Contingency Planning

We do have concerns about whether the van is going to be up to the starting block on time. I don't doubt the old girl's ability to get us round, in small, gently coaxed increments but it seems the forgone conclusion of an MOT certificate isn't quite so forgone. I'm hoping this is Doom Mongering Mechanic rather than a true fact and keeping fingers firmly crossed that once we get Willow back from DMM we can pass her along to Happily Bodging Mechanic and he will get it through and sorted. My car once 'barely scraped through' an MOT with a recommendation of about £400 worth of 'urgent work' needing doing on the exhaust. I decided as we didn't have £400 I'd drive it til it actually stopped me from doing so and find the money then. To date (and this MOT was about 5 years ago) I've still not had that work done and it's sailed through all subsequent MOTs. I'm rather hoping this is the same sort of scenario.

But, I like to have a Worst Case Scenaio Solution so have been looking at Zone One hosts and coming up with a plan to ensure we can still head off, vacate our house and start on schedule if we are not able to get Willow ready in time. Our very first host is 2 weeks in a tent (yes, a tent. In March), following that we have two weeks split between three farms where there is possibly room for us in the house anyway but if not certainly room for a tent, then we're at a campsite so def tent space if not room in their pretty big house. This means we do have time to get the van properly sorted left in the care of my Dad while heading off in my car instead which is now running really well, MOTd for a full year and still taxed til June. The car is very big, it'd be a squash but we could even all squidge up and sleep in it at a push, certainly with enough storage space to take tents, sleeping mats and bags and the clothes we'd need. At those hosts we'd not need the cooking facilities etc that the van provides anyway so a car would make no difference.

I have my fingers very firmly crossed that DMM gets the van back, not too expensively dealt with in the next day or two and HBM gets it fully sorted in plenty of time for not a lot more money too. But if not, we have WCSS there in the wings waiting, like a rather grubby white people carrier of an understudy.