And we’re off!

Hurrah! After much planning, we have finally started RTW2007.

The end of last week involved a trip back to St Albans for Michael; a visit to York to see the Holbrooks and Granny; and lots of frantic last minute packing.

We stocked up on lots of good food (plus at least three Easter eggs) at BJs - we are conscious that we have already spent almost all of our money in planning the trip, so we will mainly be living on gruel now that we have set off.

After tearful goodbyes and lots of photos in Silkstone, we set off towards the ferry, stopping only to eat our last meal in England (egg and chips at a service station, classy) and do one last shop at Tesco (including, on Mr Hamilton’s advice, food for the ferry).

The customs woman at the ferry terminal seemed far more concerned with finding out about our van and how the bed works than with inspecting our passports or the contents of the van, so we sailed through with no problems at all. If only we thought that all of the customs points / border crossings on this trip might run as smoothly……

We left Newcastle on the ferry at sunset and both felt a little unsettled. Although on the one hand we are only going to Norway at the moment, somehow sailing away from England suddenly brought home the scale of the journey ahead. But we concluded that we were probably just tired and that it would all be OK in the morning.

We managed to sleep for approximately 18 hours of the 26 hour ferry crossing. The added bonus being that we missed the “entertainment” laid on by DFDS Seaways. Line dancing is just not our thing.

After stops at Stavanger and Haugesund, we arrived in Bergen at 11pm. We passed through customs very quickly, though the customs official queried both the outside of Michael’s passport (which no longer bears any gold Great Britain stamp or text, following years of abuse) and also his hair. Yes, overseas customs stop number one and already people are questioning whether the hairy monster in the van is the same person as the skin head on the passport. It is only a matter of time before we have to shave his head to get through a border....

We spent the entire journey to the campsite chanting “drive on the right, drive on the right”. We found the campsite really easily and settled down for our first night in the van of dreams on RTW2007.