After a phone call to the recommended mechanic we set off to Stubbington.  Andrew seems amazed that I don't need a map.  I lived here.  I worked nearby and walked this place over 18 years between postings around the Naval Air bases.  We are asked to leave the van with the mechanics and set off into the village for a fried breakfast.  Next we catch a bus to Gosport, then a ferry to Portsmouth.  Head for the now 'Historic Dockyards' of Portsmouth and on to visit HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship and the ship he died on.  They have made it into a wonderful exhibit and we marvel at it's age.  Then on the year ticket we go to see the Mary Rose.  She is even older having sunk near Portsmouth Harbour in 1535.  The story of her retrieval and raising to the surface and subsequent procedures to preserve her are herculean.  If nearby we really recommend that you go and see her.

The bad news is confirmed about our vehicle and a second hand motor might be impossible to source along with the prospect of being without a vehicle for travelling for a couple of  weeks.  We head back to the caravan park and book in for another night, have another beer and use the internet to look at our options.  We check wreckers numbers to find a place to dump the vehicle as we know we won't get money for it.  Ring a campervan hire place that has MPVs as well and ask for a 130 day price.  He gets us to come up with an offer so we ring him the next day after we have some ideas! His operation is at the back of HMS Daedalus airfield which was kind of over our back fence when I lived there.  Thirty eight years ago and more I would often walk our dog down to the beach front and the road would have military police stopping the traffic momentarily.  Out of the Naval base a hovercraft would glide across the road, down the slipway and into the Solent.  These were the prototypes and I watched history being created.

We negotiate with the owner of the hire company for an MPV.  He has a Mazda with about 36,000 miles on it and it is great.  The seats do not lie down flat so we tell him that we don't want the five seats and a deal is struck.  We give him the Nissan and his spaniel Grace is happy after hopping in the Mazda to come with us she accepts that she is relegated to the Nissan.   We head back to London to do our washing and to repack the van to prepare to go back to Europe.  While looking for ferry routes and fares on the internet, Andrew finds a couple of folk festivals and as one is in Oxford on the coming weekend, the other is over Easter in Fareham, Hampshire.  We decide to book a ferry to Bilbao, Spain for the Tuesday after Easter.  This means two nights in a cabin on the ferry as it is a 30+ hour trip. 

OXFORD!!!!!   Where my grandparents and parents lived.  Where we as children had school holidays. Most of all, there is a huge mention of Morris Dancing on the programme.  I am stoked.

It really is late as we find the caran park, 9.30pm.  The office is closed but there are people around.  The woman grudgingly waves me around to the entrance through the on-site pub.  It appears that sleeping in a van that has not had a proper conversion for camping might expose naked bodies getting ready to sleep, or worse?  We point out that we have curtains that will completely block out any remote possibility of a naked glimpse of us in the freezing conditions.  We explain our dilemma with the van and they suggest that we get ourselves sat up and come back to the pub before closing time to have a drink. 

We do just that and I order a couple of the local beers whilst Andrew ponders over which size serving of nuts he would like to go with our drinks.  The bar maid tells us he should get the large one as the owner has just given us the beer on the house.  We thank him gratefully and enjoy the warmth and the beer.  Looking around at the clientelle I muse over whether the "undesirable boyfriend" I left behind 36 years ago when my parents dragged me off to Australia was there as he would have lived not too far away from here if he had stayed close to his parent's house!  The owner said that he would give us the name and number of a reliable mechanic in the morning so we could get a second opinion about what we were going to do with the Nissan.

Back home now (boo hoo) The trip was excellent, brill, fantastic, and all the other good words. The only problem is it's over, Back to liquid sunshine and long trousers (pants). Pam is already back at work and now I have to find a job. Got to pay for this somehow. Just got to get the hundreds of photos developed now so we can boar all the friends a family with them. Did manage to recover the lost photos from Toronto from my camera card. Used a programme called "smart recovery" good news

OK, It's Thursday and we are just doing the last bits before we start our trip.

Hotel tonight ready to fly tomorrow.