Trip
to the Southern most tip of Croatia, Ann, John and Ollie. France,
Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and back via Luxembourg for some cheap diesel!
06/09/15
(73130:73270:140miles) Sandy to Canterbury. Canterbury Park
and Ride, New Dover Road. £3.00 CP
07/09/15
(73270:73472:202miles) Ferry Dover to Calais. Stayed on Free
Aire in Belgium (Genk - Kattevennen N50-57-26 E5-31-59) large
park for rambling, cycling and horse riding for free.
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| The Aire Genk - Kattevennen |
08/09/15 (73472:73561:89miles) Cologne stayed on Aire €10 (N50.96265 E6.98254) full to the brim. Heard funny noise to rear, found we had wide headed screw in NS tyre. Decided to put jack under to support and got bikes off for ride into city. Saw Cathedral and local historic rathaus and dwellings which had been faithfully rebuilt after the war.
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| Me and Bikes outside Cologne Station |
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| Lovely old houses and |
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| The Rathaus behind them |
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| Cologne Aire |
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| Bike Ride to Cologne Cathedral |
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| Castles on Route |
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| Campsite at Oberwesel |
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| St Goarshausen and castle above |
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| Ollie on beach at dawn |
10/09/15
Sunny day; cycled to St Goar 2kms, historic village with
ferry over to St Goarshausen for the Loreley Rock.
Lovely town with lots of history. €22.50 day
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| John and Ollie |
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| St Goar |
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| The Station |
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| Lovely houses/Pub |
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| Ferry times! |
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| Ferry |
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| The motorhome 2nd from right in back row |
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| From Loreley Rock looking down the river |
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| That Brutwurst and Beer with some really funny bread! |
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| The Lady enticing sailors to the rock |
12/09/15 Cloudy to start. Cycled 5kms to Oberwesel. Padlocked bikes visited Church of St Martin. Walked around town and ventured into Winefestival through a back street; another Bratwurst/bread roll and Oberwesel Riesling, €4 deposit on glasses. Out through entry post €3 each to enter!!! to cafe with delightful Apple Pie, Cream and Coffee. Walked around rest of town, back to bikes and home. 7pm for bus to Fireworks. 2 hour wait but was it worth it. Most amazing 20 minutes of fireworks to music, short clip shown here. Camera just can't do justice to what was seen with the naked eye. Home about 11pm usual rush and push to get on coach! €22.5 day
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| Oberwesel |
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| St Martin's Church wall paintings |
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| The Rhine |
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| City Walls and Towers |
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| Lovely carved figures in uprights |
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| One side of tower |
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| and the other! |
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| Possible renovation in 1803 costing 5960 francs, but this was Germany! |
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| Got to the Fireworks Display early to have a good view, directly in front of us! |
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| Across the River, the fireworks being set up |
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| About 50 boats formed the parade. |
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| The Rhine on fire |
13/09/15
Tired, but decided to do washing and then it rained. Slobbed out
all day it had been a long day yesterday .€22.5
day
14/09/15
(73659:73866:207miles) Ulm (Camperstop N48.40302
E10.00094 Free). Decided to go to south and hopefully sun. Good
journey lots of roadworks but eventually found the car park. Looked
like motorhome city and it was free. They should have charged lot
more than 50 vans there. Even caravans.
15/09/15
(73866:74078:212 miles) Matrei Free Aire. (Camperstop
N47.11833 E12.49778) After tunnel €10 site to ourselves till
later. Lovely and quiet. Surrounded by mountains. No services.
16/09/15
(74078:74325:247miles) Went to car park in Gorizia
(Free Camperstop)
stayed for lunch. It was so humid we decided to move on to first ACSI
site at Crikvenia, Croatia.
Got there about 6pm. Didn't like camp site no ACSI by beach. Got out
the outdoor cooker, wonderful to cook and eat outside for the first
time. Autokamp (Crikvenica)
Selce N45-9-14 E14-43-30
17/09/15 (74325:74413:88miles) Decided to go down coast road but have agreed it's a long way if you want to get somewhere quickly and quite tiring, around all the bends. Found another ACSI site Bluesun Camp Starigrad/Paklenica. (ACSI N44-18-2 E15-25-55) €16 7.5 to € 10.1 to £. Wanted beach site but bit crowded,so plumbed for 108 between reception and beach. Sat on beach with cooling breeze, went for quick swim. Very hot in van, had fans on back and front. Cooked outside.
18/09/15
Felt very tired discovered I'd been taking half of thyroid
medication, no wonder. Swapped quickly to 100 mg tablets and waited
to perk up. Very warm, several swims walk in the evening but ankles
not good. Went for meal in the evening to restaurant on site. John's
fish was awful he should have sent the Sea Bass straight back it
should have been filleted and it was full of bones. He didn't leave
a tip. Spoilt his evening.
19/09/15 In swimming when John decided people were leaving at the front of the camp site. He immediately went and OK'd it with reception and now we have lovely view and right on sea front. Great. Sun comes round about 3 no shade in van but there is under trees just in front of us. Good move. Had late meal but still ready for bed 9.30. Thunderstorm in night, we'd both left our crocs out, soaking wet. I went and got them.
21/09/15
Another lovely day in paradise.
22/09/15
ditto
23/09/15
Another lovely day in paradise. Typed up John's notes on Hungary.
Improving energy levels especially now we are on the sea front.
Cost of site 952 KN
24/09/15
(74413:74530:117miles) Very bad night, storms. John had to rinse
the ground sheet out in the sea. He was already wet, and got much
worse. He went for a shower before we left to left to warm up. We
decided to head for Omis ACSI N43-26-26 E16-40-47, another
campsite on the beach. Took the inland road not hitting Zadar this
time. Passed lots of derelict houses probably from the war. The
campsite was camping cheque, you were only allowed to park on the
last three rows. The toilets etc were not very good and the pitches
were a bit wet as they had the storm too. We found a Lidl and the
only veg they had was carrots, cabbage and cauliflower. C's for
Croatia. It was another noisy night, people on the camp ground
singing rather loudly. Rained again and was worse because we were
under the trees.
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| campsite at Omis |
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| Along the coast |
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| The valley of Ploce |
25/09/15
(74530:74653:123miles) Left at 9.30ish for Dubrovnik. Found
Lidl at Ploce just after a very scenic place before we got
there, lots of coaches. Dry day but overcast. Ploce very large
port, ferry to Hvar and islands. Dramatic scenery down the coast
again. Saw the delta had been drained for agricultural land,
pocketed with lots of canals for irrigation. Arrived at Dubrovnik,
found a good pitch with shady trees for us and Ollie. Unfortunately
lots of cats. Camping Solitudo Camping Cheque site. 7 nights
for 6 chqes plus tax.
26/09/15
Dubrovnik Sunny day, went by bus to Old City. 30Kn each.
We walked around the wall which was 100kn each. We saw a restaurant
from the walls and made for it. We had to wait outside because they
were full. Some Italians decided they would push by and go in. When
it came to it, they only had two spots which were not very good, so
we decided to go elsewhere. Glad we did. Found Antonioini's and I
had lovely fish, mussels, prawns with spinach and potatoes, lovely
bread, rose wine. John had chicken salad with lots of mayonnaise,
beer. We both finished off with coffee, absolutely wonderful. Came
back by bus. Went for a swim down at the Copacabana beach.
27/09/15
Cloudy day but went by bus to old town and did the Church next to
the Franciscan Monastery. Visited the Photo War Museum
30kn each which was very interesting but quite depressing. Wonderful
photos or disastrous happenings. Walked around a lot of the town, had
pizza and pastry lunch with coffee. Did some more of the churches
and walked through the back streets. Back by bus.
28/09/15
Quite windy day decided not to go to the Fort as we thought it would
be closed. Stayed on site and had a lazy day. We went for a walk
then for a swim at the beach. Saw the Queen Victoria Cunard Liner go
out. Very surprised by some very loud New Zealanders opposite us.
Quite taken aback I was, they usually aren't that loud!
29/09/15
To Dubrovnik by bus, walked to the lift. 108Kn each return.
Walked around the Fort and towards the trenches left from the
war. Went into the museum for the full run down of the siege of the
Old Town and the massive destruction the Serbs and Montenegrins
landed on the town. Episode with the German lady who wanted John to
move from his spot so she could take a photo. He was quite oblivious
about her presence. She eventually asked him to move having shown
her annoyance standing hands on hips and gesticulating to her
husband. I found it all quite funny. They could have gone further
along there was plenty of countryside from which to take a photo.
Just because John was on that particular spot. They wanted it. We
had lunch in the hilltop restaurant. Not that impressed. £5 each
for 2 drinks and we both had lasagne about 280kn. Not as lovely as
the one in Antonioini's.
30/09/15
Did the washing, 46kn for load but that included the drying and you
could dry it totally. We had lunch and then decided to go down to
the beach for swim and relax. Stayed till sun went down, virtually!
We came back and went down the road to the restaurant belonging to
the complex Camping Solitudo. John had seafood risotto and I
had grilled pork ribs and roast potatoes, beer and rose and coffee to
finish. 280Kn again. Seems very reasonable for good food and
pleasant surroundings, however I got quite cold as we were sitting
outside. Not enough clothes!
01/10/15
Been getting up quite early, cos we've been going to bed early too!
Got bus about 11 am not so crowded now. Although the cruise ships
were in it wasn't so crowded. We found the post office for stamps,
after about the third set of directions! John found the Bank half way
down the main street and changed up some Euros because they don't
charge commission. All the exchanges do. Then it was lunch time so
we went back to Antunini and John had the seafood platter and I had
seafood risotto, beer, wine and coffee. Decided we'd had enough to
eat and went and sat down for relax until it got cold and then headed
for the bus. Back at the site it was clouding over, so short nap, me
long nap and felt much better afterwards. Decided not to go for a
swim cos it was colder! Wimps!
02/10/15
(74653:74703:50miles) Paying bill it will be 6 nights cheques for 7
nights, bargain. Off to Vitaljina, the southern most tip of
Croatia. We drove to the first border post in Montenegro and had to
turn round. The second border post we had to reverse down the hill
nearly 1.5 km because it was a coast road and no turning spots! The
third one near the southern most tip of Croatia was also closed to
us. May have been due to boat loads of immigrants. Although we
didn't see any. Then to Molunat (N42-27-13 E18-26-13) where
campsite Monika is situated. We got there and it was really
down a hill. Parked in one place and JW had to reverse up hill to
get us out! Nasty smell from clutch! Receptionist wasn't very
humorous! Lots of cats around too. I wasn't too impressed with the
sea, bit sea weedy and rocks with weed on them. Sun went behind hill
about 5, so that was that. Used one of the Schwartz Flavour Shots
Paella which I bought from Tesco for 35p they were clearing out a
line normally £1.40. It was very good. Walked around the headland
and up a very steep hill to Camp Adriatic. Was much more
accessible than Monika, certainly no slipping clutch there! There
was also a Tommy shop on that side of the bay.
03/10/15
Sunny today. Ollie went after one of the cats who went up a tree!
Walked to the shop for bread. Spent the day lounging about. Cooked
another Schwartz Flavour Shot Mild Masala Curry. Good too. Did it
with the last of the basmati rice. Both of us felt really tired. We
walked up hill and saw tourist map showing a folk festival every
Sunday in a place called Cilipi. We said we'd go.
04/10/15
(74703:74804:101miles) Rained heavily during the night, so we got
the van ready to go up the hill. JW reversed out and managed to turn
around in the car park. We got up the hill, no problem and went to
Cilipi. There were loads of people there, five coach loads
too! Found a space to park in a side road on waste ground. Walked
towards the church to be welcomed by a barrier with two ladies
charging us 50kn each to go and watch some folk dancing. The
price included a welcome drink, which we didn't get and a look in the
museum, which I did and JW took Ollie back to the van. He bought
some pizza/bread for lunch and then came back to watch the show. It
was very good, apart from the two dances accompanied by the screechy
sounding instrument that we'd last heard at the fountain in
Dubrovnik! One English lady we met explained that her husband was
Croatian and that the whole town had been occupied during the last
war and every building was virtually destroyed. It had now been
rebuilt and was gathering notoriety because of the folk dancing. Had
lunch decided to journey towards Dubrovnik to change the watch
I had bought. Absolutely not problem exchanging it, just go and get
a new one the assistant said! On to Vaostrog for Camping
Viter ACSI. Ate rest of the Masala and more rice, interrupted by
sunset on the mountains behind being lit up with red light. I just
managed to get some red clouds. Mt Sapasnik. Only drawback
to site was a noisy teenage hostel next door, but that didn't stop us
sleeping at all. The other thing was the church bells next door, we
heard them for the evening service and realised we had parked in the
right side of the camp site.
05/10/15
(74804:74860:56miles) Started raining at 8.30 am decided it wasn't
worth staying in the rain. Would have liked to ride the bikes along
the promenade but really not worth it. Headed for Split.
Came to Camp Strobec Camping Cheques where we had been 2 years
ago and parked on pitch 101. We arrived about 12.30 pm and after
parking up a whole stream of vans came in. It rained all the way
here and for about an hour afterwards. The journey was so slow we
did an average of 36.1 miles to the gallon at one point. We followed
two people on separate motor bikes Yamaha or similar and at one point
the girl got stuck in a rut and her whole bike vibrated and wobbled.
Thinking she would come off soon I braked so that I wouldn't run her
over if she did! Coming through another town Omis there was an
old lady picking up chestnuts from the roadside and just didn't get
out of the way. I had to stop to make sure I didn't bump her! She
was miles away. Arrived at Stobrec a now familiar site.
06/10/15
Raining, did some planning and spent time on www. Watched film Open
Range, Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall and Annette Benning in the
evening. JW enjoyed it. I'd seen it twice now.
07/10/15
(74860:75028:168miles) Started to rain so we packed up quickly, 2
CC paid the tax and went to find a bank in Split. Just don't
even try, we found a Lidl's and couldn't park either. We eventually
found a Lidl and managed to park and as we found that we went past a
bank. JW also found a rather green park, so we parked there and he
was able to walk to the bank. (Car Park 2 kns hour N43-32-01
E16-29-25) Started off to Plitvik Lakes, TT took us off
route 1, round the back roads. We wanted to go past the lake from 2
years ago. Anyway we got back onto the right road. The lake was
really down so they hadn't had much rain this summer. Otris
village was devastated, no inhabitants. Landscape looked as though
lots of bombs had fallen, it was near a railway. Got to Camping
Cheque place Autocamp Kovana just after 6. Huge site not a
lot of people there.
08/10/15
(75028:75040:12miles) The weather was still bad and low cloud so we
decided to go up to Entrance 1 and have a look. Cloud got
worse as we got there. Decided to wait a day as it was expected to
be dry tomorrow. Went back and had a lazy day again. I beat JW at
dominoes which was good because he normally beats me at everything!
09/10/15
(75040:75052:12miles) Left about 10, parked up decided to take
Ollie. Glad we did. The main waterfall was about 85 mts high and in
full flow. Lots of mist from the spray. We walked around to get
the boat at St3, had a coffee and rolls here. Eventually got on boat
after lots of tourists had gone at least three boats before us. Got
off at 2 and did the walk around and back to 2 to catch another boat
for short trip across lake. Then I wanted to go to the top and we
caught the bus at St 2 after quite a steep walk up. Went to St 3 and
looked around there and had another cup of coffee and jam doughnut
we'd bought in the morning. It was getting quite cold the higher we
went. Got the bus back to St 1 and then walked back to Entrance 1 to
the van. Saw where we had previously walked. Got back to camp about
4 and decided to eat in the Restaurant that evening. Had
mixed grill with veg and a side salad and extra portion of chips.
Bottle of red wine, John had chocolate/vanilla gateaux and I had
apple strudel. Both had coffee whole lot 336 Kn left 30kn tip. It
was very nice but far too much!
10/10/15
(75052:75268:216miles) Left Plitvik Lakes about 10, still raining
and low cloud. Took cross country route and it cheered up a bit. We
hit the coast found somewhere to have lunch, not many parking places
on the northbound carriageway. We took the tunnel and found
ourselves on the motorway to Pula, toll 79 kn. The campsite
was shutting the next day, so we decided to see the amphitheatre
in Pula. We were able to look through and see as much as we could
without paying. We had managed to park in the road and duly put 4kn
parking fee on the dashboard. Walked around and saw some other roman
ruins and headed back to the van. Decided to go to Vrsar and
next ACSI site. Arrived about 6.30 feeling thoroughly tired. Very
tiered site, so bit difficult in the dark, however managed to get
sited and back to guy on guard house duty!
11/10/15
Rained all night. Very tired today, so washed up late, had showers,
lunch then did a walk into the town of Vrsar. It was
beautiful. The harbour had lots of very bit boats, loads of money
parked here! I liked the coastline and the houses were very old and
it didn't look as though it had been through the devastation of war.
Very hilly, lots of steps. Lovely walk beside the sea. Crashed when
I got back. John had to do some veg for Ollie, he really needs it!
(Vsar N45-8-30 E13-36-8)
12/10/15
(75268:75277:9miles) Left Vrsar about 10.15am towards Porec.
We tried to find carpark but no motorhomes allowed. Did eventually
see sign for motorhome parking. One coach and us. 24Kn per hour or
120kn for 24 hours. We walked into Porec with Ollie. Found
information but a little late. The old town was full of old Venetian
houses, some in great need of repair. Lots of cats about teasing
Ollie. Again lots of boats in marina. Couldn't go in church because
of Ollie. Felt hungry so went in one of the restaurants in the
square and had meat feast for 150 kn one beer 20 kn and one red wine
20 kn. Left 20 kn tip. Came back to van about 1km walk but it was
hot, so we changed places in carpark, found one reasonably level
ready for the night. Sat in our chairs and enjoyed the sun until
5.45pm. (N45-13-11 E13-36-25 Porec CP)
13/10/15
(75277:75290:13miles) Had leisurely morning and decided to head for
Novigrad just up the road. Found a Lidl must say JW's TomTom
is very good only £99 and you enter something you want to find like
Lidl and up comes the address. You have to put POI's on my one! Got
to Novigrad and guess what it was raining. We parked amongst
the trees. We walked along sea path to the town with Ollie. His
paws not good at all.
14/10/15
(75290:75498:208miles) Left Novigrad to get as far as we
could. We found a cold front coming down from Germany and a warm
front rushing up to meet it. They also had snow. Paid bill with
last of Kuna 133. Still raining, we left hoping TomTom would take us
a good route and not get us on to the motorway because it was peage.
We went via Muggia and Monfalone, towards Trieste. Bit
up and down and some narrow roads, had a bit of a hiccup but we
eventually got round Trieste and then up to mountains and through
Austria to Matrei. When we go there it was starting to snow.
Walked up to the hotel to ask whether it would set in he said he
didn't think so, so we went back to van and prepared dinner. I woke
at 1.30am, looked outside and there was 4” at least of snow on the
windscreen.
15/10/15
(75498:75637:139miles) No snow chains, who would have thought we'd
have snow! Anyway when John woke next morning he saw the snow plough
doing the road, so we moved very quickly, few slips and slides, but
hit the road which was clear. Through the tunnel €10 and to the
next Lidl for breakfast. We were heading for Dachau. Quite
uneventful journey up motorway. Arrived at Dachau Concentration
Camp Memorial Site at about 1.30 pm had lunch. Was treated to
very disrespectful students in German coach playing very loud disco
music. I got out and was treated to laughter through the windscreen
whilst I took photos of the coach name. I intend to write. If they
can't be respectful then don't bring them. We walked around site.
There was a lot of information, much of which we already knew. I
eventually lost John and as I went into the barracks and began to
read how the prisoners had to make their straw mattresses up to a
concise depth of 60cm, if it wasn't right then the punishment began.
That was when I'd had enough and walked out. Couldn't take any more.
There was no entrance fee but €5 for the motorhome. Definitely no
overnight parking. We went off and found the only aire which was
only 2km away. Right under electric railway, but must admit we slept
well. Be careful how you approach this aire, tunnel is only 2.7 mts,
so had to go alternative route. Ostenstrasse Dachau N48-15-45
E11-26-30 Aire
16/10/15
(75637:75790:153miles) Left Dachau still raining prepared
for long haul up the motorway. There was very bad traffic on the
last half of the motorway so we decided to get off and go to the
nearest Aire which was Pforzheim, Wilderstrinstrasse . It was
a proper motorhome aire with lots of electricity not sure of the
charge but we didn't get any. We have found that my house batteries
are not keeping their charge overnight and we can't really have the
heating on in the morning. I didn't bother to look round, just
another town and raining. Wilderstrinstrasse, Pforzheim.
N48-53-51 E8-43-19 Aire Free
17/10/15 (75790:75862:72miles) Thought the motorway would be different today, but we still had traffic jam. Felt bad all day, probably reaction to Dachau. We started up the winestrasse and got to an Aire in Edenkoben, quite a few there, not sure whether we had to pay or not! John went for a walk and found a Donner Kebab restaurant. It was good Turkey kebab, chips, salad with beer, water, coffees €23 Edenkoben N49-16-54 E8-07-50 Aire
18/10/15
(75862:76023:161miles) Worked our way up the Winestrasse,
lost it a few times until we got to St Martin and found good
aire to park for an hour or so €4. Right in the centre of town
just a short walk. Milling with lots of people. Exquisite houses
and smells of fermenting wine! John bought a steel statue of two
comical birds which nod on a balancing rod with a crystal ball at the
other end. Travelled further on towards Belgium found an ACSI
site Arlon that had a washing machine. I asked about W/M to be
told that it was late and there was not enough time, so I made a
decision not to pay them for the site as that was the reason I chose
to go there. We found the aire at Arlon where we had stayed
before and JW recognised the flower pots that he'd backed into
before! Next door to the fire station, there was water and WC dump.
If you are quick then you can get electricity! Good night's
sleep. St Martin N49-18-02 E8-06-27 Aire
19/10/15
(76023:76245:222miles) Hondschoote next stop. On motorway
but again traffic jam and it was getting towards 2pm. We came off
next exit near Manage. Got some rolls for lunch. Back on road
and discovered there had unfortunately been an accident and a tanker
had gone over into the central reservation and driver had been hurt.
Arrived at Aire at about 3.45pm just enough time to walk round to
Carrefour for some food. JW said park away from road, but I had one
of those nights where I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.
Hells Bells had to coax Ollie off the bench seat so I could lay down
there. One treat was all it took! Hondschoote Aire
20/10/15
(76245:76300:55miles) Set off for the vet in Dunkirk.
Arrived promptly. She gave Ollie his tablet before putting him on
the table. He wasn't playing ball! He went to weighing machine
outside and he was 17.5 kg. Not good. We put the muzzle on him and
she was able to clip his dew claws and also have a look at his paws.
She thought we should keep an eye on his weight. Again €38 but
sold JW some shampoo for his feet to help them. John's found it's
cheaper on the net so will go there next time. We shopped again in
Lidl, got some sweets for the girls and headed off to Oye Plage
to find they had halved the aire and made a conservation entrance
with board walks etc. We could still park there but they hadn't
filled in the holes. While we were parked there three coaches came
with nearly 200+ people. So much for peace and quiet for the birds!!
Oye Plage Aire
21/10/15
(76300:76450:150miles) Calais Had to wait until 11am to get
on the boat, 90 minutes beforehand. We were early so they put us on
the earlier boat which was good for us to be able to reach Clapham
when it was still light to change over stuff. We also managed to
take JW's tyre to Kwik Fit, but they said it was the rim that was at
fault. We've since been told that there were cuts in the tread and
it was irreparable, he had to have a new tyre. This went down whilst
we were at Sally's house just before we left on this trip! Took
John's van back to Sally's house stayed on her drive overnight. Just
as we were approaching her house we heard an awful noise from the
rear, sounded like a wheel bearing.
22/10/15
JW went back home to Devon. Took van to Sandy garage next morning,
said it was front wheel bearing that was the problem, didn't know
what we had been hearing in the rear. John decided it was OK to
drive home so dropped me off in Harpenden. While I was putting my
stuff on the doorstep, I turned round and Ollie had leapt out of the
van, walked up the steps and was taking a leak on the box hedge,
obviously thinking he was coming to stay! Coaxed him back to van,
without a collar and lead, he jumped in, breathed a sigh of relief.
It's a very busy main road. Said goodbye to JW safe journey. He made
it to Devon about 5.00pm. Safe and sound.
Round
trip 73130 to 76450 = 3320 miles + John's miles to and from Devon
say 600 miles.
