Day 16 of our camper van escapades and a rest day from driving, a day at Mums in rainy (cold) Wheathampstead, and a day that included a lovely lunch with old friends and their daughter (and resulted in a VERY tired dog). It's hard to fathom that last time we were here, just over a week ago, it was 34C and today it was more like 14C!

When you’re out of the van and back in a house you can’t help but appreciate the ‘facilities’ i.e. a proper toilet. One that you don't have to have one foot in the shower to be able to sit on. And one that you can simply flush and not have to think about a repeat performance i.e. having to deal with whatever came out a second time!

We’ve rapidly learned that having a van means that you need to be prepared, not only to consider where and when you’ll do a good old number two - poo, there I said it - but you'll likely also talk about it with your travelling partner when you'd never normally do that in a million years… 🫣

Under most van toilets is a box into which everything goes. You drop in some liquid chemicals or a little ‘tea bag’ of blue stuff to keep it from stinking. And there whatever you add to it accumulates for a couple of days, just waiting for you to come back and visit.

And it doesn't empty itself. Some lucky soul, in our case Kim as he’s just extra lucky, has to open a hatch on the side of the van and pull out said box. It’s called a ‘cassette’ but definitely has nothing to do with music! And can I just add that said hatch has a lock on it! But why? Who would want to steal anyone else's poo?!

Once out the box has two wheels at the bottom and that, not so little and now very heavy, box has an extendable handle to wheel it along, just like a carry-on-case with very different contents! Then you have to drag it - sometimes for just a few metres and other times 400m across a bumpy field as the contents slosh around - to the nearest chemical toilet disposal point.

Once you’ve revisited its contents and it’s emptied then you're off to find some fresh water to rinse the last of what was in there out.

Such a lovely job - not.

So you consider VERY carefully when and where you poo to try and avoid a second date.

But enough about poo for today. Thank god for that, I hear you all say. I’m off to take advantage of the ‘facilities’ while there’s still time! 🤣

Tomorrow we head to Folkestone and start the long journey back to Denmark…