Day 7: Cooling Down

As you can imagine, a hop from Charleston to the North-East of England will result in a significant change in climate - one that i was prepared for and, to be perfectly frank, was looking forward to. Whilst i love Charleston and, indeed, the climate, it can occasionally get to be a little too much. I'm tired of walking down the road and 5 minutes later being covered in sweat with shorts and t-shirt sticking to me. I was, perhaps, a bit wary of the news i'd had from the folks before i came saying that the past three weeks had been considerably warmer on these shores (indeed, July turned out to be the hottest one since records began properly at the start of the 20th century) but, fortunately for me, it began to cool down a bit as of Monday. Having said that, walking down the street in Manchester with 30C temperatures was fantastic - not least because the humidity was virtually non-existent.

Crossing over the Penines and the weather has cooled a bit as well (although the ridiculously full train up to York was rather toasty). And, of course, Britain wouldn't be Britain without some good ol' wind and rain. A drive up to Leyburn (into Wensleydale) and it wasn't long before there was something of a torrential downpour (not tropical style like Charleston but impressive none-the-less). I was very tempted to jump out of the car and start dancing around - now i know exactly what Gene Kelly was on about in 'Singin' in the Rain'. Nothing makes you feel more homely than good ol' British weather. I think it's going to be even more of a shock for me going back to Charleston after three weeks - i hope it's cooled down a little there as well.