You know you're near Newcastle when...

A brief stop off on our journey home, at Go Ape Matfen. I have done several of these courses now and Matfen is definitely the best of them so far. 

I would like to say it was entirely down to the course (and it was mostly) but it was helped by a 16-week-old collie puppy called Nola who was the most adorable bundle of wriggly energy.

It was a looong journey after that with 2.5 hours of traffic jam wedged in the middle, but we got home safely and I would not change our choices. Sometimes you have to realise that bad experiences can be swapped out for good ones.