Sue playing galley slave and before you ask, no. She doesn't drink Shiraz from a teacup

All went well today.

Packed up from our farmers field by 0900 - and easing into the Reich UK facility by 1000.

We whiled away 3 hours sippin coffee whilst more rain cracked on down, but as promised the motor movers were all done by 1330 and we were off.

Not back to our booked field, but onward north to Chester Fairoaks site where we are sure to find some company, and the city close by to explore.

Believe it or not on the way, sun came out. Then went back in. Then out. Then in.

But fortune saw it dry as we pitched up in this very tidy and busy park, and enjoyed whizzing the van around remotely to get it perfectly parked. Brilliant devices.

The sun remained to allow us to finish off the last four cans of tonic outside with a nice natter with new neighbours - before falling back on vino to accompany Sues gally prepped pasta pesto.

And finally worked out how to get the hot water boiler operating. Every days a school day for me 🤣. And tomorrow’s now a shower day.....

Will explore locally - lots to see - until Friday when we pack up once more and head for the border.

On. On.

Trundled up at 55 mph with no drama. Despite being fully loaded the Airstream towed like a dream. The 55 mph self imposed limit is aimed at keeping fuel consumption above 20 mpg. Means we are down there in the truckers lane. All flashing and indicator signals. It's fun. Slow. But fun.

So got to the gates of the camp site - a working farm setting - to find it deserted with notices stuck up telling us what to do.

Had just got out read the advice on where to go park etc and the sky just opened up. Black clouds, lightening, huge hailstones - fair dived back in the car to sit it out. It all felt quite cosy.

Only lasted 15 minutes, then sun came back, Sue braved opening the farm gates, and we rolled into the site. It was truly a camp site for one! That was us.

But it didn't take too long to get the van detached. Power connected. Ice cubes out. Gin bottle found. Icy tonics from fridge. Slice up a lemon. And even a jar of botanicals to flavour mine. Ahhhhh.

Sadly weathers not looking the best for tomorrow's haul from Milford to Cannock and our first night away in the van.

We've booked a couple of nights in a campsite east of Birmingham, close by the HQ of Reich UK, where we will deliver the van Tuesday for them to fit 'motor movers'. These are four electric motors that can drive the vans wheels when it's not attached to the car. It'll allow us to wander alongside, precisely positioning the Airstream using just a joystick control. Neat.

Then Wednesday will see us on another short leg to a site just outside Chesters ancient Roman walls. Chester is just south of Liverpool and I've always wanted to see more of this city. The 48 hours there will provide the chance.

Then it's a 6/7 hour haul on Friday up over the borders, past Glasgow, onto our first Scottish camp near Oban on the mainland, adjacent to the Isle of Mull.

I can already hear Paul McCartney and his bagpipe pals warming up, ready to serenade us on the stereo...

Fingers crossed the wet and blustery weather improves before we get there. 🤣

The past weeks have been busy, packing away the house and whittling down exactly what we can take with us on this upcoming road trip. But fingers crossed, next Monday will see us away from Milford towing the silver bullet, heading for our first stopover, a small site close by Birmingham where we've planned a 48 hour stay during which we are having one last job completed, the fitting of some electric 'motor movers'.
We'll then resume our trip north, aiming for another 48 hour stopover in Chester on our way up into Scotland. Neither of these legs is longer than 4 hours, and will allow us to get familiar with any towing peculiarities....
With a supercharged Jag pulling the Airstream don't foresee any issues, and it's all a bit more comfortable and certainly very different from our very first road trip together in 1969.

Back then, shortly after getting married and deciding we hadn't really seen enough of the world, we sold some wedding presents and teamed up with pals Glyn and Moira to spend a huge £120 in Germany buying an old split screen VW combi just like this one.




We blagged a sponsorship from VW (yes - travel by van then was still newsworthy) to get its engine rebuilt, and stocking up with as much as it could carry (which wasn't a lot with its 1300cc of pure power), and with a balance of just £150 in our purse we departed the UK with a dream of driving overland to S Africa. As needs must we reckoned we could always work when the purse got empty.

It was a blast of a trip ....

The van had 6v electrics and despite the service, a dodgy generator. So the slower we went, the dimmer the lamps and the slower the wipers. Top speed was 70mph and that downhill with a following wind. Much, much slower uphill and across the mountains. It was the time of Parisian pavement partying, mixing with local kids, US draft dodgers from Vietnam, and expat youngsters avoiding the troubles in N Ireland. Of crossing a Spain with no freeways and unfriendly Guardia Civil. Of North African border guards with scissors on hand and authority (and guns) that allowed them to shear off hair off hippies that they considered too long. A Gibraltar blockaded by Franco, all barricaded and garrisoned by several Brit regiments to halt a threatened invasion. It was all so cool, a happening time, and we were fortunate enough to be right in the middle of the mix.

Over those two years we learnt lots about life and definitely about ourselves whilst out on the road. It cemented an understanding that traveling is good - and provided some life guides we've stuck to ever since. Our time in the early IT sector. Choosing to work for various European and American firms. The 20 years in Australia. Our early retirement and cruising 30000 miles on various yachts. Our more recent time down in Spain. They were all fueled by the zest to enjoy new people and new places which probably stemmed from that very first van trip together 50 years ago.

And just so you know, when we made it over to Africa, we just couldn't get through. Even in convoy with other travelers, the wars we found raging - in a band across the continent (Congo, Chad, Sudan) - made it impossible to drive from the north to the south in safety......and then while we were over there, the Six Day War kicked off! The whole of N Africa became a tricky place for any European travelers.

So it was a speedy scurry back to Gib. Pick up some local work to replenish the purse - and later fly back to the UK.

Must say on settling back down, I began to appreciate that I left the UK as 21 coming on 17, and returned 23 coming on 30. The traveling experiences taught us lots, and the trip was a fantastic achievement in some difficult times. But with a new family on the way, it was appropriate to then trim the beard, cut off the hippie locks, and (oh no), go get a proper job.......

So here we are now just over 50 years later, embarking again on another traveling adventure.....albeit with more dosh in our pockets and this time in a bit more luxury.

But next week I'm departing as a 73 yo, and absolutely don't want to return feeling ANY older than that! But what with lots of hiking, cycling and relaxing partying over the three months, my goal is to return not just fitter but maybe feeling younger too.

Now WOULDN'T THAT BE a fantastic achievement? On. On.

It's exactly one month until we burble off on our 3 month GB road trip in the Airstream we got as lockdown started. Beginning to feel the bubble of excitement......

With the past year lost to Covid and lockdown, it's certainly been a long time coming. It’s given me the chance to work my way over the van fixing up what’s required, buying a huge volume of goodies that apparently no camper can do without, and rationalizing on what we can and can’t take with us.

With overseas vacations still banned, UK staycations have become all the rage, so we've ensured we've got places to stopover and booked up multiple sites in a long clockwise loop from the south coast, right up along Scotland's west coast, around and back down England's east coast, to cross over our outward track and end up with six weeks in Wales and Cornwall. Lots of link ups planned with pals but doubt we will feel too lonely trying out this 'new to us' means of travel.

It’s not a boat, but the principals much the same. It’s a neat way to move from party to party.....

Our plan is to settle in for a week at each site, and drive / bike / hike out from each exploring the surrounding regions, little Tommy in tow. Just itching to get going ..... so much to see.

Will take loads of photos and keep you all posted on how it all pans out ............on on.

Enjoyed a wild weekend with CBYA crew of Eric Degerland, Chris and Tammy de Bour, Vicky Power and Nikki Dwyer, zipping across from Denia to Sant Antoni before fresh 20+ knot winds.

Had to drift around off Denia awaiting the wind but when it arrived at 1200 - off we went.

Fantastic ride. Wind angles were perfect for Jumbucks Code 0 and it wasn't long before we left a majority of the fleet a long way behind as we surfed our way across a building sea, rarely dropping below 10 knots boat speed, and eventually topping 14.7 on one sustained surf.

We were sixth over the line arriving at 1835 - giving us an average speed of 10 knots. Simply fantastic result and the gin bottle was swiftly drained in the first hour at the dock.

Fantastic fun night out in San Antoni enjoying curry, then drinks, drinks and more drinks. Hit the sack around 3 am, and were sufficiently presentable at CN San Antonis presentation dinner 2 pm Sunday.

We secured a third place overall and in our combined Division 3/4, so moved on evening hours over to Ibiza Town to continue the celebration.

Fantastic group of people. Chris was exceptional on the main trim. Eric managed the foredeck perfectly. Nikki and Viky trimmed like a couple of demons, and Tammy jumped in to help whenever it was needed. Truly super performances all round.

And what can I say about their partying ability? Equally exceptional.

Thanks guys for a fabulous race weekend and another trophy for the cabinet. Well done everyone!