And finally

It’s quite amazing how much gear we carry on our trips – it took us getting on for 2 hours to fully empty the van and then put things away. We reckon there is about 17 machine loads of washing; because of the dust a lot of our unused clothing needs “refreshing” too. We decided to leave cleaning the van itself for the moment and concentrate on sorting out, not only what we’ve unloaded but all the other things that have accumulated over the 3 months we’ve been away such as mountains of post, getting bills sorted and paid, both cars need MoTs etc. etc.

Once again we’ve enjoyed the trip – we don’t call it a holiday as there is still the cooking and washing and cleaning, it’s a “relocation” – although we are happy to be home. We’ve travelled 6323 miles, seen many new places as well as revisited old favourites and both got nice sun tans. Perhaps not everything went to plan and it’s made us think seriously about how we go about it next year, and there will be a next year all being well, but we’ve learned to take things as they come and not get upset. However one thing we have noticed is that, apart from Morocco, it’s been decidedly colder and wetter than the last 3 years. But we haven’t let that bother us too much.

Of course the main difference this year has been having Jamie along and it’s caused us to make a few changes in how we go about things, especially storing and moving round the extra accoutrements a dog needs. But he has actually been brilliant, absolutely no trouble at all, settling down quickly to the new routine of living in the van. He travels well in his cage, mainly sleeping all the time we were on the road, and never complaining, even for quite long periods. Obviously we have had to keep him on his lead, except for beach excursions, but he has been happy enough tied to the door handle and allowed to roam the extent of the lead. But he’s now really scruffy so a priority is a session at the groomers.

Next outing is our regular visit to the Funsters “meet” at the Peterborough Motorhome Show, where we’ll be doing a bit of shopping. After that we are planning 6 weeks in Scandinavia – but that will be the subject of our next blog terryandbren9.blogspot.com