The Long Haul...

Well we have arrived back in dear old Yorkshire but there are a couple of things to cover before getting onto the journey and what's happening here.

Picture: Graham's Mountain - can you see him? He's near the top of the large scree slope (I think!)

For two or three days prior to setting off home Sandra and I had quite a lot to do what with battening down the hatches and getting the house spic and span ready to leave, or in reality to return to clean bedding etc. In this time we obviously couldn't take Dawn and Graham out as much so they were left to their own devices. Not a good idea leaving Graham to his own devices! He decided it would be a great idea to climb the mountain to the east of our house on his own with no kit at all (boots etc.) and to be fair on him he got to probably within 100ft or so of the top but there are many scree slopes and it's not to be taken as a stroll in the park so to speak.

Picture: The Damage! - and the glory - Graham points out where he was after we failed to spot him.

He kept ringing Dawn to get her to take pictures of him way up 3000 ft above, how you can find an ant like being on the side of a mountain with only a point and shoot camera I don't know! Anyway he ended up spending his last £10 of phone credit in the process of trying to explain where he was. His trip back down the scree was more eventful and eventually got back to the house with a pair of ruined trousers, holes in both buttocks and the leg torn to shreds, and also also holes in both of his brand new trainers from using them as brakes on the scree, not flavour of the month with Dawn me thinks!

Picture: Dawn Graham and yours truely waiting for the ferry at Igoumenitsa.

We set off for home on Tuesday with the ferry from Igoumenitsa to Venice, excellent crossing and we saw at least four pods of dolphins although none close enough for pictures. Unfortunately we couldn't get any pictures of Venice as we came into port because we had to be the first vehicle off so thus first down to the car deck and had to watch through mucky windows. The the ferry takes about a hour slowly going around all the islands in order to dock. It's a really stunning site and I hope to get some pictures when we return in September.

Picture: Just coming into Venice.

We came home via Milan - Gottard Tunnel - Basel - Strasbourg - Brussels and onto the channel Tunnel at Sangatte near Calaise and then back up to Yorkshire via the A1 which now is clear of roundabouts and much quicker than the M1. There is a total of 24.50 Euros in tolls this way much less than the French motorways and it's only a few miles longer. We stay overnight at the Eurohotel at Keppel-Grafenhausen in Germany, it's within a quarter of a mile of the motorway clean and not too expensive (62 Euro for the room and 8 Euros for Breakfast). Total mileage from Venice to home about 1200 miles which is about 150 miles shorter than from Ancona where we have previously sailed to. When we return we are considering the P&O ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge which will save us the journey down to Folkestone and also about 80 miles or so across the top of France and Belgium, I will report on this when we return.

We got home to a fine welcome from the kids and grand kids and they and Sandra's dad had managed to keep the gardens from becoming a wilderness so thank you to them for all their efforts. We have spent much of the time since returning getting things ready for renting off the house, so if anyone wants to live in beautiful Yokefleet drop me a line the house will be available after the wedding in July. Talking of weddings, Claire and Gary seem to have everything under control and there doesn't seem to be anything much for Sandra to start worrying about. I have to go for a fitting for my suit tomorrow along with our eldest Grandson Dale so that'll be interesting as I'm sure I'm heavier now then when I sent my measurements to Gary six months ago, but perhaps all this manual work I've been doing over the last week since we returned home may have started to have an effect!

Well that's about all for now hopefully there will be more next week.