And they’re off! Back into Motorhome Life in Canterbury
Zagan the motorhome’s in the cracking official motorhome aire, at a Park ‘n’ Ride facility outside Canterbury (N51.26176, E1.10023). We’ve been here before, back in 2016, but again we’re too busy trying to get to grips with life in a van again to get the bus into town (and Charlie’s made it clear he’s walking NOWHERE on this tour: “CARRY ME HUMANS!!! And get me biscuits, biscuits dammit!”). Our ferry to Calais’ booked for midday tomorrow, so we’ve just a short drive to get over to La France.
The Fantastic Motorhome Aire at Canterbury
Yesterday Ju headed to the big smoke to see our good friend Sue run the London Marathon in just over five sweltering hours. In fact half our mates headed down there, lining the course in various places and probably scaring the living daylights out of her every hour or so; “SUE!!! SUE!!!!!!”. Neither Ju nor I have run a marathon, but we have joined Sue on some of her winter training. 10, 15, 18, 22 mile runs in all weathers (we didn’t do the full runs!). No missed sessions, just getting her head down and hammering the streets and trails, so we knew she was well prepared, mentally and physically. As we headed out this morning, I’ve not seen her but I imagine she’s as proud as punch, and she should be. Great effort Sue, great effort.
This morning, after nipping out for a run and a couple of long, indulgent hot showers, we threw a lot of stuff into a lot of bags. Ju’s been carefully packing the van and sorting paperwork, bills and pills for weeks, but the final push was, as always, more of a ‘just chuck it in, we’ll sort it later’ kind of affair. We **thought** we remembered everything, but in the past we’ve forgotten to bring essentials like pants, bottle opener and potato masher, so the discovery that this time we’d left the potatoes (but remembered the masher) and onions was no surprise.
Dad: if you’re reading this and want some free veg: would you mind popping up to the Cooler and grabbing ’em before they rot away – they’re in the small bottom drawer in the middle in cloth bags!
Once we’d dispensed the bag contents into various cupboards in Zagan, and after a minor key-related debacle, we headed over to Ju’s folks to drop off the car we’ve borrowed for the past nine months. Nine months since we came back! No wonder we’ve forgotten where the dog food goes, why the offside wing mirror keeps creeping out of position, and how to hold up a protective hand when opening overhead cupboards!
Saying ‘bye to Malcolm and Judith
Setting off – how does this work again?
Saying bye to friends and family is no fun. Thankfully it was easier this time around, probably as we keep leaving and it’s getting more ‘normal’, and partly as we’re back here on British soil in a mere three months. In an unusual ‘OurTour’ move, we have a ferry booked in mid-July, just in time for Carfest, and then an August of beer festivals and BBQs awaits! Hopefully :-). What we’ll do in those three months remains to be seen. I’ve been guilty in the past of trying to force too much out of our wanderings, to the point I’d get disillusioned unless we were constantly amazed by where we were. This time around the plan is to take it fairly easy, to amble about a bit, to just take it as it comes.
So, here we are, we’re out and off, the hump is over! More motorhomes are arriving as I type; we’re up to about ten of us now. Zagan’s innards seem to be generally working. The bike rack’s still attached and nothing fell off on the drive south from Nottingham. The new springs seem to be working well on their first long drive, although they didn’t manage to prevent the driver from uttering a new choice words as we bounced through a steady set of potholes on the road south! It’s like Ukraine! Well, not quite.
The start to these tours always feel unreal to me. It’s like any sideways shift in life I suppose: it takes a little while to sink in. One minute we’re sat in the beer garden in an English town, the next we’re itinerants, in some strange foreign town, BOOM!
This evening we’ll get the maps and aires databases out, and start to work out where we’re going. Our home’s in the middle of England, and we miss the sea. The beach calls for a few days, so it’s likely we’ll turn right at Calais, and head west down La Manche (the English Channel) to find somewhere where we can get our eye back in.
Cheers, Jay
Wow off again. Really looking forward to reading all about this trips adventures. We did 7 weeks on the continent last year and head off again on May 20th for 4 months this time…. we sooo have the travelling bug now. Think we may blame you guys for that.
Have a fantastic and safe trip
Alan and Jackie
Not guilty m’Lord! The bug is genetic; don’t blame us! :) Roll on 20 May! Cheers, Jay
Hi – great to have your blogs to read again, missed them. 😕 Hope you have lots of fun & Charlie enjoys it too.
Very well done to your friend Sue – it was hot, our daughter ran the London too! We didn’t see you Ju 😉😉
Ann
I forgot the onions enough times that it is now a separate item on our packing list. Along with ‘cake’ – so disappointing to shoehorn an evening baking goodies into the hectic schedule before the off, only to realise a few hours too late that they’re still on the side in the kitchen.
Hope you have a good one and I look forward to following along.
Looking forward to reading your blog as always. The potholes in the M2 from the M25 to Canterbury reminded us of East European roads when we were down that way 6 weeks ago!
Nice… happy to see you back on the road again. We definitely know the feeling!
I’ll bet you do guys! Congratulations on the Mexico tour, especially with the mechanical challenges. Cheers, Jay
Bon voyage you two. We are just back after our first 10 month tour, thanks to your inspiration. Look forward to following your latest adventures. Mike & Mandy
Boom! Bon Voyage peeps. Wish we were there.
Kindest…Wayne.
Thanks Wayne – hope Angie’s arm’s fixing itself fella. Man hugs, Jay
Glad to see you’re back on the road 😀 Mark had recently started joking that if you stayed in the cooler for much longer you’d have to rename yourselves “ourhouse”😱 Really looking forward to reading about your next adventures.
Stay Safe, Healthy and Happy. Life on the road is like a dream come true, cut free from the mundane, with a new adventure every day. Thanks for giving us all the inspiration to give it a go. Our journeys remain short hops in comparison to your epic “marathons”. We look forward to “learning some more from the masters” All the very best
Glad we could be of some use guys! Stay happy, cheers, Jay