The trip up through France was much as planned, the only change of nightstop was Biarritz instead of Hendaye Plage. We wanted to have electricity where possible for heating as we had been expecting some very cold temperatures.

Typically unsecured WiFi was as hard to find as usual, hence the lack of blog updates en-route. As things turned out we were quite fortunate with the weather, only getting misty, foggy stuff from the northern half of France upwards.

Pets Passport at the Eurotunnel terminal was straightforward and they actually checked Digger's chip this time, unlike last time when we could have had any old dog with us. They even gave us a free copy of Practical Motorhome Magazine and a couple of Dog magazines too.

We've been in the UK a week now and are getting through our list of jobs while here and still waiting for the new grandchild to arrive......

I discovered 2 consequences of our last minute packing efforts:

1. I forgot a bag that contains all the various electrical chargers that we need for our various gadgets, phone, kindle, camera etc etc

2. Our road tax ran out while we were in Spain at the end of December so I dutifully renewed online and arranged with my mother-in-law to have the disc sent on from our UK address to us in Spain. It arrived and I put it to one side for our trip. I forgot it! Sod's law came into play when a motorcycle policeman spotted our out of date disc and pulled us over for a 'chat'. I explained the situation and asked him if he could check that I had paid up to date via their computer systems these days? Apparently not - so he took my details and has reported me to the DVLA...... Oh well!

One new tyre for the van - £161... Ouch! The fitters kindly greased the Al-Ko chassis rear axle while it was up on jacks though, so that was helpful. AutoGlass came out and re-sealed the top edge of the windscreen that had started to let the rain in, so hopefully that will be the end of that. I've had our local sign-writer make up some Club Motorhome logo graphics which have now been applied to the front, sides and rear of the van

Come and say Hi if you see us about 

We're route planning for our next trip which is mostly on familiar ground between Valencia and Norfolk in England.

It's an exciting trip as we plan to arrive around the time our fifth grandchild is born.

We have a vets appointment booked for next week so that Digger gets his annual rabies shot and anything else he needs before entering the UK.

So all that's left is to finalise our route. Its not a great time of year to be travelling up through France and we expect that we will find water taps turned off where frost is a problem but we'll manage.

We're going to take a couple of weeks en-route using some coastal wildcamping for a few days to make the most of the sunshine before actually heading north.

Our first stop will be a campsite that we used last time on the way down at Huesca in northern Spain, we have to time it right as they only open at weekends at this time of year. From there we'll head around the Pyrenees (likely to be too icy and snowy to consider going over the top) and into the Aire at Hendaye Plage. Next is a short hop north to Mimizan Plage where we'll hang around a few days if the weather is kind.

There's a handy little village called Chaunay for our next stop where there is official paking in the centre, even has free electricity - or at least it did last time we were there a couple of years ago.

Next stop on our provisional list is Brezolles where we will have an appointment for Digger to receive the relevant meds to keep Customs happy.

Our last planned stop is Le Crotoy where we'll probably just stay one night before our prebooked crossing via Eurotunnel.

So that's it, all very changeable between now and then or even while we travel. Isn't that just the greatest thing about motorhoming?