The Story so far

As I finally get around to writing my masterpiece I notice that it is 7 whole weeks since I left my safe and secure job and life in search of some adventure.  I promised everyone that I would get this started immediately but all the best laid plans etc. etc.

My original plan was to leave work on Friday and give myself a week to complete the six tier wedding cake I had to do, load my van and then leave Cornwall on the following Friday to deliver the cake and attend the birthday party/wedding on the Saturday and then travel to Dover to catch the ferry on Sunday. It didn’t quite work out like that sadly.

On the Wednesday of week one – (packing etc) I realised I didn’t know where my passport was.  Panic set in as I set about unpacking bags, boxes and everywhere I could possibly have put said passport for safe keeping – not a dicky bird.  Plan 2, check out getting a replacement passport; did you know you can’t get one inside a week? even travelling to the nearest passport office and camping out. Wedding cake forgotten and lecture from sister to look again and then again for my passport as it had to be there- SOMEWHERE.  Late on Wednesday afternoon I found it -PHEW! Lurking in a box next to the sofa where it must have dropped off when the cat was cleaning the table.  Panic over!  Back to finishing this cake. 

The garage said my van would be ready to collect on Thursday – only 3 days late; but I would still have time to load it and catch that ferry.  Thursday afternoon – no van.  I was still waiting for the MOT to be done – but it would be done by Friday.  Plan 3, change the ferry booking to the following week sometime.  Then all I had to do was collect the van on Friday lunchtime before I left for Portsmouth and drive my car to Portsmouth and back, load on Sunday afternoon and leave on Monday.  No.  MOT can’t be done until Saturday morning.  But the garage could deliver it back to my sisters house and drop the keys off.  Call from nephew late Saturday afternoon – no van delivered.  Call to garage owner.  The van has an MOT! But couldn’t be delivered.  So van has been left at the garage to collect on Sunday.

In the midst of all this stress I enjoyed an evening in the local Indian restaurant on Thursday night as it was planned to be the last night in Cornwall farewell dinner with family and friends.  It was so nice to sit there and just catch up.  Missing my work colleagues already.  I finished the cake and travelled to Portsmouth in the car and enjoyed my nieces birthday party and surprise wedding announcement to all the guests and returned home on Sunday afternoon.  By the time I travelled to Truro and back on Sunday to collect the van it was too late and to dark to start the loading process.

Monday, finally started loading the van. I can’t believe how much stuff I still have after my ‘clearouts’ (obviously not enough clearing out).  Plan is to leave by 12pm on Tuesday lunchtime.  The van hasn’t been road tested and I have never slept in it.  I don’t know how anything works (or doesn’t) and it is now too late.  Thankfully the RAC were able to give me some rescue and recovery for Europe.  No other company would touch  my van as it is over 16 years old – how ridiculous, what could go wrong?  It has a sparkly new MOT and had thousands spent on it.  And all those weeks spent in the garage having the different repairs done has filled me with an enormous amount of confidence – NOT!!

TUESDAY.  Not sure what plan number I am on but made it to Tuesday lunchtime and finally time to depart for Dover, collecting my sister from Exeter airport on the way.  She was flying in from Spain at wanting to be collected at 3.30pm.  It only takes 1.5hours to drive to Exeter airport so I had plenty of time even allowing for a comfort break on the A30. 

By 2pm I was beginning to realise that plans aren’t going to be workable.  I left at 12.30 and had only made it as far as the rest stop at Sourton.  I got out to go to the ladies and the cat escaped from the open door.  I hadn’t noticed that she had escaped from her harness and then made a bid for freedom.  So I ended up chasing her around the car park and crawling under the lorries parked up trying to capture the cat.  Mission accomplished and it only took 10 minutes. Now time for the loo.  Finally back on the road and I still had an hour to get to the airport.  Quick stop for fuel as I wasn’t sure how much I had (the fuel gauge isn’t very accurate) and I now had 15 minutes to get to the airport.  Finally made it at 4pm – only half an hour late.  Starting to realise that this was going to be a bit of a slow process – but on the positive side, the van hadn’t broken down!

I collected my sister from the airport – she said she new it was me coming up the road as she heard me before she saw me, and she hadn’t ever seen my van.  And the journey is finally starting.  Down to Andover to collect a couple of bits from younger sister who had promised to feed us.  Late getting there as well and then we left expecting to reach Dover by around 11pm.  I hadn’t booked a hotel as I wanted to see how far we could get.  I think we made it by about 0300hrs.  Just because the van is old and slow.  Although I did get flashed by a speed camera on the M25 and then spent the next 3 weeks worrying about it.  I reckon they saw the picture of the van and didn’t believe it was capable of breaking the speed limit.

We found a car park for a few hours of dozing in the van.  Woke up fancying a cooked breakfast.  Found the Premier Inn and the restaurant and it must be the only one which doesn’t open for breakfast.  We then tried for an early departure on the ferry.  Did all the passport stuff and had the van pulled in for  a search – actually they took one quick look inside and really didn’t want to disturb anything so let us go.  Then to check in.  And it was going so well.  Couldn’t get an earlier crossing as I had bought my ticket from a ticket agent and not direct with P&O.  Off to Tesco for a bit of retail therapy (actually to use the loo and kill some time).  Back to the ferry port for the ferry.  We were allowed on the one leaving one hour earlier so a bit of a victory.  I still got to use our lounge passes.  I assumed they would work like they do at the airport and we would get a breakfast or hot snack included.  They offered a glass of sparkling wine and all the coffee or tea you could drink.  Breakfast was from the menu.  What a fuss when I said I didn’t want the smoked salmon on my scrambled egg – could I have a slice of toast instead?  And it wasn’t cheap!  Wished I hadn’t bothered – but at least the seats were comfortable.

And so into France.  What a joyous country!  The scenery is lovely even from the motorway.  All I can really say is that it took 4 long days to hit the borders of Spain.  Staying at only the least expensive self service ‘hotels’ en route as you always have to pay extra for the animal we came upon a level of customer service never really experienced before.  The first one was okay and the further south we travelled the worse it became.  One restaurant wanted to charge full price for a meal we sent back to the kitchen twice.  They wouldn’t let us leave until the bill had been paid so I decided we would have a sit in until something edible could be put before us.  This worked when I bought a packet of crisps from the vending machine, collected an empty plate from the buffet and emptied the crisps on to it and sat at the table to eat.  Still not a great meal from the cuisine capital of Europe but at least we didn’t go to bed hungry.

On day 2 I managed to pull the wiring from my very expensive all whistles and bells radio leaving us in silence.  Thank heavens for bluetooth speakers and ipods and downloads.  I think we managed to listen to everything we had twice over.  As I only had the one socket which was being used for the satnav we became reliant upon my little power bank and a solar charging panel in the front window to keep the sounds going from morning till night when we parked up and plugged everything in to the hotel  electricity points.  Still haven’t had the repair done 7 weeks later, but it is high on my list of priorities. Another low point was taking the wrong exit off the motorway at the start of the evening rush hour near Lyonwhen the lights went out on the dash and apparently at the rear of the vehicle.  Fortunately the front headlights were working but dreaded the thought that the vehicles behind me might rear end me as they couldn’t see me brake.  But because the traffic was crawling along I did manage to admire some of the architecture and get a picture of the gorgeous bridge and a building which reminded me of a Star Wars spaceship.

Finally we reached the borders of Spain.  The land of inexpensive petrol (about 40cents a litre cheaper), sunshine, daily meal deals and friendly hoteliers.  The interesting thing about Spanish hotels is that they are noisy.  Really noisy.  You can hear every word from the room next door and every word of the monumental screaming match/row going on in the corridor at 0230 hours.  Sadly didn’t get the whole argument details but I think I can confidently say that the chap must have done something really awful to get the fishwife treatment.  Thankfully we only had one night in a Spanish hotel before pressing on towards Alicante the next day and my new ‘home’.  It was a long day but the scenery was ever changing.  Sunshine through the windows which meant we could lose the blankets keeping us warm in the van as we travelled along (the heating doesn’t work) and then rain once we hit the mountains. The van struggling to climb on those long upwards slopes and then gaining something in petrol consumption on the equally long downward slopes.  I don’t think I have ever known somebody to be so pleased to get into their own car as my sister when we reached Alicante.  She was gone like a rocket.  I think it was the ought that she adjust her seat to suit her frame and she would be able to go at a speed greater than 40mph in a vehicle that you didn’t have to shout in to be heard. She also was able to listen to music.  It was okay following her but I soon realised that I couldn’t see a thing from my left side and was completely blind at the junctions and hadn’t realised jmust how reliant we had both become on the passenger giving the all clear at junctions.  Simply because my van was loaded and the side windows were full of my stuff. (I can’t believe the difference it makes to have an empty van). 

Having arrived in the dark I didn’t really see my new home until the following morning when I was able to take my coffee outside and just sit in the sunshine and take in the peace and quiet of my new surroundings.  It was lovely.  A small cassita next door to my sisters house. Time to get the cat settled into our new surroundings and start to empty the van.