We’ve not been sitting on our backsides watching daytime TV since we returned from our mammoth trip last year, although I did have a week or two where I was in jeopardy from a dangerous addiction: David Dickenson’s Real Deal! I’m now fully recovered.

Basil has had a bit of a rest, but has not been completely idle. We’ve had a couple of weekends away with friends at the Caravan Club Sites (now the Caravan and Motorhome Club) at Whitby and Castleton. Sarah and I had a few days walking in the Lake District from the Caravan and Motorhome Club Coniston site. A final weekend away with friends was cancelled by the snow two weeks ago, so we had a couple of nights last week at Clumber Park to ensure Basil had survived the winter intact, which he had.

Snow stopped play

We even found time for a month in the Far East, with two weeks in Vietnam, a week in Cambodia and a few days in Hong Kong. It it allegedly possible to take a motorhome overland to Vietnam and Cambodia, we chickened out and used an aeroplane!

Our motorhoming plan for this spring was to tour Spain and Portugal, starting mid March and coming home at the end of June. This was all progressing splendidly until last week when Sarah had a routine appointment at our local hospital and the consultant decided that although she didn’t thing Sarah had anything wrong she wanted a couple of tests to confirm. For one test there is a waiting list of about 6 weeks and the other 8 weeks.

We considered various options, but because we don’t know exactly when Sarah will be needed back home or how much notice they will give us, we decided Spain would have to be delayed.

What to do instead, we wondered. Then we came up with an idea for an interesting trip which would keep us within two days of home – a circumnavigation of the British coast!

Basil has been cleaned (Sarah particularly enjoying the opportunity to climb about on his roof); he’s filled up with fuel and water; and we plan to set off tomorrow for our first stop in Whitstable, Kent. You may think this is a strange place to start our tour, given that we live in the Midlands, but Sarah and I met at University in Canterbury and our student houses were both in Whitstable. So we are starting with a stroll down memory lane.

Basil raring to go

Sarah’s sister lives near Hastings so we can fit a visit in early in our trip and then I think we will skip the built up areas from Eastbourne to Portsmouth and start our journey in earnest in Hampshire and Dorset.

We’ve packed Basil to the gunnels with fleeces, wellington boots and wet weather gear, because when you’re touring in Britain, especially at this time of year, the old motto applies: there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing!

We’ve packed a coat for Melek!!