Just back from Southwold which will be our final van trip of this year. We have been coming to Southwold for over 20 years now, usually combined with some cycling or walking although this time our goal was the distillery tour which was incompatible with cycling or walking! Followed by dinner at The Crown.

Southwold Pier

Southwold

Adnams – Shiny New Distillery

Southwold Harbour

An excellent way to finish camping for this year,

Well sort of, actually we are both back in full time employment now so any trips now are at weekend or traditional holidays.

We both figured that going back to work after 13 and 18 months was going to be tough but actually we both think we have settled back in well and are actually enjoying it.

If you have been following our blog whilst we were  away you will know we were victims of a vicious  sheep attack back in July in the Outer Hebrides which resulted in substantial damage to our van, Whilst we have tried to redress the balance and make the world safer for fellow traveller by increasing our consumption of Rogan Ghosh our van has been away at the body shop having  the entire offside replaced, involving the stripping out of the van internals to allow the work to take place.

As good as new

With DRL enhancements

£7K worth of work later  (thats why you have insurance!) we have the van back as good as new, so we headed across to Rutland Water for a 1 night stay just to check everything out. Pleased to say everything performed as expected so further  weekends / breaks away are in the planning.

Well we are now firmly settled again in the UK and back to work time has arrived (for Paul anyway at the moment but I won’t be far behind). Our wonderful year long adventure is over and we will miss it, but at the same time it is lovely to have our home comforts back (large bed, dishwasher, clean power shower, etc) and to catch up with people we haven’t seen for ages.

Here are a few facts and figures for you:

• We have driven about 20,000 miles in our own van, plus another 3,000 odd miles in the hire van in Australia.
• We have taken 17 ferries, 3 plane trips and been snorkelling on 2 yachts.
• We spent 213 nights in our van (taking our total nights in the 3^1/2 years that we have had it up to 320).
• We have visited 14 countries.
• Despite having had one more month than planned we came in only 0.06% over budget (spreadsheet and budgeting skills maintained!) and our contingency still intact (minus the insurance excess for sheep damage!)

Everyone asks us what was our favourite place and it is very difficult to pick out any specifics as everywhere we went was so different, both in terms of scenery, things to do, and general ‘feel’, but we do have a rather long list of places we want to go back to  in the future:

Spain – specifically Picos de Europa in the North and the Sierra Nevada in the South – excellent bike riding and walking, and really friendly people.

Croatia – to visit some of the many islands along the coast, but probably out of season when it’ll be less than 35 degrees and the campsites won’t be bursting at the seams.

Australia – all the numerous places we haven’t been to yet…

Italy – the Dolomites in the North where the hiking trails are numerous and well marked, and also Mount Sibillini National Park (preferably in the sun, as it rained torrentially for 3 days when we were there last time).

The Outer Hebrides – amazingly varied scenery and full of people having a great time and sharing where they had been, where they’d stayed, what to see and do – washing up always took an age due to all the chatting going on in the kitchen

…and lots of city breaks – Lisbon, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Porto, Rome, and Venice.

Time to start planning our next holiday I think!!

That was then

This is now!

Even though our trip is over we plan to maintain our blog as a record of our trips in our van, so watch this space for future adventures from t5ontour………………..