Pretty villages, busy roads, strong accents, occasional rain, green countryside, warm beer & wasps - yes, we're in England!
After a few days in the south of England spending some good quality time with my brother's family we worked our way through the midlands visting old friends and relatives and based ourselves in the Yorkshire Dales to stay with my cousin's family near Kirby Lonsdale.
Sunday was a big day which I had been nervously anticipating for quite some time - the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross Race, reputed to be the worlds toughest! 61km with over 1500m of ascent over rugged hills that definitely do not lend themselves to cycling. I feel hugely indebted to my 2 cousins who set me up with all the required gear (even the bike!), so together with my brother riding, it was a real family affair. Was it tough? ...you bet ya! No suspension and drop handlebars shakes the body almost to submission but I was delighted to come out unscathed and with no brake-downs. Sarah joined other friends and relies to man the check points in order to provide vital support of water and food in the morning rain which soon turned into delicate sunshine which illuminated the lovely dales into the afternoon.
Following a visit to my home village of Silverdale and my old Aunt we moved north up into Scotland and to Cupar north of Edinburgh to stay with Sarahs brother and his young family. We enjoyed a late heatwave intitially which was nice, and a cheeky surprise visit from Katie for the weekend was great (she just happened to organise some work nearby in Edinbugh).
On Wednesday we have a change of plan....rather than visiting some of the cities in Eastern Europe we have decided to wind down our independent travel and have booked a cheap package holiday to Turkey!
Months of independant travel does take it out of you (greying hair, wrinkled skin and broken teeth) and we certainly feel like it is time to get home to wonderful Nelson and to once more try to engage our spongy brains while there is still a little of something there to spark into life!
We have moved forward our return date a couple of weeks to the end of October and look forward to catching up with you all sometime soon afterwards.
So Turkey, friends in the midlands and Katie and Shay in London and thats about it
Yippee!
