We set off on 20th September to get close to Dover for an 0740 crossing the next morning. J was following me in the Aging Merc to drop it at Maddy’s on the way. He watched me leave the tarmac and flattened a cone. There had been 5; 4 had already been crushed by other vehicles. Cones had been placed there to warn drivers of the drop into the verge. To be honest, we’ve been over much worse potholes.  Enough of a drop for me to hear an almighty bang.  The automatic fuel cut-off did just that, which stopped the power steering. I struggled to get Jez back on the road and cruised gently off the road with hazards on. A visual (quick) showed no damage. YouTube told us how to reset the fuel cut-off switch. On we went.

But I could hear a noise. On arrival at Farnham Sainsburys, I got under Jez. Quickly spotted a rear tyre was rubbing on metal and slowly being shredded.  Luckily, it hadn’t blown.  I spoke to a tyre shop … the informed chap said that I sounded like a bent chassis and to call the insurance.

We waited 4 nights in Sainsburys car park for a low loader!  At least wine and ice cream readily on hand. By day 3, after hourly phone calls, we had been escalated to the insurance company’s nominated repairer’s Techical Manager.  Rick is a man with a brain who uses it. There is no point taking the moho to the standard car repair place in Portsmouth. And no point calling a low loader until a specialist repairer could be found. Greenfields in Camberley thought they might affect a repair until they saw it. At this point, Rick was talking a right off. We were totally belly punched.

A member of wildcamping.co.uk suggested Fraser Brown for a repair. He asked for pix. I asked Rick to send me the loss adjuster pix to forward on. In the meantime, Rick (the man with a brain) had been asking around and been led to Fraser Brown too.  Ageas, the insurers, have previously used a firm near Rochdale, which is somewhat closer than Inverness. But it’s all up North when you’re from Surrey Hampshire borders! 

So we’ve held various wakes thinking Jez had died and then a resurrection party.  We can’t tell you how delighted we are that Jez will be restored to us.

Having no home available to us in the UK, we planned to descend on my Aged Ps. But whilst camping in Sainsburys Farnham, I felt poorly. Tested positive.  So we ended up booking a salubrious static in sunny Selsey for a week. Incredibly poorly (static not me, I felt fine) laid out with no storage compared to a motorhome. Having thought that a some point buying a static as our UK base might be a good move, we are now totally against. Cheek by jowl … we could hear a neighbours TV as such thin walls.

We had to wait for 2 weeks for recovery and a final decision. In that time, we moved from reviewing what we might buy, UK or Greece, getting sale values on Jez to argue with insurers value, and a quick decision to continue with our trip to Morocco.  Other options, drive the Merc to Greece and lack our wounds. Then get Merc back sometime. Or rent in UK till Jez returned to us. Very expensive. I’m affected by lack of blue skies. 

So we have bought a new tent, airbeds a 2nd hand electric coolbox and gas cooker. We have all this kit already!  In Crete, which is as much use as a motorhlme with bent chassis rails.  Decision not to camp on one nighters. If it gets cold and some places just don’t have tent pitches.

We set off at 0500 from the Aged Ps house for the 0910 DFDS ferry on 3rd October. Comfortable in the premium lounge az as had a credit changing from Jez to a normal car. Two nights en route. We are now ensconced on a campsite between Cadiz and Algeciras for 3 nights. A no driving day after days of 12 hrs, 12 hrs / 1000k, and 10 hrs / 900k.  David and Karen are arriving today.