We packed up our lovely home. In 4 days of self-imposed torture, we boxed, wrapped, lugged and heaved all of our worldly possessions into a far-too-small storage container. At the start, it was an exercise worthy of a master Tetris player (I have form); however, as the days dragged on and stress-levels rose; deadlines loomed and fatigue had thoroughly taken hold, seamless tesselation gave way to chaos. The final items were balanced like a house of cards and it was stuffed to the gunnels. Woe betide the poor fool who opens those lock-up doors…
Leaving Edinburgh on Friday 19th, exhausted, we tearfully said goodbye to my sister Chloe, who’d helped us in the final hours, and to our happy home. We waved goodbye in a torrential downpour, turned our backs to Edinburgh and made our way south towards York. The moment we crossed the border into England, the storm clouds lifted, giving way to a beacon of glorious sunshine lighting our way ahead.
We stayed at the lovely Sandburn Hall that first night, a sprawling golf/wedding resort, with stunning grounds, lovely rooms and decent food. Sadly having to miss my unwell uncle & aunt the next day due to his illness, we pushed south. We stayed with one of Shona’s school friend’s, Emma, her partner Mark and their most excellent puppy, Hyla at their stunning home south of Sheffield. We were joined by Sarah, another old friend of Shona’s and we had a lovely evening in the beatiful surrounds, with excellent food (and wine).
The next morning, we made our way to Oxford, where David, one of my oldest friends hosted us. We enjoyed lunch, got to try some impressive Augmented Reality glasses, then took an ice-cream-paired walk around the beautiful but furnace-like Oxford.
Like something out of Exodus, the portent of parting clouds when leaving Edinburgh had now manifested into a boiling heatwave. We left Oxford early the next morning and stopped to visit Stone Henge – fulfilling the promise of seeing our own country before exhausting the globe. Rather than catch the shuttle, we hiked up to the Henge, having arrived at quite entirely the wrong moment behind many many coaches. The heat was intense on the walk, and while Stone Henge was impressive, a quick snap and a hot-walk back, and we were glad to retreat to the air-conditioned car.
A couple of hours later, and we were on the ferry from Lymington to the Isle of Wight, where we spent the next few days visiting my family and another old school friend, John and his wife Kelly. We stayed in a little Airbnb, which was perfect for our needs and being situated on a hill, helped us cope with the heat dome sitting over England. We toured about, watched beautiful sunsets, enjoyed more ice-creams (need to knock this on the head), and walked in lovely gardens.
We said goodbye to my sister, Gemma, my mum (Jane) and partner Keith, and my niece Alana, and on Friday morning, we left the Island. After a brief stop in Portsmouth, we made our way up to Hindhead, to stay with more good friends – Rob, Hilary and their boys James & Flynn and hot-dog, Archie – enjoying excellent food, chat, wine and having great fun in their swimming pool. (Ask me about the whirlpool game – it’s brilliant).
On Saturday morning, we left early to drive to Dover. Quite literally waving goodbye to the white cliffs, we said goodbye to the UK for the next 6 months, onto our next big leg of the trip – Europe.
Travels with Sklaroffs 