time to catch up... eek!

So long time no blog my blogger friends :) I had great hopes to travel & blog at the same time but it didn't work out like that. Firstly after we sold up & left our house we had two deaths in the family, that meant our plans got delayed for a couple of months so we spent some time in the UK living in the van. Then once we were travelling I either wasn't near Wifi very often or had no battery left on the laptop. So now we are back in the UK for a couple of months living in the van still but more often near WiFi & we have just hooked up a solar panel so can charge the laptop even when we are not driving. Anyway I did write a diary every day so can kind of catch up here although I know it is not the same as doing it as I go along. Maybe next time that will happen, I do hope so as I think it would make for interesting reading & informative for anyone travelling in the same places.

August 2010: When we first left the house we went & parked up for a couple of weeks on the Ridgeway path at the Sanctuary near Avebury in Wiltshire. There are often other van dwellers up there especially at weekends & we were lucky enough to make a couple of great contacts whilst we were there. We met a guy from Amsterdam who told us where we could park when we visited there which was really handy as despite the Dutch's relaxed laws on drugs & prostitution it is illegal to sleep/live in a vehicle unless you are at a proper campsite! We also met a lady who spends 6 months of the year in Spain who gave us some tips on places to go & places to park up. This was really handy & proved to be a godsend as the places she told us about where good & we made many new friends there & learnt of other places to park up from there :)

And now for some pictures...

Sunset on the Ridgeway

Ripe corn

Spindle tree

Tortiseshell butteryfly

Common blue butteryfly

September 2010: Even though we've only been living in the van for a few weeks I am already reading more & learning more about the plants & wildlife around me, it's great :) Also taking lots of photographs so here's a few more...

Caen locks in Devizes

Wayland's Smithy

Park up on the Ridgeway

Fly Agaric mushroom

October 2010: There are mushrooms everywhere at the moment! How I have missed them before I don't know. Maybe living on the road & being out in nature more has made me more aware. I found a mushroom book in the charity shop in Marlborough so am learning to identify them. Some I am not sure about though as there are so many similar ones. We found some puffball mushrooms in a field off the Ridgeway & collected enough to add to our pasta for dinner which was great :)

And now for some fungi pictures...

This is a type of Boletus, I think it is edible as most Boletus's are but we didn't try it!

Another Fly Agaric, definatly not for eating!

Razor Strop fungus

Another Boletus

A dragonfly that landed nearby as we were inspecting mushrooms :)

We headed off from the Ridgeway to the Stevenage area to say goodbye to friends & family. Whilst we were there we took in some of the countryside. I love living in the van, I have felt every moment of the summer turning to Autumn. It would be nice if the police didn't insist on knocking on our van late at night just to ask us what we are doing!