As much as we enjoy our time in Bradford on Avon we must drag ourselves away, therefore we head South West to the bottom of England and find ourselves at St Ives.


We have realised now that the smaller car is of much more use here as the roads are becoming much narrower and passing places are becoming much more obscure. the Coast line here is a visual dream and we encounter our first surf beaches since leaving Australia, not that we could use them as it is absoloutely chucking it down. Between showers we manage some great hikes through the country side and wander into some beautiful little fishing villages.


We drive down to Lands End which is the very bottom of England and back along the coast through som almost unnavigable villages like Mouse Hole (that is apparently pronounced MOWZULE and if you mis pronounce it as Mousehole the locals correct you saying
IT'S MOWZULE ARZULE
any way Mouse Hole is a beautiful village and well worth the trip but go on a quiet day as the weekends are supposedly chaotic.


From St Ives we venture back to the Cornwall/ Devon border and check in with Brian and Edna at Deer Park Cottage just outside Callington, it was extremely pleasant here and we enjoyed a wonderful week as the Clatworthy Family whom we met at La Roquecombe in France showed us some of the fantastic sites around the area and took us into there home to show us that the English do have showers and do use them, ( No they did not shower in front of us we just heard it running so we still can't be 100% sure but I did beleive them.

It was here at a place called Cotehele that we decided to join the National Trust.

Now this is my recomendation for anyone travelling to the UK as we have exhausted our membership visiting many Castles, Manors and Gardens and quite often you can gain free parking at sites, Parking is the biggest frustration in the UK and it is very rare if you can find it free.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week with the Clatworthy's sharing many meals and look forward to there promised trip to Kyabram in 2012.

Returning to Bradford on Avon after Devon we are elated that Anthony is going to fire his pottery in his home made medieval kiln which is fired by wood.
we spend the evening finishing off the packing before bricking it up and daubing up ay holes or cracks.


Next morning we prepare the fire wood which is no mean feat as Anthony and Moira live up a very narrow alley, Anthony has already collected the wood and got it this far now we need to get some of it through his front gate, into his kitchen up some more steps and another narrow path into the back garden where the kiln is, this is when I realise just what a task it must have been for Anthony to carry all of his kiln brick by brick from its previous home in a nearby paddock to it's present home.
The job ahead entais us poking tiny peices of timber into a hole the size of a shoe box until the inside of the kiln reaches a temperatue of 1050 deg, so we are to be here for the better part of the day and evening. As luck would have it we encounter our best weather in the UK so far and have a marvelous day stoking the fire as various friends and Family of Anthony and Moira drop by to share the experience.
Leaving the kiln behind to cool for 3 days before Anthony can open it and find out the results of what we are presuming was a good firing, we head north through Wales and up to the Lakes District.Although the weather soured again we still enjoyed a week in the Lakes District and had some wonderful walks, especially Alcock Tarn beside Grasmere which commanded spectacular views.


We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at Lake Coniston, takin a cruise on a steam Gondola and enjoying some tea beside the Lake although Debbie decided she would not take sugar in her coffee today, (not for health reasons, because a gull crapped into the sugar bowl ughhh)


Weather has been a small inconvenience so we figure it could'nt be any worse in Scotland and we head further North.

Scotland, better weather who was I trying to fool, we did encounter some sunshine but the wind made up for the lack of rain to ensure we had no chance to improve on our fast fading European tans.
Mind you Scotland is a fantastic and fabulous destination in any weather.
The scenery was breathtaking and we were fortunate to have enough good days to do some walking and treking, the best day was when we climbed Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye/


From the Isle of Skye we headed further north to the very top of Scotland, resulting in us reaching both extremes of the UK mainland. Lands End to John O Groates.
















Cointha Daniel and Bruce at John O Groates.

Across the top of Scotland and back down visiting Durness, Ullapool (award winning best fish and chip shop 2008) Edinburgh and back back into England for a beautiful drive through some marvelous countryside through the Cotswolds and Back to Bradford on Avon.









All of us outside Hardwick Hall

Well I thought it would be a nice drive but old mate in the unmarked black convertible BMW police car was not very amused when I overtook a tractor travelling at about 25 kms per hour.


Apparently I moved too quick and pulled out about 2 meters before the broken white lines started.


The very over animated officer dutifully informed me that in this country it is a jailable offence to cross an unbroken line and as I was a foreigner he could not fine me and that I should be arrested.


I informed him that if I were in Italy I would have been arrested if I had not overtaken the tractor regardless of what linesw were on the road or what traffic was oncoming as I would have been menacing the line of trafffic behind us.





I didnt really, although I knew he was not about to arrest me as he did not look as though he had time too waste on all the paperwork and it would impede him from his main program for the day. colecting revenue!!!





So I took his caution on the chin and wished him a happy day and returned to the car for the the earbashing that was iminent, maybe I should have taken the arrest option.



Time is winding down as we near the end of our adventure, Despite some poor weather we have enjoyed the United Kingdom and again met some wonderful people. There is not much left on the wish list now and London will be the big finale if I can stay out of jail.

After 5 weeks of unstable weather we arrive in Holland at Nederweeert, the Home of Hans, Bep, Daniek and Myron whom we met at Lake Garda. Who would of guessed we would get such warm weather in Holland, we sat in there beautiful garden enjoying the sunshine and great company, we were invited to stay for a Barbeque and had such a wonderful day that we completely lost track of time as you do in Northern Europe because it stays light until 10pm, anyway we left Nederweert and pushed on towards Eindhoven, after several attempts we struggled to find a motel with family rooms and ended up at the Holiday Inn Eindhoven, Travellers tip if you are ever in Holland avoid this place, I was duped by the concierge who neglected to tell me about taxes and overnight parking fees on top of the excessive room rate for the worst nights sleep I have had on this trip, there was extra charges for everything and no tea or coffee facilities in room so Holiday Inn has been completely scrubbed of my list of destinations in future.Next day found us back at Thomas, Cointha, Joris and Sarahs home near Egmond where we had a fantastic time as they showed us some of Holland. We visited the Afsluitdijk and some pretty towns kolhorn and Makkum in Friesland. It was great to have some guides who could explain first hand exactly how the dikes work and what they have managed to achieve since building the Afsluitdijk. We then caught up with Frans, Astrid and their new baby girl Deborah. As the weather was much warmer here than it was in February Astrid was able to show us Egmond aan Zee and we were able to enjoy the beach. Astrid was able to gain us entry into the light house and we were treated to some local cuisine as they were having a marine festival and the local fishermen were cooking there catch of that day in the streets and serving fresh cooked fish, mmmmm delightful.We spent another great day in Amsterdam visiting the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank Attic, no prizes for guessing who shed a tear there.Our week in Holland also coincided with the European Cup (soccer) and every square millimeter seemed to have been decked out in orange. Football fever was in the air and you could not see a newspaper or tv without seeing the Dutch team especially as they had beaten France and Italy two of the favourites so we were caught up in it all and spent a couple of nights cheering on the Dutch with Thomas and his family. On Fridays in Alkmaar a few kilometers from Egmond they have a special cheese market where they recreate what is called the rolling out of the cheese. These guys in traditional dress carrying special sleds with around 100 kilos of cheese put on a marvelous display.The facial expressions created by these guys as they try to smile for the crowds while lugging these sleds about 50 meters is quite amusing.When we returned toFrans and Astrids house some of their Family arrived an we had a pleasant evening learning more about Dutch life, I was also treated to a Holland Drum hat which was bought out by Heinekin for the football, I am told that I look quite hilarious in the hat as I did my cheese carter impersonation but thankfully no photos were taken of that.

Newlywed being carted by the cheese carters

We spent Sunday at the christening of Deborah and had a wonderful time afterwards in Frans and Astrids backyard meeting their Family and friends.

Proud Grandparents

Frans got out his Western Bulldogs football that I gave him when he was in Kyabram last year, we pumped it up and Daniel and I showed the Dutch kids how to kick, handball and bounce it. They all looked at us as if we were stupid when we told them to bounce an oval ball, but they all tried and had a fantastic time.After some sad goodbyes we farewelled our Dutch friends with the realisation of the fact that it will be a really long time if ever we get to see these wonderful people again.

Ligthart and Walkeden Families

The end of The Netherlands coincided with the end of Europe as we drove back to France that afternoon and boarded the ferry at Calais next morning, an hour and a bit later and our European adventure has ended, now our UK adventure begins. We arrive at Dover and proceed to the foyer of the ferry terminal. I have booked a car with 1CAR1 but unfortunately they do not have a kiosk at the terminal and the booking receipt I got from the internet did not come with their phone number, so after quizzing the other rental car suppliers I managed to contact them and they delivered the car to us. Now we have downsized cars here but I thought the car was going to be a little bit bigger than the one they delivered, we could not

all fit into the car so I had to leave the family at the terminal while I returned the delivery driver to his depot and filled out the paperwork, this might seem like a lot of trouble to go to but the price comparison with hiring a car with the ones based in the terminal was huge, it was 16 pounds a day cheaper with this company, that’s about $35.00 a day over 33 days is going to buy me a few good bottles of wine so sometimes the little bit of inconvenience is well worth it.My return to pick up the family snapped me back into truckie mode as I juggled and squeezed the 4 of us, suitcases, bedding and backpacks into the Vauxhall Corsa. We made a bee line for Anthony and Moiras where we are going to reevaluate and repack what we need for the continuation of our trip.We are very fortunate to have befriended Anthony and Moira who are the most fascinating people I know. Their insight into British life, art and History is invaluable and we could not have asked for a better experience for our children to learn from.On our previous visit in January they experienced pottery by Anthony and painted some water colours with Moira and now we are down by the Avon River in Anthony’s Coracle.A Coracle is a medieval boat that was used in small streams and the moats around castles, Anthony handmade the Coracle as he does with most things, he is a recreationist and makes things in traditional ways, even his pottery is fired in a wood fired kiln which he has made himself and which we hope to fire on a later visit. Getting back to the Coracle, we had the most fantastic evening on The Avon paddling this weird looking boat around.I do not think he realises the local pride he has achieved but I overheard many locals praising the work he has put into the coracle.Carting the Coracle to the river was interesting in itself, as Anthony and Moira live up a skinny little lane that is hard enough to get a suitcase or your groceries through.We manage to get it to the street then I had to climb between a strap and the seat and carry the coracle down to the River with the coracle on my back making me look like a mutant ninja turtle. As I crossed the pedestrian crossing towards the bank I the children just laughed at the stares we were creating, fortunately I am not a shy person as some of you may have gathered by now.