Leaving the UK

Hi there,

We have just sent the link to family this year, it's only a mini trip, with mini posts. You get to know we are all alive and it's a great record for the kids.  It's still pretty much impossible to post messages on this blog so just email us.  It's taken a few days at internet here is awful we are in the sticks but a mountain in Indonesia was better!. I'm not sure if it will cope with photos I will try later.

So..we made the boat...just...! I was so organised and determined to avoid the last minute rush, tempting fate I said to Jo-anne we are 'good to go..we could leave in ten minutes if we needed to......idiot...'. Literally ten minutes later when Dave offered to set up google map on my phone I realised that rather than Portsmouth we were actually expected in Plymouth in pretty much four hours....drive time ...four hours...ahhhhh

Everyone was brilliant, Joanne finished making sandwiches - Jono  and Dave sorted the roof box and I packed the car. We,,of course, couldn't find the keys....Florence was wondering round the house going 'where are those naughty keys',,,'kitchen...no....lounge...no...bless!'.  I grabbed the spare and we were off.. It took me a good ten minutes to sort my head out.  The kids were great.. 'no one speak a word....'. I couldn't actually remember how to get to hammersmith ...

So we went for it...with google map on my knee, we worked at beating the clock.  The poor car.. fully loaded with roof box and bikes it was struggling. Who knew there were so many hills between London and Bristol we were hammering up the hills and coasting down, hitting 90 all the way (which in my car is extraordinary!.  We could see the petrol gauge actually moving - I flashed pretty much everybody - hideous driving.  The kids thought it was hilarious when people politely moved out the way and the car didn't actually energy to pass them!  I am fully expecting a pile of speeding fines on our return..and possibly a driving ban...gulp..

We did one pit stop...in the petrol station...I pumped the gas... the kids hit the loo..they put the petrol cap on while I paid and we were off. They were brilliant. We had a long chat and agreed if we missed the ferry we would drive up to dover and do a road trip through france.

But...we made it...thank you lots to Jo-anne for keeping Brittany Ferries posted. xx


The ferry was great, cabin small (with stinky, smelly loo ..Amie's words).  We went for a swim, watched Kung Fu Panda (yey!) and slept. The kids topped and tailed on the top bunk so I went to sleep hearing ...your foot is in my bum...get your elbow out of my back.. you farted,,you stink...

18th July

Coming into Santander was fantastic, bright sun, the ship honking, people waving.. We were in really good spirits and hit the road for Deba.  It was a good idea. The hotel was lovely..tired and a bit run down but right on the beach. Totally Spanish - no union jack boxer shorts in sight.  The kids played football on the board walk with locals and spent the afternoon body surfing.  No where served food till 9pm so we had a balcony picnic and crashed. I had to dug out all the eating stuff from the roof box but couldn't find a cork screw....so begged one off the bar man. Something you couldn't do in a posh hotel!

We hit the road again to Itaxspe a small village on the coast.  The campsite is amazing - up on the cliffs in a pine forest with spectacular views.   We have a great corner pitch with shade. It was bloody hot when we arrived. I did try pitching but the troops were on the verge of mutiny so we went swimming instead!  The site is full of Dutch  people - with amazing camping equipment - massive pull out kitchens....nice people though. The kids love it, although they freak out at the ant armies that descend the moment you leave any food anywhere - for goodness sake, they camped in the jungle with monkeys!

We took a drive into the mountains in the evening - with Amie shreiking in my left ear ...slow down...slow down ....and Alex in my right going...faster mum...faster... We found a tiny village with a lovely church and what could have been a bar, basically a door with a grumpy old man in a beret outside holding a beer.. the kids didn't fancy it! Evening was spent in the camp bar looking over the coast.