Well, folks, this little adventure has finally come to an end.

Over the past few months, I've covered well over 6,000 miles, clocking up more than 600 villages, towns and cities, and putting Burt through the wringer in some pretty dodgy locations. Together, Byron and I have met exactly 68,000 dogs, plus every other animal you can imagine, besides Nessie, Poseidon and Medusa, and we've walked every trail we could find, across fields and mountains, along rivers and tracks.

This year, my adventures have extended far beyond travel; I've learned to weld to a basic level, taken up guitar, become a fairly acceptable Czech speaker, honed my sound recording skillset, taken a good number of steps in my private law study and even managed to change my drum brakes on the side of the road whilst being threatened in Russian by a gypsy.

It's been an interesting run.

With the warm days lasting well into October, and the coldest nights struggling to upset us in our insulated home on wheels, we kept it going for a good while. Burt's been perfect, and I'm happy with the Mk4 build, besides some small tweaks involving cupboard latches and the position of some of the power sockets, and I think that's quite a result.

Now, as the year comes to a close, and the temperature approaches zero, it's time to park up and settle in for the winter. I hope you've enjoyed peeping into the world of Burtman and I'm looking forward to showing you what I have in store for the spring. But just because the engine's quiet and the radiators are on, it doesn't mean I'm kicking back with that Netflix thing everyone has. Far from it, in fact. This is the winter of my education, and I've already kicked off with four new languages and a few other things I'm keeping to myself, for the time being.

And while I'm taking all that in, I'll still be publishing recordings and photographs, finishing some of my story collections and perhaps even taking on a few small technical jobs, when weather permits. Stay tuned and wish me luck!

The leaves fall, and so does the temperature, but a change of direction is never a bad thing.

Night falls, too, and that's when you can tell the season has turned [its back].