The van has passed her MOT! She went in this morning at 8.30 am. Stuart paced the corridor outside, chain smoking furiously, beads of sweat glistening on his furrowed brow as he waited for news..eh, no he didn’t. I just made that up.
He was as calm as any man would be when you’ve already replaced virtually every part of the van and the pre-MOT check two weeks ago carried out by our nice local garage (hello M&D Motors) revealed nothing more sinister than a teeny hole in the floor and leaky drive shaft seals – all easily fixable.
And so we have started our journey and are now staying the night on a pretty soulless campsite 20 minutes from Portsmouth. The last few days have been hectic – seeing family and friends, some seriously enthusiastic partying on Saturday which meant a slower than required pace on Sunday, leading to an even more manic Monday of house clearing and packing.
But by 11 am this morning, we were pulling out of our road after one final check that Stuart hadn’t substituted his passport for a bag of apples. And yes that did happen to us a few years back – he unaccountably swapped the bag holding all our passports for 6 Braeburns. This resulted in a tense wait at Gatwick at 4 am while he did the eye wateringly expensive round trip taxi journey home to retrieve them.
But no such drama today. It will be a quiet night in, with good memories of the fond farewells with our much loved family and friends and much to look forward to – all starting tomorrow.
Be Voyage; looking forward to the updates…….!
Cheers Dave. Looking forward to hearing more about Peru and Chile.
Good on ye. Do it for us who are left behind!!!
Looking forward to following your great adventures via the Power of Blog!!!
Have a great last night in England and a smooth crossing xxx
Thanks Susan – on the ferry now, the sea is looking a bit choppy but so far so good. Let’s hope the Bay of Biscay doesn’t live up to its reputation xxx
Have you put together a mix tape for the journey,? Safe and happy journey x
Thanks Karen – yep, have been Spotifying madly for last few weeks and now have huge ‘On the Road’ playlist to keep us going xx
Good news you two! Fine sailing all the way I hope. With best wishes Gavin C
Hey great to hear from you Gavin – all going well so far.
Cheers, Stuart
Good news! Have a great time x
Wishing you both a fantastic time on your adventure.
Camper Van is in tip top condition!!!!!
Best wishes from us all here at M&D Autos xx
Thanks so much Tracey – we have a great photo of you all and will get that up on the blog soon. Cheers Helen & Stuart x
HI Helen
I was looking through my phone and came across a random memo with only “campervanmatters” written on it! this must be from our prosecco farewell on the CW lawn!
Safe travels and I hope you enjoy every second!!
xx
Hey Sheena – yes, a barely legible note saying ‘campervanmatters’? That would have been a seriously random note to wake up to next day. Of course, I recall every detail of our conversation at the farewell bash (ahem). Great to hear from you! Helen xx
At last your on your way an now the adventure begins.