As we said previously, “house clearing needs a break”, after three weeks back on the job and with the painters now firmly ensconced in the house, another road trip beckons. Having been West, and noting South and East offering limited travel opportunities geographically if you are based in Canterbury Kent, Northwards it will be for our second road trip.
Similar to our last trip, a mixture of family, friends and who knows what else is ahead of us. While winter still has it’s icy grip, well in the opinion of two sun loving Queenslanders, the first green shoots are appearing as we head north up the M1 for Scotland. After a night in the Midlands where we have our first experience using a PHEV, “plug in hybrid car” for the uninitiated including me . Our hire care is so new that only 6 miles on the odometer and the recharging cables in sealed plastic bags. Given our own car is 28 years old, this was a huge technological leap for us but we survived, managed the app. and charged the battery at a price equivalent to using petrol/gasoline. No savings there.
Just off our route north is Leeming Bar, a small village and home of the Wensleydale Railway. As someone, me, who has an interest in railways, a short detour is in order. The railway is not open but a member of the railway gave a short tour. Thank you.
Onward north and a refuelling stop in Aln, and you guessed it another heritage railway just minutes away. Being winter, the railway is closed to the public, as the others we have visited, however a number of volunteers were working and I was asked if we were interested in joining a train heading out for driver training. What a great opportunity and we were off. At the end of the line, we were invited into the cab of the British Rail Class 11 diesel No. 12088 where we stayed in the cab for the shunting and carriage reattachment, then on run back to Lionheart. Hopefully we both learned a little about driving a Class 11 and the various volunteers we talked to were appreciative of our visit and gave us a unique opportunity.
Interestingly this Class 11 has been fitted for vacuum braking at the last overhaul to allow passenger carriages to be hauled for those railway buffs amongst our loyal followers.
Finally we arrive at my cousin Jeff’s place in Scottish border country after passing through the town of Coldstream, which a famous British Army regiment takes it’s name from. We had not seen Jeff and Fen since we were last in South Africa back in 2016. We enjoyed great hospitality and a glimpse of another part of the world that we had merely passed through on previous occasions when were in Scotland. Trips to Coldstream, Kelso and chilly walks in the country, much chatting, laughing and happy reminiscing filled our days.
Spring in Brisbane seems to be an overnight experience as we move from winter to summer, the last two months in the UK have seen the gentle unfolding of spring as only a temperate climate can do. While we were surprised to see flowers upon our arrival in mid February, the trees have taken a more traditional path to summer. The stark black outline of the trees along the road as we head along the byways has steadily been softened by the ever growing presence of green as buds become leaves and will soon be a green patchwork quilt obscuring the branches.
Across to Dumfries and another enjoyable afternoon and evening with cousins Richard and Celia. While the online methods of keeping in touch are great, there is nothing like face to face contact.
Heading back into England as we head south from Carlisle, the low clouds over the lake district have a strange hue, no its snow! While nature is on board with Spring, Jack Frost’s icy grip has yet to be relinquished. What has been surprising is the farming activity. Everywhere we have seen large tractors pulling even larger trailers purposefully moving across the countryside. Don’t get to close to the back of the trailers as I suspect most are filled with some kind of smelly fertiliser.
Anne has wanted to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield and this trip provides the opportunity. The Park, which was established in 1977 and covers 500 acres with both indoor and outdoor sculptures. Interestingly not all sculptures are on permanent display, with special exhibitions being held. We had a great day just wandering around the park enjoying culture and exercise at the same time.
Kingston upon Hull Football team nicknamed the “Tigers” sadly was the only knowledge I had of the city. Neither of us had ever visited this part of the country. We are here to catch up with Phillip, my cousin, and his partner Nikki. Phillip and I had not crossed paths in over 40 years. How time flies. It was good to catch up and we have agreed that we should probably not wait another 40 years to catch up again.
If I had not seen a short segment on the history of “Cream” coloured telephone boxes in Hull a couple weeks ago, I would have had no idea that when all the public telephone boxes operated by various councils around the country were merged under the General Post Office (GPO), Hull decided to keep its network, called KCOM independent. When Red was chosen for all public telephone boxes, Hull kept theirs “Cream” and today they are Heritage listed.
As Anne took a photo of the cream telephone box, carefully positioning herself to crop out two ladies smoking beside it, one cheekily called out – do you want us in your photo? Yes please Anne responded enthusiastically and after a good half an hour chatting with these two best friends, we declined joining them to their next pub gathering knowing we would not be able to get away for hours. Such a fun heart warming encounter.
Our first observation in Hull as we walked in the early morning sunshine was the number of shops with closed steel shutters which felt a little depressing. As we walked back to our hotel after lunch on Saturday, we find every pub and club packed overflowing with people of all ages enjoying the afternoon. So different from the morning. As we found during our week spent in Termini Imerese last June, one cannot make assumptions about a place on just first impressions.
A great week’s respite seeing cousins and March 2026 is now over (yes this post is very very late), back to house clearing.
– Anthony
2slowspeeds 