Ready or not, I'm going!

Everything is ready to be packed but the bag does not look big enough.

Yesterday I went with my grand-daughter and put the coracle on the river. It floated, she and I went for a row in it, and it did not sink or let in any water. There were four horses and riders the opposite side of the river watching us put the coracle in the river and the horses seemed to be more interested in what we were doing than the riders. It was just as well that we did this yesterday as it was a sunny day, not like the rain we had last night and is continuing today.

We have been told that we will be camping for the first two nights of the trip. Sounds interesting! No idea where though. We all have to be at the Novotel Hammersmith in London for 6.30am on Saturday morning, all ready for the truck to leave at 8am so as to be on-time to catch the ferry at Dover. 

Wednesday night I went down the local pub where a small going away party had been organised, and which I enjoyed. I thought that I had finished the chores around the house but no, one bush had to be dug out because it had died for some reason and two of the fruit trees had to be pruned as they had sections that had also died in the past months. These were only noticed as the sunny weather after the rain had caused the buds to flower and it was easy to see the dead parts. That was extra to spending hours shelling walnuts and cob nuts from our trees.

Items to be packed

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Mary and David near the big orange truck

The white cliffs of Dover

Camping in the horse field in St Lievens Houtem

We drove all day and then the truck crew pulled off the motorway and went into local villages  until they thought they could see a field that we could possibly camp in for free. They went and asked the farmer if it was possible for us to camp there and after putting heels in the ground to test that it was not too muddy for the truck we were allowed to go in. I think that more consideration was given to the state of the ground for the truck than for the poor tourist (joke, in-case someone gets it wrong) as we had to camp in the field with the horses, after moving horse muck from where each wanted to pitch their tent. The farmer was kind enough to switch off the electric fence as well! A meal of spaghetti bolognaise was produced but which was cold as soon as it was put on the plates as the  wind was howling around the place. (I will mention how the cooking, cleaning and all the rest is organised later). When we had finished the farmer told us to use his tables and chairs and move them into the stable to keep us warm from the wind. He then produces three bottles of whiskey and bourbon for everyone, though very little was drunk. He raised 'jumping' horses as he described them, only jumping in a ring type. There were twenty horses there and others in other farms with nine horses in foal at the moment. Being a farm there were also some chickens and the rooster and hens were very fine indeed. The Belgian rooster also starts crowing about 4 in the morning Karen! You will not be bothered by ours though, they have gone to to hot pot in the house. 



The rooster and hens