On the Road Again

Before we left Egypt, an Englishman we met told us that spring had arrived and the daffodils were out, and so they were. We arrived back to glorious frosty mornings, clear blue skies and gentle warm sunshine. Our new home, the summerhouse at the bottom of the garden, was a perfect place to watch the spring blossom - whilst working like Trojans.

The van passed its MOT the FIRST TIME!! Hooray! Unfortunately this signalled the beginning of the hard work. Poor, neglected Wanda needed lots of TLC to render her waterproof and sound. We also fitted a second solar panel (thanks Graham) to enable our mobile office: two laptops and a printer for copyediting and web design to keep the wolf from the door. These, along with a constellation of other small things, like a new clutch master cylinder; new plumbing; new gas piping; new covers for the furnishing etc, etc, etc.

As well as this we both had record 'work', so it was full-on graft, which went on and on (Edd, Rich and Robin, who got more than they expected of the parents - Robin even called Basil 'Dad' once!) - thanks, guys! Basil built a website for Sally's company www.busec.co.uk and started another for Madeleine www.madderstudio.com (now finished).

The highlight was Edwin's 21st 'Good Friday Agreement' party with fancy dress with a Biblical theme - Edd as the Tree of Knowledge (complete with apple)!

Plus of course lots of live music courtesy of Two Fingers of Fire Water, Pickled Dick, Mr Kamikaze and Dubblehead, Edd was so busy playing he nearly forgot to party.

However, the day finally arrived, the boys were in Brighton (hello Gabriel), and we slipped away in the late afternoon, bound for Dover.

Dover is fantastic, welcoming to people in campervans and offering everything you could hope for from an English seaside town: good beer, fish and chips and a beach to eat them on

(might all have been better in July than a windy, wet May evening but, hey!). We slept under the White Cliffs and felt as if we were setting off on a journey, which we were!

Breakfast in Dover, elevenses in France, lunch in Belgium and dinner in Germany set the pace for the next three days of trucking, broken only by a brief stop in Frankfurt to say hello to a very surprised Gwyo and Geraldine

(Hi Gwee). Onwards and upwards, through Bavaria and into the foothills of the Alps, up and up, through Austria (literally a lot of the time in the long, long tunnels) and out into the rarefied spring meadows of NW Slovenia, where we finally, with a sigh of relief, pulled off the autobahns of northern Europe and slipped into fairyland. Slovenia in springtime.

A magical land of wild flowers, picture-postcard villages with beautiful wooden barns and immaculate woodpiles, waterfalls and rushing trout-filled rivers all with a backdrop of snowy Alpine peaks.

What better place to get down to a week of serious work. Stopping only for health giving (!) cycle rides up the local mountains for exercise and to focus on infinity after plugging away at the computers all day, and afternoon swims in the river to cool off (solar panels well supplied)

we finally catch up with the backlog in preparation for a well-earned holiday on a sailing boat in Croatia with a bunch of friends next week. So, tomorrow sees us on the road again. Actually, we've seen some of the most tremendous electric storms in the past couple of days, and lashings of rain (lots of which fell on us this morning when out walking around Lake Bohinj), which are a proper part of this ecosystem, of course, but a bit wet, so moving on is not so bad.

Link to latest photos