Dee is exploring the UK and here is her first reflection on the exciting holiday so far…
So here we are finally, sitting by the Grand Union Canal in Northamptonshire, relaxing after a very crazy week.
Our Nissan Patrol in Australia started to complain that we were going to abandon her for six months, so decided to have a cracked head the day before we left. Took her to our trusted diesel mechanic who will look after her for the six months. Hope she’s happy when we return.
Getting to Melbourne airport is quite a rigmarole from where we live… a bus, train, the Skybus, then shuttle to a local motel, so it took nigh on a day just to get to Tullamarine! The flight with Royal Brunei was fine, uneventful and the seats are quite roomy. Greg is 6ft 4 inches, so he needs substantial legroom! I have also made a note to use my own headphones in future for movie listening, as the ones handed out are totally useless.
Usually on arrival at Heathrow my son meets us with a decent cup of tea in each hand, but this time as he’s now in Sydney we were booked on a coach to get to Swindon, where my first ex-husband had kindly bought a Transit van on our behalf. Two days of laughter followed, we get on so well with him and his third wife, which is bemusing for all but us.
Then to Northampton to pick up our English caravan from storage, and luckily I have a brother nearby…who has a spare room!
We discovered that the caravan had lodgers at some point! It had been overrun by mice! This is quite a horror story, bedding, clothing, papers, bath mat, blankets, even plastics, had been chewed and pooed on! Even one of the cupboard doors. So, for four days we were cleaning out the caravan. I became sick and my allergy meds didn’t help, must have been the dust. But we soldiered on, and within five days we were ready to get on the road. Just one more job…check under the bed!
It seems like a simple task, but it went horribly wrong when we discovered where the mice had nested..in my UGG boots! How dare they! Words fail me trying to describe the horrors in that tub where I kept my wooly, warm boots and shoes. We picked up the whole plastic tub and threw it out. It was awful departing with my favourite booties.
Seems if you store your caravan near fields, with the legs down, the little monsters climb up the legs! We still can’t find where they got in though…
But there isn’t enough time to dwell on the past and it is all clear now!
We were keen to head off, but then on checking the power…it didn’t work! Off we went to the local caravan joint and the specialist told us it could be a few things…we went back to the caravan and reset everything and it worked! Then we found the gas didn’t work! Now, in our Australian van when we want to put the fridge on gas we just switch it to gas. This didn’t work! Off we went back to the caravan joint! Put this down to jet lag, as we used this caravan for nearly a year in 2012 but, if the cooker top is down, none of the gas appliances work! We knew that!
We moved the caravan from storage to a small site by the canal, one mile from the caravan joint…just in case! On the way we decided to have the green moss washed off by the local Romanian lads…they hardly speak any English but they could say £20 with great ease!
Not over yet! It was quite easy to get a new shower head…the original one having split in the inclement English weather I guess. We found this out the first time we had a shower! Plus all our drainage pipes are clogged up (not with dead mice I hope!). We still have the rear lights to fix, but we will be sorted with no more dramas by tomorrow, Monday. Maybe.
I had hoped to be wowing everyone with exciting tales of travels…but watch this space, hopefully the exciting adventures begin soon. Next weekend we are going to the Crick Boat Show, which is a huge event, with boaties (narrowboats) and travellers from far and wide, plus music, lots of activities. Then we will be heading to Scotland. Maybe. If we get there!
On the plus side, the weather is glorious. The English people are now a shade of pink. We arrived just over a week ago, and needed coats. One day it was coats and scarves, the next day shorts and skimpy T-shirts…and in some cases no T-shirt! We watched as one man’s back got redder and redder as he sat out in the sun. And we have bought a large parasol to sit in the shade!
Lots of lessons learnt. And we will dine out on this for years to come!
Have you had a holiday begin with a bad start? What happened? How did you get your plans back on track again? Tell us in the comments below…
