Overland with Kids

Jessica says “I got nipped by a crab.”

AJ says “I would like to live in a desert so I can have peace and quiet.”

We finally left our Helpx in Lomtsi village and said our sad farewells to Andy, Sheleen, the goats, the chickens and the dogs following about 25 nights stay (including our 2 day trip to Veliko Turnovo). We were packed off with an especially cooked farewell meal, a huge bag of walnuts (an every day produce of the the area), a bottle of Rakia (again normal alcoholic produce from the abundant fruit trees everywhere), some chocolates and a lovely poem by Sheleen as leaving gifts. We were also given a big jar of honey from Andy and Sheleen’s lovely neighbours Pepa and Boyanne AKA the owners of the bees responsible for stinging Jessica! Sheleen gave Jessica a lovely silver dolphin ring and Caroline (Sheleen’s brother Drew’s girlfriend) provided 3 homemade special wooden stones marked for strength, protection, journey. Caroline is a singer, has made an album and kindly gave us one of her signed cd copies as a gift to listen to. Andy gave AJ a brilliantly real and dangerous looking toy gun.  AJ was beside himself with joy but soon wanted to know why Andy couldn’t give his dad his real one so he could then pass it on to him to use. Sometimes - being arrested does cross our minds!

We still haven’t actually left Bulgaria but we have started moving and are inching our way slowly and southward along the coastline. We are currently in Sozopol, just below Burgas - aiming to reach the border into Istanbul, Turkey anytime soon.

The town of Sozopol is very pretty and refined - lots of expensive boats in the crystal clear harbour. One side consists of an ancient medieval city - full of beautiful old wooden constructed and boarded houses plus the remnants of an old walled fortress. The other side is pretty much the new town with lots of swish apartments and hotels. There are two small beaches one of which is currently our garden - we are parked just a stone’s throw away and we could camp on the sand if we liked - but, it being so soft and us being too lazy to deflate our tyres, our weighty vehicles are residing as near as we can get them.

Following two days of blistering heat and sunshine, an horrendous rain storm struck with the loudest thunder and cracking lightning we’ve ever experienced. We were glad of our laziness about deflating our vehicle tyres as we had visions of being stuck on the sand, wet and soggy and eventually with big roaring waves coming to get us.

We’re back to our outdoor cooking again in all weathers and Andrew has been experimenting with his Diablo - a small Spanish gadget you can make small toasties in by holding it over a flame. Andrew is very pleased with it and his toastie creations so far are very good.

Education

Jess - Sorting living things out (identifying animal and plant groups ie invertebrates and vertebrates, flowering and non-flowering and the differing groups within these). Using keys to unlock and sort and writing answers to general questions. Looking at living things in their environment (ie habitat, food web, food chains, places to live, animal adaptation and environment). Answer exercise. How to use a compass to draw flowers. Forces and motion (push and pull), friction and air resistance, gravity and opposite forces. Answer exercise. Long division and multiplication. Reading Horrid Henry and The Abonimable Snowman.

AJ - Spellings re: days of the week (finally got there after endless attempts). Several reading comprehension exercises, fact finding and answering written questions relating to various story passages. Maths adding and subtraction exercises. The body - bones and muscles and their functions - answering written questions. A little about sinking and floating and identifying which things do and don’t.

Just for Fun

Both - searching for crabs, dead crabs claws and plentiful jelly fish in Sozopol

AJ spent much of the week inside a huge barrel in the garden of Andy and Sheleen’s which he turned into his ’stick shop’ for the benefit of the dogs to come and grab.

As part of a good-bye present, Jess designed a picture for Andy and Sheleen’s chicken shed door - consisting a nice big tree, Henry the rooster, one of his chickens, a baby chick plus a lovely big sun and a sun flower. We transferred it to the door from Jessica’s drawing using chalk and added a storks nest, the goats and a rainbow trying to keep it as true as possible to how Jess had originally designed it - then Jess got bored of it and left mum (Anne) to paint it while she went off and played. AJ came to help paint for a little while, then he got bored and went off back to play in his ’stick shop’. Anne enjoyed her painting project!

Andrew and Andy got to play with the LR winch several times - anything from pulling out concrete posts to pulling Andy and Sheleen’s friends Ian and Ann’s motorhome out of being stuck fast in the mud - bless! his was following another major thunder and lightning storm (we’ve seen lots since we’ve been here!). Andy and Andrew also had the task of cutting Mary the goat’s toenails - a funny sight - while AJ tried to have a go at milking Mary - poor Mary!

Mileage

3,833 miles

On the Road Expenses

6,684.00 Euros for 58 nights including 2,792.00 Euros (paid before we left UK) for forthcoming leg re: Russia (3-month multiple entry representing 50% of overall visa costs), Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China visas for all of us.

Approx breakdown is as follows:

Diesel 1,008.00, Campsites/Hotel 764.00, Food & Drink 1,063.00, Visas 2,792.00, Other (incl. all ferries/site fees/toys/shoes/gifts/coleman stove fuel, road tax/vignette, cigarettes etc.) 1057.00

Vehicles

Caravan - no issues. LR - alternator fault fixed 25 Euros and now using as spare. LR running very smoothly. Only issue now is our brake/reverse light fuse keeps blowing.

Other

Out of our 58 nights so far (and adding the remainder of May), we have spent an overall month in Bulgaria with the largest part consisting almost 3.5 weeks Helpx which helped keep our costs down as well as being a brilliant and very positive experience for us all. The remainder consists 26 nights on campsites, 2 nights hotel, 3 nights rough, 1 night travelling and 3 nights homestay.

Next planned location

Currently heading the wrong way toward Russia!

Bye for now!

Lots of love

A, A, J and AJ

xxxx

Diary (Blog)