Road ~ Ride Holiday 2017
Diary – Part 3
Diary – Part 3
Sunday September 17
The Road Trip - Day 1
We began our day without breakfast as Paul, John and Ken wanted to get away early to organise the car. This they did without too much hassle, except for the initial GPS power adapter not working and taking a wrong turn out of Newcastle upon Tyne to Tynemouth as the GPS hadn't been reset and was speaking German!
This was quickly rectified and they were back at the Grand Hotel to collect Beth, Geri and Paula by 10.30am. Rather than stay in Tynemouth for breakfast they decided on brunch at the next major stop which was the Warkworth Castle. Before this they needed to detour to Ambie to collect John's mirror that he had left on the hire bike.
This required a detour along some busy roads with lots of roadwork and people out for a Sunday drive. Lots of push bikes and motorbikes out as well.
After collecting the mirror and setting course for Warkworth it was just a matter of sit back, enjoy the countryside and let Paul, driving and John his navigator, do their work.
Once at Warkworth we found a great cafe for lunch then Paul & Beth explored the town while John & Geri and Paula & Ken wandered through Warkworth Castle.
Once everyone had finished their exploring we met back at the car set a course for Dunstanburgh Castle an old ruin set on the headland.
It was a great walk to the castle with the wind blowing, the sea churning and the view spectacular - from a distance the castle looked intimidating, which was the intention of Earl Thomas the first lord of the area.
As we were looking around threatening, big black heavy clouds started to move in from the North Sea so we quickly walked back to the village to Paul & Beth thankfully waiting close by in the van.
From here it was off to Berwick upon Tweed to have a look around and find afternoon tea. We had one major detour as a connecting road to the A1 was closed and it took longer than we thought and had us driving through some very narrow, typically English lanes, no passing unless one car moved completely over to one side. Berwick upon Tweed has a magnificent old stone Viaduct over the river and a Neros!
The rain from Dunstable had stopped following us and the weather cleared for our drive to Ratho. This section took us under Edinburgh allowing us a different look at Arthur's seat and a chance to follow the Union Canal for a short while.
Ratho is a beautiful little village and the Bridge Inn, our lodging for the night, has a wonderful history with the canal. The roast we had for dinner, with their home grown vegetables, was special indeed. All the rooms are named after someone of significance and have a history tied to the house.
Over dinner we discussed options for things to do and see on our drive to Fort William tomorrow.
Monday September 18
The Road Trip - Day 2
Our night at Ratho, the accommodation being the Bridge Inn, was a great way to 'tie off' the canal and cycle part of the English trip. It seemed to have a synergy about it with our view from the rooms overlooking the Union Canal and towpath, come cycleway.
Our Sunday roast (4 of us) and the other meals where all made with home grown or local produce, it was the best meal we have had so far.
Packed the van (the back is cavernous - you don't see or hear the luggage), and headed off. First thing was to drive over the new Queensferry Bridge and look at the old Forth Bridge. Unfortunately the sides of the Queensferry Bridge don't allow you to take good photos so we drove back over and tried again, still no luck.
From here it was Stirling to look at Stirling Castle and the Wallace monument. We decided not to go inside Stirling Castle £15 each! Just walked around the outside taking photos.
When we went into town to go to the banks, Beth visited a chemist, her fingers hadn't started to heal properly, and the chemist said she needed to go to outpatients as it could possibly be infected. We dropped Beth & Paul at the outpatients part of the hospital and drove to Wallace Monument. It was at least a 10 minute walk to the top and as we weren't sure what time the hospital visit would take we didn't chance it. It was really disappointing for Paula, as she was keen to find out more about the real William Wallace, then we found out that Beth and Paul would take longer than anticipated, but by then we were already back in the City Centre.
The others walked around exploring the old part of Stirling, had lunch then collected Paul & Beth.
From here it was off to Doune Castle, this was an audio guided tour and was quite interesting as the castle had been used as a film set for a number of films and TV programs; including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Outlander and Game of Thrones: Winterfell, the initial pilot which has never been screened.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent driving through lowlands Scotland, to the majesty of the highlands. Everyone was in awe of the scenery as the crags, the moors and lochs started to appear before us. We had two photo stops, one was the site of the Glencoe massacre before arriving at Ashburn House, in Fort William, our accommodation for two nights.
Everyone was hungry and dinner was sourced very quickly after we had unpacked.
Our Ashburn House proprietor, Willie, was very helpful in suggesting possible places to eat. Early into bed for everyone as it had been a long day.
Tuesday September 19
The Road Trip - Day 3
Exploring Fort William
After breakfast, which had been arranged for 8.00am, and in consultation with Willie, we decided a walk to Steall Waterfall just near Ben Nevis, Great Britian's highest mountain, would be a good way to spend our morning and how right he was!
It was a good track, aspects to make you work, areas to be careful with (slippery rocks and water) and open flat path areas. It took about 45 minutes to reach the base of the falls with great views back to Ben Nevis. We stayed for a while before heading back to the car. The sign into the track says it all - 'Danger of Death, fatal accidents do occur by falling from the path'.
We came back into Fort William and every couple had different ideas as to what they wanted to do for the afternoon. John & Geri did a cycle route out along the canal path, Paul & Beth went back to our accommodation for a nap then a last minute quick trip to the museum and Paula & Ken walked part of the Great Glen Way to see the Inverlochy Castle and Fort William Fort as well as visit the museum.
Everyone was back by 5.00pm thinking about what to do for dinner.
John & Geri suggested the Moorings Hotel, they had found it on their ride and it was next to the 'stairs', a series of locks that form part of the Caledonian Canal, a famous lock that cross Scotland linking the North Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea and can handle ships up to 10 metres wide.
John was keen to show us the canal so everyone was in agreement and we booked for 7.30pm.
Lots of yawning on the way home, the walking had worn us out, early to bed - early rise and get organised for tomorrow's section - down past Oban, Loch Lomond, Glasgow, Troon and through to our 'farm' accommodation at Alton Albany Farmhouse B&B.
Wednesday September 20
The Road Trip - Day 4
Alton Albany Farmhouse B&B
We awoke to rain in Fort William, a rain that just seemed to come from the clouds, a type of mist but still wet.
It was going to continue to be wet all day, a typical Scottish day.
Again breakfast at Ashburn House was delicious. We said our good byes to Willie and headed towards Oban, down the shoreline of Loch Linnhe.
We continued on to Tyndrum where we had a coffee and toilet break and swapped drivers, Ken giving Paul a break from the constant need to concentrate in the wet weather. From here it was into Glasgow and a look at the Transport Museum and have a quick, light lunch. We could have spent hours in the museum, it was fascinating - everyone was engrossed by the huge locomotives, a real 3 mast cargo ship, motorbikes, cars and push bikes galore. Everywhere you looked there was something to marvel at from our transport history.
As we still had almost an hour and a half to go, depending on traffic, so we needed to keep travelling. To get to our overnight stay, at Alton Albany Farmhouse, we had to navigate through some typical narrow country roads but the destination was worth it, an open log fire, scones, jam and clotted cream with tea just to welcome us.
Alasdair, our host was very friendly and accommodating, making our welcome even more rewarding. Tomorrow we are hopeful of getting a walk around the farm and up into hills before we leave, Scottish weather permitting!
Thursday September 21
The Road Trip - Day 5
Ravenstone Lodge
Breakfast of kippers, wild mushroom and soda bread for 4 this morning and 2 had the Irish breakfast. We had time before we left to go for a walk up a country lane near Alton Albany Farmhouse to a high point overlooking the village Barr and Alton Albany Farmhouse. We also had time to 'chat' to two Scottish highland horses, with long wild manes and tails.
Alasdair, our host, suggested a route through to Dumfries that avoided a lot of traffic and took us through Galloway Forest. We took his advice and got to see more of Scotland but where surprised to have to pay a pound for parking in a bushland setting miles from anywhere!
It was a pleasant drive through the Scottish countryside into Dumfies for a drive by look at Robbie Burns stuff and the old railway Viaduct.
From here it was into Carlisle and it was really interesting to look back over the Solway to England from the Scottish side as we had looked from Bowness on Solway across to Scotland on our cycle trip, we had come full circle.
Lunch in Carlisle was hit and miss, John tried twice to get a good cup of coffee and could only manage half his toasted cheese sandwich when he saw the second half 'floating' in it's own juice!
He has decided to go with the home made and cooked food with a glass of water then look for good coffee rather than the good coffee and processed food.
From Carlisle to our accommodation at Ravenstone Lodge was only 40 minutes so John relieved Paul from the driving.
We arrived well before 5.00pm and where greeted by our host Mike, who showed us around and pointed out a quick walk we could do before dinner which had been arranged for 7.00pm. We settled into our rooms, Ken and Paula have the smallest room - even smaller than the room they had in Edinburgh, Ken says it's 'snugly'!
The walk was good, just what everyone needed after being in the car for long periods over the last two days.
The path took us down across a number paddocks, rather wet in some places, to a beautiful old church near Bassenthwaite Lake. The church, St Bega, was built in 950 AD and is over 1000 years old. It has been restored as it would have looked in the 18th century and is used every Sunday for services.
It was beautiful on the lake with the sun setting but not one of us could skip rocks like we use to - we put it down to the pebbles not begin round or flat enough.
When we returned to the lodge it was well after 6.30pm so Ken and John ordered a beer, very refreshing, while the others looked at menus and sorted through a few pamphlets looking at what we could do tomorrow.
Meals orders where placed and we were shown into our eating 'stalls', literally!
The lodge was an old farmhouse and stabling area that had been converted into a lodge hotel, with the bistro area the old stables - it was quite a unique and unusual feeling to be dining in a horse stall, enough for Geri to forget what a knife and fork looked like!
Our plans for tomorrow where sorted, hoping the weather stays kind, with two walks organised, in the morning everyone to the circle stone heritage site - a 30 minute walk out from Keswick and in the afternoon the boys doing a Derwentwater boat cruise and walks while the girls do a more difficult walk called Derwentwater perspectives, 9 kilometres with over 300 metres of climb.
Sleep in for everyone tomorrow, breakfast isn't until 8.30am.
Friday September 22
The Road Trip - Day 6
Explore the Lakes District
Today we needed to be mindful of the possibility of rain as we organised our activities over a lateish breakfast.
First stop was to the Tourist information centre in Keswick, this was delayed for about 10 minutes as just after we started Paula realised she didn't have her walking shoes - so back to the start we went.
On the second try we made it all the way to Keswick. We were given some great news in the centre, we could drive all the way to the Castlerigg Stone Circle and then the girls could begin their walk on the Walla Crag route from the stones.
The stone circle was in a magnificent, cold and windy position high above Keswick with a great view of the surrounding areas. A 3000 year old worship site for people of the Neolithic period. A site that makes you realise exactly how insignificant we as a modern people are.
The girls set off on their 6 kilometre, 1000 metres of climb trek and had a great time. They had a good walk, with some interesting descents and a few great photos to share over dinner.
The boys had opted for a lake cruise with a hop off, hop back on walking section of about 2 kilometres around the bottom end of Derwentwater.
They also had a good time getting a little wet from the spray of the wash from the launch. This and just a light sprinkle on the girls was the only wetness anyone really suffered but the rain was on the way as they met again at the Keswick marina launch site to go back to the car and into the town centre for a late lunch. It was just after two o'clock when we parked and made arrangements to meet back at the car at 4.00pm. Everyone did their own thing but it was amazing that in the 2 hours of looking around Keswick we had all visited pretty much the same places, one that stood out was the Pencil Museum. It was interesting to discover that Derwent pencils are made in Keswick!
Back to the lodge, in a roundabout way, was undertaken through rain, a rainbow and some sunshine. Dinner was organised for 6.45pm with a quick review of the next two days travel, accommodation and activities discussed just beforehand.
Everyone seemed to have had a good day. Tomorrow we explore the rest of the Lakes district through Windermere and head towards the area of Cheshire.
Saturday September 23
The Road Trip - Day 7
Cholmondeley
Today we were off to Cholmondeley, or 'Chumley' as the locals refer to it.
We began the day with a hearty breakfast and said our goodbyes to Mike, the Ravenstone Lodge proprietor. Ken was today's designated driver.
We stayed for as long as we could in the Lakes District, taking in all the beautiful countryside, unique who stone villages and the clear waters of the Lakes. Our route had us following the Lakes' edges all the way down through Windermere and Bowness on Windermere. Here we stopped for a look at The World of Beatrice Potter Attraction and a walk through town. John and Ken scored a Costa coffee which kept them happy. It was also here that Ken heard that the Richmond Tigers were in the AFL grand final!
The last point at the bottom of Lake Windemere was Newby Bridge. From here we drove slightly up the opposite side of the lake to a heritage site, Stott Park Bobbin Mill, an early 1800's industrial factory still in its original condition. It was very interesting to read the different stories and the fact that the majority of the workers in its early stages were only boys from 10 - 16 years old.
After leaving the Stott Park site we set sail for Cholmondeley using for the majority of the remaining journey the 3 lane dual carriageway M6. John found an Internet Beatles station and played a few 'inspirational' songs to get us in the mood for tomorrow's Beatles Cycle Tour.
We left the M6 just after 1.30pm and started to search for somewhere for lunch. Just before 2.00pm John suggested The Locked Gate Coffee House which just so happens was next to a canal with an iron clad lock, had great coffee and excellent fare for our lunch. John went for a walk to the lock and got talking, Paul and Beth had a conversation with a motorbike riding couple who just happened to own a canal boat while Geri, Paula and Ken looked around the area. It was well after 3.00pm before we got started again, thankfully we only had about 10 minutes to travel.
Cholmondeley Arms is fascinating. The pub, the Cholmondeley Arms Inn part, is an old school dating back to 1826 and the Headmaster's House, is 6 rooms of accommodation with each room being named after an inspirational teacher. Paul & Beth were in Mr Bird's room, John & Geri in Mr Chip's room and Paula & Ken in Mr Dumbledore's room.
After unpacking, doing a bit of washing and arranging a time for dinner we went for a walk to try and see Cholmondeley Castle and the gardens. Unfortunately it is private property only open at certain times and very well hidden behind very large, bushy and tall trees from the general public.
We got to a cross road and the girls decided to take a longer walk to get back while the boys retraced their steps. The girls had no stories to tell of their walk but the boys came across a motorcycle rider, riding a vintage Royal Enfield that he had restored, who had just had a puncture in the rear tyre only just managing to keep the bike upright. They offered to help push it back to the pub but he was calling his son to come and help.
Dinner in the pub was a little loud but everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. Plans were discussed and made for tomorrow. Looking forward to visiting Liverpool.
Sunday September 24
The Road Trip - Day 8
Beatles Bicycle Tour
This turned out to be a great cycle tour. Our guide, Phil, was very knowledgeable, chatty and had a good sense of humour. He knew the Beatles sites well, now to cycle to them in an easy and logical order. He also knew interesting and amusing facts about the 'Fab Four'.
Our day began with breakfast at 8.30pm. We then elected to go and see Beeston Castle on our way into Liverpool. We took in the castle, surrounding walls and some of the information in 45 minutes, which was enough to gain a good understanding of its history and development.
From here it was into the Mersey side of Liverpool travelling under the Mersey River through the tunnel.
We arrived just after 12 noon and happened to run into our guide Phil. He was going to watch the British Cycle ride through the Riverside precinct. He suggested a good eating place - Unit 51, one of the newer establishments in the re-invented and re-used Baltic Triangle area, an old warehouse and riverside storage complex.
After lunch he had us fitted to the bikes, which were Bike Friday cycles and ready to leave. He went through some basic rules that he uses and we were off. We had one other lady in our group, Shelby, from Texas.
The photos taken will tell a better story but basically he guided us through China Town, past the longest and fifth largest church in the world then down into the 'Beatles' zone. He started with George but could only show us the Art School that he, Paul and John attended because George had moved around a fair bit while growing up in Liverpool. The 'Cases' sculpture, near the Art School was a tribute to all 'Livpublions', who had contributed through culture and the arts to putting Liverpool on the world map. Next was the greenhouse funded by George followed by a visit to Ringo's house, which could be torn down soon as the whole area is being redeveloped. Phil also showed us the site used for filming 'Peaky Blinders', which is just two streets down from Ringo's street. Next we did all the sites associated with John, his primary school, high school, Penny Lane, his aunt's house - where he grew up, the church where John and Paul first met (as John has said, the place where it all started to move...'), 'Eleanor Rigby's grave site and Strawberry Field.
We then travelled to Paul's house. All the while Phil is giving us great stories and information about the group not found in books, it made us all appreciate more immediately our own connection with the Beatles.
As someone said we will listen to the lyrics of their songs with more intensity now that we know where and what they are.
From here Phil set our course for the bike depot along the shoreline of the Mersey River. It was a great way to see more of Liverpool. We arrived back just on 5.00pm said our farewells and as we where leaving it started to sprinkle and then rained on and off most of the way back to Cholmondeley.
Over dinner we looked at options for things to see and do on our way to Ross-on-Wye and The Bridge House, our gateway to Wales.
Monday September 25
The Road Trip - Day 9
Ross-on-Wye
The day began with continual drizzle after heavy overnight rainfall. The Cholmondeley Arms Inn car park had large pools of water that we needed to avoid to get to breakfast. Again breakfast,like all meals at the Cholmondeley Pub, were great. We paid our accounts, loaded the car and started our trip to Ross-on-Wye.
John was driving the morning leg. We had chosen three things to look at on the way through with a lunch break organised for Kidderminster.
The first stop was the small village of Ironbridge and the Ironclad Bridge spanning the River Steven. It was up until 1950, a toll bridge, even for pedestrians and animals.
It was a unique cast iron design and had withstood many floods that had washed away other bridges in the area. It continued to rain on and off for most of the morning, thankfully stopping when we were out of the car viewing things. When we stopped in Kidderminster for lunch it stopped completely and was a little brighter as we left with Paul driving the afternoon stint.
From here we travelled to Whitley Court and Gardens, a truly amazing sight, the manor and gardens were spectacular and we were fortunate to be able to watch the fountain working. We could have spent hours in the surrounds but we had to keep moving.
Our final stop before reaching Ross-on-Wye was an old barn, Leigh Court Barn, a remarkable structure made of oak in the 13th century. Each span used to hold the barn up was made of a single oak tree, they would have been huge trees. There were 10 spans in the barn.
After leaving the barn we headed to The Bridge House, our accommodation in Ross-on-Wye where we were warmly greeted by our hosts Kathryn and Kevin.
They showed us around, settled us in, suggested some places for dinner and a couple of walks we might take before eating.
We took their advice and wondered into town and back again on the river walk.
Dinner was a meal at the local pub then back to the drawing room at our accommodation for a chat on what we might do tomorrow. Kevin stayed and told us a little about Ross-on-Wye and what we could do if we stayed in town the next day. Tomorrow morning, after breakfast we decided we would work out what we were going to do, stay in Ross-on-Wye or drive a little more and explore some of Wales?
Tuesday September 26
The Road Trip - Day 10
Wales
The day started very foggy on the banks of the Wye River but cleared to be a beautiful, warm day for our excursions into Wales.
Breakfast was organised for 8.30am with us ready to leave by 9.30am.
We had decided to go directly to Swansea and Mumbles then look to explore other sites on the way back, time permitting.
We had programmed the Sav Nat to get us directly to Spec Savers in Swansea to get Paul's reading glasses fixed, he had broken the arm off them yesterday. The British post code worked perfectly on the Sav Nat to get us there but to Paul's angst he discovered he hadn't packed the broken glasses!
While in Swansea John and Paul re-charged their Vodaphone accounts for another month while the others went to the toilet. Paula, exploring on her own found the Swansea Castle and took a few photos.
Back in the car we headed to Mumbles, a seaside area just outside of Swansea that would be incredibly tourist orientated in the Summer.
We parked at the Mumbles Pier and decided on 3 hours to explore. Paul & Beth did a headlands and Town walk, having a 'high tea' for lunch, John and Ken did the Pier, boardwalk and castle loop and coffee at Costa whilst Paula and Geri, individually, almost circumnavigated the whole town! Everyone took some great photos and had interesting stories to tell.
We all met back at the car just after 3.00pm and found Paul talking to a Welshman, surname 'Davies' who had taken the day to go for a motorbike ride. He said today was the best day, weather wise, they had had in a month!
From here we headed to a waterfall called 'Sgwd Clum-Gwyn'. It was a great little waterfall and it was good to have visited the coastline and forest areas of Wales. John then had the Sat Nav take us through a 'quaint little Welsh village', Merthy Tydfil, because he liked the name. It was interesting but it definitely wasn't little having approximately the same population as Wagga - 'quaint' was our go word for the rest of the day when talking to John!
We then headed for The Goodrich Castle, but unfortunately it was locked. It was getting late so we opted for dinner at the Hoteliers Goodrich. It was a good pub meal with two great English characters talking to us while we where there.
We didn't leave until well after 8.00pm so we all headed for our rooms once back at the Bridge House.
Tomorrow we head for Bath, then down to Ivybridge, just near Plymouth for two nights in the Plantation House. On the way down John has picked three sites he would like us to visit which will keep us off the M5 but still give us a little time in the afternoon to explore Ivybridge.
Wednesday September 27
The Road Trip - Day 11
Bath and Ivybridge
Again our day started overcast, with rain predicted for the afternoon. We had a latish breakfast, with us all now using the notion that you eat heartily for breakfast, as you have already paid for it, have a very light lunch then a normal meal for dinner. This seems to satisfying us for most of the day.
We settled the accounts, packed the van, said our good byes and were off. Our first stop was the Goodrich Castle. It was very interesting and having the audio guide gave you a more detailed account of the castle and its history. It is the first castle we have seen that showed exactly how the portcullis worked. You could see the slot on the floor of the guard house for the portcullis to be lowered and the alcoves for the winding mechanism.
Here Paul discovered he hadn't returned the key to the room from the Bridge House. As he and Beth didn't have a 16 day pass to visit the English Heritage sites and we were only 5 miles from the Bridge House they drove back and returned the key.
The next stop on this leg was Bath and we also found Paul a SpecSavers so he was able to leave his glasses to be fixed whilst he, Beth, John & Geri visited the Roman Bath museum. They thoroughly enjoyed the display.
As Paula & Ken had already been to the Roman Baths, they decided to walk around the town centre looking at the Georgian style buildings, Bath has a covenant on building in the city stating that building have or retain this look. They also visited the Bath Abbey. Once they meet up with the other four they all walked down to the Roman Pulteney Bridge across the River Avon. This was a great site with the bridge itself having small little buildings on the sides, very similar to the bridge in Florence.
After leaving Bath we took the scenic route along the Wye Valley roads passing the Tintern Abbey on the way to Glastonbury. It had started to sprinkle in Bath just as we were leaving and got a little heavier after Glastonbury.
The next section was just a long haul for driving for Paul in persistent heavy rain, a real British downpour. He did a great job getting us to our next accommodation destination. We rang through to Plantation House, our accommodation to let them know we were going to be a little late and to double check we had organised for dinner.
The rain stopped enough for us to unpack at Plantation House. The accommodation had a great cocktail bar with each room being named after a cocktail, all with views of different parts of the property. It was a very impressive B&B - the meal was exceptional. It has a high rating as an eating establishment, well-deserved if the meal we had is an example of what they produce on a regular basis.
After dinner everyone was happy just to unpack and have a rest.
Hopefully the weather improves for our 'other' C2C across Lands End planned for tomorrow.
Thursday September 28
The Road Trip - Day 12
Lands End - C2C
Our C2C across Cornwall didn't eventuate, we had bitten off more than we could chew, a combination of a number of things brought us undone.
We couldn't have breakfast early enough to give us a full day to do the ride. Also to get there through the traffic took longer than anticipated, the place we had booked the bikes from was further from the start of the C2C route than we realised and the road to ride on to get to the start was very narrow and had a heavy volume of traffic.
Tyson, the proprietor of West Cornwall Bike hire, pointed us to the Hub in Portreath to see if he had a suggestion for a ride in the area. His name was Fergus and he basically pointed out that it takes almost a full day to do the C2C properly and recommended we do a coastal walk instead as it was almost 12 noon.
We took his advice and walked back along the coast line through an area called Godrevy-Portreath Heritage Coast. It was spectacular, rugged and open like the Great Australian Bight, just a lot greener!
We saw a number of Shetland ponies who graze on the grass to keep it down, a seal and a number of sea caves. We found out later that the area is called Smugglers' Cove.
We had lunch here after our walk, Geri and Ken scored ice creams (they explained that they were at the beach and what else do you do at the beach besides eat ice cream!)
Here Ken also added to his 'Barry day', he had 'organised' this part of the trip. When he ordered his coffee he asked for a mug of hot water for Paula. He was obviously misunderstood, or he didn't order in a manner that could be understood because his coffee arrived with a side order of hot water in a small milk jug! To her credit Paula drank the the hot water from the jug.
From here John drove to Lands End, the parking is £5, which we were happy to pay, but the guy taking the money spotted our Bicycle Wagga Wagga cycle tops and asked if we were part of the group doing the Lands End to John O'Groats cycle challenge because if we were there was no parking fee - we were honest and said no but he gave us a parking ticket to display and our money back!
Lands End is very windy! But also very interesting. We didn't really have time to spend too much just looking around so we took a few photos with the signpost and moved on.
Ken did the two hour driving stint back to Plymouth. Plymouth is an interesting harbour and rather large city. We were here to get Paul's vodaphone account fixed and to find something different for dinner.
We did the phone ok but as we were starting to head to the waterfront area to find something nice to eat, it really started to rain - the first real dampener on our activities for the holidays so far.
So rather than get drenched and then drive back to Plantation House all wet we decided the Drake Circus, a large mall with a food court would have to do.
The drive back from here was interesting, initially in pouring rain and then through the very narrow, high hedged roads into Ivybridge and our accommodation.
Paul and Ken were lucky to ask Josh, one of the chef's for Plantation House about washing some clothes, he offered the use of the industrial washing machine the place has and they jumped at it, with use of the boiler room to hang and dry the clothes as well!
Everyone had decided on breakfast at 8.00am before starting the last leg of the road trip, along the south of England with views of the English Channel.
Our last accommodation is the Griffin Inn at Uckfield, a 400 year old coaching Inn.
Friday September 29
The Road Trip - Day 13
The English Channel leg
Today was to be a long travelling day. We looked at what we could possibly achieve and not be too late into Fletching and our accommodation at the Griffin Inn.
We decided on the Portland Castle, the Netley Abbey and possibly Brighton Palace Pier, time permitting.
We broke the driving into three manageable sections with Paul doing the first stint from Ivybridge to the Isle of Portland and the Portland Castle, which in actual fact was more a fort than a castle. It was built by Henry VIII in 1540 along with a number of other fortress around the bay. It never really saw combat except for the civil war, but the Isle of Portland was a significant staging ground for D-Day.
Ken and Paula 'played house' dressing in period soldier and house maid clothes.
From here John took over the driving as we continued the drive along the English coast with varying views of the English Channel.
The day was a little overcast but warm with most of us just travelling in short sleeve tops in the car and only putting on jackets when we hopped out. The views to the coastline were a little hazy but you could still see the ocean.
We stopped for lunch at Dorchester, at great cafe, 'Hendover', which had an interesting story explaining its name. Soup and home made sausage rolls were the most favoured orders.
From here our next stop was Netley Abbey, a truly 'atmospheric' building. Although a ruin it still seemed to retain some of its former majesty not only as the Abbey it originally was but also as the mansion it was to become after Henry VIII 'suppressed' the Catholic Church in England.
The building, spread out over an expansive area was very impressive and you could almost feel that you where walking in the footsteps of the monks and servants who lived here 100 of years ago.
Ken took over the driving for the last leg and as it was already after 4.00pm it was decided that we would skip Brighton Palace Pier and perhaps we could get back to it for a fish and chip tea tomorrow night.
On this leg we experienced another aspect of travelling in England, a traffic crawl!
We had just started on the M3 when the notice boards indicated an accident further, the far right lane had been closed but it was just after the traffic from a converging lane entered the M3, so you had 3 lanes of the M3 merging with 2 lanes of other traffic being forced to use only 2 lanes, at 5.00pm on a Friday afternoon! We managed to travel the 2 miles, bumper to bumper, to the accident site without the need for any lengthy stops but it still took 20 minutes. The accident looked like one car had collected another car when overtaking, a fair bit of damage to both cars.
After this the rest of the journey was just managing the innumerable roundabouts and staying on course.
We arrived at the Griffin Inn at 6.45pm where given our rooms and had a table reserved for us in the bar for dinner. The Griffin Inn, a former coach inn, is over 400 years old and very quaint its own way. Very much a small village pub, lots of lively chatter, families and people with their dogs. The meals were very nice and we had the accompaniment of the piano over our meal. The pianist was very good and his impromptu jazz was excellent.
Breakfast was decided for 8.30am then off to walk the White Cliffs of Dover in the morning.
Saturday September 30
The Road Trip - Day 14
The White Cliffs of Dover
Today was our last full day of the Road Trip through Scotland, Wales and England. We had a bit of distance to travel to see the last of the things we had planned, and as we were in southern England, expecting more traffic and a lot more towns and villages to pass through. The routes we are taking are off the main 'M' roads.
After a full breakfast we settled into our 'country' drive through the Sussex countryside to Kent and the White Cliffs of Dover. Paul did this driving stint and we drove through some beautiful countryside and great little villages such as Royal Tunbridge Wells, Sissinghurst, Biddenden, Ashford and Dover.
The weather for our walk along the cliffs was perfect with sunlight appearing through the clouds to really highlight the whiteness of the cliffs. We were down to short sleeves, or open light jackets pretty soon into the 50 minute walk to the lighthouse. We took 100s of photos between us and even got to see the Exmoor ponies that graze along the cliffs to keep the grass down. At the lighthouse we used Paul's binoculars to look across the English Channel to the coast of France even seeing some of the building structures on the opposite coast.
After finishing the fruit and water we had brought along we returned to the car, a little quicker as the weather had started to deteriorate a little, more clouds and windy.
It was almost 2.30pm by the time we left. John did the next to stint to Brighton along the coast again off the major roads. We passed through Folkestone, Dymchurch (which has a very interesting sea wall. It seems to go for miles. It is also built in a such a way that it blocks the view of the ocean from the town.), New Romney and Rye.
We had 3 things to do in Brighton, try and get a small problem solved (at the Apple Store), that Ken had created when he updated his iPad software, walk along Brighton Pier and the 'beach' and have fish and chips for dinner.
The Apple Store was in the Churchill Square, not the biggest parking area to try and manoeuvre the hire van in! John did a great job getting us a spot without contacting any other cars, the parking area walls or pillars.
Ken had no luck at the Apple Store but purchased a small USB as he thinks he can fix the problem (GoodReader not updating and now refusing to open the digital copies of the travel documents) in a library or Internet cafe) - Paula and he will try again to fix the problem in Ireland whilst the others are in London.
After leaving the square we walked down to the waterfront and along the boardwalk and very stony beach - Beth, Paul, John and Geri couldn't believe that the English sunbath and swim here as we do on our golden beaches in Australia.
We found a cosy (although slightly noisy) cafe for our fish and chips. Unfortunately we had to stay inside as it had started to rain.
After our meal we walked along Brighton Pier marvelling at the lights and the number of coin chance machines kids were playing. At the end we watched a number of show rides before heading back to the van.
Ken's turn to drive, he extracted us from the park area and out of Brighton without any issues and back to the Griffin Inn in continual drizzle.
Back at the Inn Geri, John and Ken went for coffee and dessert whilst Beth, Paul and Paula went back to the rooms for a cup of tea and hot water.
Tomorrow we part company for 4 days, Paula and Ken to Ireland the other 4 to London to re-unite in Paris on October 5.
The Road Trip - Day 1
We began our day without breakfast as Paul, John and Ken wanted to get away early to organise the car. This they did without too much hassle, except for the initial GPS power adapter not working and taking a wrong turn out of Newcastle upon Tyne to Tynemouth as the GPS hadn't been reset and was speaking German!
This was quickly rectified and they were back at the Grand Hotel to collect Beth, Geri and Paula by 10.30am. Rather than stay in Tynemouth for breakfast they decided on brunch at the next major stop which was the Warkworth Castle. Before this they needed to detour to Ambie to collect John's mirror that he had left on the hire bike.
This required a detour along some busy roads with lots of roadwork and people out for a Sunday drive. Lots of push bikes and motorbikes out as well.
After collecting the mirror and setting course for Warkworth it was just a matter of sit back, enjoy the countryside and let Paul, driving and John his navigator, do their work.
Once at Warkworth we found a great cafe for lunch then Paul & Beth explored the town while John & Geri and Paula & Ken wandered through Warkworth Castle.
Once everyone had finished their exploring we met back at the car set a course for Dunstanburgh Castle an old ruin set on the headland.
It was a great walk to the castle with the wind blowing, the sea churning and the view spectacular - from a distance the castle looked intimidating, which was the intention of Earl Thomas the first lord of the area.
As we were looking around threatening, big black heavy clouds started to move in from the North Sea so we quickly walked back to the village to Paul & Beth thankfully waiting close by in the van.
From here it was off to Berwick upon Tweed to have a look around and find afternoon tea. We had one major detour as a connecting road to the A1 was closed and it took longer than we thought and had us driving through some very narrow, typically English lanes, no passing unless one car moved completely over to one side. Berwick upon Tweed has a magnificent old stone Viaduct over the river and a Neros!
The rain from Dunstable had stopped following us and the weather cleared for our drive to Ratho. This section took us under Edinburgh allowing us a different look at Arthur's seat and a chance to follow the Union Canal for a short while.
Ratho is a beautiful little village and the Bridge Inn, our lodging for the night, has a wonderful history with the canal. The roast we had for dinner, with their home grown vegetables, was special indeed. All the rooms are named after someone of significance and have a history tied to the house.
Over dinner we discussed options for things to do and see on our drive to Fort William tomorrow.
Monday September 18
The Road Trip - Day 2
Our night at Ratho, the accommodation being the Bridge Inn, was a great way to 'tie off' the canal and cycle part of the English trip. It seemed to have a synergy about it with our view from the rooms overlooking the Union Canal and towpath, come cycleway.
Our Sunday roast (4 of us) and the other meals where all made with home grown or local produce, it was the best meal we have had so far.
Packed the van (the back is cavernous - you don't see or hear the luggage), and headed off. First thing was to drive over the new Queensferry Bridge and look at the old Forth Bridge. Unfortunately the sides of the Queensferry Bridge don't allow you to take good photos so we drove back over and tried again, still no luck.
From here it was Stirling to look at Stirling Castle and the Wallace monument. We decided not to go inside Stirling Castle £15 each! Just walked around the outside taking photos.
When we went into town to go to the banks, Beth visited a chemist, her fingers hadn't started to heal properly, and the chemist said she needed to go to outpatients as it could possibly be infected. We dropped Beth & Paul at the outpatients part of the hospital and drove to Wallace Monument. It was at least a 10 minute walk to the top and as we weren't sure what time the hospital visit would take we didn't chance it. It was really disappointing for Paula, as she was keen to find out more about the real William Wallace, then we found out that Beth and Paul would take longer than anticipated, but by then we were already back in the City Centre.
The others walked around exploring the old part of Stirling, had lunch then collected Paul & Beth.
From here it was off to Doune Castle, this was an audio guided tour and was quite interesting as the castle had been used as a film set for a number of films and TV programs; including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Outlander and Game of Thrones: Winterfell, the initial pilot which has never been screened.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent driving through lowlands Scotland, to the majesty of the highlands. Everyone was in awe of the scenery as the crags, the moors and lochs started to appear before us. We had two photo stops, one was the site of the Glencoe massacre before arriving at Ashburn House, in Fort William, our accommodation for two nights.
Everyone was hungry and dinner was sourced very quickly after we had unpacked.
Our Ashburn House proprietor, Willie, was very helpful in suggesting possible places to eat. Early into bed for everyone as it had been a long day.
Tuesday September 19
The Road Trip - Day 3
Exploring Fort William
After breakfast, which had been arranged for 8.00am, and in consultation with Willie, we decided a walk to Steall Waterfall just near Ben Nevis, Great Britian's highest mountain, would be a good way to spend our morning and how right he was!
It was a good track, aspects to make you work, areas to be careful with (slippery rocks and water) and open flat path areas. It took about 45 minutes to reach the base of the falls with great views back to Ben Nevis. We stayed for a while before heading back to the car. The sign into the track says it all - 'Danger of Death, fatal accidents do occur by falling from the path'.
We came back into Fort William and every couple had different ideas as to what they wanted to do for the afternoon. John & Geri did a cycle route out along the canal path, Paul & Beth went back to our accommodation for a nap then a last minute quick trip to the museum and Paula & Ken walked part of the Great Glen Way to see the Inverlochy Castle and Fort William Fort as well as visit the museum.
Everyone was back by 5.00pm thinking about what to do for dinner.
John & Geri suggested the Moorings Hotel, they had found it on their ride and it was next to the 'stairs', a series of locks that form part of the Caledonian Canal, a famous lock that cross Scotland linking the North Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea and can handle ships up to 10 metres wide.
John was keen to show us the canal so everyone was in agreement and we booked for 7.30pm.
Lots of yawning on the way home, the walking had worn us out, early to bed - early rise and get organised for tomorrow's section - down past Oban, Loch Lomond, Glasgow, Troon and through to our 'farm' accommodation at Alton Albany Farmhouse B&B.
Wednesday September 20
The Road Trip - Day 4
Alton Albany Farmhouse B&B
We awoke to rain in Fort William, a rain that just seemed to come from the clouds, a type of mist but still wet.
It was going to continue to be wet all day, a typical Scottish day.
Again breakfast at Ashburn House was delicious. We said our good byes to Willie and headed towards Oban, down the shoreline of Loch Linnhe.
We continued on to Tyndrum where we had a coffee and toilet break and swapped drivers, Ken giving Paul a break from the constant need to concentrate in the wet weather. From here it was into Glasgow and a look at the Transport Museum and have a quick, light lunch. We could have spent hours in the museum, it was fascinating - everyone was engrossed by the huge locomotives, a real 3 mast cargo ship, motorbikes, cars and push bikes galore. Everywhere you looked there was something to marvel at from our transport history.
As we still had almost an hour and a half to go, depending on traffic, so we needed to keep travelling. To get to our overnight stay, at Alton Albany Farmhouse, we had to navigate through some typical narrow country roads but the destination was worth it, an open log fire, scones, jam and clotted cream with tea just to welcome us.
Alasdair, our host was very friendly and accommodating, making our welcome even more rewarding. Tomorrow we are hopeful of getting a walk around the farm and up into hills before we leave, Scottish weather permitting!
Thursday September 21
The Road Trip - Day 5
Ravenstone Lodge
Breakfast of kippers, wild mushroom and soda bread for 4 this morning and 2 had the Irish breakfast. We had time before we left to go for a walk up a country lane near Alton Albany Farmhouse to a high point overlooking the village Barr and Alton Albany Farmhouse. We also had time to 'chat' to two Scottish highland horses, with long wild manes and tails.
Alasdair, our host, suggested a route through to Dumfries that avoided a lot of traffic and took us through Galloway Forest. We took his advice and got to see more of Scotland but where surprised to have to pay a pound for parking in a bushland setting miles from anywhere!
It was a pleasant drive through the Scottish countryside into Dumfies for a drive by look at Robbie Burns stuff and the old railway Viaduct.
From here it was into Carlisle and it was really interesting to look back over the Solway to England from the Scottish side as we had looked from Bowness on Solway across to Scotland on our cycle trip, we had come full circle.
Lunch in Carlisle was hit and miss, John tried twice to get a good cup of coffee and could only manage half his toasted cheese sandwich when he saw the second half 'floating' in it's own juice!
He has decided to go with the home made and cooked food with a glass of water then look for good coffee rather than the good coffee and processed food.
From Carlisle to our accommodation at Ravenstone Lodge was only 40 minutes so John relieved Paul from the driving.
We arrived well before 5.00pm and where greeted by our host Mike, who showed us around and pointed out a quick walk we could do before dinner which had been arranged for 7.00pm. We settled into our rooms, Ken and Paula have the smallest room - even smaller than the room they had in Edinburgh, Ken says it's 'snugly'!
The walk was good, just what everyone needed after being in the car for long periods over the last two days.
The path took us down across a number paddocks, rather wet in some places, to a beautiful old church near Bassenthwaite Lake. The church, St Bega, was built in 950 AD and is over 1000 years old. It has been restored as it would have looked in the 18th century and is used every Sunday for services.
It was beautiful on the lake with the sun setting but not one of us could skip rocks like we use to - we put it down to the pebbles not begin round or flat enough.
When we returned to the lodge it was well after 6.30pm so Ken and John ordered a beer, very refreshing, while the others looked at menus and sorted through a few pamphlets looking at what we could do tomorrow.
Meals orders where placed and we were shown into our eating 'stalls', literally!
The lodge was an old farmhouse and stabling area that had been converted into a lodge hotel, with the bistro area the old stables - it was quite a unique and unusual feeling to be dining in a horse stall, enough for Geri to forget what a knife and fork looked like!
Our plans for tomorrow where sorted, hoping the weather stays kind, with two walks organised, in the morning everyone to the circle stone heritage site - a 30 minute walk out from Keswick and in the afternoon the boys doing a Derwentwater boat cruise and walks while the girls do a more difficult walk called Derwentwater perspectives, 9 kilometres with over 300 metres of climb.
Sleep in for everyone tomorrow, breakfast isn't until 8.30am.
Friday September 22
The Road Trip - Day 6
Explore the Lakes District
Today we needed to be mindful of the possibility of rain as we organised our activities over a lateish breakfast.
First stop was to the Tourist information centre in Keswick, this was delayed for about 10 minutes as just after we started Paula realised she didn't have her walking shoes - so back to the start we went.
On the second try we made it all the way to Keswick. We were given some great news in the centre, we could drive all the way to the Castlerigg Stone Circle and then the girls could begin their walk on the Walla Crag route from the stones.
The stone circle was in a magnificent, cold and windy position high above Keswick with a great view of the surrounding areas. A 3000 year old worship site for people of the Neolithic period. A site that makes you realise exactly how insignificant we as a modern people are.
The girls set off on their 6 kilometre, 1000 metres of climb trek and had a great time. They had a good walk, with some interesting descents and a few great photos to share over dinner.
The boys had opted for a lake cruise with a hop off, hop back on walking section of about 2 kilometres around the bottom end of Derwentwater.
They also had a good time getting a little wet from the spray of the wash from the launch. This and just a light sprinkle on the girls was the only wetness anyone really suffered but the rain was on the way as they met again at the Keswick marina launch site to go back to the car and into the town centre for a late lunch. It was just after two o'clock when we parked and made arrangements to meet back at the car at 4.00pm. Everyone did their own thing but it was amazing that in the 2 hours of looking around Keswick we had all visited pretty much the same places, one that stood out was the Pencil Museum. It was interesting to discover that Derwent pencils are made in Keswick!
Back to the lodge, in a roundabout way, was undertaken through rain, a rainbow and some sunshine. Dinner was organised for 6.45pm with a quick review of the next two days travel, accommodation and activities discussed just beforehand.
Everyone seemed to have had a good day. Tomorrow we explore the rest of the Lakes district through Windermere and head towards the area of Cheshire.
Saturday September 23
The Road Trip - Day 7
Cholmondeley
Today we were off to Cholmondeley, or 'Chumley' as the locals refer to it.
We began the day with a hearty breakfast and said our goodbyes to Mike, the Ravenstone Lodge proprietor. Ken was today's designated driver.
We stayed for as long as we could in the Lakes District, taking in all the beautiful countryside, unique who stone villages and the clear waters of the Lakes. Our route had us following the Lakes' edges all the way down through Windermere and Bowness on Windermere. Here we stopped for a look at The World of Beatrice Potter Attraction and a walk through town. John and Ken scored a Costa coffee which kept them happy. It was also here that Ken heard that the Richmond Tigers were in the AFL grand final!
The last point at the bottom of Lake Windemere was Newby Bridge. From here we drove slightly up the opposite side of the lake to a heritage site, Stott Park Bobbin Mill, an early 1800's industrial factory still in its original condition. It was very interesting to read the different stories and the fact that the majority of the workers in its early stages were only boys from 10 - 16 years old.
After leaving the Stott Park site we set sail for Cholmondeley using for the majority of the remaining journey the 3 lane dual carriageway M6. John found an Internet Beatles station and played a few 'inspirational' songs to get us in the mood for tomorrow's Beatles Cycle Tour.
We left the M6 just after 1.30pm and started to search for somewhere for lunch. Just before 2.00pm John suggested The Locked Gate Coffee House which just so happens was next to a canal with an iron clad lock, had great coffee and excellent fare for our lunch. John went for a walk to the lock and got talking, Paul and Beth had a conversation with a motorbike riding couple who just happened to own a canal boat while Geri, Paula and Ken looked around the area. It was well after 3.00pm before we got started again, thankfully we only had about 10 minutes to travel.
Cholmondeley Arms is fascinating. The pub, the Cholmondeley Arms Inn part, is an old school dating back to 1826 and the Headmaster's House, is 6 rooms of accommodation with each room being named after an inspirational teacher. Paul & Beth were in Mr Bird's room, John & Geri in Mr Chip's room and Paula & Ken in Mr Dumbledore's room.
After unpacking, doing a bit of washing and arranging a time for dinner we went for a walk to try and see Cholmondeley Castle and the gardens. Unfortunately it is private property only open at certain times and very well hidden behind very large, bushy and tall trees from the general public.
We got to a cross road and the girls decided to take a longer walk to get back while the boys retraced their steps. The girls had no stories to tell of their walk but the boys came across a motorcycle rider, riding a vintage Royal Enfield that he had restored, who had just had a puncture in the rear tyre only just managing to keep the bike upright. They offered to help push it back to the pub but he was calling his son to come and help.
Dinner in the pub was a little loud but everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. Plans were discussed and made for tomorrow. Looking forward to visiting Liverpool.
Sunday September 24
The Road Trip - Day 8
Beatles Bicycle Tour
This turned out to be a great cycle tour. Our guide, Phil, was very knowledgeable, chatty and had a good sense of humour. He knew the Beatles sites well, now to cycle to them in an easy and logical order. He also knew interesting and amusing facts about the 'Fab Four'.
Our day began with breakfast at 8.30pm. We then elected to go and see Beeston Castle on our way into Liverpool. We took in the castle, surrounding walls and some of the information in 45 minutes, which was enough to gain a good understanding of its history and development.
From here it was into the Mersey side of Liverpool travelling under the Mersey River through the tunnel.
We arrived just after 12 noon and happened to run into our guide Phil. He was going to watch the British Cycle ride through the Riverside precinct. He suggested a good eating place - Unit 51, one of the newer establishments in the re-invented and re-used Baltic Triangle area, an old warehouse and riverside storage complex.
After lunch he had us fitted to the bikes, which were Bike Friday cycles and ready to leave. He went through some basic rules that he uses and we were off. We had one other lady in our group, Shelby, from Texas.
The photos taken will tell a better story but basically he guided us through China Town, past the longest and fifth largest church in the world then down into the 'Beatles' zone. He started with George but could only show us the Art School that he, Paul and John attended because George had moved around a fair bit while growing up in Liverpool. The 'Cases' sculpture, near the Art School was a tribute to all 'Livpublions', who had contributed through culture and the arts to putting Liverpool on the world map. Next was the greenhouse funded by George followed by a visit to Ringo's house, which could be torn down soon as the whole area is being redeveloped. Phil also showed us the site used for filming 'Peaky Blinders', which is just two streets down from Ringo's street. Next we did all the sites associated with John, his primary school, high school, Penny Lane, his aunt's house - where he grew up, the church where John and Paul first met (as John has said, the place where it all started to move...'), 'Eleanor Rigby's grave site and Strawberry Field.
We then travelled to Paul's house. All the while Phil is giving us great stories and information about the group not found in books, it made us all appreciate more immediately our own connection with the Beatles.
As someone said we will listen to the lyrics of their songs with more intensity now that we know where and what they are.
From here Phil set our course for the bike depot along the shoreline of the Mersey River. It was a great way to see more of Liverpool. We arrived back just on 5.00pm said our farewells and as we where leaving it started to sprinkle and then rained on and off most of the way back to Cholmondeley.
Over dinner we looked at options for things to see and do on our way to Ross-on-Wye and The Bridge House, our gateway to Wales.
Monday September 25
The Road Trip - Day 9
Ross-on-Wye
The day began with continual drizzle after heavy overnight rainfall. The Cholmondeley Arms Inn car park had large pools of water that we needed to avoid to get to breakfast. Again breakfast,like all meals at the Cholmondeley Pub, were great. We paid our accounts, loaded the car and started our trip to Ross-on-Wye.
John was driving the morning leg. We had chosen three things to look at on the way through with a lunch break organised for Kidderminster.
The first stop was the small village of Ironbridge and the Ironclad Bridge spanning the River Steven. It was up until 1950, a toll bridge, even for pedestrians and animals.
It was a unique cast iron design and had withstood many floods that had washed away other bridges in the area. It continued to rain on and off for most of the morning, thankfully stopping when we were out of the car viewing things. When we stopped in Kidderminster for lunch it stopped completely and was a little brighter as we left with Paul driving the afternoon stint.
From here we travelled to Whitley Court and Gardens, a truly amazing sight, the manor and gardens were spectacular and we were fortunate to be able to watch the fountain working. We could have spent hours in the surrounds but we had to keep moving.
Our final stop before reaching Ross-on-Wye was an old barn, Leigh Court Barn, a remarkable structure made of oak in the 13th century. Each span used to hold the barn up was made of a single oak tree, they would have been huge trees. There were 10 spans in the barn.
After leaving the barn we headed to The Bridge House, our accommodation in Ross-on-Wye where we were warmly greeted by our hosts Kathryn and Kevin.
They showed us around, settled us in, suggested some places for dinner and a couple of walks we might take before eating.
We took their advice and wondered into town and back again on the river walk.
Dinner was a meal at the local pub then back to the drawing room at our accommodation for a chat on what we might do tomorrow. Kevin stayed and told us a little about Ross-on-Wye and what we could do if we stayed in town the next day. Tomorrow morning, after breakfast we decided we would work out what we were going to do, stay in Ross-on-Wye or drive a little more and explore some of Wales?
Tuesday September 26
The Road Trip - Day 10
Wales
The day started very foggy on the banks of the Wye River but cleared to be a beautiful, warm day for our excursions into Wales.
Breakfast was organised for 8.30am with us ready to leave by 9.30am.
We had decided to go directly to Swansea and Mumbles then look to explore other sites on the way back, time permitting.
We had programmed the Sav Nat to get us directly to Spec Savers in Swansea to get Paul's reading glasses fixed, he had broken the arm off them yesterday. The British post code worked perfectly on the Sav Nat to get us there but to Paul's angst he discovered he hadn't packed the broken glasses!
While in Swansea John and Paul re-charged their Vodaphone accounts for another month while the others went to the toilet. Paula, exploring on her own found the Swansea Castle and took a few photos.
Back in the car we headed to Mumbles, a seaside area just outside of Swansea that would be incredibly tourist orientated in the Summer.
We parked at the Mumbles Pier and decided on 3 hours to explore. Paul & Beth did a headlands and Town walk, having a 'high tea' for lunch, John and Ken did the Pier, boardwalk and castle loop and coffee at Costa whilst Paula and Geri, individually, almost circumnavigated the whole town! Everyone took some great photos and had interesting stories to tell.
We all met back at the car just after 3.00pm and found Paul talking to a Welshman, surname 'Davies' who had taken the day to go for a motorbike ride. He said today was the best day, weather wise, they had had in a month!
From here we headed to a waterfall called 'Sgwd Clum-Gwyn'. It was a great little waterfall and it was good to have visited the coastline and forest areas of Wales. John then had the Sat Nav take us through a 'quaint little Welsh village', Merthy Tydfil, because he liked the name. It was interesting but it definitely wasn't little having approximately the same population as Wagga - 'quaint' was our go word for the rest of the day when talking to John!
We then headed for The Goodrich Castle, but unfortunately it was locked. It was getting late so we opted for dinner at the Hoteliers Goodrich. It was a good pub meal with two great English characters talking to us while we where there.
We didn't leave until well after 8.00pm so we all headed for our rooms once back at the Bridge House.
Tomorrow we head for Bath, then down to Ivybridge, just near Plymouth for two nights in the Plantation House. On the way down John has picked three sites he would like us to visit which will keep us off the M5 but still give us a little time in the afternoon to explore Ivybridge.
Wednesday September 27
The Road Trip - Day 11
Bath and Ivybridge
Again our day started overcast, with rain predicted for the afternoon. We had a latish breakfast, with us all now using the notion that you eat heartily for breakfast, as you have already paid for it, have a very light lunch then a normal meal for dinner. This seems to satisfying us for most of the day.
We settled the accounts, packed the van, said our good byes and were off. Our first stop was the Goodrich Castle. It was very interesting and having the audio guide gave you a more detailed account of the castle and its history. It is the first castle we have seen that showed exactly how the portcullis worked. You could see the slot on the floor of the guard house for the portcullis to be lowered and the alcoves for the winding mechanism.
Here Paul discovered he hadn't returned the key to the room from the Bridge House. As he and Beth didn't have a 16 day pass to visit the English Heritage sites and we were only 5 miles from the Bridge House they drove back and returned the key.
The next stop on this leg was Bath and we also found Paul a SpecSavers so he was able to leave his glasses to be fixed whilst he, Beth, John & Geri visited the Roman Bath museum. They thoroughly enjoyed the display.
As Paula & Ken had already been to the Roman Baths, they decided to walk around the town centre looking at the Georgian style buildings, Bath has a covenant on building in the city stating that building have or retain this look. They also visited the Bath Abbey. Once they meet up with the other four they all walked down to the Roman Pulteney Bridge across the River Avon. This was a great site with the bridge itself having small little buildings on the sides, very similar to the bridge in Florence.
After leaving Bath we took the scenic route along the Wye Valley roads passing the Tintern Abbey on the way to Glastonbury. It had started to sprinkle in Bath just as we were leaving and got a little heavier after Glastonbury.
The next section was just a long haul for driving for Paul in persistent heavy rain, a real British downpour. He did a great job getting us to our next accommodation destination. We rang through to Plantation House, our accommodation to let them know we were going to be a little late and to double check we had organised for dinner.
The rain stopped enough for us to unpack at Plantation House. The accommodation had a great cocktail bar with each room being named after a cocktail, all with views of different parts of the property. It was a very impressive B&B - the meal was exceptional. It has a high rating as an eating establishment, well-deserved if the meal we had is an example of what they produce on a regular basis.
After dinner everyone was happy just to unpack and have a rest.
Hopefully the weather improves for our 'other' C2C across Lands End planned for tomorrow.
Thursday September 28
The Road Trip - Day 12
Lands End - C2C
Our C2C across Cornwall didn't eventuate, we had bitten off more than we could chew, a combination of a number of things brought us undone.
We couldn't have breakfast early enough to give us a full day to do the ride. Also to get there through the traffic took longer than anticipated, the place we had booked the bikes from was further from the start of the C2C route than we realised and the road to ride on to get to the start was very narrow and had a heavy volume of traffic.
Tyson, the proprietor of West Cornwall Bike hire, pointed us to the Hub in Portreath to see if he had a suggestion for a ride in the area. His name was Fergus and he basically pointed out that it takes almost a full day to do the C2C properly and recommended we do a coastal walk instead as it was almost 12 noon.
We took his advice and walked back along the coast line through an area called Godrevy-Portreath Heritage Coast. It was spectacular, rugged and open like the Great Australian Bight, just a lot greener!
We saw a number of Shetland ponies who graze on the grass to keep it down, a seal and a number of sea caves. We found out later that the area is called Smugglers' Cove.
We had lunch here after our walk, Geri and Ken scored ice creams (they explained that they were at the beach and what else do you do at the beach besides eat ice cream!)
Here Ken also added to his 'Barry day', he had 'organised' this part of the trip. When he ordered his coffee he asked for a mug of hot water for Paula. He was obviously misunderstood, or he didn't order in a manner that could be understood because his coffee arrived with a side order of hot water in a small milk jug! To her credit Paula drank the the hot water from the jug.
From here John drove to Lands End, the parking is £5, which we were happy to pay, but the guy taking the money spotted our Bicycle Wagga Wagga cycle tops and asked if we were part of the group doing the Lands End to John O'Groats cycle challenge because if we were there was no parking fee - we were honest and said no but he gave us a parking ticket to display and our money back!
Lands End is very windy! But also very interesting. We didn't really have time to spend too much just looking around so we took a few photos with the signpost and moved on.
Ken did the two hour driving stint back to Plymouth. Plymouth is an interesting harbour and rather large city. We were here to get Paul's vodaphone account fixed and to find something different for dinner.
We did the phone ok but as we were starting to head to the waterfront area to find something nice to eat, it really started to rain - the first real dampener on our activities for the holidays so far.
So rather than get drenched and then drive back to Plantation House all wet we decided the Drake Circus, a large mall with a food court would have to do.
The drive back from here was interesting, initially in pouring rain and then through the very narrow, high hedged roads into Ivybridge and our accommodation.
Paul and Ken were lucky to ask Josh, one of the chef's for Plantation House about washing some clothes, he offered the use of the industrial washing machine the place has and they jumped at it, with use of the boiler room to hang and dry the clothes as well!
Everyone had decided on breakfast at 8.00am before starting the last leg of the road trip, along the south of England with views of the English Channel.
Our last accommodation is the Griffin Inn at Uckfield, a 400 year old coaching Inn.
Friday September 29
The Road Trip - Day 13
The English Channel leg
Today was to be a long travelling day. We looked at what we could possibly achieve and not be too late into Fletching and our accommodation at the Griffin Inn.
We decided on the Portland Castle, the Netley Abbey and possibly Brighton Palace Pier, time permitting.
We broke the driving into three manageable sections with Paul doing the first stint from Ivybridge to the Isle of Portland and the Portland Castle, which in actual fact was more a fort than a castle. It was built by Henry VIII in 1540 along with a number of other fortress around the bay. It never really saw combat except for the civil war, but the Isle of Portland was a significant staging ground for D-Day.
Ken and Paula 'played house' dressing in period soldier and house maid clothes.
From here John took over the driving as we continued the drive along the English coast with varying views of the English Channel.
The day was a little overcast but warm with most of us just travelling in short sleeve tops in the car and only putting on jackets when we hopped out. The views to the coastline were a little hazy but you could still see the ocean.
We stopped for lunch at Dorchester, at great cafe, 'Hendover', which had an interesting story explaining its name. Soup and home made sausage rolls were the most favoured orders.
From here our next stop was Netley Abbey, a truly 'atmospheric' building. Although a ruin it still seemed to retain some of its former majesty not only as the Abbey it originally was but also as the mansion it was to become after Henry VIII 'suppressed' the Catholic Church in England.
The building, spread out over an expansive area was very impressive and you could almost feel that you where walking in the footsteps of the monks and servants who lived here 100 of years ago.
Ken took over the driving for the last leg and as it was already after 4.00pm it was decided that we would skip Brighton Palace Pier and perhaps we could get back to it for a fish and chip tea tomorrow night.
On this leg we experienced another aspect of travelling in England, a traffic crawl!
We had just started on the M3 when the notice boards indicated an accident further, the far right lane had been closed but it was just after the traffic from a converging lane entered the M3, so you had 3 lanes of the M3 merging with 2 lanes of other traffic being forced to use only 2 lanes, at 5.00pm on a Friday afternoon! We managed to travel the 2 miles, bumper to bumper, to the accident site without the need for any lengthy stops but it still took 20 minutes. The accident looked like one car had collected another car when overtaking, a fair bit of damage to both cars.
After this the rest of the journey was just managing the innumerable roundabouts and staying on course.
We arrived at the Griffin Inn at 6.45pm where given our rooms and had a table reserved for us in the bar for dinner. The Griffin Inn, a former coach inn, is over 400 years old and very quaint its own way. Very much a small village pub, lots of lively chatter, families and people with their dogs. The meals were very nice and we had the accompaniment of the piano over our meal. The pianist was very good and his impromptu jazz was excellent.
Breakfast was decided for 8.30am then off to walk the White Cliffs of Dover in the morning.
Saturday September 30
The Road Trip - Day 14
The White Cliffs of Dover
Today was our last full day of the Road Trip through Scotland, Wales and England. We had a bit of distance to travel to see the last of the things we had planned, and as we were in southern England, expecting more traffic and a lot more towns and villages to pass through. The routes we are taking are off the main 'M' roads.
After a full breakfast we settled into our 'country' drive through the Sussex countryside to Kent and the White Cliffs of Dover. Paul did this driving stint and we drove through some beautiful countryside and great little villages such as Royal Tunbridge Wells, Sissinghurst, Biddenden, Ashford and Dover.
The weather for our walk along the cliffs was perfect with sunlight appearing through the clouds to really highlight the whiteness of the cliffs. We were down to short sleeves, or open light jackets pretty soon into the 50 minute walk to the lighthouse. We took 100s of photos between us and even got to see the Exmoor ponies that graze along the cliffs to keep the grass down. At the lighthouse we used Paul's binoculars to look across the English Channel to the coast of France even seeing some of the building structures on the opposite coast.
After finishing the fruit and water we had brought along we returned to the car, a little quicker as the weather had started to deteriorate a little, more clouds and windy.
It was almost 2.30pm by the time we left. John did the next to stint to Brighton along the coast again off the major roads. We passed through Folkestone, Dymchurch (which has a very interesting sea wall. It seems to go for miles. It is also built in a such a way that it blocks the view of the ocean from the town.), New Romney and Rye.
We had 3 things to do in Brighton, try and get a small problem solved (at the Apple Store), that Ken had created when he updated his iPad software, walk along Brighton Pier and the 'beach' and have fish and chips for dinner.
The Apple Store was in the Churchill Square, not the biggest parking area to try and manoeuvre the hire van in! John did a great job getting us a spot without contacting any other cars, the parking area walls or pillars.
Ken had no luck at the Apple Store but purchased a small USB as he thinks he can fix the problem (GoodReader not updating and now refusing to open the digital copies of the travel documents) in a library or Internet cafe) - Paula and he will try again to fix the problem in Ireland whilst the others are in London.
After leaving the square we walked down to the waterfront and along the boardwalk and very stony beach - Beth, Paul, John and Geri couldn't believe that the English sunbath and swim here as we do on our golden beaches in Australia.
We found a cosy (although slightly noisy) cafe for our fish and chips. Unfortunately we had to stay inside as it had started to rain.
After our meal we walked along Brighton Pier marvelling at the lights and the number of coin chance machines kids were playing. At the end we watched a number of show rides before heading back to the van.
Ken's turn to drive, he extracted us from the park area and out of Brighton without any issues and back to the Griffin Inn in continual drizzle.
Back at the Inn Geri, John and Ken went for coffee and dessert whilst Beth, Paul and Paula went back to the rooms for a cup of tea and hot water.
Tomorrow we part company for 4 days, Paula and Ken to Ireland the other 4 to London to re-unite in Paris on October 5.