We have arrived in France

Well, we made it. We survived our underwater crossing on a large train, where everyone came to inspect the Mog as it's quite a talking point. Someone asked me this morning where we were going, so I said "Malaysia". Lawrence doesn't seem to tire of talking about our plans and the truck, so he has become the spokesperson.

We are camped in a lovely Caravan Park in Licques, not too far from Calais. It's very peaceful and rural, quite bucolic. I went for my first ride on scooter, and we came back from the village with our baguette, I felt very French. The French still don't know how to make tea.

I spent a couple of hours lying on a blanket under our tree reading a book - sheer heaven. We are here for 3 nights and then move on the Champagne - God knows what we'll find to do there...

I've been reading Ewen McGregor's 'Long Way Round' and have started to see the advantages of a Mog - in countries without roads that is.

London calling...

After leaving our haven in Northern Wales and our friends Kath and Pete, and their divine dogs Sophie and Daisy (see photo of curly coated retriever), we headed south.  We spent 2 days in a wee village called Spratton in Northamptonshire. These friends, Mark and Stephanie, have a cottage attached to their house, so we were living in luxury. Managed to visit an equal number of pubs and churches, so everybody was happy (well, maybe more pubs than churches). We then spent 2 days in Stratford-upon-Avon with Liz and Paul, before heading to London to catch up with the truck.

Our cottage in Northamptonshire

We have now been in London for 4 days AND so has the Mog. Lawrence drove it down from Lancaster without incident. It is residing in Rochester in a friend's work yard, lurking behind porta-cabins, so no-one steals it (we should be so lucky!). Anyway, I am gradually making friends with it, and it had rewarded me by revealing a secret wine storage cupboard, which of course made me very happy. 

I've scrubbed the living area and stocked it with our goodies from IKEA etc and it's starting to look like home. Once the Riedel wine glasses are in situ, we'll be ready to roll. We also have the weather on our side which always makes things seem better, today is 21 degrees..!!

We head for France on Monday, which is the real start to our adventures as we will be without backup rescue teams. We need all you atheists out their to pray for us - is there a Unimog God I wonder? If so, we'll need to sacrifice a goat and bottle of cheap Prosecco or something similar on Monday. Will keep you posted, assuming we survive driving underwater across the channel.

At the Beach in Anglesea - N.Wales

Need I say more?...

















We are still without The Mog.

We Made it to Wales - with a little help from our friends...

It's now Saturday and I'm sitting in a cosy house in Wales outside the lovely town of Conwy, which has it's own Castle and wonderful 13th century city walls. We are without Unimog.

This is NOT of my doing, as you are probably thinking. I bravely got into the Monster and sat quietly trying to find some good points. Good point No 1: I'm not in the office. Good point No 2 (ok having trouble thinking of one - I'll get back to you).

Anyway, 10 mins down the M6, steam started pouring out of the engine and the dashboard. I bolted out of truck thinking it was going to explode (not hoping it was it going to explode), and we waited 45 mins for the cavalry to arrive in the form of the mechanics that have been working on it for 3 MONTHS. Off we go again with great trepidation, another 10 mins, we are on the M6 shoulder again with steam billowing out.

Bad Hair Day

We finally made it back to High Bentham, where I drank another 2 pints of issue avoidance. We were rescued by Pete who kindly drove us to his house in North Wales in terrible traffic. The 2 hour trip took 4 hours. The gin went down well went we finally arrived, 5 hours late.

Apparently the monster will be delivered to us on Monday - we'll see.

This is NOT a good start, n'est pas??

Lawrence's view on the Unimog

Let me start by saying that I'm not accusing Kate of lying, it's just that I believe the size is a matter of perspective. I had expected a slightly adverse reaction from Kate, but not quite the condemnation that occurred. Yes, it's a big truck (it's a bloody Unimog for god's sake) but it's not THAT big. There are Fiat Ducato and Ford Transit campers that are longer than the Mog driving about. It's the same width as a towing caravan. What makes it look so massive is that it's 3.5 metres high, it sits on huge tyres and it helps if you've got a stepladder to get into it. I prefer to see it as a superior driving position which allows you to look down on on inferior vehicles while being at the same height as the drivers of 48 tonne trucks. Anyway, she'll be glad of the height when we get to Mongolia.