20 August – We drove up main roads to York where we parked in another field. These camps are called Certified Sites and range from smaller camping grounds with some facilities to just a bare field with perhaps a tap. They arrange in price from 3 – 10 pounds and are ideal for 1 night stops. We chose this camp because there was a cycleway into the middle of York, about 8kms. Part of the route was thru the York Race Course where a meeting was in progress. It also followed the river. York is dominated by a fantastic cathedral. It rivals the Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur for splendour. We walked thru the old streets (called the The Shambles) and also visited the National Railway Museum. There were scores of beautifully restored steam engines and rolling stock. The highlights were the Royal carriages, the Japanese Bullet Train, and the huge streamlined steam engine, Duchess of Hamilton. It is a train buff’s paradise! We rode the 8kms back to “Lefty” in a head wind.

21 August – Up the A1 to Berwick Upon Tweed where my Grandmother and Grandfather came from (mothers side). We parked out of the town and cycled across the Tweed into the town. This is another walled town facing the sea and the Tweed River. We searched thru a church grave yard but could not find any old dead rallies. Probably the wrong brand of church! The people we spoke to had accents just like my old Grannie. Berwick sits on the border of England and Scotland the Tweed River being the border. We camped in another field about 10kms out of town. It was on a rise and had a great view over the farm land. They were harvesting the wheat in the next field.

22 August - We drove inland thru beautiful farm country. It is easy to understand why the people of this area felt at home in Otago. The countryside is very similar. We continued on to narrower and narrower roads eventually ending up on a one lane tar sealed road winding into the hills. The sign “Megget Reservoir” came into view. We were in an area known as “Meggetland”. I am not sure if we are related to this family but the area dates back to James 5th of Scotland, who hunted deer here in 1530. At one stage James 5th hunted and killed a William Cockburn. We drove slowly up the beautiful valley and saw “Meggethead Farm” and the “The Megget Stone” (the stone was not very impressive only 0.84m high. Meggets must have been short in those times too!) As it was a beautiful day we decide to park on the side of the Megget Reservoir for the night. The reservoir was formed by the largest earth dam in GB, in 1983, flooding the valley and is the source of water for Edinburgh. Very spooky thinking that possibly our ancestors may have hunted deer, farmed and lived in this valley 500 years ago.

23 August – Woke to a misty drizzle. It seemed appropriate for this valley as we followed the winding road, passed the Megget Stone, and into the next valley. The trip to Edinburgh was an easy drive thru more villages and farm land. We had booked a camp here as we thought the Edinburgh festival may have been a problem. As we were early and the lady at the camp was grumpy, we found the village of Musselburgh and had a walk around and did some shopping.

24 August – Another drizzly morning. We walked down a lane to the bus which took us into Edinburgh (1/2 hour trip). There crowds everywhere in the city. We caught a “hop on hop off” bus for a tour. A great way of quickly finding all the sights. We walked around the city and up the Royal Mile to the castle. As the Fringe Festival is on at the same time as the International Festival, there was a lot of street theatre and buskers entertaining the crowds. After lunch we toured the castle for about 2 hours. Very interesting and some great views. Edinburgh is full of Dunedin names. (probably the other way around) We will be back in the city later tomorrow as we have tickets for the Tattoo.