Campy gets a weigh-in

Monday 24 September

It didn't half blow last night, the rain really didn't stop all day and we got quite a dowsing. One thing the rain did confirm 'Campy' has a leak. Well two leaks actually!! The sliding windows in the side door door and above the hob both dripped a small but constant amount of water. We stuffed a piece of thick kitchen towel (not the thin crappy Tesco value stuff you understand) under the runner and in the morning you could wring them out. We did know there was a small leak but the shocking weather highlighted how bad it was.

As it was still raining when we got out of out of the Duvalay's we decided we should get this looked at before it's too late and we are on our way to Spain. The local VW commercial garage is in Dorchester or is it Casterbridge? Without making an appointment we drove to the garage and we were amazed at the attention we were given. An engineer came to look at at the windows immediately, he tried the windows one by one and knew straight away what was wrong with them.

He announced that the sliding window over the hob was faulty and could be easily removed and replaced. This is apparently a well know problem with the T5. He thought that would solve the problem with that one. The other window in the sliding door he suspected would require the whole window assembly to be replaced. However, first they would try to replace the sliding window as with the other in order to see if that worked, but if not, it would have to go.

I explained the situation with him over us leaving the area on Thursday and we were not returning to the UK for 6 months and he said 'right we will order the parts today, you come in first thing in the morning and we will swap the two windows over and test them for leaks. If that works then fine but if not we will have it back in on Wednesday and we will swap the whole window assembly over.'

What fantastic service VW Dorchester - we salute you...8.45am tomorrow then watch this space for an update.

Whilst Kevin was sorting out Campy, Petra was in Lidl stocking up with chocolate, when she came back we went to Tesco's and filled up with fuel, not that we needed it but we had a 5p off voucher that expired today and every penny counts. Then we went to have Campy weighed on a weigh bridge. We needed to know for ferries and besides we have no idea if we are over our limit.

As we know, Campy is a Volkswagen T5 - T30 140 Converted Transporter. Now, the T30 means that the maximum weight load the van can carry is 3000kg or 3 tonnes. The completed van from Bilbo weighed in at 2326kg So that means for maximum user payload is 674kg which includes the two of us, all fuel and water, the equipment we have put in and everything else I can't think of.

We arrived at the weigh bridge which was at the local scrap yard...Campy looked resplendent all new and shiny amid all the twisted metal and mud. Kev went to see the man in the office and he showed him where the bridge was stated it cost £5 for the service. We took a few things out of the boot which are not going with us and left them on the side, Onto the bridge Campy popped and it turns out she weighs 2820kg. Not bad really, so we have 180kg to spare, enough for the tea bags, coffee and chocolate we are taking with us.

Next we went to Tesco again, this time to get food and some provisions to take with us. As we pulled up in the car park Kev remembered the things we had taken out of the boot at the weigh bridge were still sitting there so he made a quick get away to retrieve them whilst Petra went around Tesco. Thankfully they were still there. Back at Tesco, we have been waiting all summer for the 1kg bag of Lavazza beans to be on offer but alas we had to pay the £12.95 on the ticket. We have 1.5kg of coffee to last us the 6 months we are away, hope it's enough?

Unbelievably, by the time we had finished and arrived back at the camp site, it was 3pm. Another day gone.