Back in the U.U.U.K

True to form, we get back to the UK and it rains, and we get stuck in traffic on the M25!  A fairly uneventful trip since leaving the Netherlands - we stopped at the mandatory french hypermarche yesterday in Calais and did a bit of stocking up - more to be done at the end of the next tour I think.  Then we, slightly strangely, spent the night camped overlooking the port of Calais watching the ferries coming and going...  They were much busier yesterday than today, I guess because of the UK bank holiday.  It gave me a chance to have a run along the really quite nice, sandy beach and battle with the strong onshore breeze.

Stopped at a camping accessory shop on the way back and bought a new leisure battery, so maybe the fridge will stay on for more than about 6 hours at a time without help!  Plus another gaz cylinder for the cooking.  And a water pump, so when fitted we might actually have running water rather than bottle feeding ourselves - managed for 7 weeks though so can't be too much of a hardship.

Tonight we have the parents round to chow down on some mainly french nosh, which'll be fun.  Then it'll be washing and cleaning and new tyres and diy on the van.  Before the wedding at the weekend, with hopefully plenty of beer filled tales and joy.

Fran has just exclaimed how much she has enjoyed her first bath in nearly 2 months!  I'm on a different computer, so without photos at the moment, so I'll add something to liven the post up at some point.

We're now home for a whole week before we head off again - this time to the east.  We're mildy concerned about the flooding in Poland, but we'll keep an eye on things before planning a trip to a disaster zone.