Another boring day in transit today! The alarm was set for 6.00am so that we could get to the airport in good time for our 10.40am flight to Chicago. It was cold, wet and miserable again today so not all that difficult to be leaving England behind - although we will certainly miss the Stalybridge hospitality. Kath and Albert saw us off at about 7.30am in their dressing gowns. With the weather no good for gardening I think they were going to go back to bed for a while. We had a smooth run to Manchester Airport arriving there in about 20 minutes. As American Airlines Flight 55 was departing from Terminal 3 we parked the Golf on the roof of the multi-story car park at Terminal 3. That seemed like the logical thing to do, ... read more

This weekend QE II's Diamond Jubilee is being officially celebrated and the whole of the country is being encouraged to join in by having street parties and BBQs. As these celebrations coincide with our last day in the UK, Kath and Albert organised a BBQ with some of the family and friends. While we were in Turkey, Colin purchased a new barbecue in preparation for Adam's 18th Birthday celebrations in July. As it is a charcoal burning barbecue he wanted to assemble it and try it out tonight so that he could get an idea of how long it takes to have a good bed of coals to cook over. Colin, Bernie and Albert spent a fair proportion of the afternoon putting the barbecue together before Colin went home for an hour or so before the ... read more

This morning dawned grey and overcast, but at least the rain had stopped! After settling our account at the Inglenook Guest House we went in search of Hardraw Force, a waterfall on the Hardraw Beck in Hardraw Scar, a wooded ravine just outside the hamlet of Hardraw which is not far from Hawes. The waterfall is a single drop of 100 feet from a rocky overhang, which makes it (allegedly) England's highest unbroken, aboveground waterfall. Its other claim to fame is that it was used as a location in the film 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' - in the scene where Maid Marian catches Robin Hood bathing under a waterfall. So, you would think that this waterfall would be easy to find wouldn't you???! Not so, for these two hapless Aussie tourists!! First, we had to ... read more

This morning we packed a few things in a bag and headed off for Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales in the vicinity of the Ribblehead Viaduct. Edna guided us smoothly from Stalybridge to the Manchester Ring Road and then off towards Burnley on the M66, A56 and the M65. After Burnley we cut across from Barrowford to Long Preston on the A682. About here we saw signposts for Giggleswick and Wigglesworth within a few miles of each other. English villages have such great names!! Soon after, we arrived in Ingleton at about 11.20am and headed to the Tourist Information Office. Despite lots of Internet research we decided that it might be handy to pick up some maps and guides. Brochures in hand, we headed around the back and used the facilities before cruising past the B&B ... read more

Dawn was at 4.48am this morning. I know this because I was wide awake to hear the first call to prayer broadcast this morning. For the last fortnight I have been blissfully unaware of the dawn call to prayer and I have slept right through it. Who knew that it set of a cacophony of roosters crowing and dogs barking that seemingly went on for hours?! Maybe I was awake due to the amount of alcohol still coursing through my veins, but then again, perhaps it was the amount of caffeine from three çais??? I am so going to do 'Dry July' to detox when I get home! Today we were in limbo for most of the day, just trying to fill in time until our flight back to Manchester late this evening. After breakfast Kath ... read more

Yay, the sun was shining today so we could do more of what we came here to do - laze around by the pool reading our books!! After sitting under an umbrella all morning we walked around to the Aqua Pool Snack Bar for pizzas for lunch. As we wandered back to the main swimming pool we picked up slushies from one of the other bars. Back poolside, we sheltered under the umbrella until it was after 3.00pm. We were nearly the only people by the pool making use of an umbrella!! With the sun past its most dangerous midday strength we actually sunbathed for a bit. Hot from the sun we finally ventured into the pool this afternoon. We had to make use of it at least once while we are here. After our dip ... read more