The weather was brilliant today. A little cool to start with and then over 20 all day. Should have has some suntan lotion on.

The APRS worked well, so if you go to www.aprs.fi and put in ZL1LC in the call sign and select 24 hours and 24 hours you should see that we have been in the Cotswolds.

We found a brochure that is a self drive guide and picked and area. The Cotswolds are a hilly and treed area of the country, west of London, before you hit Wales.

We set the GPS to find Broadway, with an intermediate stop of Stanton. Strange things GPS's, for we never found Stranton but we did find Broadway. It was a nice looking town with streets lined with old brick buildings. The trouble was that it was host to zillions of tourists on buses, so we decided to pass through. The next target was Moreton-in-Marsh with an intermediate stop of Chipping Campden.

We thought that we had left the lanes, just wide enough for a tractor and tissue paper, to Ireland, but we did our fair amount of discovering them today. The difference was that there was more greenery around and the hills were much steeper. Luckily there wasn't much traffic. Both villages were picturesque, and Moreton had more thatched cottages.

Next on the list was Bourton-on-the-Water with a slowing through Stow-on-the-Wold. You really do have to slow down because of the parking in all directions and the inevitable roadworks in the centre of tow.

In Bourton-on-the-Water we parked in an official car park for a couple of hours and wandered into the village. The village is built around a creek, about 10 feet wide and maybe a foot deep. There's a ford, which is marked “Unsuitable for vehicles.” Not sure why it is there, but anything other than a sports car could trundle through it quite happily.

We went to Birdworld and wandered around for quite a while looking at the birds. They had a good range of owls and two different sorts of flamingos, plus two different penguins (one the emperor) and pelicans. It wasn't too dear and was a pleasant break.

On the way back, we went through some pretty quiet areas. In one dark, leafy, glen, we disturbed two small deer about 18 inches high. One was lying down, the other was standing beside the road. They were spotted, so I'm not sure if they were fawns or the small deer that they have in the UK. (Roe deer, I think.)

Then we drove back to the Day's Inn. I decided to try my ham radio by setting the antenna up on the lawn outside our room. As I was setting up a local ham who had been holidaying in his caravan, stopped to say Gidday. Unfortunately I missed his call, a combination of being slow to pick it up with his accent and having a poor memory. I gave him a QSL card, so he will remember the strange Kiwi.

I called on the radio for over an hour and couldn't make contact with anyone. A bit of a pity.

We then went to Upton upon Severn and picked up Sonia, an old friend from our days in Waiouru.  We took her to the Bell Inn and had a great dinner and chat.  Then we went to her house and met the guardian of the house, Timmy, a terrier cross.  From there, it was a night drive back to the hotel.

Here's a town sign that you won't find in NZ.

You just can't go anywhere without a trctor slowing down the traffic.

Above and below, the Cotswolds are known for their thatched houses and here are a couple.

This street looks wider than it is.  It's very difficult for two cars to travel down with all the parked vehicles.

This is a typical old market building.  The locals of the 1600s and 1700s brought their produce nd stock here in order to sell it.

The oly thing this shop didn't sell was petrol or diesel.

A typical rural Post Office.  "Would you like fries with your stamps sir?"

Some lost souls from the Southern Hemisphere

A beautiful Snowy Owl.

You just can't go anywhere without an Aussie hogging the limelight.