A few thoughts, now we are at Boulogne

We still have to get onto a ferry and drive home from Dover but it's reasonable to say that we've already achieved what we set out to do. It's not earth shattering and we haven't saved lives or proved endurance above and beyond. We have managed to enjoy a great trip, extending what used to be our two week road trip holidays, into one that lasted a little over eight weeks.

As we sit just outside Boulogne in our much frequented (over the years), farm campsite, we have driven 5,839 miles, been through fifteen countries and the Landy has got us here without breakdown and with just a little trouble with noisy brakes. The one and only problem has been the leaking roof, as documented early in the trip. It is still leaking, not a lot, but water still drops down from the front corners of the headlining after we have had rain and the Landy has been stationary. It's not as bad as it was before that tube of Würth sealant was applied to the seams but it will need to be sorted urgently, as we will be in the UK tomorrow and it will be wet soon enough.

Actually it's been raining in Boulogne since yesterday evening and it's now 12:00 the next day!

The combination of a tent and the option to sleep in the Landy, has been perfect. Our tent is great, it doesn't take more than twenty minutes to fully erect, but still, there have been plenty of times when we slept in the Landy. As well as the two wild camps, we slept in the Landy for at least four nights in Albania and on the drive back, in Slovenia, Austria, and twice in Germany.

We have carried just a little too much 'stuff' to make the sleeping easy as we have to put some stuff outside. This is the Smokey Joe barbecue, charcoal, table and chairs. A shorter trip, perhaps without carrying a tent at all, or using a small roof box would mean that we could stop and sleep perfectly easily.

Many people are of course touring Europe and the Balkans and they drive a variety of vehicles. The vast majority are in motorhomes. Few people who tour by vehicle, seem to camp, especially if they are on the move, as we have been every two to four days. Would I drive a motorhome? Well yes, eventually, just not yet. One thing is for sure, I would find it hard to decide on a design and size. There are so many. Some are crazily large, yet still with only two people in them. This itself limits where you can drive and how much ad-hoc exploring you can do. There's no way you can just drive over a mountain and explore a Greek village in a large motorhome. You will get stuck and not be able to turn around or even park. A smaller vehicle is much more flexible.

Motorhomers also have to carry another form or transport, usually a couple of bicycles, but the bigger ones carry a moped or scooter, often in the compartment at the back. As I mentioned before, some tow a car or bike on a trailer.

With the Landy we needed a rain shelter at the back door and found that our tent sun shade was perfect. Most motorhomes have side access and most also have a pull-out awning/sunshade (Fiamma is the usual make). This helps shade the sun of course, but when it does rain it is a great way to keep dry too. If I were to convert a van (a possibility) an awning would be essential.

I think the biggest decision around motorhome choice is whether or not it will be used in the shoulder seasons or even winter. If so, then it needs to be tall enough to stand up and move around, plus on board drinking and waste water storage would be useful. The other defining factor is own sanitation. If you want to 'wild camp' as the motorhomers call it, ( ie at the side of the road, in a car park or on a harbour side), you really need your own loo. In the mountains or elsewhere off the beaten track you can use a trowel or shovel.

I'd now like to 'big up' the boxes we used. I like boxes and I've been looking for the right type for ages. As a result, I have a lot of not very useful boxes at home. Some I now use for work, but others are lying on the back of a shelf forgotten.

For this trip we bought a collection of Really Useful Boxes and that's exactly what they are. There is a whole range of sizes and they stack on each other (a little bit relative size dependant that one) and best of all the lid still fits when the box is full. How often have you got to the lid bit only to find that something you thought fits in, in fact won't allow the lid to close?

We've several of these 35litre, almost square footprint boxes:

Also these small ones, 3 litre size:

Here's how they stack and those handles are used to clamp the lid to the box with a firm click.

Electrical hookup has been used at many sites, often it's included or we sometimes asked for it to be. This is because we only use the cooler box and a small kettle. Most people, if they use mains electricity, connect a TV, water pump and often they have kitchen appliances like grills and microwaves, either built in to their motorhome, or as a portable appliance in their awning. So our draw on the mains is very low compared to most.

As for the cooler, as mentioned in an earlier post, it works very well, but it does drain the battery. I wired up an auxiliary battery to the Landy and the 12volt outlet at the back is used to power the cooler whenever we are travelling and whenever we don't have hook-up. The best bit of this system is that the aux battery is automatically charged whenever the alternator has enough voltage ie when the main battery is charged up. There's no way that there could be a drain on the main (starter) battery by running down the auxiliary or by the auxiliary being charged when the main should be priority.

One addition to the battery system for next time will be a solar panel to be used to top up the aux battery when the Landy isn't being used. Otherwise we seem to only get 24hours maximum from the aux battery before it dies. This is even using a top of the range Odyssey battery that cost £zillions.

The USB sockets for charging the iPad, Phones and iPod, have been great. There's one in the dashboard and one at the back. These have two outlets, with one rated at 2.1A which you need for the iPad.

We've used a TomTom GoLive satnav, loaded with all Europe's maps. Without a doubt this has been fantastically useful. We have used it everywhere, even when there was little road detail as was the case in Bosnia. In many countries the Traffic feature provides the same level of detail as it does in the UK. We had a nightmare of a journey on Sunday, trying to drive around Munich. At least we knew what the extent of the delay was and this helped us decide to park-up and camp for an extra night.

So I would without doubt, recommend a satnav with traffic services and also be sure that you know all its features. The download of the Archie's Camping Points of Interest file was particularly useful. I wish I'd looked for a download of McDonald's locations. You might laugh, but wifi is a paid for service at campsites outside the Balkans and it's very inflexible, like only one device, constantly requiring a login etc. etc. and McD's provides it for the price of a coffee.

This trip into hitherto unknown countries has changed our views of them. We felt very safe in all and in fact I rarely locked the Landy at night when we were in it and I constantly forgot to use the pedal lock on the street. That will need to change when we get back to the UK.

Our views of Albania and in fact all the Balkan countries that we visited, is that the people are incredibly friendly. They love to speak to visitors and outwardly seek to help. A young lady in an Albanian shop, where we bought a road map, then used all the postcards she had on display to show us the sights that we shouldn't miss.

We had some funny moments. It's quite common to met a herd of goats or flock of sheep on the roadside. Usually there's a shepherd not far away. Above Delphi one day we met goats and the goatherd, who was walking down the road behind them, saw us. Usually they stare, sometimes smile and possible respond with a wave. This one reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a long penny whistle or recorder and pretended to play it whilst doing a jig! Hilarious.

Which is our favourite country? Well it's still Greece. In fact our view of Greece has been reinforced with our better knowledge of the mainland. The scenery is stunning and the communities and people are delightful. It's just so sad that as I write this, there's the beginning of a disturbance in Athens; protests about the ongoing necessity for austerity to avoid a financial system collapse.

I don't know how Greece has got into this predicament. I do remember that when it was admitted to the EMU it seemed to be widely known that their deficit and consequent debt was being understated. If that is true then I've an even lower opinion of 'European financials' than I had before.

What has to happen to prevent the country from sliding down and down? I don't know, but I do hope to be able to visit again next year.

Tim Peel

15 July 2015

The best drive in the Alps?

We picked our route out of Slovenia and into Austria so that we wouldn't drive on the motorway, which would require a vignette (ten day minimum). That's not as bad as in Switzerland, which require one to be bought that lasts a year; there's no short stay vignette available. If you read the Swiss website there's a load of b&/#¥***>\xs written about how the law doesn't provide for shorter term tickets. Also I think that the Swiss one runs until early winter, so you need another one if you were to drive there to ski after driving in the summer. That's just plain annoying.

Those craggy mountains in Kransjka Gora were beautiful to see in the clear blue morning sky; it's another place to think about coming back to for a mountain holiday (this one was not a walking holiday). We headed north over the Wurzen pass, a mere 1,073m and then drove west along a wide valley until we were almost at Lienz.

There are various routes north from here to the Tyrol with at least three of them using tunnels for the highest parts. We chose the interesting sounding Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse because on our very detailed Austrian map book it looked a very interesting road, not least the fact that it goes close to the Grossglockner mountain. This is the highest in Austria at 3,797m. In the Alps, anything over 3,000m has snow and ice interest all year round, so we were hoping for good views.

Well what can I say? This road is unbelievable. First of all it's only open during the day, secondly, it has pay booths at both ends and it costs €35 to drive over and thirdly it is stupendous.

There's a teasing view of snow as you make your way up towards the hairpins.

That's the mountain in the distance...

The road climbs higher and higher, but the gradient and the hairpins are as nothing compared to the stress of watching out for bikers. There were hundreds, probably because it was Saturday but it might also be because the Hairy Bikers have featured this route on one of their programmes, although what their appeal is outside of the UK I'm not sure. Having said that, I flicked on the TV back in Sarajevo and there was Jamie Oliver. Oh the wonders of satellites and daytime TV.

The biker's licence plates indicated a real mix of nationalities. There were bikes from Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and Austria of course. It's obviously a competition to get up and down in the style of their choosing. Some used touring style, but most were racing and getting their knees close to the tarmac.

So there were a few distractions, but taking a nineteen year old Land Rover up over 2,000m has its own stresses and I was a little worried about the cooling system and the effect of high altitude (low pressure) on the water hoses and joints. I shouldn't have worried; it was fine.

Near the top, there's a turnoff left which according to the map, is a yellow road and that can mean anything. The quantity and size of vehicles coming down indicated that there was nothing to worry about. This is a spur road, Gletscherstrasse, that gets you nearer to the mountain and its glacier than I could have imagined.

There's even a multi storey car park and this is the view from it.

Eagle-eyed glacier lovers will note that there's a huge glacier in this photo but a lot of it is covered in moraine, all the way from top right down to the meltwater lake at the middle bottom.

There are several higher 'hanging' glaciers too.

This is the altitude. Not bad for a road is it?

These are some of the bikes, almost as many as in Matlock Bath on a Saturday afternoon. Via Gelia and the Cat and Fiddle just aren't the same though, are they? They are so proud of them and have them perfectly lined-up. I can see the appeal.

When you return to the main road (and you have to go downhill to get to it), there's still an almighty climb to the pass and the hairpins are just stacked one above the other. Again it's 'watch out for bikers time' as they like to overtake on the hairpins just as much as they do on the straight.

So that's the top, 2,504m on a major route and in a 110 300TDi Station Wagon. Pause for applause!!

All we had to do was get down the other side. Now before the trip started, had invested in new brake calipers and discs all round and the front are vented discs but it's a long long way down and the Landy is heavy; no way did I want brake fade. I don't think that really happens any more but as we have had a trouble-free motoring holiday (and we had just flipped through 5,000 miles), I wasn't going to be rushed.

So we dropped into the Tyrol and to an area of Austria we visited with Jo & Charlie some years ago. Kitzbühel is as beautiful as ever and we camped just north, before St Johann, at Camping Michelnhof.

This is what Austrians do well; it's a campsite that caters for winter stays (motorhomes and caravans). The facilities are amazing, just what you need after a day's skiing.

What I liked about the place was that the farming family who live there, love Land Rover Defenders and they couldn't wait to look at ours, having spotted us driving up the road. They have just invested in a brand new Defender 90 because they know that 2015 is the final year of production.

The best bit however, is the view in the morning light, of the Wilder Kaiser mountain range right in front of the Landy...Those peaks are all 2,300m+ and they look fantastic, as well as eminently walkable with a scramble at the tops maybe.

The tour of the Balkans and Greece was therefore completed with a surprise addition of this marvellous drive over a beautiful alpine pass. I don't know what sights the bikers saw before they got to the lookout, but we enjoyed every minute of the ascent and decent. We were blessed with terrific visibility and it really was a fantastic last sightseeing day.

All that remains now is a drive across Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, to the channel ports and an overnight stop at our favourite campsite at a Manoir just east of Boulogne. We hope to be there on Wednesday 15th July.

 

Slovenia's Julian Alps

I knew they were there, tucked away in the corner of Slovenia and I had heard that they were beautiful, nonetheless, to drive into the Julian Alps was still a lovely surprise. Everyone who has been there told us to visit Lake Bled. It's not far from the border with Austria so by the time we'd driven from Plitvice, we had crossed most of this small country, which was the first of the former Yougoslav Republics to declare independence. Unlike the others, the police force were all supportive of the regime and I read that they just changed uniforms one day and, maybe putting it a little too simply, that was that.

We ate our picnic lunch as usual, by pulling off the road into somewhere interesting. Today was no exception, as we stumbled upon a small village where everyone walked around wearing swimming costume.

We felt a little uncomfortable being fully clothed, especially as it was hot. As we stood by a river another chap walked across the road from someplace unknown, wearing his budgie smugglers and as he stood by the river bank he rubbed shampoo in his hair and then jumped in to wash it out.

Don't get me wrong, this was no poor deprived village, there were plenty of houses bigger than ours. I just can't explain it and if it were to happen in the UK the river police would stamp on this hair washing practice even if they didn't put a stop to villagers baring too much flesh.

Bled's lake is about 2,200m by 1,300m and it is picture postcard perfect, with a castle on a rocky outcrop and an island on which is a monastery. The lake is accessible to swimmers and boaters, rowers and board paddlers so it's a lot of fun.

They say "when in Rome...", well when in Bled you eat cream cake!

The Bled campsite is lakeside and there's a grass beach, which we happily lay on before having a swim the day we arrived. This was fortunate as during the evening the storm clouds rolled-in. We weren't expecting bad weather as earlier in the day they'd had an earlier storm, complete with continental-sized hailstones.

However the lightening started and the rain fell. We retreated to the middle of the tent to sit it out. This was no ordinary continental thunderstorm however. This was a full-on electric storm. Each flash of lightening was a strobe light of about five flashes. The rain was normal torrential but the thing carried on and on. We went to bed but it was hard to drop off as the flashes were so intense. As we tossed and turned through the night, the rain continued.

A couple of days later we were talking to a car park attendant at the top of a mountain pass. The conversation was about the weather and she mentioned that they'd had a storm. When we said we'd been in Bled for the same evening she said "Oh I heard it was terrible there". "Do you really mean it?", says I, "Yes they said it was really bad in Bled". So I'm not exaggerating!

The Julian Alps scenery is stunning...

This mountain stream was cold, really cold. I had intended to skinny dip as I got the idea from that lunchtime spot a day or two earlier, but didn't get further than this...

It was numbingly cold, not that Dawn believed me. I was accused of being a wimp, so we had a paddling competition.

I think that was confidence before rather than elation afterwards. However we were both happy on the podium.

Charlie sent a message suggesting we drive the Vršič pass over to Kranjska Gora if we got chance. The route would be a big detour, but what the heck. We are so glad that we did. It's a small road, no trailers are allowed and you find out why early-on as it is steep, narrow and there are fifty hairpins across the two sides and it climbs to 1,611m.

It's an old path connecting Trenta with Kranjska Gora and Villach, that was first widened in 1909 and then converted to a road during WW1, by 10,000 Russian POWs. There were three hundred deaths and many more casualties from a couple of severe avalanches during 1916. In fact a memorial church was built on the northern side and the road was named The Russian Road, Ruska Cesta, in their memory.

Going down the northern side, the gradient is 18% for 900m, that's a long hill and much of the rest is very steep rather than just steep.

What a sight the mountains are in Kranjska Gora. This is the view back south towards the pass, the following morning...

We camped at the Natura Eco camp in Kranska Gora, which was lovely and dark, quiet and delightful. I'm not sure if there's a Cool Camping section on Slovenia, but this camp is right there with the best. 

We slept in the Landy, first time for a while. We know our routine now which is a little tricky if bad weather threatens as we have more 'stuff' than one would have for a shorter trip, plus a tent of course.

Plitvička Jezera

Whilst in Croatia, we made another return visit, this time to Plitvička Jezera (lakes). These are so good that it's inconceivable to drive near northern Croatia and not visit.

If I say that they are a collection of sixteen lakes, each at a different level - a cascade of lakes and then each one connected to the next by waterfalls and/or rushing torrents, you might get a sense of what they look like.

It's in a National Park, there are two entrances, you pick one and then use a combo of walking, small ferries and electric buses, to get around the lakes. They are all connected with paths, a few steps and a lot of board-walks. A total of 18km if you have enough legs.

It isn't possible to really convey the wonder of this spectacle in words or pictures. We managed to avoid pictures of other people, which by early afternoon was quite difficult as it got quite busy on the boardwalks. It was very hot, about 34C and there's no chance of a cool-off as its not allowed.

EVERYONE is taking photograhs and many with selfie sticks. I was ready to wrap one around a lad's neck after he nearly took my eye out. What is it with these things? Why do so many people want to take pictures of themselves? I don't get it!

There's obviously been an even bigger problem in the past with Herman Munster and he's not welcome any more...(old-timers, are you following me?).

The campsite we used is about 10km south of the southern entrance and it's run by the National Park. It is a lovely setting and again with terrific washing and toilet facilities.

There we met Phil and Jess from Melbourne, in their mid twenties I'd say and on a six month trip. They had bought a VW T5 in the UK and were doing their best to haul it to Portugal and Spain, then along the Med to here, before heading back, hoping for a quick sale and then back to work in Oz. I helped to remove a broken wing mirror and cobble together a repair that allowed the mirror to work and the passenger window to close! Result!

Into Croatia - the coast

Our route after Mostar was to travel the short distance to the coast of Croatia, just to the north west of Dubrovnik, for a little more sun and sea. It also meant another border crossing, back into the EU this time. It was however the longest wait in the hottest temperatures. What was slightly frustrating was that there was only one 'window' at each side of the border and when they saw our right hand drive vehicle, we were waved on through each one, without the passports even receiving a glance!

The temperature in the day is in the mid-thirties and driving a Land Rover without aircon is still reasonably comfortable with at least two windows wide open and the vent flaps under the windscreen also pushed open. In the later models, starting with some of the TD5 models perhaps (but I'm not sure), these vents were removed. It wouldn't be possible to get enough cooling airflow without them.

Without a doubt the single biggest success has been the silver foil bubble sheets that Dawn made for each window and the fact that the windows are vertical and so don't present an angle for the sun's rays. The rear side windows, the two quarter lights at the back as well as the two alpine windows are left blocked all the time. As soon as we park, unless we are sure of shade, the other ones are stuck up, particularly the back window which is where the cool box sits, plugged into the auxiliary battery.

The cool box has been another success. It's a top of the range Waeco Tropicool Classic which we have used for several years. These coolers work on the Peltier effect. When a particular semiconductor junction has a 12volt DC applied across it, one end of the junction gets hot and the other cold. The cold end is placed inside the cooler compartment and hot end is outside. A big fan then blows heat away from the hot end. The cool end in theory is able to be a maximum of twenty degrees lower than the hot end. So the cooler the hot end, the colder the cool end becomes. We have had cold milk (for breakfast muesil) and hard butter most of the time and also cold beer in the evening.

The Dalmatian coast of Croatia is another 'fusion' of craggy mountains dropping to the sea. What makes it even more compelling is that the mountains are almost 'Dolomitic', in that they have a vertical rock face near the top. Also they run parallel to the coast and there are a series of islands running along the coast too. We went to Zaostrog, to Camping Viter, which is at the beach with a view out to sea appearing as if it is looking across to an island but in fact it's a strange extension to the mainland, joined at the south eastern end only. So at night there's a few twinkling lights to look at. The island of Hvar was just offshore too, so not a lot of horizon and a lot of land to look at. There's a few ferries running too and it's possible to take vehicles on most, so a Croatian island-hopping holiday is feasible.

It's a little busier here with quite a variety of nationalities on the beach. We met Daz and Amy here; a young couple from the UK. They were driving a very old camper, model is Eldiss Autoking 790. The 790 defines the length in cms and yes, it's huge. Daz and Amy have adopted a stray puppy they found in a lay by and took it to the vet for a checkup before carefully restoring it to health. They hope to find a willing keeper before they have to return to the UK. After just a few days, Lucky (ha!), already 'sits' and offers a paw.

Why are campsites in 'Europe' always located near bells? This one is next to a monastery and the bell tower has none of those muffling wooden shutters usually found. 

So the bells were very loud and piercing but fortunately they stopped ringing in the evening and didn't start again until 7:45 when someone there had the task of giving them a right good tug for about five minutes, (just to make sure so to speak).

As we would find elsewhere in Croatia and Slovenia, the campsites are of a very high standard. The offices are manned from early until late, the toilets are cleaned frequently and there's soap, toilet paper and paper towels. There's none of the UK Caravan Club 'closed for cleaning from 10:00 to 12:00' here. They just clean around you. What seems really appropriate is that the automatic washing machine room is located next to the men's toilets whereas the hand clothes washing sinks are round at the women's.

After a few days at Zaostrog we drove up the coast to Split. This is was a return trip, the longest gap between visits anywhere in our holiday life. We first came to Split in 1980; a destination on Inter-Rail. What a fantastic summer holiday an Inter-Rail month was. It was around £125 to go anywhere in Europe and you even got about £25 cash back if you handed your 'ticket book' back at the end. Why was that?

In 1980, Split was in what was known then as Yugoslavia, a country that had been held together for better or worse by a life president, Tito. He had died just a few months earlier and the people hadn't yet come to terms with this. His portrait and photographs were on display in every shop and office. I remember that the city was very poor and we had trouble buying food of any description. There were few tourists, although we managed to meet five on our campsite, students like us. There had been two guys from the USA, two from the Netherlands and a Polish lad who's only English was "no problem", a phrase that he used all the time and especially when 'downing' another vodka.

Today's Split is an altogether different place. It is very much on the tourist trail and we found many people there, walking the streets of the old city and looking at the Roman remains and the slightly newer buildings.

This is a statue of Grgur Nit, a bishop of about the 6C. I've no idea why the artist captured him in this pose, but it seems almost Pythonesque, not just because of his name but because of the soldiers nearby who look as if they are only halfheartedly guarding him.

Split is really worth a visit because the buildings are stunning and there are many narrow walkways to wander through.

There's one more curious statute, this one apparently an attempt to capture someone "giving the finger". At the time this piece was made, apparently one finger wasn't insulting enough and the rudest of rude gestures required four fingers.

As we walked around Split, I noticed a Santana 'Land Rover' from Vienna. It was parked just outside the walls and I knew it was being driven by a couple we met on a campsite in Albania. What a coincidence again, not only to be in the same place but at the same time? We actually bumped into them as we walked around too!

I think there's a photo of me from 1980 at this headless Sphinx and I think it's fair to say I haven't changed too much, although the Sphinx has aged even better.

There's another Sphinx too; this one has a head. Dawn posed with her/it, just for balance.

Just along the coast from Split is the 'island' of Trogir. We stayed overnight and actually it's a very nice place, with some amazing yachts. A huge one flying the red ensign, was moored in the town. It's name was Sea Force One and I approached a crew member to ask who was on board but disappointingly he said it was owned by a company and chartered, so no celebrity selfie for me.

Still following our plan and amazingly keeping to schedule without trying, we moved north and inland to another location re-visit, Plitvice Lakes.