Intrepid for 10 Minutes: Nice Day for a ride in the English Countryside

After lots of rain, Wednesday dawned with blue skies and sunshine so I at last managed to pull out the bike and go for a ride. After spending the last 11 months constantly looking for good photos of our travels it dawned on me that all the miles of cycling and walking round our home area I had rarely taken any photos, so off I set wih my traveling eyes to take some photos of my stamping ground (literally). The photos below are for my international readers (all 2 of you) so that you can see what the english countryside is really like and after the last few weeks in Panama of almost 40's degrees (far to hot to cycle) the early to mid 20's were perfect for cycling.

To bring you up to date we left Panama on 12th April and had no incidents or delays but a bloody awful flight (Iberia) tatty and cramped, poor food, poor service. The flight was to London but landed at Madrid so we took the opportunity to drop off here and spend 11 days in our little house in the mountains of Andalucia.

Bar a few heavy showers the weather was wonderful and we managed to get in a few walks and cycle rides. On one occasion to do an off road ride I borrowed a friends spare bike as it had suspension and my old bike doesn't, except the suspension was jammed and the front brake didn't work, net result was that I went over the handle bars and it has taken a month to be able to get out of bed with wincing!

24th April we finally flew back to a wet and windy UK and straight up to Leeds for Chris's mothers 86th birthday, both our girls and grandkids had gone up to so had a really nice family reunion and then headed back south too collect our 'fire damaged' caravan. Turns out the damage is hardly noticeable so the pay out from the insurance and buy back for scrap was definitely a good deal for us. Except!!!! I didn't hook the van up properly and as I turned left to go theough the gate tha van turned right and smashed into the gate post - ouch! A couple of hours and a few metres of Duck tape later we set off thinking that perhaps it was still salvageable after all. 28,000 miles over 11 months through countries with the worst drivers in the world without incident (well except for one day in the US where I managed to demolish both rear fog lights in two seperate incidents - they don't have them in the US so I just threw them away) and I can't even get out of a field with a caravan in tow!

Since then we have had an uneventful couple of weeks behind a pub in Mursley (about 3 miles from our house which is now let) getting up to date with doctors, dentists, opticians etc. purchasing a few essential supplies (like tea bags) and researching flights, car insurance for the next phase.

This weekend we take the caravan to have the duck tape replaced by something a little more permanent and next weekend we have a big familly re-union in the Lake District and then carry on up to Scotland to spend a week with our eldest daughter.

Goodbye photo with the gang before they ship to Columbia and we fly home, we hope to catch up with Mike and Shanon around October.

10 days walking and cycling in the Spoannish mountains

Our home for the next few weeks


Actually, this is our home in the small camp site behind the pub

and these are our neighbours

This is Winslow, our home town

The Bell Hotel

The Church in the middle of Winslow

Winslw Market Square, the second window up in the middle was my office for 4 years when I went freelance

Believe it or not this is soon to become the high speed east west rail link going through Oxford and Cambridge, with a new station being built in Winslow

This is more about the memory than the picture. There was a very eccectric landlord here 20 years ago that cut off the lableof a girls designer jumper (when it was fashionable to have the label on the outside) and handed it to her saying it was sticking out so he cut it off. There was quite a large group of them but the quietly finished their drinks and left. A week or so later an even larger group walked in, ordered a round of drinks and as the last drink was put on the bar one of the guys put his wallet on the bar, removed a pair of scissors, cut off the landlords tie just under the knot, and they all quitely walked out without touching a drink or paying for them.

Addington Church, a very small village a couple of miles from Winslow

Addington House, next to the Church

I had to take this as I took a photo of the sign entering Winslow Arizona

A small Hamlet just outside Winslow

There used to be a gate here, that I and a friend rode into one dark night coming back from the pub. I dislocated my little finger and Chris was very disapointed when it did not hurt when the nurse put it back in place after waiting in casualty for a couple of hours.

Buckingham Gaol. We have lived down the road from here for 25 years and never been to the jail so decided to take the grand kids (milling about in front)