Slow dash south: days 1 - 3

Day 1 Sept 25th

Buxton to Oxford, 133 miles.

Locked the house, and drove-off unceremoniously; it did feel weird - a kind of disjoint between the mundane, domestic surroundings and the circumstances, which were a bit of a personal milestone for us both. If I had not been too busy manoeuvring the van past neighbours' cars I would probably mused on Auden's line from Icarus about the marvellous happening while someone else is 'dully walking along'. But I didn't, I just drove dully along, all the way to Oxford.

Birthday cake with Matthew at the Oxford camp-site, followed by a  brief shopping interlude - Gill, bought a replacement H&M parka, and top (both dark blue), me, a new Moleskine notebook from Paperchase, nothing more scary than a whole book of empty pages!

Mooched about Oxford at twilight, maybe Turl Street is my favourite spot. One shop seemed ro be cashing in on the Hogwarts connection - Dobbie and Dumbledoor masks in the souvenir shop window. A bit like sombreros - bought in the moment, but when would you actually wear them!  What kind of person would want to be Dobbie anyway....perhaps it's best not to speculate.

Turl Street at twilight

Ta-dah!

connect with your inner Dobbie...

Meal out at Pierre Victoire - nice food, perky French waitress - good to remember that 'les amis' across la Manche are not always totally miserable all of the time....though Gill did remind me all of the comment in the book she is reading which described a Frenchman on holiday as resembling Eyeore with cancer. What better way to gird the loins for continental travel than a brief interlude of low level racism!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Pete in Pierre Victoire, Oxford.

As we wandered back to catch the bus to the Park and Ride, Oxford Brookes' freshers were out in force, It was hardly going to be a memorable evening for most of them, they were,by-and-large, well,past the moment of recall as they staggered past clutching almost empty bottles of vodka.

And yes, the hot water was working when we returned to Maisy, and no the Truma boiler had not suffered a catastrophic failure - I think we're both feeling a bit twitchy keen to get travelling instead of planning.

Day 2

Oxford to Abbey Wood 112 miles

We made good progress around the M25 and headed towards the Caravan Club site at Abbey Wood via Sidcup. Not great motorhome territory, the suburban streets are narrow and the drivers quick and unforgiving. We called into Tesco for a few groceries and to fill-up (Fuel £91.00). By the time we got out of the store the local roads had jammed completely due to serious car crash. Eventually we extricated ourselves and found Abbey Wood site, which is well appointed as you would expect of the CC club's premier London site. One unexpected delight was the the colony of wild parakeets which has established itself in the trees. London's multiculturalism seems to have extended itself to include the wildlife.

It looks normal enough...until you spot a parakeet.

We met Laura, our youngest, in Greenwich. She is one week into her university course there, and seems happy and positive about it all, which is good. What a great place to be a student in. As you wander around the park with Greenwich Observatory on the hill, and look across the Thames towards Canary Wharf, then west towards the City and the thin  sliver of the Shard in the misty distance you are struck by a sense of the UK as a powerhouse of great ideas, Just before we left home I happened to listen to Brian Cox on iplayer. We may no longer lead the world economically or militarily, but in terms of science, we're still up there. We should cherish that. I tried my utmost to hang onto this positive thought while negotiating an early Friday evening in Jamie's Italian, Greenwich. It's fair to say that most of our fellow customers were simply being loud in a whoohoo end of the working week way, but the couple next to us seemed to be  going for gold in some kind of let's-be-obnoxious-to-the-waitress competition, and over the way the restaurant manager was dealing with a woman having a mildly psychotic interlude, normal Friday night I guess in a London restaurant. Not my scene at all.

Silvery sunset over Greenwich

Laura and Gill keeping calm and carrying-on amid the Jamie's Italian chaos.

Thames sailing barge with the O2 dome in the background

Greenwich pedestrian tunnel - viva the Victorians! 

Greenwich market - very cute...

Canary Wharf from the Observatory - no capitalism without longitude - who says science does not matter!

Day 3, Abbey Wood to Folkestone.

79 miles

Stopped off at Hythe, a very pretty place with lots of small shops and good local food on sale. Then we drove to St Mary's Bay. No sign of the bay as it was hidden behind a high sea-wall. So we parked at the Romney Marsh visitor centre. Interesting wildlife ponds with the biggest dragonflies I have ever seen. Then back along narrow roads - note to self, use your brain not the Sat Nav - it was sheer luck that the wing mirror was undamaged when a substantial branch thwacked it. Just think if it had been at overhead cab height....

Hythe High Street

Beautiful sunset in the Drum Inn garden, warm enough for glass of Orvieto outside after pleasant evening stroll. The pub is less than three miles from the Channel Tunnel terminal and offers overnight camping with electrical hook-up for around £16.00, I think we would use it again.

An overnight stop at the Drum Inn, Stanford, Kent

Pleasant walks from the pub

Not your average country cottage, more a Kentish Grand Designs project.

Sunset from the Drum Inn garden

When I checked my Outlook after we got back to the van, Phillip Quillan, the editor from Angle magazine, emailed me to say I had been included in the forthcoming issue..I.can't actually remember contributing - but I must have. A nice surprise,

Life is good.

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