SHO4 Travel

Hi I am Steve Hodgkinson, owner and chief guide for my company SHO4 Travel. I haven't always been in this business but if you will bear with me I will try to show you why I think that I am suited to take you on a tour of my magnificent home country, England.

I was born in Oxford in December 1951, my father had only recently come out of the Air Force after serving in the Second World War, and so we had very little money, we lived in a caravan in Old Marston on the outskirts of the city, and even though I was only tiny I have dim recollections of my mother taking me through the university parks, my first introduction to sightseeing.

When I was three, my parents bought a brand new bungalow in Wheatley just six miles from Oxford for the princely sum of £2200, and that was to be my home for the next twelve years, I attended the local primary school but every spare moment that I had I would escape to the fields and the local river Thame, where I could fish and hunt and be totally at one with all the natural beauty. At this time buildings did not play a big part in my life, although I still have a primary school project which documents the history of Wheatley in about a dozen pages. (I was only 10 years old) About this time my father came into a little bit of money and purchased an Austin Cambridge estate car, which made me very special, as only a very few people in my village owned a car.

Every weekend without fail, mother would load up the car with sandwiches and flasks of tea, and we would set off into the countryside, sometimes to The Cotswolds sometimes The Chilterns, at other times we would drive down to Bournemouth where they had lived before I was born. Dad would never take the main roads and we would wind our way on a leisurely path to our ultimate destination, never as I remember having to resort to using a map, but discovering new and interesting places on every journey some to be remembered to this day, some never to be found again, but just waiting for the next chance visit.

As I grew older I joined the local Boy Scouts and here my love of the countryside came to the fore again. We would go camping five or six times a year, spreading my wings still further afield, and refreshing my desire for knowledge of my country. The only downside to this was because my head was always filled with birds and butterflies, fish and furry animals I did not really excel at academic subjects although I now wish I had taken more notice of my history and geography teachers as I have spent a long time catching up on things I thought were so complicated then.

Leaving school at 16 was a bit of a shock and I went to work on the farm, back to my favourite environment and then went on to Agricultural College in Maidenhead, Berkshire, unfortunately this was just as English agriculture started to decline and I quickly realised I was not going to earn my fortune working on someone else's farm.

Purely by chance now I drifted into the catering industry running a local pub for a friend of mine, I enjoyed dealing with the people, and so set out on a path that would see me running and owning my own pubs for the next twenty five years, I never earned a fortune but what I did manage to save or put aside, a large portion was spent on travel.

I have been to India and Pakistan including a stay on a houseboat in Kashmir in 1987 this was a three week trip and I could still talk you through every day of it so great was the impact it had on me.

The following year I travelled to China with my girlfriend, a fantastic experience as the country was still just opening up to western tourists. Since then I have been lucky enough to travel through much of Europe, and the Mediterranean, I have been fishing in Mexico and Kenya , and been five times to West Africa and Morocco. I have a son, Sam, who lives In Boston Mass, so I have visited him and also been to the west coast of the USA to San Francisco and LA then driving down to Tijuana and Vegas back through Death Valley to San Francisco for the journey home. Tried the Caribbean, Antigua Ok but not my favourite.

Then when I was at home and my budget was low I would revert to my old childhood regime, but now at the wheel of my own vehicles, and drive all around the areas I had been to with my Dad and many more besides.

When I was 50 I decided that I had done my share of running pubs and restaurants and would like a change, and so ended up working for a friend of mine who operates a chauffeur hire company, primarily transporting people to airports, but occasionally on sightseeing tours, this was just up my street, doing what I did for fun, for a living!

Hence the birth of SHO4 Travel.

I love my travel and I know of things I would like to show you, that you would not be likely to encounter with the big commercial coach tours. With that in mind I attempt to fulfil your every want and make your visit as rewarding as possible, the company is only very small and I intend to keep it that way, the chances are that I will be your driver, if not I guarantee that it will be someone who is as concerned for your welfare as I am myself. Between leaving the pub and now I also qualified as an Approved Driving Instructor and insist on a level of safe driving to match my own.

If you managed to get this far thank you for being so patient, it was only supposed to be a few lines, a bit like my ramblings on foot or behind the wheel it is so easy to get carried away when you are dealing with some things that you love.