The blog

The life and times of Chico
The blog / The journey

The life and times of Chico

I’ve got Chico’s passport onboard, getting a bit raggedy and regularly doused in rainwater now, and it has the address where he was born on it. It’s in Rhyl, a town with a bit of a rough reputation on the north coast of Wales, and we happened to be passing […]

A map! Give us a map!
The blog / The journey

A map! Give us a map!

May I apologise for the woeful lack of visual aid on this travel blog? It’s rubbish, unforgivable, and entirely Google’s fault, and maybe partly Apple’s. Any time I have a spare bit of phone battery, decent enough internet connection, and a couple of brain cells that haven’t withered in the […]

Donkeyless life
The blog / The journey

Donkeyless life

What am I up to, without my donkey, you might ask. Or you might not ask – who cares? Well, I’ll tell you anyway. I am walking around Anglesey in fits and starts, trying to find ways of entertaining myself. I am learning the Desiderata (you know, the one that […]

Can’t walk with him, can’t walk without him
The blog / The journey

Can’t walk with him, can’t walk without him

I’m glad to report that the injury rate to me has reduced, and Chico has undertaken some superb stretches of strolling, head down, undistracted by verges for whole dozens of minutes at a time. The Lleyn Peninsula is behind us, and we rounded the corner alongside the Menai Straights, where […]

Midsummer mayhem
The blog / The journey

Midsummer mayhem

Listen to your donkey, said two donkey godmothers and a couple of other kind donkey people, after I posted a picture of Chico refusing to move, or ‘planted’. He’s trying to tell you something. To me it sounds like this: “Are we nearly there yet? You didn’t tell me we […]

The milk of human kindness, full fat
The blog / The journey

The milk of human kindness, full fat

So far I have met one horrible person. That’s really not bad for three weeks on the road, doing something conspicuous, peculiar and demanding. I’ve been calling people up with wild appeals for help, generally with dying battery and intermittent reception, not enough warning and ETAs I don’t stick to. […]

The battle for power, when neither of us want it
The blog / The journey

The battle for power, when neither of us want it

Things are moving fast out here, in some ways. In other ways, not so much. Fortified by a little wine I finally worked out the miles-to-time ratio this evening and discovered that if I keep on at this rate we’ll be back in Aberystwyth in fifty weeks. Pretty much a […]

Dual parenting and donkey bites
The blog / The journey

Dual parenting and donkey bites

I had to stop my mum referring to herself as Chico’s grandmother when she came round with treats from her allotment, and got him all excited by running around the field with him – he is not a child, he is a donkey. I am aiming to be his buddy, […]

We’re outta here!
Plans / The blog

We’re outta here!

It’s a beautiful day in Aberystwyth-sur-la-mer, and little Chico is about to leave his field and head out into the world.  I think he suspects, what with all the pack-saddle action of the last few days, me taking the tents down yesterday, the new thank-you-snacks, and my super-excited body language. […]

The donkey COULD DIE, week three: killer tulips
Plans / The blog

The donkey COULD DIE, week three: killer tulips

It’s a mere three days before departure, and if it wasn’t for thirty years of socialisation I would probably also poo copiously on the ground like Chico does every time I frighten him (which is daily at the moment, and today was quite green, and inside kind field-lender Hazel’s garage, […]