The Long Drive ..........Thursday was the start of the adventure and we headed to the Euro tunnel to catch our allotted train - A very simple process of self service ticket printing and minimal customs presence enabled us to catch an  earlier departure time 10:20am. We were ushered on to the train and then drove through the center of the carriages to our potion.

On arrival in France the sun was a welcoming sight and we headed towards our first  site east of Troyes some 400 miles away. The driving was great with quite good quality roads on the peage. One thing we have found slightly annoying is that we cant get any where near any of the large outer town supermarkets as they are really poorly signed and they are always on the other side of the page. So we decided to head into a few smaller towns to get some essentials only to find they have height restriction barriers ....bloody annoying. So we are still surviving on our last shop from the Co-op. I'm sure we will sort this out as the beer is running low...

Our first stop off is a site called La Forge de Sainte Marie  a very nice site with good facilities apart form the showers & toilets - well it is France and we all know that the French don't wash..... and from what I have seen from the facilities I can understand why.

Our next move will be on Sunday when we'll head back North to Remis to a small vineyard where we'll stay overnight and then start our move towards the west coast and then onto the Pyrenees.

First Dog Walk in France by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

iPad day ............after spending 4 hrs and 1 hr on the phone with the  ipad technical support help desk I've fallen out of love with Apple. Never have I been so frustrated with a piece of technology that should be a plug and play piece of kit. Verifying an email address proved impossible even for the tech support guy....so I have left it with my mum to take to the Apple store in London when she visits my brother in two weeks time (hint Stephen...take mum to the store and get it working for her please).

On a more pleasant note Paul and Gillian came over to see us for a Bon Voyage dinner - we even sat outside the Chairmakers pub in the late evening sun and then retired inside to sink a few wines.

Today we move onto Kent....we are getting closer to the start of our European tour. We are spending one night in the Black Horse CC site close to the Eurostar and then Thursday's planned departure time is 11:20am and we will be in France at 12:50pm - a short 30min trip on the Euro star and the +1BST and we will be there...hurry.

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

First cycle since IM Wales - just a short 12 miles in the Exmoor national park(ENP) and in the sun. First  mile was a bit of a shocker with a 1:5  for over a mile or so then when you come across a signpost like this one you start wondering......was this a good idea?????

 then you take in the stunning scenery  and the car free roads and it's no brainer.

 We also received great news that the new V5(old one was lost in the post albeit that it was registered and guaranteed next day delivery) has now arrived at my Mums so the next phase of the adventure is being planned this morning whilst watching the London Mara on TV.
So we will be heading back to Wickham on Monday for a few days to collect the said V5 and offload a few items that we now know we wont need, such as three dog beds,winter coats, scarfs and gloves. We will then push onto Kent on Wednesday morning and stay at the Caravan Club site in Folkstone before catching the Eurostar on Thursday morning. As it Philippas birthday in 9 days time we are planning on staying in the Champagne region close to Epernay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89pernay - the next few days we will review where to stay and post our first French blog.   Aurevoir

Photos from the past two days:
Exmoor deer, Harley fancied a taste..........

Tarr Steps, a great spot in the middle of nowhere and its one of the oldest bridges in Devon........

Here's a sight, a cherry tree growing from the inside of a very old dead beech tree......

And my lovely wife ............

Walking over the past two days has been really enjoyable with large ascents and descents - lots of river exposure and wildlife galore. Now the sun is out its time to BBQ.... well it could be a little warmer.

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details
Great days walking - Dolverton to Tar Steps - one of the oldest bridges in Devon constructed from large slat plinths and stones. Harley again loved the river setting as he dashed in and out of the river Exe fetching sticks. It is a truely lovely place (when the sun is out).
Todays walk was 12 miles with some steep vertical ascent.

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details
Great day of walking - Harley swimming in rivers, spotting the Exmoor hunt, fetching sheep off roads, traversing the Wimbleball reservoir and now ready to BBQ.

Well, we are now in Dulverton (which must be sung to the tune of Galveston!!) which is really rather lovely. The site is quite a bit smaller than the Wickham site and is right by the river and the woods.

 It is also next to the village which has some lovely shops selling local produce and 4 pubs which all seem to take dogs - we haven't been in them all yet!! All of that is rather handy as we no longer have Al's car which is now at his mum's. There seems to be plenty to do around here so today we are planning to walk to Wimbleball lake which is where Al did his first half Iron Man so some happy memories for him. There is no mobile signal here at all and it is quite nice being 'off the grid', good practice for when we can't afford to use our mobiles when we get to Europe. Oh and Harley has been to the local vets this morning for his annual booster. The weather is looking pretty good so we may attempt a bbq later so we are now off to get some luverly locally produced sausages and burgers or some such.

Interesting day yesterday and a quick update - no V5 in the post from the DVLA so phoned them and they had not received it. Checked the track and trace on the recorded delivery from the Post Office and they don't know where it is and have declared it lost!! After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing around various Post Offices to find the right form, we resubmitted our request with a begging letter asking the DVLA to process it asap. We now know that the form has been delivered to the DVLA today but a phone call asking them the status just elicited the response that we have to wait. So, that's where we are. We have decided to head off to Exmoor House Caravan Club site in Dulverton tomorrow and stay there until Monday when hopefully there will be some news on the V5. If not, we will try another site and location - might as well make the most of our time in the UK travelling to places we haven't been before.

Felt like a real farewell day yesterday, although we still don't have a departure date! Kath, Tony and Foz headed back to Wales after a great few days then Liz, Nikki and Poppy came for coffee and cake followed by a fab farewell lunch at The White Lion in Soberton with the Boltons.

Paul and Gillian are coming over for a takeaway this evening so we had better get going soon or we will be having another round of goodbyes. So, if the V5 doesn't arrive today, we will be on the phone to the DVLA to try and track it down.

We are still in Wickham thanks to the DVLA and their speedy admin service as its now three weeks and counting to change an address on the V5 -  astonishing.....
Though saying that we have made the most of our days. Cath, Tony and Fozzie joined us last Wednesday and brought the Walsh weather with them - thanks. Thursday was spent walking up the railway line to Sorberton, though there was nothing sober about it. The White Lion pub in Soberton has been re opened after a long period of dereliction and now serves, Doombar and Adilstone cloudy cider with other local brews from the Bowman brewery in Droxford. So we managed to make the best of the weather and sat in the beer garden for just the 4 hours sampling cider and Doombar and then retired to the small public bar and sat in front of their log fire contemplating the two hour walk back to the van.

Saturday - Wichham beer festival draw our attention so we wondered up to the community center to be greeted by 39 real ales  and 4 ciders of which we managed to sample 33% of the total offering.

Sundays weather looks better so we are trying to dry out all the wet mats and awnings ready to pack away before it starts raining yet again. The plan is to travel up to Kent on Wednesday and stay overnight before heading over on the Eurostar on Thursday the a 300km trip south to an area in Champagne - plenty of site to chose from so still planing on which one.

Ok so as no one knows how Gmail works or more to the point we have no idea how it works we  have created a new blog called philippaandallen on googles blogger - here's hoping that we can work this one out and keep you up to date with the travel adventure. We are currently residing in Wickham, great site smack bang in the hundred acre forest, great for walks and runs and the dog just thinks he has gone to heaven, swimming in the Meon river (dog not me) and chasing pheasants. We walked up the old railway line yesterday to Exton around 13 to 14 miles easy walking - I cycled the line about 20 years ago and had forgotten how beautiful the south downs and surrounding area is.

Unfortunately  the planned cycle ride this Sunday had to take second place to "van" activities but it looks like we may be in Wickham longer then we had anticipated as we are awaiting for our vehicular registration documents to arrive at my mums address (all to do with insurance and renting our house all very boring) so I will get the bike out the garage, yes the va has a garage, and cycle this week at some point. Wednesday the Southwick brewery is open so we will be paying a visit there to top up on the ale quota.
We have erected the privacy room (tent extension to the van awning) only took 2hrs and we now have a new area to fill with chairs, BBQs, etc turbo trainer.................well maybe not.