And with that we are off!
Well the last month as you can imagine has been crazy busy, I would like to say organised chaos but truthfully more like plain old chaos J
It all started with a noise, yes our indestructible Landcruiser started to self destruct. Fortunately we had a weekend already planned with Julian (www.overland-cruisers.co.uk) for a final check up. So Dunc headed up and the normally four hour journey ended up taking him seven hours after the ‘noise’ got worse and he had to pull over remove a prop shaft (and when that didn’t help put, that prop shaft back on and remove the other one) to get the car to Hereford in one piece. But a weekend with the boys and a new front diff and Hugo is all well again…. Almost!
Apparently when you take off prop shafts you need to mark them, as they have been balanced. Who knew?? Well not us so we didn’t mark them and that resulted in a last minute dash out to Heathrow to one of the only companies in London that could balance our prop shafts. Tick.
The inevitable chore of packing which we have diligently been *trying* to do a little of for the past two weeks kept looming silently behind us, and sure enough whacked us in the back of the head in the 48 hours prior to leaving. Poor Sara and Sam had to put up with our stuff – everywhere- for the last couple of days. We attempted to make the bed in the tent only to discover the mattress was wet and needed drying, and it was surprising (or not) how much stuff that we thought we would take with us, that we are not and have had to send home.
Each attempt at packing of course highlighted a missing item that we simply had to have for our trip. This necessitated many trips to the city to get said important item. It may be shocking to hear, that on every occasion we came home with significantly more than that one important item 
Then of course or social obligations and of these there were plenty. Saying goodbye to our family and friends is always difficult without adding in the uncertainty of when we will see some of them again.
So with a hungry Duncan in the drivers seat and Gemma in denial in the passenger seat Hugo left Leytonstone at 7:20am on 22nd July for the adventure of a lifetime (via a quick detour at the Charity bins at the Tesco carpark to unload some unwanted items . The reality and the emotions (a mixture of excitement, sorrow and raw panic) really started to set in once the Channel came into view and even more so once loaded onto the ferry.
Stay tuned! We have begun!
We made it off the ferry and to the campsite with very little trouble. With the excitement and anxiety of the long road ahead slowly dawning on us we felt a reshuffle of our packing would be a good idea when we got to the campsite, not too mention finding a home for all those last minute things that we had just ‘chucked’ on the back seat.
Bruges was our first European destination when we started almost 4 years ago, so it felt like a fitting first stop. We were so much cheered by some beer from our favourite pub (De Garre), some chocolate and some delicious Flemish Stew, that we did not mind the rain.
The rain has so far been pretty much continuous!!! This has been a true test for the tent which seemed to hold up alright. The dreary wet surrounds was certainly not conducive to sight –seeing, but for beer, chocolate and hot chocolate and pomme frittes we will brave anything.
We have since had our first ‘home cooked’ meal of the trip (schnitzel burgers) and a glass of horrible wine that Dunc had ‘acquired’ from work, don’t think that will be coming any further with us.