In the beginng

The time since your intrepid reporter last wrote in October last year has been spent making feverish preparation for what promises if nothing else to be a memorable walkabout.The Skylark has ,since she left the U.S. has had her gas guzzling 6.8 v10 engine converted to run on lpg and her huge batterys are now charged with solar power largely eliminating the use of the on board generator.Her emissions are now so clean that when started butterflys and bunny rabbits gather round her exaust pipe and lpg being half the price of petrol leaves the bank manager feeling a little less suicidal than when I first revealed my intention to stop working and become a bum to him .Finances which will hopefully be enough stop me starving or pushing have been secured and a suprising number of publications have expressed an intrest in paying modest fees for reports of my exploits. Those of you who followed my original exploits in the U.S. may remember how I was broken hearted when forced to abandon my ever faithfull and super reliable Lill Suzy jeep in Conneticut,the shipping cost to bring her along far outweighing her financial if not her emotional worth...She has since been risen in Croydon like a phoenix from the ashes in a shower of metal sparks ,grease and oil and after many hours of my cutting bolting welding and grinding,her replacement is even though I say so myself better suited than ever for the task set before her and she looks pretty sweet to boot.
I had planned on making the journey alone from start to finish ,pilots on the whole being a friendly, helpfull and approachable bunch but upon hearing of my plans a motley crew of sky tramps of various experience elect to join me for the opening stretch of the journey,which will obviously ease the initial financial burden,give me a rest from all the driving and provide excellent company to boot. While still making final preps in dry dock my first two shipmates Joe and Nicky turn up.We have an 8 o’clock ferry at Dover to catch and I have lost 2 of the nuts that hold Lill Suzys towgear in place...without them we are going nowhere and frantic rushing around to replace them reveals that the Americans are still using imperial threads and they are almost impossible to find outside a specialist shop I use for fastners which is closed on Saturdays.The first of what will no doubt many improvised alternatives of the journey with no end is made with copious amounts of the ever usefull duct tape, we weigh anchor and leave port(or reverse out of the yard if you like) with barely enough time to make our deadline.We arrive with 15 minuites to spare and realise why we are at the front of the ferry que when we watch it pull out without us on board, check the paperwork we have been given and see we have a fun filled 2 hour wait for the 10 o’clock sailing...oh joy of joys...ferry port coffee and overpriced sandwiches for tea.We make an uneventfull but beer soaked crossing to Dunkirk,drive for a couple of hours and spend our first night at a truckstop on the French motorway.