Dunscore, United Kingdom

And so we are back in England and no longer hearing Welsh spoken around us, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we can understand what people are saying around us. We are continuing to enjoy the richness of all the different county accents that we encounter but, boy! it sure can make it difficult to understand what is being said!

Over the past week, we have had lots of planes flying overhead and Nick feels like he is at his own private air show. When we were staying at a campsite outside Chester (just over Welsh border) we were near an airport and one afternoon we had an impromptu display by the Red Arrows (RAF-version of Roulettes). It turns out that they come into the nearby airport for refuelling and then take off again – so two displays in quick succession. We also had the most ugly plane fly overhead – it was an Airbus Beluga and it picks up parts (including wings that are built in the UK Airbus factory and then transported to Germany for assembly.

The icing on the cake though was when we were camping at Ambleside in the Lakes District. One morning, Nick went running out of Oscar to look up and came inside saying that the two Lancasters (1 UK & 1 Canadian) had just flown overhead. Photos? I asked… not enough time was his excuse. But as we were catching the bus to a National Trust property, we heard that the Lancs would be returning at 2:45pm and flying over (lengthways) Lake Windermere. So, we parked ourselves on the shore of the lake, ate a picnic lunch and got photos of said Lancs as they flew over the Lake. Nick was as happy as a puppy with two tails!

From Wales, as we were slowly (and I do stress s-l-o-w-l-y…) north towards Scotland, it seemed logical to drop into Chester. Chester was originally a Roman settlement and then when the medieval city was built, it was built over the Roman city, but still following the same layout. You can walk around the medieval-built City walls.

The Earl of Chester was a position that was established under William the Conqueror and a number of men who held the role were very powerful, but apparently, they got a bit too big for their boots, so in the 1300s, the King (not sure which one) made the city a royal city which means that the title is now held by the Monarch’s eldest son, so Earl of Chester is one of the many titles held by Charles.

Another fun thing that we did in Chester was to meet another of Maurice’s family. In case you’ve forgotten, Maurice is the fiancé of MJ’s eldest daughter Samantha. So we were invited to dinner to meet Fiona, her husband and two boys. We had a great night talking about all sorts of things, drinking wine and laughing! We know that in the future when Sam & Maurice get married, we won’t be overwhelmed with a large number of Irish relatives who we don’t know – we will be catching up with a number of people who we have met and who are all lovely people!

From Chester, we had a huge drive to get to Birkenhead, just outside Liverpool – I think it was a whole twenty-odd miles! Boy, were we pooped!! But it gave us a day in Liverpool and we discovered that the National Trust own the boyhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and the only way to see inside these homes is to do the National Trust tour. And we did!!

We saw the house where John lived from the age of about 5 years, when he went to live with his Aunt, and it turns out that he wasn’t the working-class boy that we all believed him to be – very middle class, with aspirations would be the way to describe it. But both John and Paul lived at these homes until they left Liverpool in 1964, when they had hit the big time. It turns out that Paul’s brother, Michael McCartney, is a photographer and so there were some amazing candid shots of Paul as a young teenage boy. It was an amazing two hours and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing their roots.

As we were camping at Birkenhead, which is on the southside of Liverpool, we drove down to the river and caught the Ferry across the Mersey! And yes, we listened to that song! As you approach the ferry terminal, you see some wonderful Art Deco-style buildings – the Cunard Building and the Lever Building, as well as the old Port Office. We also had the chance to explore the waterfront of Liverpool, finding the Maritime Museum, the Slavery Museum and the Customs Museum. Best of all, we are starting to get great weather every day… so does summer only start at the end of August and go for a couple of weeks?

Without really planning things, we have discovered that we were heading to Scotland up the west coast and so, looking at the map, the next place to stop would be the Lakes District. As it was the end of the summer holidays, we weren’t going to have much luck finding a campground that was affordable and close to sights, but we managed to score a nice spot to camp, right in Ambleside, near the top of Lake Windermere and it only cost us £10 a night. They provided fresh water and a dumping station for grey water, etc and we had the chance to give a good tryout to our solar panels & auxiliary batteries, as well as the Gaz-Low system. If you are Australian, you might be wondering was the Gaz-Low system is – well, in the UK, gas cylinders can be either Butane or Propane, but Gaz-Low is LPG and you fill-up at a petrol station just like you would an LPG car. Which means, you only pay for the gas you need and not a flat fee to fill a cylinder. It is also compatible with LPG on the Continent, so we won’t be plagued with not being able to buy gas because we have the “wrong” system.

Whilst at Ambleside, we did some walking, some cycling (which involved much walking and pushing of our bikes), and even more importantly we discovered the fun of picking blackberries from wild brambles whilst our walking. We could even pick fresh blackberries from behind Oscar to have with our breakfast every morning. We also experienced the local bus system which we used when we went to visit Beatrix Potter’s house. This wasn’t where she grew up but the house that she brought for herself once she had become an author and where she lived when she got married. And she was quite committed to the lifestyle of the area. For example, in her lifetime, she bought 14 farms and then leased them back to the farmers. She always had the stipulation that the farmers had to run a certain number of Herdwick sheep. Today they say that this breed of sheep is only still around because of Beatrix Potter!

Whilst in the Lakes District, we also had the chance to visit an old house (Sizergh House) which has been in the same family for 750+ years, and that family still live there today. The Strickland family were a Roman Catholic family during the Tudor era and were exiled with James II (last Stuart King) but they left their estate in the care of some reliable Protestant servants who delivered the estate back to the family when they returned from exile. But as you walk around the house, all the portraits are of family members from different eras, you see some amazing architecture, furniture and decorations and can only feel awed that it has been maintained like this.

We loved the Lakes District (who doesn’t?) but it was time to continue north to the border with a final overnight stop in Carlisle. We had time to visit Carlisle Castle which was really different to all the ruined castles we had seen so far – very Scottish (ie dour and practical)! Then it was off to Hadrians Wall – we chose to visit the Housestead Museum and the fort that is still very visible today. Again, a sense of awe at the construction and survival of the buildings over the last 1900 years!

But now we have crossed the border into Scotland and are spending a couple of nights with Andy & Maya, HU travellers. Och aye! That’s right, tomorrow we are off to explore Scotland before the forthcoming referendum to decide whether it will stay in the UK or separate! Must make sure we can get back across the border… just in case!