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.