Thanks everyone for the nice comments.
Just a few replies...
cewillis : It was sneak out onto the back roads Cal, or spend all evening moving 100yds at a time behind a shipping container, and that is even less fun with a manual transmission.
Buzzcut1 : Could be Eric, though I've never quite acquired the bug for fishing. There are plenty of great mountain biking opportunities you would have loved.
bka0721 : Good tip about the corks, though these crampons have much shorter spikes than those normally used for mountaineering, and because they rely on the boot for structure rather than their own metalwork, when off the boot they just fold up in your hand, so the tines don't snag things in your backpack.
silversand : Quite rare for me to be drinking lager as shown here. I'm usually an ale man. Sally knows the sort of thing I like and buys a random selection of different bottled ales from the supermarket each week. Actually, I'm embarrassed to admit the wine was mine too - I had the beer as a pre-dinner refresher then the wine with dinner. Again, I don't know the brand - I've learned that Sally seems to do a better job than me of selecting wine, even though she rarely drinks it. I didn't know that about the mapping of Skafell - very interesting.
DJ : Not quite combining it with work - just trying to keep work going while I'm away. Hope you're well DJ.
btggraphix : Yes, pity we can't make Expo and meet up with you all again, but so many great places to see, so little time and this year it will be the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy, and between now and then I am overrun with work.
joerg68 : You are one of the few people on this forum who could visit this region with your truck camper. You'll definitely have to get your camper over here and do the Lake District or Scotland with it. A day's drive from your house and you are at the Channel tunnel or ferry port.
BradW : It was pretty quiet. On the Saturday and Sunday we covered the less visited locations. The big climb was Monday and in a season where few people would risk booking time off work to visit the Lake District, hence it was pretty quiet.
Jumbojet : I try to be careful with language to avoid confusion, but I often struggle to remember whether a word or phrase is local to Britain or common in the US too. If you want to experience an impressive range of excellent (and thoroughly confusing) regional dialects and accents a visit to Britain is recommended. Unfortunately I don't know how long these historic variations will survive with the saturation of modern communication.
Jfet : The Lake District and Scotland - a couple of very good choices for anyone visiting Britain. Mmmmmm - clotted cream. We have seen similar bridges in Scotland too. I assume there was originally a stone and earth ramp up either side of the bridge, which over time eroded away leaving the more structural stone arch.
Whazoo : Great to hear from you, and that is great praise coming from the Whazoo himself.
crosscheck : You are absolutely right - although London is now a great place to visit (in the '80s it was dirty, ugly and not very visitor friendly - it is so much better now) I imagine few foreign visitors get to see these stunning rural locations. Of course getting around a city is much easier than finding your way to and around a more remote country location, and being that we drive on the left and have very heavy traffic most visitors just wouldn't want the stress of attempting to rent a car here. Re. the available time - we just try to make the most of any time we have - we don't get many years on this planet and I don't intend to spend spare days sitting in front of the TV. We probably would have gathered some solar power, but in truth the camper had hookup for most of the trip so there was no need to worry about power.
67avion : Yes, we are lucky we both like the same thing, but then over the years our interests have converged. 15 years ago I had military vehicles and Sally had horses - not much in common there, but over time we have shed those things that we don't have in common and converged on things we both like.
jefe 4x4 : Good to hear from you Jefe. You may not have seen the countryside, but Edinburgh is a great city. I didn't realise you'd been over here so often with the orchestra.
All the best,
Steve.
