I have a theme song for my Epic Adventure! The first time I heard this song is resonated like crazy! It’s a freedom song and well it’s kinda how it’s been lately.. I got ‘tied down’, I didn’t much like it and I went a bit wild! I am such a big fan of Jack Savoretti. I hope I bump into him on my travels. Personally I favour the full band album version though! And here I am wild and free, somewhere between Ickford and a new life…

So driving to France with all my stuff in a van might not seem that epic as Epic Adventures go but I haven’t ever done it before and as with most stuff one hasn’t done before there’s usually some fear. I have overcome the fear of driving this big thing in recent weeks but now there’s a new set of fears. Mostly rediculous and unfounded, they are: That I’ll load everything, all the parts for the conversion, all my furniture and all my possessions into the van and it’ll be so heavy it won’t move! (I have been having dreams that the police pull me over and weigh the van! ) And if it does move I’ll get to my friend’s place where I’m staying the night before I sail and all my stuff will be stolen while I sleep, if I sleep. And if it’s not stolen then the weight of it all will sink the ship! Or security will make me unpack it and leave a bunch of stuff behind… And don’t even get me started on driving this beast on the wrong side of the road and navigating hours of French roads alone!?!?

The reality: The van is full and heavy… But it moves and as soon as Chris mentioned he’d left bananas to rot on the kitchen window sill for weeks I totally forgot about the load and drove like a normal person, my fear of the van not moving now replaced with a fear that the rotting bananas would damage the window sill paintwork! We went back for the bananas.

I got to the south coast no problems, slept well in an incredibley comfy bed, all three alarms worked and I woke up at 5am to find that the van and it’s contents were exactly where I left them. Phew. Getting on the ferry was clear and easy. Initially security did want to search the van but took one look at my pile of stuff and changed their minds. Haha.

And as for driving in France well that was a piece of cake, you just follow the flow, until I got to the last few miles and a long steep down hill straight stretch with oncoming traffic in both lanes. A car overtaking another vehicle confused me about which side of the road I was supposed to be on just as the weight in the van caused me to pick up speed but I was watching the oncoming traffic hoping they’d move in time, and *flash* off goes the speed camera… Never got done for speeding before. Crazy really seeing as I spent the whole journey slugging along pretty slow cos we’re so heavy! Ah well, lesson learned.

I’m here now, I conquered all my rediculous fears and I’ve gained a van cat. Now I must sleep for tomorrow we begin… Once we’ve emptied the van!

‘Til next time Lots of love,