Fountains Abbey

The sun came out for long enough (just) for a quick game of tennis (the English team won 6-5) and then a walk around Fountains Abbey - quite spectacular despite Henry’s attempt to demolish the thing.

Note: the black things on the grass are in fact shadows - quite a rare occurrence during our stay.

And we even managed a quick game of football in the evening. The score was 7-2 to the boys but the oldies actually won the game using the "next goal wins" scenario at the end.

So, it's all coming to an end. One more country to go and we'll be back home. England has been fantastic and being able to stay with Nick, Sarah, Will, James and Tom has just been brilliant (special thanks to James for letting us kick him out of his room for a week).

The Dales and Lakes

We spent 3 days exploring the Yorkshire Dales and Lakes districts. It was a bit wet, but this made all the pubs much more cosy!

The Dales

The Lakes

Aysgarth falls


Bolton Castle, where Mary Queen of Scotts was exiled.


Mary Queen of Scotts loo. Ben was very impressed a royal loo!


Bolton village from the castle

A moor with sheep


Hot pork pie in the car.



One of the many rivers almost in flood.


The Fox and Hound one of the lunch stops



The Crown in Hawes where we stayed the night.

Huddersfield

We spent a half a day in Huddersfield having lunch with Heather and Richard and a look at where my grandparents and family lived before they moved to Australia. We forgot to take the camera so there are not many photos, sorry.


Heather and Richard





The view from Heather and Richards House

Kirkby Overblow (England)

We arrived in England after Morocco and for the first time in 2 months people could actually understand us (mostly) when we went to get directions. It was great! We caught the train from Luton to Kings Cross, and then to York. Nick and William came to get us in York and take us to Kirkby Overblow, a very nice English village in Yorkshire including two very nice pubs. The next day we went around the Black Sheep Brewery which is a medium sized brewery in England specialising in English ales.

The Black Sheep Brewery tour, with the Yorkshire Squares fermenters (yes, we know they're round) in the background.


Sarah holding tolding Toby, the very nice horse.


Ben riding through the Yourkshire countryside.


The view from Nick and Sarah's house

The Shoulder of Mutton, with a good trivia night in which I think we came last as there was only one question that we could answer.

The other pub in the village