The day dawned cold and grey, and the strong wind which had really rocked and buffeted the caravan all night was still blowing hard. Tim, Shane and I set off with the counter and measured the fence and we have ended up building a total of 3,491 metres.
Once we had done that, we fixed up a strainer post that it pulled out of the ground after the rain, then packed up the ute and left. I sat on the back under the tarpaulin and although it was cold, it was quite pleasant. I spent the first half an hour reading the smutty and tongue-in-cheek Sunday Sport newspaper then settled back to watch the scenery and the passing traffic.
It took about three hours to reach Corton and after I dumped my pack at Ann’s cottage I showed the boys the way out to the road to Salisbury then walked back across the fields to the village. I had a long bath and soaked off a week of grime then dozed in front of the fire until Linda got home from work. We went down to Cortington Manor¹, where our new flat is, and crashed.
¹Cortington Manor was the home of Diana, Duchess Newcastle, the widow of the Duke of Newcastle and a former champion steeplechase jockey. The manor itself had been built in the late 17th century and its attached servant’s quarters would become our home for the next year or so. We loved living at Cortingtom Manor so much that a few years later, we named our house in Geraldine Cortington.
CurseOfTheTraveller 