Photo shows (most) of the family and friends we saw on our trip to Europe.
Top line: Mary and Susan in Presteigne, with Alison, Polly, John and Adam with the narrow boat, "Badger" in Leeds, John and Geoff at Brincliffe Edge Road in Sheffield.
Line 2: Izzy and Geoff in Sheffield, JP and Meggie in Manchester.
Line 3: Nicolette with Geoff in West Kirby, Belinda and Kit at Plymouth Hoe, Anne and Geoff in Swanage.
Line 4: Prue and Geoff in Bristol, Dave, Mary and the 2 of us in a Potton pub, Toby and two friends in the restaurant in St Jean de Fos.

We are back on the boat in Scarborough marina, just north of Brisbane, after an intense people oriented visit to England and France. It's been 11 to 13 years since we last saw most of the people we visited on this trip face to face. The internet of course means that it is a lot easier to keep in touch than it might have been in the past, but somehow it's not quite the same. Three weeks executing a figure of eight around England was followed by a flying visit to Southern France and bookended by two tiring thirty hour journeys between London and Brisbane via Shanghai. We managed to see four of Alison's sisters (Mary, Polly, Susan and Lucy), a brother (Toby), three nephews (JP, John and Hal), a niece (Izzzy), four brothers in law (Nick, Dave, Mark and John) , two cousins (Prue and Anne) and five friends from our circumnavigating days (Nicolette, Kit and Belinda, Vic and Marge). Phew! That's more socialising than we have done in years!

Apart from seeing friends and family, it was nice to drive around the English countryside, despite the grey, drizzly weather most of the time we were in England. Our rather convoluted route took us first to the Welsh borders, where the Presteigne festival and Knighton carnival were taking place, then to Bangor and Anglesey along the Welsh west coast, where Geoff did his teacher training course.



Wales: Presteigne Festival, Pellith Church, Harlech Castle, Llanfair PG

We picked up Polly at her home in Todmorden and joined her son John and his friend Adam on their newly acquired narrow boat on the canal near Leeds. Polly's other son, Hal, and his partner, Robin, and their two kids also live in Leeds and we dropped in on them for a cup of tea. Next stop was Sheffield to see Geoff's brother in law, John and niece, Isabelle, who is juggling her job and some serious leftwing politics. Geoff's sister, Sue, who came out to Oz last year, was in France when we dropped into Sheffield, but no doubt we will catch up with her again soon, either on bikes in France or on Sundari.



Yorkshire: John and Adam's barge on the canal near Leeds, Pennine landscapes

From Sheffield we tracked back across the Pennines, dropping into Manchester to see Mary's son, JP, and his wife, Meggie, before staying with Nicolette, an old circumnavigating sailing friend, in the Wirral,. Then, south to Bristol where we stayed with Alison's cousin, Prue, who told us that she has regular visits from a badger, a fox and hedgehogs in her Bristol city home. The next week or so was spent in southern England, passing through many quaint villages and towns along what seemed to be huge numbers of narrow country lanes. We spent time around Alison's old family haunts on Dartmoor before staying with more yachtie friends near Plymouth who we sailed with between Turkey and the Caribbean.



Somerset: Watchet marina, Porlock thatched cottage, Bodmin Moor, Wild ponies



Cornwall: Lynmouth harbour, Tintagel Castle, Old stone bridge, robin.



Dartmoor: tor on Dartmoor, Harewood (Alison's old home), Dartmoor Prison, Dartmoor ponies



Devon: tavistock, Francis Drake, Plymouth Harbour, Erme Estuary

More narrow lanes, thatched cottages and centuries old houses passed by before dropping in to see Geoff's cousin, Anne and her husband, John, in the Dorset coastal town of Swanage.



Dorset: Chesil Beach, Corfe Castle, Frome Bridge sign, Poole Harbour



Old houses: in the deep south

A couple of nights in the Bedfordshire village of Potton was next and was followed by the trip down to the south of France to catch up with Alison's youngest sibling, Toby, who is living in a village on the edge of the Massif Central, surrounded by vineyards, where he works. Last, but not least, we stayed with Vic and Marge, old sailing companions we sailed with between Malaysia and Spain. They are two of the very few we know who still have their yacht, Ice Maiden, moored in the Algarve.



Bedfordshire and Essex: Dave's pride and joy - the Morgan, Maldon barges, Rising Sun pub in Potton



Southern France: Herault River at Pont du Diable, St Guilhem alley, Gorge at Pont du Diable, St Jean de Fos alley,

Dennis the diesel (Merc no. 2) was found to be in reasonable shape when we recovered it, and seemingly behaving itself,so we are now getting ready to sail either north (if we get consistent southerlies) or south if the current northerlies persist. It's technically spring here in Queensland, and the days are now quite hot, although the clear skies at night mean that it cools down quite quickly after dark.



The mysterious recovery of Dennis the Diesel, here seen on our most recent 1,600km jaunt west of the Divide in Queensland.