Filed under: UK
We made it to Tom’s house near Brighton! The journey was really tough and I’ve had quite enough adventure so might head home. Ben’s never been this far South, we feel a little out of our depth.
Filed under: UK
Having a van is really useful. So far it has:
- Moved 4 ex-students and all their stuff back home. Tom won the prize for most clobber, although Heulwen is a smaller person so she wins the “most clobber per unit body mass” category.
- Been makeshift scaffolding. first week of work was roofing a barn so we put boards across the roofrack at the back of the van and used it as a mobile platform!
- Shifted a 200year old (estimated!) oak tree’s worth of planking.
- Taken 6 bicycles, 1 tandem, 1 pub bench, 70pints of Arundel Gold beer, 2 crates of John Smiths, 2 magnums of wine, 300 hardback copies of “Austin 7, complete racing history”, 1 advertising board for said books, 1 gas cooker, 4 rucksacks of clothes, a comprehensive toolkit, 20l of water and 1 very fashionable jumper (not to mention 2 people) to Gloucestershire and back – although obviously the beer did not return!
- towed a hot and bothered 1907 Mors Le Sanglier racing car through Midhurst town centre
- and you can sleep in the back!
Filed under: UK
The ferry is finally booked and a date for leaving the UK has been set. On the 15th august us and our trusty van (which Will has named Nevil, in case anyone wonders who the hell is this third group member!) will arrive in the beautiful port of dieppe ready for the first leg of the trip down to italy. Much consumption of vin rouge is expected and the possible addition of two special guests to our intrepid group!
Filed under: UK
The van was filled to the brim with Asda shopping bags, beer crates and wellington boots this weekend as we provided the “alternative” bus route to glastonbury! A wet and muddy weekend later, having been well entertained by the arts and music of pilton, Nevil was crammed with empty shopping bags and beer crates and lots of mud! We’d lost the wellies…
The car park queues afterwards provided some testing offroading – perhaps a trial for the Romanian roads to come?
Thank you to Mr. A. Kharamed of Lockleaze garage, Bristol, who has seen us through the first stage of the journey… the MOT!!!
After a spot of welding on the front chassis member and a little attention to the brakes and steering linkage we got our piece of green paper for the hefty sum of £308.64. Whilst I was checking what had been done I spotted a rather large crack on one of the front spring hangers, another thing to be added to our list of “jobs.” Obviously this is passable for an MOT! Lucky I caught it here and prevented a potential nose dive into a ferry terminal.
The next step is to give it a good service and get a few spare parts, then start offering our “man-with-van” services in time for house moving season. First deadline is seats in the back for Glastonbury…
