A few days in Devon

Back in England, prior to heading to Spain, I took the chance to head down to the coast of Devon for a few days out of busy London.

Dawlish is a major coastal town. Dawlish Warren is the main beach, but at the western end of the town, there is a cove with a beautiful red sand beach..

Slapton is a cute little seaside on a long shingle beach. The road runs between the beach of a fresh water lake.

And the town that really caught my eye was Salcome. A lovely sailing and fishing hub.

I arrived back in London to catch thr summer blue supermoon rising over Perivale Park.

And find a latest Banksy…

That brings me up to date, dear friends and followers.

In a few days, it will be another ferry trip . This time to Spain and beyond.

The adventure continues!

Back in the UK and Europe

Dear friends and followers,

It’s hard to believe I left Australia over a month ago, and have been travelling around the UK and Ireland.

I’m back in London staying with my sister, so it’s time to get my blog up to date.

Mmm, I think I may be becoming a lazy social media content creator (is that the right term) since creating an Instagram account. (@piecemealadventurer)

London does have its own beauty, as the view from the balcony at the Tate Modern shows

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate what a great art city London is. Melbourne, my hometown is no slouch, but the breadth of art in London makes one feel spoilt.

There is the public art around the streets:

In London, suburbs like Ealing there are wonderful galleries doing exhibitions such as Grayson Perry’s tapestries.

Or The Expressionists at Tate Modern:

And the work of the Barbadian, Taveres Strachan at the Heyward Gallery;

Above the arts precinct, there was the sign

And on a hot day every young person was at home with art.

Lovely rides north of London

It’s hard to believe that my nearly 6 month northern hemisphere adventure is coming to and end. I arrived in budding april days of spring and leaving in the October autumn. Flying south back to Melbourne in a few days.

I have been back in England for a couple of weeks and indulging in some local rides. In the UK there are places designated as Areas of Natural Beauty and these are where I head.

The Cotswolds is one such place with rolling hills and farmland and villages built from the local stone dotted through the land scape.

A little further north of the Cotswolds are the Shropshire Hills . Close to the Welsh border and the Severn River Valley it’s the entree rides around the hills of the Midlands and their network of canals.

East of London there are villages such as Thaxted with its beautiful old buildings.

And if you are lucky you may see a Master Tthatcher at work rethatching a roof.

Maldon on the east coast is home to the fleet of Thames Sailing Barges. Beautiful little ships that carried cargo along the east coast of England for over a century and a half.

The sailor in me marvels at the skill of the sailors of these Barges who sailed them loaded with cargo up and down streams and inlets with 5 metre tides flowing quickly. The true sailors skill.

The mighty breva is off getting serviced ready for storage as I prepare to head back to Australia. Master mechanic and friend Badrick has given me his Moto Guzzi 1200 sport to ride as he works on the Breva. That’s what guzzista do.

From Plymouth to Brittany is just a short ferry ride.

The Plymouth Hoe looks over the harbour the original lighthouse standing guard.

I was on my way back to Europe to slowly work my way to Italy for the 100th anniversary celebrations of Moto Guzzi at Mandello del Lario.

The ferry was coming in ready for the trip across to France the next day.

The sun was setting on a month back in England.

And the August full moon rising a true mark of the next phase of this adventure that commenced back in May as I headed to Morocco

It’s about a 7 hour ferry ride to Brittany from Plymouth. The coast of Brittany is just beautiful, the beaches, the rocky outcrops the racing tides of the cold North Atlantic.