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Published: July 20th 2006
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Part I
We had been counting down for 55 days and - at last- we were on ‘0’. 19th May 2006 and we were all set to go. By midday the car was packed and we drove the 245 kms (152 miles) to Kalgoorlie where Linda had her hair cut whilst Howard went into his office to hand over the reins for 4 weeks. We caught the evening flight to Perth where we picked up the first of our rental cars and went to Natalie (daughter number 1) and Harry’s for an overnight stay where Natalie cooked a BBQ for us.
20th May 2006 - Saturday
Today we did some shopping in Perth and went to look at caravans before going to the airport to pick up Natalie. Harry’s company had flown her and other wives/family up to West Angeles, near Newman, for the day so they could see the mine and accommodation. The three of us then drove down to Port Bouvard where we were to stay the night with Di and Richard as Mum was taking us all out to dinner in Mandurah that evening.
21st May - Sunday
After dropping Natalie off at
home we drove to the Perth International airport and checked in for our flight with Thai Airways, due out at 1650. Our big case was just within the weight limit - forgot we could only pack 33 kg in one case - poor baggage handlers! Thai Airways uses the Qantas Lounge for Business Class passengers so we went there for 1½ hours of drinking and nibbles. It has to be noted that this lounge is not as good as the Qantas lounge at the domestic terminal.
The plane to Bangkok was an Airbus 737. We had booked window seats and had personal video screen in one chair arm and table stowed in the other. The seats did not fully recline but we did manage a sleep after an excellent dinner preceded by champagne or orange juice prior to take-off. The flight to Bangkok took 12 hours 30 minutes and we arrived around midnight (Bangkok is 1 hour behind Perth) after being woken 1½ hours before landing, for breakfast. We had about 2 hours to wait in Bangkok in the Thai Airways lounge before boarding our jumbo jet to Heathrow.
Linda had managed to book the last two seats
upstairs! We were most impressed with the lockers beside the window seat, which saved having to use the ones overhead and we also liked the 160º reclining seats with privacy screens. After being fed again we were able to get a nice long sleep - I watched a film - The Pink Panther with Steve Martin. Woken again for more food before landing in Heathrow at 0730 when the ladies in Business Class received an orchid. We were fast tracked through customs and immigration and our luggage was off the plane first so we were soon on the courtesy bus to the Avis car rental area where we arrived and were on the road by 0900. Our name was up in lights outside the office with the bay number for our car, a Peugeot 407 estate car (wagon) with only 1000 miles on the clock. Never having encountered this car before it took some time before our intrepid driver found ‘reverse’ and worked out all the bells and whistles. Avis had a promotion on in Australia so we got a double upgrade if renting in the UK - very nice!
The first bit of excitement we encountered when we
found the M3 motorway was a traffic accident on the opposite side of the road slowing our side to a crawl (rubber- neckers). We had bought a big Phillips Road Atlas in Perth before leaving so were able to get around Britain very nicely and find some interesting roads!
As we weren’t sure how long it would take us to get down to Cornwall we booked a B&B in Chumleigh, Devon. We had drizzle all day with some sunny periods. Howard was thrilled to be able to drive fast on the motorways and got up to 140 kph (87mph) and beyond on some stretches! Very exciting considering the fastest legal limit is 110kph (68mph) even when the roads are dead straight and not a car in sight!
Later that day Linda did manage to find a nice ‘C’ class road with very high hedges together with a lady with a pony and trap. After leaving the M3 we travelled on the A303 and stumbled across Stonehenge. Had no idea we were there although we were aware we were travelling across Salisbury Plain. There it was right at the side of the main road so we did a ‘U’
turn and stopped on double yellow lines for a quick picture.
We stopped for a ploughman’s lunch in a small village pub and had cider as we were in cider country.
Our stop for the night was the Old Bakehouse in Chumleigh built in 1540’s complete with thatched roof and 17th century staircase with very uneven risers. The floor in our front bedroom was so uneven that the bed was on the slant and the ensuite bathroom was on the slant too. We had a bit of difficulty with the shower, which was over the bath with no curtain and nowhere to hook the shower. Howard finished up throwing the showerhead over his shoulder!!!
After a shower we went off to the local pub for locally made cider and to try and find cold beer for Howard.
Today we crossed the North Downs, Salisbury Plain, Cranbourne Chase and the Blackdown Hills and went through Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset & Devon
199 miles or 318 kms today
23rd May 2006 - Tuesday
We had a wonderful breakfast - most unusual in a B&B to get a breakfast menu! We learned from the son that
this part of the country is leading the way in wind farms and we were to see a lot of them throughout Britain on our travels.
We crossed the Tamar River, which separates Cornwall from the rest of Britain just outside Launceston and took several of Howard’s favourite C roads to Padstow on the north coast of Cornwall. We wanted to come here, as it was in that Richard Bishop who is Olive Wade’s (Linda’s grandmother) maternal grandfather was born.
Padstow was rather disappointing as it was full of tourists, but still a pretty fishing village. There is still a member of the family living in the village but she was not at home when we were there. We had a hailstorm but it only lasted a few minutes. Howard had his first Cornish pasty here and we tried Cornish ice cream. We saw Rick Stein’s ( famous chef) restaurant, cooking school, café and fish & chip shop - children’s meal here was £3.95 ($9.85), £7.25 ($18.00) for fish and chips and a tasting plate at the restaurant was £65.00 ($152.00) - a bit over the top!
The main roads in Cornwall were very narrow and we
met lots of large trucks and
tractors today. We managed to see at least one tractor on the road every day of our time in Britain.
St Minver was our next stop to see St Menefreda Church built in the 12th century where Richard Bishop’s father was christened in 1804
And then it was on to look at Polzeath a surfing beach…………………………
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