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Day 17 – Bath – Llandrillo
With L’s Jane Austen habit temporarily sated, it’s time to head into the wilds of Wales. With sat nav coordinates a little too much like lost (LL21 0ST or something like that) it was looking like an opportunity to disappear into the valleys, or a coal mine somewhere. It was awesome to cross the Severn bridge into Wales, as it isn’t everyday a West Aussie gets to drive across a national border (even if it is a toll bridge). We then found it quite funny when the satnav took us almost straight out of Wales, into Herefordshire. It’s interesting to see that there is in many places a marked geographical…
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Day 16 – Bath
What’s more challenging than typing in a car hurtling through the High Atlas mountains? Typing in a car going along the A5 and associated roads in Wales, where they’re having a goodly amount of rain, some potholes, and curves that might trouble a Moroccan or two. Still, I’m geting a little behind on this blog so will try to catch up. At some point I’d like to get the creative juices flowing and write a little behind the scenes and about the whys and wherefores of travel blogging. How it’s hard to write about the past when the present is full of the most amazing scenery, and when you’re travelling…
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Day 15 – Charlton Horethorne – Bath, Boxing Day
After a light breakfast of tea and toast, and a pause to round up the troops, we were inviteed to take part in a tradition, the Boxing Day walk. By all accounts this tradition can involve being confronted by angry horses, cows, and other mishaps. While these aren’t guaranteed, they are not unexpected, either. Given the time it was a short walk, just up the nearby Cadbury Castle, an alleged site of Camelot. The path up is quite precarious and muddy, but no one slipped over. At the top are the remains of mud fortifications, an iron age hill fort. These made for a wonderful path to walk around and…
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Day 14 – Plymouth – Charlton Horethorne, Christmas Day
Awoke fairly early and swapped pressies over breakfast. Got an amazingly compressed travel towel from cousin R. Then it was time to pack up the car and hit the road. Things were a little cosy, as the four of us and luggage and pressies were in the Tiguan, but not unpleasantly so. We took a slight detour via the site of one of the old forts of Plymouth, where we took in the fine panorama of the town, Devonport, the Channel and the wonderful green inland. Back on the road we headed for Dorset, being wary of any Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls stopped alone the road searching for roadkill. Hugh may have…
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Day 13 – Plymouth, Christmas Eve
Woke up goodly rested this morning. Slowish morning, before a frantic trip to Drake’s shopping centre in central Plymouth for last minute stuff. Then great aunt J’s friend D invited us all over to have Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. ALL ot them. Started woth champagne and canapes, then pinot noir with turkey, onion and sage stuffing, chestnut and sausage meat stuffing, little rolled up bacon parcels, sausages, potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots and parsnips, gravy and bread sauce, And then seconds. Then it was Christmas pudding, complete with 20p pieces, brandy butter and cream, followed by cheese, port, fruit and chocolate. All of it very tasty. And a toast…
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The other traveller
The travellers: First there’s me, and you’re reading about me here. Then there’s L, and you can get her take on things at http://twoweeksaway.wordpress.com/ We’ve also got a third companion, at least for another few days. Mum. When Mum passed away in May, one of the things we felt would be a good idea would be to scatter some of her ashes in Snowdonia, Wales. She used to go there for family vacations when she was young, and talked lots about the area, and how when she revisited about 10 years ago it hadn’t changed from the way she remembered it. The place meant a lot to her, and as…
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Day 12 – Marrakech to Plymouth
The last couple of days having got to me, and stuff and life and headachhes and not enough water meant that I was awake at 2.16am and never properly got back to sleep. Tried a number of ways, different positions, turning upside down on the bed, propping myself into a chair with a blanket, couldn’t get comfy, couldn’t relax, couldn’t shake the headache. Also the very bright blue LED display of the reverse cycle was driving me a little crazy, very bright and unrelenting. I think in that state most things were going to drive me a bit wacky. In one of these insomniac moments checking email I received my…
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Say it slowly tour Day 7: Edinburgh, Bobby, Whoosky n Folk
(Posting after a couple of days so please forgive gaps in the old memory.) For research, i bought Ian Rankin’s Knots and Crosses at Birmingham airport. I figured it would be as good a refresher on Edinburgh as anything. It’s a fine read too, a little rough around the edges, but that’s to be expected for an early book. Flew intae Edinburgh, got the shuttle bus into Waverley Station. Things started to look familiar, probably a little more than London did (Parts of London did look familiar, but those were the landmarks that have been put into my head from an early age watching the BBC. Edinburgh’s streets seemed familiar,…
