We’re stopping the night at the marina for an early start in the morning where we met up with some other canal boaters and ended up having drinks with them; so much for an early night. [View Full Entry]

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Made our way back down the canal and have stopped by a beautiful Mere. A mere is like a lake but it doesn’t have water running in or out of it they were formed in the ice age, (that’s the one thing you needed to learn today). [View Full Entry]

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So much for loosing a couple of kilo before I left home; we went to the bakery to get some rolls for a healthy lunch and came out with Cornish pasties, Oggies (puff pastry meat pasties) and some cakes - again! It’s been great to hear so many people speaking Welsh. A little 3yo girl was being told off by her father for crying, amazing to think that she can understand such a complicated language. Speaking of language; Lucy came out of the bath today with pink cheeks and I asked her why she hopped out so soon? She said ‘it [View Full Entry]

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We're staying in Llangollen another night, it's just so pretty. We took a one mile walk up to an old monks abbey, Valle Crucis Abbey, from the 1200's. Half of it has fallen down from a fire but there is a section still in tact where we we able to climb upstairs to where the monks slept. [View Full Entry]

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Another lovely sunny spring day. We’ve traveled to Langollen (pronounced Langothlen) in Northern Wales. Wow. It’s a historic medieval market town and so so pretty. It’s in a deep valley with a river running through the middle. We’ve had a wander around and seen a house dating back to the 1600’s. [View Full Entry]

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- I spoke too soon about the weather; it’s raining, but luckily just very lightly. We stopped at a little pub for lunch, roast pork for only 5.5pounds. We are now traveling through Wales and the sun is out again. Sitting in the hedges are rabbits with their babies and there are so many ducks with their ducklings, and we just saw a squirrel, spring is amazing here. My job as first mate is to open the locks and bridges. So far there have been other people (men) around who like to take over but I’ve got the hang of it. [View Full Entry]

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We’ve just picked up the narrowboat, making our way to our first stop for the night out the front (back?)of a canalside pub. It was booked out so dinner on the boat for tonight. This is great, a leisurely cruise going through meadows of cows, sheep with their new lambs jumping around, daffodils and wild flowers on the river bank and trees full of blossoms and new spring leaves. Everyone is so friendly, there are lots of permanent canal folk and they just chat and chat, we sometimes have to just start walking away. We have been blessed with the weather, [View Full Entry]

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Fri 25th April- Found a car without too much fuss, but thank god for the GPS, it would have been a nightmare if we had to find our way by maps. It cost us 600pounds (Aust$1350) for the car but then we found out we have to have insurance by law which cost 525pound for the year (we’ll get 9 months refund at the end though). 3pm and we are out of greater London on the motorway to Stow on the Wold, our adventure has now officially started now that we’ve finished organizing the car, internet etc. Everything is so green [View Full Entry]

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We made it. I had my doubts when I saw the Korean Air plane. Flying in it to Sydney would be dodgy but for 10 hours over deep seas was a scary thought, and to top it off, only one English movie (no personal movie screens). I also realize now why we don’t see Korean restaurants around, yuk. First stop Seoul, great 5 star hotel but kind of in the airport carpark, it was too far to go into the city. Thurs 24th April- Finally @7pm, Chiswick Hotel (pronounced Chisick). The hotel is old and basic, as expected for only 65p, [View Full Entry]

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