The Xmas trip was supposed to be a way for me to dip my toe into the water before committing to the rally. Fruit had other ideas. He can be very persuasive and somehow managed to convince me of the benefits of entering the rally BEFORE we had been on the trip! He probably slipped that it while we were frantically converting the Rat to a camper van.
What started off as being a bare basics conversion gradually transformed into something of a work of art; fully lined, artwork on the window panels, a ‘double’ bed, folding table, food cupboard, solar panel, reading lights (I kid you not), over bed shelf and of course water storage and cooker. Well, it was to be home for two weeks.
Testing the kettle
In addition to that lot we had a jerry can on the back, a high lift jack, sand ramps, shovel, a box full of spares, tool box, two spare wheels (largely used for sitting on at the table as we didn’t run to garden chairs), sleeping bags, pillows and clothes for the trip – precision packing at its best - especially without a roof rack.
The original plan had been to both go from home to Spain (Calpe) in the Landy and then onto the port before heading to Morocco – but as I have less holiday, Fruit gamely volunteered to drive to Spain and pick me up from the airport a few days later. Fruit had a few reliability issues and I began to look up the location of Land Rover dealers in advance of his journey – but after 2 tow trucks, 3 garages and 6 bottles of coke he eventually made it to the rented apartment in Spain – only to find that the keys for the apartment didn’t fit the door – where would we be without mobile phones?
A little maintenance later and a trip to the airport to collect me and we were ready for the next stretch – down to the port and our first night together in the Landy. Fruit, of course, had to sleep diagonally and if I curled up it worked out nicely – although we did have to coordinate rolling over.
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