Day 156 to 160 - 5th to 9th April - United Kingdom

Point of departure: Paris

Point of arrival : London

Accommodation: Etap Hotel & Drake House with Ian & Jacqui Thomson

Km travelled today: 482 km Cum: 27 854km (gravel 0km cum 4 649km)

Countries so far: 14/16

Where to next? Whittlebury/Buckingham

No of photos: 39 (6 978)

Breakfast in Paris and dinner in London! Left Paris on a chilly and cold morning (1 degree) but it did warm up during the day (8 degrees at lunchtime). It was so cold that John had his hooded jacket on whilst giving the Beast a "drink" at the gas station. An uneventful drive through to Calais, arriving at 11h30 and on the 12h30 ferry to Dover.

LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, LEFT… we had to keep reminding ourselves as we drove off the ferry in Dover, after driving on the right hand side of the road for the past three months.

Oh what a feeling… the navigator (aka Marina) had less pressure as the driver (aka John) could now see the oncoming traffic, the signs were all in English, everyone spoke English and… NO RAIN! Yes no rain in the UK can you believe it.
A defining moment for us - here we are in one of the most famous cities in the world, London, our penultimate stop. We cannot quite believe it, it's almost surreal… we actually drove all the way up (we have flown in on numerous occasions, but this was a first). Friends and family kept reminding us… a cause for celebration, you made it, they say! We celebrated by going to the West End show "Jersey Boys" (musical - Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons) - a great show.

Spent five days in London with Thursday being the day we drove into the centre of London with the Beast. The driver of a garbage pickup hoots at us, we look and he signals "thumbs up" - he is from Cairo. After driving round Parliament Square we realise there is no place to stop for a photograph so we crossed over Westminster Bridge and parked next to the London Eye for our photograph with the Beast. A young South African (Port Elizabeth) approached Marina and after a brief discussion says "You drove all the way up with the Cruiser… what a beast" to which Marina replied "Yes and actually the car is called the Beast". A little bit of useless information: the black Cadillac that chauffeurs the President of the USA (Barack Obamba) is nicknamed "the beast".

We then decided to go back to Parliament Square and whilst John drove round a couple of times Marina would photograph and video the Beast and John "in London" from the centre of the Square. In case you are all wondering how we managed to get a photograph with the Beast and Big Ben… as John comes round for the 3rd time he decides to drive up onto the pavement (after all there was a squatter camp of peace protestors camped in square) and parks the Beast and says "come let's take our photograph". Out comes the tripod, the flags and voila we have our photograph… all this happening whilst the Beast faces the statue of Nelson Mandela in the Square. It really felt so good to be there in the centre of London with Big Ben, proudly flying the flag (us of course not Ben)! For those of you that are not in the "know" Big Ben is actually the bell in the tower and not the clock tower itself!

Spent Thursday and Friday night with Ian & Jacqui Thomson (friends from SA now living in the UK) - they have a beautiful home right on the Thames overlooking Richmond town… a lovely restful spot. Thanks Ian and Jacqui for making us so welcome.

On Friday there was a family lunch (from John's mother side to commemorate the memory of one of her cousins) which was a great opportunity for all, and especially us, to meet family we hadn't seen before and renew contact with others that we had. Almost historic photographs of the occasion were taken - the first time that some members, now in their 60's were seeing each other either for the first time or after a gap of some 50 odd years.