We headed south.

After 3 weeks the new spectacles I'd ordered in Blairgowrie (to replace the horribly scratched scratch resistant ones that had lasted only a year) should be ready.

Alas no. Missing in transit.

Order cancelled, deposit refunded, start again in Boston.

Meanwhile, the patch of good weather we've enjoyed has brought spring on.

We are sad to be leaving Scotland. Perhaps another time. When its a bit warmer perhaps.

Peace and quiet after the long drive south.

Play "spot the barn owl". There's one flying off with its prey in this picture.

(the other one flew away).

Local farmer had placed his electric fence across the right of way.

Spike first.

No room for error!

You can put him down now Tim!

Amos wasn't keen on being carried. Better to lay the fence down, put a jacket over the wires, and let him jump over.

Spring really is underway.

England's green has a tinge of yellow.

The new spectacles were provided in 5 days, better than the quote. I bought two pairs to avoid more troubles further on.

This time south to Dover.

Just a small matter of the traffic at the Dartford Crossing (used to be a tunnel until they built a bridge, now its tunnel one way bridge the other).

We've also realised that we weren't going to enjoy more than 3 days each way on a ferry from Denmark to Iceland. For what would probably only be 4 weeks there.

We decided on a much slower trip through Sweden and Norway.

After a year of traveling (this is round about our first anniversary!) we've traveled about 39,000 km, filled the diesel tanks about 64 times. We also topped up the water tanks with more than 5,000 litres of water in more than 500 buckets full. Used the loo lots and emptied the cassette about 250 times. Emptied grey water about 100 times..

The pleasant thought is that we only needed sunshine and food on top of the above. And some people drive further than that in a year commuting to work.

We are headed to Sweden in as few days as we can manage comfortably.

Somewhere, somehow, a supporting leaf in the rear right spring has broken.

The lean to the right was too much to ignore. Made more obvious by the road camber.

This time just the broken leaf replaced by a convenient German crane hire and repair shop.

It took three days by the time an appropriate bit of steel was found and a dubious looking u-bolt replaced.

Translation was through sign language and google translate - which caused much amusement as literal translations really aren't that good.

We were allowed to camp in the yard (which translated as farm). Many thanks to the people at Hoff.

We walked into town.

We occupied ourselves walking along small tracks, one of which had a bridge over the autobahn.

Springs are all in one piece. However, we are left with a distinct lean to the right.

Looks like that spring repair in Hungary has been undone by the rear spring breaking. Difficult to tell with a chassis which twists but it looks like the front right spring has sagged a bit. Probably to be expected when reset without retemper, though the extra load would have been the straw ....

We have time on our side as the opportunity for being on rough roads is limited in Europe. Time allows us to investigate a choice between resetting and retempering or replacing the springs.

My inclination is to replace.

In the meantime we will wonder at the paint scheme on the wind turbines. A graduated green at ground level to grey further up. New meaning to green energy!

In 1997 we caught a ferry to Copenhagen and saw this bridge partially complete.

This time we could drive.

The weather wasn't any better and the cost was more. About A$100. It would have been a bit cheaper and quicker to take the ferry from Denmark.

File that for the return journey!

A memory of accidents, restrictions on high sided vehicles and particular warnings about the effect of the bridge towers.

The windsock is a clue to what is about to happen!

Forewarned is forearmed. Drive slowly and be prepared to correct as the vehicle first tries to steer right, when shielded from the wind by the tower, and then to the left as the full force is felt again.

Tardis is very stable in wind, but bridges tend to be a bit exposed. Even the cars were doing a bit of a wiggle.

This is the bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo in Sweden.

A bit less than another A$100 in tolls.

It helps having lots of daylight.