I met Frank Thompson and Greg Howard at the north side of the Main Basin of Gloucester Docks on my day visit on 22 July. They appeared as an interesting and distinguished duo, well prepared for whatever the British weather might throw at them that day – 10 minutes before the wonderful morning sun had disappeared as thick cloud swept over from the West. Typical of July and August, I was thinking – sunny morning, cloudy afternoon and sunny evening – which is what subsequently happened. I made a comment to this effect to them and so started the conversation.
(Click on thumbnails for larger views.)

Left Frank - Right Greg

I then discovered they were Canadian which fuelled the conversation, during which I asked if it was OK to photograph them and include these and some detail about them in Met on the Cut. Being friendly sort of chaps they agreed.

Frank and Greg had rented a cottage in Malvern Wells for 10 weeks while visiting relatives. They come over every year and love walking the canals and visiting the small towns around Malvern and say they love the UK countryside. Both come from the West side of Canada in British Columbia.

Frank lives in Sidney on Vancouver Island on the West coast of Canada. His place is 3 blocks away from the Pacific Ocean and his journey to England starts with a 1 hour 40 minute ferry ride then ½ hour bus ride to Vancouver airport.

Greg lives near Kamloops which is East of Vancouver and has a different climate to Vancouver being quite arid. It is a 4 hour drive to Vancouver airport. Flying direct from Vancouver to Gatwick takes 8 to 9 hours and is just over 5000 miles as the crow flies. They usually stay overnight at the departure terminals to ease the journey.

I do hope they’ll contact me on their next visit so I can show them a gem sight on the local canals that they may have missed.

More Photos:

Showing the near location with vintage crane

View towards the crane from the South

And, inadvertently, I must have snapped Ralph and Greg heading for their lunch at the nearby Food Festival:

The food festival

 

 

 

 

Then perhaps they indulged a little at this stall – who coud resist on holiday?

The sweets stall - who can resist?

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a Google Earth map of Sidney and below that of Kamloops. You can zoom in and out to really understand where the places are: View Larger Map View Kamloops, British Columbia in a larger map