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Our tight Rental
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We took delivery of a rented campervan for a fortnight to tour Devon & Cornwall. It is another Fiat Ducato with a mere 7k miles on the clock being this years model. An absolute delight to drive, and more efficient than our previous 14 year old van. But tight…..well after all it is a standard van width, unlike our capacious Hobby, so it came to pass that we were needing to squeeze past each other and
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| Tidal Ports |
as for the shower and toilet mmmmm…..We look forward to more space in our next van for sure… not that it was a real problem but being in such close proximity to each other for the last 18 months, we didn’t really need the super extra closeness now being foisted upon us. But we have survived and are still talking.
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| Seaside Villages |
We left sunny Winchester with our friend Chris assuring us that the weather was to be settled, rather think she was just thankful for us to go as we had been in her space for a few days and she was not giving us the excuse to stay longer:-):-). Many thanks Chris for your hospitality and look forward to seeing you soon.
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| Quiet Habours |
Our English hosts Owen & Kath have been so generous to us, helping to sort many little glitches encountered whilst we are itinerant, however with them undergoing major renovations and very sadly Kath’s Mum passing on whilst we were down south, we have also relied on Chris, their wonderful neighbour, to fill the void of somewhere to park up and full use of the house. So grateful to them all. We owe our friends in “Nobs Crook” for their hospitality. They will always be welcome “down under” should it transpire.
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| Stunning Locations |
Our map had been well anointed with locations to see, and have managed to visit many stunning authentic small coastal villages. They are naturally inundated over the summer and have done well to retain their village charm, now is a good time to visit, perhaps a little late in the season as many attractions and camps start closing at September’s end, and the weather can be a bit ordinary or downright cold & blustery. We saw it all, and were thankful for the vans awesome heating system.
That & the welcome old English pubs with the nice pub grub, Devon & Cornwall have not been unpleasant. Some of the highlights have been the long golden clean beaches we have missed from home and sadly not been able to always find (well clean anyway) in our EU travels. But as you can guess the missing link is the sun.
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| Lands End |
The sun is scudding just above the horizon this time of year, much lower than NZ, and with it dipping below at 4:30 it's dark at 5, makes for very short touring days, with the nuisance of trying to find our camps in the dark.
With the short days and long nights the 2 weeks in our compact van flew by, and we are now back in
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| Blustery Headlands |
Winchester to discard and pack to our bag limits of 30 kilo each plus hand luggage. We have tried, painfully at times, not to buy STUFF as we have seen sooooo many things we like, but still have a lot of gear to get back, & fear some will be sacrificed.
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| Riverside Walks |
We have bought tickets for a choral and organ recital at Winchester Cathedral tonight, and am looking forward to it. I am sad to say we have not been able to attend much of this sort of thing in our travels as it does need to be a bit organised with sourcing tickets and transport to
venues etc. So tonight’s concert will be a bit special, with advice from our local friends to dress warm and take a cushion. Those Cathedrals are awfully big and difficult to heat.
We fly out Wednesday morning to Singapore, and are looking forward to sunny Aussie, with Rochelle and Daniel for 3 weeks before landing back in Godzone for Xmas.
