England

*Driving in the Lake District - Honister Pass*

We debated back and forth whether or not to do an England blog (Andy, yes!, Dawn no!). We have popped in and out of the country over several months, visiting English family, completing extended trips in other UK countries and Ireland, and using it as a base to fly back and forth to see US family. We do not imagine this will be a highly useful blog to those planning a trip to England or an overlanding route. But in the end, there is a sense of completion in writing up our time there and it is a tool for our aging travel addled brains to remember what we did. (Truth here, we almost accidentally visited a castle twice - luckily we realized before we drove all the way there but still mortifying)

Much was familiar given our family background and we did not dive into the history with a thirst for knowledge as we have in other countries which were brand new to us. But we still discovered new territory and fell in love with some rugged land (the Lake District) that we had not visited before.

Highlights for us - in order of visit, not priority

London - atmospheric streets with history, art and architecture on every street corner
Bath - steeped in Roman history
Cotswolds - quintessentially British villages, yellow stone houses with thatched rooves and gorgeous English gardens
Hadrian’s Wall - wrapping our brains around the history and impact of a wall built in 122 AD at the orders of Roman emperor Hadrian
Lake District - rugged mountain pass, beautiful hiking
Stratford-upon-Avon (Dawn) - all things Shakespeare
Peak District - scenic hiking and beautiful small villages
North Yorkshire - a beautiful mix of moors and agriculture - peaceful and wild

*Our crazy England driving route - broken up over a few months with other countries inbetween*

First stop - Heathrow (truly one of the most horrific airports - who puts in only elevators for crowds of people with suitcases? and the only airport we have seen that charges for drop offs for departures) - but then a quick exit to London. We have found the best strategy for us to visit the city is to find a guest house in a suburb near an underground station. Must less expensive, and easy to park the truck in a safe place.

London is a city to be wandered around - there is so much to see and sometimes the best places are surprises. Here is a photographic tour of our ramblings over a couple of days:

*Dawn is a Sherlock Holmes fan so even though the address posted here is pretty much made up for tourists, Baker Street was a must*

From London we went south to visit the coast. It was April so we were blessed with clear cool days. As has been the case throughout Britain, wild camping sites are few and far between but we found several pleasant spacious camping sites on farmer’s fields.

We did a fantastic scenic walk at Beachy Head then visited Eastbourne and Brighton. It was early for these summer holiday centers so there was a sense of visiting a concert venue before the audience arrives. Infrastructure was being built on the beaches, empty food stands being erected. We quite liked it - preferred it to crowds.

*Beachy Head cliffs - beautiful walking*

*Royal Pavilion - built over the 18th and 19th centuries as a royal residence*

Continuing our tour of iconic English sites, we wound through the countryside. Many of these were re-visits for us so we opted not to pay admission fees but enjoyed admiring the exterior beauty and sense of history.

*Feeling anachronistic driving the truck through ancient arches in Salisbury*

*Having fun with the lego model of our truck that our son Trevor designed for us, camping near Stonehenge*

*Fantastic wild camping area, free and as close as you can yet to to the mysterious rocks by vehicle*

Our life on the road story for Exeter - we walked the city looking for a fax machine as our German insurance company - Tour Insure - requested fax confirmation of payment for our European truck insurance. We visited a copy shop, the post office and made our way to the university. No fax machine to be found, a dinosaur of the past decade. Finally we called them and were able to complete the transaction by phone. We could have done that in the beginning but it was an interesting if unsuccessful scavenger hunt.

Next stop, Dartmoor National Park. Vast expanses of moor, open uncultivated heath.

*Gutter Tor loop - 4.8 miles of sweeping views and historical sites*

We left the wild bleak moors and headed for town life. Bath was our favorite town in England. Inhabited and built by a succession of Romans, Saxons and Normans there was extraordinarily beautiful architecture everywhere you looked. It was a place we felt that we could return someday for a month or more and spend more time exploring (other cities we have felt this way about so far, Bruges and Edinburgh).

*When in England, amazing fish and chips*

*Streets of Bath with our free walking tour guide*

*The actual Roman Baths - well worth a visit*

Our driving tour continued, through Avebury with its beautiful and mysterious stone circles and into the Cotswolds.

*Avebury stone circles - no barriers, unlike Stonehenge*

*Andy doublechecking our height so we can accurately navigate height barriers -increasingly common in parking areas in Europe*

*Walking through fields lined with amazing stone walls*

We continued our journey, stopping along the way to saturate our senses with architectural splendor.

Andy had read about Holy Island and it was a fascinating day trip. The island is only accessible at low tide when the road slowly becomes visible, rising through the water. We went a little early.

*Holy Island access road, still partly under water*

*Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, built on a rock as so many castles are*

*Walking the nature areas on Holy Island*

Next stop was Hadrian’s wall which was every bit as impressive as we had hoped. We started at The Sill visitor center in Once Brewed then drove across the road to the trailhead and walked east.

*Camping in a public parking area for Hadrian’s wall sites*

*Hadrian’s Wall -the classic sycamore tree photo (we waited 20 mins for a shot free of other tourists in neon colored raincoats)*

*Hadrian’s Wall - built to protect the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire in 122AD*

The Lake District was up next on our itinerary and in retrospect we wished we had spent more time there. The Honister Pass drive was extraordinary and rugged - reminding us of the Scottish Highlands.

*Lake District - Malham Cove hike - 5 mile loop walking trail*

*Official campground night - Lake District area, wild camping highly discouraged*

*Dawn’s happy morning place - coffee in bed*

*Beautiful river side site after we left the Lake District*

And then, to Dawn’s favorite place in England, Stratford-upon-Avon. A self-professed Shakespeare geek, she filled her artistic soul touring the town and seeing multiple history plays (you may have noticed she inserts a Shakespeare quote somewhat randomly into every blog page)

*Waiting with baited breath for the opening of the War of Roses - where else in the world can you see this play then visit the Earl of Warwick’s castle the next day???*

*Convenient camping place in Stratford - at the racetrack*

*Warwick Castle - beautiful and fun to visit after seeing Shakespeare plays with the Earl of Warwick as a character. But expensive and being run by Merlin Enterprises with an overtone of a theme park.*

*Joined by some overlanders at the racetrack - we were missing the annual UK Adventure Overland show by two days*

Dawn left Stratford happy and full and we headed to London to fly home to celebrate our daughter Claire’s college graduation. Stopped by Oxford for the day to walk around.

And then another college - so proud of Claire with her OSU business degree and happy to spend time with all three of our children (Nicholas, Claire, Trevor). Although we live full time in our camper, (it’s been two years!) we manage to fly back and see them every few months

A delightful two weeks with family, then back to Heathrow (still a horrible airport), picked up the truck from long term parking (found a hotel/parking deal through APH.com) and time to re-stock with groceries. Now no way can I stray; Save back to England, all the world’s my way.

*Every shopping cart should have a special rack for flowers and baguettes*

We had two final national parks on our list - the Peak District and North Yorkshire moors.

*Hiking the Peak District - the Roaches*

*Gotta love a highland coo - even if slightly out of place*

*Although beautiful, for the most part the Peak District was surprisingly lacking in peaks . . .*

Our last area - York and the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

*Truck life dining - reheated pasta with tomato sauce, becoming the masters of stove top reheating leftovers - everything better with cheese on top*

*Hiked to the top of Roseberry Topper in North Yorkshire Moors National Park. Tried to do a cool picture of our feet but Andy could only lift one leg due to a sore back.*

*Walking the cliffs at Robin Hood’s Bay*

Our tour of England was coming to a close. The penultimate event - a huge family reunion for Dawn’s family in Lincolnshire, then preparations to ship the truck to Iceland. First step, in the 60,000 mile maintenance list, oil changes.

*First 60,000 mile complete change - scavenger hunt to find all the oils*

Then - professional assistance - rebuilding the ARB differential (leaking oil). Huge shout out to Richard and the team at Overland Services in Bygrave. They squeezed us in and expertly took care of the problem in one day- thank you.

That’s it, if you made it this far thank you for following our English journey. Next for us is a quick trip across the channel, driving up to Rotterdam and putting the truck on a ship to Iceland. Ready for some off road adventure!

Iceland - Part I - Reykjavik to South then East Coast up to Egilsstaðir

Scotland