It was strange arriving back in London. When we left a couple of years ago I couldn't wait to return, and at first it didn't take long to get back into my London groove (listening to White Stripes on the tube, walking really fast, keeping an eye out for foxes). But I realised pretty quickly that things were different now: I had absolutely no wish to move back there, and wasn't even that motivated to explore the city. Honestly I was pretty surprised (I used to really love London), but I guess I'm much more settled in New Zealand than I'd thought!
Although I was done with London, it was still fun being back in the UK. We were staying with Troy, Willow and our new nephew Jenson (who was a big motivation for taking the trip) and spent a bit of time exploring Hertfordshire were they lived. This included visiting a museum, getting caught in a hail storm while exploring Roman ruins, and having a meal at a pub located in the exact spot as an eating house from a couple of thousand years ago!
Wales
Since we missed out on visiting Wales during our last trip, we decided to spend a night camping. We borrowed Troy and Willow's car, one of the tents from our France and Italy roadtrip, and made our way into Wales. Our first stop was the Breacon Beacons National Park, where we went rambling to a waterfall. I was really hoping that we'd come across a badger but we didn't have any luck (the fact that it was the middle of the day on a popular walking track probably didn't help...)
We carried on to the village of Tenby by the seaside which was very pretty and definitely worth a visit. We had dinner at a pub within the old town walls, then headed back to our camping ground. It was almost deserted at that time of year and I have to admit it was a bit cold spending the night in a tent!
Visiting some castles was the top of our list for the next day, so we entered the location of one in the Navman and it took us on a wild adventure. At one point it directed us down a narrow road which I was pretty sure was someone's driveway, and then took our little car through a ford.
We eventually made it to the castle which was a lot of fun to explore. There was an cavern under the castle, and even though we didn't have a torch I was determined to explore it. I made Owen go with me and use the camera flash to try and light our way. It wasn't as effective as I'd hoped, so after hitting my head and tripping over I was forced to concede defeat and return to the world above.
Bath
On our way back from Wales we made a quick stop at Bath to check out the Roman baths and try some gelato (I sure ate a lot of gelato on this trip!). It was pretty crowded so we explored the baths in record time, and made our way back to Hertfordshire.
[These photos are mostly taken by Owen again]