tues 23rd continued again..

Well after the lake we moved East towards Dunedin. This was the most beautiful drive from Haast up a river valley with turquoise blue waters, throught the Haast pass and on to lake Wanaka..where we were overawed by the beauty around us. We found a great campsite near the lake and had a lovely fish meal in a restaurant that overlooked the lake. Great!

and on to xmas day

Tues 23rd continued...
So that morning we managed to find the lake...the sun had been in our eyes the night before and we'd simply missed it! It proved to be the most wonderful walk, with stunning views back over the mountains on another absolutely glorious morning. One thing we keep forgetting to mention about NZ is the wonderful sound of the birds every time you get out of your car. It's quite stunning and we've seen a lot of different birds..to be continued

on to south island

After Xmas now and we've finally managed to get on line to upload this blog. Hope all our readers had a great Xmas day and we wish all of you a very happy new year. Lin and Brent

Wednesday 17th Dec – Lin here
Well the Dargaville site didn't live up to expectations: described in the book as having a hot tub, which would have been very welcome after our soaking, it was a bit ropey. Still we slept ok and headed off this morning. I wasn't feelng too brill..icky tummy... so Brent did all the driving today. The scenery was once again splendid and although the traffic was heavier in Auckland, it wasn't problem. By the time we'd come through it we were really ready for a stop, but there wasn't even a lay by to stop in until just after 3.40 when we spotted a cafe. As we drew up we realised that the closed sign was being put up! 2 women in front of us poked their heads in and were given the oK to get a coffee and we swiftly followed them in. The coffee and cake were very welcome take-outs. We finally hit the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula, our destination. I'd spotted a site described as paradise, in the book ( guess this was becoming our bible.Brent was very tired, and the windy roads needed full concentration, but we managed to reach it around 7pm. The Ha Hei holiday resort was just great, although we shouldn't have
paid an extra $2each for hilltop site, as all the pitches were brilliant – except those on the far side of the dump! Anyway we got rid of our waste, filled up with water and hooked up. I rushed off to explore the beach. Right near our pitch we could cut through to where 2 rope swings had been set up, overlooking the most beautiful beach...it really was like paradise: turquoise waters, with green islands and white sands. The water was freezing though, so we only managed a paddle before dinner. Then we headed to the internet room where we uploaded the last blog entry and tried out our phone card. This proved unsuccessful and after a day of griping stomach I have to admit to going to bed feeling a bit weepy and homesick!

Thursday 18th Dec
Wow! Woke up to the most beautiful morning and no stomach pains. Hurray! Managed to phone home too and booked ourselves in for an afternoon of kayaking. Decided to have an hour on the beach relaxing...it was absolutely boiling and we enjoyed the comfort of our thermorest seats. Around midday we climbed into the van and took the ferry over to Whitianga, where there was a bank and a nice shopping area. Back at the site we grabbed a sandwich b4 joining the kayak group. We'd been getting a bit fraught with each other...guess after 3.5 months together this wasn't surprising but we'd been looking forward to some time in our own boats. Oh dear! upon arrival it turned out we were all in double kayaks. I'd quickly said I'd prefer to be in front..otherwise I wouldn't see past Brent, when our guide, Mark ( drop-dead gorgeous young man) said it was wisest for the most bossy of the pair to be in the back where the peddles were! What could we do? We're both teachers and both bossy! In the end we stuck with plan A and it turned out a great afternoon. The weather was perfect and we were able to explore caves, go through tunnels and enjoy close up views of cormorants, or shags as they're known here. The company was good too,with a very friendly German couple, who we'll contact via email, a lovely Spanish girl travelling with her Canadian boy friend and a couple of women, one Canadian and one New Zealander. We stopped off at Cathedral Cove, where we had a swim and a drink and biscuit, then we moved out to the nearby islands and Mark told stories about the history of the island... apparently a Polynesian explorer was the first to discover the Bay ..it's original name is complicated but when captain Cook 'discovered' it later on he named it Mercury Bay, (something to do with an eclipse at the time and its relationship with the planet, Mercury). .. Back to Hei.. the story goes that at that time an explorer would walk to the highest spot and claim all the land he could see. Also the island where he first landed was said to resemble a part of his body... his nose in this case! Anyway a good time was had by all and we were all very reluctant to land our boats at the end of the allotted time. However after landing we realised that we had time to catch the renowned Hot spring beach just up the road. Here at low tide only you can see natural hot springs rising from below the sand, where a larva bed is buried. It was amazingly hot and quite funny to see a crowd of people with spades busy digging holes and sitting in the hot waters! Altogether a brilliant day.

Friday 19th Dec
So this morning we decided to drive around the peninsula and then head down as far as possible towards South Island. It was a long drive, but we ended up on a very nice site on Lake Taupo. En route we passed some beautiful countryside.

Saturday 20th Dec
Got up early and tried to take the direct route to Wellington, only to find that there'd been an accident and we had to take a detour. Still once again the sights were lovely and we still arrived in plenty of time for our ferry at 6.15. The crossing was just lovely and we sat next to a lovely couple from christchurch, who gave us lots of good advice.

Sunday 21st
Drove from Picton to near Greymouth. We'd intended to visit Nelson ( as per the advice yesterday) but the first part of the drive was along windy roads and we opted out for a more direct route along the coast towards Westport. Called in at lWestport for diesel and then enjoyed the spectacular coast road to Greymouth. After a good night's sleep we headed for the local supermarket to do a quick shop, only to be accosted by the local mouth...her words! She spotted Brent and hurried over to say: Where did you learn to shop? Brent thought she was being aggressive and was somewhat taken aback! Needless to say 20 minutes later she was still chatting... and on to her rude jokes eg. why don't single women fart? Cos they haven't married and got an arsehole yet...oh dear!
Have to say we've found the New Zealanders of all ages totally unpretentious and friendly.

Monday 22nd
After shopping drove to a nearby centre for Jade, Hokitika. A lovely little town, where we found frozen yoghurt compatible, but not quite as good, as what we'd had in Italy. Moved on to find the Franz Joseph glacier. It was cloudy weather, so we couldn't see the tops of the mountains and decided against the helicopter ride..tee hee. By the time we reached the glacier the weather was improving. We were just too late to join a walk on the glacier, but did walk to the foot of it...first time Brent had seen a glacier and it is pretty special. On to Fox Glacier, where we found a lovely site with great views of the snow capped mountains...yes, the clouds had disappeared! Do we deserve this? oh yes! Got talking to a young couple who'd been waiting to sky dive all day and had rang up at 6pm when the weather was fine only to be told they'd have to wait until tomorrow. They'd been drinking all day and were well fed up...felt quite sorry for them. I'd sort of love to do a sky dive myself but their experience and the thought of doing my back / eyes in put me off and we decided to stick with eco friendly walking. Brent had commented earlier in the day about the contradiction of the beautiful scenery and the helicopter flights going over every few minutes and disturbing the tranquility of the place. Quite right. Anyway after dinner we tried to drive to lake Matheson? check while the sun was shining. Unfortunately it was so bright that we missed the sign to the lake and ended up driving several miles up a dirt track... oh dear, proved a bit stressful at the end of the day, but we did get to the viewpoint where we had quite magnificent views of the mountains.

Tuesday 23rd Dec
We got up early today so that we could do a walk before moving on.

Leaving Eureka and first days in NZ

Lin here... the Millers left us and we headed to Ferndale, as I wanted Brent to see this pretty Victorian town. We took lots of photos of the pretty buildings and sat outside and had a lovely sandwich. As we sat in the sunshine eating our Xmas sandwich a woman crossing the street nearby spotted a younger man: “Hi grannie” he called. “Hi junior!” she replied in a big, loud voice. We had to laugh and she was quick to respond with a quip about being the loud mouth of Ferndale. Great! We returned home to L Street and around 3.30 old friends from the high school started to arrive: Lucy Q was first and she looked just great and was ready to jazz-a-cize with Shirl after her visit. Andrea was next and it was sad to hear how the languages programme at the school was disappearing. My fingers are crossed that the German programme keeps on going. Next was Diane, also looking great in her retirement. Then came Bob, who introduced me to backpacking when I was here. He too looked great and it was a lot of fun hearing all about his travels in Europe and back to Nepal. We'd love to catch up with him and with Laura too, maybe in Asia. Tim was last to arrive, with great photos of his boys. Altogether a wonderful time. Thank you Steve and Shirl – you supplied the refreshments and made everyone so welcome. You really are stars.

Wednesday 10th December:
Today we headed back to the city. The weather began foggy but as we travelled through the redwood country it quickly cleared and left fabulous, clear sunshine. We stopped several times, took more photos of trees and enjoyed Shirl's picnic. Before entering San Fran. we stopped at Healdsberg, as recommended by the Millers. This was another community of artists, which we really enjoyed. As we hit the Golden Gate bridge the sun was just beginning to set... wow!

Thursday 11th Dec...our last day in California! Sniff, sniff!
Woke up nice and early and phoned Brent's mum on her birthday...happy birthday Doris! Then it was off to the Golden Gate park, where we loved the De Young museum of art. The building itself was superb, but we paid the $10 and really enjoyed the art inside. In fact we could have spent a lot longer there, but wanted to see the academy of science building and the Japanese gardens, both of which were spectacular.... next time we'll pay the $25 to see the academy inside and the roof, which is part of it's green approach. Off to the airport, where we got rid of the car and checked in with no problems. Now here we are waiting to be called through our gate...oh yes, in the check in queue were asked if we were doing a trail we hadn't heard of... something like able bodied! A 20 mile trek, which we must find out about. Then over a coffee we met a lovely lady on her way to her son's wedding in Queenstown. She's a real traveller and gave us some useful hints. Bye for now... wish us luck on this 13hour flight!

new entry....13thDecember
Oh dear...what a flight. We had quite a lot of turbulence and throughout the flight my ( Linda) stomach was equally turbulent, as was Brent's. Suffice it to say that I felt very sorry for the poor bloke next to us, who was off to visit friends in Dunedin. (still he had the window seat). I'd been expecting to sleep for much of this flight, but didn't manage more than a few minutes at a time, so when we landed in Auckland at 5am felt pretty knackered. Couldn't get our heads around the fact that we'd lost a day somewhere..ie: we left san fran on 11th and now it was 13th December. We had a bit of a wait til 7.30am when our lift to the camper van arrived. A very nice chap, who gave us lots of advice about travelling in NZ b4 leaving us in the capable hands of Anne: a French girl who took us thru all the admin of the van... and the New Zealand vin... (spot the play on words). Our van turned out to be a VW high top, which was brand new. Sounds good, but meant we had to run it in, which wasn't so good. We decided to stay close by on the first night and headed for a recommended site about 30 mins from Auckland, called Orewa beach. A lovely site right on the sandy beach. Parked up in a nice space and 5 minutes later a huge motorhome...looking like the bus in Summer Holiday ( the Cliff film if you remember it!)..pulled up real close, followed by a bigger Kea van. All the occupants were very friendly and the Dutch family in the Kea van were really lovely. We ended up spending a very pleasant evening with them, sharing wine, music and tales. They also gave us all their left overs as they were moving on to Fiji the next day. Really kind. We took the beach path to the town centre. It was lovely and there were lots of families playing along the way. The little town had a good supermarket and there was Irish dancing going on in a bar. Quite a lively little place.

Sunday 14th Dec (Lin writing with Brent dictating...a joint effort!)
Moved further North on Route 1...countryside reminiscent of England, with rolling hills and dotted copses of trees with grazing cattle. I drove and the driving was lovely, with little traffic and sunny weather. Took a detour off towards Waipu and came across a beautiful long beach, where we stopped and had a picnic. Used the toilets, which were impressively painted with a mural. Back on the main road with Brent driving I spotted a campsite in the book, which looked promising. It was past Whangarei, where we stopped to look at a sleepy harbour. The site was only 200 metres from the Whangarei Falls and was lovely, with a little comfy sitting room with TV and books on loan. We decided to have a look at the falls, donning our wet gear as the weather looked iffy. The trail began at the top of the waterfall in a little, almost English park, where we met up with 3 young locals. We'd spotted some pretty little birds on the bridge across the lake at the top of the falls. Brent thought they were swifts. As we followed the trail the Englishness disappeared and we found ourselves in the bush, in a rainforest like environment. After reaching the base of the falls we decided to head for the AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park. This was a fantastic walk. It began with a wonderful field of cow parsley, then followed the river as it meandered down the valley. Then we began to see huge tree ferns and here began the “canopy walk.” At this point it was pouring with rain, but this only added to the atmosphere. We reached the canopy walkway, which provided a birdseye view of the forest and brought you up close to the magnificent Kauri trees. We were above the tree ferns and amongst fantastic bird song...a real feature of the forest. It was another awesome experience, very different from the Redwoods, but equally stunning.

Monday 15th:
Today we headed back to the A1 and our first stop proved very interesting. In Kawakawa there is the most fantastic toilet block. It was designed by an Austrian called Hundertwasser, who emigrated to the area when he was about 40. His work was reminiscent of Gaudi, with colourful, large tiles and ceramic columns just like in Parc Guell, Barcelona. The building seemed even more remarkable as it was right in the middle of very ordinary single storey retail buildings. We sat in a cafe opposite and enjoyed watching others spotting the building. We headed to the steam train station, where Hundertwassers boat is on show and were sorry that the train wasn't running as it's one of the last working trains and it goes straight down the high street. On to Opua, where we got the car ferry to speed up our journey to Russell, where we spent the night. Unfortunately the weather was glum, so the pretty little town was less appealing. In the night en route to the bathroom the heavens opened on me...thank god I'd put my waterproof on. Next morning we were up with the lark to a misty start.

Tuesday 16th Dec:
Headed into Russell to post cards and lo and behold the sun came out, so we decided to head off on a walk on the nearby promontory. We passed some quite beautiful houses, with fantastic views across the bay and again birdsong all the way. We headed up the flagstaff commemorating the signing of the treaty of Waitangi. Here there was a wonderful, panoramic view of the bay. Headed back down the path and followed a trail into the bush, where we were amazed to be surrounded by fluttering little birds. A local conservation volunteer told us that they were fantails. We had quite a chat with him and he made some good recommendations. We were in kiwi country, but didn't manage to see any of these elusive creatures. We did see some lovely birds though and really enjoyed the walk.
We then headed back to route 1 in the van heading towards the west coast. The day gave us perfect driving conditions. Very pretty rolling hills at first then as we approached the west coast the wooded mountains rose up in front of us. In skirting around these we climbed over the crest of a hill to witness a stunning view. Below us was a turquoise blue sea backed by the most enormous sand dune on the opposite side of the estuary. Time to stop and soak in the view while we made our lunchtime picnic at a roadside stop.
Onward and upward to a lookout across the bay. We found a small coastal walk that went out across the headland. Huge Pacific waves created a mist along the coast. The weather had changed quickly from sun to ominous clouds.
On our way out of the car park a car cheekly cut us off at the t-junction. Another mile along the road we were flagged down by the occupants of this same car. Three swiss girls in there 20s with the most horrendous flat tyre I had seen – was totally shredded. Looking helplessly at me I had no option but to help them with changing the tyre. Fortuneately this all went smoothly and had them back on the road in no time. Followed them to the nearest garage then hooted them goodbye.
( Lin - “ Brent my hero “ )
Our next stop was in the Waipoua Forest to view some of the most enormous Kauri trees. We stopped on the roadside and made our way down a wooden walkway just above the ground. This is designed to stop the delicate roots being trodden down. In our chatting we almost walked past the first and tallest tree in New Zealand. On realising our mistake we looked to the side and our breath was taken away by the girth and height of this majestic tree. Taking its photo was difficult on our small camera. We walked further to view the widest tree – the one recommended earlier by our conservationist – again awe inspiring.
Travelled onward to find a campsite. We had been told of one down a beach road. The road proved to be one of the roughest we had encountered flicking up red gravel onto the van. At the end of the road was a beautiful beach. We both got out of the van to walk down onto the sand. There were three people on the beach taking turns to ride a quad bike. Looking out to sea I could see the rain approaching. My words to Lin “ We are going to get soaked in a minute looking at that “ Few steps further my words proved true and the rain poured down on us. We hightailed it back to the van laughing at our own stupidity and now soaked also.
Finally found a place to rest our weary heads in Dargaville.

some photos of our time in CA

Here are a few photos to give a senseof the trip from Yosemite to Eureka

continuing travels to Eureka

5th December
Got up reasonably early to another sunny morning. Linda walked out to the lake shore. When I went out to join her she was sitting at the end of a lovely whitewashed jetty looking out over the lake. We spent a happy half hour taking in the view.
On our continuing travels around the lake we stopped at a little coffee shop called Mary Lou's. The owner was very chatty and was very liberal in his views. A little further along the lake we came to an organic vineyard that had been recommended by our hosts. It was a place to taste some organic wine. We bought a bottle as a treat for Shirl and Stephen
.
The afternoon journey took us back through windy wooded roads, eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean again at Fort Bragg. The views were fantastic.
Our accommodation that night was a motel on the edge of town. We ate in a Mexican restaurant which was frequented by Mexicans always a good sign.

6th December -Fort Bragg to Garberville
After a hearty breakfast over the road from the motel – where the waitress insisted on filling our coffee cups after each sip, we headed off to do a coastal walk. Once again... and yes we deserved it... the sun was shining and there were terrific views over the Pacific Ocean. Several joggers and even a cowboy passed us by and we enjoyed a walk back along the beach to the sound of the waves. Watching the surfers was fun. On the road before midday we enjoyed the road trip along the coast and through the forests. I insisted ( that's Linda) we stopped at a redwood grove trail and it proved a good move: the sun shone through the glorious trees. Quite spectacular. Around 4pm we arrived in Garberville and had quite a giggle at some of the signs around town. We thought of staying at the Sherwood Forest motel, but after a look around it and several others we opted for the Best Western, which was very comfortable. Around 6pm we headed down from our room to experience the cheese and wine complimentary event. We were met by Muriel, who didn't let us get a word in edgeways, but was most entertaining. Next morning at 8.55 Brent announced: oh my god! We only have 5 minutes to catch breakfast! I hastily pulled on my underwear and jeans and we rushed downstairs to discover breakfast was until 10am! Oh well...we do like an early start. On the road again I felt very excited at the prospect of seeing my old friends in Eureka and visiting my old haunts. We stopped off at Founders Grove, but the views weren't great as that good old Eureka fog had come down. However by the time we reached the town it had almost cleared. Steve and Shirl opened the door of their lovely home and it felt like I'd never been away. The stove was lit and a crab sandwich on the table before we had time to say hi! Lovely. In the afternoon we walked down to Old Town with Shirley, while Stephen stayed home preparing a gourmet meal for us. I loved showing Brent around and enjoyed some of the new sights too: the murals were fabulous and the new Co-op very impressive...oh that the co-op back in Bridgford were on the same level: organic fruit and veg, cereal, nuts etc all wonderfully fresh. Back at 1204 L Street, the table was set and we just loved the razor clams, Orzo pasta with pine nuts and beans with almonds, followed by home made cherry pie!! Thank you Stephen!

Monday 8th Dec.
This morning we were invited to Ann and Duke's for coffee. Had a very warm welcome. Ann was able to catch up with Linda while I chatted with Duke. He proved to be a very well travelled man who proved invaluable in giving us some hints and tips on our future visits. After a while Ann brought out the most fantastic scone – delicious, served with butter and jam. We felt really at home.

In the afternoon we went to Arcata Marshes. Stephen and Shirley proved to be expert bird watchers. We all had binoculars and the birdlife was so plentiful with lots of birds prey and wading birds. With our knowledgeable hosts we learnt lots about the wildlife. Returned for a lovely meal of coq au vin. Retired feeling all our senses had been statiated.

Tuesday 9th December.
Went for a fantastic walk in the Humboldt bay reserve, further south along the coast. Again fantastic sunshine and lots of birdlife; great egrets, white egrets, marsh wrens, blue heron, marsh hawks, kites, canada geese , the american robin and a variety of sparrows including the savannah sparrow. We even saw a young bald eagle! Hunting was taking place next to the reserve. One of the geese was shot down on its way to landing at the reserve. The highlight was on our return to the car when we spotted some ripples in the water. After a while an otter appeared around the bend of the creek. As we stood on the bridge it calmly swam towards us occasionally diving down to show its tail before reappearing to look around. To our surprise it swam right under the bridge we were standing on. On re-appearing it had a quick look up at us before continuuing with its business up stream. First time Linda and I had seen one in the wild. Fantastic.

Into Gold Country

6th December 2008
Brent here.
Looking out of the motel window now across the Pacific Ocean. We are going to take a hike along the coast today. Desperately hoping to see whales that apparently migrate at this time of year.

After Maripose we headed out along Route 49. This is so named after the 49ers the people who came in the Californian Gold Rush. The road we took wound its way up and down the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We stopped in Jackson. The town was very sleepy and we walked into the Historic Town – the single street which could easily be imagined in wild west movies. Walked into a traditional bar with people sat at it on stools and the pool table in the back. Have discovered that the beer is good here. They do copies of the Belgian Wheat beers and they are delicious – ordered two which we drank out of bottles. Barmaid offered us some chillie she had cooked for the pool tournament players – was very tasty. Slept rather fitfully that night in a non-smoking room that was invaded by smoke from neighbouring rooms!!!

4th December
Woke up to a some smog. We have seen lots of it in the valleys on our journey. The weather cleared as we drove higher passing through such classically named towns as El Dorado. All of them were sleeply little middle American towns with only one street. Eventually we arrived in the town of Coloma. This was reputedly the place were gold was first discovered by James Wilson Marshall – it set of the Gold Rush. Visited the museum then walked down to the river to find gold. I found two small nuggets in the water Linda says they are just pieces of gravel but I know better. I used to watch lots of cowboy films when I was smaller so consider myself an expert. Put them into my wallet to be assayed at a later date!
The drive continued on through strangely named places like Cool and even one called Linda. Which we tried to stop at but the freeway didnt allow!!
Our final destination for the day was the town of Clearwater Oaks. This was on a beautiful lake and we arrived at sunset. Found a tiny little place to stop called 20 Oaks. Was essentually an RV site but had a couple of rooms. The owners had moved from the big city and were proud owners. The room was very homely with patchwork quilt on the bed. The air was very crisp and clean by the lake and we both slept a long and peaceful night.

Looking back on time in England and California

Hi again...
First of all for those of you who don't know, we are managing to upload some of our photos onto www.flickr.com You'll need to search for me: Linda Burdett and click on people in order to find them. We don't find the site as easy to navigate as we'd like but have put a few slide shows on there...if you can find them! Let us know if you manage to!! Anyway now that we've managed to show a few photos of Yosemite on this blog, I'm gonna put few more on. Some from our last stay in England and some of San Francisco. We can't believe our luck in terms of the weather. Its warm and sunny here on Dec 5th!!! WOW. Anyway enjoy the photos..if I manage to upload them. Love to all from Linda and Brent

Brent here. These are some of the photos we managed to take of Yosemite. The mountains were spectacular. Huge rock outcrops rising up from the valley over 3000 feet. The whole area is a fantastic lesson in the effects of glacial erosion

December in Yosemite
On Sunday 30th Nov we headed out of the city and drove into the Yosemite National Park. We decided to stop outside the entrance and found a motel where we were pleased with ourselves for negotiating the price down.

Monday 1st dawned with a beautiful blue sky and we were up and off quite early. After paying the $10 each for a week's pass we entered the park...wow! Brent was wowed well and truly by the views of El Capitaine and we stopped a few times for photos. We also had a shock when a baby deer ran in front of the car. The windy roads were as spectacular as I remembered. By 10.30 we were in Yosemite village and exploring the visitor centre and store. We'd hoped to find accommodation in the valley, but after a wait for the shuttle bus to Yosemite lodge, we were told that only the Ahwahnee hotel/lodge had vacancies starting at over $200! Oh well! Brent was very disappointed but I wasn't really surprised. All the camps were closed up for season so only the rich and famous were accommodated in the park. We decided to do a shortish walk to Mirror Lake, which I remembered from my last trip here. As we strolled along the path I felt slightly uneasy: it was very quiet an I was aware there were bears about.Anyway suddenly we heard voices and on a parallel cycle track about 100 yards away saw a couple waving frantically at us. We went over to them and they told us that 10 minutes further up our path were 2 brown bears! We'd have loved to see them, but wanted to live to see New Zealand...ha!ha! so quickly moved to the cycle track. I couldn't believe how different the lake was when we got to it: harldy any water, but still got a good photo. Walked back hoping to see bears from afar, but no such luck. We did see a koyote and lots of deer, which was lovely. We decided to head out of the park by a different route ( 140 instead of 120). After rejecting the first motel as it was over $100 dollars for a room, we shortly found a really nice motel at Incline. We registered at reception having accepted a price of $79 a night and couldn't believe the room... it had a 4 poster, ginormous bed, a spa bath for at least 2 people , a double shower, flat screened TV, comfy armchairs and to top that continental breakfast was included. We decided to stay an extra night! The only downside was the diner, where the food was pretty grotty. Next morning we headed back to the park and by 10.15 had parked up at Curry village ( weird to see all those empty tents) and were walking towards our trailhead to Vernal and Nevada falls on John Muir's Mist trail up Half Dome. What a fantastic hike. It truly was awesome and as we neared the top of the Nevada falls we found a fantastic spot for a quick tai chi session. On top of the falls we met up with a french girl who was waiting for her american boyfriend from Seattle. They were doing the hike from Glacier Point and he'd decided to explore the start of the trail up to the top of Half Dome. She was a bit worried as he wasn't back at the arranged time... that walk looked fab too but we decided to move on and explore a bit more of the state before Eureka.

The walk back down was really easy after the steep climb up and we did the round trip in around 5.5 hours. Back at base we made full use of our facilities before dinner and next morning were up quite early and off to Maripose, where we are now (Wed 3rd Dec. 12.00) njoying a latte in a typical american coffee shop... great!

Meeting with friends and relatives and off to the US of A

Sunday 23rd November
Drove into Nottingham the next morning to see friends. Parked the car at Jenny's and walked up to The John Borelace Warren pub- if that's how you spell it. Jenny was her usual up beat cheery self and had helped organise a meet up with Barbara, Rob, Florrie and Steve. It was lovely to catch up with everyone. We all tucked into a Sunday lunch and a pint. Farewells were slightly sad knowing we would not be back before next August.

In the evening went over to Wendy and Dave's. It was a bit like coming full circle as we had left them last in September as we set out on our European leg. They once again were the perfect hosts cooking for us and providing the sort of homely comforts we had been without on our travels. Annie joined us for a good old natter. It was great to catch up.

24th November Monday
Woke up to a lovely morning. Dave and Wendy were keen to show us their new hens that had been rescued from their incarceration in the battery sheds. They were now happily producing eggs in a far more luxurious run and we enjoyed a full English breakfast with their lovely fresh eggs, before heading up to the Maze to pick up Gareth and Steph ready for the journey up north. The 4 hour drive gave me (Lin here) the chance to show off our photos and hear all the news from the Forest tavern and Maze (see:www.themazerocks.com)
We got to Carlisle around 3pm and met up with Alec. Had a fun meal together and caught up with some of Al's friends over a few pints. Before going to bed we enjoyed visiting the Bank gallery and Gary and the twins studios.

25th November Tuesday – Al's big day
Met up with Al before the ceremony in Carlisle cathedral. He looked great in the cap and gown and I was a really proud mum when he walked past in the procession of graduands. Mind you we did say what a bizarre system it all is... we'd rather have stood up for the graduates than for the Dean, or whoever he was...what a load of pomp!! After the event we enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies in the Crown and Mitre...a very -posh venue then it was off to the pub before very sad goodbyes.

Headed back to Cov and picked up Shirl and Bas so that we could all have tea together and we could hand over the car to them. Barb came over to say her goodbyes too.. shed quite a few tears today..,,,,,August seems such a long way off and I know I'll miss my boys, friends and family!!

26th November Wednesday – Brent here..
Jan gave us a lift to the bus station to start the next phase of our world trip. We were now minus the car and were carrying all our possessions. ( two large rucksacks 45 litres 9 pounds weight and 55 litres 12 pounds weight, two small rucksacks, and a little travel bag on wheels ). Today I was looking forward to meeting up with David in London. Our coach arrived at the expected time – much respect to the driver to negotiate the traffic in London and still get there on time. David met us at the coach station looking smart and cosmopolitan. He now has the assurance of a person familiar with the capital city as he negotiated the stations in the underground and we followed meekly along. Our first destination was to unburden ourselves of our bags so he kindly arranged to let us leave them at the Dune shop in Covent Garden. Unencumbered now we set off to Neales Yard and found one of the wholefood restaurants. Excellent food but London prices. I always some how think they should be cheaper but never are. After eating we wandered down to the National Portrait Gallery. Had just started looking around when the fire alarm went off and the building was evacuated. Walked across to St Stephens Church to see the newly renovated crypt. Found a little quiet alcove were we showed David some of our photos on the laptop. By the time we emerged darkness had descended but London was aglow with Christmas lights. We walked over to Carnaby Street where they had hung massive inflated snow men above the pavements and lit them in a way which reminded me of the Michelin man in Ghostbusters. Walked on down Regents Street to see the lights there looking like huge fishing nets hung out to dry above the traffic. By this time we were ready for food again. David took us to a fantastic chinese restaurant called Cha Cha Moon. It was down one of the backstreets. The smells on entering were very special – mixture of oriental spices and boiled vegetables. All the dishes were priced at £3.50 – my kind of place. We all had a mixture of strange sounding dishes and shared them. Delicious. The night was moving on a pace now so we had to fit in some of the hostelries around the capital. After collecting our bags we finished off our drinking at the Lamb and Flag. This was were the bartender was stopped by me in the process of ringing the bomb squad about the bags we had dumped in the corner. David kindly helped us with our bags on the underground as we caught the tube to Heathrow. A sad goodbye was said as his station came up and he departed. Thanks David for a lovely time. A proud but melancholy Dad continues his journey.
Finally found our hotel at Heathrow after almost walking in the opposite direction down the road as a result of some strange numbering system. Room was clean and tidy and allowed us to get some sleep before tomorrow's mammoth flight.

27th November Thursday.
Journey to the airport went well. Arrived in plenty of time to check in. Slightly anxious to know whether our tickets would appear out of the check in machine – but low and behold not only the San Francisco ones but also the Shanghai tickets were there. At airport security it is usually me that is stopped. This is usually because I am so anxious about what i might have left in my bag as it goes through the scanner that I look as though I am guilty of hiding something. This time though it was Linda – a pair of scissors had been left in a make up bag. Had just got to the final passport check thought I was in the clear and yes you guessed it – the contents of my bags were emptied out and I was frisked by a young security guard.
The plane journey was long but there were plentiful pauses for food and drinks and some distractions from the on board films – two of which were ones I had wanted to see at the cinema – the Iron Man and Wanted. Decided not to sleep on the ten hour flight but it went very quickly.
Arrived in San Francisco at 12.30pm. The weather was overcast. Caught a shuttle bus to the Lombard Motor Inn. Linda was very keen to show me Fishermans Wharf so we wandered down to the Piers. Had a very special atmosphere. Lots of families, a wide mix of ethnic groups, lots of sea food restaurants and coloured lights. Some parts were very commercial and reminded me of Blackpool. Went back to the hotel via the windy part of Lombard street which is always shown on the Hollywood films

Friday 28th Nov
Lin here.. well it was lovely to get back to San Francisco. It really is a favourite place of mine. Today we decided to head downtown and we managed to see North point area, China Town and the Yerba Buena park and galleries near Mission... lots of walking but it was worth is. I couldn't believe the weather... by midday we had clear blue skies and it was very warm! Do we still deserve this? We headed back to our room around 5.30 and meant to have a little nap before our evening meal...woke up at 8.45! Still managed to wander back to Fisherman's Wharf and eat a nice fishy meal. We also checked out some of the galleries down there, which are just amazing. Overheard one of the staff discussing bidding for a painting with a client... megabucks there. Stopped off at the Buena Vista Irish coffee bar....yummy!

Saturday 29th Nov
An absolutely beautiful day! Yippee. Just the day for a stroll along the sea front to the Golden Gate Bridge and a look at the Fine Arts Palace in the Presidio park. I was thrilled to bits when we spotted a pelican on one of the marshes...Brent's first one. We'd stopped off at Safeway and bought a lovely salad and some sandwiches and really enjoyed our picnic looking out to sea. This was a full day and we enjoyed looking at the Art Nouveau properties on the way back to the hotel. By this time my feet were killing me and I don't think I'd have made it back without a cup of Chai tea at Starbucks! Nevertheless after a short rest we headed off in search of the Hotel Utah, which had been recommended to us by an American guitarist I'd seen at the Maze. We took a street car to get there, which was fun and stopped at Mel's diner for a burger dinner. The place was buzzing and reminded us of the Maze in it's atmosphere... have a look at their website Gaz...www.hotelutah.com (I think). We enjoyed their weiss beer and managed to fit in another Irish coffee on the way back. Lovely! Now looking forward to Yosemite!

Back in England

Saturday 22nd November – the end of a week in the comfort of Coventry

Lin here...Well, we managed to get to Dunkerque around 3.15 and got straight onto the 4pm ferry home. My sister Jan said we'd be welcome to go straight there, but we were too tired for the drive, so stopped in Aylesbury overnight. The pub where we stayed was newly taken over and run by a lovely chap, who sorted us out with great efficiency. He was clearly rushed off his feet and showed us how to get out of the building next morning, when the bar would be closed.... Anyway after an ok night's sleep we woke up quite early and had a bit of a moan about the cost of such a basic room. We were thinking of heading into Cambridge for breakfast, when there was a knock at the door and it was our kind host saying that breakfast was ready. We were really chuffed: suddenly the £50 we'd paid didn't seem so bad. We headed downstairs and a table for 3 awaited us all set up with hot savoury pancakes We asked where we should sit and were seen to the aforementioned table, where we expected a single person to appear any moment to join us. I went to pour some cereal and our host recommend eating the pancakes whilst they were warm. We quickly got stuck in and they were very tasty. After a couple of mouthfuls we heard voices and 3 people appeared before us, clearly expecting breakfast...uh oh! For a moment I lost my appetite. Our host appeared and covered his tracks well. He smoothly lead the 3 to another table and headed off for the kitchen, bringing our toast over as he left. He'd clearly realised it was his mistake, so we finished tucking into our breakfast and managed to hold in our laughter until we got back to the room. We left nice and early and just after 10am we arrived at my sister's lovely home in Cov. We've enjoyed a really comfortable week here and can't thank Jan enough for helping us get through all our laundry...washing, drying and ironing, feeding us morning, noon and night and entertaining us throughout the week. She's also given us the chance to sort out our stuff and pack up our backpacks ready for the next phase of our travels. It was also lovely to see Dot and Norm, Jackie and Ed, Leanne and Dean as well as Shirl and Bas and Barb and Pete and Niall. We really enjoyed cooking for everyone on Wednesday and going out yesterday... thanks Norm! We'll try to remember Niall and Norm's jokes to pass on in the course of our travels.

Tomorrow we are off to Nottingham for the day and will stay with Wendy and Dave before heading up to Carlisle to see Alec graduate. We'll then be heading to London on Wednesday and will catch up with Brent's son, David, before flying to the US next Thursday. We've managed to pack away our remaining belongings into Jan's loft and after buying a small bag on wheels, we're now ready for next Thursday's flight. We've tried out our back packs and feel quietly confident that we'll cope!!! Now looking forward to catching up with friends back home tomorrow...

Journeying back through france

13th Nov
Lost a day somewhere. But today is a Thursday. Got up and packed our possesions. Had a look around Cahors. We have both got into looking around churches and cathedrals. They all have there own tranquility. Light and peace merge and energises the soul. Hey this is sounding a bit religious – but is definitely the case. Cahors Cathedral was very old but had many of the original medieval features in tact. Stained glass windows were similar to Carcassone. Intense blues and reds in small fragments converted into images. Two huge domes (the largest in France ) rose high above us directing the eye upwards. The outside of the main entrance was surrounded by strange figures gruesomely either stabbing one another up the arse or trying to behead each other – fascinating.
Linda still not feeling good but managed to find a toilet in the station. Had a quick look at the medieval bridge over the river Lot. Set off on our drive through the Lot region. The day was one of clouds and sun. The colours of autumn were spectacular as we drove along winding roads with the sun highlighting portions of the hillside in red and gold. Stopped at a view panoramic to have our lunch. We had bought some soup earlier which we heated up on our gas burners on the picnic tables. Linda prepared a salad and we feasted well in the crisp autumn air. Stopped at a small village outside Poitiers. Had shared cakes and coffee in a small boulangerie. Found accommodation in a logis de france on edge of village. Had that distinctive smell of some french rooms – stale smoke, dust, air freshener and stale air. Not good but somewhere to rest over night.

Fri 14th Nov
Lin here... felt a lot better this morning and did the first stint of driving after a pretty crap breakfast in the logis. Stopped in Tours, which was a real trip down memory lane for me, as I'd lived there in 1974. Remembered the school area and the walk down to the town centre, but hadn't remembered the size of the place! It was buzzing with life and had a lovely atmosphere. We found a little restaurant and for 11E each had an excellent lunch...must remember to look up the recipe for eggs mimosa as it was lovely. After a long walk finally found the old town before hurrying back to the car and moving on. Decided to take the motorway and managed to get to Rouen, at a cost of 27euros, which was a lot more than we'd expected. Same old same old in Rouen: huge town, rush hour and nightmare traffic and one way systems. Brent was brilliant. He stayed calm ( for a change) and managed to park up, so that we could find a hotel. We ended up in a nice spot right near the cathedral, which is truly impressive. Explored the town a bit: there was a fair on along the riverside, which was really pretty. Had a beer in an irish bar...big mistake again! Cost over £5 a pint!! On way out I managed to miss the kerb and fell over!!! Bl_ _ _ y hell! What next? Slept well and here we are having our morning coffee outside the cathedral....Saturday morning and hoping to get to Dunkerque today,.. catch you later dear reader!

Gaudi and back into France

Welcome to the Costa Brava! (Lin here)
On Sat.8th Nov we enjoyed our visit to the Dali museum in Figueras: highlights were the car, that rains inside, the unfolding picture beside the crucifix, the wacky optical illlusions amongst many. We left Figueras around midday and headed along the N11 coastal road towards Barcelona. I wasn't feeling too good today and slept much of the journey. Stopped at a port and sat on the beach having a picnic in clear blue skies. Around 50k from Barcelona we began to notice solitary women sitting on white plastic chairs at the roadside. What were they selling! Well Brent had a good look and they had no wares...except for themselves and as the kilometres went by they became increasingly scantily clad. How bizarre! Thought about stopping outside of Barcelona, but the traffic was terrible and there were no obvious hotels, so we ended up driving into the centre. Quelle horreur! Brent was knackered and couldn't get the car into the miniscule place on offer in the car park, so the attendant did it for us! After a visit to the tourist office, where we thought 76 Euros too much to pay for a room we wandered the streets looking for accommodation...turned into a nightmare and around 8pm we decided to head back out of the city. We ended up on a campsite staying in a “bungalow” for 6 people, which cost us...would you believe it...76 euros! Oh well! Sunday 9th we got the train into Place Catalunya for 2E60 and spent a lovely day in the sun exploring Barcelona: highlights were the gothic quarter and the Gaudi buildings. Around 7 pm we headed back to the station and got on the Mataro train, which stopped one station short of our stop. We ventured into the town and found a lovely square buzzing with life, with a little market. It was around 8.30 and families were out in force. We settled into a great bar and enjoyed a few beers. Got a few funny looks as we were the oldest in the place by about 30 years, but the beer and music were good and there was a lovely ambiance. On top of that we paid normal prices for the ale. On way back to the station we called in to a small off licence. Linda in her inimitable style asked how many languages the owner was able to speak. In conversation he said he was fluent in 6. He then went on to comment that he was going back to England on Thursday to see a relative in Manchester – not only in Manchester but yes to ROCHDALE land of my birth. A small world indeed!!!

9th Nov
Brent here. Got up late. Eventually got our act going and decided we wanted another day in Barcelona. Went to Cathedral to see the inside this time. Was like looking round a building site. Very weird indeed. Admittedly what could be seen was impressive but more than 80% was behind scaffolding. Museum provided better value by giving an account of the work in progress. Just had time to get to Park Guell. Arrived in late afternoon and walked to the high point in the park. Spectacular views of the city. Was massive – no wander we struggled to park. Went on to see the tiled area at entrance to park with the hansel and gretel style houses. Light was fading so we headed back with a brief stop in a library to check our account.
Got back to the village we were staying in. Found a small bar with lovely beer. Should have stayed longer but instead we went back to campsite and frequented the bar there. Linda had two tapas which she enjoyed but I thought were a touch on the expensive side.

10th Nov.
Moved on back into France. Headed for Carcassone. Arrived at about teatime both feeling exhausted. Had a meal in the old city. Was weird to see it at night – lots closed and a little strange with many dark corners. We headed back for a good sleep. Linda was developing a cold and definitely not her bubbly self :-(

11th Nov
Had an early look around the old city in daylight. Linda enduring me reading out from some notes as we toured. The cathedral was the highlight with some stunning stained glass. Set off on the road at about 12.00. One of the things about traveling and eating at the right times is that it is very difficult to do. Often when we are ready to stop most European cities are on their siesta. Was reassuring when we found a supermarket to stock up our provisiions at about 1.30pm. Driving the rest of the afternoon was a nightmare with lots of rain and surface water. Arrived at Cahor to stop for the night when it was just getting dark. Drove past a budget hotel as we had seen a Logis de France sign. Could we find it – noooo. Spent the next ¾ of an hour trying to retrace our route. Cahors seemed to be made up of millions of roundabouts. Oh well you live and learn or in my case dont. Eventually found a hotel in same chain as one in Carcassone.

Back to Europe

Monday 3rd – Friday 7th November

Here we are again... actually in Spain now looking back over the last few days. Enjoyed staying with Barb and Pete and getting to know their grandchildren, Eve and Jake. It was nice for Brent to be plan ahead while I went for a walk in the sun with Barb and the children. Then on Tuesday Lorraine and Hughie entertained us with a lovely bonfire night meal and fireworks – the first time Eve ( aged 2) and Jake (1) had experienced these ..thank you for including us in this special event!
Got back to France safely with the help of Pete, who gave us a lift to the bus station at an unearthly hour and good old Ryan Air. Oh no – on arrival it was pouring with rain, had our good luck run out? Had a speedy look around Nimes and drove back to the gite, which felt like returning home...despite being much colder than when we left! Next morning (6th Nov) got up to a dry morning and after quick goodbyes headed off again. It had stopped raining before we left and lo and behold we even saw a bit of sun en route to Collioure, our destination. Brent had visited this fortified port many years ago and it was very beautiful. We found a reasonably priced hotel, had some lovely take away pizza and explored the town a bit. A TV crew were rehearsing a documentary to be filmed there the next day, so lots of areas were floodlit, which made it even more beautiful. Friday morning (7th) dawned with clear blue skies!!! We deserve this!!! We thoroughly enjoyed roaming the windy streets and visiting the artist's studios, which are abundant in Collioure. The first artist was very welcoming and filled us in on his background and life etc.
He was born in Casablanca and in his work uses memories of his childhood, when his father, a musician, held regular social gatherings in a lounge with different windows on each wall. In his work Cirillo includes a symbolic window. Interestingly 90% of his work is bought by doctors! He and his wife spend 1 month each year in Paris, where they stay in Yves Montand's apartment (which since he died has been left more or less untouched). All fascinating. We moved on after a lovely lunch to Figueres, where we are now in a nice hotel right near the Dali museum, which we are looking forward to visiting tomorrow.

After getting lost for 15 minutes we eventually found the right road that led on to the side of the canal. This is the one that links the Med with the Atlantic so we came across many barges some of which had been converted to houseboats and even Chambre de Hotes. Our journey along the canal carried on uneventfully until we came to a trbutary onto it which blocked our route. Linda was right when she said we should have crossed over earlier. So we ploughed on regardless down country lanes getting further and further away from the Canal. In time we found a small road that led back in the right direction. Came back to the gorgeous tree lined banks of the canal. One of those enduring images of france – rows of plane trees with bark peeling of leaving trunks looking like some sort of mosaic. Cycled on with Linda now complaining about her sore backside and bemoaning the fact that like me she had little natural padding there. We eventually arrived at Bezier Ville Neuf only about 5km short of our target. But after a look around the village decided that we had to head back having covered about 10km and having a mind to realising that our legs were aching and we had to make the distance back. An uneventful ride back along the other side of the canal. We cycled into the Vias both feeling tired but satisfied. Time for some light refreshment at the cafe. Sat outside imbibing a pastis ( Brent ) and a muscat ( Linda ). Set off back to gite, took a short cut through school car park, heard a crash behind me as I came round the corner. Linda had taken the corner too sharply and lay prone on the pavement. Jumped off the bike and we assessed her damage. Worst injury was to her knee which was swelling rather worryingly.
We were close to home so she got back had a shower and applied the magical arnica to the bruising. All a shame because we had felt such a sense of satisfaction on our achievement.

Next day we spent doing some washing. There was loads to do and the drying weather was very iffy but over next two days got it all done.
Also visited nearest town of Bezier which had impossibly difficult underground car park – the type that has lots of paint and scratch marks along the ramp walls. Had a beautiful tree lined esplanade though bordered by pavement cafes – one of which we sat down for a drink.
Drove to other side of Vias and visited Cap D'Agde. A huge marina with loads of big power boats and yachts moored up. Was now late in the afternoon, lots closed down so headed back to base.

Day spent doing domestic chores and packing up and cleaning gite. In the evening went over to Flo and Ians house for a lovely meal and drinks. The house was suffused with the smell of cooking when we arrived. Had a gorgeous meal called I think Parcel de Vaux – delicious. This was preceded by drinks and followed by drinks.

October 23rd
Woke up to our busy day of travelling. From South of France to Rochdale in a day. We had it all planned out but knew any delays in the different links would scupper us. First stage was to get to Nimes airport. By the time we had got half way we were realising that every minute would count if we were to catch the plane. Linda rang Ian to check directions as we realised that a wrong turn would mean we would miss the plane. Drove into the small airport parked the car went to pay the man in the office. No man in the office. After about 5mins of shouting hallo he finally appeared. Time was moving on and our nerves getting frayed. Quick walk to the terminal and...Lin here now just finishing this off,,,
as we'd checked in on line we were able to walk straight through and join the queue at the x—ray machine. It was great. None of that hanging around. Brent though was clearly stressed at the last minute arrival and, I have to say, looked very suspicious as he passed under the machine. Needless to say he was pulled up and checked over by the officials there! Not the first and I'm sure not the last time!

Had a good flight arriving 5 minutes early and got to Nottingham on the airport bus, where Alec met us with our suitcase all ready for the week ahead. It was lovely to see him and we really appreciated his help. After a quick coffee we hopped onto the Trans Peak bus, where for £7.50 we got up to Manchester via the beautiful Peak District. All the way there clouds threatened and we arrived in the city to torrential rain...our first in almost 8 weeks!!! Grabbed a taxi to get us to the hire car offices only to realise that we'd hit the rush hour, which meant that after 10 minutes we'd moved about a 100 yards at cost of £5!! The driver was very helpful though and let us out with directions to the place, which turned out to be just around the corner!! Oh well, we'd obviously made a mistake when we'd multi mapped it!!! Picked up an almost new Astra and arrived safely in Rochdale where a lovely lasagne and salad awaited us. Lovely to see Fred and Doris and get into comfy beds.

24th October
A blue sky day.... wow, what is our secret? I enjoyed my first trip into Rochdale with Rebecca, Brent's niece acting as our brilliant tour guide ( she had an INSETday off school). Bought all the bits and bobs we needed and later enjoyed a lovely fish and chip supper with mum and dad.

Saturday 25th October
Set off and arrived in Skipton to rain. Parked up and had a lovely coffee near the car park before exploring the shops. I got my glasses fixed and bought another fleecy jacket. The open market was fun and we stocked up on cheese...Lancashire garlic and Stilton... yum yum! Arrived 10 minutes early at the house...our first impressions were apprehensive as it looked a bit glum from outside but inside we met lovely Sue, who'd prepared a welcome pack including home made chocolate cake and scones. The house is like a tardis...small on the outside but plenty of room inside with 2 kingsize beds! What luxury after all that camping!

Sunday 26th October
Woke up to sunshine but by the time we were ready the rain had started, so we started off in the car. However within minutes that sun was back so we parked up and had a lovely walk into Skipton via a little riverside walk. Arrived in town to more rain so forced ourselves to have another coffee before venturing across the road to the castle. As it was £5.50 each to go into the castle and I (Linda) was with 3 Lancashire folk... we didn't go in, but went round the back and found the Skipton woods and at no expense enjoyed a lovely woodland walk at no expense...lovely!! That evening sort of taught Fred and Doris how to play Backgammon after cumberland sausage and mash.

Monday 27th October
Up at the crack of dawn... not! Decided to make sandwiches for the Abbott family gathering. They all arrived around 11.30. armed with sandwiches and home made goodies... put us to shame! Needless to say we won't have to make sandwiches for the rest of the week as those we made are in the freezer! What an amazing day! Bright sunshine all the way to Bolton Abbey where we spent a very happy 3 hours plus walking round both sides of the river Wharfe. Stunning and great company. Andrew redesigned the ruined monastery and made us laugh. Back to the house fo r a pizza meal... a good time was had by all!

Tuesday 28th October
A bit cloudier this morning so we decided to do a bit of a tour in the cars. Headed to Kettlewell first where we had a lovely coffee stop at Zarina's, a fairly new cafe recently opened by the original calendar girls. Then we travelled through the beautiful Yorkshire Dales to Hawes. Here Fred, Doris, Brent and I explored the Ropemakers demonstration and the museum, which was very well done. The younger Abbotts did a walk around the village. Then we drove back through more lovely scenery and had our dinner all together in the pub near the Premier Inn, in Gargreave. ..oh yes, forgot to say that by mid afternoon the sun was out again... Brent and I wondering if we still deserve this!!!

Wednesday 28th October
Another fine day and we headed to Malham Cove. Caris managed to cross the river and then struggled to get back to the rest of us. Squire Andrew rushed to the rescue in his new 'pink' anorak and soon she was back safely with us. Rebecca, Caris, Andrew, Brent and I decided to venture up the steps onto the limestone pavement at the top of the cove, whilst the others strolled back to the Buck Inn in the village, where we all met up for a nice lunch later. We counted about 408 steps up to the top, but had fun on the hike back, by scaring off other hikers by talking about the 1500 steps we'd climbed!! Naughty Andrew's idea of course. After lunch we drove up to Malham Tarn, the highest tarn in England. It was fine, but freezing and the younger Abbotts declined from the quarter mile walk up to the tarn, whilst Fred lead the rest of us at a brisk pace. The tarn was beautiful and the swarm of seagulls above it quite lovely. It was lovely to spend time with Andrew, Ruth and the girls, who headed off after tea.

Thursday 29th October
A bit of shopping in Skipton before lunch was followed by a walk from the house. It was good to explore the view we'd been looking at all week. We started in the nearby park and asked a couple if there was a path up to the woods. They said there was but that it was quite tricky and muddy.. clearly they didn't think we'd make it...but they don't know Fred (86) and Doris (82)! We soon found the path and began the ascent. Doris had a stop and I offered to walk back with her. Brent and Fred carried on uphill and after watching a sheep dog rounding up some sheep, Doris decided she'd like to get to the top of the hill, where we met up with B and F. Great views from up there and another sunny evening walk back to the house. Great.

Friday 31st October
Awoke to another glorious day and decided to do the 3.5 mile walk from Gargreave. It was perishing cold as we reached the top of the lane and for a moment we considered heading back rather than climbing the hill. However we decided to go for it and Fred and Doris were just amazing. Up and over stiles, across muddy fields and all in good humour. The views back over Gargreave were brilliant and from the top we could see Malham cove too. The last part of the walk was along the canal and was really lovely too, with lots of barges to nosy into. We stopped at the Anchor Inn just before the end of the walk and had a nice lunch, then we walked into the village to look at the shops. After a quick cuppa back at the house we packed up the car and headed back to Rochdale. A good time was had by all and we couldn't believe how lucky we'd been with the weather!

Saturday 1st November...party day!
Travelled down to Coventry... M6 very congested so not much fun, but at least the sun was shining. Picked up Gaz, Steph and Alec and installed ourselves at Dulcie's. She made us really welcome and it was lovely to spend some time with her. Headed off to celebrate Shirl (my sister) and Barry's Ruby wedding anniversary. She looked absolutely gorgeous and it was great to see all the family. We had a good dance to the rock and roll band and it was lovely to see all the children...I've nearly got all their names right now! Aunties - Sheila, Vera and Marie, were all on good form and cousins had travelled from Southhampton, Devon and near to Bristol to be there. A good time was had by all.

Sunday 2nd November
Enjoyed a carvery meal with Dulcie and explored the new Herbert Gallery in the centre of Coventry. Tried to take the hire car back, but the office was closed!

Vias

Got to Vias with some relief in late afternoon. Met up with Ian and Emmy after we had just sat down in a cafe. Bit of a relief because linda not sure of how to get to Ian and flos. Was a lovely welcome to Vias!

Wednesday 15th October

Was such a relief to wake up having a base for the rest of the week. Many thanks to Ian, Flo, and family for making us so welcome.

Our week at Vias...
Lin here agreeing with Brent re enjoying being able to chill, catch up with paper work..eg checking the bank balances and getting to know Tom and Emie a bit more. We had a lovely lunch at the Peace family's home on our first day and enjoyed strolling down to the beach and exploring the village. On Friday we had lunch all together down in Vias and in the evening Brent went with Iain to Anthony's stag do, whilst I went out on the hen do with the girls... both were fun experiences....
The hen night / l'enterrement du jeune fille: 5 of us – me, Flo, Laure, Stephanie and Megan, the bride to be, headed to Beziers, where we met Julie, who had prepared an outfit covered in sweets, including a matching necklace, for Megan to wear. Having put this on, Megan was then given a basket full of goodies: sweeties, g strings, perfumes etc. We all then proceeded to the first bar, where we approached unsuspecting men...and some women, who donated money ( a pen and some cigarettes!) to the bride, and chose something from the basket in return. At some point in the evening Flo took out a set of scales and set out a challenge for Megan: she had to kiss 2000 kilos of men! Looked good fun to me and the men she chose were all good fun and joined in without complaining...the fact that Megan is a gorgeous girl, may have contributed to this. At some point we enjoyed some tapas together then at the end of the evening Flo tallied up and Megan went home with 185 euros! What a great tradition.

The stag night...over to you Brent:
The stag night was not such a sober affair. We were based in the Irish bar in Vias. Was fantastic to be made so welcome by the grooms friends. The beer was flowing followed by carmel vodka shots in between each pint and then later a baileys mint one. The groom Antony was dressed up ( by Ian ) as a rather fetching woman. Was actually a bit scary the way he could wiggle his hips. Anyways he also had a pint glass taped to his hand which was regularly filled and he was blindfolded at regular intervals so needless to say his drinks were mixed. My capacity to keep imbibing the drink has limited with age so at the point when Ian and Antony moved to the next bar I retired and walked back to the gite.

Next morning felt surprisingly ok. Linda had offered to do the video recording at the wedding so went off. I had some quiet time on my own (which was very welcome ) At about 3.00 ish Linda came back with Emie and Tom and we did some drawing, and football. We had a game of wally. Tom proved he was particularly good by beating me 100 points to 93. The game involved scoring by hitting the tree ( 2 points ) the wall ( 1 point ) and the window ( 3 points ) . The ball was very soft and the window very small!!! Good time had by all. But boy did my inner thigh hurt from side footing the ball. Damn to getting old :-)

In the evening we had been invited to the post wedding celebrations with some food and drink at Ians and Flos. It was an intimate gathering with close friends invited and we felt very privileged to be there. The bride and groom looked resplendent - which was quite amazing considering the alcohol that had flowed the night before. They both put on a superb dance which was to a compilation of pop songs starting and finishing with their favourite Elvis number. Retired earlier than most after a lovely evening.

Sunday was a day of catching up and planning ahead. Was glad to be able to get our head around the forthcoming England visit.

Woke up to a cloudy day on Monday ( shock horror ). But as in time honoured fashion the sun did come out and we set out on our planned cycle trip along the Midi Canal to Bezier

On the road again

Sunday 12th...Lin here and nothing to report really. Quiet day by the pool, with a game of boules at the end of the day.... have to say I'm not a good loser and Brent, who I have to say has had more practice of boules, having played reserve for Dave and Wendy's Red Lion team...beat me hands down. As I'm already 7-2 down at backgammon my morale is low in respect of these competitions. Any advice gratefully received!!

Monday 13th..still Lin here. Well today we got the car back: this involved a 4k walk to the village of Puget, where the garage was. I'd called earlier to be told it was ready and had taken 2 hours to fix at a cost of 120 euros. Turned out the petrol tank wasn't damaged, just the outer covering. Anyway when it came to paying I was quite pleased with myself as I got a reduction for cash. However we both still feel a bit ripped off...still we needed to feel safe. Returned to camp and tried to renew the green card...therein lies a tale. Spent the best part of £6 trying to renew the card using a card...in the end we rang off having listened to recorded music for much of the time. What makes this all worse is that Gordon told us that in France the green card is automatically provided with car insurance. So much for being in the EU! Anyway..on the road again and headed to the living room of Provence (Salon de Provence) where we found a nice little hotel with free internet!!! Really pleased to have caught up with both Simon and David (Brent's sons) this week.

Tuesday 14th October
Still Lin here as Brent is in the middle of cooking dinner. Today we enjoyed looking around the living room (salon) of Provence. Salon de Provence ... it's old town rang bells for Brent, who thinks he visited it years ago. It was very pretty and we particularly liked the Nostradamus statue, which we photographed and may try to draw at some point.
Brent here now. Packed our things back into car and set off 10km north of the town to find a walk that we had looked up in 500 walks in France. Beautiful, bright sunny day with a hint of crispness in the air that you associate with autumn. We arrived in the village along a tree lined avenue. Rucksack packed with baguette, cheese and salad we put on our boots, got out our sticks and set off. The started up a steep hill which led quickly into sandstone rocks which were peppered with caves. These had a long history dating back to the stoneage but then being re-occupied in the middle ages when a village of 200 people grew up. Was fascinating to think about how people must have led their lives amongst the rocks. We attempted to follow our map unsuccessfully. The area was also wooded with lots of paths criss crossing it. Have found in the past that woods are notorious for getting lost in – so it proved. We aborted our plan to do the walk but had not been disappointed by the area – set off back to the car to carry on our journey.
Attempted to stop in Arle but after Linda had done about 3 circuits of the town to try and find a parking space decided to move on. We talked of our memories of being able to drive in France and pull into small towns and park with ease. Alas seems to be no longer. Carried on our journey feeling frustrated. Amazingly the temperature was probably hotter than we have had.

Monday 6th Oct
OK.. so today we decided to stick to the coast road and head for Imperia. When we got to Alassio however the sun was boiling and we spotted a lovely sandy beach so decided to explore. A friendly Scottish lady who worked in the tourist info gave us lots of info (we later found out that she'd studied languages at A level and came to Italy as a young woman set to be an air hostess. Then she met and fell in love with an Italian and she's been settled here ever since). We decided to stay the night and found a little hotel with sea view. Spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing....keep telling ourselves “ we deserve this!” but can't really believe how lucky we've been...not one day without sunshine in 6 weeks! The sea was just lovely today and we both enjoyed the swims. As in Levanto we spent the evening in a bar with nibbles and filled up on pizza afterwards. We drank the local wine Pigato, which is delicious, but proved to be a bit expensive...oh well, after 4 nights of camping “we deserve this!”

Tuesday 7th Oct
( Brent here ) Sitting in the tent in the rain thinking back over the last two days. Yesterday,( thats date above in the blog ) started cloudy but at the far end of the bay the sun was peeping through the clouds. Linda and I went in pursuit using our legs- that is we walked. The walk proved pleasant along the 4km stretch. Got into next village where we sat down at a cafe by sea for a lemon soda delivered to us in a can. On paying for it was charged 3E for a can which cost 40cents. Most frustrating thing when you are ripped off abroad is not being able to vent your anger. Eventful walk back to our town with Linda in search of nearest toilet. Got back to room for a siesta so fully recovered to have a good nite out. Went in search of an eatery. Wandered up and down for ages going past many empty ones – never a good sign. eventually stumbled on a peach of a restaurant with live music. One of our aims when we set out was to search out music venues but this had often been out of synch with events. The group consisted of keyboard, violin, flute, and guitar with all four men joining in with vocals. One of them looked like Art Garfunkel- sort of forehead that goes back for ever. The music was sort of folky but all musicians were having a good crack. We enjoyed the food and music thoroughly.

Weds 8th Oct
Woke up to another glorious day – sun shining yet again. Did a quick shop in local supermarket to get some provisions for lunch and the evening meal. Got back to car to find a slightly deflated tyre. Set off on journey with intention of putting some air in it. On journey very few garages with any facility to do this. Many closed down – assume this is recession related. Eventually found one on the Auto-route so relieved to pump it up – must be a slow puncture. Crossed the border into france – happy that at least one of us could now speak the language. Pulled in to the first Aire we came across. Nobody does Aires as good as the French. Found a lovely picnic bench under the pines and got out our fresh bread, tomatoes, ham, cheese, salad, and mayonnaise. Made the best sandwich yet and to cap it all was able to sit down at a TABLE. Had to give it a little hug. Carried on to j36 of motorway and after a brief detour found the campsite we were looking for and set up camp.
Thursday 9th October
Decided to explore the coast path reception had told us about and headed for les Issambres where we found a fantastic sandy beach. Decided to do the walk first only to find that lots of it was along the busy road. We quickly gave up on this and forced ourselves to join those sunbbathing and swimming in the warm waters of the Med. where we spotted lots of fish...” we deserve this!”

Back at camp and the nearby group of bikers who are clearly taking part in the local VTT (mountain bike) race at le Rochebrune decided to start their loud banter. Boys will be boys, but it did get a little wearing and we decided to get up early tomorrow and do the gorge walk ( also recommened) before heading off towards the Camargue and then on to Vias.

Friday 10th October
Oh well! Best laid plans and all that! We'd packed the car up nice and early, when trying to avoid the tree behind us Brent managed to reverse over the terraced drop. The left rear wheel was well and truly stuck and a horrid smell of petrol. With help from campsite folk the car was jacked up and off the kerb, but we spotted a hole in the aluminium cover of the petrol tank. Although not sure if the actual tank was broken we knew it needed checking, so called out green flag who transported it to a local garage..this being Friday, the earliest they can look at it is Monday. The local English guy, Gordon came up trumps helping us out with provisions to see us through tonight. He's also offered to take us to the supermarket tomorrow, which is great as there's absolutely nothing near the site!

Saturday 11th October
Off to supermarket at 10 then decided to walk to Bouverie, the nearest town... what a laugh! Looked quite a large town on the map, but when we arrived it basically consisted of loads of housing, a stadium / sports field and a few miserly shops. But at least there was a cafe. So we had a quick drink and headed back to the camp pool. Now here we are in the camps laundry, where we've found free electricity to plug in the laptop and bring the blog up to date. It's nice and light too so we're going to have a game of back gammon too, as this is proving difficult in the tent after 7.30, when our little lantern is a bit ineffective!

Italy continued

Friday 3rd October
Lin here again. So this morning we headed for the station and bought a one day ticket to get us into the cinque terres national park (http://www.cinqueterre.it/en/index.asp) and allow us to take the train/ bus, even hire bikes for 3 hours. We went to the furthest village...Riomaggiore and set off on the coastal walk...oh dear! spot the tourists. There were hundreds of them all doing the famous via del amore (lovers lane) walk. We decided to carry on regardless as it was a beautiful blue sky day and the views were to die for. If there were still as many people after the 3rd village we would think again. After the third village the paths got more demanding and most of the tourists dropped away leaving us with a much more pleasant walk. We quite enjoyed keeping up with a huge group of US students from a Washington university and earwigging on their tour guide. It was amazing to see the terraces of vines and to imagine the locals making their living through producing wine: they had even installed monorails to get the grapes up and down the mountain....they must be really fit thats all I can say ( it's Lin her by the way, interrupting Brent again!). By the end of the 12k walk our knees knew about it. Finished the walk at 5.00pm with steep walk down about 1000 steps to the last village Monterosso which had a beach. So brent ( thats me now ) went for a swim in a very rough Med. Managed to lose my goggles and hearing for a while (nothing new there...that's Lin's comment!) when I was swept off my feet by a huge wave. Needless to say Linda didn't bother with the swim, she just had a paddle and rescued our things from being swept away! We got the train back to Levanto and explored the town a bit more. It has a huge beach and looks worth a longer visit. We adopted the local practice of buying a drink in a bar and getting a load of nibbles for free (we'd spotted this the previous night and thought it looked good). However we were surprised when by 9pm the bars and streets emptied and we were on our own! Still we went back and had another drink in our favourite bar before heading back to the campsite.

Saturday 4th Oct
Lin here keeping you up to date. Another beautiful day here in Italy and we set off for Genoa / Genova depending where you are. I drove today and Brent managed to stay quiet as I manoevered the steep hairpin bends from Levanto to Genoa. Again the scenery was magnificent. We reached the outskirts of Genoa at around 11.30 and bought a lovely picnic lunch before finding a quiet square to eat it. We drove into the centre and I managed to park near the aquarium (the biggest in Europe), which we both fancied seeing. It was good to see seals, dolphins and turtles up close but I think both of us found it hard to see such creatures kept in cages.

It was after 4 when we left Genoa and Brent drove us on to the next campsite in Ceriale. Getting out of Genoa proved to be a nightmare and the cause of our 2nd major fall out. I'm seriously thinking of taking a bus and meeting up with Brent at the other side of our next major town!!

Anyway we found the site which was highly recommended in our Alan Rogers guide. It's actually ok. The great thing about it is that it has wireless internet. Its quite busy with camper vans and the swimming pool needs a refit. The family that runs it is very friendly though and we managed to set up the tent and cook a meal in the dark!

Sunday 5th Oct
Wow! A lovely morning. We did a morning walk along the beach, calling at the supermarket for our lunch. Caught up on emails etc over lunch and then had a very pleasant hour or two by the pool relaxing in the sun. Around 3pm the weather clouded over so we came back to the tent and skyped family in Coventry. It was lovely to see 2 of my sisters, my niece and little Evie and Jake.. time to get dinner ready now so I'll sign off. Brent busy looking at possible sites in France for tomorrow.

The Ligurian coast

Wednesday 1st Oct

We made it through the first month ( Brent here ). Set off around Lake Garda today. Very spectacular views with mountains rising up to dizzy heights, the road cutting through the bluffs using tunnels. Stopped in a small village on side of lake wind was high but sun was out making white topped waves. Planned to stay in Riva la Garda at the end of the day but found it very modern and uninspiring so carried on to the western shore. We eventually came across another small village called Limone, where we found a room for the night. It was in a spotless hotel, unlike anything you'd find at home...sort of felt more like a prison, or a hostel but no young people.We actually managed to barter the price down by threatening to look elsewhere. So far we have been really poor at this so both felt we might be getting somewhere. Anyway we got an excellent breakfast included in the price, which was great. Limone was another charming little town, with ferries across the lake and lots of little restaurants.

Thursday 2nd October.
The day started very overcast with mist over the mountains on the other side of the lake. We had talked of two alternatives. One was to head further east and explore some of the other lakes. The other was to head down to the med where Linda had found a walk in one of our guidebooks which was between five villages. Strangely it was called the five villages walk. So we drove south in search of sun and sea. By mid day the sun was shining down on us again. We eventually arrived in the small village of Riomaggiore after a driving down a narrow road which led down to the sea. The philosophy of the National Park is to deter cars and this they certainly did by having extortionate parking fees. We set off in search of a room for the night. This proved interesting... the best offer we got was a room for 50 euros next to the station..whilst we could have paid 110 euros for a small apartment on the Sat night...then you also had to leave your car miles away and pay for parking. We asked about alternatives at the tourist info. only to be told that there really weren't any ...no campsites and the next place after the 5 villages ( los cinque terres) called Levanto was very touristy. Nevertheless in our inimitable fashion we decided to plough on. The drive was amazing. Fantastic views of the coast with bendy roads. Needless to say Brent drove: I've realised that it's just too stressful for him when I drive! Round about 6pm we came to a diversion. We couldn't believe it! We were directed back down to the coast which would have added about an hour to our journey. We hung about a bit. A bunch of cyclists arrived and were clearly equally stunned. Then 3 cars went through the barriers, so we decided to follow their example and risk it. This proved to be the right decision as the road works had finished for the day,which meant we could crawl past the unsurfaced part of the road and head on our way. When we reached Levanto we found a campsite immediately and set up the tent before having a wander. We found a great little bar and good take away pizza,which kept us very happy! We also saw other campsites advertised...so much for tourist information. We also saw how close we were to the station, where we could buy day tickets to enable us to do our walk...great!

Thanks to all our readers

Thank you to everyone for your comments. We really appreciate the contact see our comments on Maslow. Will try to upload more photos at www.flickr.com under Linda Burdett. This is proving slow going but Croatia photos are next

Into Italy

Friday 26th Sept

After a night of restless sleep on ferry deck ( not outside ) was woken up by Germans ( well they mostly seemed to be ) at 5.30am queueing for breakfast. Ferry docked in Rjeke at 7.00am and we drove off. In the guide book said there was a quiet village with a long promenade so headed off for a stroll – very welcome after being on ship for 19 hours. Linda and I were a little knackered but welcomed the short break. Headed off again towards Italy briefly passing through Slovenia again on the way to Trieste. Trieste was another big city and the italians were mad drivers. As well as them over and undertaking all the time had to contend with thousands of scooters and motorbikes under and over taking. As Linda had said we should have got through there to next smallest place but stupidly I wanted to look at city. You have to be rested to look around big cities and we had not rested or fed and watered properly and now we were in a different country having to cope with a new language. Decided to exit stage left as soon as possible. Drove to a little place called Siestra and booked into a small hotel to recharge our batteries. After a two hour siesta we felt more able to cope with the world and walked down to local sleepy marina. Not a lot here and definitely end of tourist season. We were unsuccessful in finding somewhere to eat so made do with food from the local store. Had a good nights sleep and felt refreshed and ready to drive the next leg to Lake Garda were we had found a lovely campsite in our book.

Saturday 27th September

Set off on the smaller roads along the route to Venice. Stopped off at a little fishing port on the coast which had used the same poles driven in the mud to anchor the boats as we had seen in Venice. All the road signs were written in two languages which pointed to the strong identity of the Venetian region. Headed back onto Autoroute so we could make some distance. Tailgated many times by speeding cars – one of whom came within about 6inches and then started gesticulating. I returned the traditional Anglo Saxon salute as they sped past. Soon the mountains came in sight. We headed off onto east side of Lake Garda in direction of lots of theme parks including Gardaland, Movieland, Aqualand and our campsite was very close. Other strange event was thousands of motorblkers driving in convoy around the lake. Seems like it must be a larger version of Matlock Bath. Campsite was very spacious though with gorgeous views down onto the lake. We found a quiet pitch which actually had grass – shear luxury being able to drive my tent pegs into soft soil ( thats sounds a bit of a euyphamism – non intended ) It did allow me to get my tent erecter than it has been for a long time though ;-)

Sun 28th Septh
Lin here...well, I'll make no comment on that save to say that lake Garda is quite beautiful. We started today with a swim in the camp's fantastic pool... but unfortunately not heated. Talk about mad dogs and Englishmen! I have a feeling that the other few campers out sunbathing were bemused at the sight of us. Anyway we had a good sun bathe before taking a short lakeside walk... very beautiful, until I got taken short and had to rush back to camp! Oh well! We then had a lovely surprise when we drove to the nearby village of Lazise. On arrival it seemed very busy. We thought it might actually be one of the aforementioned theme parks as we'd spotted turrets en route. In fact it was a fabulous small walled town, beside the lake and the sunset was just gorgeous. We found a nice restaurant and had a first Italian pasta whilst sort of chatting to a German couple next to us. Definitely worth the visit!

Mon 29th sept

Brent here. The day started in glorious sunshine. Planned a trip into Verona today. Not sure about when the buses were but we were lucky enough to get one in 10 minutes and take the 20 kms into the town. The city is a delight to the eye with many beautiful buildings and quiet plazas. Did the tour of the Duomo-very ornate with Romanesque arches.

Tuesday 30th Sept

Walked into Pescheria along the lake. Strolled around the town. Got lost looking for a supermarket that had been signposted for cars as 500 metres ( ha). Bought some chicken that Linda subsequently left at the bus-stop. She said her feet were killing her. Got off bus at village near campsite. Bought some more chicken. Oh forgot to say we found some gas canisters that fitted the stove – the highlight of the week. ...

Lin here – and yes I did blame losing the chicken on sore feet! Anyway after a lovely chicken dinner we got into heavy philosophical discussion about human needs and decided that Maslow's hierarchy was about right. Whilst our most of our needs are definitely being met so far our higher level needs relating to socialisation may need a little more stimulation! So... we had an early night and played the game related to the mime artist that Simon recommended to us and whose name escapes me right now. This involved one of us miming out one of the songs from the mp3 player, which we now know off by heart and the other guessing the song! Sad eh? but I can tell you it was a right good laugh. This then lead to the shadow game on the ceiling of the tent... I think my crocodile was the outright winner. So you see these are just some of the small pleasures of camping.