World Tour Pt.1 (Europe)
5/4/06
Lots has happened since the
last time I played on the computer and its been a while. We are currently in
Saint-Cyprien in the south of France. Its our second visit here and the weather
is much nicer this time warm enough for a naked chap to stroll around. The last
time we came here was in march and it rained so our idea to dry out and warm up
failed. We have now left Andorra and are steadily heading north via south for
the ferry on the 23rd! A few days before we were due to leave Andorra, Duncan
and Jo (friends from home) decided to visit Girona for a few days on £40
flights from Prestwick so we took them to a few places we had already visited
and found a few really nice new places to camp, seemingly only occupied by very
talkative frogs and in the morning semi-naked, semi-gay French men. We abandoned
Dunc, Jo and their tent in Cadaques and headed north yesterday.
We were stopped by the police in Andorra just before we left on a busy
roundabout and blocked an entire lane for 10 minutes. Then we were stopped on
the Spanish border by a nice man who admired the canoe for a few moments, forgot
why we were there and what he was doing and wandered away. Then we were stopped
again today in France again on a roundabout by 9000 police men who mixed up our
driving licenses and got a bit upset. No problems. All good fun!
The gang of freaks we were parked with in Andorra is diminishing quickly, 3 vans
left a few weeks ago and another 2 last week and with us leaving a few days ago
there are only 4 vans and a caravan left, 2 vans are due to leave in the next
week. 3 of the people who should be in the vans are in prison and could be there
for some time. We still haven't heard from the judge about Cathryn's ski pass,
so if it takes that long for a piece of paper, then it could take the somewhat
slow judicial system some time to deal with entire humans.
Marie, one of our neighbours in Andorra brought us cans of juice and three
perfectly good loaves of bread all from a giant box in the bins near the vans.
The box was shared out between us all, 24 cans for each person! Most was only
nearly out of date! We went to France a few weekends ago for a party which was
really good, it was nice to wake up in the morning too and find nothing frozen
we even had liquid water! Back in Andorra, 2 of our friends got jobs in a bar
where the drinks (with no boss around) were nice and free. Between 10 and 12 it's really quiet and usually really
blurry! I can now
snowboard backwards (sometimes) and Cathryn sometimes flies. I miss the snow now
we have moved and sometimes find myself walking sideways or trying to slide.
Cathryn does not miss the snow as much and is glad to finally have normal
coloured feet. We took Lucy and Justin (the two who work in the bar) snowboarding
a few weeks before we left, Lucy had
done it before 10 years ago and Justin had never done anything before (not even
a full days work!) bed is just too comfortable. Lucy hadn't forgotten what she
already knew and Justin picked it up very quickly and was soon flying through
the air into a belly flop (which broke his rib (oopps!!)). It was lots of fun (for us)!
The snow was getting very poor the few days before we left and everything was
melting, this made it much easier to leave. It was very sad though to leave
all our new friends behind, most of who are stuck until their partners get out
of prison. Hopefully we shall see them all soon in another adventure.
We have been giving our next adventure much thought. We are planning (like we
did before we left to go down the coast of France!) to make a small visit to
Africa in maybe two years. If anyone is interested in joining us in the best
adventure imaginable please e-mail, if
we like you then you can show us how to get there! We have considered a few
vehicles for the job of a long adventure in the harsh conditions of Africa, a
Unimog or similar truck is looking like the most likely buy. We're too used to
living with plenty of room to live in a Landrover or similar sized 4x4.
It just started raining!
25/1/06
As you may have noticed, updates
haven't really been happening. After writing the last one we went to an internet
cafe and asked if we could plug the laptop in. It seems the locals here are even
more in the dark than those on Skye, after marveling at the laptop for a while
they said no and no to putting a CD with the site on in to their computers.
Never mind. We'll try again tonight, the new year might have brought new
technology! Well Andorra, 6 weeks here. We're both really enjoying it. Apart
from been robbed by the police of 418 euros, not been able to move for 3 weeks
and having a completely broken generator, its really good! Christmas was very
nice and very white. We had a great day, drinking and sledging. We both got lots
of lovely presents off Santa which he left under our Christmas tree suspended
from the ceiling. On new years eve we met 11 people with
11 dogs in 6 vans and went down the hill to park with them, after 3 hours trying
to park where we wanted, we got completely stuck in a metre of snow. After that
we decided to stay for the season. We're 50 metres from the road and between us
and the road is lots of snow. We had a very good, unexpected night with our new
friends. Now we have been joined by 5 more people in 2 vans with 6
more dogs, quite a little community! Where we are parked is France, right on
the border and the French police are too far away and don't care so we never see the police any
more!
We bought season lift passes each for the week days, half the price without weekends!
We go out every day and are slowly improving! I jumped from 3 metres high the
day before yesterday and landed on my face so I can definitely say I'm improving
and Cathryn did a somersault over a jump and landed on her head so she too is
almost professional! We've not taken many photos while we've been here because
it's too cold to hold the camera and we fall over lots still when we're
snowboarding and I'm not sure that taking the video camera up is a good idea
just yet! The sun wakes us up when it reaches the van in the morning at 10.20
with its warming rays! We found a swimming pool, gym, Jacuzzi, sauna and Turkish
bath for 7euros per day just up the hill from the van a little bit, which means
we can go up every Sunday and be cleansed! The snow is becoming less with all
the blue sky and sun we have everyday, there has been no snow for just over a
week and although its still over a metre outside the van we long for more! We're
still, half heartedly, looking for jobs. We can manage (just) without a job so
can't really be bothered looking as hard as we could. If this update happens and
we can upload, it could be the last one for a while, it depends how easy it
turns out to be. See y'all soon.
20/12/05
We spent the last few days in Salou
eating and drinking very well, trying our best to build up our fat for Andorra!
We succeeded and left Salou on Saturday afternoon feeling very full and very sad
after saying bye to Cathryn's Mummy and Daddy and Niko and Marjorie. Salou was
17 ºC when we left, when we arrived in Andorra it was a mild
-4ºC. Since then, the warmest it's been is 3ºC! Every morning we wake up there
are icicles growing from the ceiling, the 30litre water tank became solid after
our first night, the olive oil is too thick to pour and the fridge hasn't been
switched on since we arrived. The snow is brilliant! Really deep and soft. We
went snowboarding the first full day after we arrived in Soldeu. The pistes are
huge and there are loads of them. The sun shone really nice all day. We wrote
our CV's and went to print them off in an internet cafe. We handed a few around
and every time we were told that to get a job in Andorra you have to have police
papers, without these you cannot get a job. They take up to 2 months to arrive!
Bugger!
We found a free piste which
belonged to a hotel, you had to be in the hotel to use it, no one seemed to mind
too much though! We were soon bored however and went off to build a jump. We are
both very very good at jumps and nearly landed one! We drove after that to Pas
de la Casa. Much nicer than the car park in Soldeu. We are 2218 metres high,
with a brilliant view of... everything! We went shopping in Pas, really nice
little town, loads of cheap stuff. A 2litre bottle of Jack Daniels is about
£20!! We appear to attract a lot of police attention parked where we are, they
keep driving round having loads of fun in the snow!
My moustache froze, it was very cold! We went up the hill behind where the van
is parked to board down, it took ages to get there, the snow was really deep. On
the way down all was going well, I overtook Cathryn nice and fast and hit a
steep patch which ended abruptly and made me fly and land on my knee and my
head. Cathryn laughed. Luckily
Cathryn fell over the day after going really slowly! Heh!
The van failed to start. It doesn't like the cold and the battery was a little
low. So we got out the generator and started it up. Some little silly plastic
thing attached to the starting cord broke. 2 hours later in -8ºC
with frozen superglue the generator worked again! Started it again tonight to
charge my computer while writing this and after a little while it made a loud
bang and switched off. The little plastic thing had disintegrated. I managed to
start it with the drill however which luckily was charged enough to use! Very
annoying, will have to find a lawnmower shop or something, not much call for
lawnmowers in Andorra though. Looks like we'll have to keep the drill charged!
Looking forward to Christmas. This will be the last contact with the outside
world until next time and next time will probably be after Christmas. If so HAPPY
CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!
08/12/05
We didn't stay in the Camargue
long, it was too fenced off to explore much so we left on the 21st. Drove
through Nimes and met the biggest load of traffic since we left. Stopped for the
night next to an old football pitch with knee-high grass near Sommiliere. We had
decided to spend a week near a lake we found on the map. We stopped in Sete on
the way to have a look round and met the first people since we left who were
traveling and weren't really old and miserable! They had really nice, huge
trucks. We stayed the night in a car park which filled with a billion campers in
no time at all. We left Sete at 2ish and went fishing, certain to catch some
monsters. No fish in the med! We went again in search of the lakes. It was
beginning to get dark and we were driving round in circles (we appear to be
quite good at circles!) so we stopped at a lake in Salagoo. Left early and went
lake hunting again. Followed the map up a huge hill covered in black ice and
surrounded by pillars of icicles to the top where it began to snow. We made a
decision not to risk getting stuck so we abandoned our quest for the lakes and
left the mountain!
We drove for the rest of the day Spain wards. Everything was starting to look
very Spanish. Stopped again to catch some fish. Nothing again! We passed a 508
and waved to the odd looking couple jumping up and down waving back. Decided it
was safer not to stop too near them and drove into St. Georges Gorges. Very
nice, not too good to drive a truck through though, bit of low rock in places!
Spent the night in a big parking place next to a noisy river. We decided to
change our intended route so that we could go to Perpignan to find a foot doctor
to fix Cathryn's mouldy feet. We passed the couple with the 508 again and
recognised them straightaway because they were still doing the crazy, wavy
dance. We decided to stop if we saw the van so we could rescue it from the
people who were obviously not fit to drive such a nice vehicle. We spotted it
and jumped out. Just as we were about to break in and rescue the van they ran
round the corner and captured us. We remained captive for 8 days. It happened
something like that anyway! Our captors (Niko and Marjorie) turned out to be
very nice. They are from Zaansdam in Holland.
We drove in convoy to Perpignan, got lost and left. We went to Cadaques instead!
Crossing the border was interesting, the border was big and had chaps with guns.
Surprisingly we both got stopped, just checked our passports and let us go
however. The Spanish police seem nice enough. It was great meeting people again
and gave us all a great excuse to waste money in a bar! We met the Prodigal son.
He was from Germany, in his 50's and had cycled 3000km. Understandably his mind
was a little messed up! We staggered home in torrential rain while Niko drunkenly
reminded us all that "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains." I
went for an early morning walk to hunt some bread. On the way back I met Niko
also after a successful hunt. Bread was the main food of the day. We got moved
by the police from a nice quiet spot where we wouldn't have bothered anything to
the town centre where a campfire would probably upset a Mayor on a scooter
(mayors travel on scooters!) We went fishing. Still no fish. Bought 2 litres of
port for 5.80 Euro! Speaking of cheap fuel, 0.92 Euro! I fell in the sea off a
cliff. They all found it most funny especially my bruised bum! We went home
drowned our fish-free sorrows and slept! Me and Niko went fishing early the next
morning with the intention of impressing our women folk. We came back 3 hours
later a few spinners less and no fish. We feared for our lives. The police saved
us before the ladies could kill us and moved us from where they had moved us to
because it was market day! We saw Salvador Dali's house and wandered through
Cadaques, the sun had beaten the rain and it was lovely. So lovely in fact that
we decided to go for a swim. Jumped in off the end of a pier in shorts whilst a
crowd of coat, hat, scarf and glove toting Spaniards gathered in wonderment. It
was lovely and warm! We visited the market in the morning and bought a bucket.
We left that afternoon to find a beach and have a fire. We ended up in
Aiguablava. It was really nice. We had a fire on the beach with sandy potatoes
thrown on! The place was deserted. We decided to stay another day so me and Niko
went hunting for bread again. We ended up traveling 8km. We managed to hitch a
lift all the way back to the van though. Cathryn and Marjorie found shells and
jellyfish and made food while we dug a hole, built a windbreak and a fire. The
windbreak however just made the smoke swirl and choked us! Still, we had a great
time! We left the beach the next morning and headed to Girona. We eventually
arrived and spent ages driving in big circles trying to find somewhere to park.
We wandered round the city and climbed the wall. It's not a very big city, nice
though. We met Niko and Marjorie's friend Matthies. We went to a little bar for
a drink and some food. We didn't manage to find food however and got drunk. We
got up nice and early and had a shower at one of Matthies's friends house. We
found Mr. Carlos's wallet on a riverbed and Cathryn solved her mouldy foot
problem at last - bad circulation! We ate another nice meal in the vans and fell
asleep instantly! When we woke up it was wet and windy so, we watched The League
Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Shrek 2. What a lazy day. Eventually we struggled
to our feet and went to eat a pizza. We found a really nice Brazilian place and
had a great meal. We had decided to leave early in the morning to go to Salou.
We ended up leaving at 12 after visiting the markets and saying bye to our
captors. We planned to meet up again sometime soon though so it wasn't too bad.
We drove a very scenic route to Salou, the plan was to avoid the motorway. We
did! We arrived and spent nearly 2hours looking for the apartment. The view is
good, you can see a big hole and lots of cranes! Salou is a nice place, easy to
get lost in when you're driving because of all the one ways. We have played
cards, drunk lots and eaten more, we went to Barcelona yesterday and met Niko
and Marjorie. They took us on a guided tour, the only payment for which was a
bath in the apartment! They were supposed to be leaving early this morning to
meet us in Salou, no sign of them yet!
We are going to stay in Salou until Saturday when we will be leaving to go to
Andorra!!! Can't wait.
20/11/05
Not too cold, everything was frozen in the morning though, -3.6 at 9am! Sat in the van now in shorts in the toasty Mediterranean! Drove most of the day yesterday, 90% of the time in circles. Got to the Camargue just in time for a spiffing sunset on the Rhone on the most pointless ferry ever! Saw some flamingos flying silhouetted against the dimming sky. We slept in a little car park for walkers, nice and quiet apart from the several hundred hunters shooting stuff next to the van. Went for a walk today, had to tiptoe everywhere because there were millions of people watching the birds and wildlife. Fed wild horses after running away from tigers that were hiding in the reeds and went for a cycle. Just in a parking place next to Le Petit Rhone, probably staying in the Camargue for the next few days.
18/11/05
We did go on the boat, after missing it the first time! We got
off on the other side (St.Bartholoma) for a walk and found a huge ice dome, it
was just like a cave made of ice! It was raining heavily inside and my attempts to
film it were met with a soaked camera and me falling over! Don't try to climb
looking through a view finder! We sprinted back to the boat and found a dog, we
called it Jack Russel. Never use the internet cafe in Berchtesgaden, I nearly
destroyed the place, all was fine until my battery ran out on my laptop and the
other computer I was using decided to turn off then come on asking for a
password. Tried to find the owner to no avail so wasted my money, still, got the
website on. Didn't get chance to check my emails or anything though! Left
Berchtesgaden in a bad mood and drove into Austria!
Its great in Austria, they
all speak English and have great sausages and huge hills and snow and fresh
milk! We found a big car park at the end of a tiny road. We decided to get
up early and climb a big hill. When we woke up it was freezing so we wrapped up
really well and set off. After about 10 minutes we realised we had made a big
mistake, it was roasting! We got about half way up and spotted loads of snow on
the horizon. We set off back to the van and went on a snow finding expedition!
It got dark and icy so that was the end of the expedition for today plus the
fact that we were twice the size of the 13km long tunnel we needed to go through
and so had to turn round and go all the way back we had just driven!
It was a very cold night and when we woke up everything was
frozen, the curtains were stuck to the windows and even the water in the kettle
had become rather solid! After the long defrosting we set off after the snow
again. Reached the Italian border, the snow within a small stretch of a long
arm... the road was closed! Ah well, back to Germany then!
We eventually reached Konstanz, we stopped in a forest and
found a Grilplatz. (its a great idea, designated fire spots in the forest, a
concrete circle about 1.5 meters wide and half a meter high covered by a really
cool shelter thing with three sides and a chimney. Benches surround the fire
under the shelter too.) We had a great time having fires walking and riding our
bikes. We met a German woman walking her dog in the forest, she managed to chat
to us for ages in German without even noticing we didn't understand or speak a
word! We stayed there for three days and were very fit and worn out by the time
we left!
We stopped in Titisee for a while and then said good bye to
lovely Germany (with great sadness) and hello to smelly France (with great
sadness!)
Cathryn drove for the first time since we left Scotland! She
really enjoyed it. Not half as scary as she had imagined!
We went to a swimming pool to infect its waters with our
stinking bodies, all was looking good, we were going to be clean! Men have to
wear trunks in French pools! TRUNKS?? Ha! We didn't go swimming! Spent the night
in Chambery in a quarry... a working quarry! It was very noisy in the morning!
Went to Albertville and bought me some trunks (yes we did smell bad enough for
me to wear trunks!) Swimming was cleansing, not fun though, the French swim up
and down in neat lines, no splashing and no talking, we didn't fit in too well!
Slept in a service station next to an abandoned Merc 100 from which I scavenged
a full bottle of oil, an oil cap and probably some nasty diseases! The Alps look
huge and are covered in snow and we are really high just now, hopefully we'll be
able to move tomorrow! We went to Val d'isere today, of course we dressed appropriately
in tee-shirts and shorts because it was sunny (having learnt from Austria)! It
was -2.8 and windy! Not open for snow sports until the 3rd :( Slowly heading
towards The Camargue now then on to Spain!
7/11/05
We have made it to Konigssee... Problem free (ish). We're both fine and having fun. The latest updates of the website might be going online tomorrow, Cathryn has spotted an internet cafe with a wifi hotspot. Hopefully be nice and cheap! Konigssee would be the most amazing place in the world if it wasn't for the McDonalds situated on the edge of the lake! Going on the boat through the lake tomorrow so we should see and hear nothing once away from the village! Can't wait, the views are fantastic. It was really misty when we arrived but as the day went on the mist lifted and showed stunning mountains lit at the tops by the sun. Hope its nice tomorrow!
6/11/05
In a service station in Munich right now, just about to have
our tea and watch a DVD.
After all the luck of the last few days we thought we might get a break. We
stopped to go for a walk down a big hill in the forest next to a waterfall. As
we got out of the van Cathryn spotted a hissing noise coming from the passenger
side front tyre. Surprisingly this turned out to be a puncture. We left it to get
on with its happy hissing and went for a lovely walk. We were given nuts by a
man in a box with a scooter. There were loads and tons and lots of red
squirrels, loads of jays and a few nutcrackers (birds that crack nuts!). Upon
our return to the van we were shocked to find that one of the tyres had become
rather low! After blowing it up we went to a garage a couple of km down the
hill. It was a Mercedes garage (Triberg) if you ever happen to visit these
parts, avoid this garage. They managed to get the wheel off without too much
trouble. However when it came to fitting the tube that we had supplied they
managed to rip it to shreds! Oopps said the nice man as he showed it to me. We
gave him our last tube and prayed they could manage to do such a tricky job
without endangering their lives. Once we left 1hour and 20 minutes later and had
a quick stop to tighten some very loose wheel nuts we were on our way again. We
went to see a little castle in Hornberg, it was really nice, excellent views of
the forest. It was dark when we left so we turned onto a little single track
road to find a nice spot to sleep, we spent ages driving up an almost vertical
road (built by pouring tarmac from a helicopter through the trees) which had no passing places or anywhere to turn round. When we eventually
reached the top it was flat so we stopped! When morning arrived it was very
misty and all the trees were dripping. It was Cathryn's birthday so we left our
hilltop and headed for a village so we could go for a nice meal. After nearly
buying some cuckoo clocks and spending ages looking for a bank we found a nice
little cafe and sat down to look a the menu and guess at what the long foreign
words meant. The food (whatever it was) was nice. After driving for several more
hours we found a quiet spot of forest and had a bottle of candle lit champagne
in the freezing cold forest sat on a log! It was really nice. Stopped in
Wildberg today to see Angela who Cathryn used to work with and had a nice walk,
Cathryn surprisingly wants to live there! Then we set off for Berchtesgaden.
Screaming along the Autobahn in a 3.8 Merc, the thing of childhood dreams!
Overtook a car today!
3/11/05
There is more to the world than midges, rain and clouds!
Europe baby!
UK- On the way to Dover we stopped in York after a short but very nice convoy with my brothers 410. We went to the Jorvik centre to visit the Vikings, very nice and very smelly... authentic! Cathryn loved York and said "I could live here!" Then on to Belton where I grew up, pretty much the same, bit rougher than I remembered though. We cycled lots and went fishing, I think the fish have moved! After Belton we set off towards Dover but got bored and ended up in Gedney Drove End at the Wash. We eventually found a nice quiet spot and spent the night on an M.O.D firing range! In the morning we looked at the map and found a nice little spot called Hunstanton, it looked like there might be nice places to walk or cycle. Apart from the cool amphibious trucks it was crap. I would advise anyone not to visit, unless of course you're a handkerchief headed fat, bald chap and the annual holiday to Kos was a little too much for state benefits to pay for! Arrived in Dover at about 9, had an Indian then went for a pint, the last one for a while, its all metric here! Spent a day in Dover, nice place, trout in a little river in the centre! Went up the white cliffs where it decided to rain... hard! So we watched lightning for 3 hours from the safety of the van! Got on the ferry, some were canceled because of the fine weather, the crossing was fine, the waves were huge!
Europe - Good fun getting off the ferry,
the breaks on the passenger side front wheel which enjoy locking on decided this
was a good time to do so, the tyre made a lovely squealing noise on the nice
shiny wet floor, it went well with the screaming of the fan belt anyway! France
is different, they drive on the wrong side of the road, the traffic lights go
green-amber-red then straight to green, you aim for pedestrians on zebra
crossings and the camber on the road is the other way, apart from this and the
fact the French are mental, its all fine!
We got to sleep on a tiny road near Calais at about
4am, only to find out at 7am that the tiny road was used as a main road and
70billion crazy French commuters were all trying to get down it at once! That
was the end of a good nights sleep. We set off for Normandy to visit Marie and
Lorna. On the way we stopped to go for a walk on a huge beach, it was very windy
however and most of the beach ended up in our eyes! We spent a few hours there staring
at the massive waves and watching some crazy dudes kite surfing, loads of fun, I
wanted to play! We slept at the side of the road on a grassy patch in the middle
of nowhere because we were lost and we were to tired to even try find us.
Ten minutes after setting off from our "lost"
position we were at Marie's drowning on alcohol! We stayed there for a few days
and saw more alcohol than I knew existed, a gigantic downpour and thunderstorm
whilst stood in some trees fishing, contrary to belief, trees don't shelter you
from rain and we survived so proved that they don't conduct lightning. Once
dried we went to Paris, it was really nice to see and with a guided tour
courtesy of Cathryn we fitted in all of the nice places to see in one day
without the aid of buses or trains! Upon our return to the house we were roped
in to helping pile all of its contents into a couple of vans, once complete we
all moved to Brittany!
Their new house was lovely, loads of trees, loads of land and
loads of sun. We visited a lovely little beach at Ploumanach for the day built
hammocks and s**t in the woods! Cathryn loved Ploumanach and said "I could
live here!" We went back to the house after a really nice time. We stole
sweet corn and went joyriding on Jean Jacque's sit on lawn mower. Then we left.
We took Lorna (and nearly Marine (Marie's niece) who decided she'd had enough of
school and wanted to come too) to catch a plane in Beauvais. After getting lost
on the road to Rouen (road to ruin) and a mad dash to the airport before the
plane departed, we discovered that some fool had decided that today was a good
day to put the clocks back. Hours early and starving, we went for a slap up meal
at McDonalds!
On our way again we totally changed our route, instead of
heading down the coast we decided to visit a little forest near Compiegne for a
cycle, it was a fantastic day and we had a great time, even when Cathryn thought
we would be lost in the forest forever! Cathryn loved the forest and said
"I could live here!". We spent that night in a field after promising a
nice farmer we wouldn't leave any mess. I buried my poo well that night, he
might have taken out number plate! We nearly got to Reims the next day but
hurtling along the motorway at 70km/h had taken its toll on the van and it
decided to shed some weight. Fortunately in was only the exhaust. The pipe had
sheered off at the silencer and 3inches or so were trapped tight inside! After 2
hours of fighting with the van it finally decided it would try and accept its
new limb! Off we went with a slight roar from a 3 inch shorter, slightly squint
and sticky out exhaust! The lovely sunny day had gone and we wanted to sleep, we
stopped in a picnic area. These appear to be different in France than other
countries. This one was a small lay by with a small bush and 15cm of grass
protecting us from the road. It was on a 10% gradient and had no picnic tables.
The view however was stunning. A freshly ploughed field with two pylons protruding
from it! It did the job, we slept well!
We had decided to go to a huge forest we spotted on the map
called Lorrain with a lovely lake in the middle. The forest was a tree and all
around the lake were caravans. We decided to find somewhere better. We hid the
van in a field behind some cows and a tree. It was very brown with mud splats
all over it from hunting for a nice spots to sleep. It goes through mud quite
well and to my surprise the exhaust stayed on! We took our bikes out and hours
later found a brilliant spot in the middle of a huge forest. The next problem
was getting the van there... Easy! We had a fire, watched shooting stars, drank
beer and played chess! It was great. Cathryn loved this better forest and said
"I could live here!".
We left early and headed to see the monkeys in the hills near
Strasburg, It took ages to get there, after following millions of diversions
through crazy little villages, hills, vallys and vineyards we got there. The
monkeys were great, there were loads of them and they came to eat popcorn from
our hands (and pockets). My phone told me we were in Germany. O2-DE looks much
better on your phone than F-Bouygtel. We set off looking for a supermarket and
ended up crossing the border into Germany! Its so easy driving across a border!
No authorities anywhere! How boring! We stopped for a shower at a service
station quite close to the border. Cathryn had had a stressful day after been attacked
by monkeys and so we sat on some steps while she had a smoke. Just as we were
getting up some police came over and asked for something in German. They wanted
our passports. They were border control! After an hour we were free to go! We
went in to have a shower where we were told "Schlußen" which we
understood to mean closed. This is not to be mistaken however with the word
"Schlussen" which means key! To our surprise when we went back
in the morning we were met with the same people uttering foreign words of no
meaning! Eventually it transpired we had to get a key from upstairs! DUH! The
showers were amazing! Germany is so clean, nice and welcoming compared to
France, even if they speak do rubbish!
After our cracking showers we set off. As we left the service
station I changed gear with a loud crunch, oopps, need to buy some L plates!
When we got on the motorway I changed into warp speed gear which enables us to
do 80km/h down hill sometimes! Again I was met with a crunch and this time the
clutch pedal stayed on the floor. Oh dear I thought to myself, trying to hide my
horror till I could reach the spanner to knock Cathryn out with so she'd have no
idea that the clutch was dead again. We took the next exit off the motorway and
pulled up at the nearest available spot. After about 3 seconds underneath the
van I discovered the problem, the seal on the slave cylinder had emigrated!
Hummm.
Now to find a garage, I stood up to tell Cathryn the good news, turned round and
right opposite us was a Mercedes garage... a commercial Mercedes garage. Now I
know that Mercedes are a fairly popular make in Germany but still in the middle
of Freiberg just to breakdown opposite one astounded us! Great. 240
Euro and 3 hours later the very nice people at the most amazing garage ever,
where even the mechanics were shining with cleanness, had abducted a cylinder on
its way in a big truck somewhere in Germany and stuck it to the bottom of the
van! Off we went again, into the hills of Schwarzwald (The Black Forest). The
roads are amazing and we were very pleased to have a clutch. The houses are
really nice round here and are massive. We drove down a forest track to a
deserted bit and watched the sun set through the trees. Cathryn is convinced she
just heard a bear grunting! Right now we're sitting in the van in the trees nice
and warm and happy. Its great! We're having a great time!!
Cathryn loves it here and said "Forget the rest, I could defiantly live here!"
13/10/05
In Yorkshire now in a little place called Burton Fleming visiting my brother, sister-in-law and nieces. We spent a week in South Shields with Cathryn's family who were very nice and fed us too much food and alcohol as you can see in the photos. We had a very nice time. The weather was really good too! On the way to Burton Fleming we stopped in Whitby to have a look at the Abbey, its still there. We spent a day in Filey on the beach riding our bikes and Cathryn got shouted at for being a man in the lady's toilets! We are heading to York in the next day or two then to Belton to see my old house and catch some fish. This could be the last update before we cross the channel. If so, speak to you all soon!
3/10/05
Left Skye on the 26th. We've made it as far as Glasgow, problem free! Leaving early tomorrow for St. Andrews then on down to Newcastle. There will be a new page going on soon, it will show a map of where we have been so far and perhaps a rough indication of where we are headed.
21/9/05
The vans back, passed it MOT no problems! We've fitted the roof rack and fridge and are currently sanding and varnishing the floor. We are (probably) leaving on the 25th providing we get everything painted and shiny and packed, we've got far too much stuff! Off to do another coat of varnish now!
9/9/05
Still waiting. Crossal ordered the o/s kingpin for the van which didn't come with a thrust bearing, they've just ordered it now and with Skye's super fast delivery service looks like we'll be waiting for another week!! Still need to fit spring bushes too! Grrrr.
21/8/05
Nothing to report as yet, still on the shores of the UK, getting the van ready for its MOT should be sorted for our mid September leaving date! Leaving Skye we'll head to Glasgow and surrounding area to say bye to family and friends then on to England to visit more family in Yorkshire and friends Cornwall. Try some surfing for a few weeks then on to Dover for the 20th of October. We managed to get the van with 2 adults booked on the ferry to Calais for a mere £25! Then off down the coast of France while the weather's still good. Then to Andorra or the Alps or both for some snowboarding! That is about it as far as planning goes until march! After march? We'll see where the sun is heading!