Overland with Kids

Our time in Bulgaria has whizzed by in a flash. Three weeks feels like 3 days. We are still here and succumbed (with our arms tied behind our back and begging not to go and look) to viewing properties about the place in all shapes and sizes this week. Virtually all are tumble down wrecks with mud brick walls and no roofs in the country side. All have very overgrown and neglected gardens or land from having being left standing empty for so long. These factors haven’t put us off in any way. Our romance with the place is still going strong. Just the finance and the timing are the stumbling blocks. Many young Bulgarian people prefer the cities to the countryside and once their parents or grandparents have deceased or left their homes, their offspring tend to want to sell up these types of country homes quickly. We looked at lots of properties and in our minds, one property in partcicular grabbed us - we have it decorated, renovated and have moved in already - oh and we have our own business operating out of the barn - to have some spare Leva or Euros kicking about would be great. There are many English people here - Dutch and Belgians also. We were told that in many villages - there is a rule of thumb that 80% of the properties are owned by English/foreign European people. Many will buy and renovate and live permanently, some will use as holiday homes (affectionately called ‘part-timers’), others will simply buy to sit on the property and leave empty either as an investment or because they can’t afford to do up currently. Many have noticed the changes in Bulgaria in the past 3-5 years - English speaking is becoming more commonplace and there are supermarkets and improvements everywhere.

Alas, or maybe thank God - our passports have arrived back with the visas we need safely enclosed and we are now ready for the next leg of our trip.

We had a nice surprise today as Gary, one of our friends from the UK, stopped by and is staying with us for the night. We met back in the UK about 18 months ago. He and his girlfriend Claire left for Australia in their Land Rover last year and are now homeward bound. Andy and Sheleen’s friends, Ian and Anne also arrived from the UK so a wee little party was had. Such a tough life!

The children are well - AJ resembles a chimney sweep most days - so black with the dirt from all his antics - yesterday playing with Mary the goat and managing to get his ankles tied up in her rope and being nearly dragged off. He got a bit of a fright. Today, he has been building - using real bricks and water mixed with sand and grass. Jessica has been analysing fireflys and covering her head like a hoodie should a bee happen to be in the vicinity. Otherwise her socks are the filthiest in the world from walking around without shoes on.

Andrew has been busy with anything wood and Anne some weeding, cleaning windows and a little house-keeping. All is good. Weather - glorious to a bit chilly - still very changeable.

Education

We had a good first half of the week with a slack end to it in terms of school work as follows:

Both - longitude and latitude, looking at the world map and how it is divided up into scale, looking at mapping co-ordinates and grid system. Playing shop using Euros for money,  using a calculator, pricing items for their shop to buy from each other and working out change. Playing Happy Families with cards. Watching the History Channel ‘Beyond Narnia’.

Jessica - lots of long multiplication and division. Spellings. Scaled plan of Andy and Sheleen’s house and garden, plant life including pollination, fertilisation, about flowers (male and female parts) and the bee’s role, reading, fact finding and answering 25 questions on the subject. Drawing a design for the chicken shed door.  Crossword.

AJ - Addition and subtraction sums. Division using sweets to help. Spelling (still struggling with days of the week). We are struggling a bit to keep AJ’s concentration due to all the much better fun things he can be doing - like play, play and more play. We have to start getting good at some bribes, blackmail and other means of concentration.

Vehicle Issues

Handy Andy our host kindly fixed or vehicle fuel starvation problem with the help of some advice from their English neighbours. The result was to blow the tube inside the fuel tank with a compressor which seemed to fix the problem. Meantime, Andy took our old alternator to the local garage for a minor repair and we await it’s return to use as a spare part, while also making and welding some strong support frames for caravan to help stability and keep weight off tyres while stationary.

On the Road Costs

Compared to last week, pretty much neglible - about +35 Euros. But, what we haven’t added as yet is the cost outlay we made before we left the UK for our visas for Russia (3 month multiple entry), Kazahstan (30 day), Mongolia (30 day) and China (double entry for 2 x 30 day periods). Total cost - £2,400 (£600 each). We’ll factor this into the next cost update we make as these should be part of on the road costs rather than a pre-trip expense which is where we have budgeted this currently. But this bumps the real daily cost we have been previously recording in our previous updates.

Next Planned Location

Bulgaria for just a ……….few………….. more ……………………days……………..

Bye for now!

Lots of love

A, A, J and AJ

xxxx

Diary (Blog)