I loved waking up that first morning back in good ole’ Tramp. It felt very comfortable and familiar and cosy but despite the good vibes some things just weren’t right.  The temperature outside was below freezing and there was a thick layer of frost on the windows.  The heater wasn’t working, I was seriously cold and jet-lagged and it was still dark outside.  And worst of all, Julie was almost 17,000 kilometres away.  This can’t be part of our Follow the Sun journey because all three of us aren’t together.  Instead, I’ve come to England for a couple of weeks to do some much needed work on Tramp and get him ready for our adventures in 2020.

The truth is that even though our big Ford F250 and super-duper camper are durable, reliable and exceptionally comfortable they have also been worked pretty hard during our trip around southern Africa earlier this year and the repair list was getting a bit long.  We had shipped Tramp from Durban South Africa back up to Southampton in the UK where our good mate Gavin picked him up and brought him back to Essex for a well-deserved rest. 

But to get Tramp ready for our journey from London to Vladivostok Russia next year he needed some important work done on him.  His tyres had worn down so bad in South Africa police tried (unsuccessfully) to extract a bribe from us to allow our trip to continue.  The large 18 inch rim tyre for Tramp is common in the US but completely unavailable in Africa.  Only one supplier had these specialist tyres in stock in the UK – Cooper Discoverer STT Pro, in case you care – and even though it was an aggressive mud-terrain tread rather than an all-terrain version we would have preferred we greedily grabbed six of them. 

Tramp also needed four new shock absorbers and four new sets of brake pads, none of which are available in the UK.  I had to order all these parts in the US and get them shipped to Gavin’s house where I had a local Ford dealer in the regional town of Chelmsford (The Birthplace of Radio!) to install them.  Chelmsford has a few things to offer the one day visitor, including a busy walking street lined with shops, their handsome stone cathedral dating back originally to the 13^th century, and a decent museum on the history of the radio (really!). 

But there were many other issues that needed attention.  The fans in our ceiling leaked when it rained, the diesel cooker and heater weren’t working (because we inadvertently tried to use high-sulphur diesel in South Africa), the fridge door wasn’t sealing properly, there were problems with some of our cabinetry and most famously (for us, anyway), the aluminium tray that is bolted to the chassis and holds the camper in place was still being held together by a large rachet strap, courtesy of the brutal Sani Pass in South Africa. 

On top of all that I wanted time to catch up with Gavin and Emma and enjoy some of the local attractions in rural Essex.  It was a busy two weeks!  One night we joined more than a thousand people in the local village for the annual bonfire and impressive firework display on Guy Fawkes Night.  A very English tradition, Guy Fawkes Night ‘celebrates’ his attempt to blow up Parliament way back in the 1605. 

At this time of year England is not at its best.  Winter is setting in, the temperature hovers only a couple of degrees above freezing, people are rugged up in their blues and blacks, the sky is usually grey with light breezes and occasional rain or drizzle.  The rich fertile fields are brown, having been ploughed under for their winter hibernation.  The only bright side of November in England is that most of the trees are still changing their colours.  Many of the narrow rural roads lined with high thick hedges and overhanging trees give the feeling of driving through a green, yellow and orange rainbow.  That’s nice.

Each day I had scheduled a major fix-it job which required booking Tramp in for some external work followed by numerous smaller jobs that Gavin and I could accomplish in the comfort of his enclosed courtyard.  Along with the new shocks and pads, I had the Webasto diesel cooker fixed (again) and Lester the Welder welded back together our heavy duty tray that the camper sits on.  We engineered a latch to keep the swinging door of our fridge closed, fixed some of the spinning screws in our cabinetry and Gavin cut a ring out of one of my old tyres to be used as a protective layer between the spare and the brackets that hold it in place under the truck. 

One day I went to the large regional town of Colchester, which is said to be the oldest town in Britain.  After I ran my errands I visited Colchester Castle which dates back to the 12^th century but was actually built on the grounds of a Roman complex that originates in the first century BC.  So Colchester has history and longevity cred.

And in between all this I was treated like royalty by Gavin and Emma.  Emma, who is a professional chef, cooked some beautiful meals and Gavin and I completed many tasks in his workshop with his tools, plus I got to talk endless hours about trucks, overlanding and travelling the world.  As if that wasn’t fun!

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On the last weekend of my stay with Gavin and Emma, and with Emma away at a conference, Gavin and I had time to play.  On the Saturday we took our trucks and explored Mersea Island, connected to the mainland by a causeway, and back on the mainland found a muddy track through farmers’ fields near the quaint English-sounding town of Brightlingsea down to a tidal estuary where we posed our two identical V2 campers for a once in a lifetime photo shoot.  Great fun.

 On the Sunday we headed further afield, travelling north into the neighbouring county of Suffolk with an idea to do a few short walks and take in the scenic coastline.  We visited a few of their more picturesque and historic towns and villages just inland and along the coast, including the town on Woodbridge on the Deben River, historic Orford with its medieval church and handsome hilltop castle, and the charming oceanfront town of Aldeburgh. 

At Aldeburgh we walked along the pebbly beach, admiring the old buildings that lined the shore and followed the coast to the site of the old fishing village of Slaughden which was slowly consumed over the centuries by the relentless sea and the Martello Tower, one of a hundred-odd imposing defensive towers built in the early 19^th century to defend this coast from a marauding Napoleon. 

My time in England had come to an end but not before I had completed all of the maintenance and service tasks to make Tramp fighting fit for our adventures next year.  Emma and Gavin had once again rolled out the red carpet for me and England had once again put on the grey skies and low temperatures.  Never mind, you can’t help but love this place and I look forward to coming back next year to continue our adventures.

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