And so it begins..

 ... the packing that is!

With just 3 days till departure, I've finally got around to doing some packing. Normally I'd leave it later than this but having only been in the new house 5 weeks, this isn't normally, because there are things I would normally take with me, which I have no idea where they are. Even though most boxes have been unpacked, there have been so many occasions in the last 5 weeks where I've said, "I've seen that somewhere but where?" As the day has progressed though, I've managed to pull things together and I reckon I have everything I want/need to take with me now. Well, almost!

I've been adding our destinations to my weather app on the phone today and checking what we can expect. Today, in several of those destinations, it's mid 30s. It looks like being fairly warm the whole time we are away but it also looks like the highish temperatures are going to bring some thunderstorms, so we are going to get wet at some point during our travels, almost certainly. The problem with warm temperatures and thunderstorms, is that you end up sweating buckets inside your waterproofs, to the point where you are almost as wet inside as out! The gods would be smiling on us if we avoid any rain. Once we get down to Aragon, Alcaniz, where the race circuit is, looks to be dry for the weekend and mid 20s. Fingers crossed.

With the announcement that the late Queen Elizabeth's funeral is to be Monday 19th, we shall obviously miss it, as we aren't due back in blighty until Wednesday 21st. I expect we'll be able to catch up with events on French TV Monday evening though. It's probably for the best I'm away anyway, as the older I get, the more emotional I become, so watching the gun carriage with the coffin on it, would almost certainly have me in tears. I'm just a big old softie 😉

Ginny is all prep'd ready to go. I've fitted my Tomtom mount, checked the tyre pressures again and loaded the coolant and oil into the top box, in case they are required along the way. If the temperatures are going to be high, it will be interesting to see if Ginny overheats again. Grizzly's mate Fox reckons she wasn't refilled properly at her 24k service and that's the cause of the overheating I experienced in Italy. She'll be due the 30k service when I get back, so we'll have to see what happens over the coming week. I plan on getting them to redo the coolant at the service anyway. She'd never had a problem in 4 years, so Fox's theory is a good one, for sure.

We are on the 08:50 train on Wednesday and have to check in by 08:05, so I'm planning on leaving home at 07:00. The ride down's about the same duration as it was from Chatham, 45 minutes and I'm not planning on a fuel stop on the way down, as we have done in the past. Ginny should be good to go to the first French fuel stop, or at least I hope she will be.

Right, that's all for now. Next update will most likely be at a stop on the way down through France on Wednesday. Till then.

Adieu