1. 30 April to 23 May 2011 - England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany

We arrived back in the UK to a wonderful welcome at 'Long Lane Farm' from our English family, Babs, Jill and Richard. So very good to see them all again and catch up. And we are so grateful to them for looking after our vehicle for the last 11 months!

We have had a busy time in the month since we left home. June, Ewan and Colleen - Susan's mum, brother and sister - came for lunch at 'Long Lane Farm', and on another day our niece Penny and Myles, and cousin Andrew and Helen and family. Dinner with Susan's dad Robert, and Christopher in London, and a great day visiting Sally and Robin,
Toby and Guy - the rest of our English family - up in Oxfordshire, having lunch at an old manor in Lower Slaughter, and Sally taking us on an afternoon drive around the Cotswolds. And we also had a day in Cambridge with Bob and Maria who travelled with us for 6 weeks last year in Africa.

We managed to get the car serviced and registered, which was a huge relief. Also visited the Kazakhstan Embassy in South Kensington, but the girl behind the counter, who was trying to cope with a huge queue two hours long in drizzling rain, couldn't get her head around our plans to drive and camp, and since we didn't have the standard listing of every hotel we were staying in for each night of our stay, she dismissively moved us on. But we believe we can get the visa in Russia without a problem, so we'll certainly try - Kazakhstan looks like a great place to travel.

A great night out in the West End at the Novello Theatre to see 'Betty Blue Eyes', a musical adaptation of the British film 'A Private Function,' and we visited the Pinewood Studios to see the film 'Burlesque'. We also fitted in a few days of sight-seeing in London including the National History Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, a river cruise and a 'flight' on the London Eye.

So our stay at 'Long Lane Farm' was longer than expected but great fun - catching up over chatty meals, including a great meal at Richard's and Jacqui's. The delay was due to our decision to install Webasto diesel heating in our camper. When Brian looked out the plane window as we flew through the Arctic circle above Russia, and saw a landscape of snow, it suddenly became a priority. We had been in touch with Vehvac from home, but it was a week before we could book it in to be installed, and another week for the installation.

So we changed our plans a little and drove over to France for a few days camping while we waited for the work to be started on the vehicle. We had been invited to lunch by the family from Paris whom we had met in Namibia last year. Luis, Nicolette and their three children live in a fabulous apartment not far from the Arc de Triomphe, and what a delicious and enjoyable lunch we had! Definitely a highlight!

When the work on our vehicle was eventually completed back in England, with delays which were very frustrating at the time, we set off and crossed the Channel yet again, heading north and east towards Russia at last. We drove through France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany without seeing nearly as much as a traveller should, but our Russian visas were ticking over already, and we were anxious to get on our way. We discovered The Netherlands has the best camping we have ever seen - they really know how to make camping a 'home away from home' experience, but with the added benefit of three lakes and endless activities for a perfect holiday. It took us over an hour on hired bicycles to see it all.

We are now in Lubeck, waiting to catch a passenger/vehicle ferry to Helsinki, Finland - a journey of 28 hours - and another ship's cabin experience. A 3:00am departure means a great deal of waiting, especially when 'Finnlines' can't confirm till 10pm tonight whether they can fit our vehicle on board. As it is higher than 2 metres, we don't seem to have priority over other large vehicles. But we have a campsite that will let us in after 10pm tonight if we are unsuccessful, and then we start over again tomorrow. The joys of travel, but we're really not minding at all! We are now sitting in the camper in the middle of the terminal car park amongst a crowd of trucks, sipping wine with bread and cheese. It could be worse.