May 2007

For months Gareth had kept it secret where and what we were doing for Robyn's birthday. On the day we were due to fly out, whilst talking over our cornflakes and coffee, Robyn asked a straight forward question (not sure what), to which Gareth replied "we can get that in Switzerland". So after all the anticipation and excitement slightly deflated, we made it to Stansted to head away for the weekend.

Geneva may not be on everyone's must see city list, but it's quite a cool city. Really modern and very cultural, not a great deal to do but that's fine for a short weekend.

Cathedral St Pierre

Palais des Nations

Jet d'Eau on Lake Geneva

This is another camping related trip, this time to the Norfolk broads and only a couple of hours down the road. I don't know what it is with us and camping but it always rains, no matter where we are in the UK!

For those of you who haven't been to Norfolk, it's as flat as a pancake and was created by peat farms way back when, then they flooded and created the broads. Now the rivers are mostly nature reserves and wildlife, especially birds, are in healthy numbers throughout most of the broads. You can't really get to it by car, so we decided to hire some bikes for the day and have a look at the countryside, which makes it easy to stop at a local pub half way around and then cycle lunch off on the way home. Next time we are going to hire a boat as this doesn't involve sore backsides from sitting on a bike for a day. And apparently they hire out boats to pretty much anyone so we are sorted!?!?!

Here are a few photos from our bike ride, starting out at our camping ground in Clippesby to How Hill, via a pub for lunch and back again.

On the way to How Hill

At the How Hill Nature Reserve

On the way back - Gareth mocked me for taking photos of barley but it looked cool!

And just to say that we've been there we stopped off in Great Yarmouth. Kinda like Blackpool but not as bad, but we've been there never the less...

We decided it would be a good idea to test out our tent during late September in the Lake District. So armed with our dozen sleeping bags, blankets and winter pyjamas we headed north to see a few hills.

After checking Lake Windermere we decided how best to occupy ourselves for the next few days

Day 2 consisted of a driving tour around the area to check out the different lakes and there were some wicked landscapes. Definitely will head back here again.

The Road from Troutbeck to Ullswater

Lake Ullswater

Lake Coniston (I think)

Farm Gate somewhere on the road back to Windermere

After the heaviest night's rain that we've ever spent in a tent - we seriously thought we would have to move into the car, we thought it would be a great idea to do a walk near our camping ground (Limefitt Park). But despite the rain, we were damp but our little tent did us proud and didn't leak at all!!! Anyway, with our clothing for all seasons in our backpacks we headed up to one peak that looked decidedly closer than you think with some seriously steep tracks.
This is where we were headed!

Half way up, we needed a rest...

Then we thought it was a bright idea to head up to another peak and although it hurt, the view was worth it! Except that it decided to cloud over just as we got to the top - typical!!!!!

So on our way home we decided to see the delightful city of Blackpool for ourselves. This photo does the city a great justice and it was the only place we felt we wanted to get out of the car. Not up there with the worlds best beaches I'm afraid, some serious dirt and dodgy, dodgy people.