Exploration of extreme UK

A cold and blustery hello from Edinburgh. Its been a solid couple of weeks since our days off in Bath and Oxford. From there we headed north to Stratford-upon-Avon - the birth, and final resting place, of the Bard. Had a very atmospheric time at his grave which is in a church, and in a town full of tourists, we were the only ones there.

From here we got into moor territory. Through the Peaks District, which was surprisingly unpeaky, but certainly more rolly, then over more and more moors of increasing bleakness towards the Yorkshire Dales. It felt like we didn't see a tree for days on end, and with a cold wind harassing us from the East, it has been a cold and temper testing experience.

On the plus side, we have managed to survive the bank holiday without becoming homeless. Apparently the correct way to secure accommodation for this period is to book some 8 years in advance, and hand over the deeds to your house as a deposit. So thank you to some kind campsites who took us in. Other exciting events include cycling past Banbury Cross, seeing Dolly the cloned sheep (stuffed now), eating haggis, and buying Wensleydale Cheese of Wallace and Grommit fame.

In the north of England we stopped in a Hadrian's Wall to see the northern border of the Roman Empire. Many Asterix history lessons were fondly remembered. Then it was on to Scotland but with no border marker whatsoever, we are not quite sure when we entered. We are now in Edinburgh, so it must have happened at some point. Today is a day exploring the city. Its a fantastic place with huge stone buildings crowding the streets and tiny alleys squeezing between them. We did a really interesting tour of the Scottish National Museum, which included the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. For nerds like us, that was pretty exciting.

Along the way we have been passing the time on the bikes by marveling at the oddity of English place names. They range from the absurdly normal such as Simon's Bath, Box, Choppingknife Lane, and Mousehole, to the straight absurd, like Nempnett Thrubwell, Wigglesworth, and Giggleswick. We had a telling warning just before reaching Scotland and whiskey country, when we spotted Booze, and just a short trip up the road - Crackpot. Perhaps we can start a new pseudoscience divining meaning from the associated experience of place names.

From here we shall battle our way north, into the Highlands and the ever present wind. We note that today is 29 degrees in Rome so are blocking out reality with visions of us there in a couple of weeks!

With a hearty cheer
C&D

Land's End - Bath

Hello

We are through our first week of biking and have made it to Bath. The start in Land's End didn't bode well. After leaving London in baking sunshine, we arrived to a downpour and a degree of sea mist that made it difficult to see exactly where the land ended. But since then (until today) it has been perfect blue sky all the way, and a bit of unexpected sunburn, which has been the subject of many a friendly comment from passers by.

The countryside has been painfully English, with Waikato-like rolling pastures the predominating feature. We have been trying with varying degrees of success to follow a cycle route marked out with signs that takes the back roads and the occasional dedicated bike path (think Central Otago Rail Trail in Waikato, with hills). This means covering twice the distance as strictly necessary as it weaves all over the place and we get lost every day, but avoid the traffic and get into the 'wilderness'. The brochures and books have described this wilderness as "dramatic" and "spectacular" but this is perhaps taking it a little too far, and would render many an NZ paddock "unmissable".

For all the rolling countryside, the hills have been extremely steep - up to 30%! This may mean nothing to most of you but as an example, one of the hardest Tour de France mountains averages 7.8%. And they don't tend to carry panniers. So it may be 15 times as long but that's just quibbling.

The northern coast of Cornwall and Devon was really beautiful, with many a thatched roofed cottage and stone fenced lined roads. Local produce is very big here, and dairy featured highly in this region. Clotted cream was the favourite, and even came as an accompaniment to ice cream. Dairy on dairy - perfect after Asia. Have also been gorging ourselves on cheese.

Our accommodation has gone from hotels and bellhops in China to campgrounds here for the same price. One tried to charge us £19 but we showed them by biking for another 20 miles to the next one, which was closed, so then the one after that. We arrived at 6.30 at night, starving and burnt and slightly broken, but it was £6. So eat that with your £19 square of grass.

Today is cold and grey and we have been strolling around the old streets of Bath, looking at the stone buildings from the Roman days, and lunching at a quaint pub on locally grown lamb and lager. Like the English temperament, the lager was not too overt in any way, just slightly chilled and mildly fizzy. But really, again everyone is very friendly towards us, so we await another unsolicited bike cleaning.

From here its on to Oxford and north towards the Peaks district. Until then...

Ta ta

C&D

A'right, its London, innit?

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We have been in London for about two weeks, after a heart stopping immigration interrogation that gave us the distinct impression we were about to be put on a plane back to Beijing. They really hate it when you don't have a return ticket... Luckily we're filthy rich so they let us in.

Arriving felt a bit like coming home. We were welcomed at the airport by Kali and Mark, everyone spoke English (aw wite, innit?), and even if you have never been here, you know all the street names and have seen so many of the buildings its all eerily deja vu-ish.

Having nighttime options other than karaoke would have been enough to delight but of course there is a myriad of things here to keep us entertained. After realising our first tube ride cost as much as a whole day in Laos, we decided the secret to having a good time was to be blissfully ignorant and never do another mental currency conversion. This strategy has worked superbly and we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for a couple of weeks.

Between the hail and thunder we have managed to get to plenty of entertainment, starting with a stand-up comedy show where the best part was the comedians ripping into a group of conservative Americans in the audience. So what if they were school kids? They should learn from an early age that such attitudes deserve vehement derision. The Lord of the Rings musical was a spectacular show, with the most expensive set ever built. It was money well spent, although a little more could have been used towards the song writing.

We have made it to the Natural History Museum (dinosaurs etc), Science Museum (Apollo moon orbiter etc), and the National Gallery (Van Gogh, Da Vinci et al). All are absolutely huge and the buildings that house them are as impressive as the contents. Yesterday was a boat trip down the Thames to Greenwich, were East and West are divided. We had a mean time, and celebrated by going to what, in one respect, must be the first Mexican restaurant in the world. There was a great display of the evolution of clocks, as one man gave his life to trying to invent a clock that would work on a ship (the old school pendulum ones aren't so good in rolling seas) to use to determine latitude. One of his five attempts alone took 19 years. But he got there in the end so perhaps we can draw on that in darker periods on our next leg. More on that soon.

Too much to cover but of course we have wandered the streets around some of the justly famous sights like Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square (Tiananmen Square would eat it alive), Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Covent Garden, Soho, Camden Market, and on and on and on.

Its hard to tear ourselves away but after eating all of Kali and Marks food, making some international calls, and lounging all over their house as they leave for work, our welcome must be precariously thin. So tomorrow we are catching a train with our bikes down to Cornwell and the southernmost tip of the UK - Land's End. From there its 1600km (1000 miles innit?) north to John O'Groats, the tip top of Scotland. That should take us a month or so. We bought a tent and cooking gear and plan to camp as much as possible to avoid the crippling accommodation costs. No doubt there will be some tales to tell along the way, and we shall do our best to keep things interesting, so stay tuned. PLEAAAAAAASE!

Baked potata ya mingers
C&D