Category Great Britain
Stuck
Ian will blog separately about his Hadrian’s Wall trail hike. To start it off, we drove to the tiny village of Bowness-on-Solway, on the southern edge of the Solway Firth. The landscape here was quite different – extensive grasslands and mudflats. Signs warned of flooding the road, but there was no water lapping at the […]
The Debatable Lands
We left Newcastle mid morning, and headed west towards Carlisle. We had a couple of hours to fill before check in time, so we diverted into Scotland (as you do). This is border country, home to Ian’s reiver ancestors (although the Dodd reivers lived near Otterburn. The Armstrongs were the major clan in what was […]
Jet Lagged Orienteering
Today we collected our rental car – a suitably British MG in basic black. In the late afternoon we headed south on the A1, to Durham, or more precisely Gilesgate, just east of the cathedral city. It all went well until it came to the fine navigation. Who knew there were two Church Lanes in […]
The Best Laid Plans
Beep … beep … beep … beep …beep … Crash!! Bang!!! Wallop!!!!! It was 7am when we were rudely awakened by the sounds of a truck being backed up the laneway, followed shortly thereafter by the din of besa bricks being dumped unceremoniously into the skip which was now parked right outside our bedroom window. […]
2025
Time to post about our plans for this year; we have spent quite a long time deciding but airfares are now booked and we’ve found some great places to stay. Rule no 1: southern Europe is a no-no at the time we are travelling (having learned the hard way). Following Ian’s successful completion of his […]
Ian’s South Downs Way Walk
An hour drive to Winchester followed by a ride on the Park & Ride bus from the car park on the outskirts of the city centre meant a late start for my first day walking the South Downs Way (“SDW”). It was soon after 11am when we found the first sign pointing to the way […]
Things That Begin with S
In order below: Embarkation day is like stepping into a parallel universe. Because we believe in self flagellation, we dragged our heavily laden suitcases and backpacks for almost 3 km, to the Mayflower cruise terminal. This took over an hour. On arrival, we were sent to Baggage Pod 4, then Baggage Pod 1, then Baggage […]
Southampton, City of Seagulls
After an uncomfortable night (warm room, lumpy bed), we woke to drizzle. Our morning was spent on optimistic tasks (shopping for lightweight tshirts and sunscreen, in anticipation of things to come). The drizzle turned to rain, and we headed back to the apartment for shelter and lunch. By mid afternoon it had almost cleared, so […]
Completion
After a week at our country retreat at Shrewton, it was time to pack up and move on. That required an early start, but thanks to the 90 minute drive (I am so glad not to be driving any more!), it was after 11am before Ian hit the trail for his final day on the […]
Downland
It was time for Ian to head back to the South Downs Way, starting from Saturday’s end point at Hall’s Hill, and finishing at Cocking, some 20 km away. That meant I had several hours to spend at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum – “weald” meaning heavily wooded. This is very similar to […]
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