Steve's parents flew back to live in the UK on the 8th April and after packing up all their belongings into a van, we couldn’t have fitted another thing in the van it was so full. (We did manage to fit some wine behind the seats in the cab to take over to the UK for Gary & Andrew thought) We set off early on the Thursday morning, arriving at Caen to catch the overnight ferry that night.
It was a very smooth crossing, which was just as well as Steve and I were both unwell and spent all night in and out of the bathroom but we were both relieved that by the morning we had both recovered and were ready to continue our journey up to Lincolnshire.
We stop in Biggleswade as we were passing, to have a look at the school our son Andrew is teaching at.
We stopped for something to eat and arrived safe and sound at Steve’s uncle Victors house around 2pm. Steve’s cousin Sharon took us over to the bungalow Steve’s parents were moving into and we started unloading, his father and uncle arrived and it wasn’t long before the van was empty. The bungalow is very nice light and spacious overlooking a small green with fields behind it in the village of Gt. Gonerby. I am sure they will be very happy there, in the area to keep there is quite a lot going on to keep them occupied.
I drove up to Castleton to visit my mother and family for a few days while Steve drove to Oxford to pick up more of his mum and dad’s furniture that our friend Paul had brought over in his van the weekend before.
I arrived back at Gt. Gonerby around lunchtime on the Monday and then Steve and I said our goodbyes and were off down to Bedford to meet Andrew and his girlfriend Bibi. We spent a pleasant couple of hours with them and handing over the 6 bottles of wine we had brought over from France for them and were off again to Owlsmoor, where we live for 19 years and stayed a couple of nights with our friends Jane and Jon. We arrived just in time for Steve to attend the BOB annual meeting that evening while I chilled out with Jane.
Jon borrowed a mountain bike for Steve and he and Jon went out for a ride in Swindley forest going over all the old ground we used to ride and admiring all the new trails that BOB club members Colin and Alan had spent such a long time making.
After a quick shower we went to visit our son Gary and his girlfriend Eli in Northcamp. Since they have re-organized the space in their living room/kitchen with the help of Steve coming over in November and fitting a new kitchen it looks really good and looks much bigger now. We gave them their wine and then had to rush of for an Indian meal with Jane, Jon, Richard & Louise in Kaber’s in Crowthorne. It was a belated birthday meal out for Richard, who celebrated his birthday on the 3rd. We had a great meal and really enjoyed the food and the course of company.
We set off on the Wednesday morning for Portsmouth and the overnight ferry back to St. Malo that evening. We arrived in plenty of time and had lunch and did a little bit of shopping at Gun Wharf Keys, which isn’t far from the ferry port and spent a very pleasant afternoon there.
We had an easy drive down from St Malo to Bagneres arriving a back at 5.30pm. Steve had estimated that we would drive about 3,000 kilometres and he was only out by .5 of a kilometre with his estimation. We were very pleased with the trip and everything went according to plan. Although we were very happy when we arrived back in Bagneres.
This is a picture I took on Sat the 26th when I was riding up to Chiroulet on my bike, it took me 2 hours to ride up to Chiroulet as I stopped to talk to friends and take lots of pictures but it only took me ½ an hour to get home again.
I was riding up to St Marie de Campan on Friday and managed to get a pic of this squirrel, which very kindly sat on a branch to have its photograph taken.
Steve and I had lunch with our friends Martin and Lorraine who have a Grange in the Lesponne valley, which is on the way up to Chiroulet and were sitting in the garden having a glass of wine and I am sure I spotted a Lannergeier vulture flying around the mountain on the opposite side of the river, Martin doesn’t think that it was as he said they are very rare but I was looking through the binoculars and it was a very large bird which was a salmon colour on the underside and a black/dark fan like tail. I am 95% sure it was a Lannergeier. Unfortunately I have no don’t have any photographic evidence.
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