First day in Continental Europe - Spain

12/02 We depart a very cold UK, and on the massive ferry for about 24 hours. Excited, and not having done the car ferry thing before, we find our tiny cabin and head upstairs for a VERY dodgy meal...

Departing Portsmouth on Brittany Ferries - It's D-Day

13/02 Wake up and we are in another time zone. The coast of Spain looms into view and it’s all very exciting. Can’t wait to try that driving on the other side of the road lark, NOT. Initially turns out to be not too bad as long as there is other traffic to follow. Purdy is a great help as she can keep an eye out on the traffic coming at you from the roundabouts. Weird…

Rolling off the ferry, first time for RHDriving for us is about to start...

 

In a nutshell, driving on the right is fine! I am able to keep closer to the kerb on my side, therefore leaving a bigger gap between us and the oncoming traffic. Overtaking is hard, and Purds needs to spot for me if and when we need to. Also roundabouts can be a pain, as often the cars coming around are in the blindspot, but again the Ninja is onto it.

Arrive in Perlora and after a very scary moment where a security guard who could speak English as good as my Spanish tells us that the place we are after is definitely closed for winter and there is nothing else anywhere around… 1km away we find the amazing campground that we wanted. Setup overlooking the bay and have the place pretty much to ourselves. Thanks for that advice mate…

First campsite in Spain. Nice view and quiet at this time of year. Not cheap at 30 Euro though...

14/02 Day 2 Camping Perlora Spain. It is really stunning and we walk into town to get shopping and have a look around. Seems to be very sleepy at this time of year, maybe they are all asleep? First go at speaking a different language out of a phrasebook is pretty funny. Purdy has a better grasp of Spanish thanks to the Fillo connection. Still, it takes us a while to find the shop, let alone buy our food! End up with a 6 pack of beer and 2 bottles of red as well, scratching our heads at how cheap it is...

We liked it so much we stayed 2 nights...

 

15/02 Depart Perlora and drive to Portugal. If you’d have told me that we would get 3 flat tyres in one day I’d have said get off the gear. But… First one is flat after we leave the campsite. Find a tyre place right near us and get a second hand tyre same brand and all, and the rest of the pressures etc checked for 15 euro.  3 hours later, in the middle of Spain on a motorway miles from BFI, Purdy hears a noise and I can feel the rig start to wobble a bit. I look into the mirror to see the casing of the rear trailer tyre go sailing into the bush. Tops. The only place to pull in is the middle of the road in a small bay. Not only have we destroyed a tyre, but the second hand one we got this morning is pissing out air. Seriously? Within minutes the highway patrol guys stop, radio a local mechanic (as I stupidly don’t have a wheel brace to get the spare off) and we are sorted within 30 minutes. Don’t get that in Australia… So pump up the leaker and put on the spare (different size, grrrr!!!) and creep into the next little town. The local mechanics turns out to be a massive tractor joint with John Deere’s all over the place. After a lot of hand signals and struggling we get a really dodgy second hand tyre for the spare, a pretty good repair on the leaker and we are on the road again 115 down for the day and we pretty much still need 4 new tyres. Stoopido… This is the price you pay for driving around with a 911 on the trailer like proper cocks. $$$$...

Pass through mountains in central Spain, and it's still snowing!

We're still fascinated by snow, silly Aussies...

Entering rural Portugal from Spain is just driving past a sign on the road. No border crossing control, police, gaurds etc. How easy is this Europe malarky?  

Welcome to Portugal!

Roll into the Portugese town where we are looking for a campsite much after dark (again) … Arrive at one of the free camp spots that I found on the net. Even though there are Motorhome parking signs etc, it looks proper dodgy and I spend a restless night’s sleep listening for car thieves outside… Trailer chained to a pole and to Bessy so I should just go to sleep…

Duxford Imperial War Museum

06/02 Ice and snow as far as the eye can see. Packed up and got on the road. After getting a little bit stuck in Bessy first… The big girl doesn’t like the snow too much that’s for sure. With a bit of pushing Purdy got us trucking and we made it to Cambridge to the Duxford Imperial Air Museum. Wow. This is the coolest place ever! 5 hangers chock full of air history. Full size Concord, B52, SR-71, Lanc, Superfortress, all the WW2 fighters, the list goes on. Even Purdy was impressed!

The awesome collection at Duxford

 

TOP GUN...

 

ICBM - Hope they never start using these people...

The Rolls Royce Merlin

 

 The SR-71 Blackbird... Some quick facts

STILL the fastest & highest,  The SR-71 was the world's fastest and highest-flying operational manned aircraft throughout its career. On 28 July 1976, (that's a 36 year old record!) SR-71 serial number 61-7962 broke the world record for its class: an "absolute altitude record" for a prolonged flight of 85,069 feet (25,929 m). That same day SR-71, serial number 61-7958 set an absolute speed record of 1,905.81 knots (2,193.2 mph; 3,529.6 km/h). That's one amazing machine...

 

Nice aviators...

 

Sunderland Flying Boat - Big

 

A WW2 Messershmitt 109 that landed in southern England

 

Ready for take off...

  

Left there mid afternoon and found some fuel and gas for the van. Arrived in Mansfield (Sherwood Forrest) late, and TomTom takes us up a narrow country lane. B#$tard… Bessy gets stuck on the most ridiculous iced up frozen piece of the Arctic I have ever seen… We have to take the hire car off the trailer and the trailer off Bessy. We get the trailer over to the side of the road against the hedgerow and the car into someone’s front yard, then reverse Bessy about 500 meters back up the slope we just came down. I walk back down the pitch black icy lane and there are animals in the hedgerow making a lot of noise, and I cant see what it is. Pooing now... I finally lock the trailer to the fence and give it all up for the night. Get to Sherwood Forrest Park finally, and the lovely lady shows us to the spot in the pitch black. The whole road and all the campground is just a sheet of ice. Basically anything that's wet at dusk becomes ice. Wow. Winter doesn’t muck around up here…

07/02 So after waking up and getting everything filled / emptied and a shopping spree at the stupidly cheap campground store, we get a lift in a Pajero to pick up the trailer. As soon as we round the corner I can see that it’s not there… Mild panic sets in and Purdy wants a divorce. Nice lady says don’t panic, the farmer probably moved it. Still crapping myself, we get to the Manor and associated farmhouses, to find that the trailer is indeed there and thankfully they just moved it to get some tractors past. LUCKY… Purdy is now well over Tom Tom. I’m not far off… One of the family (who I wont name) says we won’t be organized to leave the UK for a long time… This is what I love to hear, people telling us we can’t do this or that. It’s just inspiration to try twice as hard and do it just to prove them all wrong! So we immediately book the ferry tickets to Spain for next week, it's too cold here anyway! Park up for the night in the front of a Mercedes Benz dealer, still proper cold and frozen.



Snow Ninja... I so wish she had fallen over right now!

 

First week in Bessy, snow in Cambridgeshire!

31/01 Picked up Bessy and then off to London to get the Trailer. Awesome bus and the trailer is as new and heaps big enough for a 911... LONG day and didn’t get back to Solihull until 2130. The trailer tows well though, and we are happy to get that one step closer...

01/02 Up at 0630 and start to sort out Bessy. So much storage space we don’t know what to do with it all! The water on the road is frozen into ice cubes. Wow this is cold…

02/02 Second night in Bessy. The heater is cranked and minus 0 outside. First Jager in Europe and it tastes just as good as the Aussie stuff. Funny that…

Cooked my wife Ribeye steak and veges with a bottle of NZ Shiraz… Hard life.

 

 

 

 

03/02 Did the Cambridge tourist thing. Finally found a car park and walked through this amazing city. All the awesome chapels and colleges were not open for visitors, so we had to admire from a distance. Did the tour through Fitzsimmonds Museum though, and this was free and pretty cool. No photos allowed unfortunately. Museum of Zoology is a uni thing and not well stocked or maintained, but was still pretty interesting and free too. Heaps of dodgy student types all trying to flog us a punting tour on the river. Bit cold for that malarkey so we just had more deep fried pub grub and watched the silly tourists freezing in the sunshine…

Purdy in the grounds of Cambridge Uni... So out of place.

The Natural History unti of Cambridge. Great place for a bit of mucking about...

Finally found my real ancestry!

 

 04/02 Tried to get to Duxford air museum, but the small Asian shopper wanted to drive halfway around the world and we ended up shopping in Peterborough and Cambridge all day. Severe weather warning for tonight, and sure enough by 1700 it is already dark, cold and snowing! The wind has picked up and the snow is coming in sideways. We could be here a few days…

Bessy in 15cm of snow, not a bad shake down trip!

05/02 Bessy is super stable and does not flinch (or get cold) despite the 7 INCHES OF SNOW over everything in the morning. Lazy day sitting around and playing inside. Fiesta drives ok in the snow, but haven’t tried the Bessy monster yet…

The snow Monkee making her first 'snow sculpture'. Of course it was R rated...

No surprises really, it IS winter in the UK...

 

09/02 Warwick castle for the morning. Our first castle really, and it's sunny but snow on the ground. Very impressive history of around 1000 years. Has been restored and run very well, cool bird of prey display.

Cold Smiths at Warwick Castle

 

Meeting more Waldrons

Met a whole load more Waldrons (Mums side) over the next few days, and with a side trip to Stonehenge was a nice but cold week in SW England.

29/01 Left Chard and headed over to Aunty Silvis place. Amazing 1000 year old house with 2 foot thick walls! Silvi is so funny, and a tad eccentric, and not really like Aunty Glennis or Mum. Don’t piss her off though, she makes voodoo dolls out of potatoes and sticks nails and screws into them, Ouch! Silvies son, cousin Simon drops in and he seems really cool. Can’t wait to meet the rest of the clan…

James, Danny & Rachel

Next stop is cousin Rachel’s, and her daughters Megan and Rhiannon. Really nice girls and again, a shame we have spent 37 years waiting to meet these guys… Twin to Simon Danny turns up with his son James. Top blokes.

We spend a few hours with the family and then head off to the darkness of Exmoor… Awooooooo!

Raymond and Julia live on a farm in the Exmoor National Park, awesome old homestead and heaps of land with chicken sheds, cattle & sheep… Cousins Lucy and Georgina, with Georges hubby Rich & thier sons Bob and Sam are all there and we again make up for 37 years apart… Raymond is a great guy and it's great to have another cool Uncle I never knew!

The Waldrons farm in Exmoor National Park

 

Julia, Georgie, Raymond, Rich, Sammy & Bobby

The 'Blue' calf! Cute little fella...
 

On the way home from Exmoor, we drove for several hours in near snow, dark and narrow roads. The 911 is so good and stable (all wheel drive etc) you really feel very safe, but even I am scared in these conditions. Wifey is being super good, and is not yelling at me at all. She is actually really helpful, anticipating traffic, reading the Sat-Nav and being super supportive. Good girl…

 

Stonehenge is an awe inspiring sight, right in the middle of otherwise desolate fields. The typical tourist trap is in place, and you get slugged about $10 to see it from a distance, and have to pay stacks more to get close. Next time I'll park on the road and walk accross the paddocks to get there for free!

Early morning and snow on the ground, cool!

Happy tourists!

 
Went to visit the resting place of Kitty and 'Mac' Waldron, my Grandparents. They lived in Oz for a few months when I was young, and I have very fond memories of them both.



Granny & Grandad Waldrons Grave in Yeovil cemetary, RIP




30/01 Drove down to Surrey to look at Trailer for the 911. This is the one, slapped a deposit on it and plan to pick it up tomorrow. Getting closer to the goal now! Wife is starting to see the finish line…



South West England and meet the family!

28/01 Solihull to South England. Porsche is adequate on the Motorway...

Lyme Regis for lunch.This is a special place for Mum, who says the best years of her life were spent here, spending all her pay at the café playing Elvis songs on the jukebox. It looks like the town hasn’t changed all that much over the years, and we walk out on the ‘Cob wall’ like Mum and Dad did on their first date. Fish and chips are pretty good. They don’t need fridges as it’s so cold, so just open the cupboard door and the drinks are just right. It is proper cold…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off to Uncle Bob and Phil’s place. They live in an old village called Chardstock. They are the characters of the county and have a massive collection of old Tractors and assorted machinery, which to everyone’s surprise works and runs perfectly! Had a tour of the surrounding farms and villages in a ‘50s vintage Morris Oxford. No seat belts and indicators that flick out the side on stalks was a highlight. The local ‘yuppies’ (anyone not a farmer that lives nearby) jumping out of the way of mad Bob in the Austin is just comedy gold. Stopped at a 800 year old cottage that Mum and her family lived in for many years and Bob scared the new residents… Not surprising in his gum boots and dodgy hat. During the 2 days we are here it seems half the village have dropped in to see who the ‘Yuppies’ in the Porsche are and have a cup of tea and a chat. Aussies are a constant source of amusement and interest, especially down Devon/Somerset way...

Uncle Bob and little Purdy

 

Phil and Purdy in front of the 'Old Farm House'

 

Bobber and Tinker



Purdy on the Massey 65

Waldrons Home Farm 50 years ago



 

Purdys version of 'getting dinner sorted'... First day on the farm

 

 

 

Searching for a Motorhome, picking up the car!

The search for Motorhomes starts…

23/01 We are getting good at long distances through the Midlands… The weather is pretty kind to us, only pouring for half the time and a barmy 8 degrees...

We decide to accept the offer on the 911... WOOHOO!!!

24/01 Another massive day trekking through the Midlands looking at Motorhomes. We must have looked at hundreds already, and it's just the towing capacity that is making life difficult.

25/01 911 in for Porsche approved inspection, service etc. More Motorhome searching…

26/01 In a final search, we go to ‘Heart of England’ Motorhomes in Weedon on the A5, and set eyes on Bessy. It’s now down to the Cotsy and Bessy… We have never deliberated about any purchase this much in our lives….
A difference of $10k, and the more expensive one is hard to justify... We nearly take it though, and at the end of the day, if the salesman had come down a final 500 quid, we would be in a Autosleeper Cotswald!

 

2009 Bessecarr E560, 4 berth, 160HP 6 speed, 4000 miles.

27/01 Pick up the Porsche day, very excited and a little bit scared...

Guess whos name it's in...



But she wont drive it, she has a very keen chauffer...

First week in the UK!

First week in the UK, and the meals are all pretty fatty and carb heavy. Guess this is what we were warned about!

 

 

 

21/01 Depart London via Bus and train to Birmingham International. Arrive via cab at Aunty Glennis’ (Mums little Sister) in the afternoon. Solihull is a nice suburb with a pleasing mix of Indian and English humans… The rest of Birmingham is fairly average...

 

 

 

22/01 Pick up a hire car from the airport and immediately head North to Stoke to look at the first 911 on the list. A GT Silver 4S ’09 model with 40000 miles and most of the options we are looking for. We take it for a drive and she goes pretty good.. Of course

 

 

 

Initial impressions of driving in the UK are that people can actually drive! That is, they know how to merge, do the speed limit, keep out of the right hand lane and generally be courteous. How did Australia get it SO WRONG? We have come up with a theory…

...they have more things to dodge over here!