The Epic Adventure Around England Day 4 Birmingham to Manchester

Day 4 started bright and very early in order to get out of Birmingham before the traffic hit. We headed straight towards Ashbourne on the very edge of the Peak District after managing to find a car park we headed into a tea house for some much deserved breakfast (elevenses for some of us). After a bit of shopping in Dorothy Perkins in Ashbourne we headed up through the peak district. Along amazingly small windy roads to a beautiful spot called Dovedale where we walked along the river and across some stepping stones a very relaxing and very English thing to do.

On our way again we headed up through the peak district to the insane town of Castleton. This place is absolutely insane. The pictures don't do it justice and only going there could explain it is so small and windy and all built of stone. Our destination was a cavern called the 'Devil's Arse.' There are heaps of caves and tunnels all around the area and there are a few you can do tours through. After saying no to the tour that took you in a boat down a very small tunnel in the pitch black we decided the 'devils arse' was for us. The cave was amazing and a bit spooky, their used to be an actual township inside the front of the cave it is that big. Then it became a rope factory, we saw how they hand made the rope which was pretty cool. Probably the best bit was our guide a rough and ready English man who was a bit nutty. He told us heaps of stories about the legends of the caves about the Queens visit and how it got its name the devils arse. They call it that because when it rains really heavily the bottom of the cave floods when the water recedes it is like a huge bath when you take the plug out. Apparently it makes a gurgling noise that you can hear in the town itself and so it is called the devils arse. I love it.

Adventures in the cave over and we finally found a loo. Fiona was practically running to make it. We found some lunch in another tiny town on the edge of the Peak district called Chapel-en-le-frith (something like that) and we bolted to make it to Lyme Park.

Lyme Park was a huge moment for me. It is where they filmed the Lake scene in Pride and Prejudice. Fiona and I were nearly losing it. There were tears in my eyes. We were too late to look through the house. But a lovely young man (elderly gent) told us girls all about the architecture and stuff which was very cool. We could walk around the back and into the deer park to see the outside of the house though which was absolutely fabulous.

After the emotional Mr Darcy experience we were off headed towards Manchester for the night. Not going to say much about Manchester none of us really liked it and we didn't do much there. The funniest thing that happened was that at the pub I asked the barman for a 10 inch steak instead of a 10 ounce steak and I went bright red, he told all the barmen and we had to leave as soon as we had finished eating.

The Epic Adventure Around England Day 3 Bath to Birmingham

Well I thought I would never get around to writing this. We woke up early on Monday to get organised to go to the amazing cheese rolling in Gloucester. On the way out of Bath we had a look at the amazing town that it is. We went to the Royal Circus and the Royal something else I can't remember the name of but it was amazing you can see why this is the centre of Jane Austen stuff. You felt out of place traipsing around in normal clothes.

On the way to Gloucester we stopped at this cool little town called Stroud. On a mission to buy picnic supplies for the cheese rolling festivals we stopped at this quaint little town. We found the only shop open was a crazy sports shop where everything was reduced by about 50% so luckily for Fiona, who still only had thongs and no jacket, we shopped till we dropped. Eventually after making our way to the supermarket and stocked up we continued to the cheese rolling.

Nothing could have prepared us for the absolute insanity of the cheese rolling. We only walked a little way up the hill, our excuse was that Fiona was wearing thongs, but it was very steep and very muddy. We scored a vantage point at the back but up the hill so we could see a lot of the action.

Watching people throw themselves (literally) down a hill is fabulous. Watching others try and race up the hill was just as hilarious. We also spent a lot of time laughing at the people who were watching and sliding down the hill or equally as amusing trying to climb the path upwards.

I do have video footage to show everyone but the photos and video don't make it clear what craziness it actually is.

On the way out of the car park/paddock our adventures continued as we very quickly became aware that we would not be able to get out of the paddock by ourselves. Making good friends with Oscar the man with the tractor got us all a tractor ride as well as getting the car out.

On the way back to Birmingham we stopped at Stratford Upon Avon, tired and dirty we didn't really have the energy to explore but we did anyway. We need to go back and do it properly but it was amazing to see Shakespeare's House and I even found Payton Street which was fun.

Finally at Fiona's in Birmingham we collapsed into bed after yummy fish and chips another amazing day exploring England.

The Epic Adventure Day 2 London to Bath

Well after a long long night and very little sleep we said goodbye to my housemate in London and set off for the countryside. It was great to finally get out of the city. The fact that it was raining very heavily didn't dampen our spirits ha ha ha. We had a quick pit stop and a bacon sarnie on the road heading towards Stonehenge.

On the way we bagged the girls about their antics from the night before and sang our way through the 4 or so Cd's that we had in the car.

When we got to Stonehenge we decided that the 6 pounds each it was going to cost us to get in wasn't worth it so we and many others who are just as tight, parked the car up the road (hoping it didn't get bogged) and legged it down the road to look at Stonehenge through the fence. Not that big a deal when you have been to the circles at Orkney but still it was a bit of a moment for all of us. Except Fiona who was wearing her thongs and decided it was best to stay in the car.

From Stonehenge we travelled towards Woodhenge (again viewed from the car) and up towards Avebury. Having heard about Avebury from Georgi we weren't disappointed. We could walk around and touch these stones. Despite the rain. It is an amazing area filled with unexplainable things like a huge man made hill that sits quite close to Avebury or the stone and wooden circles themselves.

Because of the rain we decided to call it a day and headed towards Bath our stop for the night. Bath was a city I was expecting to be cool and it was. It is small though and very tourist friendly. thankfully the rain kept some of the more obnoxious tourist types away and after finding the hostel and our rooms we went to explore bath. unfortunately it was too late for us to go into the Roman Baths but we did look around the city and the Bath Abbey which even had an Australian Memorial (to captain cook I think).

We found ourselves a local pub for some food and after a short fight about the last two roast chicken dinners we decided to check out the crazy locals according to the bar lady the insanely drunk group of youngen's all of which had bizarrely cut off jeans had just finished their exams. They finally got kicked out but we quite enjoyed watching their drunken debacles. Excellent though the pub was, it closed early due to it being Sunday and we headed back to the hostel where we met our roommates for the night two American girls travelling around England. We stayed up for hours mucking around it felt very much like a giggly girls room on school camp.

The epic adventure...

OK so I don't know what's happening with this blog my last post isn't here. I will choose to blame the computer. I thought I should catch people up on our latest adventures around England over the last week that we had off.

Well I took the Friday the girls were coming down to Birmingham off from school and to get my haircut and to have a sleep before the whirlwind of being on holidays. Despite my best efforts - emailing Fiona directions to my house in London the girls got totally lost. They did arrive hungry and tired at about 10.30 after the grand tour of my house we decided sleep was high on the agenda.

Day 1 - Today saw us travel through London out onto the South of the river. I had never been to the dark side, it was pretty much the same as this side. We left fairly late in the morning after a sleep in and we predictably got stuck in traffic. It was a long long long car trip down to Brighton. By the time we got to the famous pebble beach all we wanted to do was go to the loo and eat lunch. After lunch we explored the insanity that is Brighton beach. There were even life guards, it was only about 13 degrees. But it was the first day of the swimming season. i don't know why anyone would want to swim, or even lay on the beach, those pebbles hurt. The day was great heaps of people were at the seaside so it was fun to be amongst the British as they were on holiday. Today was crowned the day of the ass. We saw a man riding a bike along the way to Brighton with his trousers quite a way down. Then we saw a nudie run on the beach. It was all happening in Brighton.

When we got back to London we decided to frock up and get ready for a night out. Rachel set herself up a date and we met him at a pub in the centre of town. Needless to say the night progressed and ended up at an Australian Pub until 3 in the morning. Marylois and Rachel both had massive nights pulling the boys. I just danced myself silly, we heard heaps of Kris Kross. Obviously a crowd favourite in the UK. Onto day 2 later....

I Am Back!

Before I get into the details of the mammoth trip around the UK. Which will have to be published in small chunks. Just wanted to say a big hello to everyone going to Corryong for the long weekend have a safe trip up and back.

I am in honey saffron quiche remission send me some over please.....

Today was the first day back at school for me. I am beginning to think I did the wrong thing taking on another year over here but oh well. I can't go back now.... I will be teaching the kids I have in reception this year next year in Year 1 and they are feral, actually I take that back the majority of them are fabulous there are a few which are giving me nightmares already.

Enough about work, it is time for me to go to bed.

I promise tomorrow I will start on the epic adventure blog, i promise, really i do...

Hello all, I am trying to keep this up to date. Not much is happening in London. It is over 20 degrees so people are whinging about how hot it is, I must admit it does feel quite warm but I am definately not complaining.

I have been sick for a couple of weeks, just the flu but not much fun. It is hard to get better because I couldn't really afford to take any time off.

Tomorrow is the start of our big adventure around England I can't wait!!! The girls are coming down from Birmingham tomorrow night and I am ready for a big one.

Life goes on in London. The big news over here is still the little girl lost in Spain. Nobody can believe what is happening.

My life is pretty boring just working and trying to work out my plans for summer. Hoping to get some visits from people from home hint hint hint very soon.

Miss you all

Love H

Oxford and Warwick

My poor old blog has been left to its own devices for far to long and now that we are borrowing Internet at home for the next week or so I thought it was time to let everyone know what has been happening in not so sunny London.

Last weekend was a bank holiday or long weekend for May Day. I took full advantage of this fact and planned a trip to Oxford to visit the fabulous Georgi and Anthony. Armed with an 8 pound return train ticket (An absolute bargain) I got on the train on Friday night and sped my way to Oxford. Little was I to know it was the beginning of an amazing boozy weekend.

I was met at the station and chauffeured (that's right Ants get to use the work car sometimes) to the pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien used to go to drink and chat with the 'inklings.' Yep that's right very very cool, also very small. Then we had a fab Japanese dinner. I knew this weekend was going to be great.

On Saturday Georgi played tour guide and took me around all of oxford. The architecture is absolutely beautiful. We of course broke up the day with many visits to the pub. We even had lunch at this cool cafe (it was almost like being at home) in the undercover market.

Sunday and we ventured out to Woodstock to see Blenheim Palace. I was inspired to talk like a rich toff in a very bad upper class English accent for most of the day which Georgi bless her put up with like a trooper. We paid to go into the Palace grounds and we watched a falconry and jousting show which was actually really funny.

That night after a quick pint at the pub Georgi and I went to visit her locals at the Half Moon, there was music and hilarity from everyone packed into the pub. It was great. Georgi sang some songs and we listened to some amazing music. I was obsessed with watching the fiddle (violin) players fingers as they moved so so fast.

We woke up Monday morning and it was pissing down with rain, underterred we travelled to Warwick Castle with Anthony (who had to work the whole weekend). Looking for sustenance we headed to the pub for breakfast yep that's right breakfast. We ate the biggest sausage and bacon sarni's I have ever seen they were sooooo good.

Warwick Castle proved to be fabulous as well, some parts a little touristy but mostly very cool. I was disappointed the trebuchet was out of action, but I have bought a return ticket so i can go back. I took heaps and heaps of photos.

I absolutely loved Oxford, dashing young studious types running around in academic robes, a million old pubs, space and meadows, it is much more laid back than London. Much more like home.

So when I go back I will have to go punting and to see heaps of the other things that Oxford has to offer. Thanks Georgi and Ants