Festivals, Fuel Tanks and Ferries.

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After Wimbledon we set off the next day for the world famous Glastonbury Music and Arts festival. The festival takes place on a working dairy farm, a little way out of Glastonbury. The music spans over almost 4 days and multiple stages but the festival actually goes a day or so either side. It would have to be one of if not the largest music festival in the world.


We arrived alongside the thousands of other people after several hours queing in traffic, for tickets and for inspections for glass. Finally got into the jam packed campervan area to be welcomed to the typical Glastonbury weather of pissing rain. We managed to get Karen's tent up and covered with extra rain protection and were suitably soaked. After a big day yesterday at the tennis we decided not to trudge into the festival site saving ourselves for the next day.


The next three days were a blast. We got to see so many top class bands and just wander around soaking up the atmosphere. Day 1 was typical Glasto with everyone donning the gum boots and sloshing around the paddocks. However the skies were relatively kind for the following two days giving some pretty amazing weather for over here and becoming almost completely dry!


It was time to fight our way out on Monday morning, feeling very tired and very dirty. The traffic wasn't as bad as expected and we got back to London safely by early afternoon.


We were supposed to catch the ferry on the Wednesday but decided to change our booking due to a list of things we needed to sort out.


First on the list was our still leaking fuel tank which we had decided we probably should get fixed rather than only ever filling the van to under half! The problem was knowing where to book the van in, and after trying some VW specialists (who were all booked out) we were at a bit of a loss as to our next move.


Luckily our 'stoner' neighbour at the caravan park, Lee, had just got a heap of repairs to his motorhome at a mates and so after ringing around to find the correct replacement tank ourselves (with much confusion) it was all sorted by Friday afternoon.


We even managed to see some of London's sites while we waited for the van, wandering into see the London Eye, Big Ben, West Minster Abbey and Downing Street.


We finally escaped the hustle and bustle of London on the Saturday morning shooting down to the ever so popular seaside town of Brighton. After parking up on the boulevard we explored the seaside fair and the famous Brighton Pier as well as the out of place Royal Pavillion. Brighton is a bit like Blackpool except less tacky, less run down and generally a lot nicer. Hence it was loads more busy and especially so as the weather was divine. The fish and chips were also marginally better!


Bumped into our friend Lee again who had recommended parking along the seaside which is ok with the locals with only the parking fee during the day to pay.


We decided we had seen what Brighton had to offer in one day so headed East on our way to Dover.


Our next major stop was the village of Battle, gaining it's name after the histroically significant Battle of Hastings in 1066. There was an interesting museum and guided walk around the field where William The Conquerer and the Normans won the epic battle for the crown of England. There is also the ruins of the memorial abbey and we even managed to see some falconry although the weather by now was abysmal and these limited the display.


We finally visited the Boadian castle before finding a secluded caravan site for the night overlooking the castle.


Next morning we drove onwards to Dover, stoping in Folkstone to finally sort out our bank stuff for travelling in Europe, it's so hard to get anything done with the bank!


Drove the short distance to Dover, checking out the White Cliffs very quickly as the weather had only got worse by now, hopefully the ferry tomorrow won't be too bad. Continued up the coast to Deal checking out its castle and bizarre Time Ball Tower.
Finally made it up to the quaint town of Sandwich, yes, the origin of the sandwich. Found a nice caravan park here to stay the night, which even had wifi internet at a reasonable price (hence the bombardment of travelblogs).


Next morning was our D-day, the ferry leaving for France at 1.50pm. Look out Europe...here we come.

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Photos

Battle
surveying the historic battlegrounds