Sunday 13th September

Sunday gave us time to carry out a few last minute tasks such as replacing the spare tyre and buying a roof storage net, a bungee for the kitchen roll and the biggest Spork we have ever seen (highly necessary). Ben presented us with a Stowe Land Rover spare wheel cover and we demonstrated his solar panel mount which comes out from the front of the roof rack and keeps our secondary battery topped up when stationary for a few days (everybody needs cold beer).


Anne’s childhood friend Kate attended her first Land Rover show in order to see us before we set-off, although I’m not sure whether she’s a convert, unlike her friends Sam and Philip. We used our compressor to put a bit more air into our bulging tyres and managed to force our chairs back into our rather overfull Land Rover before people gathered for our departure at 3pm.

Neil demonstrated interrogation brace positions on us (hopefully we won't experience these on our travels) and Jen and Dan imparted last minute advice, whilst Hector and Humphrey seemed unimpressed at Jane’s attempt to fit them with ear defenders.

We checked where the exit was as we didn’t want to start off by going the wrong way, then fired up the engine and headed off. We made Dover in a respectable three hours or so, and, although Dover security delayed us for a few minutes whilst they asked us “What don’t you have?” (even they know we've overpacked!), we were in time for our last ferry to Calais. Upon hitting French soil we made it to Boulogne-ser-Mer where we overnighted.