Pre-trip Difficulties

Before we got as far as departing on our trip, a number of…challenges confronted us.  Trying to get our small pets looked after at this time of year seemed very unlikely until, after two weeks of frantic searching, a couple of Hub's colleagues stepped in.  Nina and Ruth-Anne, you are lifesavers! 

Our next challenge was the van awning. Having done weeks of research, the boy chose the one he wanted and proceeded to search for sellers online.  Him being him chose a crazy expensive awning/tent and didn’t want to pay full price for it. So, cue eBay…  he manages to buy the full awning for a fraction of the cost.  He is a happy bunny.  However, as is often the case when you buy things in parts, when it came to putting the tent together things weren’t so simple.  The canvas didn’t stretch over the poles enough to get everything fixed in. The telescopic bracing poles for the inside weren’t so telescopic.  And the top flysheet with the connection to the van was completely missing.  With a week to go till our departure I was not very hopeful that we’d get all the right parts in time.  Suggestions along the lines of ‘making do with bamboo and duct tape’ did not go down well… 

Funnily enough the awning is manufactured in Denmark so he arranged to collect what we needed on route.  I discovered the internal poles were telescopic after all.  We just needed the flysheet to cover the tent and connect to the van.  Problem solved… 

With all that sorted out, we looked to be in good shape for departure on the Friday evening.  The girls were finishing at school at noon; the Hub would work until the same sort of time.  We would head straight off with seven or eight hours to get to Kristiansand and grab some pre-ferry dinner.  However, it was not to be!  

Late afternoon on the Wednesday evening the Hub had a text from Fjordline...due to technical difficulties, our ferry had been cancelled.  Aaaargh!!!  I was beginning to feel that the holiday was doomed!  Having heard nothing more from Fjordline the next morning, he got in touch and discovered we needed to rebook at a much earlier time of day.  Leaving on the Saturday wasn’t an option as it would knock all our plans out of place, so we opted to leave earlier on the Friday.  Which meant taking the girls out of school and them having three less hours with some friends who were leaving Stavanger.  Cue tears, drama, etc.  But at least it would give us more time at the other end to drive to our hotel.  There’s always a silver lining, after all...