Portesham, a place of Evil.

Never go to Portesham. It may look like a pleasant little Dorset village with a decent pub and quaint little cottages, however there is something sinister residing there. Something that can suck the life out of camper vans, leaving them unable to function, broken down and unable to move. Well, I can only assume this is what has caused my usually reliable VW camper van to fail twice now within a few hundred metres of the same spot.

The drive of shame. Again.

I was expecting Mike from Marsh Road Garage to be our knight in shining armour, as he has been on the previous two Green Flag recoveries (there is no limit on the number of call outs ! I checked !) but it seems he does sometimes have a day off, so a hairy chap called Mark took Jezebel for her third 'drive of shame' through Chickerell.

The plan had been to get both vans, teams 38 and 6, together at the same time and head out to Hardy's Monument for a Sunday meal. Jezebel and Milly however seem to be like opposing magnetic poles, nigh on impossible to get them together. The last attempt was in the New Forest where Milly arrived 24 hours late due to a breakdown. Now it was Jezebel's turn to play up. We set off from home with at least a pint of fuel sloshing around in the bottom of the tank and some blind optimism that we could get her to Portesham and the fuel station. Alas it seems that the God Fearing folk of Portesham don't require fuel on the Sabbath. Our other issue was the clutch. It had been slipping a bit on the journey out. As we took the hill out of Portesham, trying desperately to break away from the evil grip of that God Forsaken place, Jezebel was unable to make it. The over revving also burnt up the remaining dregs of fuel.

Jim's Chops.

Al Fresco cooking in November.

So, lunch was taken with just the one van. For those of you who don't know the area, Hardy's Monument has amazing views of Chesil beach, Portland and right across to Torbay a good 50 miles away as well as the rolling fields of southern Dorset. Lucy managed to produce a culinary masterpiece from the galley of Milly whilst Jim pan fried some lamb chops.

Jim and his assistant.

Lucas in his cupboard

Sink and units going in.

Jezebel's interior had certainly improved over the weekend. No longer just a van with a folding bed, Jim had been busy installing units, a sink, a hob and grill and the fridge that I had bought a few months back. We now have suitable storage space for 3 weeks worth of unwashed smalls, beer chairs, barbecue and all of the other essentials we shall need of our epic venture next year This, together with the tiled floor that had been installed a few weeks back in Devon (yes, she made it that far !), she is now several steps closer to being complete. If only the bloody clutch worked !

In other news, £242 was raised at Oktoberfest for Pilgrim Bandits. It is looking likely that they will be joining us on the Windy, it's just a question of what form their team or teams take. Their link is http://pilgrimbandits.org/ . Planning a trip involving a number of badly injured military vets is going to take a bit of effort, but I think it will be well worth it.

Since the last blog, we have also gained several interesting vehicles including a 1980 Ford camper van, the team of BMW bikes (the Black Rats) and a London Taxi. All good vehicles, but I think we shall have one of the smartest interiors in the fleet. As I said before though, if only the bloody clutch worked !

7 months, 2 days and counting down.....