NEWS FLASH - Read All About It!

Our local newspaper, The Northern Echo and North East Living Magazine has done an article on our 2-year motorhome travels around Europe and North Africa. You can read the article on line (pages 98-99) -  North East Living Magazine [Link]

Hope you enjoy reading the article.

Sally x

Back on the Road - Year 2

After a relaxing 2 months back in the UK catching up with family and friends (after our 11 month tour around Europe and North Africa last year), we are back on our motorhome travels again.  We had planned to set off earlier, but we had to arrange some repairs for Sonny (our motorhome) from damage he had incurred last September whilst in Croatia.  Leaving a Croatian campsite, he got into a bit of a fight with the corner of a toilet block and suffered damage to the awning.  Our initial thoughts were that the repairs would only cost us a couple of hundred pounds to fix when we got back to the UK in December.  Luckily, we informed our insurance company at the time as having got it assessed back home, it turned out to be nearly £5,000 of damage, which includes 50 hours of labour - ouch!

Sonny's damaged awning and the Croatian toilet block!

The parts have taken longer to come than anticipated so with the approval of the insurance company we are going to get the repairs done when we come back to the UK in July (for a wedding), to save us hanging around.

We left Darlington on Friday 27January, had a weekend stopover in Stamford to see my 2 brothers and their family then we were on our way once again on Monday morning.

With the weather being wet and windy we opted for the channel tunnel rather than the ferry and booked our Eurotunnel ticket for Tuesday morning, 9:20am. so spent the night on the Aire at Dover, Marina Parade (N51.12350 E1.31710).

The Aire at Dover

There are no facilities here but it's fairly quiet and comfortable.  Being a cold night (2°C) we put the gas heating on, however it decided not to work!  Mel did a quick check of our Gaslow tanks and worked out that having had the habitation check last month they hadn’t been opened up fully.  PHEW, problem resolved and we had heating!  Like last year, I am sure we are going to encounter some more of these little problems along the way but the main thing is trying to figure out the problem calmly.

It’s only a 20 minute drive to Folkestone, so alarm set for 7.30am, we were up washed, dressed, fed and watered and on our way by 8.20am.  Leaving Dover, parked up all along the road to the ferry port were lots of French lorries.  Mel said he had read something about a strike in France over something that would affect lorry drivers – the French seem to love a strike!

Getting the Eurotunnel is a very quick and easy way to get across to France and relaxing too as you can just sit in the comfort of the motorhome enjoying a cuppa!

All aboard the Eurotunnel!

Thirty five minutes later we are in France!  It was 3°C and sunny leaving Folkestone and when we arrived in Calais it was still sunny and 10°C – so that was a bonus.  First stop was the Carrefour, which is just a couple of kilometres from the Eurotunnel.  Once stocked up with delicious bread, cheese, wine, cakes and some other necessities we were on our way.  We were in no hurry but for ease took the motorway most of the way, it was so quiet and on some parts we were the only vehicle on the road.

A deserted motorway heading south from Calais

A bit of a boring stretch but was made easier by getting out the quiz book to pass the time and keep those little grey cells working!

We parked up for the night on an Aire at Le Sap (N48.89525 E0.33249) about 30kms south of Rouen.  It’s a free Aire beside a little lake that includes water, waste disposal and electric – thank you France!

Not only that we didn’t have to level off using our ramps as it was perfectly level front, back and sides!

Our little motorhome spirit level showing that we are perfectly level

Parked up next to us were another Brit couple from Scotland, who were heading down to Spain and around Portugal for 3 months to get away from the wet and cold winter of the UK.  This seems the norm for a lot of people with motorhomes these days.

They set off early this morning, but we had a lazy one and finally hit the road just before noon. It was raining by this time and didn’t let up all afternoon, so we decided to do a short stretch to a place called Arnage, just past Le Mans.

It's a small free Aire by the side of the River Sarthe that only takes 2 motorhomes, with free drinking water and toilet and waste disposal. Our neighbours for the night are a French couple in a camper van. There would be a picture, but it is raining ‘cats and dogs’ so I will hopefully take one in the morning and post it on the next blog!

Sally x

The cost of 11 months travelling around Europe and North Africa in our motorhome

We are back in the UK having spent 329 days travelling around Europe and North Africa in our motorhome - Sonny.  We took the Amsterdam to Newcastle ferry a few days ago and given the time of year, we were fortunate enough to have a smooth and 'sick-free' trip.  Since getting back in the UK we have been mindful to drive on the left-hand side of the road, although there has been one occasion where we drifted to the right!

Waiting in line for the ferry at Amsterdam to take us back to the UK

Our trip started on 27 December 2016, when we left the UK and headed south to Punta Umbria, in the Andalucia region of Spain.  We got there in just under 4 days (1,666miles/ 2665.6kms), as we wanted to see in the New Year with our son and his girlfriend.

Our trip lasted just under 11 months (329 days), in which time we visited 20 countries.  A list below gives you all the countries we visited and the length of time we stopped in them.

COUNTRIES	DAYS/NIGHTS
France	9
Spain	86
Portugal	7
Gibraltar	5
Morocco	39
Andorra	Didn’t stop overnight - (1 day)
Italy	43
Sicily	21
Greece	16
Bulgaria	22
Romania	6
Serbia	3
Croatia	24
Slovenia	7
Hungary	9
Slovakia	3
Austria	4
Czech Republic	4
Germany	16
Holland	5
TOTAL:	329

If you are a fan of facts and figures, below is a breakdown of our travels:

Our Budget

Before setting off we calculated what our daily/weekly spend would be, based on our income received through private pensions and renting out the house.  It gave us a set yearly budget of £16,000, approx €17,900 (€49 a day).  Some days/weeks we went over, and sometimes under but we didn’t let it dictate whether we would eat out, go on campsites or pay to go into places.  After all this was an adventure that might not come around again, and we wanted to make the most out every opportunity we had (within reason!).  Our budget is there as a guide to stop us thinking we could spend on anything and everything, although if needed we are fortunate enough to be able to dip into our savings.

We have met some interesting and inspiring people along the way and like-minded people who travel around for a few months at a time.  However, we didn’t meet anyone who had been out for nearly a year, like us and more often than not Sonny’s sticker map of where we had been became a topic of conversation between us and them.

Before setting off, we set up a spreadsheet to record what we spent daily and the formulas calculate the cost of everything on a weekly basis.  We also log our mileage and places we have stopped, number of nights etc.  Mel manages all of this and has mastered it well, so it only takes a few minutes a day to log.  We didn’t want it to become onerous, but something we could look back at every so often to see what we were spending most of our money on - usually food and alcohol!

The figures don’t include the servicing, insurance and MOT for the motorhome and scooter but purely costs incurred whilst we have been travelling.

Countries Visited

We started off by spending quite a few weeks in Spain with our Son, as we hadn't seen him in a long while.  From here we popped across the border into Portugal – only an hour’s drive from where he lives, and sauntered around the Algarve for a week.  Then it was back into Spain and we headed east around the coast.  We spent a few days in Gibraltar before catching the ferry from Algeciras to Morocco.  We followed the west coast as far south as Essaouira before turning east into the Middle Atlas Mountains and across to the Sahara Dessert and the fantastic dunes of Erg Chebbi (Merzouga) - where we spent an amazing night under the stars!  We then spent another couple of weeks heading north back up to Tangier Med Port.  In total, 39 fabulous days in our favourite country so far visited.

It was then back into Spain and we headed North, across the Andorra pass, into the south of France along the coast and into Italy.  We spent just over 3 weeks following the west coastline down near to Calabria where we caught the ferry to Sicily.  Temperatures in Sicily regularly got to 40°C and became a bit too hot for us, so after 3 weeks we got the ferry back to Italy and made our way around the boot and to Bari.  From here another ferry took us into Greece, where we toured the mainland for a few weeks and made the most of all the wild camping you can do here on the beaches.  We loved Greece and will definitely be back to see more!  Leaving Greece we spent 3 weeks in Bulgaria, including a fantastic week with our daughter and boyfriend on the Black sea.  Then it was across many borders travelling around Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Holland.  A fantastic time was spent in all of these countries (ranging from 3 days to 24 days) and you can click on any of the countries down the right-hand side of the blog (under Labels) if you would like to read more.

In total, we have covered a distance of 12,897 Miles (20635.2 Kilometres). 

Number Crunching

Below is a Pie Chart of where our money went:

As you can see most of it was spent on eating and drinking out and in the supermarket, with fuel a close second.  Our cheapest diesel purchased was in Morocco/Andorra €0.90 a litre, and the most expensive was in Italy at €1.39 per litre.  We averaged 31.8 miles per gallon (too tricky to work out in litres!).

There is a category you will notice as ‘other’, these are expenses that didn’t slot into the other categories, such as purchasing of: cooking utensils (chopping boards, electric whisk, glasses, knives) a few bits of clothing (T-shirts/jumpers), postcards home, haircuts, a couple of sessions of physio and massage (for Mel who suffered in the early days with a trapped nerve in his shoulder) and a couple of other minor bits and pieces.

Where we spent our nights:

The campsites we stayed on were reasonable. as we were able to use our ACSI discount card – prices ranged from €13 a night to €19 plus tourist tax, which varied from country to country.  In Croatia we didn’t have a choice, as wild camping is prohibited and it was mostly campsites in Morocco, as they were so cheap.

And the final cost of our 11 months away was, drum roll please...............
€16,717.90 (£14,926.70) -  £45.37 (€50.81) a day.

Would we do it all again?  You bet we would and we're already planning for year 2!

For now though Sonny is parked up on a friend’s drive, whilst we are living with our daughter and boyfriend.  Everything has been unpacked and Sonny has had a full service and MOT, and is drained down for the British winter.  He has had his repairs assessed and will hopefully get these done early January when the parts arrive and then we will be off again.Until then will busy ourselves with preparing for Christmas and planning our travel destinations for next year.

Thanks for following the blog so far and hopefully I have shared things with you that you have found interesting.  However, there are somethings that have happened in the motorhome on the way that will remain in the motorhome - as our little sign says below!

"What happens in the camper stays in the camper!"

So, all that is left to say for this year is to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and we will blog again next year.

Cheers!

Sally and Mel x

First Stop Callengeville, France

We set off on our 2-year adventure from Darlington on 27 December 2016 at 9:15 to catch the 17:20 Euro shuttle train.  We were told that this was one of the busiest days to travel and they weren’t wrong!  The A1 wasn’t too bad but the M11 and M25 was gridlock.  A journey that would normally take about 5 ½ hours took nearly 7 ½ and it was touch and go if we would make it in time.  However, with Stirling Moss (aka Mel) behind the wheel for the last leg of the journey we made it - phew!

We’ve always used the ferry to get across the channel as I'm a bit claustrophobic and being in an underwater train has never filled me with confidence, so the Eurotunnel was going to be a whole new experience.  Once through passport control, and gas checks for the motorhome done we were surprised to just drive onto a train through a side door, down what can only be described as a long corridor and 5 minutes later we were on our way.

For those who haven't been on before, I have taken a little video:

Some 30 minutes later we were in France, straight off the train and on the road to our first overnight stop.  We had the coordinates (E1°30'51" N 49°50'01") in the sat nav to the Aire (parking stops for motorhomes) and got to the village about 20:30 only to find the coordinates taking us down a dirt track in pitch black to some French farmers field - don't you just love sat navs!!
Approx 2kms later we were able to turn around and go back to the village, spotted another motorhome parked up and figured that was the Aire.  Just over 11 hours and 415 miles of travelling we were exhausted.  So it was a quick bite to eat and an early night, as we had another long day ahead tomorrow.

Sonny, the motorhome parked up for the night at Callengeville Aire

We need to be in Punta Umbria, Spain for 31 December, ready for new year celebrations with our son, his girlfriend and her family.  We have allowed 4 days to travel approximately 1700 miles and will be using motorways nearly all the way, so unfortunately, we will miss all the scenic parts but needs must.

We are aiming for Biarritz tomorrow, so fingers crossed the roads are a lot quieter that the UK!

Sally x