We are on our way back to London but still have a couple of things we want to do. Greg had set the GPS for our next destination staying on the A roads as we were only travelling about 150km. He had also chosen a couple of interesting places to visit on the way.

Sometimes we are asked where we find some of the places or 'things' we visit. That's easy - Greg has an enormous memory for facts and he has a good friend - Google! Our first stop today was Bingley.

Ian Hutchinson is the only rider to have won all 5 races at the Isle of Man TT in the one year - he did this in 2010. Ian Hutchinson is also known as the "Bingley Bullet" because Bingley is his home - hence the visit. We didn't expect to see Ian, we knew that he had been at the MotoGP in Aragon the day before as he had been interviewed on TV. We also planned to visit Bingley to have a look at the Bingley Five-Rise Locks.

You can travel the length and width of the UK in canal boats, some people even live on them permanently. To cater for the canal boats and the undulating landscapes of the country, there is a system of locks to transport the canal boats from one level to another on waterways. The most sophisticated of the locks that we have seen is the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland (see blog entry 'Three bonnie, wee Aussies in Scotland'). The Bingley locks are more traditional and possibly even more spectacular. They are known as one of the 'Seven Wonders of the Waterways', an awesome feat of engineering raising the canal 18 metres through a combination of 5 staircase locks. These locks were built in 1774 - just 4 years after Captain James Cook discovered the east coast of Australia - amazing! While we marvelled at the engineering, we watched as two canal boats travelled down the locks which are not mechanised - two men manually operated the gates and pumps to work the locks. The locks raise and lower boats 18 metres over a distance of 100 metres through 5 gates. Well worth a visit if you are in this area!

Next on Greg's route was Accrington - the home of "Bumble" - David Lloyd, English Test Cricketer and now commentator. We didn't see him either so we drove on!

Our destination for the night was Blackpool - not exactly on the way to London but there was something we had to see! We were in Blackpool at the end of July but we decided that another visit was essential even though it is not one of our favourite places. Blackpool is not only a favourite for British holiday makers but also famous for the annual Illuminations along the 10km promenade. Our brother-in law, Michael Reilly had told us about the Blackpool Illuminations so we thought we should check them out. We booked in to The Fossil Tree Inn where we had stayed last time - one of the best breakfasts we have had on this trip. The Fossil Tree is right on the Promenade and we had a sea view as well as a view of some of the famous illuminations. As well as the artificial light show we also experienced an amazing sunset. We drove the length of the promenade to check out the lights and found that a rather large group of motorbike riders were also doing the same. Then we turned around and drove back down the prom in the opposite direction.

Now it really was time to head back towards London.