It’s been a long time since this was the problem when working on the trucks. It was -16C in Northern Ireland when we left, and 39C in Sudan. It was a mere 30C in Kampala yesterday.
Automated numberplate recognition doing its thing
France-Belgium - least interesting border so far
Belgium-Holland - nothing to write home about
The exciting side of the Belgium-Holland border
France to Belgium was hard to spot. In fact we thought we were in Belgium 5 minutes before we actually were, when we realised all the places on the signs were Belgian. When we hit the border, it was at 70mph, and with far more acknowledgement that we were entering Flanders than Belgium (the region being more important than the country, when the region defines the language and culture, and the country defines, well not very much).
Belgium to Holland was more interesting today, being in Putte, a small village that straddles the border. Which had been marked by the Dutch, never ones to shy from offending those conservative neighbours, by a sex shop on their side. And very little else.
Our Carnets are yet to emerge from the box in the boot, our passports yet to be opened. But somehow I doubt these crossings will remain in our minds as typical border experiences from this trip.
The pictures above are from our in-vehicle webcam – see more here.
Tomorrow we will have been on the road for two weeks, it’s hard to believe it, the time has flown in. We have had great fun so far staying with a range of family and friends and have not needed the trusted roof tent thus far!
Some things we have learnt so far:
- It takes a long time to pack all our stuff back into the Surf in the morning after staying somewhere, about an hour.
- Everything in relation to this trip takes a very long time to do.
- Never try to write your diary in a room full of people. Everyone just wants a mention.
- Andrew should always ensure he uses the correct end, to pick up a hot soldering iron.
- If Andrew should incorrectly select the hot end end, a large container of ice should be immediately available.
- Before attempting to film both Surfs leaving the workshop, the ability of both Surfs to start should first be tested.
- The best excuse for leaving your wife waiting for a long time at a service station is, ‘I was buying us pies.’
- Adding an Arabic style ‘kh’ to the end of each word just makes them sound better, especially when you’re two years old.
- When working at the workshop you can never wear too many clothes, even if you can’t move.
Finn McCool and Benandonner, affectionately known as Finn and Ben.
Finn and Ben
Ben and Finn
We made good progress today and, whatever people who have done the roads before us have said, we struggle to believe that the Libyan desert could be more boring than the M6. We’ll give you a final conclusion on that in about 3 weeks.
Now that the trucks are named, here’s a wee video from yesterday. Nothing exciting you understand, nothing even related to the trip. But it kept us entertained for a while.
It’s not very exciting, but here’s a few clips from the first week of our trip in 67 seconds…
If you’re following the news feed on the right, you’ll know we’ve been on the road for 5 days now. Nothing too exciting so far – we spent Christmas with Louise’s family and the last few days with Andy’s. Having left our home at -10C, and seen -16.5C on Christmas day, it’s now completely thawed leaving nothing but large piles of snow dotted along the sides of roads.
Which is useful when we’re looking for somewhere to park:
This morning we’re off to drop off half our luggage and a few spare with the second surf, in the Scottish Borders. We’ll be out of blogging contact till the New Year, in a remote house with a few friends, so I’ll wish you all a happy Hogmanay and New Year now!