Cheeky ride out on the DR650

Rewind a month:  (I know, I’m a bit behind – sue me 😉 ) Was a beautiful day, not much wind, not too warm – perfect for getting out on the bike.  I love the variation between the coast and the hills – there’s not too many places where you can get from one extreme to the other so easily.

Wheatbelt driving

A few weeks after my trip to York, I had the opportunity to drive to Kulin – deep in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. If you’re not familiar with the state of Western Australia – outside of Perth metro area, aside from a few regional towns, there’s basically not very much.  I don’t mean that in any way disrespectfully – WA has 2.2 million people…

A trip to the wheatbelt – Canola fields

Springtime in the wheatbelt means yellow canola fields as far as the eye can see. Well, not quite, but it does seem a bit like it from some vantage points.  it was a lovely day, I had some time so I jumped in the car and headed out to York, which is a couple of hours drive from me to see if I could…

Summer in England 2015 – part 8: Aylesford Priory

Sadly, time always passes by so quickly and our time together was almost done.  We had a few hours to spare on the last day, so I thought we could have a quick trip just down the road to Aylesford. I used to play in a band when I was about 17 and 18 and we used to practice in one of the band members…

Summer in England 2015 – part 7: Fossil hunting at Folkestone

Fossil hunting! This is one of the things that I enjoy most.  It’s pretty much how I got to be where I am today, career wise. Yes, I know I work in IT (and the business end of IT at that) but its because I was taken to a quarry on a primary school field trip and found a fossil that I took the…

Summer in England 2015 – part 6: Camber Sands

Sometimes the summer in England really delivers. The forecast was looking really good, so my sister and made a plan to go to the beach early and make the most of it.  After all, in England, you never know how long the sunshine will actually last for. Once again – off we went complete with a packed lunch, to the old favourite, Camber Sands.

Summer in England 2015 – part 5: A walk around Plaxtol and Fairlawne

Kent is amazingly beautiful and I always considered myself very privileged to grow up there.  I used to cycle and walk all over the place as soon as I was old enough (which in those days was from about twelve – times change!) and I built up an intimate knowledge of every lane and footpath I could get to under my own steam.  So whenever I return,…

Summer in England 2015 – part 4: Wellington Rocks at Tunbridge Wells

After a few hours scrambling over the rocks, it was time for food. The kids decided that they didn’t want to eat in the High Rocks pub (fussy buggers, the food choices looked awesome) so we drove off in search of a cafe or something similar. We wandered into Rusthall High St and settled on a little cafe called ‘The Daily Bread‘ – which…

Summer in England 2015 – part 3: High Rocks at Tunbridge Wells

At least forty years ago, my Grandparents took me and I think my middle sister to play on some rocks in Tunbridge Wells. I remember my Grandads white Daimler with red leather interior and that distinctive Daimler/Jaguar leathery walnut smell and I remember looking out over the rocks from Mount Ephraim. Near there, there’s a place called High Rocks which was supposed to be pretty…

Summer in England 2015 – part 2: rowing on the river at Tonbridge

The next day was overcast and had rain forecast, but we’re made of tough water resistant English stock – no hiding inside for us! We had wanted to hire a boat and cruise down the river at Tonbridge, but the exchange rate was terrible and my $AU are now worth about 30% less in £GBP than last year, so we had to downscale our…