Just three days until we head off on our odyssey across Europe. With Covid, Putin and rocketing fuel prices it looked like we wouldn’t make it to the starting line (and of course, there’s still time for something to go wrong <touches wood and salutes at a magpie>) but hopefully in 80 odd hours we’ll leave rainy Yorkshire and head through the tunnel to start our journey.

Of course, all that means I can’t put off the packing process any more. The problem is, my list is loooooong and the van is small. It’s going to be #vanlife jenga getting everything in. We’re in the chilly north of Europe in April and the balmy south in June, which means we need to plan for snow, rain, heatwaves and everything in between. That’s a lot of layers, and shoe options, many many shoe options.

To make packing easier I’ve invested in cubes- in fact I’ve got so many packing solutions that Mr G says there won’t be room in the van for us. We’re going hard-core with no roof box or trailer, so ruthless streamlining is needed. And if everything doesn’t fit, Mr G is going to have to sacrifice a limb or two.

We’ve stolen our trip name from the classic war film ‘Ice Cold in Alex’. John Mills, Sylvia Syms et al survived a long, hot and challenging journey to Alexandria, with only the thought of a cold beer at the end keeping them going. At the end of our, hopefully rather less arduous drive, we’ll have an #IceColdinIstanbul to celebrate.