Rest and Recuperation Day

Tuesday 11 September 

By the time we got up this morning, 07.30 our German friend in the bright orange van had upped boxes and moved on. Unfortunately we are non the wiser as to the contents of his boxes. In fact the last sight of him was him standing in the middle of the road yesterday evening in his Y fronts taking a photo of the sunset. He then collected his wash bag and matched off to the shower block. Clearly he is less shy than us, although saying that some of the dressing gowns and PJs witnessed walking past our van is a sight to behold.

After yesterdays exertions Petra and Kevin decided today was a good day to stay in and do chores, besides it was a bit of a blustery day and quite honestly we couldn’t be bothered to go out. So we spent the day doing the washing and in particular the Duvalay covers which as brilliant they are are can be a bit of a challenge to clean (by that I mean labour intensive) and put back together again. At least we’ve got over the need to iron everything so as soon as they were out of the tumble dryer they were reassembled and packed away ready for tonight.

Other than that we did some lists, for example, we have decided to go back to the storage depot one last time as Weymouth is not that far away from Portsmouth. This is in preparation for our drive through France to Monaco and the French Riviera then along the Mediterranean coast to spain to Malaga which is not that far from Gibraltar (which is as far as you can go!). We really need to lighten Campy as much as possible to save on weight and of course fuel costs. It turns out, France has cheaper fuel than here in the UK but Spain is on an all time high right now and nearer to what we pay here. 

So things to go into storage include Kevin’s flag collection, the Cadac BBQ, Coleman foldaway table and the second Bilbo internal table. All of these items are quite heavy and will make a difference. In reality, we doubt very much we will use them so out they go. We have decided however to buy a smaller foldaway table that will fit in the place of the second table removed from the van. This will save weight on the Coleman and makes it more accessible for quick use outside. We have hardly used the Cadac this year other than the wok part which is excellent. This is not from want but it just hasn’t been the weather this year to do BBQ’s it’s also quite heavy and we won’t need our own BBQ in Spain.

We also did some more research on the computer into traveling abroad, we can’t believe it is only a few weeks (1 Oct) till we board the ferry from Dover to Calais. By then we will have stayed at Sarah and Michael’s log cabin Nr Bude for 4 days from this Saturday coming (thank you both so very much for the kind offer), we then have 9 days in Weymouth (Campy gets a face lift!) then up to Burton for Josie’s 21st birthday party (29 September) and the meeting of the Clan in the Dog and Partridge. Next day we drive to a small CL near Dover and the day after that we catch the 6am boat to Calais. Bring it on.

Today we must congratulate Sam for achieving her target, so proud of you. x