anyway after having the engine and gearbox out , doing the clutch ,oil seals, push rod seals,flywheel(cracked),electric fuel pump conversion,new carb,j pipes (instead of the rotten heat exchangers),oil,plugs ,dizzy cap,rotor ,ht leads,coil, the list just goes on and on lol, we were finally ready, we travelled down through france reaching a campsite in the alps which we stayed for 4 days , shame it rained the whole time our new awning got a right testing first time out the box.
We then travelled through the frejus tunnel and headed for southern italy (tortora,calabria) passing milan,naples etc along the way, this part of the trip took us about 3 days taking it easy stopping overnight at the autogrills where loads of other campers soon joined us, never saw alot of t25 or any vw's tbh , maybe i am only mad enough to risk it all that way

took us 3 whole days to get back this time doing some night driving, eventually arriving at calais and getting back on the boat, apart from some idiot in italy putting 20 euro of diesel in my tank and having to drain it and refill, plus the split charge relay burning out on me(fixed it in italy) the old bus never missed a beat even achieving 85 mph yes you heard right 85 mph (for a brief moment going downhill etc) it was 65 all the way for most of the trip, i done about 12 whole tanks of fuel , and reckon i must have drove 6000 km or more.
This is the bus just after we arrrived at my brother in laws restuarant in tortora,calabria

We had an amazing road trip and are already planning next years big trip, we love our bus.........