A long but pleasant drive up to Calais, a flattish sea, and then the route back to Oxfordshire to have a stopover with family, interspersed with what I can only describe as the horrendous ‘continual parking’ of the M25. Admittedly a Friday afternoon must be the least advisable time to be using the road. It caused me to consume a whole bag of chocolate eclairs, and at one particular stage had to control a very strong claustophobic urge to have a major meltdown and refuse to put up with it any longer. I can laugh now that I’m out of it.
But the traffic eventually flowed past Heathrow, the M4 exit and onto the M40, and I went mad and pushed the speed to 70mph! After the many hours in the driving seat, I decided it was safer to come back down to my cruise controlling 58.
As we came through that significant cut in the hills, looking out on the Berkshire plains? the sun was shining, the traffic on the road had significantly thinned, fantastic sing-along tracks were provided by R2, and the freedom of the road resumed. Now just the drive back up to North Yorkshire.
Blue has done me proud – what a fantastic home from home. Map of my journey to hopefully be added.
Time to record some changes with a post as I sit in my new, used, home on wheels, with its few-days maiden testing voyage to the sunny climes of Norfolk having been successfully achieved.
I have finally downsized, parting with my beloved 7m Monte2 in exchange for a 6m Citroen Relay-based van from british manufacturers ‘Wildax’, most likely to be known as ‘Blue’.
Just as my house building project was coming to an end, I would not have normally wanted to add into the mix the part exchange of my second home, along with making a final decision about whether I was crossing the Channel for a 3-week annual leave road trip as planned from 28/8. But my target vans become available so rarely, added to which this one was being sold from Skipton, just 20 or so miles from Harrogate. It would appear the van had my name on it, as it turned out to be one that I went to view at a Kendal dealer the previous year!
The completion of the transaction and handover did bring a tear to my eye, and with Stephen the broker obviously not able to empathise, we agreed that to him Monte2 was just a commodity – another “tin of beans”. For me it represented lots of memories of good travelling times with family, had been a great home while travelling last year, and a great office during the last few months while my house was being knocked about. Of course I know it’s just an inanimate object but I’m not ashamed to hereby state my affection and gratitude for it, with hope that it will pass to a next owner who will value it as much as I have.
So have the risks I ran in swapping my ultra-reliable, everything-working Monte2 for an unknown potential more trouble than it’s worth , materialised? So far no! Delighted with everything but will acknowledge that shutting the sliding door and putting it into reverse takes some heft. And, always looking for improvement ( or “never satisfied”) I’m already deciding the hacks that need doing to it. But out of all its great features, the best has to be ………. the WINDOWSILL.
As for the other significant accommodation, 6 months on from a lockdown-interrupted realisation of my vision, it has finally been achieved. It’s not a Grand Designs, but still significant for a house described by my brother-in-law as one that someone decided to build to make use of a pile of bricks left over from building the rest of the estate. Similar to making some kind of tart with leftover pastry. Well, I declare myself delighted with the final result – some compromises along the way,- external unwanted but necessary soil stack which can be disguised with some kind of trellis and climbing plant, or quite frankly, just becoming invisible to my eye within a short space of time, and a genuinely unexpected monstrosity of a chip shop flue pipe (log burner) sticking out through the roof, which cannot. The trees in my garden do hide it from my view to a certain extent, but not that of my neighbours’. I was relieved to find that my immediate ones did not see its appearance as a hostility-declaring incident , as they still cut my front lawn for me a few days after installation.
I also discovered just last week that there is proper access from a public path at the back of my garden, which I had been totally unaware of. Given that my modifications had knowlingly closed off access to the garden other than through the building, this was a fantastic completely unexpected bonus.
Annual leave week one covidly-morphed from a drive down to Lake Maggiore to building flat-pack furniture!!! – yes I know it was a difficult choice to make – but also doing more enjoyable home setup stuff such as being able to order sofas, rugs, pictures etc. I do feel I have been extremely fortunate to have the resources to be able to create my home just as I want it to be, and this creative work to be able to engage in, during social distancing. Just as well I now have all this new space, to take the incredible amount of stuff which came out of Monte2, and which I am not intending to try and stuff into Blue.
Since my last post, I will admit to having passed a significant birthday also, which should have been celebrated with a disco, only to go the covid way of all such plans. But moving swiftly on – what more can I say, other than it’s time for me to go to France now via the virtual immersion offered by the Tour de France on TV. Missing greatly my adopted country, and hoping for lots more opportunities for campervan travel across that water in the coming months and years. An Italy ski trip has been booked for February with a great gang – let’s see whether covid or yet another government brexit-induced episode gets in the way.
The above does reflect what small part of the planet in human/societal terms I come from, that I have enjoyed such a good life thus far. The challenge continues to keep anxieties about the bigger picture checked, and to maintain joy instead but I will record them here because they are part of my thought life also. I understand and wish it could be other that my good life has in part been enabled by the inequality in the world, the past and current exploitation of peoples and the environment. I do fear for the planet and all its life, plus that of younger generations because of climate change. I fear the rise of populism, and the decline of those institutions and political systems which although flawed, have on balance been forces for good, in the face of the huge challenges which are already here but undoubtedly going to increase. And all those things are interconnected. I hope and pray that leaders from across the spectrum, with a genuine wish for justice and the flourishing of all people, global as well as local strategic vision, courage, determination and competence, will come to the fore or be further empowered to work together from top down, bottom up, middle across. I hope and pray that I will know and have the courage, if and when it’s necessary, to stand for what’s right, rather than pretending I haven’t seen.
“ For evil to flourish it only requires good men to do nothing.” Simon Wiesenthal.
In my conversation with Holgier and Sabine at Amboise, they had posed the question about what happens if the van breaks down. Sure enough 2 days later, I was literally having one of my many moments of mindfulness re how well Monte2 was running, and giving the dashboard a thankful pat with verbal encouragement, when a van overtook me and indicated that something was wrong, about 30 miles from my Benodet destination. Fortunately, I was close to an exit from the dual carriageway, so was able to stop almost immediately and check to see a rear tyre extremely low on air.
Google to the rescue yet again, finding the nearest tyre place 3 kms away and for all of you who will be travelling in the vicinity of Quimperle, and needing tyre replacements/fixes, I recommend Vulco Tyres, who were so helpful, despite the heatwave and willing to diagnose the problem of a faulty valve there and then, and replace it for the sum of 21eu. I count myself very lucky, and continued with even more of a smile on my face. To top it all, given that Leclerc was on the same retail park, I decided once and for all, that if there was a long wished-for Lafuma recliner chair for sale, I would, and did, buy it. Result!
On the subject of tyres, I will also record here the very helpful teenager who appeared out of the blue, when I was trying to figure out how to use the not-working-anyway free bike air pump in Chambon-s-Lac and offered to manually pump up the bike tyres.
Due to using campsites and their electricity upto this trip, I had only put gas into the van on a max of 2 occasions, each time in fear and trepidation, given the heavy duty industrial nature of the whole thing, and the explosion when disconnecting! Add to this the fact that France uses a different attachment to that of Spain and Portugal and indeed the UK. Having very smugly purchased 4 adaptors before leaving, if I wanted to rely on solar and save dosh, I would have to gird my loins and actually use them.
My first efforts involved driving in and out of garages on my non-toll road, hence longer than expected, route from Pau to Carcassone, in increasing frustration until tadah – a supermarket sign indicated the required fuel. Thankfully, the bays were empty, with no-one to observe the activity that then ensued in trying to get the van in the first place alongside the pump, never mind lining up the actual gas inlet; in a nutshell, design of the bays and their approach had patently not envisaged a 7m vehicle even one as narrow as the Sprinter! interspersing minute manoeuvrings with constant in and out of the cab checkings, at one stage I feared that the van had become completely wedged, and that a tyre was going to puncture, the van ‘nose’ was going to get scratched to get it past the pump, and/or the pump would get damaged; sweat dripping, it was also hot, the final manoeuvre to give up on the whole thing but get the van out of the bay, resulted in hearing the sudden escape of water; the outlet pipe had become disconnected from the waste tank, (at least not the full tank of clean water). T(h)ankfully – pun just presented itself – I was able to re-connect it after a fair bit of faff. All this did seem to be done without another human coming anywhere near, so at least my pride was spared. It’s abit difficult to picture if one is not familiar with the real size of one of these vehicles, but causing me lol as I write this, 2 months later.
The story goes on, as this attempt was abandoned, leaving me still in the position of needing to get gas on board. I decided to go to a campsite, connect to electricity and recover from my ordeal in peace and quiet for a couple of days before re-gathering of forces for a new attempt. The day of departure dawned bright and encouraging ready for the assault on the next LPG-supplying garage identified at Carcassone. The pump was easily accessible to drive Monte alongside and the adaptors at the ready. Great. Of the four, only one appeared big enough for the French nozzle – but could not for the life of me work out how to get the two securely connected. Came under further pressure as a small lorry then drew within 2 feet alongside. Fortunately the driver was approachable and pleasant, didn’t want to use the pump, which was unfortunate as my non-correct jargon French established that he also couldn’t really help, although willing. I ran into the service station – do I lock the van and let the man think I didnt trust him? – to ask for help from the only member of staff behind the counter; this resulted in a reasonably kindly but nevertheless gallic shrug of the shoulders and “boff”, and the awaiting constant queue meant he couldn’t come outside to ‘see’; ran back as quick as poss to try again, because the lorry did need Monte to move to enter a building behind the pump. In the meantime, the lorry driver had managed to get a proper connection, but given the lack of motor sound from the pump, no reaction from pressing the big green button, and no instructions beyond what we’d already done, I ran back into the service station, spoke in my best French to the guy again, whereupon I got the key information – in French of course – that the button needs to be continuously depressed; back out to try this – still no motor sound, so called on all my IT support previous experience to do the equivalent switch on/off again, and start from scratch and …….YES; WHAT JUBILATION ensued; the world was mine.
About a month later, being told that at Tarifa a particular service station had LPG, I was over the moon to find that an attendant would put the gas in and I had the correct adaptor for Spain. Success & elation once again.
Fast forward a few weeks, into and out of Portugal, was disappointed to find that the gas pumps at a promising Repsol service station with a helpful attendant, did not seem to have the correct pressure to get gas in. Damn. Not quite depths of despair – as always attempting this when around a third still left.
The fifth repeat of this exercise was even less successful due to failure to get the connection to work, at an unattended station in the Pyrenees.
All that can be said of all this is that practice goes on and confidence remains a long time coming! But the good news? The fridge continues to light, and stay lit, and keep the food cold – see separate post.
A placeholder for valuing explicitly in nor particular order my :
Lagun table mount, attached to this teak table top – perhaps on balance abit too heavy for this purpose, but very nice pieces of wood, and fitted by my good self. Love the mount’s design – swivelability, removeability, dismountability (getting silly now with words but gives me a simple chuckle), which I did for fridge repair, and hence versatility:
Using this alternative table location means that I can have my ‘living room sofa’ using the rear driver’s side single bed position for this seat, enabling good gazing through the side sliding door opening, so don’t need to swivel the passenger seat round unless I have company, or want to watch something on my tablet, which I need to keep plugged into the 12-volt socket above. I can also use the seat underneath the normal place for the table as a storage area when in residence and don’t have four people staying or travelling.
Aeropress coffee maker
Butter (soap) dish which closes and has rubber feet , so stays put
Family photos done via the Mixtiles app – moveable and non-marking
Solar panel – been keeping the same battery topped up since the van was acquired back in 2014, running the minimum electricity demand – primarly LED lights, TV when necessary via 12 volt, and keeping the tech charged, also by 12 volt
Route finding & navigation – can be love/hate – but use the Mercedes SatNav, in conjunction with Google maps, as well as the good old trusty paper versions which I love; but google maps on the phone is invaluable when exploring – A-Zs are a poor alternative for this purpose
Site/Overnight Location Finding – use fantastic peer platform Park4Night app, together with CamperStop, and the ACSI Camping scheme
Trusty Steed – fantastic to use the bike to go further afield, and cover more exploring ground; decided to take my mountain bike, fitting it with a rack, and more hybrid tyres, given its gears, more upright position etc; right choice and have really enjoyed riding in the warm sun and beautiful settings
At last – more than 3 months of travel, and several times feeling like a recliner would be a good thing to have along – am now proud owner of a Lafuma recliner
Previous one lasted several years, and really taken for granted as somewhat of a gimmick; however it’s fair to say that when it would work no more, its indispensability became apparent, and a new updated version was acquired
Having had the fridge repaired before leaving the UK – the ignition for the gas operation was not working costing a significant price due to the need for the fridge to be taken out – following successful operation for several days, this time it would ignite, but then not stay lit. Decided that, as temperature now getting hotter, and wanting to use gas to save 3 – 4 eu per day electricity costs, particularly given solar panel happily running any other electricity needs, I should try and get it fixed as relatively near Malaga. Also wanted to finally remove and dump the electric step, a major cause of stress, which have not used for almost the last year, due to the damage it’s incurred when the vehicle has grounded given its low height, and not wanting to end up in the situation where it’s out, and will not retract. The grounding is now regularly occurring given the steepness of ramps/access to sites, and just non-primary road layouts.
So contacted Dometic Spain from the number in the manual, and was given the number of a caravan repair centre on their books in Malaga. To cut a long story short, I spent some 7 hours in the non-confidence-inspiring garage setting using google to try and convey the correct information while the owner and his seeming apprentice, who only spoke Spanish, very slowly throughout the day extracted the fridge, tweaked everything, removed the step – yaay, and responded finally positively to my google-enabled Spanish question as to whether they’d managed to fix it. Not able to take payment by card, I was duly dispatched with the apprentice in his car, into Malaga past several banks, until we reached the bank he had obviously targeted, so that I could get the necessary cash. Another of those experiences where faith,trust and mind-control was required. The fridge is indeed igniting and continuing to work successfully on gas – still remains to be tested on electric!!, as when trying to confirm that the electric function was ok following the re-installation, I was told that they hadn’t repaired the electrical side of things – and I couldn’t face trying to explain that I knew that, but it needed to be tested to ensure all the necessary cables where correctly hooked up! Will have to be pay for an electric hook-up at the next place 🙂
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