UK road trip - October 2nd to 15th

Time to get serious.  It is only three weeks until we fly to Australia and we don’t currently know when we shall next be back in the UK.  Time to get busy with some organisation as well as travelling the nation to see people before we disappear off again.

I'm sure the dogs (Dennis & Bella) were fine with this....

We started off with visits closer to home.  I went to visit RSPCA chums in Kent whilst Simon saw friends at the local Oktoberfest in Chelmsford. 



































Done with our painting in Simon’s parents’ house, his work was just beginning in recreating Mickey and Minnie Mouse in glorious technicolour in his sister’s bathroom after the decorator had painted over his previous effort!

Another important factor in our future, money, was of particular concern as we now hadn’t heard a peep from Campers Inn in America for the last two months about the sale of the RV.  A quick check on line showed that he was still up for sale.  At this rate we would be looking at next year before we get any of our investment back and that would mean a significantly lower offer on an RV that had aged a year whilst being parked up!  Worryingly, I had chased them up with emails that had gone unanswered.  Enough was enough, time to put a call in.  The Manager seemed surprised to receive a call from the UK but I wasn’t convinced that the maximum effort has been exerted in trying to sell the RV.  He informed me that Joe, the guy who we’d bought the RV off and who had been off sick for months after multiple heart attacks, would be back the following weekend and that he would make it his quest to sell our camper.  That made me question what the rest of the sales team have been doing for the last couple of months even more!  But still, he promised to put Joe in direct contact with me via email so that my future requests shouldn’t be ignored.  The saga continues!

A lovely sunset whilst heading to Norfolk

The following week we really clocked up the mileage.  A trip back to Norwich to say ‘see you next April in South Africa?!’ to the 'A's was followed in quick succession by a drive to Cambs to see our friends Pettett and Sarah who only recently moved back down from Scotland after three years. And then continuing on to Wales!  

Another toy bites the dust... Pippit enjoyed himself though

A trip to see the Wimporys was essential as we haven’t seen them now for at least a couple of years.  We stayed for two nights and had a lovely day out to the beach despite the Portuguese Man-o-War jellyfish that had been blown onto the welsh coast by a storm

Man-O-War jellyfish.... in Wales!

What a lovely time we had with the Wimporys!

Our route back across England took us perfectly to the door of Simon’s sister’s family for a BBQ.  Phew!  At this point it would seem appropriate to give a ‘hats off and big up’ to Tim Josh who thought nothing of lending his shiny golden Audi to us to use over this whole section of our lives since the demise of the Corsa.  Because of his lifelong friendship with Simon he only saw fit to insure me to drive his car, seeing me as a lesser risk than Simon and, well, because it would be funny NOT to let Simon drive his car.  His generosity has been boundless and in return I have scuffed an alloy and added a few thousand miles to his odometer.  Hardly a fair swap.  Thank you, Tim, the offer still stands that I will pay for the refurb to that wheel (if you ever bother to get the other three done!).