Someone asked me earlier this year ‘What do you do if you become ill” to which I replied I don’t know it has never happened.

In the 18 years we have been operating I have never missed a tour and so it came as quite a shock to be told recently that I had to decide on my health or my work. I initially thought I could work around it and did the Harz Mountains tour, but was firmly told by family, friends and doctor to stop messing about and go for tests.

 I guess the question should have been ‘who would look after your tours’ – but I should have known that with such good customers and friends that I would get numerous offers of help. So Keith Lovett and Jersey Geoff ran the Austria tour and tail-end John and Keith Harper took the Tour of Ireland.

 I returned to duties for the Italy & Slovenia tour, during which I received the news that all the tests were negative and the original diagnosis was incorrect, so if anyone noticed that I had a beer or two too many one night, now you know why. Without getting technical, Google tells me that the complaint will go away, and what I have affects 1 in 10,000 people and is usually associated with Afro-American women and horses! – Neigh that can’t be right…….

 Anyway a big thanks to everyone for their help and support, both Val and I greatly appreciated it.

 So we are now back on track and looking forward to 2015. The uncertainty has delayed arrangements slightly, but we will email you once we have completed our arrangements.