Due North - Part 1

So £700-someodd later and Bear and I have made it out if Surrey, around the M25 and approximately 175km up the M1 to find ourselves in Staffordshire.

In a tent.

In the rain.

Details, you ask? Well. After the big mess that was my MOT and subsequent garage visit (thank you ever so much to an amazing mechanic who was a huge help) we managed to get the car in for the MOT recheck just as the shop was closing. Fab timing! We then hopped straight onto the A3 to the M25 and headed north. What a beautiful day we'd been having!

Sheep on the way to the camp site

That is, until the last 30 minutes of our journey. That's when the heavens decided to open and we turned to each other with a look of dread.

At which time we started to discuss the roadside motels as a superior alternative accomodation. Especially when my Sat Nav decided to take us on a crazy route to get to the site (one can't get lost with a Sat Nav, surely!)

Some of our stuff in the tent

But, alas, we decided to drive on to the campsite anyway where we were met by a pair of brilliant hosts who have been nothing but kind and full if helpful advice -

More stuff

like parking the car at an uphill angle so it doesn't settle overnight and we shouldn't be stuck in the morning.

Dessert - classy!

C and I set up the tent - at 10:30pm! - in a light shower and are now to be found happily within with full bellies and ready for sleep.

So good night, dear readers!


~Crown

Hello again!

I've been in quite an adventure over the last few days! Yesterday, the Crown and I went into London central and wandered the city as a couple of tourists. We headed into town by express train and went to lunch with a couple of her friends. After a delightful meal of classic pub grub, we headed over to Fe's old work place and I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes to draw up some preliminary sketches for our group crest. 

After we left, we went to see the Imperial War Museum (which need up being closed for renovations), the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, as well as Buckingham Palace and the Canadian Memorial in the park just off of the Palace.

We did see quite a lot and by the time we walked back to Waterloo station, we were both a bit tuckered out! We managed to catch the train back towards Aunty G and J's home where we are staying and this is where the adventure really began! We had decided on the train that it would be much easier to walk home from the station than try and figure out the bus system at around 8 in the evening, well boy, was that mistake #1! We ended up taking the longer of 2 routes back home. Instead of a 2 km walk, we took the long way home at almost 4 km, bringing our total distance throughout the day to 14km (now, for those who don't know me, I have REALLY bad knees and hips, and generally do not walk long distance in order to be able to function the next day).

However, we did make it home after passing some rather grand houses across the golf course in the neighbourhood.

Today we went to Guildford which is a town close by and went to run a couple of errands as well, one of which was collecting Fe's little sports car, which means we can head out on longer trips up north. Yay!

Tomorrow we are going with Aunty G and one of the doggies to a dog show in Redding, which should be super interesting! I'll let you know how that goes!

Cheers,

C- the Bear