The Adventures of Paul, Sadie and Daisy Moo too!

We set off from Ripley on the Monday afternoon after having a few farewell drinks with Robert, Sam and Lenny in the Beehive the previous evening and headed towards Derby to scrap Dot (the Ford KA) as we had tried to get her MOT done before we went away, but sadly it was terminal. Once we said our goodbyes, we went to fill up with fuel and also refill our LPG Gaslow system for the first time, and Sadie was the one who had first attempt… and a successful one too as it took around £10 to fill both 6kg bottles, around half the price of getting a Calor bottle exchange. Then we headed south towards Birmingham, and our first stopover on the journey towards Newhaven on the Saturday. We had planned a rough route to take to take advantage of seeing as many of our friends as possible on the way, and first stop was to see the wonderful Jane and her mum for a catch up and a cuppa tea! After a couple of hours, we set off again and after a short while, stopped in the Cotswolds for chips and f

As I mentioned in the last blog, we are heading to Portugal for a few months to volunteer on a few projects there. So after we get off the ferry in Dieppe, we will wind our way down through France, Spain and into Portugal towards our first hosts, in the region of Pedrógão de São Pedro. Lots of people are doing this kind of thing, not just in Portugal but all over the world, one of the original websites set up for this very thing is called Wwoof  and although set up initially to set up hosts of organic farms with volunteers, it covers a whole host of eco projects, builds and similar projects. Another couple of similar websites are Workaway  and Helpx , and while these all charge a small annual subscription, of course now with social media such as Facebook, there are plenty of groups that are free and easy to use to allow potential volunteers to hook up with potential hosts. The basic premise is that any hosts looking for volunteers to help them with a project, offer a place t

Before we even went off on our SE Asia adventure, we briefly discussed touring Europe in Daisy for 12 months after we got home. The reality is that we don't have that much money, and another full year travelling would not have been cheap, so looked into alternative options. So while being back in the cold reality of the UK the past 2 months, we've did a lot of research, planning and preparing for the next step! We have decided to go and volunteer on various projects in Portugal, and the basic premise is in return we get fed and somewhere to park up etc for a few hours work a day... I'll do a blog with more details on that later on! We're taking  Daisy Moo over there for the rest of the winter down via France and Spain and have booked a ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe for next Saturday and looking to come back to the UK early/mid April. I have secured new work to look forward to this summer and the potential for Sadie to join me, and along with other security work