Lancs & Cornwall 06
Day 5 - Sawley Abbey, Aquascope, Dave's Aquarium, Downham and The Moors

Tuesday, 19 Sep. 2006 -  In the morning before heading out to Aquascope we stopped off at an old ruined abbey called Sawley Abbey to take some photos.  I took my time wandering around the ruins while taking photos.  I think it will take me a long time before I stop being fascinated by the concept of such historical landmarks being so commonplace that people stop noticing them anymore.  I personally didn't realize how much time I spent wandering around but when I got back to the car Andy asked me if I was trying to rebuild the abbey since I was gone long enough.

Afterwards we went to look around Aquascope to see what fish were in.  It was at this point I noticed a trend in peoples reactions when they saw Andy. It seemed like everyone he saw on a regular basis remarked at how well he was dressed and that they didn't recognize him without a helmet on or a camera around his neck! I know it took a lot of effort not to laugh at his reactions to the comments because Andy's face turned a nice bright red at this point.  It was nice to see the shop that Andy visited on such a regular basis and from which we had a lot of photos of a great variety of fish. I really enjoyed seeing some of the large rays they had in and their new shark tank was recently opened for public viewing. 

Once we left Aquascope we headed out to see the shop in Bolton.  It was an amazingly large shop and they had a lot of fish in that we both hadn't seen before.  It's too bad I didn't take my camera in as they had a lot of fish we didn't have photo's of on our website yet.  Had we not been leaving for Cornwall so soon afterwards we would have picked up some fish and plants for Andy's tank.

From Bolton we went back to Downham for super then went for a drive up on the moors. We stopped at the windmills to se the sunset and take some pictures. We headed back over the tops towards Haworth to show Andy the hostel that mom and I stayed in during our visit the previous year.  It definitely brought back memories from my trip with my mom!  We also drove towards Burnley on the same road from Haworth to see the rock mom stopped beside so I couldn't get out of the car!

Afterwards Andy decided to take me around to see where his old shop was in Crosshills.  Unfortunately it was getting dark by this time so we weren't able to drive around the area very much.  It was around this time that I started getting a little over confident with  driving on the left hand side of the road and stopped concentrating on the turns I was making.  Big mistake!  As I approached an intersection I was waiting to make a left hand turn and was watching both directions to make sure traffic had cleared. Once I saw a gap in the traffic I proceeded to make my left hand turn and was suddenly faced with a car coming straight at me flashing their headlights like crazy and Andy asking what  I was doing!  I was suddenly very afraid and quickly realized my mistake. Fortunately I waited for a large enough gap and was able to make it back into the proper lane before any damage was done.  I know that I rattled myself, but Andy was great about it and didn't say very much other then he wondered why I was making a really wide turn like that! 

I ended up calling it a night after that and only wanted to get back to Andy's to allow myself to calm down a little.  Thankfully the rest of the drive home was nice  and uneventful, even if I did start concentrating on my turns a little more.  Click here to see more of today's photos. 

< Previous - Next >