England was a succes. Altough only a weekend was planned on the island, it still was a lot of fun.
Sweden was great and we drove “George” to near destruction in the 3350 km we drove.
The ferry to England was a bit of a claustrofobic experience. Getting to the ship was only an half our drive and checking in went smoothly, it was only when we saw our cabin for the first time we had the thought that spending a bit more money on a cabin with a porthole would have been a good idea. This was confirmed during the night when the noise and vibration of the engines and the lack of fresh air, and maybe the anti-sickness pill, caused quite a restless night.
The drive down to Peterborough the following morning was as exhausting as the previous night had been, so when we, finally, arrived at the showgrounds and met up with Rob and his family it’s safe to say that we were happy to be there.The Land Rover Fest is an annual event at the East of England Showground in Peterborough with a lot of Land Rovers and a lot of stands with stuff to buy. British4x4 has one of those stands and we were invited to camp behind them which also provided us with free entrance.
The show itself was great. Enough was organised to keep everybody busy. Plenty of professional and private stands with everything you always wanted for your Land Rover, well, maybe not everything… I didn’t find some things I was looking for. But, in short, the whole event was good.
The Stewart family, who so graciously provided us with the tickets were also great hosts. During the day there was beer and in the evening we ate at a nearby restaurant.
The drive back to the ferry was better then the one from the ferry. This time we drove nice and comfortable behind Rob which was better. The roads we drove in England were busy and, dare I say it, dangerous. At least we thought so. People drove fast and the entry and exist lanes were so short people had drive onto the road with very low speeds.
The ferry was better to. The expensive all-you-can-eat diner wasn’t worth it but at least this cabin made less noise then the previous one.
We did meet the “Vicar” though. An old friend of the Stewarts who has a buzzcut, smokes, drinks and was in the Bar business for quite a while. But now.., he is an active vicar, or reverend. A very interesting man of a kind the church desperatly needs.., at least I think so…
After exiting the ferry we med up with “the gang” and drove back to Rotterdam where, along the way, we waved goodbye.
Our visit to home was short lived as we were very eager to start the long drive up to our viking friends… you’ll read about that in part 2.
