All the fun of the fair!

We went to Rudgewick steam rally and country fair today.  It was great!  It was much bigger than we had expected, with a couple of huge fields.  There were loads of people there.

 

There were plenty of steam engines big and small:

Vintage cars and bikes:

Big vehicle recovery trucks.  This is a tank recovery truck manufactured during WW2 :

 

Traditional fairground rides

And loads of tractors!

 

 

Some of the tractors were ploughing and tilling the soil:

 

 

And some of the steam engines were running farm machines such as this baler.

And of course the beer tent!

Motorcycling round Scotland!

We are back!  10 days on the back of the motorbike, and I can just about sit down!

 

This is me ready to go.  You can see how small our luggage sapce is here, just 2 small panniers and the top box.

Day 1- we rode to Kendal in the Lake District Kendal town hall

Lake Windermere

Day 2 – we rode to Ayr in Scotland to stay with BIL and SIL

Day 3 – we spent the day with BIL and SIL and they took us out for a drive around the Galloway Forest, stopping for lunch at David Coulthard’s museum.  We stopped again for awalk around this gorgeous beach at Rockcliffe.

 

Day 4 – we rode to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands

Day 5 – we took a day trip to the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides.  What a long way on twisty, windy single track roads!  We decided not to go across to Iona, but we did see it, then we motored on up to Tobermory, home to the children’s tv show Balamorey.

 

 

Ferry crossing to Mull

Tobermory

Day 6 – we rode to the Isle of Skye, over the Skye bridge.  We got there late morning and spent the afternoon walking around close to the hotel and visiting the ‘Clan Donald’ exhibition in nearby

Armadale Castle.

 

View from our hotel window, you can see it is getting windy!

Day 7- we visited the Talisker whisky distillery.  Wow!  It was a really interesting tour, and of course we had a tasting of their 10 year old whisky!  We then rode round the island stopping off at Duveggan castle, home to the McCleod clan. 

Day 8 – we caught the ferry close to our hotel back to Mallaig on mainland Scotland and rode back down to Ayr to stay with SIL and BIL again.  Unfortunately the road along Loch Lomond was closed and we were sent on a huge detour which was very busy!  I

started to ache!

 

We stopped for coffee at the Glenfinnan viaduct and this little robin came to share our biscuit crumbs!

 

 

More stunning scenery!

 

Day 9 – rode down to Lancaster for our final night.  It took a long time and the ride was very wet!  In fact, we sat for about 2 hours in a motorway service station as the rain was so bad!

Ready to leave BILs in the rain!

Day 10 – rode home!  Arrived home about 4.30pm, after doing nearly 2000 miles!!

 

What a great holiday!

Portsmouth

We rode the bike to Portsmouth yesterday evening for fish and chips on Southsea beach!  We were right next to the hovercraft landing stage.  The hovercraft looks a bit old fashioned now, like it belongs to another age!

 

Then we went to a little pub that we like on ‘Spice Island’, an area where they used to land spices years ago!

 

There is a great view of the Spinnaker tower from here.  WE really should go up the tower one day!  There is glass floor at the top eeeek!

Finally, the sun was setting across the water towards Gosport:

What a great place Portsmouth is, with the Isle of Wight just a few minutes across the Solent, there are boats all over the place!

Some scrapbook pages

Remember my 1970s?  Well, here’s my 1980s!!

 

Here’s June pages for my 2010 album, loosely based on Shimelle’s Document 2010.  I love the divided page protectors!

  

Yes, I know I’ve spelt Pennines wrong!  2 reasons, not enough ‘n’s and not enough spaces!!