We were originally planning to go across to Europe in the middle of November. Before crossing the channel we needed to get some work done on Lottie first. Our brother-in-law is a mechanic and had offered to do the work for us.
However, since making that offer he has changed jobs, meaning that now he would have to do the work in his spare time, around his full-time job.
Not knowing how long it was going to take to get the work done, we decided that we would return to Devon for Christmas and spend some time over the holiday with our family.
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A new clutch, the cam belt, a new water pump, and wheel bearings. Turned out that the front axle needed repair as well as the front nearside suspension. Plus a full service while he was at it,
All in all, had it been done at a garage it would have cost in the region of £4,000. Fortunately, the reduced labour cost meant it didn’t cost anywhere near that.
Well worth doing and gives us peace of mind for our upcoming trip.
Kent
Whilst in Kent we did multiple minor repairs, tidying up, and upgrades to the van. Lottie is now just about ready to go travelling.
The only other thing we want to get done is to upgrade the batteries and put two new batteries in instead of the one that we currently have. Lottie is booked in at The Dub Hut for the work to be done on the 10th of January.
Once that’s done we’ll be off on our travels, sometime around the middle of January.
With directions like these what can possibly go wrong?
Dentist Appointment
I finally managed to get a dentist appointment on the 5th of January. So it’s a good job that we didn’t decide to go in the middle of November after all!
Back to Devon
We travelled back to Devon on the 25th of November. Not a bad trip, but it took quite a while as we didn’t rush. About 6.5 hours to get here with a stop on route for lunch and a fuel stop at the shell garage at Trago Mills, Newton Abbot (fuel about 10p per litre cheaper than elsewhere round here).
Harbertonford
Note to self. I’m an idiot going through the narrows at Harbertonford.
There was an oncoming vehicle in the middle of the road. I moved to the side to avoid it. I looked to the side and thought I was far enough away from the edge. Turns out that I wasn’t and clipped the wing mirror against a bulging outcrop of rock and broke the cover.
Carol went back and managed to pick up all the pieces and more (lots of broken bits there so obviously a hot spot for smashing wing mirrors). I then dropped them to the friend who repaired our bumper. He has already pieced it back together and will be reinforcing it with a filler and respray. Luckily mirror and electrics are fine – over £500 to replace them!
Aune Valley Meat
I’ll be working at Aune valley meat for December.
December is their busiest period, especially in the run-up to Christmas.
A post about life in a butcher shop over Christmas to follow.
What's next?
In the meantime, I plan to post a series of short blog posts covering our travels around Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal and the journey back to the UK. This will be a series of approximately 8 posts.
This is the first in a series of posts about our travels over last winter.
I will be posting every Friday for the next couple of months about last year’s travel. By the time I have covered our previous escapades, we should be well into our next one and I should be able to keep posting about our ongoing adventures.
Happy Motorhoming.
Hope You Enjoy!
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