So….After a night with all the caravanning pensioners in west Sussex (in the most patronising campsite ‘ah I think someone forgot to read their information sheet didn’t they..?’ ) we headed In a triumphant mood in the direction of Portsmouth. Alas….the camper was not I the same mood. No longer happy unless pushing 45 in 3rd gear we had a niggling feeling….were we being over sensitive or was something wrong? We carried on regardless and things seemed to warm up (camper seems to get smoother as the miles rack up) but things very swiftly came to a head. Basically we stopped off…engine wouldn’t start for 20 mins….and then did but sounded like the Exorcist version of our previous sweet ticking engine. Then….nothing. We called dad….we had a phone conference and then decided it was going to be our first introduction to road recovery.

I’d like to point out that we were 2.7 miles from the ferry at this point. Annoying in many ways but a saving grace rather than making it to Spain and then stall trying to get off the ferry. Recovery man tutted, ummm’ed and ahhhh’d and kindly informed us we were not going to Spain today. We found a VW specialist 5 miles away (many thanks fate/luck) and agreed to be towed there. Within 20 seconds at ‘Gingers’ (not only is he a delightful red head but he also was wearing a bright orange t-shirt) he found the problem. Thankfully not a problem with the engine itself but basically the soft padding that the engine sits on had been sucked up into the fan and tangled/destroyed/warped the fan and a few surrounding bits. Just sheer bad luck. He knows we need to get our ferry (rebooked for 22:00 Sunday) and said he would be up early to sort.

So the term ‘it’s all part of the adventure’ is in full swing tonight as we are spending a night in a B&B and rearranging our first stage in Europe!!