Falkirk Wheel

Went to see the Falkirk Wheel. What you've never heard of it? Don't worry, we hadn't either but it was worth seeing. Appparently was a millenium project to replace about 6 locks.

We watched one boat go through the process, first it comes through a long tunnel.

The boat then goes into a tank and gets lowered to the next level. It's amazing that they've fixed up all these canals because they were all abandoned in the 50's and 60's, after they were no longer needed, but have now been reinstated for leisure purposes. So many people use them; apart from the obvious canal boats, there are also lots of cyclists and walkers using the towpaths that run beside them.

We biked up to see the Antonine Wall, I was excited that we were so close to it - I couldn't understand why there isn't the publicity about it that there is about Hadrian's Wall. Now I do, this is it! Was originally an earth wall apparently so hasn't stood up to the ravages of time like that other one! Served a similar purpose though, and at a much narrower part of the country. Drove up the tourist route (following the coast) via St Andrews to Scone (pronounced Scoon), near Perth. Stayed in a camping ground in the grounds of Scone Palace, right next to a racecourse, could hear all the excitement over the fence. Luckily they finished about the time we went to bed, thought we could have been in for a long night!

Next day had the big decision of whether to see Scone Palace or Glamis Castle, both in the area, and both looked good. Scone Palace is where Macbeth was crowned, but Glamis Castle was where Shakespeare set the story. Also Glamis Castle was the Queen Mother's childhood home, and is in the Braes of Angus, so that won in the end. We were really blown away by this one. It is still the family home of the 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne; Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon. Apparently Bowes-Lyon was the Queen Mothers maiden name, in case you're as ignorant as myself - believe it or not, Gus knew this!

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside but it was amazing. We had a guided tour, probably to make sure we didn't nick the family silver, and what family silver!! About 15 in our group. Part of the castle is really old, like 1376! Part of it is quite new, Victorian era... that's new in this part of the world. The paintings on the ceiling of the little chapel were beautiful; the settings and ceiling in the dining room were over-the-top but gorgeous; and the tapestries around the walls and the beds were amazing. Some of them date back to the 16th century and still survive in amazing condition. There is one over the bed the Queen Mother used when she stayed, that was done by her mother, with the names and birth years of all ten of her children. Elizabeth was the second youngest, but she married well!!

Drove on up through Caingorms National Park. Parts of it are like the desert road, parts like theMckenzie Country in the South Island. There was quite a bit of snow in the highest parts, supposed to be almost summer, the equivalent of November, feels more like July!

Stayed the night near Aberdeen, with some lovely people we met in Hong Kong, they made the mistake of inviting us over a glass of wine, even wrote down their address so I suppose they meant it at the time! They were extremely welcoming, she had prepared a salmon dinner - lovely. They are from the Shetland Islands originally so he brought out a dvd on the islands, now feel like we've been there too! We've given them all our family's and friends' addresses so they'll be over soon to stay... (joke, don't worry), but they were very hospitable so we've told them if they or any of their family are in NZ, they must come and stay with us.

Today, after a large breakfast, we drove through the high country again to Inverness. On the way there was more snow, even some falling out of the sky!! There are skifields right beside the road.

We stopped in at the site of the Battle of Culloden, if you don't know about this I would suggest you read Diana Gabaldon's book, Cross Stitch, still a librarian at heart :). Basically it was the last battle fought on British soil; between the Jacobites (mostly highlanders) and the English Government forces, over who should be king. Anyway it was a very bloody battle; and a massacre of innocent bystanders, along with Jacobite men, followed. They've got a really good visitor centre there complete with actors explaining parts of the story. We also had a guided visit of the whole site. They have flags marking where the two sides stood at the start, and headstones marking where the mass graves are. A very moving place, even though it all happened so long ago, and I don't think all the shivers running up my spine were from the cold wind.

Hadrian's Wall and Edinburgh

We’re now in Scotland, yay! Yesterday we started the day with Carlisle Castle, not a pretty castle, but has had an amazing amount of sieges and general battles fought over it, being so close to the Scottish Border. There was a dungeon with holes in the walls where prisoners were chained, and places where they’d licked the rock in thirsty desperation, not a happy feeling to the place at all! Must have been very dank and uncomfortable even if you were upstairs. After the castle we had lasagne and chips at a mall to warm ourselves through a little!

Next stopped off at Hadrian’s Wall, we were intending to go to a couple of places along it but the wind was howling and it was COLD so we decided one stop would do. We chose Housesteads Roman Fort, was an absolutely fascinating place, with so much to see (far more complete than I had imagined) and we fully intended to go for a walk along the Wall but the wind by now was BITTER!

It’s a universal truth of travel that no matter how fascinating the sight; if the body is not comfortable, it immediately loses all charm and appeal. So we did make ourselves walk around a bit and take a few photos but quickly retreated to the warmth of the inner campervan and a cup of tea. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been so cold – considering I had on a polyprop, jacket, woolly hat, scarf and gloves; and this before we even reach Scotland!!

Crossed the border into Scotland but the wind was blowing so hard we were a bit too nervous to stop the campervan for a photo, decided to press on. Stopped at a nice sheltered (well relatively) site at Jedburgh (as in Edinburgh – not as in Iceberg as we were pronouncing it – luckily we asked someone before we made idiots of ourselves). In the morning the sun was shining! Walked into the town to have a look around, a really lovely little town and the people are incredibly friendly. Already everyone has a lovely Scottish burr, we weren’t sure whether this would be the case so close to the border – the people who live right on the border must be torn in how to speak! The Abbey looked really interesting, it’s one of four in the border area.

We also went into ‘Mary, Queen of Scots house’ although it turned out she didn’t actually live there, but had visited on a number of occasions. It was free though, and had really good displays on her life, we’ll be whizzes at Trivial Pursuit evenings when it comes to the royal families!! On the way back to the camp, there was a guy setting traps and filling in holes – Gus got talking to him, and he was trapping moles. He reckoned one or two moles had dug all the holes we could see, about 10 holes in an area of a small lawn – all dug in one night!! I’ve always thought they were cute little furry things but I’m glad they were one pest our forefathers managed to resist introducing. The guy was very happy to chat to us though, he immediately recognized we are from NZ, can’t think how everyone can tell:), we just talk normally!! Also stopped in at a Woollen Mill, very touristy with lots of coaches outside, Gus got himself a woolly hat for 3 pounds, a nice one too! We asked if they had any, and the man behind the counter said it’s really getting a bit warm for woollen hats now (!) but he’d see what he could find, once again very friendly and obliging. So far, have to say, have found the Scots people to be friendlier than their English counterparts, although we did speak to a lot of lovely people there too, quite often the ones behind the counters could have done with a lesson in customer service though... Tonight we’re staying outside Edinburgh itself, lots to see and do here, may even stay a couple of nights. The weather has improved a little from the north of England, so hopefully will keep on with that trend?!

Woke up to rain, but then the sun broke through and remained more or less the rest of the day. What an amazing city Edinburgh is! We caught a bus in, not a lot of parking for the Enterprise. Found our way to Edinburgh Castle, not too difficult, it completely dominates the skyline and can be seen from quite a distance. The castle was interesting but starting to think we might be a bit castled out :). There are 14 castles and palaces within about a 5 mile radius of Edinburgh alone!! One quite beautiful tiny room was where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to her son. When he revisited the castle as an adult (and King of Scotland and England), he had the room painted up, and it still remains in that original state, from the 17th century - incredible really.

The cannon pictured here was last fired in the 15th century and on that occasion the stone was found 2km away, perhaps fortunate for a beautiful city that they don’t use it anymore! A royal family member from earlier times was apparently heard to refer to the castle as ‘That damn cold rock in Scotland’. The information said that if we were unfortunate enough to be visiting when the sea mist was in, we would sympathise. We were obviously very fortunate with the weather, we even had to remove our jackets during the day.

After the castle we went for a wander through the city, starting with the ‘royal mile’. This is an amazing street running from the castle right down to the Holyrood Palace, the Queen’s official residence in Scotland. Edinburgh has a beautiful skyline; lots of cathedral spires and ancient buildings. It has a very aged and sophisticated feel, appears prosperous.

On the way we went into a couple of small museums, one was the ‘Children’s Museum’ and contained all sorts of toys and games from through the ages. An amazing collection of dolls and dollhouses; toy cars; meccano etc. These two cuties were happy to pose when the lady with the funny accent ask them to hold up the puppets they were playing with.

We couldn’t resist this ‘doggy in the window’. I’m not sure if he realised he was part of the window display but he was doing a wonderful job of it. It seems a waste that neither of us is partial to whiskey, for any of you that are; you'll love Edinburgh!

We finished off at the Museum of Scotland, lots of wonderful displays including skeletons of extinct species like a giant armadillo and a giant crocodile; a foyer with the wow factor; lots of great interactive displays for kids (including big kids like ourselves); and even Dolly the cloned sheep who was apparently born not far from here.

Lake District

Went up to have a look at Penrith Castle; we sort of had to didn’t we? (For those not in the know, Penrith is the name of Gus' father's farm) It wasn’t very inspiring – built by Richard I before he became king and not used a heck of a lot since! It’s just a few walls now but at least it was free and the sun was shining and we can now say we’ve seen Penrith Castle.

Next we drove down towards Keswick (pronounce Kesick – don’t know why they bother with the w). On the way we stopped at another stone circle, Castlerigg. Amazing view from this one, was put here by Neolithic people they think, as in cavemen, so it’s been here a while. No spooky feelings around this one, possibly because of all the school kids sitting all over it, enough to take the atmosphere away – also no trodden path around the inner circle or fireplace in the middle so probably not used by druids recently.

From there we biked into Keswick – was down a nice steep hill and only a short ride brought us to a carpark in the centre of town. We asked a lady on a bike if the path did lead to Keswick and she was the one that corrected our pronunciation then explained that there is another way back, not as steep, so looked forward to that. Had a good look around Keswick, a thriving market in the middle of town, had some lunch at a cafe and watched the people go past for a while. So many people have their dogs with them, all over England. We really like it and most of the dogs are really well behaved, obviously used to strolling through busy streets and sitting outside cafes, very urbanised. Went for a stroll by the lake, the lakes are very pretty around here (hence “The Lake District” I suppose!). The sun was shining so nice to get out and about, a cold wind still though, so jackets required. Gus thought it looked like a good skiing lake but was disappointed to see that the boats only had little motors so are obviously more for fishing/sightseeing. I don’t imagine that it gets warm enough for skiing for very long anyway and if it did (and skiing were allowed) I can only imagine how horribly congested the lake would get. This is still the shoulder season and it is as busy as Taupo in the middle of summer! From the town we biked along an ex-railway track complete with an old station and small viaducts. We then took a short-cut up through some paddocks on a public walking track – these are everywhere here, until we got back to the road with the stone circle on it. The Enterprise was waiting faithfully for us, but it was still a steep ride up the last bit of the hill to get to her. We got back to camp – Gus went for another ride (our one was clearly not hard enough for him) and I had a shower and collapsed with a red wine, and decided to catch up on this blog.

Oh, forgot to mention we did our washing this morning, first time in a while we’ve been staying 2 nights, so time to do towels and sheets – the machines in all the camping grounds we’ve been to cost 3.50 pounds ($7-$8) per load and we had 2 loads worth – actually 3 loads worth because it turned out the machines aren’t all that big either. I wasn’t shelling out for 3 though so did the last load by hand – never again. Made me appreciate the joys of washing machines – especially the spinning part!! Ok for small items but we didn’t have many of those this time, Gus lent his strength but even then nowhere near as effective as a spin dryer – then the dryer costs 1 pound for a 30 minute cycle – ended up using 3, then finishing off the remainder on our little drying rack and draping them round the campervan – an expensive exercise and what a hassle. We do have a line but nowhere really to string it and didn’t want to bring the tone of the neighbourhood down too much! I’ll appreciate our big washing machine and clothes line when I get home!

Peak District

Today we went into Bakewell, had the requisite Bakewell pudding, well you’ve got to make an effort to try these local dishes! Was extremely tasty, very almondy, nice light pastry and rich filling. We've also had mushy peas and curry sauce with fish & chips, so exotic! The mushy peas were ok but the curry sauce beautiful!! Went for a bike ride along another rail trail – I was just starting to whinge about how far we were going and we still had to get back and how the ride wasn’t that interesting anyway... and then we came to a hugely long tunnel. Was really impressive and fun to ride through – had lights all the way through and like the rest of the track was tar sealed. I’ve been through a similar one in NZ and there you have to have torches, and it has a rough floor with potholes... I guess there are advantages to having a big population. We turned round after the tunnel and I was pleased to find the ride back much easier, must have been a slight incline all the way there.

Next we went to see Chastsworth House, it was 3 pounds to park; Gus asked the parking warden how much the entry fee was and it turned out to be 15 pound per person – we agreed afterwards he should have said we didn’t want a suite for the night, just to have a look around! Anyway we decided that was a bit steep for us so the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire had to do without the pleasure of our company. We had lunch in the campervan in the car park – had to get our 3 pound worth, took a couple of photos and left.

Onto Peak Cavern – this was really interesting. There have been rope makers living in the entrance of the cave for centuries, until early last century. There was a village of little huts (still one there), all their pigs, various other livestock, must have been stinky!! I guess it was relatively warm and sheltered for them (although we found it pretty cold and damp) and close to their market, which was mainly the lead miners working further down in the caves. We were given a demonstration of how rope was made, Gus is assisting with this.

You can see in the second photo the cart that is holding the other end of the rope and keeps the tension on, and gradually is pulled closer, as it is spun (not sure if this the correct term?).

All the other paraphernalia in this photo is to do with the rope making too. Next we were taken deeper into the cave, in some parts we had to crouch almost double to get through. Early last century you had to lie flat in a coffin-like boat and get taken under a low ledge to get into the caves, but then Queen Victoria decided to visit (or Princess Victoria then) so they blasted a way through – they only made the passageway high enough for Her Royal Highness to walk under, apparently she was about 4’9”. Drove up through torrential rain over Snake Pass (a bit like part of the Rimutakas) to the North of the Peak District, now at Crowden.

Gus was a bit disappointed to find the Peak District didn’t have very big peaks, we were thinking about going for a bike ride but decided it was a bit cold and wet so decided to move on. Drove up through the Yorkshire Dales, where James Herriott set his books (and tv programmes!). Had to stop in at a grocery shop, we could barely make ourselves understood!

Very picturesque part of the country, lots of rock walls and stone farm buildings. They have as many Landrovers here as we have Toyota Hiluxes, every farmer has one; some seemed to have several of various ages. We even saw some sheep in a barn, possibly waiting for t’ vetinry...

Now in the Lake District (no photos yet), here for two nights. Took three attempts to find a camping ground that could take us, partly because they are so busy (very popular area obviously, and it’s the weekend), and partly because it’s so wet that they can’t put us on grass, we’d sink. They have ‘hard-standings’ here which are shingle or sometimes matting and seem to be all we are allowed on at the moment, would be different in the summer I guess. We can even see a little snow on top of the nearest hill, spring must be on the way soon! Apparently they have had the wettest April on record, yay!! There is a little 'beck' running behind our campervan - looks like a slightly flooded creek, hope it doesn't come up in the night. Is called Trout Beck, wonder if we might find something interesting for our brekky...

The Cotswalds and Wales

Caught train in from Bradford-on-Avon to Bath. Such a neat city, all Georgian architecture.

Dragged Gus to the Jane Austen Centre with promises of a visit to the Sally Lunn Centre to follow... I think he actually quite enjoyed himself, was a really good display of her life and the way of life for the gentry in Bath, THE place to be seen in those days. Sally Lunns are quite different to ours, we were squished into the corner of a tiny room at a table for two – the waiter couldn’t actually reach us – and given a pot of tea and a sally lunn bun each – really just a big bun but very fresh and served with lemon curd and clotted cream, yum! Drove up through the Cotswalds, stopped at Bourton-on-the-Water. Not far from Chipping Sodbury, Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold and Clapton-on-the-Hill. Also Little and Upper Rissington are in this area. When we saw a sign saying ‘Mud on Road’ we weren’t sure if it was a warning or the name of a village!! Gus found a car museum, first one on the trip. It had the real Brum (for my younger readers), along with lots of old English cars, you would have loved it Rob. I left Gus to it and went for a walk around all the girly shops in the village. There were lots. We are now staying at Chipping Norton, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend here so we had booked ahead and are here for 2 nights, first time we’ve done that...

1st up went to visit the Rollright Stones – one of the many stone circles in England. It was a bit spooky because there is a very obvious walking track around the inside of the stones; and flowers, money and the remains of a fire in the centre. I wouldn’t like to visit after dark! Gus was all for taking the money – not me!! I was also a bit wary stepping into the circle, once again was easy for Gus – he hasn’t read any Diana Gabaldon books at all.

Next we decided to visit two villages well known in the area for their beauty – they go by the very un-beautiful names of Upper and Lower Slaughter. Once again parked The Enterprise (sorry Liam) on the side of the road and biked around the villages – they are very beautiful. Cute little stone bridges over the stream, thatched roofs, lovely gardens and even a water-wheel in one of them. I guess they knew a thing or two about town-planning back in the day!

Then went to a Falconry Centre, was really worthwhile – the guy who runs it is extremely passionate about the conservation of Birds of Prey. They have a huge array of different types of birds – falcons, vultures, eagles, owls, kestrels... well you get the picture. I know what you're all thinking - Poor Gus, but he really enjoyed it, see here he is making friends with a golden eagle.

They showed some of the birds giving demonstrations of the way they hunt, including this snowy owl (like Hedwig in Harry Potter). There you go Liam – a book you’ll know :-)

Today we decided to take the bit between the teeth (or move into Warp 5) and drive up into North Wales, Snowdonia National Park. On the way up we stopped at a village on a sandy beach, was very like I imagine Blackpool or one of those English beaches – complete with carousel and a pier. (oops forgot the camera though). Wales has got some incredibly beautiful scenery – rushing rivers and big mountains – but hasn’t stopped raining yet. Still has only been one day, maybe tomorrow...

The camping ground here is really lovely, set in amongst trees with a stream running around the edge of the camp and a little steam train track going past – there seem to be a lot of these light guage railways (with little steam trains) in Wales. The only problem with camping under trees when it’s raining is that the trees seem to think it’s hilarious to save up a bucket-full of rain at a time and then fling it all on the campervan at once, aiming particularly for the perspex skylights for maximum noise – sounded like gunfire. Gus slept well though so that’s ok :-)

On up through Snowdonia, glacial valleys and rugged mountains; rippling brooks and stone bridges.. Stopped raining, so went for a walk to Rhaeadr Cynfal Falls – no idea how to pronounce anything here! Lovely walk along the Afon Cynfal river – lots of mosses and gentle rapids.

All the signs and brochures in Wales are in English and Welsh, and we’ve heard quite a lot of Welsh spoken. I sort of thought it was like Cornish or, dear I say it, Maori, and only spoken by a small minority as a first language, shows what I know! We’re amazed at how many people recognise OUR accents, in England and Wales. Well.. often they think we’re Australian of course, and many people we’ve spoken to have been to NZ. We were talking to one couple while doing the dishes – it can be a bit of a social occasion in a campground, and they were saying they particularly liked one place in NZ but they had trouble remembering the name. It was in the North Island, the place they had the earthquake... We were happy to inform them that was our home town – Napier!

Saw a sign for LLechwedd Slat Caverns so decided to go and have a look. Was absolutely fascinating – took a tour 200 metres underground. You go down a 45 degree shaft in carriages then get out and walk through tunnels to ten caverns, each one is lit as you go through so you can see where you’re going, but dark enough so that you feel the darkness.. There’s also a voice telling you about life for a miner in the early 1900’s from the point of view of a 12 year old boy. It was really interesting but quite a relief to surface again, and enough to convince us not to take up mining!

Staying at Colwyn Bay tonight, most unusual view - Looking out to the left there's an abandoned castle (not allowed visitors), the Enterprise had to squeeze through the castle wall to get into the camping ground (on impulse engines only, after being at Warp 5 all along the A55). The other view looks out to sea and there are about 50 wind turbines out there! Also a few oil rigs in the distance..

We backtracked a few miles (not kms here) to see Conwy Castle. It's partly fallen down, some floors and stairwells missing, but has been made reasonably safe for tourists (still gave me cold sweats on the stairwell and around some of the tower walls).

It was built in the 13th century in just four years, an incredible feat, for a nasty English king, Richard I or II (we can't remember, but you welcome to google it). A walled town was then constructed for all the king's terrible English friends - or words to that effect.. We've been pretty lucky with weather considering, just as we got in the campervan to carry on it started raining. We're now near Bakewell in the Lake District, and it's still raining hard. We were going to bike into the local pub for a meal but maybe we'll stay high and dry and cook for ourselves instead.

Cornwall

Sorry everybody, haven’t had internet for a week so no blog! Some of the smaller camping grounds don’t have wifi. The last one we stayed in was really hard case – just a paddock, only allowed to have 5 campers – one toilet and one shower to share. Luckily we have our own but we do usually use the camp facilities if they’re good (almost all of them have been) to save on gas and water. The farmer came over to collect our money and must have thought we were very friendly (with big smiles) because we were finding it very hard not to laugh at his accent. No doubt he was having the same problem with us but he really did sound like a comic stereotype farmer – with his tractor!

Anyway to have some cohesion, I’ll start where we left off. We had another day’s drive through Dartmoor, but this time there were ponies! Heaps of them, and not terribly afraid of us. I made Gus accompany me accross the wild moor, into a freezing wind and some rain, when I first spotted them to get a distant photo of the wild Dartmoor Ponies. Of course around the next corner there were heaps of them right beside the road, no challenge whatsoever! Also visited Dartmoor Prison, went to the museum there. What a bleak place! Is still an functioning prison but not as many prisoners as in its heyday and now low security. Don’t know why Dartmoor Road in Puketapu is named after it. There were also lots of narrow lanes, pretty streams and stone bridges.

Woke up to sunshine! Went for bike ride down steep hill to two tiny villages near our campground at Veryan. Unfortunately down steep hills means climbing back up afterwards. My bike just doesn’t do steep so I had to get off and walk – Gus’ bike is much better at hills. Once we got to the top we decided to go down again – this time to an extremely pretty fishing village – still lots of fishing boats and a variety of stone houses, some whitewashed, some built on a slope so that the windows at the top of the slope are almost at ground level. Drove on down Cornwall, stopped off at Penzance for a wander – a bigger town but still lovely, narrow cobbled streets and a dry dock for fishing trawlers. The best icecreams in the world; licorace and blackcurrant comes highly recommended by Gus. Spent the night at Sennen Cove, near Land’s End. Weather still good, even a beautiful sunset.

Woke up to sunshine again, yay! Went down to Land’s End early, had it pretty much to ourselves, rugged, eroded, granite bluffs. Gus got a bit close at times but I could see perfectly well from several feet back. There are no trees in the area, apparently they used to burn gorse for fuel. Next drove up the coast to St Ives, really lovely! Such a contrast; white sandy beach, fishing boats, cobbled streets, even a man painting on the beach. Unfortunately involved more bike riding down and up steep hills. The Enterprise (our mother ship) is not too good at narrow winding roads with traffic coming the other way so got left in a supermarket carpark.

Now onto Padstow – happened to park next to a cycle trail Gus had been talking about for a few days – nothing for it but to get the bikes out AGAIN! So glad we did, an amazing ride down a converted railway line, complete with railway viaduct and views all the way of the estuary – could see Padstow across the water at the start. Made it to Waybridge, rested my buttocks for a short time then had to make the return ride – I’m sure they lengthened it in the interim! Stayed night at Bude, basic camp but had a view and got our second stunning sunset.

First stop in the morning was Tintagel Castle ruins – this is the mythical home of King Arthur and more recently of some Earl – who actually built the castle that now remains. He was Richard II’s brother so still a good few years ago. Some of the remains are from the Roman era, some from the Dark Ages, and the rest of the Earl’s Castle. Amazing coastline here, we arrived at low tide so went down onto the beach. Walked through ‘Merlin’s Cave’, actually a natural tunnel that goes right under the island; also a waterfall falling onto the beach; and sheer cliffs. The castle itself is built on an island/peninsula that you cross onto via a thankfully solid bridge, then climb up the side on steep winding stairs that cling to the side – also nice and solid and modern but still pretty spooky for some! One of the remains is a longdrop (as Gus is demonstrating in photo) that drops straight over cliff, plunges about 100m straight down – I wouldn’t have made use of THOSE facilities.

Oops started day by setting off van alarm at 5.30am! How to make ourselves the most popular campers. Drove longer today, up the M5, first time we’ve done a motorway, almost ran out of diesel! Via Lynmouth, another fishing town, had a steep railway going straight up a cliff. Walked along the river there. Finished up trying to find our way down narrow country lanes (the narrowest yet), such a contrast from the M5!! Our camp was near Bradford-on-Avon, this was where we met the farrmerr. It was a real challenge for Shady (our TomTom Satnav), she was seen to consult with Puke – the knitted travelling mascot. Went for a bike ride down the towpath of the canal – was a lovely ride except got our shiny new bikes all muddy – really interesting with lots of narrowboats, have never seen these before. I was a bit surprised that some of them looked quite shabby, some lovely ones too, I guess those are the ones you see in pictures and on the tele. We were fascinated by the way the canal went over a viaduct above the river and a railway track!