Journey - Travel out
Julia Day
Having quit my job on Thursday, and with Dave dossing on our
floor Thursday night, I wasn't worried about packing the car and
hadn't done much beyond throwing a few things into a useful box,
and packing the top-camp meals into a suitcase (of course).
However, first job of Friday was to go to the DVLA in Wimbledon to
get a tax disk for Dour. That done, and journey food bought, the
morning was waring on so a massive pile of gear was collected and
assembed next to the Tunnocks mobile. I then discovered that,
whilst an inordinate amount of noodles had safely arrived, there
was no sign of any Tunnocks bars. Disaster! Alsoa bit annoying, as
I'd confirmed sponsorship to folk almost a month ago. So I rang
Tunnocks and left a polite message inquiring about the lack of
Thomas Tunnock Ltd products. The result of this was to be told that
my e-mail confirming dates and a delivery address was never
received...oh poo. However the nice man aat Tunnocks was only a bit
grumpy and agreed to send the stuff on to another address. Sorted.
I then had a bit of a stress about the size of the shit pile.
** NEWS FLASH 8.51pm - it's gonna rain ** Hurrah!
So went upstairs to a create more gear whilst Dave organised the
stuff already by the car. Once Dave had done the hard work (well
the flat needed cleaning) it started to look OK, and we ahd a good
half an hour sitting around before Dour got home from work. Then we
were off. Made it onto the 7pm ferry and after that it was just the
occasional coffee + petrol stop. Dour drove pretty much all thru
the night. Arrived at the Pötschen Pass to find some major bike
race going on, and it was still going on in Bad Aussee, actually
quite handy as there were marshals on the silly corner to wave you
through when it was safe to go. The three of us arrived; five
minutes later Tony arrived chauffered from the station by Hilde. We
sat and festered for a bit, then got round to putting the bier tent
up. Not long afterwards, when the frame was up but far from stable
the heavens opened, and we all looked a bit silly, stood there
getting drenched whilst supporting a massive metal structure. We
got bored after a while and went over the road. Karin: "It is
funny. You are here ... and it is raining."