Today we headed off to Haworth, Yorkshire where we had arranged to catch up with our Australian friends, Janet and Jill, who are also over here in England at the moment. Not planning to arrive in Haworth until later in the afternoon we programmed the SatNav for Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham near Burnley. Siri took us there by way of the M60 ring road around the north-eastern quadrant of Greater Manchester and then on to the M66 and A56 heading north. Just for a change this is National Trust property rather than an English Heritage property!Described as an Elizabethan gem in the heart of industrial Lancashire it is also affectionately referred to as the ‘Downton of the North’ because it was redesigned in the 1850s by Sir Charles Barry the designer of the Houses of Parliament ... read more

This morning we decided to take a different route over the peaks so made our way to the A57 and over Snake Pass to Ladybower Reservoir. We stopped briefly at the reservoir mainly to take a couple of photos that show how low the water level is. We took one photo looking north towards the Derwent Reservoir and another from the A6013 looking north-westerly. We re-programmed the SatNav for Roche Abbey and continued on the A57 towards Sheffield. Siri helped us to negotiate through Sheffield and then onto the A630 before directing us to the M1 motorway heading south. We were only on the M1 for a few miles before Siri guided us onto the M18 heading north at the next interchange. At the first interchange on the M18 we exited onto the A631 towards Gainsborough. ... read more

Yet another beautiful day was forecast for today so we re-traced our route from yesterday over the peaks, but turned south on the M1 when we reached the motorway. We remained on the M1 until Siri guided us into Bolsover via the scenic route through the industrial estate! It was a little bit tricky finding a park at Bolsover Castle. The main car park was full and we drove straight past the entrance to the overflow car park before we realised it was the overflow car park for the castle. Bernie eventually managed a three point turn on the steep, narrow road down the hill from the castle and we returned to the overflow car park. Car sorted we walked back to the main car park only to discover that it’s adjacent to a pub. The ... read more

Feeling much better this morning I was determined to record some meaningful activity today! After breakfast we walked down into Stalybridge via Cheetham Park to pick up a chicken and some tomatoes from Tesco for dinner tonight. It was a beautiful sunny morning to be out walking. We were very worried that the weather would break the minute we arrived and we would be blamed for bringing England’s fabulous summer to and end! Thanks to the walk back up the hill to Kath and Albert’s I achieved my 30 minutes of exercise target before lunchtime. After lunch we drove up to Uppermill on Saddleworth Moor to watch Kath and Albert’s granddaughters, India and Amelia, play in the St John Mossley Brass Band. As we drove over the moor we could see where the wildfires burned between ... read more

We didn’t pack an Apple Watch charger in our hand luggage so both our watches went flat during our layover in Dubai. Oops, just when I was closing in on a new longest move streak. I only had three days to go!! Ah well, it was always going to be difficult anyway being cooped up on aeroplanes for the best part of 24 hours. It was early Friday morning local time by the time we were due to continue our journey to Manchester. Fortunately we didn’t need to change terminals at Dubai and, in fact, only had a fairly short walk from our arrival gate to the lounge and then to our departure gate. Sometimes it’s much more of a marathon effort when transiting through Dubai!! We pushed back from the terminal pretty much on time, ... read more