we all know the frustration of getting stuck behind slow—moving traffic when you're driving — but this was one jam where the drivers didn't dare hoot their horns no matter how impatient they got. this was the scene in south africa's kruger national park as four large male lions strolled along the road — apparently oblivious to the hold—up they were causing behind them. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. hello. a mild and increasingly windy weekend across most parts of the uk. the damp weather across southern pa rt the damp weather across southern part of england and wales eases away this afternoon. brighter in the channel islands and the second part of the day. sunshine in eastern ireland and scotland. rain most persistent across the highlands and islands in scotland this afternoon.

temperatures of 12 degrees. the winds strength into night. more north—westerly. patchy rain. damnedest conditions across scotland, northern ireland and later into the far north of england. temperatures barely drop eight to 10 degrees as we start tomorrow morning. tomorrow will be another day with a fair bit of cloud, rain spreading south. a lot of dry weather and a bit more sunshine developing, especially during the afternoon. showers in the west. the most prominent in the north and west of scotland. still mild for many. hello, this is bbc news with rebecca jones. the headlines: more than 30,000 offenders would avoid jail every year, under new proposals to scrap sentences of six months or less to reduce the pressure on prisons. president trump digs his heels in over his mexican border wall, as the us government shutdown enters a record—breaking 22nd day. hundreds of thousands of workers have not been paid. europe braces itself as heavy snow

continues to fall bringing chaos to a number of alpine regions. austria suffers the worst conditions for 30 years. major tech companies showcase their freshest innovations at the ces expo in las vegas. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show. my name is tony giles. i'm from england. i'm totally blind and severely deaf in both ears. and i'm travelling around the world trying to visit every country. we're in the old city! israel is country 124. i see a place with my senses — i see a place by the sounds, by the smells, by the textures. the hustle and bustle of people

shouting, buy this, buy this, come and look at this! i feel the atmosphere, the energy, the buzz. i was born with my eye condition, so i don't have any vision apart from sunlight sensitivity. and i've gradually gone deaf as i've got older and i am now 80% or severely deaf in both ears but i use digital hearing aids. i travel alone, because it's the biggest challenge i can get. and the travelling by myself... excuse me! ..i get to interact with more people. if i travel with someone, particularly someone sighted, they would be doing all the work, they'd be doing all the guiding, and i would not get to touch and find as many things as i do by myself. today i'm going to catch a bus

into the old city to go to the western wall. western wall? western wall, yeah. ok, let's go. i will help you. 0k. let me hold your arm like that. where are you from? i'm from england. huh? england! i was lucky that the bus driver was nearby waiting, so it was really easy to find the bus. yeah, i've got it... let go, let go. new orleans was the first place i went to by myself — a foreign city by myself. didn't know where i was going, i was blind, and ijust froze. and then i took a couple of deep breaths and said to myself, "tony, this is what you want — if you don't want it go home." a couple more deep breaths, turn left, walk down the street, and the rest is history. excuse me, are you hear me...?

this is your stop station. my stop? yes. you can get off. 0k, thank you. you want any help? i'm good. just trying to get my bearings, trying to work out which way the traffic is going, and if i can use the sunlight, but i can't sense any sun at all. i have to be careful going down the steps, because they're all marble and slippery and worn so i have to go slowly and take care. no, no, it's ok. yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah. two people came to try and help me but they were a bit aggressive, theyjust grabbed me, which is not the correct way to help — it's a bit frightening. if people want to help,

and many people do, ideally you would want them to speak to you and say "hello, can i help?" but obviously not everyone speaks english. so if they don't, then touch you gently on the hand, on the arm, but not pull and not grab, ideally. you have to be patient, you get lost all the time. it's very difficult if you're looking for something specific when you can't see. because obviously you can't pinpoint it. excuse me? you might get ten people walk past and then someone will stop, "are you lost, do you need help?" and then you can interact with them — that's how it works. excuse me, is this damascus gate? yeah. straight in front of me, no? 0k. want to help? yeah. i like this!

i like the atmosphere and the smells. and it's all close, and compact. it feels authentic. i'm going to the western wall, and on the way i'm going to hopefully explore some of the via dolorosa, which is stages of the cross thatjesus walked. good morning, how are you? good, good, how are you? you want to see my shop souvenir? i could have a brief look, why not? yes? come on. what do you sell? very good!

laughs. beautiful! yeah. this is coffee. coffee yea h ? ok, i get this. about $3. that's five? that's two five, yeah? yes. two five. thank you. i probably write a blog once a week, so i document myjourneys, and my travels, and i want to share it with the world, really, and try and inspire people to believe in themselves, and they can overcome whatever their challenges are. and i also add pictures i've taken. 0riginally i did it because i thought it would just be funny, someone seeing a blind person take photos. it's an extra way of sharing,

i can show my family and friends and stuff, that's the idea, to try and share with everyone. thank you. excuse me! take the hand! people... don't leave him! over here... 0k, thank you. someone on a motorbike coming through, that's not very clever. hello. looking for the station of the cross... this way, this way... this is the station of the cross? come back. 0k... then to the left... this is where he put his hand, here. this is where christ... up, up, up, up... to the right... yes, exactly. 0h, 0k!

thank you! welcome. apparently i'm at one of the stages of the cross, wherejesus put his hand on the wall and leant against a wall. defined handprint, very smooth, also quite rigid, quite bumpy. it's a lovely texture. right, this is some barrier, i presume. hmm. is this the way in? hello? sorry, machine? womans. woman? yeah, it's not man. the wall is sort of separated, male and female, and the guy took me

into the male section and took me up to the wall. 0k. there's all these notes in it. massive blocks, very smooth. the texture, the shape of the wall, the bricks, from a historical and a spiritual point of view, it's worth visiting. tony at the western wall. so, i'm heading to bethlehem, which is in palestinian territory. and it's separated by a dividing wall and a checkpoint. so, i'm going to have to get off the bus, get through the checkpoint, and somehow meet my host.

i e—mailed him using my laptop with speech software, and he sent me his phone number, and i memorised it, and i'm trying to call him with my phone now. i can use the phone because the buttons are tactile. i couldn't travel without my memory, my memory is my biggest asset. i'm using my memory constantly, i'm exercising it all the time — i have to remember phone numbers, i have to remember directions. it allows me to find things. my memory gives me my independence, along with my cane. i'm now at the checkpoint betweenjerusalem and bethlehem. i've got to walk across the checkpoint and go past the dividing wall. railings...

getting through the checkpoint is a little bit complicated. slightly more complicated than i thought, slightly more confusing. and then we'd just have to sort of try and follow other people, people sort of pushing me from one way to the other. have to get past this... looks like we're on the palestinian side, the palestinian territories. it's quite exhilarating. as you come out of the tunnel into the taxi area, and where the wall is, you can hear all the people talking and smell the food and coffee and stuff. that's quite lively, that's quite interesting. can you show me to a taxi?

taxi cab. i'm looking for a taxi. where? church of the nativity. 0k. maybe you want, i'll take you for photo at the wall, we stop and take photo. 0k, cool. you happy? yeah, always! how big is the wall? it's very big. 30... 20 metres? yes. it's far. tony... yeah? welcome to bethlehem, you're going to church? yeah, the church of the nativity. all this way... yes, wall. behind the wall you have hotel banksy behind

the wall, you have hotel. i'm feeling excited to be in bethlehem, it's a new city, new town, new experiences. driving through bethlehem, along the wall, has sort of given me a brief sense of how long the wall could be. it certainly feels quite long travelling along it. in my mind it would seem quite impressive. and i guess quite scary to a lot of people. here the church, tony. yes, this the church. ijust called my host to let him know i'm still coming. adam, we're at the church. hello?!

hello... ? adam? give me, i call him... hello? i call him, he's coming, one minute he coming here. thanks, mohammed. thank you. hi, tony, how are you? hi, adam, good to meet you, looking forward to seeing your place. how many country you visit before? i've visited 124 countries. oh, my god, that's nice! yeah. yeah! you're like ali baba. i'm very lucky! i love to travel! have you done much travelling? not... just here, it's not easy to go move, or to travelling another country.

so you get travellers to come to you? yeah! you have steps here... this is actually couch surfing, so in theory you stay for free. 0k, have steps, five... you live in a castle! yeah. it's a website and you can find people on it, they have profiles, and they want to travel or they want to meet travellers, and that's how it works. now, come here, the lift. oh, this is home! we've landed, thank you! shukran. i have had a wide range of couch experiences, i've slept on floors, on mattresses like this,

i've slept on couches, and also i have couch slept in africa where the toilet‘s outside, and it's a hole in the ground. i think it probably helps not seeing, i don't see the dirt or the danger or the holes, ijust get on with it. the main thing is you're meeting the people, the local hosts and sharing their food and their culture and their knowledge and whatever they can offer you. and hopefully you make friends at the end of it. good night and good dreams. shukran, and to you. people think being blind must be terrible, poor you, they don't understand, they don't know what they're talking about. i'm so lucky and i'm leading a fantastic life, to be able to go country to country when i want, where i want... this is the way to travel!

with very few restrictions on what i want to photograph or do, and you come here and you see people, yeah, they can see and they can walk but they can't go places, it's just sad. you know for directions to go trains? ok, so can you give me directions? just a straight, not left, not right. so, just straight? yeah. and i wish you be happy and lucky in your life. 0k. shukran. bye—bye, good to meet you, adam. bye — bye. bye— bye. is this the entrance to the church? you can go in straight now. 0k, thank you. i can roughly hear a voice but it's a bit disconcerting. the echo splits the sound,

so it takes away the direction. we'll get there, it can't be far. there is a big metal thing with studs which could be... yes, that's a gate! oh, yes! yes, oil, candles... it's got a waxy smell... polish. finding the entrance is like reaching my goal, it's like reaching my target, and everything else after this is a bonus. 0nce they've started singing, isuppose, louder, and i thought

i've got to get close to this, because there's going to be a lot of energy involved, and then i've got to try and get closer and closer, eventually using my cane and picking out the steps, then a guy helped me down. realising that i was the only person to get close to hear that, feel that, makes me feel very privileged, very warm inside. i'm absolutely buzzing after that. energy is incredible! that was cool, just to be here for that if nothing else. it was quite crowded going down those steps, and they're quite

slippery, very deep. oh, my goodness! from the fire into the furnace. very hot in here, and i guess it's from candles and more people coming in. this is my hand, yeah? this is the place where jesus was born, here is the star where he was born. kneel down on your knees. kneel down... more, more, more, more, more, more, more... you can touch the place wherejesus was born. this is the star, it has 14... it's a flower, or? no, it's a star. the star of david, yeah. marble? no, it's silver. this is marble. yeah, this is marble. the ground wherejesus was born is down here,

you feel it, he was born here. so this is the grotto. yes, he was born here. 0k. about there? yeah, it's not ok like this, let me help you a little bit, it's like this, you can take a photo now... definitely an experience, a very humbling experience, to sort of be in a place where one might argue history occurred 2000 years or so ago. visiting the church, the smells, the sounds, that's what makes travelling, for me, special. i travel by myself

because it's my challenge, it's like climbing a mountain, you feel, oh, this is difficult, it's a struggle, and then you get to the top, and you're like, yeah, i've made it, this is magical. that's what it's all about. broadens my horizons. and makes me become, hopefully, a better person. hello. after a brief foray into something colder in the week, we are back into the milder air this weekend. those mild conditions continue throughout. tempered by increasingly windy conditions. more in the way of rain. nowhere near as cold as in central europe. sub 04 many as we go through saturday afternoon. 0ur wind is coming from the atlantic. 0ne afternoon. 0ur wind is coming from the atlantic. one of the milder spots in europe, temperatures

climbing into double figures this afternoon. eddie rain across the southern counties lunchtime will have cleared. stays damper northern and western parts of scotland. the odd shower elsewhere. part of northern ireland, scotland and eastern england shelter from the wind. temperatures into double figures forjust wind. temperatures into double figures for just about all. we stay with the mild run of wind tonight. bringing some further spots of rain south. the wettest weather in the north and west of scotland. later into northern ireland. look at these temperatures don't drop away. eight to ten and ii temperatures don't drop away. eight to ten and 11 degrees as we start tomorrow. it will be a windy start. high pressure to be south west allowing those winds to strengthen. allowing further whether france—macro. —— fronts. the threat of showers in england and wales.

some places will stay dry, especially the south. a better chance of sunshine for most of you as we go through sunday. showers will continue in the west and to the far north and west of scotland this is where we will continue with further showers of more persistent rain. temperatures dropping away. winds touching 40 to 50 mph. the colder air will slide down eastern parts of scotland and england for monday. wintry showers to the north—east. most places dry on monday. sunny spells. increasing amounts of cloud later on. sunshine turns hazy. spots of rain in western scotla nd turns hazy. spots of rain in western scotland and northern ireland. temperatures down on recent days on monday. colder air is on the way for the end of the week and into next weekend. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11. prison sentences of under six months could be scrapped in england and wales for all but violent

and sexual offences — under plans being considered by the ministry ofjustice. president trump digs his heels in over his mexican border wall as the us government shutdown enters a record—breaking 22nd day. hundreds of thousands of workers have not been paid we can work really hard to get this education and make sure that we can provide for ourfamily education and make sure that we can provide for our family and still end up provide for our family and still end up wondering if we're going to be able to pay our bills. europe braces itself as heavy snow continues to fall, bringing chaos to a number of alpine regions. austria suffers the worst conditions for 30 years. major tech companies showcase their freshest innovations at the ces expo in las vegas.