We had an extremely long day yesterday. Starting at 4:30am from Heathrow we didn’t get to Lima until around midnight GMT. Not surprisingly we were a little tired. Being a bit spaced out we were glad not to be driving through the manic roads. Lima seems like a cross between Marrakesh and Bangkok. There were quite rough area’s with shack like buildings and almost every second car was a taxi whizzing past with no regard for road rules.
Today we visited the posher area of Lima called Miraflores. The wind was blowing off the Pacific into the cliff creating perfect conditions for the Para gliders. While having lunch they were looping in front of the windows of our café so I decided I was going to go for a tandem paraglide. Susan was apprehensive to say the least. She eventually managed to talk me out of it mentioning the lack of cover on our travel insurance.
Today is our last full day in the UK. We are both a little sad to be leaving but Susan is also quite worried about packing and the lack of toilets on the Inca Trail.
Saturday we travelled back to London and we visited work friends of mine and Susan’s. After that zipped into the city in time to get one of the last London Eye rides with Debbie. Susan has always wanted to do it. So she managed to get over her fear of heights to slowly glide round the enormous Ferris wheel. After getting the best hot chocolate in London (1882 close to the Shell building), we had our last Chinese in Lester Square.
Sunday was manic. We realised we had way too much stuff to fit into our packs. We also sold our car and fitted in church. So in our last day didn’t really get time to reflect.
For the last few weeks we have been travelling around the country. We managed to clock up 2200 miles and have been saying goodbye to my family before we go back to New Zealand.
Continuing our epic trip we went as far north as we have been in the UK. We stopped at the UK’s most photographed castle and duly took loads of pics. Scotland was still looking very much like New Zealand. I wondered if all the Scot’s who emigrated in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s felt they had been a little duped travelling to the other side of the world for something that looked just like home.
The Isle of Skye was quite sleepy and by now Susan and I had done a bit too much driving around to really enjoy it. We did trek up “Old Man Stor” for a bit of practise though.
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This morning we visited the Falkirk Wheel which was a mildly interesting. They built the Wheel to overcome 11 locks which were needed for canal boats to move between two Scottish canals. It does this by lifting the boat up to the higher level, apparently using such a similar amount of electricity that it takes to boil 8 kettles.
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We later drove to Stirling Castle which is surrounded by a couple of famous patriotic Battles. The Battle of Bannockburn fought by Robert the Bruce in 1413 and the battle of Stirling Bridge with William Wallace. Our Scottish tour guide Melanie seemed to take great delight in pointing our where all the English we slain.
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We spent the afternoon driving though the Scottish Highlands which is very much like the South Island of the New Zealand. It was quiet weird seeing mountains again, winding roads without all the English hedge roads we have been used to. We ended up in a small town called Invermoriston which is next to Loch Ness. It was quite bleak round the Loch. Susan spent some time calling out for Nessie but I guess she was waiting for the wind to die down a little.
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Today we left the Yorkshire Dales but before we could leave we needed to get our customary fridge magnet and obligatory tweed peak caps. We decided to stop at Hawes which was home of a Wensleydale Cheese factory and overload on cheese. We are both feeling a little stodgy after all these B&B fired breakfast so cheese from brunch wasn’t helping our cause.
For the rest of the day we packed in a bit of driving as we headed to Falkirk via New Lanark. Susan had brought some wool from a Woollen Mill in New Lanark so pretended she was there to see where the owner setup a working community a bit like Cadbury. While floating about we meet a Scotsmen who passionately suggested we check out the peregrine falcon that was nesting nearby. So we trekked up to see the nesting falcon, which apparently is the fastest animal in the world because it is able to dive at 200 mph! We were told that the pigeon fanciers keep trying to kill them because that have a habit of killing there pigeons. Evidently they were quite an issue for carrier pigeons in WWI and WWII.
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