Our first day back in the UK after over 500 days overseas. We woke up in the village of Quorn, a few miles from Amelia’s student house in Loughborough.

Andy was up at 6am and was greeted by a cold frost and a continuation of his 10k running routine.

We drove over to Loughborough and picked up Amelia before heading north to go and see our respective families in Oldham and Bolton.

On the way we stopped off at the White Rose Shopping Centre Leeds to buy a few gifts and cards for family.

After getting to Michelle’s family house in Royton, we caught up her sister, niece and their kids.

Later in the afternoon we had a trip down memory lane with dinner at the Summit Pub, next door to the first house we owned on Rochdale Road.

It was lovely to see them all after so long and hear all their news and talk a little about our travels and all the places we visited.

Early evening we made the short drive over to Andy’s parents house in Bolton to catch up with his parents and his brother and family. Again we spent the evening recounting stories of some of our travel experiences as well as hearing all about their news over the last 15mths or so.

Tomorrow we are seeing more family and friends in Bolton before we return to Oxford on Thursday and eventually return to our home city 506 days after we first left.

Thursday will be our final post day before we sign off on the travel blog.