Raining in Antwerp

We both had a fantastic time on Sunday afternoon, catching up with lots of friends and family before our departure. Last to leave was Ben Griffiths at 10.30pm, showing that the Welsh really can foot it with the best. Unfortunately we didn´t win the pub quiz.

Little Jasper, our nephew and my Godson, was all dressed up in his best safari suit for the day.

As you saw from the text entry, we were clamped in Brixton on Monday! Expensive to release, so will have to shorten our trip by a month.

So far we´ve tootled around Belgium, drinking beer and admiring racing pigeons. Today we are in Antwerp, and yes, it is raining... Tomorrow we head to Delft to see Richard and Caroline, formerly of Queenstown.

No probs so far with the Land Rover, however had to go to the petrol station last night halfway through cooking risotto to get more petrol for the stove!

Leaving Britain

Great day on Sunday. Camel clamped in Brixton on Monday! With Newmans last night. Now in Dover for ferry. Will try and post proper entry soon. Bye bye England!

Radio with Pictures

It feels a bit more like we are on our way now, or nearly anyway. The Land Rover is packed with pretty much everything we are taking, with a place for everything and everything in its place (much to Catkin's horror!). We are now in London with Rob, Ruth and Jasper, looking forward to our afternoon at the pub tomorrow. Hopefully some of our friends turn up to wish us well! Before leaving Catkin's home county of Buckinghamshire, we went to the orchard in Little Horwood, where we celebrated our wedding nearly three years ago, and took a few photos (see above).


We now have our visas for Syria, and all the others we can either get at the border or will get at embassies enroute. Our crate of spare parts is bulging at the seams, even more so after a visit to Frog's Island 4x4 on Thursday afternoon. Recovery gear is stowed in the hardest to get spot - hopefully we don't need to get to it very often. The toolbox is fully kitted out (or at least as fully kitted out as I can currently justify). We have whittled down our personal effects to just one crate and one small bag each (for a year!). The massive first aid kit is stocked to the satisfaction of a District Nurse with a healthy interest in Expedition Medicine. The kitchen and food crates look full already, but we still need to swing past Sainsbury's on Monday to do a proper shop and redeem our Nectar points. The fridge is up and running off it's own dedicated switch on the dashboard, and chills beer perfectly as we drive along, (as well as keeping the milk fresh for the weetbix in the morning). The custom-built water tank behind the rear wheel is full of 40L of fresh cool water ready to drink, thanks to our on-board pump and ceramic filter. We have so much fuel capacity (210L) that we can no longer afford to fill it up in the UK and are waiting until we get to France were we hope it is still a bit cheaper. And best of all we have nice loud airhorns to frighten the locals (although not as cool as the "Dukes of Hazzard" horns we had on the Mongol Rally last year!).

So as you can see, everything is well packed in the back. The Camel itself has benefitted from a change of all lubricants and filters - this was the last job done before departing from Kerswell Green on Wednesday - the official end of preparation, and beginning of the journey I suppose.

So, tomorrow at the pub to see friends and family, Monday to Kent, then across to France on Tuesday.