This morning Ady was up super early again taking photos, this time of the loch, which was very beautiful. Like a mirror, perfectly reflecting what was above. Several loads of people stopped next to us to get out and take photos. So after Popmaster we decided to do the same and all went down through the little wooded area to the loch and skimmed some stones. Mostly to see how very far the ripples travelled on such a still body of water.
We wanted fuel so the plan was to get that and then see how far we went towards Fort William until we found a suitable overnight stop again, preferably with a walk nearby. So we set off, stopped for petrol about 5 miles along the road and then within a mile Willow suddenly sputtered and died :(. We pulled over, ironically in the same area next to Loch Oich that we’d turned round in yesterday opposite a shop. After a few tries to start her were unsuccessful Ady started fretting he’d put diesel in instead of petrol as it was such a coincidence. I googled for the petrol station phone number (hurrah for smart phones!) and we rang them to check. Sure enough they were able to confirm it had been petrol so we could rule that out. That left breakdown cover as the only option really.
We actually have two sets of breakdown cover – a cheap £6 a month Asda one which is PAYG monthly and then a proper RAC motorhome one which cost loads but provides hotel accomodation and insurance for contents and so on. That has always been our last ditch plan though as I know lots of breakdown cover won’t be called out a second time for the same problem so it made sense to have a choice of two incase of something silly we’d been told to get fixed but hadn’t bothered (eg my Sharan used to not start each winter and they would advice a change of plugs and points which may not be feasible to have done on Willow but may cause a second need to call out assistance). So we went with the cheap cover for today, thinking we could always use the RAC one later this month to get us all the way back to Sussex if required.
The guy came out and initially seemed convinced it must be diesel in the petrol tank but did rule that out and now thinks it is to do with the coil. He was very lovely though and ascertained our plans for the coming week, thought about it and then came up with driving us to a layby near their workshop where we could safely park up for our two nights to sleep, then he’ll take us to the holiday cottage on Saturday, come back and collect Willow and then pick us up from the cottage when she’s fixed. What a top bloke :). He even reminded us we’d need enough food for two days so I could nip across to the shop and pick up a few essentials.
A second truck with a flat bed then came along and Willow was loaded up on the back and we all got in the cab and they dropped us off at a lovely flat layby in a nice quiet place a short walk from their workshop ‘incase you need anything’.
Of course this whole process took nearly 3 hours, was incredibly stressful, particularly for Ady 😉 and by the time we were safely installed it was nearly 3pm and we’d not had lunch and were starving. So we made cheese on toast, took a phonecall from James where Davies got to talk to Marcus and Ben (bonus!) and ate lots of chocolate and drank lots of tea to recover from all the excitement.
We did intend having a walk but it started to rain shortly after we arrived here and never stopped all afternoon so instead we stayed in the van, played some cards, the kids both did some drawing /writing in their sketch books and we all did lots of talking about short term future plans. We had decided staying in Willow until Christmas camp was probably not feasible and as Willow needs taxing at the end of November and I had a moment of desperately missing my Dad earlier today when Joyce said I was looking like him and then a white van drove past and I automatically looked to see if it was him and then realised it clearly wouldn’t be the idea of going to stay with my parents for those 3 weeks between leaving our last host and going to camp came up. Everyone agreed it would be the best idea. Scarlett can see family and friends for her birthday, we can all catch up with people, get the house on the market, swap Willow for my car, get different clothes, the kids can play with their toys and we can properly talk through all our future plans with my Mum and Dad. It will be challenging staying with them for that long I am sure, my Mum in particular is not a model hostess but it will be finite, we will have plenty of places to go and spend time away from them in Sussex.
I really don’t want our last nights in the van to be endurance tests and it is getting colder, damper, darker and increasingly difficult as the weather changes and the clocks go back. We have made our decision about where we want to be so sticking around in the interests of seeing more of the place we know we want to move back to anyway seems pointless when we could just go back to Sussex and start putting the wheels in motion to actually make it all happen. I’m feeling like this is very much the right decision, despite awareness of potential issues.
We rang my parents after dinner to tell them and they were very happy (less vocal on the subject of Lynda and Stuart and holiday cottages it has to be said ;)) so that was good :).
So tomorrow we have a day here, hopefully a walk and a last night in the van for a week before hopefully handing her over to be fixed ready to travel to Mallaig next weekend for our last WWOOFing host.
Anyway, some pics from the last two days. Check out those snow capped mountains 🙂
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