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!

South England

Hi all, quite chuffed to see we had over 300 page views, either someone is reading it alot or there's a few of you out there! We've bought bikes... Now we can explore all those little villages and lanes that are too scary to contemplate in the campervan - as it is we often have to stop to let a car through one-way places - and they often stop for us. We've found the drivers extremely courteous here - much better than at home, even in heavy murging traffic everyone seems to give way, would be hopeless otherwise I suppose.

The lighthouse at the castle predates the castle by about 1000 years, built in about 100AD!! Don't know how this worked in those days as a lighthouse but still amazing to still be standing.

The castle itself is a maze of spiral staicases - bit scary for me but at least they have hand rails now - not in the days it was built I'm sure. In the photo I've let go of the hand rail - trying to show my bravery! There are 4 storeys, at the bottom are the kitchens, on 2nd floor the spare bedrooms and banquet hall, 3rd floor main bedrooms and then the roof - I stood up there but not to close to edges - Gus got right to the walls and played at being an archer. Funny story, when I was in banqueting hall (by myself) I was imagining all the feasts I'd read about, then walked into next room where there was a bedroom set up - suddenly one of the displays moved and starting talking - I jumped 3 feet - she was only a guide - I think I've read too many books!! After the castle we went down into the tunnels used in WWII (also used in WWI and as Napoleanic was barracks). In WWII it was where Churchill and his generals planned the evacuation of Dunkirk - very good displays. 60% of Dover was destroyed by bombs in WWII, the most heavily hit town in England. The guy taking tour hasn't moved on and was criticising the French people in general, and even giving some Americans that were with us a hard time for not being involved at this stage of the war - they were about 30 years old so not much to do with them!!

Drove on via Hastings which is a really busy city right on the waterfront - too busy a city to be bothered stopping there - quite different to our own Hastings... Stayed at a camping ground near Slindon, in South Downs National Park. The lady at the camping ground was very grumpy because we arrived at the ungodly hour of 5.30pm - she'd already turned off her computer and tilled up and was now trying to cook her supper... All the literature says you can come in until 8pm. Anyway her husband was of a much friendlier disposition and asked if it was ok if we paid in the morning and showed us to a site. We hope this isn't you in 20 years time, Fiona! In the morning she was in a much better mood and even pointed out that the following weekend is a bank holiday so will pay too book in somewhere - good advice! In the morning we got first rain but decided to go for a bike ride anyway. Pretty little village and farming area (inside the National Park). Narrow lanes and rock wall, even had a wander round a church yard - old graves next to new ones...

Drove on to Salisbury and Stonehenge. Incredible the way it just appears in a paddock, doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it being there. Weather was appalling by now but we donned wet weather gear (and I put on Karen's knitted scarf, gloves and socks) and we had a good look around. The blokes amongst you would be particularly interested to see how it all holds together - there is a knob left on top of each rock to help hold the lintel block in place, quite incredible engineering. How they got them there and lifted them etc is still a mystery but must have required alot of skill and knowledge especially considering how long it's been there.

Went into town to go to Salisbury Cathedral (on which the book Sarum is based) but it closed being Sunday morning - Gus not keen enough to go to the service! Anyway had a good look around - walked through the cloisters which are covered passages next to the cathedral - inside the square the building forms - quite beautiful in their own right.

Drove through Dartmoor to Tavistock (where we are now staying), constantly amused by the familiar names and how different the places are to their namesakes in NZ. Dartmoor National Park also includes villages and farms but we managed to find a real back road right through the middle and up into the moors - country very bleak, a bit like the Tongariro area - no steep hills though. Expect Heathcliff to come striding across at any time - definitely too many books!! Some of the sheep are a little different to ours, they seem to have writing on them rather than earmarks, and the Dartmoor bridge looked a bit washed out. But even in this area it's not far between villages and more importantly, pubs... Weather appalling so hope it stops raining soon - Gus bravely went for an hour's run this morning but too wild for me.

Canterbury

Was raining in London so wimped out on getting a bus or tube to station - either one would have required lots of walking in rain with all our bags! Got a minicab instead! Were freaking out in case it was costing a fortune but was only 12pounds - way easier with door to door service and only few pounds more than the bus!! Enough advertising for London Minicabs... Collected our new home for the next 5 months - rather daunting thought - didn't look like enough room for any of our stuff. But not to worry, after about 1/2 an hour’s lesson in how all the gizmos and gadgets work - only about 1/4 of which I was listening to because it was too damn cold to think, we got on the road. Drove about 2 minutes and decided to stop at a pub for lunch, didn't want to overdo the 1st leg.

Drove on a short distance to Canterbury – a really cool town with a high Roman wall around the central area – very stressful for Gus though because BUSY road and not made with campervans in mind – I’m not sure the Romans were big on them. Anyway found our way through and the camping ground, thanks to the SatNav, Tom-tom is already worth its weight in gold – has prevented several potential navigator/driver heated discussions! Canterbury is full of character, mostly Tudor-style houses and shops, opening straight onto streets; doorways even I would have to duck through – little narrow cobblestoned streets and buildings almost meeting overhead.

Visited Canterbury Cathedral – fantastic – so huge inside and just stunning. So many elaborate tombs from early 14th century onwards – including the Black Prince and King Henry II (?). About 6 storeys high inside up to beautiful vaulted ceilings; and incredible, elaborate stained glass windows. Walked down well-worn stone steps into the crypts – another whole floor beneath the cathedral – only lit by candles, very cave-like (Karen & Mary-Lou you would have hated it!!). At least ten different chapels down there, all from different eras with tombs/memorials and their own unique feel to them. You had to be silent in the crypts and there were very few people (we were there early) so you could almost hear the monks from previous centuries mumbling their prayers – even Gus admitted to finding it a bit spooky! Have now arrived at Folkestone, just down the road from Dover. Can see the busy shipping channel from Dover to Calais from our campervan! Have been told you can see France from here on a clear day, maybe tomorrow – is a beautiful day here today but the wind is biting and the area where France is supposed to be is a little hazy. The camper is starting to feel like home and all our stuff fits easy.

Campervan Day today!

Going down in the train to get the campervan today. Brad & Mel came home yesterday lunchtime - we had our first seriously lazy day, was very nice too!! London has been amazing - so much to see around every corner. Highlights: tourist hop on/off double decker bus with full commentary - this was a great introduction to the city - learned all sorts of interesting facts which we will bore you all silly with when we get home :-)

The Globe Theatre was fabulous, this is a recreation of Shakespeare's Globe - there is also an amazing display on the way in showing how they built it - all very authentic (no nails) and also the costumes etc that they have recreated as close to how they would have been. As luck would have it we wandered in on the one free day of the year - the day of Shakespeare's birth and death. That night they were putting a Shakespeare play on in Maori!! Part of a festival in many languages.

The London Marathon was on a couple of days ago so that was really fun to see and we got to stand on closed bridges etc - hence the photo of Gus in front of Parliament Buildings...

One of the things we have really enjoyed about London is the way you just go for a walk somewhere and come across things like this wall from a ruined palace built in 14 something or a Roman road or Keat's House or Charles Dickens favourite pub. We were expecting history but had no idea how much!! Also Brad took us for a walk yesterday and we came across the British Memorial War Museum. It was quite amazing - nuclear warheads, spitfires, V1 & V2 rockets, personal submarines. I was fascinated for about 1/2 hour but could see that we wouldn't get Gus away - he stayed until chucking out time at 6pm!! We are soon going to catch a bus and then a train down to collect our campervan, very excited about that - may not be quite as regular with the blog as our internet access won't be quite as reliable....

London

Wow, what a city, mindblowing! We first walked to London Bridge which is just a bridge - underwhelming - then saw Tower Bridge - so beautiful!

Crossed this to Tower of London - got there at 9am, just as it opened, have since decided this is definitely the secret to seeing any sights in the city - be early! Is an incredible set of buildings - so much to see. We were there 3 hours and were blown away by the history pouring out of every wall. One little chapel I went into they had a voice playing quietly of the king that was murdered there - praying - sent shivers down my spine - I'm still hoping it was a tape playing and not really him!

The tower has been a fortress, home, prison, place of execution to so many famous people. All those Phillipa Gregory books come to life! They keep the crown jewels there and once again there was no crowd so we could take our time having a really good look.

One of the rooms in a tower - at the top of a spiral staircase - was used as a prison alot so there is still graffiti on the walls from alot of the prisoners - some of it had been done for them by scribes - too upperclass to do their own graffiti.

The white tower is the most amazing museum in its own right, I've included a photo of my favourite set of armour, it's gold leafed - belonged to Henry I. Eventually tired feet, hunger & thirst drove us out - also the crowds had woken up and were pouring in by lunchtime. Learned another trick of the trade - carry water and snacks so you don't get desperate enough to have to waste money at tourist cafes at attractions. So that was the first morning! As you might gather we kind of liked the Tower of London :-) I think I'll take a break and do the rest as a separate posting - time for coffee...

Hong Kong

Impressions: crowds of people like we've never seen before but very friendly and even in the biggest crowd everyone very polite and no jostling - if anyone accidentally bumps you they apologise - Gus loving being one of the tallest in any crowd! Lots of smog,can't see the tops of some buildings. Often see people doing Tai Chi - even people on their own in a park. Had a walk through some markets - the ladies market was incredible - so many people, hardly any westerners - we are so tall!

Had tea at a local restaurant - chose one that smelled ok, some of them reak of rotting meat!! Also chose it on having English subtitles on the menu so we'd have some idea of what we're eating... We were only westerners - food good and cheap - given chopsticks to eat with but managed to get a fork for Gus - bit tricky to eat noodles when he has enough trouble driving chopsticks at all! Rained HEAVILY on second day - cleared the smog so was a good thing except we got pretty wet! Had tea at a western restaurant on the peak - incredible views - was part of a tour so sat with an English and a Scottish couple. The Scottish people asked us to stay with them when we up their way, really nice people, originally from the Shetlands, so we probably will look them up. Besides we owe them a drink..

We also couldn't get over the scaffolding - there are 50 storey buildings and the only scaffolding we saw was made from bamboo - it's just tied together with what looks like plastic packaging strap - it stretches up to the sky - obviously no OSH here.

All traffic is taxis and buses, hardly any private cars, apparently extemely expensive to park. Apartments $2000 HKD a square foot! Not that much in NZD but they earn their money in HKD. Tax rates are low though, 15% highest rate. The few private cars are Lamborginis, Bentleys etc! Extremes of wealth but not as much poverty as some other places - only a few beggars - lots of cleaners in parks etc - not sure if they govt paid. Anyway that was Hong Kong - now we are in London and loving it!! But it's now time to go out and explore so I'll tell you about it another time!