Julian and Thomas

So, I've caught up to "now". This means that you will get treated to a slightly slower blog rate, but also some more general blog updates.

I do, however, just want to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading, and for commenting and making me feel like I am writing something interesting. It makes it much better to know that people out there are enjoying what I am writing. So thank you.

This is a mix of a "what have I just done" update and a general one.

Ever since the first thoughts about moving to Bulgaria one of the main questions (apart from "which house are we going to buy") has been "how will we get there?"

One of the obvious methods is to get a container. This is what one of my best mates did when he emigrated to Australia however, to me, it seemed to be a bit over the top; I am not thinking of taking too much stuff, almost no furniture, and I was struggling to work out how to fill a full container, or even a half one.

What most people seem to do is drive themselves there and you can read many examples of people having done this by using google. The blogs to the right of this post (three at the time of writing) were all written by people who drove themselves there.

Considering this sounds like an adventure in and of itself this quickly became my preferred method of getting there and I started thinking about what I would drive over. All these thoughts took place last year which some people may think is way too soon to start thinking about buying a vehicle for emigrating 18 months later however I had put some thought to this.

By buying a vehicle early I am getting to use it a lot and getting to know how to drive it. Also, hopefully, any major issues will become apparent before I am hauling my life across Europe and I will be able to get them fixed and have a reliable vehicle for the long trip.

I decided to buy myself a pick up truck, roof box and a trailer with the aim of fitting everything I was taking into this vehicle. I bought a Mitsubushi L200 which I have called Thomas and have been driving as my main vehicle for the last six months. So far *crossing fingers* there have been no problems at all with him and he has proved himself with several long trips the length and breadth of England.

Thomas the Tank

Using the power of eBay I was able to find an excellent trailer which I used to move myself from Blackpool to Oldham and I also found a perfect roof box which is long and narrow and has left space on the roof bars for two bike rack attachments so I am able to take both my mountain bikes.

The trailer, pre welding

After the experience of moving with the trailer it occurred to me that I could do with having various emergency items easily at hand and so I went back to eBay and bought myself a job lot of Laycorn boxes. These are lighweight army boxes which are front loading and I was planning on mounting the four of them to the front of the trailer and putting the first aid kit, jump start kit and pump and other tools in them. Now we come to the "what's happening now" because just yesterday I collected my trailer from the welder who had attached the struts to the front of it to hold the boxes. I am now thinking I may only put two on the trailer.

The shelf for the Laycorn boxes

When I broke up with my girlfriend who I was planning on emigrating with I decided that driving all that way on my own was a bad plan and made a snap decision to buy a camper van and ask someone to drive over with me. This was Pierre, a right hand drive Renault high top conversion. It is true what they say; buy in haste, repent in leisure. Having thought about it for a little while I realised that I should have bought a left hand drive vehicle.

Pierre

So this week I have bought Julian, a left hand drive Toyota Hilux which, I think, is a better option than Pierre in all regards; there is much more space in him, for one thing, and the left hand drive means that when I get to Bulgaria I can continue to use him for touring, or let other locals borrow him in return for favours.

Julian the camp-er Van

My parents have agreed to drive with me, which is a fantastic thing as it means they will be a bit more involved in the whole process, and I will get to show them where I am going.

So my plan is to drive these two vehicle the 2300 miles to my School with all my wordly belongings strapped to the top, back and sides of Thomas and the trailer, and to live in Julian on the journey, and for the first few weeks/months in Bulgaria.