After six years sitting out in the English weather following our last trip (pauldanielleandtruck.wordpress.com), the truck needed a little care and attention.
The work took the best part of a year. Special thanks to the team at First Step Trust’s SMaRT garage in Crayford (firststeptrust.org.uk/) and, in particular, to their chief executive (and my very good friend) Ronnie, for their work on the truck.
When we left England on 20 December 2019, the truck was almost back to the condition it had been in at the start of our last trip in 2011 (pauldanielleandtruck.wordpress.com/the-truck/).
Our initial plan had been to ship the truck to India and then drive home. However, problems finding a shipping line that would accept the vehicle (mainly concerns about how Indian customs officials would react) led us to switch to Plan B – to drive to India and then ship the vehicle back to the UK from there.
This left us with the problem of the weather/climate. Winter is not the time to be driving through the Caucasus and central Asia. We therefore decided to spend the winter months following the southern coast of Europe before heading north and east with the Spring.
But first, after crossing the Channel, we took a break – spending the days leading up to Christmas at a very comfortable hotel in Chantilly.
Merveilleux! Je suis heureuse pour vous.