After a windy evening in Port Vedres and time spent reflecting on what was an eventful day, I dropped of to sleep in the company of 5 other awesome big fancy A class vans, and one like mine. But newer and slightly more French than mine!
I think I entertained them for a while when I arrived. You see, I went under a tight bridge on the outskirts of Perpignan. I could see it coming, the frame I went under clearly said 2.5 metres... and just to reinforce the issue it had around 10 chains dangling down at about half metre intervals. One of these chains hit the top of the van.... I carried on regardless, thought nothing of it and swung left and saw the bridge!!!! I took a deep breath, I didn't even slow down for some reason. I mean I knew - ok....... I knew it would fit..............................
When I looked in the mirror as I sailed through to see the top of the van SO close to the roof of the bridge, I let out that deep breath and wandered how I'd managed to get away with that!!! It was only a few seconds after that I realised that when I'd reset the sat nav I hadn't put in the van dimensions so it was taking me places a car could go. Fucking thing!!!!! Holy shit I'd been so lucky.... SO lucky! Thinking about it in bed later, I can't understand why I didn't slow down to a crawl, just in case.
Thanks to the que of posh French folks in their big vans emptying their waste tanks, I left fully loaded with waste and fresh this morning. It made me think, If I'd stopped enroute yesterday to empty my waste tanks...... If I'd had an empty water tank.... I might well have got myself stuck under that bridge!
Tom was taking me some weird places.... for sure... One of the good aspects of driving a house on wheels is you can stop for a pee whenever you want. I need one now!!! Standing in the loo, doing what a man has to do, I looked up to notice a big chunk of sky where there shouldn't have been any. Bugger! Arse and fuck piss poo wank!!!! It was turning into one of those days.... Ya see what happens when you trust in gadgets! When they let you down its sets off a string of related events. As least in my world.
The closer I got to Port Vedres, the stronger the wind became. I went over a bridge as I approached the town and thanked my lucky starts that the wind was straight down the runway and blew me down into the industrial part of town where the actually rather nice camperstop was. Totally blowing a hooly now, the sea was being whipped up into a roaring frothy angry lather. I found a sturdy looking lampost and positioned the van between specially selected strong looking trees and said lampost.... Once in place the entertainment began.
No ladders of course, so the lampost substituted and I climbed up it, and got onto the roof to assess the damage to the loo roof vent. It was fucked. Still there thanks to the screw thread that lifts it up, but otherwise buggered, broken off at the hinges, with a 3 inch diameter hole and a crack running to the back. I shimmied down, got the tools... (gaffa tape and silicone), climbed back up, siliconed the crack and piled duct tape all over hole and all around the sides with a good sized overlap onto the roof proper. All this precarious teetering in a howling gale! Its ok, I know what I'm doing!!! :) Just for a laugh I took the tape measure out and roughly measured the height of the van again, taking into account the roof vents.
2.7 metres. Roughly. Don't ask. It wasn't accurate in that wind!
As it was still France, once I'd thawed out I messaged Gerd to see what his plans were and to discuss the weather and options. I decided to leave in the morning and head to the hills for a sight seeing detour, and maybe partake of the free wifi offered at Viladrau camperstop. But first, supper, vino, and a stroll into town. Only the stroll didn't happen. I wrapped up warm and made a valiant attempt only to beet a hasty retreat and get pushed along by the wind back into the wam cocoon of my van. Sod that for a game of soldiers!
Instead I had my last French chat with Themi, and several messages on FB before leaving the wanders of Three behind at the Spanish border tomorrow.
Now as I write this I'm in Navarcles, north of Barcelona. I've finished off Daves red and I'm sat in the van, a little lonely, a little nervous, all alone in a small camperstop on the edge of a town I know nothing about, except it has a stunning view of the Montserrat hills as you approach. Other than that I'll admit I feel pretty isolated and lonely. Its amazing what losing 3G feels like, losing the ability to just chat with base camp any time I like. Yes I know I 'could', and I have switched it back on once or twice. When I had a job I just did it anyway and paid the bill a month later. Now I have to watch those pennies. But I can't email, I cant surf and find out about this town, or traffic on the roads, or the weather or check the iphones maps to see if Tom is taking the piss or telling the truth.
We have come such a long way since the mobile hit the streets. I remember holding out and holding out, refusing to have one. I got one for my 36th bithday and, well, they are great aren't they!! My phone can do anything. It holds all of my life in it, numbers messages photo's, the internet, wow, it does the lot. So I feel a bit lost without it to be honest. Mostly I miss the contact with Themi and the kids, but all that other stuff is useful. It really is.
Earlier today I left PV in mild breeze in comparison to yesterday, gaffer tape in tact, and passed into Spain very soon after, almost without realising. No need for passports here. I switched off the data roaming and drove onto Figueres where I got stuck in traffic. I parked up for a walk to suss out the fuel station at the camperstop, and when I returned I dialled the next destination into Tom and he promptly died. Again. I resisted the urge to scream, waited a few minuets and pressed the on button. It jumped into life, but back to factory settings. I reloaded all my van dimensions (I'll not make that mistake again), my preferences, and the route, avoiding tolls, changed the voice and the daylight setting blah blah..... I popped it onto the craddle and as I adjusted the angle, it died. AGAIN!!!!! Properly this time. I had to do the whole reset and on/off button thing before it would turn on. I do believe I was sold a pup and that probably its a recon unit with a gubbed battery. Anyway after going through the whole process of re inputting again, everything, I very gingerly placed it back on the cradle at just about the right angle and started the van. I crawled around to the fuel pump and my Euro card was refused. Over the road was a garage with a lady in a booth... I went there and everything was good.
With a full tank, the next stop was McDonalds for a coffee and some free wifi for a quick skype to Greece and then it was back on the open road and up into the hills on the C25. This excellent motorway goes almost to Viladrau before all of a sudden I'm on hairpin bends, almost singe track slowly into the nice camperstop, covered in a dusting of crunchy snow. I had a cuppa, went for a walk, checked out the PC's at the wifi spot and loaded Tom with Chulilla as the destination. It still a days drive away so as it was still pretty early I thought I'd get going again and put in some more distance today in the hope of making a good run to destination tomorrow.
I plan to refill my gas bottle tomorrow too if I can find an autogas station.. Its half empty now as I've had the heating on a bit. Its been really chilly, yes I guess I've spoiled myself a little. Truthfully, this will be fun. I've never done it before, and I'm not at this moment in time even sure what to look for as my Spanish is so poor. Gasoleo??? Maybe!
There's a white Fiat campervan parked here now.... They've just had a long chat with a Gaurdia Civil that pulled up, engine running, lights on, for nearly half an hour....
Im not worried at all.
Port Vedres.... Check out the lamp :)
I think I entertained them for a while when I arrived. You see, I went under a tight bridge on the outskirts of Perpignan. I could see it coming, the frame I went under clearly said 2.5 metres... and just to reinforce the issue it had around 10 chains dangling down at about half metre intervals. One of these chains hit the top of the van.... I carried on regardless, thought nothing of it and swung left and saw the bridge!!!! I took a deep breath, I didn't even slow down for some reason. I mean I knew - ok....... I knew it would fit..............................
When I looked in the mirror as I sailed through to see the top of the van SO close to the roof of the bridge, I let out that deep breath and wandered how I'd managed to get away with that!!! It was only a few seconds after that I realised that when I'd reset the sat nav I hadn't put in the van dimensions so it was taking me places a car could go. Fucking thing!!!!! Holy shit I'd been so lucky.... SO lucky! Thinking about it in bed later, I can't understand why I didn't slow down to a crawl, just in case.
Thanks to the que of posh French folks in their big vans emptying their waste tanks, I left fully loaded with waste and fresh this morning. It made me think, If I'd stopped enroute yesterday to empty my waste tanks...... If I'd had an empty water tank.... I might well have got myself stuck under that bridge!
Tom was taking me some weird places.... for sure... One of the good aspects of driving a house on wheels is you can stop for a pee whenever you want. I need one now!!! Standing in the loo, doing what a man has to do, I looked up to notice a big chunk of sky where there shouldn't have been any. Bugger! Arse and fuck piss poo wank!!!! It was turning into one of those days.... Ya see what happens when you trust in gadgets! When they let you down its sets off a string of related events. As least in my world.
The closer I got to Port Vedres, the stronger the wind became. I went over a bridge as I approached the town and thanked my lucky starts that the wind was straight down the runway and blew me down into the industrial part of town where the actually rather nice camperstop was. Totally blowing a hooly now, the sea was being whipped up into a roaring frothy angry lather. I found a sturdy looking lampost and positioned the van between specially selected strong looking trees and said lampost.... Once in place the entertainment began.
No ladders of course, so the lampost substituted and I climbed up it, and got onto the roof to assess the damage to the loo roof vent. It was fucked. Still there thanks to the screw thread that lifts it up, but otherwise buggered, broken off at the hinges, with a 3 inch diameter hole and a crack running to the back. I shimmied down, got the tools... (gaffa tape and silicone), climbed back up, siliconed the crack and piled duct tape all over hole and all around the sides with a good sized overlap onto the roof proper. All this precarious teetering in a howling gale! Its ok, I know what I'm doing!!! :) Just for a laugh I took the tape measure out and roughly measured the height of the van again, taking into account the roof vents.
2.7 metres. Roughly. Don't ask. It wasn't accurate in that wind!
As it was still France, once I'd thawed out I messaged Gerd to see what his plans were and to discuss the weather and options. I decided to leave in the morning and head to the hills for a sight seeing detour, and maybe partake of the free wifi offered at Viladrau camperstop. But first, supper, vino, and a stroll into town. Only the stroll didn't happen. I wrapped up warm and made a valiant attempt only to beet a hasty retreat and get pushed along by the wind back into the wam cocoon of my van. Sod that for a game of soldiers!
Instead I had my last French chat with Themi, and several messages on FB before leaving the wanders of Three behind at the Spanish border tomorrow.
Now as I write this I'm in Navarcles, north of Barcelona. I've finished off Daves red and I'm sat in the van, a little lonely, a little nervous, all alone in a small camperstop on the edge of a town I know nothing about, except it has a stunning view of the Montserrat hills as you approach. Other than that I'll admit I feel pretty isolated and lonely. Its amazing what losing 3G feels like, losing the ability to just chat with base camp any time I like. Yes I know I 'could', and I have switched it back on once or twice. When I had a job I just did it anyway and paid the bill a month later. Now I have to watch those pennies. But I can't email, I cant surf and find out about this town, or traffic on the roads, or the weather or check the iphones maps to see if Tom is taking the piss or telling the truth.
We have come such a long way since the mobile hit the streets. I remember holding out and holding out, refusing to have one. I got one for my 36th bithday and, well, they are great aren't they!! My phone can do anything. It holds all of my life in it, numbers messages photo's, the internet, wow, it does the lot. So I feel a bit lost without it to be honest. Mostly I miss the contact with Themi and the kids, but all that other stuff is useful. It really is.
Earlier today I left PV in mild breeze in comparison to yesterday, gaffer tape in tact, and passed into Spain very soon after, almost without realising. No need for passports here. I switched off the data roaming and drove onto Figueres where I got stuck in traffic. I parked up for a walk to suss out the fuel station at the camperstop, and when I returned I dialled the next destination into Tom and he promptly died. Again. I resisted the urge to scream, waited a few minuets and pressed the on button. It jumped into life, but back to factory settings. I reloaded all my van dimensions (I'll not make that mistake again), my preferences, and the route, avoiding tolls, changed the voice and the daylight setting blah blah..... I popped it onto the craddle and as I adjusted the angle, it died. AGAIN!!!!! Properly this time. I had to do the whole reset and on/off button thing before it would turn on. I do believe I was sold a pup and that probably its a recon unit with a gubbed battery. Anyway after going through the whole process of re inputting again, everything, I very gingerly placed it back on the cradle at just about the right angle and started the van. I crawled around to the fuel pump and my Euro card was refused. Over the road was a garage with a lady in a booth... I went there and everything was good.
With a full tank, the next stop was McDonalds for a coffee and some free wifi for a quick skype to Greece and then it was back on the open road and up into the hills on the C25. This excellent motorway goes almost to Viladrau before all of a sudden I'm on hairpin bends, almost singe track slowly into the nice camperstop, covered in a dusting of crunchy snow. I had a cuppa, went for a walk, checked out the PC's at the wifi spot and loaded Tom with Chulilla as the destination. It still a days drive away so as it was still pretty early I thought I'd get going again and put in some more distance today in the hope of making a good run to destination tomorrow.
I plan to refill my gas bottle tomorrow too if I can find an autogas station.. Its half empty now as I've had the heating on a bit. Its been really chilly, yes I guess I've spoiled myself a little. Truthfully, this will be fun. I've never done it before, and I'm not at this moment in time even sure what to look for as my Spanish is so poor. Gasoleo??? Maybe!
There's a white Fiat campervan parked here now.... They've just had a long chat with a Gaurdia Civil that pulled up, engine running, lights on, for nearly half an hour....
Im not worried at all.
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