We had booked an AirBnB and were all set when the hairy member of our family had a medical emergency. She had a growth on her leg which burst requiring surgery. It wasn’t all bad as our host was agreeable to postpone our stay for a week, when the weather was also…

Read More Read More

Posted in spain | Leave a comment

A Coruña

30 Sep 2023

I can’t believe we’ve been living up north (Ponte de Lima) for over a year already. As we are still in rented accommodation and waiting for our new house to be built, our traditional September getaway is restricted to just a couple of nights away. Of course, the whole point of living up north is the ease of travel to Galicia so it is no surprise that we chose to spend a couple of days in the Rias Altas, near…

Read More Read More

Posted in spain | Leave a comment

Goa

5 Mar 2023

So I got the overnight train from Hubli to Goa. My ticket was to the end of the line – Vasco da Gama station arriving at 6am. However, I utilised a top tech tip that had been a real boon on this trip. Maybe not so new to more tech savvy readers, but this India trip was the first one I had made really good use of google maps on my phone. I could have been completely lost but when…

Read More Read More

Posted in India | Leave a comment

Hampi

27 Feb 2023

Unlike most people’s conceptions of India, there are plenty of areas with a thinly spread population. Northern Karnataka is one such place. Subsequently public transport is rather sporadic, something I had already experienced. So for my next leg I decided to splurge 3500Rs (£35) on renting a car (with driver) for the 150km/4hr trip to Hampi. The first part of the trip was along narrow potholed roads across agricultural land – mainly sugarcane but also jowari which I found out…

Read More Read More

Posted in India | Leave a comment

Badami

24 Feb 2023

My previous post starts with the problem of getting a bus from Bidar to Bijapur and the fickleness of non existent timetables. this post will be no different. the previous day I’d been told there was a bus from Bijapur to Badami at 6.45am. Arriving at the station at the appointed time I was then told there was no direct bus but I had to get the 6.45 bus to Kerur and change there. That would arrive at platform 4….

Read More Read More

Posted in India | Leave a comment

Random posts:

Tesserai & Agordat

20 Dec 2000

The following day was another early start, this time due west to Tesserai which sits on the border with Sudan. I’m not sure why I went. Why not perhaps. the Eritrean plateau is dry and dusty but as you might expect nearing the Sudanese border takes it to another level. Also never mind Eritrea had recently had a war of independence the road was lined with refugee camps filled with Sudanese. There were also loads of checkpoints. Mainly composed of…

Read More Read More

Posted in eritrea | Leave a comment

Asturias and La Vuelta

20 Sep 2014

We had been avid watchers of the Tour de France for a number of years. Afternoons in July are often unbearably hot, so what better than to relax on the sofa and watch the peloton streaming through the beautiful French countryside. However, we wanted to see it in the flesh. Well the next best thing – the Spanish tour or “La Vuelta” and it was going through Asturias when we were due to go for our annual holiday. Asturias was…

Read More Read More

Posted in spain | Leave a comment

Family foray across the frontier

10 Sep 2021

We needed a break. We couldn’t go far or for long as we had to take the dogs and leave the chickens (we couldn’t get our regular house sitter to look after the house in our absence). We decided on a couple of nights just across the Spanish border from Marvao in Extramadura at Casa Rural Quinta de Luna, (Edit 2024: It is no longer available for rent) an attractive collection of three cottages nestled among a landscape of neolithic monuments…

Read More Read More

Posted in spain | Leave a comment