Time to head back to England while we wait to hear about the delivery date for our expedition vehicle (“Rosie”). We have a few weeks, so it is time to play tourist while we also do planning for taking possession of Rosie (lot’s of admin stuff related to exporting, importing, registration, insurance, etc etc etc).
We are taking a different ferry route back to the UK. Instead of the Belfast-Liverpool route, we are taking the Rosslare-Fishguard route. Rosslare is on the southwest coast of Ireland, closer to were we were staying, and Fishguard is on the coast of Wales, which is closer to our UK destination of Shaftesbury. Also, the ferry crossing is a lot shorter 3.5 hrs vs 8 hours.
We decided to spend the night at an Airbnb in Tacumshane, which is only a 15 minute drive to the ferry dock in Rosslare.
Tacumshane’s main claim to fame is the only surviving mill complete with all machinery in Ireland. This mill was in operation from 1845 until 1936, and is constructed largely from lumber salvaged from shipwrecks along the nearby coast. The other nice feature of the mill is that it is on the same property as the local pub.
The rain is pelting down when the Ferry reaches Fishguard, Wales and we have a 4+ hour drive to get to Shaftesbury. By the time we reach Swallow Cottage (our long term rental in England) it is dark, the rain is coming down in buckets and we are happy to drop everything on the cottage floor (including the dogs) and head to bed.
The town of Shaftesbury is only 5 minutes away from Swallow Cottage and is a really nice old village. Just big enough to warrant a Tesco grocery store and a couple of pubs, including our favourite “Ye Olde Two Brewers”.
The dogs are getting tired of seeing our faces 24/7, so we agreed to their request to spend some quality time at the local kennel. We met one of the co-owners of the kennel at the Two Brewers, and she is potty for Lump and SweetPea, so we know they will get lots of attention!
While the dogs are at the spa we are going to head to London for a few days, and then we have to travel to Schladming, Austria… it is time for a first look at Rosie! Both the chassis and the living module are at the Krug facility, but we don’t know yet if they have been put together.
We rented a chi-chi apartment in the Marylebone area of London (Heather would love this place), just a few minutes walk from the nearest tube station and only 10 minutes or so to the Kings Head pub!
Christmas is not far away and London is all decked out in it’s holiday best! Covenant Garden Market is full of tourists/shoppers and a string quartet is setting the holiday tone!
We caught an Uber boat ride (nothing to do with Uber car rides or Uber eats, don’t know how Thames Clippers manages to use the Uber name) to go up the Thames river to Greenwich. Along the way we saw a 109m superyacht docked. Turns out this boat is owned by Jerry Jones (owner of the Dallas Cowboys football team). Must be good money in US football!
We are heading to Greenwich to take a look at the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum.
The Cutty Sark, a British sailing clipper, was built in 1869 and was one of the fastest ships of its day. The first vessels back each year got the best prices for their cargo, so speed was essential.
Back in Shaftesbury and it’s time to head to the Krug facility to finally put our hands on Rosie for the first time (she has been in production in the Ukraine, and has finally been shipped to Austria). If it wasn’t for a certain megalomaniac we would have visited the production facility in the Ukraine, but not a good place for tourists right now.
A union strike is causing train disruption (I think there is strike every other week here), so we have to drive from Shaftesbury to Reading. Catch a train in Reading to Gatwick airport. Flight from Gatwick to Salzburg airport. Taxi from Salzburg airport to the Salzburg train station. Train from Salzburg to Schladming. Taxi from Schladming train station to our rental accommodation. Makes for a longish day.
The photo at the top of this post is from the window of our apartment.
Walking into the outside yard at the Krug facility in Schladming we can see expedition vehicles everywhere!
Inside one of the production buildings we finally see our living module and the Mercedes truck chassis. They still haven’t been married up yet, but we can see them at last!
Time to head back to England and pick up the dawgs. Another day of planes, trains and automobiles.
After retrieving the beasts (no worse for their time at the spa) we have a few days before Christmas, so we head off to the coast to get some beach time in for the dogs. Notice a theme here? (hint: it’s all about the dogs).
We have rented a small cottage on a farm in Burton Bradstock. The cottage comes complete with it’s own lawn mowing service (sheep for you city folk).
Burton Bradstock is a small village on the south coast of England.
It’s almost Christmas, so back to Swallow Cottage to do a little holiday decorating.
The cottage is really really tiny, and definitely no room for a tree. So a little creativity is required… remove the shade and bulb from the floor lamp, add some lights, add some decorations… instant Christmas tree!
After Christmas and it’s time to do some more tourist stuff. Heading south towards Portsmouth where I hope to see the HMS Victory. The first time we were near Portsmouth we didn’t stop in (limited vacation time). The second time we were in the area the HMS Victory was closed to visitors. So, here is hoping the third time is lucky!
On the way to Portsmouth we stop in a little (really little) place called Child Okeford. We have rented a small cottage, “Little Willow”, for a week, and it is quite the find!
A short drive to Bovington Camp gets us to “The Tank Museum”. Home to over 300 tanks from both world wars. The displays are incredibly informative and describe, in great detail, the evolution of the tank and its use in warfare.
We spent over 3 hours there and could have spent several more. In the summer months there are live tank demonstrations, so we will definitely be back!
The Naval Historical Dockyard in Portsmouth is huge. There is so much to see that we bought annual passes because we don’t have enough time to see everything on this trip. The two exhibits we are going to see are: HMS Victory (finally) and the Mary Rose (two older ships shown on the right side of the map above). The two ships we are going to visit only bring us up to the early 1800’s. We still have another couple hundred years worth of naval history to explore on a future visit!
It was a bit disappointing to walk around a corner and see… a tarpaulin covered scaffolding hiding everything of the HMS Victory except for the lower section of two masts 🙁
The rear view is a bit more interesting.
Restoration work started in 2022 and is expected to continue until 2037. We took a guided tour of the interior that was quite amazing. A very knowledgeable guide gave us a very thorough tour of Nelson’s famous ship (Google Horatio Nelson, HMS Victory, Battle of Trafalgar for more info).
This is the last post… without Rosie! All future posts (hopefully) will be about our adventures in our new expedition vehicle!