On The Road Again

Recovery from my hip surgery was much quicker than I could have hoped for. Within days I was walking more than a mile. I delivered a letter from the hospital to my local GP surgery on foot on day three. It was slow and steady going with walking poles, but never felt too much.

The only difficulty I’ve had has been putting socks on, but I have good hiking sandals and have used them to walk in. The vast amount of rain in Shap meant it necessary to stay on roads, but there are plenty of quiet options, not least the old concrete private road built originally for access to HawesWater.

I am grateful to Scott and Leigh Ann and the children who made available one of their new barn conversion apartments for two weeks immediately after the surgery, something that certainly sped up my recovery.

Roja really enjoyed spending some time with his cousin, Mac. For those first two weeks I didn’t walk the two dogs, they went out with Scott or Leigh Ann’s mum, but for the last three weeks now the dogs and I have been treading the familiar route down to Keld village, negotiating the frequent flooding, and venturing out onto the concrete. It’s has been repetitive, but there’s a few other walkers out for a stop-and-chat, and the lambs have arrived, which in spite of the weather indicated that spring has arrived.

Last week I drove the van down to south Lakes, to Witherslack where Jack, at GV Conversions who built the van, upgraded my old AGM battery to Lithium, and gave a few other things a check over. The difference in performance is considerable, charging twice as quickly, being able to store much more XX power, and providing the ability to run the battery down to 5%, as opposed previously to 55%.

I was able to get away as I had hoped therefore, on Monday, in the direction of t Harwich International Port, by way of my brother’s house in Norfolk. The last time I had seen Nick and Lou had been in December when we were both in our vans in Glyki in Greece, just before they took the boat to Italy. A stop in Norfolk worked well, as we were able to be joined by my other brother, Duncan and his wife, who brought my mum down from Carlisle. We had two very pleasant family days, mostly indoors as the late April Norfolk weather gave us 5 of 6 degrees only, with a steady drizzle.

I was away just before 5:30 am this morning, for the 90 minute journey down to the Stour estuary. I had spotted a place at Wrabness, an RSPB nature reserve, just a few miles before Harwich, where Roja could have a couple of miles out, before checking in at 7:30 am.

The ferry takes 7 hours for the crossing, and has worked out a much cheaper option than Eurotunnel, almost half the price at £107. I’m able to do this as now Roja travels on his French passport, so we don’t have to call into the vets Folkestone for an Animal Health Certificate as we have had to previously, and at an additional cost of £100 each course. It also saves the fuel from the Calais – Rotterdam drive, an additional bonus.

It had been out of Schengen on 25th January at 4:15 am, and back in, exactly 90 days later on 24th April at 5.15 pm.

I stayed in the van with Roja. I had a few things planned, a leisurely late breakfast, reading a couple of books, some podcasts, but resorted to doing them after returning to the duvet, as it was pretty cold.

The Stena Line ferry docked at the Hook on time, and from there it was just over a hundred kilometres, around the east of Rotterdam to the town of Hoogstraten, in the west of Belgium, in the province of Antwerp. I had read the Sports Centre was a good place to park up, as they often are. We arrived just before 7 pm, which was plenty of time for a couple of miles walk with Roja, and a local beer in town. The beer was brewed by the local church, which is something I’ve never heard of before. Katrien Triple, at 8.5%, originally brewed as a one off when the bar, the excellent Cafe Vrijheid, opened in 2022, but it was so popular, they have kept making it.

I’d called at two other bars, not anywhere near as good, that both didn’t welcome dogs. On the contrary here, Roja was made very welcome, with biscuits, water and plenty of attention. Discovered by fortune, it seems the best place in town for an evening beer on a dog stroll.