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)

Inside the Old Jail

A young convict in the excercise yard

and another in the stocks

As usual I end with a few local animals

Heading home for a break

The cruiser is parked in bonded storage and we are now in a Hotel in David (North Panama) and will be getting an air conditioned bus to Panama City tomorrow, 300 miles away. This is because it costs $1 per week day (apparantly they don't charge for weekends or holidays), it costs $10 per day in Panama City!

28,000 miles, 309 days (280 of them sleeping in the roof tent) and some traumatic border crossings
and we are ready to come home. It has been a superb phase 1 of the trip, seen lots of amazing things, sat on some of the best beaches in the world and made some good friends along the way.

We met up with Mike and Shannon again in Boquete (Panama), had another day out with them squashed into the back of the cruiser (with Shannon sitting on the safe) and we are all staying in the same place in Panama City before we fly to Spain and they take a sail boat (that takes motor bikes) through the San Blas Islands to Columbia. We plan to catch up with them in Argentina or Chile and we will all meet for Christmas in Ushuia at the bottom of Argentina, with a few others we have met along the road.

This is one way to travel, Azure is American travelling the Americas with her Dutch boyfriend, on the way to the ferry to Columbia before it stops running on 20th April.

Doctor Mike cuts off my wedding ring after it embedded itself in my finger a week ago, using a tea spoon and a peice of plastic to avoid cutting my finger off and a hack saw. I caught it on the ladder as I jumped down from the running board and the ring was preventing it from healing properly. Mike isn't a doctor but is an engineer.

 Out for the day with Mike and Shannon

Up up and Away on Chris's Birthday

Finally I am able to upload the blog, after a couple of weeks with very little power or no internet (and never both at the same time) and are now in a cafe with internet in a small town in the middle of the jungle.

After 3 more days at Pearl Lagoon we all went back to El Rama for another night in a Hotel before saying goodbye to Shannon, Mike and Cisco, but not before being branded as savages by the Hotel Receptionist. All 3 bikers walked in covered with mud  as we arrived in a torrential downpour) and Cisco thought it best to remove his boots and outer gear inside the door to avoid spreading any more mud, but this left him walking around reception in his underpants!

After another night and a wonderful meal in Granada we made our way to Gigante on the coast for 4 days of rest and recouperation camped next to a really nice Hostel on the beach. The bad news was meeting some Canadiens with a RHD Toyota (imported to Canada from Japan) that were refused entry to Costa Rica (our next stop) due to the RHD. Two days later we head for the border, enlist the services of a fixer and $50 does the trick.

We then have a series of 1 night stops through the hills, including a night next to a really nice restaurant overlooking Lake Arenal, a dip in a Spa, which is actully a large hot stream in the jungle and a night in the car park of an Adventure Park. It is Chris's birthday the following day so we do a hanging bridges walk in the morning and take on 9 zip lines up to a mile long before heading back to the coast and hot weather once more.

Another night in a restaurant car park, 2 nights at what looked like a refugee camp (we only stopped 2 nights because they had a washing machine) and now we are at  Puerto Jiminez, on the Osa Peninsular joined yesterday once more by Shannon and Mike (Cisco went his own way a couple of days before). Sadly they are no longer with Ducatti the Chihuahua who fell from a ledge at their camp site on Ometepe and broke his neck, RIP Ducati.

The camp site we are at is really amazing, just behind the beach (with water so calm and warm you hardly notice you are in) and close to the town, is full of wild life.Iguanas roaming the ground and up in the trees, one even tried to pee on me from high in a tree because I was getting to close to its mate on the ground. Scarlet Macaws arguing high up in the trees, the occasional Toucan landing in the tree next to us, plus a multitude of other birds large and small. The stars however are two young crocadiles in the small lagoon next to camp, currently 3 and 4 metres respectively will eventually grow to over 5 metres. The camp owener took meat to the shore last night and they both came up on the bank to feed.

We have been at panick stations over the last few days once we got the news that the ferry service from Panama to Columbia ceases on April 20, so lots of research and emails looking at crossing now and taking a flight back from Bogata instead of Panama,  in the end we decided to stick to the plan, but we have met a number of overlanders that have speeded up to make the ferry before it stops running. We are now back to shipping by container in June as there were too many things to re-arrange and go wrong in too shorter time.

 

Mike, Shanon, Chris and I doing our Vietnamese boat people impression, I was smiling at this point, but not for long!

Cisco, looking like the slave overseer on a Roman Ship

 Our third of 4 breakdowns on our trip to Bluefields, they think it is dodgy fuel so a guy from another boat provided his fuel.

 Time for tea on the road from Pearl Lagoon back to El Rama, to see a film of the road to Pearl Laggoon  link to road video click on following link, put together by shannon, using footage from her and my go-pros.

 Parting again

 I get the big seat

 Crockadile on a rock in the river

The view from the Restaurant we camped next too

 Climbing inside a tree up to one of the hanging bridges.

Chris getting ready to do the longest zip line, almost a mile long

Chris coming in like a bullet after reaching a speed of over 50 MPH.

 Almost there

Cant remember the name but of the Racoon familly

 The smaller of the two crocs in the lagoon tricked into attacking a leaf thinking it was meat (the next evening they were fed meat, but too late to get a decent picture.

An ant eater sauntering across the road in front of us, not at all bothered about us getting up close to take photos

 Feeding the crocks at dusk

Announcing the funeral of Mr Alvin Thundafux

So there we were, doing our tourist bit, Leon and then Granada and we get an email from Mike and Shannon (on 2 motor bikes with Ducati the Chihuahua) with a challenge to join them to drive across to Pearl Lagoon on the Mosquito (Caribbean) Coast (on the other side of Nicaragua). Very few tourists visit this area and those that do fly in by small aircraft.

They were still a few days away, so we decide to ship the cruiser over to the Island of Ometepe (dominated by two massive volcanoes) for a few days while we wait.

Once back on the mainland we realise we are just 20 miles from Costa Rica and here we are setting off for almost 300 miles in the wrong direction!

Next day we meet up with Mike, Shannon and Ducati, plus Cisco, a third motorcyclist from Guatemala and together we set off on a rough muddy track to Pearl Lagoon, with lots of massive puddles (that Shannon always takes a little to fast and soaks herself).

All goes well until we set off again after a short break, Shannon skids on the mud and ends up on her side with the front wheel in the bushes. Mike sees this in his mirror, stops, puts his bike on the stand and starts back to help. Shannon gets out from under her bike and immediately starts sprinting towards Mike’s bike that has toppled over into the ditch with Ducati in his bag strapped onto the back seat. After a few moments of bedlam everyone confirms to everyone else that they are OK, the bikes are righted, start with no problem and we resume our journey with no further incident.

A couple of hours later we were parked in the middle of the village, with quite a few onlookers (3 loaded motor bikes and our landcruiser causing a lot of interest as we came in) and an old guy with a loud haler in one hand and the other arm dangling useless by his side comes limping down the road announcing that the funeral of Mr. Alvin Thundafux will commence at the church at 2 pm the following day, it just could not get anymore bizarre.

We find a Hotel (too wet to camp) with a few tourists who have all come via boat and can't believe we have actually driven here. We are also pretty sure that we have the only UK registered vehicle that has ever been here!

To cap it all, we then talk to some Canadians visiting family in the village that were surprised that we drove through Mexico because it is so dangerous!

Today has been a rest day, getting caught in the occasional deluge, having a few beers and doing the blog. Tomorrow we take the boat to Bluefileds (06.00 start! I'm going to have to sleep on the jetty) and maybe a trip out to one of the islands before finally heading for Costa Rica.

Fabulous Finca Los Alpes between Leon and the beach.

Meet the Lallys, a family of 5 going home from the US to Ireland the long way.

View from the roof of the Cathedral in Leon

Granada

A view of one Volcano from half way up the other on the island of Ometepe

Shannon speeding through the puddles.

 We stop for a break

 Mike contemplates righting Shannon's bike

Arriving at our Hotel (no room for the cruiser but I find someone down the road to look after it).