Recovery, nature and Sadie

Well, the 'rather-pleased-with-myself-for-completing-the-race-injury-free' phase lasted until, oh, approximately 8.11pm Saturday evening. It was then that the first twinges crept up on me as I was munching on a scrummy Pizza from the Van. By the morning, getting down the stairs was immensely painful. Today, 2 days later, I am still in discomfort. Weird. In the past, the pain has always commenced during the exertion. Maybe I should be grateful that at least I could complete the race comfortably on this occasion but I still don't appreciate what my body is doing to me post-event. The discomfort eases if I remain active and I know it will have gone completely in a few days and I will no doubt be stronger as a result, but in the meantime I am gritting my teeth! Oh, and the race results are now online and I came in 13th out of 23 women. Can you believe that out of 200 entrants, there were only 23 women?! There should be more!

As part of my Active Recovery, I have taken the pooch for a couple of short walks and the early signs of Spring are all around. The Pine Processionary Caterpillars have started leaving their treetop nests and are on the march - they are quite a sight as they form their lines on the forest tracks

and the early spring flowers are everywhere

 Back at base, we are having a big push to get Sadie into a state that will allow us to get away and spend some time travelling around France and indeed Europe in her, although the UK will be our first port of call to pick up a new Thetford toilet! Andy has been busying himself with several relatively 'small' jobs that are nonetheless critical if we are to progress. At the weekend we were able to fit the first section of carpet which was to the cab ceiling and which then allowed the monitor for the reversing camera to be fitted in the cab

Getting the carpet fitted was a big step as we have got the full van ceiling to do, which is a big section and we had no idea a) how the contact adhesive would behave and b) how manoeuvrable the carpet would be. We now have answers to those questions and so are a leeeetle bit more confident about the next step! Today, Andy has fitted the reversing camera to the rear bumper which is going to be pretty important on a 7m long van with a bike rack on the back! Progress, oh yes, we are making progress and starting to get excited about our travels.