Today's the day!

It's 27 December and this evening we hit the waves on the Cap Finisterre belonging to Brittany Ferries as we head out on the first lap of our adventure to Praia da Luz. The car boot is packed - actually not as full as we expected - and the car has been washed - a shock in itself.

Now, as we head for Portsmouth, Gabrielle has a huge hangover from the night before and has spent the entire morning getting up slowly, an inch at a time. We've had a ball at the Hadley-Peppers over Christmas and now it's time to make our way South and head for warmer climes. Mind you, it would be hard to be much warmer than Camberley at the moment - around 14 degrees! Let's hope that the same weather effect that's making the UK swelter in winter is going to be applied to Portugal's Algarve coast.


So why are we doing this? Gabrielle has had her adventures, slogging up mountains or sloshing across the Channel so now Nick is having his turn. He wants to escape winter and experience the isolation of a seaside location where he can muse on great things, write and generally catch up with life. We will both still be working our usual days, making use of great technology to continue to make our presence felt across the miles.

We shall be living in a house owned by our good friends, who have been kind enough to loan it out for the duration - a total of seven weeks, before we head for the UK, driving across Spain and France.

Now though, we prepare to cross the waves and land on the 29th at Santander, before motoring our way down to Estoril for a night's sleep and then continuing on the last lap to Praia da Luz. Stay tuned for updates, photos, video clips and more!