We started our journey south at the end of August stopping off in Lancashire where we hosted Tony and Brenda in a caravan couch surf. We had a great weekend which included BBQ’s and a visit to the local Beer and Cider Festival. It was cosy with the four of us in the caravan which gave us a lot of laughs and, as usual, Neil and Tony made several trips to the glass and tin recycling bins.
After an excellent weekend we said our goodbyes and we headed to The Cotswolds. We’re still looking for that dream location to buy our joint home and we spent a week or so checking out places like Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Campden and Cirencester amongst several others. We’ve yet to find that ultimate location but there were a few possibilities that joined the ever-increasing list.
Our final destination before getting back to Bristol was to Neil’s sister for a family party for the four siblings, their children and grandchildren. Sadly, Neil’s nephew Ian couldn’t make it a 100% turnout but it was a great day nonetheless to have so many of the family together at one time. June is considering making this an annual event but probably earlier in the year as the late British summers have, over recent years, become summer monsoons!
Back in Bristol it was time to catch up with the kids and get on with a few property jobs and make the final arrangements for our next trip which starts on October 4th. We’ve also been reckless and splurged on a new caravan. It’s the same size but the bed layout is very different and should make life much easier for us especially when we have people to stay. We pick it up in May 2018.
We also made a flying visit to London to have lunch with Aditya from Goa. He’s part way around his around the world trip on his Triumph Bonneville and after much tooing and froing we managed to fit in one date to meet. We took him to The Red Lion in Whitehall which was one of Cherles Dickens favourite watering holes. It was great to see him.
As this will be our final posting in Chapter 9 we’ve been trolling through our photos to pick out some of our highlights. We started with the trip to Spain with Clive and Karen quickly followed by Neil’s son’s wedding. Goa was, as usual, an absolute hoot, with the added bonus of a visit from June and Barbs which was great fun. Then there was the debacle of the Indian Governments Demonetisation which left so many people without any cash. Our trip to parts of Thailand that we have never visited before was absolutely superb. We had a ball on the 2-day boat trip down the Mekong from Northern Thailand to Laos and enjoyed the company of some young fellow travellers in Luang Prabang.
In China we explored the Yuanyang Rice Terraces which were stunning even though the weather was a tad cold, wet and generally bloody miserable. Trekking Tiger Leaping Gorge was rewarding and beautiful but extremely tough on our knees. A short flight north brought us to Chengdu where we were treated to an amazing display of ‘toddler behaviour’ by the tireless pandas that seemed to playfight all day long. Once we got back to the UK we had Alex and Freddy’s wedding quickly followed by 3 weeks on the narrow boat crossing The Pennines. Then it was time for Maryport Music Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe and Neil’s birthday at the Glenturret Distillery in Scotland. To top it all we met up with lots of friends and family along the way. Chapter 9 is over but, wow, what a lot we’ve crammed in during the last 12 months including seeing two of our sons get married.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our year, we’ve enjoyed writing it, so watch out for Chapter 10.
Cheryl & Neil Our Story 
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