Beyond...

England.....

What to say... England thrives with beauty running from gushing rivers, with moors on either side, to little farmers houses made of stone and their long vast stretch of green that comes along with a million sheep and cows. The occasional Gypsy Cob, 

Clydesdale or some type of warm blood or heavy horse but no sign of the elegant Riding Ponies , Thoroughbreds or Arabs. Brooks run along beside grazing sheep and little lambs bah to their mothers. Blue bells... soft bells lingering in forests 

and Roman bridges leading you over small rivers or big streams. Little deer running towards you then realising you are a predator and fleeing. Squirrel's bouncy grey tails bobbing in and out of sight. The sound of birds crowing, calling, whistling and cackling. Cold, hot or warm England is always beautiful. Castles and forts , lakes and rivers all the same. Everywhere there is something beautiful.

RMS

ABBEY

It was another long journey - from India to Leicester took us around twenty hours from when we left our rooms in Delhi till we pulled in at Uncle Tom's driving in our new home. The camper is great so far. She could do with a paint job and has a knock in the wheel if you hit a bump but the mechanic looked at it and said it was safe and would cause no damage. Its very compact and we may not like each other after eight weeks but hopefully we survive! Gerard's cousin Tommy met us at the airport and directed us to where the van was parked.

He had driven it down to London for us. We headed off and promptly got lost taking us straight into the centre of London just one block short of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. We were glad to see UncleTom when we finally arrrived. We had dinner and fell into bed.

Tom looked after us well. We out matched his energy only because there were four of us. I am sure he was actually glad to have his house back when we finally left! 

We stayed three days in Leicester while we fiddled around gettting set up to go. Its rather a funny place... little India they say. Indian restaurants on every corner and Sari shops every where else. And Indians! Well officially there are less British in Leicester than the total of other nationalities. Gerard's cousin Mark came back from his weekend away and we had a good time catching up... which really should have been getting to know him...since we only met him briefly twenty years ago but it was rather like we knew him all along. Could be that we exchanged so many emails while he looked for vans for us! Or it could be the family connection, or perhaps just cause there was lots more good chat about things in common - how minds work!! Gerard will tell you the story of having our car impounded but eventually we got on the road.

We headed to North Wales via Birmingham where I was born. In fact the A5 ran right past Sutton Park where my Grandad spent so much time gathering leaf mould for his garden and when he was young he swam in the lakes, and where he took us when we were kids. We swung into Kingstanding (where Nanny did her shopping), bought some lunch, drove up Collindale Rd said 'hi' to the house where I was born and then went to the Park for a picnic. The house and streets were much smaller and shorter than I remember – Grandad's front lawn was tiny!! But the park was the same. 

The big old oaks, the holly bushes, deep leaf litter and grey squirrels the wooded paths, the open park land, the little streams, people walking their dogs. There was even an ice cream van and we all had a cone with a flake!!

We made it to Snowdon National Park by dinner time had a meal at a pub and pottered on again looking for some where to stop. Eventually we pulled into a farm that, like everyone else had camping sites. It was ideal actually. The farmer owned all the land around mount Snowdon with many walks. It was very picturesque and the weather was absolutely perfect!!

Camille

Hi every one!

The last couple of weeks have passed very quickly and in the small amount of time we have done many things. Did someone tell you about the police man and our van? Well, I will tell you anyway!

We were driving towards a set of lights and Mum saw the police dude give us 'the look' anyway wee turned into the road and kept driving. The police man (Can I just call him cop?) on the motor bike drove next to us and asked Dad to pull over, so Dad did and the cop (cop sounds like he is bad so I'll call him PM police man) told Dad that the car was uninsured. Dad said,

“It is insured'.

He pointed at the French insurance sticker. The PM walked up and had a look.

Any way the PM didn't think that French insurance counted! At that point Mum, Abbey and I were all taken to jail!(Joking)

No we were not taken to jail but we did go to a Internet cafe and I answered some of my emails....

Ok anyway the PM took our van away! But we got it back! Dad has probably told you the rest...

After staying in Lester for some days we drove all the way to Wales and parked in a millionaire farmers camping ground! He owned both sides of the valley!

The Welsh country side looks quite barren from a car window but when you're actually in the grass you can see the little flowers and moss that is every where.

The day after we arrived we walked to Mt. Snowdon (The highest peak in both Wales and England).

 The path winded it's way through sheep fields and looked over a small stream. It was not as hard as Triund but it was still a challenge! Abbey and I walked slower than Mum and Dad and we enjoyed the views. England/Wales seems to me much older than any country I have been to. The crumbling hill sides, the old walls and ruins are just around every corner. It seem millions of years older - the land it's self, not just the ruins - every thing seems old! The height of the mountains gave us an all round view of the valley.

There is a train on Snowdon and I wished that we could have been on the train...!

We had almost reached the summit when something - maybe a bug - flew into my eye and I had to walk to rest of the way up with only one eye. We had a Hot Choc at the top and started the long and weary walk to the camper.

That night when we got to the camper there were millions of people camping in our once quiet field. We had Tuna Mornae it was so nice to have a home cooked meal.

The next day we walked to a lake with huge hills on each side protecting it from the noise of the train and the many cars. For the half an hour we stayed there Mum became a pro photographer to the extent that she started to move a old cows head all over the country side!

 Abbey and I waded in the cold water until we came on a stream that flowed into the lake. We stepped into the stream and our feet were frozen off our bodies. When we ran back into the lake it was comparatively warm!

Sitting on the side of the lake after having lunch I looked around and really 'took in' our surroundings. This place was so still, almost frozen in time (except for the men on the the other side of the river playing Coldplay and Beyoncé) cows grazed on the thick grass and sheep bleeted and Baahed. It is impossible to describe....

Well we have moved on now and have seen many different things in the past few days and if I had to describe them all it would take ages!

One of the fun things is 'wild camping', that is where you pull over on a stretch of grass beside the road and camp. 

We went on a walk on a reserve and saw our first blue bell woods! The trees towered high above the carpet of blue flowers, with a small wet land and even a deer or two (I didn't see one!) made our first wild night even nicer!

The next day we went to The Beatrice Potter Attraction. It was so sweet! There were models of all of her characters just like they are in her drawings! Hunca Monca, Peter Rabbit, Mr. Jeremy fisher and Mrs. Tiddlemouse! You could walk into their houses and some times if you looked up their was squirrel's perched on branches of trees! 

It was a little kids dream! So cute to see all of those fun little rabbits and mice etc!

We drove on to our next camping spot, on the way we stopped at an old roman fort and found out that IT IS SOOO COLD I AM FREEZING WHILE WRITING THIS SO YOU BETTER ENJOY IT!!!!!!!!!!!

this is our first opportunity to blog for like years sorry!

Write More Soon

Frances

P.S

When I had a shower the water was not even hot and my feet started to kill me because the showers water was toooooo hot for my poor cold feet! (that is how cold it is!!) BRRRRRR!

Hi there. Well, Frances told you a bit about the PM and the van. Turns out he was doing random rego checks and the van came up as uninsured! Jacqui and Mark helped sort it, and after a trip to Hinkley Police Station, the showing of insurance documents, we were provided with the necessary papers to release the van from the holding station. After that, and the 150 pounds impound fee (which we should get back when we put in the request....but of course its more complicated that that!) we were ready to roll.

The van just yesterday climbed up a high and twisty pass (two in fact) and we landed in the famous Lakes district. The land of Lakes is full of Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit and Scar Feld Pike, the highest mountain in England, and spectacular walks and of course lakes. We intend to climb the Pike today, weather permitting. One of the passes we conquered, called Hard Knott pass, is the highest in all of England, with the steepest, tightest and most twisting bends...the guy at the van site said we were among the fortunate few to make it successfully in a camper! The other pass is called Wry Nose, and 'tis true that they both had my heart pumping as we negotiated the bends, the oncoming traffic (the road mostly a very narrow lane with multiple passing points), the especially once revving engine and sliding tyres, and relief as we reached the second 'summit'. But the way down from Hard Knott was even more twisty and steep! We definitely wouldn't have made it travelling west to east, as the descent from Hard Knott was soooooo steep as Frances would put it.

See you, Gerard