Following Roys Gay Hat Party, I was certainly not feeling too flash when woken next morning around 9am. I was out on the road soon after with a lift from Mary, but I didnt manage to get a hitch until an hour later. I then got a lucky run of around 200 miles down the A1, with the day also turning out warm and sunny. However, my luck ran out after that, and after reaching Stamford, some 60 miles east of Warwick by 1pm, it took until almost 7pm before I finally made it back to some 8 lifts, numerous walks through cities like Coventry and Leicester, and frustrating and cold waits in the countryside. But those are the vagaries of hitchhiking! I was finally picked up by Jenny and Ro at Southam, some 10 miles away, and returned to Charlecote for a good bath, a quiet meal and a few drinks in the tavern before turning in early.
This was a long day out for Jenny (another day off work!) and myself in the Volkswagen. We travelled south to Bath along the A46, taking in Broadway, Cheltenham and Stroud. It was a very pretty but windy road,
bordered with trees of yellow, red and green, all the way through to Stroud. We had a pub lunch just outside of Bath before going there for a tour of the Roman Baths, the Abbey and the Pulteney Bridge. I was most fascinated by the rows of absolutely identical houses running down the hills. We set off late afternoon towards Wales, crossing the Severn Bridge and into the beautiful Rye Valley. We took in the ruins of Tintern Abbey before making it up to Monmouth with its mysterious elusive castle. We then made it back into Bath for the ballet by the Northern Dance Company at the New Theatre Royal – of Bachs ‘Brandenberg Concerto, Bartoks ‘The Prisoners, and Prokofievs ‘Peter and the Wolf. A late and tiring drive back home some 100 miles saw us on our return home around midnight.
The next morning was another and I didnt get away from Charlecote until around 11am. I picked up my repaired watch and was on the road again 30 minutes later. I had a dismal run of only one lift of 10 miles for the first 90 minutes but then was lucky enough
to get a lift in a van all the way to London. We stopped off for lunch at Oxford, with a mix of a great lasagne and of a revolting bogan Aussie tourist, who just wouldnt shut up. I was back into London by late afternoon in drizzly weather, and I caught a bus back to the flat. There was no one home so I made it down to Earls Court to check out options for my trip home and it appeared travelling home via Los Angeles was not going to be a viable option. I met up with Bob and the four girls from the flat for dinner at ‘The Hungry Years before retiring back to the flat for TV viewing and an early night.
We were woken up early next morning by the Landlord pounding on the door, wanting to check out the flat, which was very pointedly rented out in the contract to ‘Three girls, and three girls only! After a short period with four of us interlopers hidden outside the back door, Bob and I took off to the bank to withdraw funds for the Kombi repairs and general expenses. Then it
was back to Earls Court to collect my photos of Europe and check out further options for the trip home. I had lunch with Janie at ‘The Pot before looking into further travel options with her. We finally settled on a direct flight home with Air Italia on 12 December for the princely sum of GBP212. I also got a real bonus when we visited the Sundowners office and I found my Asian diary in their mail section.
The following morning was spent just sitting around the flat chatting with the others. There was no action until after lunch, when I decided to get off my arse and go out touring. There was not much enthusiasm amongst the girls to me, but eventually Catherine decided to join me, probably more out of pity than a desire to go out! It took us an hour to reach Hampton Court Palace, taking a train and two buses.
