In the UK again

After six weeks back in Oz for David's graduation as an officer in the Army Reserve, it's back again to the northern hemisphere for some more travels in the van.

We left an Australian winter for early autumn in the UK - there wasn't any discernible difference in the weather... In Leeds we collected the van and did some reprovisioning. In all the rush to pack at the very end, we discovered we had left quite a few things behind in Sydney ... like our sheet sets which were carefully made to fit these bunk beds! We took them home to wash after which they must have been put away carefully. And so they were left behind. Fortunately the UK is civilised enough to provide all the stuff we need and so some serious shopping was undertaken.

We drove slowly on back roads down towards the south. One night we camped at a lovely sight at St Neot's near Cambridge on the bank of a river. The next was beside a forest with grey squirrels collecting nuts and burying them in the ground all around us. Another night was on the banks of a tidal creek near Portsmouth on Hayling Island. Here we collected blackberries growing wild along the path beside the creek. A detour took us to have a look at the house we lived in near Camberley in Surrey 27 years ago - it's still there, but they have ruined the garden! The 3 metre high rhododendron hedges around the house are all gone.

And from there, the ferry to what we really hope will be sunny Spain. We have had enough of grey days!