Good morning from Birmingham!

For many years this author has been contemplating some extended travel to Europe.  Many of my peers (and lately some of my children) spent several years of their youth disappearing overseas for the classic kiwi OE.  However for a number of reasons, in no small part relating to the aforementioned children, such an undertaking did not eventuate for me during earlier times.

Fortunately my lovely wife Anita also has a passion for travel so together we hatched a plan to do what has been referred to as “a grown-ups Combi Van tour of Europe”.  So as she sleeps, here I write to you from an altitude of around 11000m somewhere over India (of all places) en route from Auckland to London via Singapore as we embark on what is anticipated to be 18 months living abroad in Europe.

I’m sure you’re wondering why our blog is named “Adventures with Harvey”.  It’s simple really, that’s the name of our RV.  Harvey!  Let me tell you a little more about our travelling companion.  He’s a 29’ American Motorhome and for those interested in a little more detail we’re talking about a 2007 model Forest River Lexington 283 GTS, built on an Ford F450 chassis.  He’s been previously imported into the UK and had the LPG & electrical conversion.  We purchased Harvey some months ago from a very nice man in Birmingham who has been kindly looking after him until we arrive including arranging solar panels and a few other needed modifications.  Thanks a million Bob, we owe you big time and look forward to meeting you in person a few hours from now!

So this is where you’ll find blog posts and photos on a semi-regular basis going forward.  I’ll try not to bore you with uninteresting repetition (there probably will be a fair number of castles and cathedrals) however hopefully we can find a few interesting angles and vignettes along with way to keep you interested.  I am hopeful that my co-pilot for this adventure may even pick up the quill from time to time and collaborate on what will also effectively become our travel diary.

We’ll be landing at Heathrow in around 8 hours from now (approx 5.45am local time), picking up a rental car and driving it straight to Birmingham.  Bob has kindly driven Harvey to a local camp ground and will meet us there to say gidday in person, as well as give us a handover.  We expect to stay there for a few days, firstly to recover from the jetlag but also to make use of our rental car for buying provisions, groceries and generally getting ourselves set up for the adventure ahead.

That should pretty much do it for post #1, thanks for reading and we would be delighted to receive any comments or questions you may have, there’s space to do so below.

Dave