Day 300         Tuesday 25th November 2008

 

Left the site at 8.00am, with very mixed feelings, for the 15 minute drive to the tunnel, and arrived back in the UK at 10.00am local time. Cost £98, booked on the internet two weeks ago, good price we thought for car and caravan, much better than the rip off we paid starting out back in January when we didn’t pre-book.

It was a lovely sunny morning and we went straight to Long Acres caravan site in Lingfield, near Godstone, just south of Nina, James and Hector’s house. Stayed there for two nights and had the pleasure of a visit from Little Hector. Had a trip to Anne’s Mums house to unload stuff from the caravan. This is a much better site than Calais - £28 for the two nights – more than we have been paying but we had a wonderful 16amps of electricity, oh joy. The facilities were dated but clean. Showers were 50p in the slot, unusually, but they were lovely and hot.

 

Tomorrow we are off to Highbridge Caravan Centre for the caravan’s first service. The car will also be serviced in Congresbury whilst we enjoy the Biffin’s great hospitality once again. Then it is back to Essex, moving in with Anne’s Mum, looking forward to a lovely family Christmas.

We can’t believe it was over a year ago that we collected the caravan amidst great excitement and celebration. What a wonderful year we’ve had……. ………

 

 

So…………. After 300 days, 5 countries, 12 thousand miles driving including over 5 thousand miles towing, 25 caravan sites, 4 new tyres,  2,700 photographs, 1,500 tea bags and one grandchild later ……………………... we have come to the end of this particular adventure.

 

Some questions answered:

 

Are we glad we did it ? – Without doubt

 

Did we buy the right caravan ?

Yes – definitely, the Lunar Lexon has been a real home to us

 

Did we have the right towing vehicle ?

Yes - the Seat Alhambra has been brilliant, economical with loads of room.

 

Did we miss anything from home ?

Yes - family, friends, our cat Harry Panther, Rotary lunches and banter (George), baths (Anne).

 

What didn’t we miss ?

Work, stress, clock-watching, newspapers spreading credit crunch doom and gloom, cold weather, television, golf (surprisingly), heavy motorway traffic and traffic jams.

 

We were unlucky with ….

- leaving the UK in the worst weather imaginable for the start of our adventure.

- the pound falling against the euro.

- the price of diesel soaring right across Europe for a while.

- having a freak 100 mile an hour gust of wind blow the awning off the ground.

- getting stuck down a back alley in Cadiz.

 

We were lucky with ….

- having TomTom

- having mobile telephones, laptop computer (and therefore with wi-fi, emails etc.)

- people always materialising, seemingly from nowhere, to help push the caravan onto a pitch if required.

- the timing of Hector’s birth - in the high season, and therefore saving us the high cost of caravan pitch fees abroad!

- having family and friends come out to stay with us.

- the really lovely people we met on our travels.

 

Major disasters ?  None, thankfully

 

Are we still speaking to each other ? Absolutely

 

Would we do it again ?   Yes - like a shot

 

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Many thanks for your interest, good wishes and messages of support over the year – we wish you all the very best for 2009 -

                              ‘till the next time……………Anne and George x x x x

 

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Days 297-299         Saturday 22nd – Monday 24th November 2008

 

Left Lyon on a cloudy morning and arrived at Camping Hautoreille in Bannes, just outside Langres, in under three hours. Toll 28.80€. We are staying here for one night before going on to Calais.  We had seen snow on the roadsides and in the fields on the way up, but no snow in Bannes……. until thirty minutes after we arrived – George walked up to the loo block and came back all white – it was snowing! We had hoped to walk round the hilltop town of Langres in the afternoon but it was really cold so decided to have a drive through instead. It seems to be a lovely place with a central square and medieval buildings.

Topped up with diesel - 1.09€. It was snowing hard by now so we gave up and went back to the caravan to warm up.

 

Not many people on this ACSI site, and because of the weather we didn’t see much of it. Couldn’t get the ACSI discount at this time of year so we paid a high 18.90€ for the night – but at least the electricity supply was good at 10 amps. Electric fire on full then!

 

The countryside was completely white by now and we were wondering (worrying) about getting snowed in. It snowed on and off for most of the evening and the site looked a picture – see photos.

 

Up early for a quick getaway, not snowing now, but very cold - minus 1degree - and over an inch of snow blanketing everything. For some reason the little site roadways were clear (residual heat in the tarmac ?) but we still had to clear away some snow and scrape the windscreen (well, George did!) and eventually left at about 8.30am. Great relief as we got to the motorway after 20 minutes with no problems for the longer journey to Calais, 480k, should be there by 3.00pm.

 

Deserted motorway – our usual Sunday traffic. Weather not too bad for the first hour, then the sky cleared and we had bright sun for about two hours and the temperature rose to 4 degrees but when we got north of Dijon it all went pear-shaped. We could see the clouds in the distance and it slowly got darker and colder, eventually down to 0 degrees and then we hit the snow storm. It snowed on and off for the next two hours and visibility was down to a scary 50m at times and as we passed each service area we debated whether to stop or not, but kept plodding along. We left the UK at the end of January in horrendous weather and it seems we are destined to end our adventure in the same way. When we were about 50k from Calais the temperature went up a bit and it eventually turned into rain. Tolls – 55€ total.

 

Very relieved to get to Camping Bouscarel, just east of Calais, with no problems. Still very cold here but no snow. The site has spacious pitches marked by low hedges, but no outside lights at all, not even outside the wash block - not very helpful when it’s dark at 4.30pm! If we hadn’t had a good torch with us we would have been in real trouble. Also we only had 4amps of electricity so we couldn’t have the fire on the highest setting. Thought we’d switch to gas for heat, but hadn’t used it since last February and we couldn’t get the fire to light – typical!

We paid 37.02€ for the two nights, very expensive for what we got, but the site is very convenient for an early ferry or Tunnel Train. We are here for two nights before travelling through the tunnel on Tuesday.

The next day we went to Cite Europe to do some Christmas shopping and stock up on booze before our trip back through the tunnel.

 

Days 294-296      Wednesday 19th – Friday 21st November 2008

 

Stayed in San Remo for one night, leaving the caravan hitched up to the car and not connected to the water, ready for a quick get-away for our longer than usual 533km journey. Left at 8.00am on a beautiful sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky.

 

Back up to the motorway, heading west into France, through another 25 tunnels. Talking about the tunnels…… each tunnel has only one-way traffic in it, with a separate tunnel for the other carriageway, so in all there are (138+25) x2 (approximately) – 326 total …………. Oh to have been in the tunnel-boring business at the right time!

 

The motorway traffic was heavy - not like our usual Sundays, and we took it in turns to drive. Tolls were also heavy – total of 68.60€ – a bit annoying considering the loads of road works we went through when we got to France. Weather changed to cloudy now.

 

Had three stops, probably an hour total, went on round the Lyon by-pass and arrived at Camping Indigo Lyon, just north of the City at 3.30pm. It is in the Porte de Lyon (doorway to Lyon) which seems to be a new area designed specifically for people to stay in whilst visiting the city – there are some big hotels, the Caravan site, small cafes and some restaurants. There is also a big shopping centre 500m away on the other side of the motorway.

 

Went into reception and were immediately offered a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau – it was a day early but they’d managed to get a preview delivery. We like this site already! Picked a good spot and put the kettle on.

 

Next day it was still cloudy, and cooler, when we visited the city centre – Lyon is the third largest city in France after Paris and Marseilles. Started on the bus (on time) then metro (on time). The metro is brilliant – very clean, comfortable and quick. Also there is no driver as it is fully automatic. We sat right at the front like a couple of kids, staring into the tunnel – just like the Runaway Mine Train at Disney! Great fun.

            Then up on a funicular railway to the beautiful landmark Basilica on the hill which can be seen from miles around. 1€ 60 each which covered the bus, the metro and the funicular.  Walked back down the hill and entered the Vieux Lyon (old town) – a maze of small streets, famous for its Traboules et Passage - little narrow passageways through courtyards linking them. Walked between the Rivers Saone and The Rhone which both pass through the city.  It happened to be the Beaujolais Nouveau Day which was being promoted everywhere. When we arrived back at the Caravan Site we were invited for a tasting of B N produced by a lovely lady on her farm about 7k away. Lovely wine so we had to buy a few bottles.

 

Lyon is a lovely City which we have only driven past on the motorway before. It is ideal city break material and we’d love to come back and explore some more.

 

Filled up with diesel 1.07€ per litre, much cheaper now. The plan is to move on to Langres tomorrow for one night and then on to Calais for two nights before travelling through the Channel Tunnel on Tuesday 25^th November.

 

Very mixed feelings – sad that our trip is ending but looking forward to seeing friends and family, especially looking forward to Baby Hector’s first Christmas. Our house in Bristol is still rented until the end of January so we will be staying with Anne’s Mum.

 

We will update the blog when we get back to the UK

 

A Bientot.

 

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Day 291-293     Sunday 16th November – Tuesday 18th November 2008

 

Left early for the journey to La Spezia on a beautiful sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky.  Quite a distance 400k - about five hours towing time.  Tolls 31€, diesel now down to 1.19€ per litre. Arrived early afternoon at Deiva Marina, just north of La Spezia, a small site 3k from the beach. Set up quickly and had our cup of tea sitting out in the sun. No internet so we will be out of the loop for a couple of days.

 

Next day was another beautiful morning so we decided to do the Five Village Walk in the Cinque Terre National Park. There are five coastal villages hanging onto cliffs overlooking the sea – Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Moterosso. No cars are allowed in but there is a coastal walk along the cliffs linking all the villages. Each town has a railway station so you can walk as far as you like then chicken out and get the train if you’ve had enough. The total distance is only nine kilometres but that turned out to be quite deceptive……..

We decided to go for it and took the 8.30am train from our local station here to the furthest village – Riomaggiore (just north of La Spezia, 35 min ride) – and set off along the coastal route to the next one. It was a lovely easy walk, 1k, along a modern path half way up the cliffs overlooking the sea – took about twenty minutes and the views were gorgeous. The sea was like a millpond.

Had a quick look round the village of Manarola and then set off to the next one – Corniglia. A bit harder this time – a mountain trail with some ups and downs, 1k, took us about an hour including the 375 steps at the end to get up to the village square where we had a coffee stop.

Off we went again and then it got serious!  4k to Vernazza, along very rough, sometimes very steep, mountain trails and stone steps up and down through olive groves. We went high above the sea and it was very hard work in the sun but worth it for the spectacular views.  We could see Vernazza in the distance way below us as we approached  and the desire for a lunch-stop got stronger with every step.  Took us two hours. Arrived down in the harbour square and found a lovely Trattoria and sat down thankfully to some great pasta – and lots of water! Talked to some people during our meal who told us that we were brave to do it all in one day and that the best was yet to come!

Suitably re-fuelled, we set off on the last leg to Moterosso. More of the same – hot sun, even steeper climbs, even rougher tracks sometimes only a foot wide but the views were even more spectacular. We could see Moterosso in the distance but it didn’t seem to be getting any nearer….. 3k took us two and a half hours so you get the idea ………  (this included a fifteen minute stop with an entrepreneurial farmer selling fresh lemon squash (made while we watched) from a little table half way along one of the steepest bits. Good man).

Arrived in Moterosso worn out but pleased with our achievement and got straight onto the 4.30pm train for the (shorter) ride back to Deiva Marina and arrived back in time to see the sun set over the sea. Marvellous.  Entrance to the National Park was 8.50€ each which included the trains. We had a lovely day, the weather was brilliant and the walking was great, but doing it all in one go meant we didn’t have much time to explore the villages – next time perhaps. Our photographs don’t do the scenery justice but you’ll get an idea. Recommend to anyone coming to the area.

 

Left early on Tuesday 18^th for the short, 200k, journey to Sam Remo. Rain for most of the way (we were so lucky yesterday!) as we made our way back along the motorway of tunnels. We remembered there were loads of them from our journey going the other way and this time we were sad enough to count them – would you believe 138 tunnels varying from 75 to 1910 metres in length (probably a few more that we may have missed whilst chatting). Must have cost a fortune to build them all – paid a bit towards it in tolls though - 28€ this time.

 

Staying on the same Camping Cheque site in San Remo as before – the first time we’ve re-visited anywhere – just overnight, then an early start in the morning to Lyon. It’s a long way, probably seven hours towing, so we might change our minds and stop off at Avignon overnight on the way.

 

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