Travurple

Monday 9 June – Whilst in Widnes, staying with friends we ate and drank a lot…

We also met another good friend from our Liverpool days, who we had not seen for a few years. And by coincidence they recommended a wine bar to meet at, which was also our host’s favourite place. We were not in their good books, especially when they dropped us off for lunch without them.

We managed a few good walks around the local Victoria Park, to walk off some of the excesses.

We spent some of time, when we were not enjoying good food and drink, arranging a road trip with our friends for later this year. No spoilers you’ll have to wait and see where we are going then!

After a great week, we drove back across the M62 to Pocklington, York, (for our non UK readers the M62 is a cross country motorway which goes through the Pennine Hills, the back bone of Northern England). We have used this route many times in the past, but this journey was one of the worst, with a complete closure, detours and lots of traffic. However, we had no time pressure, so it was OK.

In Pock we were in a new AirBnB to us, a nice homely flat, we think the host just moves out when she gets a booking, so it is decorated more like a home than your average AirBnB. We especially enjoyed access to a washing machine, and line, to get the laundry up to date. Fortunately the weather was glorious…. Good drying days!

So after our 7 weeks Isle of Man, Scotland, Bishop Auckland & Widnes road trip, we had a lot of unpacking and repacking to do, together with the usual catching up with family and friends.

We put up the tent to test the replacement tent poles, glad we did, as our tent is a ‘’Sendero 4’ they had sent replacement poles for a ‘Sendero 6’ so no surprise they did not fit! Bugger!

We did not have time to get the correct ones sent, so ended up at a ‘GoOutdoors’ store in York, asking for help. They sell replacement pole sections of varying diameters and lengths. So we bought some, and had to replace the snapped sections. Cutting them to size and Re-threading the elastic cord was a real pain, but we managed it! But didn’t have time to put the tent up to check everything.

During the week, a family member was taken ill, and ended up spending some time in hospital, but fortunately we were around to help out. Thankfully they have since been discharged from hospital.

One afternoon, on our way to meet with a friend for coffee, we took the Volvo to have it’s air conditioning ‘re-gassed’. This made a huge difference to the temperature in the car, during the very warm spell that The UK was experiencing.

On Friday 20 June, we drove to Kilnsey Park, near Skipton for a family wedding, the venue was in a field with a marquee, fire pits and mobile ‘facilities’, plus the possibility to camp, so it had a festival feel. We camped with our newly fixed tent poles, they worked!

There was a BBQ on Friday night, with the main event on Saturday, a ‘lovely do’ seeing family and chatting to the other guests. The weather was mostly kind, a few passing light showers that didn’t spoil anything.

Sunday 22 June, we packed up the tent, Sod’s Law as soon as we started we got rained on! So after the drive back to Pock we had to dry the tent off before packing it away.

Tomorrow (Monday 23 June), we start a new adventure, but that is for the next blog, so stay tuned..

Monday (26 May) stocking up at Tesco’s in Oban, and a very quick walk around in the rain. Obviously it is raining we are about to attempt to put up a tent, first time using a new tent in anger, we did put it up in a garden last year, just to check we knew what we were doing.

Got the ferry from Oban to Isle of Mull, a really busy ferry, it is a bank holiday! We were the second car off the ferry, an easy 20min drive to our campsite in Salen Bay, to put the tent up in the rain! It went fairly well, the kind Motorhomers next door made us a cup of tea.

Tuesday, we had pre-booked a boat trip to the Treshnish Islands and Staffa island, the home of Fingal’s cave. The sea was a little rough to start with, we were on the bow deck of the boat getting soaked by the spray, in our full waterproof gear, until they had to close that deck, so we went on to the outside upper deck.

The boat couldn’t dock on Staffa Island as work was being done on the jetty. We did get a great view of Fingal’s cave. Then on to Lunga in the Treshnish Islands, we had 2 hrs ashore, we have never seen as many Puffins, it was amazing, you could have reached out and touched the Puffins!

We returned to port, via the north of the isle of Ulva, which is our next destination. We could see our Bothy from the boat, it is in the middle of absolutely nowhere, we couldn’t wait.

Wednesday, we drove to Tobermory, most of the roads on Mull are single track with passing places, so you can’t get anywhere fast. Tobermory was an interesting little town, with a lovely little museum. All the exhibits had exquisitely written information, done by the founder of the musuem.

We had fish and chips for lunch. Then we drove around the north of the Isle of Mull, stopping at ‘Isle of Mull Cheese & Spirit’, we bought some ‘Whey Ski’ whiskey made from Whey!!

Thursday, we awoke to a flooded tent, there had been a malfunction with the tent door, thankfully this had not caused too much damage, however we did have to bail out the water with a wine glass! We then had to take the tent down in the rain and a howling gale, which snapped a couple of tent poles.

We then went for second breakfast and coffee at Glenforsa cafe, before driving to the Ulva Ferry, the storm was still with us! However after crossing to Ulva and having a coffee and really good chocolate Brownie in the BoatHouse, the storm had subsided and the rain had stopped, so we had a pleasant 5 mile walk to our off grid Bearnus Bothy, thankfully the owner will transport all your gear to the Bothy by quad bike, we needed a surprising amount of gear for our 4 night trip, sleeping bags, food, wine and other essentials.

The Bothy is lovely, off grid, no electricity thankfully it does have a flushing toilet! Sea views lots of bird song, 10 minutes walk to the beach. It is just stunning.

The Bothy is also our excuse for not being able to publish a blog last week.

In our first 24 hours we only saw the owner and one other quad bike pass the door.

Friday, the weather was kind today, warm blue sky and only a little breezy, so we walked the track to Gometra, the next island connected by a causeway/bridge. On Gometra there is a small community, however we only walked as far at the first building (about 3miles from our Bothy), with a little gallery selling jewellery, cards, Gometra stamps. We were met by Trooper, the local horse.

Saturday and Sunday, the weather was changeable, so we only managed a couple of short walks. The ferry doesn’t run at the weekends so we saw nobody, it was lovely.

Monday (2 June) we checked out from our Bothy, did the 5 miles walk back out to the ferry and the Boathouse, the restaurant, still on Ulva, being so close to the sea we had wonderful seafood.

Given the snapped tent poles (we did have a spare tent with us) and a forecast storm, we cancelled our campsite booking and checked in to a B&B.

Tuesday, we changed out ferry booking back to Oban, had a long days drive to Bishop Auckland.

Wednesday, we met an old friend and visited Bishop Auckland Palace.

Thursday, went to Durham, had a wander around town and visited the Cathedral, then Crook Hall gardens (a national trust property).

Our friend kindly cooked dinner for us.

Friday, we drove to St Cuthbert’s Church in Billingham to see the graves of Nic’s grandparents. Then on to Leyland to visit some family for tea & cake, finally on to Widnes to see more friends.

We are so lucky to have so many amazing friends and family that allow us to visit!

Saturday, a gentle start to the day after a couple of drinks last night! Then went into Liverpool to take friends to a black tie do, whilst we went to a Chinese restaurant and the cinema to see ‘Ballerina’ a spin off from the John Wick franchise. A very violent film.

Sunday, another lazy day.

Hope you are all sitting down….. two weeks and two blogs issued!

16 May – We left sunny Widnes, heading for Glasgow, stopping at Tebay motorway services on route, which is obligatory when driving north on the M6. A really good farm shop at Tebay.

Being cheap again, we booked a Premier Inn at Newton Mearns on the outskirts of Glasgow. Tickets for Kylie Minogue at the OVO Arena, a good show with a very diverse audience.

Before the concert we went for a walk across Glasgow seeing some of the old haunts, (Rog went to University at Glasgow Caledonian University 30 years ago). We have an early dinner at “Butterfly and Pig”. The menu promised much but failed to deliver.

Saturday, we visited the Falkirk Kelpies. Then Rosslyn Chapel (featured in the film ‘DaVinci Code’) an amazing 14 century chapel.

Then on to our accommodation in St Cyrus, 40 mins south of Aberdeen. An AirBnB flat connected to a family home, fairly isolated, and with stunning views.

Sunday 18th, we visited Glamis Castle, we were intending to only visit the garden and grounds, however the guy on the gate offered us access to the house as well at student prices, so we took it (at least he didn’t offer us senior prices!). The guided tour of the Castle was well done and really interesting. In the gardens it felt a little between seasons, spring flowers had gone over but the summer plants had not yet hit their best!

In the grounds they were holding an “Attelage”, no we had never heard of it either, but it was an event involving vintage carriage driving. Including a noise challenge, where they had to drive past a teenager playing to bagpipes! Another task was to drive the carriage to a stand holding a glass of champagne, the driver had to pick up the champagne and then drive a couple of metres further on before putting the glass down on another stand! Not as easy as it sounds!! All horses and carriage drivers were beautifully turned out.

We spent a good few hours wandering around. As we left the car park, there was an Oyster catcher nesting right in the middle of the car park.

Monday, we had a few admin jobs to do, it’s not all swanning about you know. In the afternoon we went for a short walk on St Cyrus cliff top and beach, it was a little windy, so we were a little sandblasted.

Tuesday, the wind had dropped, so we went back to St Cyrus beach for a much longer walk, along the beach to the nature reserve, then back on a path between the sand dunes.

Wednesday, we visited Montrose, had a walk around town, visited the Museum, (Museums or Art Galleries are always useful for decent toilet stops ! Especially as we often have our own coffee and sandwiches with us to eat in the park.)

We then went to see ‘Mission Impossible- the final reckoning’ at the cinema.

Thursday another day of jobs, re organising the car packing, and catering boxes, having looked at a long range weather forecast for our adventures next week to the west coast, we will need access to our wet weather gear, and the camping gear without getting everything else wet!!

Friday, we visited Stonehaven, about 20mins north from our accommodation. A nice harbour, we walked along the coastal path to Dunnottar Castle. We saw deer in the fields, and a weasel, near the war memorial, just hanging around, we have never seen one so close for so long.

Nic enjoyed another sauna experience, at a harbour side sauna in a converted horse box. Close to the sea for a quick dip. Rog had a beer at the Ship Inn.

Saturday, we drove north again to Aberdeen, had lunch in a Georgian cafe, found just through a Google search, delicious Khinkali. Then visited the Art Gallery and Maritime Museum, we didn’t linger in either but did a quick lap.

Had dinner in Zizzi’s before going to see Gary Barlow in concert. We may have inadvertently driven via the low emissions zone, we turned left out of a car park, when we should have turned right, obviously the Volvo is not low emissions, so may end up with a fine, we’ll have to wait and see.

Sunday, we checked out of our AirBnB and drove to the west coast via Huntingtower Castle near Perth, then Glen Coe, to Connel (just North of Oban). Had a nice meal and a few drinks in the Oyster Inn (luckily we got there early and managed to get a table, later they were turning people away).

Back by popular demand – or at least a couple of our readers have told us we are slacking and we are overdue another blog.

Our last blog was on 29 March, about 7 weeks ago. So this a quick round up of what we have been up to since then.

30 March – We spent another night in Troyes in France, a lovely old town!

We booked what we thought was an apartment with parking close enough to the town centre to walk. It was just that, however a couple of days before check in we got an email saying that the apartment was part of an ‘old folks’ complex, it was essentially the guest/Visitor accommodation in a shelter housing complex. When we checked in, it was obviously ‘tea time’ and the residents were all in the dining hall being served drinks. It was an experience. The accommodation was great!

Another 4 hour drive up to Le Shuttle to get the train back to England, thankfully an uneventful drive.

Once back in the UK we spent a couple of days in Kent with Family, then drove back up to Pocklington.

We spent three weeks in Pock, catching up with family and friends. So lots of eating and drinking.

We spent a few days unpacking all the skiing and cold weather gear, and repacking the car with summer and camping gear.

‘Camping Gear?’ I hear you question…. but you’ll have to wait to find out when/where we are going to use that.

One sunny (ish) day, We drove out to Spurn Point, a narrow Peninsula forming the north edge of the river Humber estuary. Rog remembered going as a kid and wanted to revisit it. The start of Spurn Point is not that far from Pock (52 miles or so) but given some small country roads and also navigating through Hull, seems to take a long time to drive there. (1hr 30mins).

Spurn Point is now a nature reserve run by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The walk along is about 4km to the end, and another 4km back. Some of it on the beach, as the road was washed away a few years ago.

We had a couple of visits to Burnby Hall Gardens. They were just gearing up for the Tulip festival, so nice to see the blooms appearing.

Nic headed to Manchester for the weekend to meet up with her University friends. Did a great walking tour round Manchester, followed by an afternoon tea with bubbles. In the evening, cheese, wine and fire pits. What’s not to like !

Rog took his Mum and Dad to Harrogate for the weekend for the Harrogate Flower Show, and just a little break away from home.

27 April we headed over to Cheshire, to stay with Nic’s Auntie, Rog always ends up with list of jobs to do… don’t tell Auntie but he loves it really.

1 May, We crossed the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man to visit friends. We then managed to eat and drink our way around the island. Some old haunts and some new ones.

We visited the Archibald Knox exhibition at the Manx Museum (Archibald Knox is an early 20th century Manx artist/designer – amongst many achievements he deigned for Liberty), some beautiful jewellery, silver and art works. We also went the Sound Cafe overlooking the Calf of Man (an island at the south tip of the island) looking for seals, walked some the coastal path and had a a trip on the steam train.

It was lovely being back on the Island.

13 May, back on the Isle of Man Steam Packet’s fast craft ‘Manannan’ to Liverpool.

We got ‘selected’ for a vehicle security check, which was basically a few questions and a look in the car boot. Remember we drive a Old large Volvo XC90, thankfully they opened the boot, which was fairly full, they complimented our packing, didn’t move a thing and closed the boot again!

It was a beautiful day, and a very smooth crossing.

Kind friends are allowing us to use their home in Widnes for a couple of days, even though they are not there.

Noticed a tyre on the Volvo looking like it needed some air, however less than 24hrs later it was going down again, so headed to the local Kwik-Fit for them to check and repair, if possible. However there was nothing wrong with the tyre itself, it was a “rim leak”, and they could not do anything, except recommend a local alloy wheel specialist. So we drove straight there! After complementing us on the ‘nice tidy’ for her age (15yrs) in about 15 mins they repaired the alloy rim and got us back on the road, all for £30. What a bargain, it could have taken a lot longer and a lot more £££ to solve.

This is a short blog, as we have done much the same things, basically skiing and walking. But here goes for a little bit of detail:

Our last two weeks in the French Alps,

Managed a few good days skiing, the weather was better (for snow) than forecast. Daytime blue skis and cold nights, however it was still a little warm for the snow on the lower slopes, so we had to stay high for a better ski experience.

As there is no snow at village/valley level, we have managed a lot of walking down by the river.

Even Rog partook in the sauna and cold water dip, but only on one occasion, Nic has been going weekly.

Returned to La Sapinette restaurant, our favourite local restaurant, which thankfully is also our closest restaurant. Another really good meal.

Obviously spent some time packing up, we have both brought far too many clothes, and have only worn a fraction of them, however they all need packing up again. Note to ourselves, just because we have the space in the car, we don’t need to fill it!

Getting everything back in the car is like a game of Tetris, there is plenty of room for everything, but we do like to see out of the back window if we can, it just makes driving easier, especially on the wrong side of the road.

So we left the apartment on Saturday 29 March, a day earlier than planned, as the weather forecast was terrible. So rather than packing the car in the rain (or sleet/snow depending on which weather app you believe), we packed up and have driven half way up France to Troyes. This gives us a day to explore, before heading to Le Shuttle on Monday back to the UK.

We are in basic hotel in the outskirts of Troyes, we have just been for dinner, an OK American grill, in the hotel car park there are 8 cars, 5 of them are British cars and of those three of them, including ours are large Volvos!!

Photos:

As you may have noticed that our 2025 New Year’s Resolution, “must try and do a regular blog” , isn’t going so well.

So what has been going on since the 26 January, we hear you all cry ….

Well,  we flew back to Pock to visit family for a few days and celebrate a family birthday. Thankfully Nic could drive to the airport, and Rog was only in a sling and not a cast, as that would have made flying slightly more challenging.  

We returned to France, via friends in the north west of England and they flew back with us to spend a few days. Once we landed at Geneva Airport, we went to the CERN visitor centre, the home of the Large Hadron Collider. Two of us found it interesting and spent a while in the exhibitions.  The other two quickly went to the café.

Our friends do not ski, but took full advantage of the apres ski, (thanks for some of the photos). We had a lovely time showing them the local area. We booked an evening “Aperitif’ on the cable car, a round trip in the Vercland cable car with wine and nibbles. It was good fun (and we got 30% discount because Rog was one of the first 50 people to book our season ski passes back in September!).

We also went to Cirque Du Fer A Chavel, and up to both Sameons and Les Esserts ski areas for drinks. We also visited Sameons market, buying cured meats, olives and chocolate.

We enjoyed the relative quiet in resort before the French school holidays started, it was going to be busy for the next month.  We noticed there were a lot of British voices in the village. 

Rog had to keep his sling on until he was seen by the orthopaedic doctor at the hospital on 6 February, still unable to drive for a couple of weeks and told to do some physio. So we googled NHS Collarbone Physio, and Rog did those exercises. 

Nic has skied on a few days, the weather has not been great. There is currently no snow in the village,  they have been able to keep most of the ski runs open with manufactured snow, but the temperatures have not been kind with warm days, and not to many sub-zero nights.

We have walked regularly, usually around the lake and/or along the river, even without the snow it is a beautiful part of the world to spend time and recuperate from a broken collarbone.

Rog has read a lot of books, there are a couple of book boxes in the village, which get books in English, so we borrow them read them and return them. He has also done a lot of planning for our trips later in the year. So stay tuned for those!

At the end of February, we had some more family visited for a few days, who hadn’t skied for 30 years, and one of them had only ever skied once before, so we arranged a couple of private lessons. They did amazingly well, and we were able to ski a few blue runs together. Which was good, as Rog had been given the all clear to ski by the consultant, but told not to fall ! as the collarbone needs another few weeks to be fully repaired.

11 March – another activity included in our season ski pass was to sledge down the Marvel green ski run, we finally managed to arrange it as it only happens once a week. It was great fun, but it does say something that they only allow you to do to it on a sledge with brakes, and a helmet is compulsory (a helmet is not compulsory for skiing!) the snow was a little slushy so we got very wet. 

Nic has discovered the local sauna and cold water dip in the lake, she is currently addicted to it and going weekly.

The recent weather continues to be not great for snow, it has been really warm for this time of year.  There is still no snow at village level, but enough on most of the higher slopes.

Update 15/16 March it snowed at village level – it has mostly melted by mid afternoon, but that means there should have been a lot more up the slopes – we’ll go tomorrow to find out!

Photos:

Another month has gone by without a blog, so here is a catch up of what we have been up to…

So Christmas 2024, where did that come from!? We had a relatively quiet one with family. However Boxing Day was less quiet, we went to watch some Rugby, Old Pocklingtonians (the Public/Private School in Pocklington) v Pocklington Rugby Club, a fixture first held in the 1890s. Pock Rugby Club won the game. We had a ‘few’ drinks and a Pizza on the way ‘home’. We were expecting rotten hangovers, but by some Christmas miracle neither of us were too bad, it must be something to do with the fact that we were home by about 8:30pm (we think!).

Visited the Sales, Rog got some new ski gloves, he ‘needed’, what do you call a collection of gloves?? …. A fist full??

We spent more time packing the car, how come however much space you have, you end up filling it? ….. last time we went skiing we flew with 3 bags between us, this time we have filled a Volvo XC90.

29 December, we drove down to Kent to spend some time with Nic’s Brother and family.

Friends who we visited in Auckland in 2023 were in London on 30 December, so we got the train up to the city, did a little sightseeing with them, followed by lunch, it was great to see them again.

31 December, headed to a house party, Rog drove and Nic had a couple of drinks. We left at around 11:00pm, as we had to leave early on 1st.

1st January 2025, 2025 how did that happen, what happened to 2024, it flew by! Anyway, we had a 10:48 Shuttle booking, as the roads were really quiet we got there early and they put us on the 9:48 Shuttle. The Shuttle is a train which takes cars through the channel tunnel to France in only 35 minutes, it’s the first time we have used this service, but it was great! We also felt smug because there was a storm and high winds affecting the ferries.

So better explain why we are heading to France, we are heading to the Alps again to Ski. (Last time we went was in was 2023).

The drive down through France on the toll road was relatively easy, it took us two days, overnighting on the outskirts of Troyes.

For the toll roads we bought a electronic tag, but the first time you drive towards the toll barrier you don’t know for certain that it will work, have we activated it correctly?, have we put it in the right place on the windscreen? Thankfully we had, it worked and then we could use the ‘30 kph’ toll lanes, you don’t even have to stop!

We got down to Morillon in the France Alps on the 2 January, we have rented the same flat we used in 2023. It’s exactly as we remember it.

The weather for the first couple of days was not great, so we didn’t ski. Once the weather improved we started skiing, managed a few nice days, good snow and sunshine.

Whilst wearing full ski gear, helmet with visor and a face mask, Rog got stopped at one of the ski lifts and was challenged about his age (ski passes have your age and your photo) as he “looked too young and hip to be 50”, as soon as he removed his visor they agreed that he was in fact old! But you take what you can get, and Rog is happy that he apparently looks younger when you can’t see his face!!

On Saturday 11 January Rog had a fall whilst skiing, resulting in a broken right collarbone. Rog can’t remember much of what happened, but does remember hitting the deck and guessing he had damaged his collarbone! He got to his feet, removed his skis, but next thing he knew he was being told by the kind souls who had stopped to help, that he had passed out! Ended up with a stretcher off the slopes, an ambulance down the mountain to the local clinic, which is next to our flat ! Nic was already at the flat having headed back earlier while Rog had a couple more runs.

X-rays confirmed a broken right collarbone. Put in an attractive immobilising sling and referred to the hospital for a further check up in 10 days!

Nic has continued to ski a little, obviously Rog can’t ski !

Family visited for the weekend to ski, they rented an apartment very close to ours, it was lovely to see them and to catch up.

Tuesday 21 January, went to the Hospital in Sallanches, a town about 45 mins away from Morillon. Had to check in at the Emergency department, the staff were great, thankfully everyone spoke English, and kept apologising for the delays as they were busy, however we were there a total for 1hr 45 mins, to check in, have two X-rays, be seen by the doctor, be referred to the Orthopaedic department and pay a bill of €19.61 as we have a’Global Health Insurance Card’ (GHIC, the UK replacement of the E111 – if you live in the UK and don’t have one – get one – https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/apply-for-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/

A bit of a mixed bag of weather over the last few days, including rain, frost, snow at higher altitudes.

We’ve been looking out to see the ‘planetary parade’ (6 planets visible in the sky at once), but each evening the clouds roll in so have not managed to see it yet! But will keep trying.

We managed a walk back from Sameons through the forest, down by the river, a little dodgy underfoot at times, a mix of snow, ice and mud, but an enjoyable walk nonetheless.

New Year’s resolution….. must try and do a regular blog.

We’re back, our last blog was in mid June, the rest of this blog will explain why the break and why we have not been focused on the blog. In mid June, we were in the Isle of Man visiting friends when we got a call that a member of the family had been rushed into hospital, so we cut short our visit and headed back to Pock.

Our original plan for the summer was to volunteer at some festivals. We had volunteering tickets for Glastonbury, Goodwood Festival of Speed, Goodwood Revival, Rewind (‘80 festival) and Carfest. We also had a week booked volunteering on the canals, helping with the reinstatement of an old abandoned lock near Stroud, part of a long term project to reconnect the west and central canal networks.

We had then booked a couple of months ‘rest and relaxation’ in a couple of different AirBnBs in the south (Cornwall and Somerset).

However plans change and we have spent the last five months in Pock helping out. Thankfully given our lifestyle we can be flexible, and we managed to cancel all our original plans with minimal financial impact.

For accommodation we spent the summer bouncing around local holiday lets, some we had stayed in before, and some new ones and one with a hot tub!, before being able to make a longer term booking at one of them once the ‘holiday season’ had ended.

Over the summer we did manage to attend the wedding of friends in the Isle of Man, celebrated family 18th, 50th, 70th and 80th birthdays and sadly attend the funeral of a good friend.

Nic joined a local rock choir, Singing on a fundraising recording. Rog did an introductory archery course.

Given the circumstances, we have spent a lot of time dealing with the National Health Service (NHS). Despite a couple of blips, All the in patient, out patient, GP and community treatments have been first rate in terms of the actual medical treatment, but also the speed of treatment and the fact that all staff have been communicative, friendly, pleasant and professional. (We do acknowledge that this may be because we have had the time to focus on it and assist in coordinating appointments, medication etc).

We know the NHS has it’s challenges, but from a personal perspective we are truly blessed that the UK has a free at source health care system.

As time progressed throughout the summer, the regular medical procedures became slightly more routine and more familiar, and with health improvements, life slowly returned to a little more ‘normality’, but treatment is ongoing.

Whilst in Yorkshire we have visited a couple of National Trust properties, walked around the walls of York, and visited cafes and restaurants….. a lot!

We have been able to go on a trip to Tunisia (our 66th Country visited), which was booked a long time ago. We went to an All inclusive resort hotel, which is different from our usual travelling style, but given the last five months it is nice just to stop, relax and do nothing for a while!

We are now back in Pock in an AirBnB, seeing family for Christmas, before leaving for new adventures on 29th December.

Below are a few photos from this year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

Monday (27 May), from the Premier Inn, was supposed to be a 20 to 30 mins walk to the site of the Cheese Rolling, however given the number of people attending, the state of the ground, and the number of ‘kissing gates,’ it took us over an hour to walk.

Yes, the cheese rolling is as crazy as it sounds, a large round of double Gloucester cheese is rolled down a very steep hill and people throw themselves down the hill after it, in a mix of running, sliding and for some rolling headlong! Thankfully there were very few injuries this year, but that appears to be the exception.

There are 7 races in total, 3 men’s downhill races, one Women’s downhill race, a mixed adult uphill race (no cheese involved) and 2 children’s uphill races, 12 and youngsters, and 13-18 yrs. All the competitors in the uphill races also got to slide back down the hill again.

British eccentricity at its best, but having said that, there were a lot of other nations taking part, and even winning!

After all the official races had been completed, from where we stood it looked like anyone could have a go! But No, we didn’t!

Tuesday, we drove back up to Pock, having to odd issue with the car, occasional “knocking”! Bugger! But it is still in warranty, just!

Wednesday, another day of unpacking, repacking and prepping our festival gear.

Thursday, we met friends for coffee, the ones who had also rented ‘life in Slow Motion’ after us. You’ll remember we first met them in Manchester, on ‘Life in Slow Motion’.

Then we took the car back to the garage, for them to sort out the ‘knocking’, after a quick investigation they diagnosed 1) a sticking front brake, 2) a rear wheel bearing needing replaced!

As we were going away for the week with Nic’s parents, we just left the car at the garage for them to sort.

Friday, we drove to Crickhowell in South Wales and stayed overnight at The Manor House hotel. A nice meal in their restaurant.

Saturday, we walked around Crickhowell, had coffee, then moved on to Abergavenny, to do some food shopping for the week, then picked up a ‘not so’ narrow boat on the Monmouthshire & Brecon canal. Not so narrow being 8 ft 6’ rather than the standard narrow boat of 6ft 6’. ‘Grouse’ is a very nice boat with 2 double beds, which are set up at the touch of a button.

After the obligatory canal boating induction, a couple of things we needed to know, mainly about ‘Grouse’ rather than the canal. We cruised for only an hour before mooring up for the night.

Sunday, a lovely sunny day on the canal, a few miles and five locks up. Rog spent some time helping out novice boaters, including finding the top lock gate open and the lower paddles also open, for those not canal boaters that is a big No No, because you are emptying the upper canal!

Monday (3 June), more cruising today, including the Ashford tunnel, 375 metres of narrow and low tunnel, obviously stopping for coffee, lunch, afternoon tea! life on the canal is slow, the speed limit is 2.5 miles per hour, so you can cruise all day and not get very far. Tonight we went to The Three Horseshoes pub, a mix between a local pub and a really good restaurant. We all had really good food.

Tuesday, our only rainy day of the week, we had only one lock to do today, but as we took the boat into the lock, we spotted a large fence post, wedged behind the lock gates, meaning that we very nearly got stuck. After a little bit of messing around we managed to get it sorted. We then cruised on to Brecon, the northern end of the canal, obviously at the end we have to turn around a 60ft boat! All good fun. The rain stopped, and we had a stroll round Brecon, and a quick shop in Aldi, and back to the boat to start heading back the way we came.

Wednesday, we headed down the 5 locks, no problems this time, actually it was made very easy as a boat was coming up and all the locks were left in our favour.

Thursday, we cruised back to the boat yard to get a pump out, another tricky manoeuvre, reversing in. We then continued cruising for about three hours to Govilon. We went for a walk and the local pub had just reopened, and had 2 for 1 fish & chips, in honour of D -Day, so we decided to partake.

Friday, still heading south down the canal we aimed for a winding hole, to turn the boat around again, then cruised all the way back up to the boat yard, as we decided to moor up over night, to make returning the boat at 9am easy.

Saturday, a quick pack up of our stuff and repacked the car, and headed back to Pocklington, thought we might meet the Dave “hairy biker” memorial motor bike ride, as we passed the National Motorcycle Museum on the M42, but we missed them, probably by minutes!

Back in Pocklington, we went out for a couple of drink and food with family and friends.

Sunday, started the unpacking and repacking process! We worked out we still have too much stuff!

Monday (13 May) a walk around the park and the town centre in Widnes.

Tuesday, we drove back to Pock.

Wednesday we spent the time unpacking and repacking again, and eating and drinking.!

Thursday, we took Rog’s parents to see Andre Reiu in concert at the Leeds arena. We decided to have lunch on the way and found a pub serving Giant Yorkshire Pud, so that had to be done.

We stayed in the Premier inn, right next to the arena which made it easy! It was fully booked so looking at the queue at checkin, we were pleased we had stopped for a good lunch! The concert was Andre and his orchestra at their best, a joyous evening.

Friday, we drove to Carnforth, via Skipton for coffee & cake, then through the forest of Bowland, stopping at The Fleece Inn in Dolphinholme for lunch, before reaching our accommodation. A lovely lodge at the waters edge of Pine Lake.

Saturday, we drove up the coast, stopping for coffee in Arnside, then further around the coast to ‘Grange over Sands’. On the way we had a problem with the car, it lost power and had warning lights on the dashboard. So we rang the garage, but as it was Saturday afternoon there was nobody in the service department, so I was told the ring Volvo Assist. Apparently, as Volvo serviced the car before we bought it, we have Volvo Assist (breakdown cover) so within 45 mins a mechanic had arrived, who thought it was an issue with the Turbo.

He followed us under reduced power back to our accommodation, then requested a tow truck, with turned up within an hour, to take the car to the local Volvo dealership.

After a few phone calls, a hire car was delivered to us at 11:15 that evening. Can’t complain really!

Sunday, as the weather was good, we decided to drive up to Keswick, parking was a bit tricky as a mountain festival was on, including a marathon

Had a wander around, a coffee, and then headed for Grasmere for lunch and to buy the famous Sarah Nelson gingerbread.

Monday, a fairly quiet day, lunch in the Booth’s supermarket cafe in Carnforth, as most other places were closed because it was Monday. Had a walk around the Pine lake, spotting the water birds.

Tuesday, drove up to Ullswater, stopping at Tebay motorway services on the way up to buy pies and cakes!

Stopped at The Queens Head pub in Troutbeck for lunch, Rog had a stunning steak pie!

We got a call that the car had been fixed, so called at the garage on the way back to pick it up. Volvo Assist told us to leave the hire car with the garage making that easy.

Wednesday, the weather was awful, it rained all day, and there was a yellow weather warning, so we didn’t do much, headed to the onsite swimming pool and enjoyed the sauna, steam room and jacuzzi.

Thursday, we went to Kendal, managed coffee and lunch out before heading back to the accommodation to pack.

Friday we checked out, headed to Leyland for coffee and cake with some of Nic’s family. One of the best chocolate brownies Rog has ever had! Which is quite a statement.

Home to Pock via Skipton, Nic had ordered some new trousers to collect from the Regatta shop in Skipton.

Saturday, Rog was up early to give his brother a lift to York station, payback for all the lifts we have had! Nic prepared Lunch for tomorrow.

Sunday, drove to Chester to see more family, we took the lunch Nic had prepared.

After a quick catch up over lunch, we drove though heavy showers, down to Gloucester to watch the Cheese Rolling, but you’ll have to wait until the next blog for more details of that.