Sunday 20/09/20
Well, we've been in the UK just over two months now and it has been a busy time. We spent the first week in the campsite near Charmaine although, as no visitors were allowed in the camp, we had to resort to having picnics in the local area.
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| Bokkie basking in the UK summer sun |
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| Sushi in a nearby park |
From there we had an old Labrador to look after in Chellwood Gate alongside the Ashwood Forest in East Sussex while the owners holidayed in Spain. We then travelled up to visit Ettienne & Debbi in Coventry where we tackled Bokkies front suspension, one of many jobs I had lined up. The Fiat Ducato suspensions take a pounding when loaded with motorhome bodies and Bokkie's was due for replacement. It was a heavy job for which I needed Ettienne's help and he had some of the tools we required.
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| Walking Benji in Ashdown forest |
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| The tired old front suspension |
Our next sit was another Labrador, a young Australian Labradoodle and a 15-year old goldfish in Laughton near Lewes. One of the issues with the type of rural property we tend to choose for our sits is that they often have low beams and doorways. I spent quite a lot of the time with mild concussion, seemingly unable remember to duck every time. I can understand why our forefathers left England all those years ago - they wanted more modern places to live to avoid knocking themselves senseless the whole time!
Nevertheless, it was a lovely house and we fell in love with Bear, the Labradoodle and enjoyed some lovely walks in the neighbouring forest.
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| Monty and the adorable Bear |
We then had a short stay in the campsite again before heading back to Coventry to sit Ettienne & Debbi's lovely cats while they went to Scotland. We had Bokkie's MOT booked in Coventry and had a few final jobs to complete before this.
Unfortunately this was all dealt a blow when, while stopped for a break on the way up, a truck tore off Bokkies mirror and smashed the windscreen, rendering her undriveable. We had the distressing job of grabbing as many of our belongings as we could fit into Ettienne's car and watching Bokkie get hoisted on a recovery truck and taken away from us. We felt quite lost.
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Beloved Bokkie, mistreated by a truck
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A sad sight
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| The lovely Desmond and Nelson |
We were given a small rental car by our insurance agency and promised Bokkie would be repaired as soon as possible, but it felt really wrong not to have her parked outside. What followed was four weeks of begging, pleading and pushing to get the repairs completed. In the meantime we also completed sitting two Cockerpoos and five cats in Wicken and spent a week helping Charmaine move into her new home in Baldock. It was all action!
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| Benson & Pebbles, happy to sleep on the owners' bed |
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| Feeding time with five cats is a military operation |
We are currently near Pewsey in a 17th century cottage (more knocking of my head...) looking after two cats and a delightful Welsh Pony called Meg. Bokkie arrived back two days ago so I have been tackling the outstanding jobs to try and get her through the rescheduled MOT on Thursday. She's stuck on three wheels at the moment as one of the seals for the rear wheel bearings is the wrong size so I need to get a replacement before I can replace it. I've replaced the rear shock absorbers as well so we are looking forward to driving her again on her all-new suspension.
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| We're both in love with Meg |
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Jasper the British Shorthair looks much grumpier than he is
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| The gigantic Rolo |
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| Jasper's happy face |
When we're done here we will spend another week with Charmaine, helping with the final setting up of her new home and garden before we head back off across the channel. Brittany is calling and we're set to look after French Jasper and Jess until after Christmas. Our UK summer tour has certainly been far more eventful than we've planned!
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Lovely views of the Alton Barnes white horse from the house-sit
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| Bokkie, happily back in our care |
