So I have decided to put my thoughts to paper and add them into the blog that Lauren has been spending endless hours putting together for us.
I am excited to the max about the adventure that we will be embarking on in less than 2 months. It dawned on me today the amount we still have to sort out, sell, throw away, save, organise and so on.
Our adventure will comprise roughly of the following - We leave UK on 1 August in our mini camper van named Dora (the explorer) for France, road trip across France and head towards Switzerland to visit Kerry and Dave (on working/ holiday from Kenya) for a few days, then we head down to Spain to the La Tomatina Festival (worlds biggest tomato fight) with a possible pop in to Portugal. From here we will head along the coast towards Italy. (This is the first months rough itinerary). Second month (September) we start at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, thereafter heading eastwards towards Slovenia where we will go to a cheese and wine festival as well as the cows ball (the locals celebrate the cows coming home from the mountains at the end of their summer grazing and this involves yodelling and tree cutting competitions). From Slovenia we will go through Austria (and visit the mountains of the sound of music) and then onto the beer fest in Munich, Germany. With October upon us we will head towards Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands with our return ferry booked on the 27 October.
This is the rough Itinerary and we will hopefully publish an updated one with more firm dates closer to our departure date. As it stands, the festivals are the firm dates and we will aim to be at those places and we will just 'wing' our itinerary in between these events. On return to UK we will drive up to Scotland for ten or so days, and then possibly catch a ferry to Ireland to drive around the island for a week or 2. The Ireland plan hasn't been discussed with Lauren yet... but she likes Ireland so I'm sure she will be keen - and then we can throw Wales in to the mix while we at it (And the Boks are playing the Irish on the 8 November in Dublin)....
Anyway, back to Bud's mind being all over the place, we initially thought we would be in UK for a bit longer than our current plan of 18 months (we are returning back to South Africa at the end of November... current plan) we have collected some unnecessary items that we need to get rid of. A couple of these items can be sold to add to our savings for our trip (a chest of drawers and a bicycle that I bought for Lauren that ended up costing more to fix than it actually cost to buy. (Have now been given another better bicycle for free) This along with lots of clothes, books and general crap that we need to contemplate whether to sell, throw away, cart around Europe or send home.
One thing that is irritating us at the moment is the constant costs that come with trying to convert a budget van into a budget camper van. Everything always costs more than you expect, but the van is almost kitted complete with just a few necessities still to buy and a bit of neatening up to do. Thanks Dwayne for letting me use your power tools during Dora's makeover...
I have given notice in at work and my last day will be officially 30 June. This is a Monday so i am hoping to actually be out of there by Friday 27th... this won't happen though. I will be working for Urban Crew in July as it is busy season for them and I will be able to save more through them than through Lambourn Contracts (My current Job), and also have more flexi hours so if any prep work needs to be done I can do it...
We will be announcing our trip to the world via good ol' Facebook one of these days. We have had to break the news to Dave our house mate, who wasn't expecting such a short stay from us (3 months). Sorry Dave, but you have been an awesome house mate!!!
In reality, and in my mind, our trip starts on the 25th July as this is Lauren's last day at work and I have flexi time work so can end when I want and so it allows us to explore south east England for a few days before boarding the ferry to France.
Still quite a bit to do, but getting there slowly.
That's that for now, This will now be sent to Lauren to proof-read followed by uploading it to our blog, which will be live soon...
As Faye would say, time to get excited to DREAM.EXPLORE.DISCOVER.