What now?

Well, Orion and Bob (that’s our tandem and trailer) have gone away for the time being – into the storage unit that contains most of our worldly goods.

The first two weeks after completing our journey were a kind of weaning-off period. We took bike and box on a cycle-camping trip around West Cornwall. (Didn’t have a lot of options as our car is still off the road and waiting to be reclaimed from a friend’s garage in Hampshire).

Cornish sunshine on The Lizard.

The weather wasn’t great every day but it did remind us what a beautiful place Cornwall is and give us an opportunity to spend a bit of quiet time together without having to talk about ShelterBox everyday!

Since then, we’ve had a week seeing our families – and more time to relax.

‘What’s next’, lots of people have asked? Well, not sure about a book – we’ll have to see. Another trip? One day, almost definitely. In the meantime, though, we need to earn some money.

So, we’re going to go back to Portugal for another year of teaching English. We set off next month and will start work in October at International House Torres Vedras.

We haven’t got our accommodation sorted yet but we’ll make sure we have at least one spare bedroom and we’ll be there until the end of June next year… Hopefully, we’ll be able to repay some of the wonderful hospitality and support we’ve had over the past year.

So, once again, a huge thank you to everyone who’s helped in any way – whether providing us with a meal, a bed, raising money for ShelterBox or just cheering us on. It all helped. Keep in touch.