We set off in the van last Sunday, heading for Cleethorpes. Me driving, Vic navigating and Fossil the cat roaming the back of the van looking perplexed.

Having safely navigated across London and made it to the M1, we thought it was all going very well. After a bit of motorway driving the temperature gauge started to get higher and the red light started to flash, hmm.. better get off at the next services.

Just before the services at Northampton, there was a loud pop from the back end, so I pulled over to find all the coolant flooding out of the engine onto the road. We let things cool a little and crawled to the services.

Called the RAC who came within an hour. Blown coolant hose, possibly caused by blown cylinder head gasket. He could tow us to a local garage for repairs. Which garage? Oh, that was up to us, he wasn’t allowed to give us a list… how the hell are we supposed to know which garages are a) open on a Sunday afternoon before a Bank Holiday or b) are any good.

Phoned my Mum and Dad (who we were going to see) and they kindly offered to drive down and pick us up and arrange for someone to recover the van back to Cleethorpes. We finally got to Cleethorpes at 2:30am, and I was then up at 8am to drive down with the bloke doing the recovery.

Booked the van into a local VW specialist in Cleethorpes for the Thursday morning. We bought a replacement hose to stick on the van to get it to the garage, and fitted that. Picked it up on Friday and took it for a run out on the A180/M180.

Just as we got onto the motorway it started to overheat again, and the red light started flashing again. Pulled over, let it cool a bit and then drove back to Cleethorpes along A and B roads. The van was fine coming back, it just seemed to object to being pushed much over 55mph.

The bloke at the garage was at a bit of a loss, didn’t think it was the cylinder head gasket as there was no white smoke, the van drove fine at low speeds and there was no emulsion showing in the oil cap. We left it there and called in again on Saturday, to be told that he now thought it was the cylinder head gasket and it would be ready some time next week.

Bit of a bummer as we were hoping to drive the van back to London on the Sunday.

End result, Vic had to go to her friend’s Hen Night in Norwich by train (5 hour journey from Cleethorpes), and we then both got trains down to London so that we can continue packing up the flat ready to move out next week.

The cat seems to have settled at my Mum & Dad’s place, though he’s naturally very wary of their dog, Lucy. We miss him already, expecting him to be behind the door when we come in.

This week we’ll be packing, sorting things out, and eventually getting the train back to Cleethorpes to pick up the van.

It’s all been a bit expensive though…..