I promised you more about the yellow bicycle. Whilst we were driving all around the Yorkshire Moors, no matter how far or remote, we would frequently come across old bright yellow bicycles in the most random of places. On top of stone walls, hung up on trees, tied to house walls. Often with lots of yellow bunting strung around. Sometimes the yellow bunting would be mixed with white and red polka dots bunting. I began to think it must be a Yorkshire thing. Or a Yorkshire festival. And then on our last day driving out of Ilkley, I found a forgotten newspaper header at the service station where we filled up.

And the mystery was solved! A fortnight or so ago, the Tour de France this year started in Yorkshire before finishing up in France.

It’s been hard to get to a computer over the last few days, so a compressed version of the last few days!

Philip and I left Ilkley in Yorkshire on Wednesday morning and headed south. We were grateful for GPS when getting through city of Leeds. Then it was on to the M1 which is like a major mechanised artery of England. Three lanes of traffic going both ways. Lots and lots of trucks. Sometimes more trucks than cars. Very boring to drive on, but best to take when you’ve got a long drive!

Came to a complete standstill on the M1 in one section. For quite a while. Not moving at all. So GPS came to the rescue and offered to take us on a detour when we finally inched our way to the next off-ramp. So we took it. And took country lanes and roads round and round in circles. Or so it seemed. And eventually back on to the M1 and flowing traffic again.

Lunch was a packed lunch, standing up in a carpark just off the M1. They are called “Welcome Breaks”. And they have them frequently. Petrol and lots of fast food, ATMs, book shops, cafes. It was so good to stand. And in a nearby parked car I saw some more wildlife. Sort of. They were in cages. One looked like a ferret. The other like a skunk.

More than five hours later we finally arrived at Philip’s very distant relatives’ house in a suburb of Guildford. A town on the southwest side outside of London. A 1960s detached little house like you often see in TV programmes. Fairly small rooms and a wonderful long garden out the back.

These relatives of Philip’s are fourth or fifth cousins, and we barely know them. They had lunch with us once when they visited Perth a few years ago. But we were so warmly welcomed. Philip and I walked around the local streets. Nothing special to look at it. We just needed to stretched our tired and cramped muscles.

I find driving so tiring. I found this drive much more tiring than any of the strenuous hill climbs I’ve done. Which is ridiculous!

The next day our hosts took us on a tour of their area. Surrey is very beautiful. Lots of huge old trees, woodlands and meadows and little towns and villages that run into each other.

We went first into Guildford, the big town of this area. Their High Street a mixture of old buildings going all the way back to Tudor times. Saw the remnants of an old Norman castle with lovely gardens around it. Nearby was a house that Lewis Carroll (of Alice in Wonderland fame) lived in. Had morning tea in a cafe in an old livery stable from the old Posting Houses of the 1700s. When coaches and their horses would trundle around the countryside and up to London.

Our hosts don’t do much walking. So it was mostly a sitting day. Either in the car, or a cafe or a seat.

Drove through North Surrey Downs to a tiny little hamlet of Fridey Street. About four or five houses in the most isolated little secluded valley next to an old mill pond. Had lunch there in an old pub called the Stephen Langton. Who was an archbishop of Canterbury and (according to the stories) an enemy of King John (of Robin Hood fame). Eventually the archbishop was on the winning side because his was the next name under King John when he was made to sign the Magna Carta. It was a nice lunch in a beautiful setting.

While driving around the countryside we drove through the hamlet of Wotten. Which is a family name on my mother’s side. So we stopped at a big mansion called the Wotten Estate. It’s now a conference and wedding venue, but the buildings looked Elizabethan, according to our hostess who know lots about this sort of thing. It was very impressive. Probably has nothing to do with our family history whatsoever. But it was fun to look at!

We went to their son’s house and met the son, his wife and three gorgeous kids. Had a lovely afternoon with them, getting to know these distant relatives. And sat outside and had a take away Chinese meal together.

So another very full day.