Josem 2023 UK circumnavigation

While enjoying Ashburton yesterday we found the Tourist Information Centre.  We struck up a lovely conversation with the main man, and he explained where we went wrong on that fateful morning's walk.  But no problems, he sold me a couple more maps and ideas for more walks according to our tastes. He was very helpful doing his job advising dumb tourists like me. By the way, when preparing for this trip, we expected the weather to be cold and wet.  It's England after all.  But to date, we were enjoing the opposite.  I think the worst day got down to about 20 - and that was while we were in London. Well all that nice weather came to an end. Today was a very different story: But no way was a bit of bad weather going to stop us enjoying today's walk. This was another one of our hotellier's recommendations.   This walk was simpler to navgate.  It started at a place called Fingle Bridge where we would walk to Castle Drogo, and then walk back on the other...

 Dartmoor national park. Beautiful area with no cathedrals and lots of walking tracks. Made for us. We stayed at a hotel called Weeke Barton - I mention it here in case you want to Google the location, but, no, I don't recommend it actually. The owners were very nice and tried their best to make our stay interesting, but we had a few problems as it turned out - not their fault though. Day 1 they recommended a walk for us. It started nicely. They told us about a town nearby called  Ashburton.  Oh yes... we had to visit Ashburton. We buy most of our fruit in Ashburton back home. So we bought some lovely Ashburton sandwiches and then set out for our walk - leaving our car at a parking station that had no ability to pay other than via coins.  Oops... I wrote a beautiful note and left it on the dashboard explaining we're from Ashburton, Melbourne and please have a kind heart not to fine us - no coins! The walk started beautifully with all the necessary ingredients to make...

 We travelled to Aberaeron in Wales and stayed at a hotel called Y Seller. Pretty little fishing village hey?  The weather kept being perfect for our visit too. Tide was out when we arrived though: But after a day of driving getting to Aberaeron, well, next day we had to stretch our legs. We were told about this great spot where you can take a 2 hour walk and then watch wild Red Kites getting fed.  I'll let you work out the pronunciation of the destination: Bwlch Nant yr Arian Forest. So... we bypassed all the cathedrals and castles and went on a walk.  Woohoo! Another stunning view to enjoy.  Ruth found an appropriate chair to take in the Royal view: Looking at: Thick forest for part of the walk too: Well afterall, the part of the name I could pronounce did have "forest" in it. While walking, one Red Kite came very early for feeding.  I managed to shoot it with my camera as it was checking out what was in my backpack:   We are such accomplished w...

 Continuing our time in the Lake District, people we met suggested we go visit Levens Hall. The gardens are the reason for this visit - incredible amount of work to maintain them: I could post maybe 20 pics of these gardens here - they were exceptional. They say that these gardens have remained virtually unchanged since the 1690's. I like gardens but these ones might be a touch busy for me.   No golf putting greens here, but... Croquet.  This guy kept missing to the left so I offered to help him correct his left leaning tendencies. No... he wouldn't allow me to help him!  I find this to be a common problem with those who have left leaning tendencies. I better button my lip (or my keyboard), but suffice to say he missed this tiddler bringing loud groans from the sidelines.  I've heard this can happen in other sports too. But his self control was admirable. I can hear those who have watched me putt at close quarters say "something you could learn from, Jules"...