Hello England, we've missed you.

Having found our boat and agreed a price in double quick time we then had to wait a week before we handed over the cheque and signed a bill of sale. The seller can only get there at weekends so we’ve now got another week waiting for the cheque to clear until we get possession.

Yes, we know. Some bloke we hardly know has now got all our money and the keys to our boat. However, Ann-Marie did a super job compiling the paperwork, we got it witnessed and we know where he lives.

We know you’re all waiting with baited breath, so here’s some photos of the inside. Click to enlarge them.

Our time has not been wasted though; we got our little van back from its barn, gave it a service and checked it all over. It’s booked in for an MOT next Tuesday.

We also went up to Chesterfield for a couple of nights with Anne. While we were there we went mining in her walk-in wardrobe where what’s left of our stuff is, and came out with a bag full of winter clothes, just as spring arrived. Best of all we got to see our mates Ian & Annie. Now all we have to do is find our kids…

The latest news on Ken, our big camper, is that he’s alive and well and living in a lock-up in Boston. Steve, the bloke who fixed it after we went abroad, has himself gone on holiday, resulting in us squatting in various people’s houses for a week and borrowing Ann-Marie’s mum’s car. Steve is now back and we can pick Ken up on Monday. Hurrah!

On Saturday, when we handed over the cheque, we had a little test drive in Legend. We went down to the Cow Roast water point, filled the water tank, backed it to a winding hole, turned it around and moored it back where it was, pointing the other way. Not the world’s greatest adventure, but enough to see that everything was working OK.

As we were tying up, Adrian & Ellie came along to see our new home and witness the grand signing. These two are friends of ours from 2CVGB. They reckon that our travels inspired them to pack up and wander off, but they’re the sort of people who would have done it sooner or later anyway. We had a fine lunch with them and Mat, another Citroen-ist, out in the sunshine at the nearest pub.

In the afternoon we had a walk down the towpath to Berkhamstead then a recce further up the cut in the car, looking for a convenient tranship point for when we move all our stuff on board. The BW yard at Tring looked good, but then further investigation turned up a public car park right on the towpath near Marsworth. That’s about 5 miles and 9 locks from where we are now. Perfect. we'll get up there next weekend and hire a Transit to move everything the following Tuesday.

So this week we will be mostly re-uniting our camper vans with the tarmac. As soon as we get Ken back he’s going up for sale, but we’re going to keep hold of Poubelle until after the International Meeting of 2CV Friends in Salbris, France. After that, sadly we’re going to have to sell her. It’s going to be a wrench, Dave’s had that van for 16 years. He’ll just have to console himself with Legend’s engine room instead.