Thursday 8th August 2019

Oh my God, it's going to be mine!! I'm so excited... and nervous, and worried, and excited, and stressed and did I mention excited? I'd hardly dared to hope that the outcome would be as I wanted it, but finally the owner agreed the terms of sale, and last Monday we met up to sign the preliminary contract. He's pretty much tied into the deal now, unless he wants to lose the cost of the deposit, and according to schedule I will pay the balance on the 19th August and become the proud owner of a stonking new house in Mezhdene. Not new exactly, more like 110 years old and in need of some fairly major overhauling, but it has so much I can do with it, and the land alone is quite phenomenal.

This is a shot from Google Earth showing the boundary of the property with the house and barns tucked away in the left hand corner. Hopefully there are plenty of goats/sheep/cows in the neighbourhood which I can invite to graze now and then, or I'll be getting fantastically fit with all the strimming I'll need to do.

As soon as the house is mine I need to get Stan the builder back up there to measure properly and arrange the following essential first works:

• Remove the old slabs and put a basic roof on one of the barns to make a dry storage area for most of my things.

• Knock a doorway through from the kitchen into the shop at the front of the house as these two rooms will be my main living area through the first winter.

• Remove the old slabs and re-roof the house itself.

• Arrange for a window company to replace the windows in the shop area (one of which will be where the door onto the street currently is).

The main first job will be the barn, as once that's done I can start bringing my belongings over, something that needs to be completed by the middle of September really. I also need to think about when to bring the animals over, especially the three cats who will need to be kept inside for maybe a week until they learn their new home. Then there are my friends who'd already planned to come and stay with me in September for a week. They know about the new property and that it's a little rough. What I haven't yet told them is that there's no bathroom and the only loo is in an outhouse that even I haven't investigated yet! Depending how adventurous they feel I might need to take full advantage of keeping hold of my current place until after they've gone home, just so they can have a shower.

I love making plans, and am busy making endless lists of the things I think will need doing and having wild guesses at the costs, and then I have a sudden five minute panic thinking I'll never be able to afford all this and I've taken on way too much, and then I picture myself camping out in the meadow on a clear starry night and the renovations become less of an issue and peace of mind and wild living become paramount. I can't wait!

Speaking of wild living, last Thursday I had a little unexpected off-road trip that was one of the wildest rides I've ever had. It all started when I mentioned to a friend that all the stone and wood from a recently demolished property nearby might well be dumped not far from the village, and as said friend was after some good timbers we decided to have a look. He has a 4x4 vehicle he uses to take people on off-road trips - a vehicle I can just about climb into it's that high off the ground - so we headed off in it along the stony track to the dump to look for the timbers. Unfortunately it seems the wood had already been diverted elsewhere as there was no sign of it, only tons of stone and rubble from the house, so even after rooting around for a while we hadn't managed to scavange much that was useful. It was at that point he suggested we have a drive down towards the river as he'd never been down that way before.

This is a route I've walked plenty of times before, and heads down to the river Yantra near the old dairy building before following it along the valley for a while and then heading up through the forest and back along to Gostilitsa. It's also a route the cow herds often take the cattle along, and it can be pretty muddy in places especially after heavy rain.

The first part of the route following the river went fine, and then we reached the muddy stretch where the entire width of the track is a series of deep undulations in the clay soil, with the dips full of water. If ever you walk along this way then be prepared to ether wade up to your ankles in mud or cling to the edge of the thorny shrubbery to try and make your way along the slightly more solid bounday. This would be the first time I'd driven through it.

The deep ruts made the vehicle kangeroo wildly along, I mean this was some serious bouncing. I began to wonder if there would be anything left of the poor truck's suspension at the end. Being clay soil and absolutely saturated with water, the car's chunky tyres were soon packed and basically lost their tread, consequently we slithered left and right as we jolted along. Eventually we made it to the little plateau where the river loops around, and this was pretty much as far as the car could go, because at that point the track then heads through the woods where there are several fallen trees in the way.

We turned around and headed back down the same muddy track, and that's when the smooth tyres and churned up path made it even harder for the vehicle. All of a sudden the back end lurched to the left and we stopped just before the rear wheel started to go down the steep banking. Scenes of the bus teetering on the cliff at the end of The Italian Job flashed into my mind.

Hang on a minute lads, I've got an idea

The idea was to secure the truck to a tree using ratchet straps so it wouldn't fall any further back, and then to gun the engine and try and get the vehicle to swing forward. Being a brave soul I got out and watched from a safe distance up the track. There was a heart in my mouth moment as the car lurched around and I thought it was actually going to topple over on its side, but then it bounced forward and away from the edge. Phew!

The relief was short lived though as a bit further down the track we ground to halt again as the wheels just span round digging themselves deeper and deeper into the quagmire. This time the solution was sheer genius. The front of the vehicle was jacked up as high as it would go, and then we literally shoved it sideways till it fell off the jack, thus moving the front tyres completely out of the rut and onto higher ground. The same thing was then repeated at the back end.

Bogged down, and not even a bunch of sticks rammed against all the wheels would help it grip.

To make it even harder we were literally being bombarded by the most enormous horseflies which were everywhere, including all over the car.

With the whole vehicle shifted over it was time to try and get it moving again. At first it wouldn't budge but then suddenly the tyres gripped and off we flew at full speed, heedless of the branches battering the windows, and slithering left and right, once more kangerooing over the ruts until we reached the glorious safety of dry land. You would not believe how muddy everything was, and once I got back home I just blasted myself with the hosepipe to get the worst off before showering. What a ride!

At least the hand is visible. The feet were completely buried.