Getting ready

(Our Lunar Champ A541: home for the trip, taken in Beddgellert in April)

We've been planning our trip for some time now, but it has always seemed a long way off; mainly because it was.

Ferry crossings were booked back in February, because I suddenly had a panic that if we left it too late, we'd find them all fully booked; well, it will be August!

So, through a mixture of impatience and relief at Atha's latest 6-monthly scan being still clear; and hence knowing that we can go away, rather than be doing chemotherapy instead; we decided to alter our travel dates:

We phoned Eurotunnel and changed our outward trip from 4th August to 12th July; and the return trip from 31st September, to 12th October! Assuming we can survive financially, this somewhat extends our trip. The big factor in deciding to do this was that we wanted to be sure of having time to spend relaxing for a week or so here and there; rather than having to drive considerable distances every day.

It seemed it would be costly and complex to change the Brindisi - Igoumenitsa ferries, so Greece and Turkey will remain quite a 'mission'; approximately 2000Km each way in 6-7 days, I think I made that an average of 4 hours driving every day!

However. It'll be damn hot; and with no onboard air-con I reckon we'll just want to get miles behind us; probably a few long overnight drives and snoozing through the day from me. Shame though; the more I google Turkey, the more interesting looking places beg to be visited.

So, now it's just 2 weeks away, our minds are focusing on preparations; we bought a Gaslow refillable propane cylinder today, because of the prospect of having to try and get bottles / adaptors in France / Belgium / Germany / Switzerland / Italy / Greece / Turkey / Cyprus, plus the saving in gas cost will pay for the refillable bottle anyway over 3 months I'm sure.

I'm also waiting for the new Eonon 1015 Radio / LCD screen to arrive from Hong Kong courtesy of eBay. This should solve the monitor problem for the rear-view camera.

Hopefully it'll fit OK, and work of course.

There's also the Status TV arial's power supply; which I returned by post to the manufacturer on Friday, hopefully for replacement under warrantee; they seemed very obliging on the phone, so hopefully it'll be back before we go without any nonsense, or we won't get to watch any dodgy euro telly on the trip (!)

Now, tomorrows job is to fix that leaking kitchen sink tap...