I’ll start by saying there might be a slight ‘post flood’ as there were lots of leavings in a short space of time and this is the first moments I’ve had the headspace and time to sit down, reflect and write about the last few weeks.
A minor disaster before take off!
We always knew that simply getting out of the country would prove to be challenging… and so it transpired! It at times felt like climbing the north face of the Eiger just getting the house ready, vehicles sold, stuff stored and bags packed, but eventually, we got there. We took the decision early on to try and do this adventure with nothing more than carry on luggage, with the intention being that we would avoid delays at baggage carousels and the perpetual fear that one day you’d land in Oslo, whilst your suitcases had decided to go on a jolly to Johannesburg. I’ll keep an open mind and update later as to whether this was Brave and a stroke of genius, or whether in fact it was one of the most ridiculous ideas I’ve had (there are numeorous contenders). Anyway, heres what we, as a family of 4, are taking to travel the world with.
One thing I will say is that in planning for all this, I discovered packing cubes, and they are up there with one of the best travelling items ever devised. The amount we’ve managed to cram into these bags is impressive, and we haven’t had to really sacrifice in many areas. It’s been quite a cathartic process to whittle down what you actually need on a daily basis (bar food etc) into a cumulative 110 litres of rucksack!
I also want to say how nice it was to see or speak to so many people before we left. There were alot of goodbyes, meet-ups, an aweome party in the park with lots of the kids friends, but if we didnt get to see or speak to you… It was simply a matter of time and logistics. You will all be missed, and we hope you all keep well while we’re away. Be excellent to each other.
So, we were all set. We drove up to Nikkis Dad in Dorset and dropped off our car for him to sell for us, spent the night in a glamourous Premier Inn, then jumped into a hire car to head to a friends house near Gatwick where we’d spend the night and catch our flight at 8am the following morning… simple, or so we thought!
Simple, until Senara (the youngest of the tribe) began to feel ill on the way up to Dorset. ‘Oh well’ we sighed, as most of you know, the germ warfare that kids seem to go through is both endless and essential and mostly not too troubling.. They tend to get on with it better than we do! Until the following morning she came out in a Rash all over and had a bright red strawberry tongue.
‘It can’t be Scarlet Fever, she’s already had it’.
Just to be on the safe side we stopped by Tumbridge Wells hospital on route to said friends near Gatwick.
‘It can’t be Scarlet Fever, she’s already had it’… Except it was, and you can… in rare cases.
Cue a mad panic as we had to get antibiotics and the paperwork to be able to take them on the plane, then cancel the evening at our freinds house so we didn’t pass it on to their children and try and figure out how to survive the next 24hrs before we flew, by which time Senara wouldn’t be contagious anymore. In the end we had to plump for holing up in yet another super glamourous setting, this time a Travelodge no less, right next to Gatwick itself.
All Aboard!
So we woke up at 5am finally ready to board our first flight in a few hours. To be fair, that stage all went pretty smoothly and we were soon leaving the ‘green and pleasant’ land of the UK, not that we could see much of it out of the plane window through the grey clouds and rain. The kids were, mostly, brilliant. Taking everything in their stride and enjoying even the simple things.. Who knew kids would love a Travelodge quite so much? Here’s Roscoe dutifully carrying his little sisters medicine, which somehow had to be kept refrigerated – cue a donated cool bag and some ice packs, the whole way through Gatwick Airport.
However, by now Nikki and I had both started to come down with Strep throat from Senaras Scarlet Fever, and Roscoe was complaining of a poorly tummy… more on that in the next post. The absolute joys.
I guess what this leaving taught us was that if something was going to go wrong, it was better for it to happen sooner rather than later. We were never under any illusion that everything would go to plan, but for us all to have to adapt and think ‘on the fly’ a little bit, was a good lesson to have so soon in the trip.
Here we are (slightly frazzled) heading off and onto Athens, where the next installment of this blog will pick up on as we get ready to leave the biggest city the 2 tiny Cornish wildlings have ever been to.
Despite all of our desire to leave England and see the world as a family, it’s never been born out of a lack of love for our home country, it has it’s faults.. yes, but it’s also a wonderful country full of history, beauty and most of all, some great people. We will come back here, when we’re older. Goodbye England.
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