Bitton again…

Absinthe is due an MOT and service before we head to France so we’d once again booked into Knight’s Folly at Bitton for a few days.

First, though, was a trip to Huddersfield to finally take advantage of a Sleepover Auction prize donated by Tim Marsden of St Andrew’s Motors, which we’d won in May. Tim had offered a full internal and external valet by the people who prepare his own van, Ronnie, and also the cars in his showroom. We dropped Absinthe off on Friday and went back on Saturday to collect her.

What a transformation – from a dirty van to one that was gleaming in the sunshine – they’d done a great job and just in time for our trip with the Brazilianvwbay crew to the Ile de Re.

We even managed to get back across the Pennines without any rain to get her dirty – although the heavens did open later when she was parked on the drive.

We set off around 11.30am on Sunday, to drive to Bitton – there were the usual speed restrictions on the M6 and heavy roadworks traffic at the start of the M5 but we’ve had worse journeys. As we got close to Bristol there was a tremendous thunderstorm and it was still raining heavily when we got to the site around 4.30pm.

We’ve been coming to Knight’s Folly for a few years now and the site has gradually developed as Julie and Victor are constantly improving the facilities. This year there’s a lovely new shower and toilet block – I particularly liked the colour of the doors inside – can you guess why?

On Monday we were up early to drive the 20 minutes to Yate for Absinthe’s service and MOT at Danbury. Once we’d handed her over we walked back into Yate and caught the train to Gloucester to meet up with Gabbie who drove over from her house in Cheltenham.

It was great to see her and to have breakfast outside in the recently refurbished area of Gloucester docks. If you’re in the area it’s well worth a visit.

We caught the train back to Yate and walked to Danbury where we bumped into our friend (and ex-Brazilian owner) Chris, on his fantastic Triumph Thruxton. It was great to catch up (and to learn that he’d got married – massive congratulations to him and Karen). I thought I caught a glimpse in his eye that said, “I need another Kombi” – I’d say, “watch this space…”

There’s still plenty of choice for those who’d like to buy a VW T2c from Danbury, as you can see from their forecourt.

I think we’ll stick with this one though:

The MOT was passed with no advisories (hurray!) so we drove back to the site (via the fish and chip shop) and chilled at the van, before driving home on Tuesday morning. A successful weekend, ahead of this year’s big adventure to France.

Look out soon for a re-designed Blog – let’s hope I can get to grips with WordPress before we get back from our holiday…

There’s a full set of photos here: FLICKR