As we settled down for the night in a quiet, very out of the way park up we both felt an odd sensation. The place was dead calm except from one other car containing a couple who appeared to be staying the night also. I think the female counterpart of the pair was either out of her face on mushrooms or just completely bonkers as she spent every moment dancing and waving her arms wildly like one of those windsock wavy arm things outside American car sales joints. I would normally say “she was loving life” but she was way beyond that!

The daylight was creeping through the blackout blinds casting odd flickering shadows on my eyelids as feasting crows grazed outside the van. The gentle hum from the swimming pool machinery still echoing around my head. "Today is the day!" I shouted into Kerry's ear in a poetic voice, "Today we start our adventure proper!" "Why are you shouting at me at 5am and why are you talking like Shakespeare?" was all Kerry said as she rolled back over and fell back to sleep.

The journey to pick Kerry up from Clevedon was pretty much uneventful. The Google maps route suggested many traffic jams lay ahead of me but there was nothing but blissfully clear roads for the entire 180 miles! Was this a sign for the next couple of weeks? Will the roads be empty except for Kerry and I and my van? I was a fool to think that. We set off from Clevedon a bit late in the day and pretty much drove into a 300 mile traffic jam.