North Men

Graham was pleased we were home, he hoped the UK might get a bit of sun at long last - and true to form we did! It was a bit cool and blowy which had the advantage of keeping the midges at bay; they have been particularly bad this year.

Left: Dan on The Link, put up 40 years ago by me

We have a couple of months before we head off to Kalymnos, a break in the UK might not be too bad!
A year ago yesterday we climbed Hamaroyskraftet - Stanage was steeper but not as enjoyable.
We went up north for a few days to visit the parents and finally make contact with Colin after his heart surgery - a few pleasant days in a nice part of the world. Sherri's mum has a nice new pad in Saltburn and Colin was looking well, fresh from a few days in Scotland.

Right: Sherri finds a quiet corner in Paddock Farm

Homeward - but slowly

We finally bailed out out of Chez Arran after 17 weeks - the holiday season is about to arrive and it has been warming up so we headed for the seaside.
We have a ferry booked Bilbao to Portsmouth for the weekend but decided a few days on the coast might be recompense for having to leave the mountains.

Photo: Bouldering on the remains of the Atlantic Wall.

Follow-up: we stopped at Ondres, just north of Biarritz for four days, and it was pretty pleasant, some fantastic beaches, plus an interesting area of lagoons and reedbeds inland where we did a bit of 'birding'. It sounds like life at Chez Arran is trundling along perfectly well without us - even the cats are coping. We drove to Bilbao to catch the ferry and had some more beach-time - it was incredibly busy there probably because it was the weekend - I had forgotten what a noisy rabble the Spanish could be! The crossing was smooth and on time, a rapid exit and by 11:30 I was sat in the big chair with a scotch - job done.

What to do with the rest of the summer is the real question?

Photo: A man lost!