So, there I go, getting you all signed up and engaged in my little adventure and then I disappear! Es tut mir Leid as we say here in Germany. Sorry.

I am also sorry that as I’m typing this on my laptop, I can’t find the emojis. Not one to be defeated these days (see below), I shall resort to emoticons. For those under 40, we used these all the time in the 1990s to communicate all manner of moods. They were often misconstrued and made our fingers sore from pressing buttons :O. You will note that mine don’t have noses.

(DIGRESSION)

There were two camps as far as I know (do comment if you have a view):

Camp One : ) (the CORRECT camp – space added to avoid auto-emoji)

Camp Two :- ) (what even is that? Also, it’s slower, nul points)

(END OF DIGRESSION)

Back to my tale…you see, I did what I often (read: always) do, get into a bright fancy swimsuit, make a lot of noise then dive (read: jump while holding my nose) in the deep-end only to pop up, spluttering and coughing; eyes streaming; nose throbbing. I’m then ready to get out of the water and retreat to the safety of the Moomin’s bathing hut for the rest of the trip. I usually do exactly that and in secret so no-one knows about my giving up. I once hid in a hotel in Amsterdam, a nice one, but I was hiding all the same. I was pretending I had gone home from a conference I didn’t like. What an idiot. Although it did have a nice pool.

This time is different. I dried myself off (stay with the analogy if you can), sat in the (imaginary) hut and panicked. Then took my socks off and put my crocs on 🙂 . That’s when I knew I was in for the long haul. Waterproof shoes means ‘I intend to become a camper’. It had been a long day.

The ferry went well, I didn’t sleep much but the dogs settled amazingly well in the kennel (which I had been very worried about) and the driving got off to a good start as all the Dutch service stations appear to be called Bonjour (confusingly) and are exceptionally friendly with nicer bathrooms than I have at home. I also saved Eur 1,20 (It costs money to maintain toilet luxury) not having any cash on my person and looking weird enough to need the toilet fairly urgently. I keep forgetting about my hair, which in combination with the tattoo (which I also forget) and the pink camper, makes me look rather…’special’ 😀

Yesterday I managed to only set my own alarm off ONCE while starting the engine and I did that several times so there was ENORMOUS progress.

Other successes included being honked at very intensely by a fast-moving (towards me) truck (so friendly!) and only having to drive on the hard shoulder for 30 seconds until someone finally let me in :}.

The weather alternated violently all day between torrential rain and punishingly hot sunshine and the humidity made me lose almost all visibility in my remaining mirrors :O which made driving very scary.  As all the windows are ‘manual’, you have to decide what the weather will be like for the next 100 miles in advance. Thankfully my watch is splashproof (no I am not left-handed) but I got a very wet arm 😀 It did also mean the camper got very hot indeed. Discomfort and several stops aside, I genuinely thought I had killed the dogs due to excess heat in the end and was in a state of utter panic for the last 30 minutes of driving. I hadn’t of course, they were just a bit hot. Phew. Then the water broke.

So, I am without a functioning tap in the van (short of finding a friendly electrician with some spare cable) which is annoying but apparently not a disaster if you have a jug (I do) and a nearby tap (check). I am still hopeless at parking, I just stop on a funny angle for now or manoeuvre with the handbrake on (not on purpose) and then worry that I have broken said handbrake and that in the night we will roll away into our fellow campers’ Audi with disastrous consequences. First gear alludes me more times than it doesn’t (where is it dammit?!) and it is safe to say that at this stage, every blog post is a victory as it means that despite the odds, I have made it a stage further!

Oh and once I popped the crocs on, I went out for dinner by the lake (with my constant companions) and started to change my schedule a little.

So, it seems even if you do go overboard (not literally, that would be a very tricky situation indeed) initially, you can just sit down, put on some plastic shoes, eat a pizza and replot your route over a few days, giving you more time to relax, less time on the road and still ensuring that you get to meet the Moomins and some other good friends along the way. Let’s see how it goes! A nice sleep (the wind from last night has settled thank goodness, I didn’t fancy toppling over) and then we set off to Denmark tomorrow where I am very much hoping the roads are less terrifying.

PS. Would you believe I am the only VW T2 on the campsite? Haha, I have just described a slow moving, hot van with poor visibility and with no running water. Maybe it’s not such a surprise after all 😀

PPS. It seems that my emoticon segment might have been ruined by wordpress converting some into emojis… :((

Gute Nacht! :*