Bah Humbug.....

16/6/12

Time flies by....I can't believe my last blog was in February before we took possession of the 'beast'. It's now mid-June.....



Dave has been in London for nearly 3 months working at Queen Mary Sailing Club and he is loving it. He's added a Multihull qualification to his name and is hoping he might get a windsurfing certificate too. Technology has moved on since he first took up the sport on the Dovey estuary back in the 70's and how his new work mates laugh when he talks about the 'old days' - most of them are still only in their twenties though!



We had one trip away in the van in April - a whistle-stop trip to the Peak District, North Yorkshire Moors and the Lake District. One night was spent in the field of The Royal Oak, a lovely friendly pub with camping, not far from Buxton. The morning after a night of heavy rain saw us needing a push out of the muddy ground - it's a real lump to push! Our second night was an altogether different affair - a beautifully maintained site, with excellent pitches called Doe Park which is near Bernard Castle and a bargain at £14.80 a night all incl. Glorious sunset, amazing clear open stary skies and another very friendly local pub. Less said about our night in the Lake District the better, all the sites we tried were either closed (due to open the day before the lucrative Easter holiday fortnight) or way over our budget. We ended up in a layby with 2 lorries for company - our first wild camping experience! Wasn't that 'wild' though as we were only just off a busy A road.

Dave is living in the van down in London and has found a lovely campsite a short cycle ride from the Sailing Club. I joined him down there for the long 4 day Jubilee weekend and we explored the local area as well as venturing up into the city to watch the pageant on the Thames. Dave enjoyed watching the historic boats go by and just about tolerated the Diamond Jubilee celebrations  .... bah humbug!!

We didn't win the best dressed van on the site competition!!

I'm sussing things out for our departure in the winter - looking at work opportunities and trying to plan some kind of vague itinerary. It's a fine balance between the desire to enjoy the freedom of the travelling and the need to fund part of it. In a week the lads will be home from university for the summer and I'm wondering / worrying where all their 'stuff' will go. Our little terraced house in Shrewsbury is full now including the attic and shed!

Countdown begins.....

8/2/12

I'm new to blogging - last time we went travelling for an extended period BC (before children) I religiously filled in a paper diary every day of our trip to Australia and New Zealand. I came across my diaries recently and they made for interesting reading - especially the part when we found out I was pregnant - that little unexpected 'finding' on our trip turns 21 in a few weeks time. It seems like such a long time ago and so, while we are still young enough to enjoy the experience, we've decided to set off again on our travels.

We've been formulating our plan for some time now knowing that once both the lads had left home  we would be able to downsize, selling our 3 bed detached and buy something slightly smaller to free up some finances to fund our trip. We may have taken it a little far when we fell in love with a tiny 2 bedroomed mid-terraced house built at the turn of the century (1900 not 2000!). People kept telling us that your 'children' keep coming back - well yes they do but we don't want to make it too comfortable for them!

Career changes, gaining new skills and learning useful languages are also part of the plan and some progress has been made in that direction. More on that in the weeks and months to come.

And the final part of the plan was finding the right van for our travels.We were expecting this to take some time while we scoured the internet and traipsed around cold wet forecourts looking for a van with the right layout  at the right price in the right condition. However last week we found one that ticked all the boxes and made the somewhat rash decision to put down a deposit. We'll pick it up in March when the mechanical and habitation (we need to learn this campervan lingo) checks have been done. Time to start planning the trip, the countdown to November begins........