Away we go!!!

So the day has finally arrived.


Mixed emotions for us all. Jack a bit nervous about the whole thing, he hates being away from his comfort zone and likes his routine. I think all of us realise we will miss family and friends being away for more than a month.


But the day has arrived with clear blue sky, it's the best day for a while and maybe a good omen?  At least we can get our last few bits packed in the dry.

 

Made it to Hull no bother. Loading soon and the next time the tyres roll we will be on the continent.

The fun starts here!!

Chris

Meet the team

Here's a breakdown of who is going on our trip:

Name: Jack
Age: Nearly 8
Interests: Football, wrestling, stunt biking, pizza and anything involving cheese
Dislikes: Washing his hair, bedtime and height restrictions
Specialist skills: Proficient kayak pilot and daredevil
Main role on trip: Adventure/water park tour guide. Jack will sniff out the most nail biting and scary rides for us to try.

Name: Harry
Age: Nearly 12 going on 30
Interests: Football, darts, tennis, snooker (in fact all sports)
Dislikes: Homework and clipping his nails
Specialist skills: Advanced Kayak pilot and translator
Main role on trip: As the family member who has visited France and Spain most recently (school trips), Harry will act as translator. He's also going to be much better than a tour guide at the Nou Camp with all his knowledge and stats.

Name: Kerry
Age: Never mention a ladies age! (but she's older than she looks).
Interests: Facebook, friends and family, zumba, chocolate and wine
Dislikes: Chocolate and wine leading to a need for zumba
Specialist skills: The ability to know which direction we should be going in despite no map, no sat nav and no previous experience of the location. Also has an uncanny ability to know a slightly better way of completing any given task approximately 5 seconds after you have done it. Is also by far the most compassionate member of the team and can always sniff out interesting things to do. Always ready to pull up her sleeves and have a go.
Main role on trip: Navigator, co-driver and personal dresser for team members 1 and 2.

Name: Chris
Age: 41
Interests: Football, travel, motorcycles and adventure
Dislikes: Bananas, arrogance, dangerous drivers and soap operas
Specialist skills: The ability to know which direction we should be going in by use of maps, sat nav and asking locals who have very good knowledge of the location. Is also good at finding people with the right specialist skills to get a job done properly. Is a big follower of the P principal. Prior preparation & planning prevent p**s poor performance
Main role on trip: Driver, co-navigator, co-translator, camping advisor and chef

Thats all for this blog. The next will probably be just before the off. But take note:

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

Chris

So...Where shall we go?

Departure date is fast approaching!! Next Tuesday we plan to leave and the first leg of the journey is just a couple of hours down the road from Newcastle to Hull to catch the ferry across to Zeebrugge in Belgium.

We could have opted to catch the ferry from North Shields to Amsterdam but decided on Hull for two main reasons. Firstly if we went from North Shields we would only have had to travel about 5 minutes from home to get there and it just wouldn't have felt like a proper start to our big trip! Secondly, as the ferry we have chosen docks in Zeebrugge, our onward drive time on our first day on the continent is reduced by a couple of hours. That means we can get to our first destination just outside Paris nice and early ready to set up camp as we plan to stay there for four days.

First on the agenda is three days in Euro Disney.

The camp site we are staying in runs a shuttle bus to the resort, so we can relax and take things easy and enjoy what Disneyland has to offer. Needless to say the kids are really looking forward to this, well all of us are.

Day four in Paris is exactly that. We plan to spend the day touring the sites, Eiffel Tower (apparently a really good rip off of Blackpool!), Seine Boat trip, Champs Elysees, L'Arc De Triomphe and all of the other usual suspects. Then after a nice evening meal we plan to eat into some of the 550 kilometers we have to our next destination, Geneva.

When planning this trip, we realised that as the distances between destinations are so great, the kids would probably bored to tears if we just gave up whole days to driving, and that wouldnt make it much of a holiday. So we tried to think of some way of keeping this to a minimum. Having the van and being mobile and self contained made things easier for us. Our plan is to split longer journeys up, and complete the first half in the evenings after having loads of fun during the day. We can drive for as long as we please, while the kids watch a movie or play some games. Then when we start getting bored/tired/crotchy we can simply pull off the road somewhere nice and camp there.

In France they have what are called 'Aires' which are scenic little rest stops along the motorway where you can stop and camp for free. Some have toilets and showers, picnic tables and that kind of thing. The layout of the van means we have no awkward messing with folding beds and seats, we simply stop, apply the hand brake and jump into bed to sleep if we want. But we can have a meal, stretch the legs and generally take a break from the drive. When we wake up fresh and rested, we can continue on to our destination, hopefully with ease.

That's the plan. I'll keep you updated as to if it works for us or not!!

So we head to Geneva where we plan to camp next to Lac Leman (or as some prefer to call it Lake Geneva) for three days.

Switzerland is extremely beautiful, Kerry, Harry and I have camped next to another lake there a few years ago, before Jack was born. We plan to explore the hills, by cable-car and play on the lake in the Kayaks.

Next we head off to the South of France and St Tropez. Well, Port Grimaude to be exact, just around the bay from St Trop.

We are camping on the beach here for a full week. There's loads to do, exploring the playground of the rich and famous, kayaking round their superyachts and visiting Cannes and Monaco. Of course, we will be shopping in Lidl and sipping 5Euro wine at night, but they dont know that! Theres also a great summer long fairground/mini theme park around the bay that the kids will love.

After that, we head off to Northern Spain and a resort at Estatit. We stay there for four days and will be meeting up with some family friends who are overlapping our stay at the same resort. From there we head even further south and are planning a day trip to the Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona.

After we have all had a good poke around the stadium (loosely based on Elland Road I believe lol) we hope to spend a day or two in Port Adventura, a theme park south of Barcelona. After that its back on the road to continue south to Valencia and on to Alicante.

An old Army buddy of mine now lives in the Alicante area, hopefully our schedule allows us at least a few hours (and cold beers) to visit him and catch up.

But we wont have too much time to sit around enjoying the beach (Approx three full days in Alicante) because after that we begin to travel north for the first time. From here we have nearly 900 kilometers to get to Santander, although we plan to perhaps swing by Madrid en-route, just to say we have been.

Out ultimate destination on this part of the route is to get to Santander, a port on the northern coast of Spain and where we have to catch our ferry back to the UK. As the price of tickets for these ferries is eye-watering to say the least, for a big van and family of four in high season, this is the most important deadline on our whole trip.

If anything goes wrong, or our schedule has to alter, it will be done so to still allow us to connect with this ferry.

The ferry trip lasts a full 24 hours and gets us back to this green and pleasant land, well Portsmouth at least. From here we have a leisurely couple of hours drive to South London, where we will be the guests of Leanne and Nigel (Kerry's sister/boyfriend). Here we plan to do the full tourist thing again, London Eye, trip on the river and West End Show to name but some.

Two or three days in London should be enough before we get itchy feet again and can begin to meander north, probably calling in on my family in Yorkshire before heading up the last stretch of A1 back to Newcastle and home sweet home. 

We plan to get home with a few days left off before the kids have to get back to school. Hopefully this trip will provide them with lots of stories to tell their mates, and memories that will last a lifetime. The trip will last for between 30-33 days and covers 2390 Miles (3851 Kilometers) just point to point. That doesnt account for any day trips or detours.

In the next blog, meet the team who will take on this trip of a lifetime (and have a pretty good holiday too).

Speak soon...... and remember: The world is a book and those that do not travel read only one page!

Chris





The Van.

And so began the search for the van.

We had loads things to take into consideration, firstly the number of vehicles we own. Kerry needs her car for her work, and I need transport if for nothing else than to get the kids around to football and stuff. I had a Land Rover which was useful for work and I also have a motorbike. If we were going to get a campervan, I was going to have to sell the car and use the van as my main means of transport with the kids after our trip. For day to day nipping around I could use the bike so economy didn't really matter too much (and anyway, I was already running an old 2.5 ltr diesel Discovery which are not renound for their economy, so a similar sized beast wouldn't be too much of a shock).

So it had to be small enough to use reguarly, but spacious enough to accommodate us comfortably when we went away. As we were planning lots of time on the road, we were adamant that the rear seating had proper seatbelts for the kids. Lots of motorhomes and conversions have bench seating in the rear with lap belts at best and we dont think they are safe enough for our precious cargo. There were plenty of motorhomes on the market, but all seemed to big and ungainly for what we wanted. To suit our needs we decided that a van conversion would be best for us.

However the van conversions available at the time were either converted to suit motorcross and had done hundreds of thousands of miles, or had been converted for retired couples and were only set up to house two people comfortably. So then we looked at converting a van ourselves, the advantage being that we could build it exactly to our required spec.

But this was going to take time and money and I have never done anything like that before. Undeterred by this and in order to satisfy our need for proper seating in the rear, we had just about settled on converting an old minibus. We could remove some of the rear seats and leave the number we needed and convert the new space into whatever configuration we wanted. It was a good plan, but we still needed to find a suitable base vehicle. We also toyed with loads of designs for the van, how the beds should be made up, electric supply, how it was heated, cooking needs and what cupboards and storage space we needed..

In the end it was Kerry who had by far the best idea for a layout. It was exactly what we needed, but was basic and so would be easier to construct. We didnt want to give up valuable space for a toilet or shower, something that would be used rarely if ever. And anyway, most of the places we plan to stay at have facilities we can use. So with the design in mind we both trawled Ebay in the hope of finding the right van to convert. We found a couple of possibles, low 'ish' mileage minibusses for sale in the North East at a price that would allow some budget left over to complete the conversion. I quickly phoned both of the owners to arrange viewings, hoping that we had not been beaten to them. But unfortunately both owners were away at the time and viewings could not be made until a couple of days later. We were disappointed, but this delay was to prove to be to our advantage.

While waiting to view the vans, I still looked through the long list of vans and campers on Ebay, just browsing really, perhaps looking for good design ideas that we could use on our van. And then all of a sudden there she was. Right in front of me on the pages of Ebay. An already self build converted ex-police riot van in almost the exact design that Kerry had thought of. Low mileage (70,000 which is nothing for a Mercedes which still fetch £12,000 with 250,000 on the clock). Forward facing seating with 3 point belts for 5 (and spare seats to make an eight seater if required). Medium wheel base, night heater, fixed upper bunk beds for the kids, a removeable main double bed, cooker and kitchen unit, fridge freezer and loads of storage compartments for our mountain of kit we take away with us. As well as the sales page, there was also a link to a video of the van posted on YouTube. It was brilliant and we fell in love with her there and then. As it was an ex-Police vehicle, it also had a very extensive service history, even down to when bulbs were changed!


It was exactly what we were after and meant we wouldn't need to spend time and money trying to do a conversion ourselves. The only problem, as far as I could see, was that the van was listed for sale in Dover, not exactly local! As there was no contact number, I quickly emailed the seller and as it was just what we wanted and needed (and us being us) we made an offer based on what we had seen on the internet (subject to the van being as described upon collection of course, we're not THAT stupid).

Fairly quickly, Gavin the owner got back to me and after some too-ing and fro-ing accepted our offer. Great news, unfortunately that was only half of the news.

Gavin, it turned out was a wealthy American businessman who owned and chartered out his own luxury catamaran yacht to other wealthy Americans. He took them on tours of the worlds oceans doing adventure sports, mainly parasurfing and paragliding, in unusual, far flung and exotic locations. After 13 years doing this, he and his partner had tired of the lifestyle somewhat and wanted to tour Europe, find a land base and set up a proper photography studio. Gavin's partner had started to make a name for herself globally in the adventure sports photography community, but was limited to what she could do while at sea. 

While in India, Gavin had enlisted the help of his friend, to take over as captain of the catamaran. He and his partner then flew to Glasgow where they bought the recently converted camper and embarked on a 5000 mile tour around Europe. Eventually they found the place they wanted to live, and bought a house. The trouble for us was that this was in Marbella (Spain) and the van was parked in his driveway! That was certainly a bit further to collect than Dover!

This was all part of Gavin's plan though. He had listed the van as in Dover as because the van was registered as a UK vehicle, it was far easier for him to drive to the UK and sell it rather than import it to spain and try to sell a right hand drive vehicle to a local.

The plan changed slightly to make Gavin's trip easier. He drove to Santander and got the ferry to Portsmouth. He needed a day or two in England to get some jobs done on the van. A few small niggles needed sorting and he also wanted to get the van taxed and tested and then it was ready for me to collect.

I chose to fly from Newcastle to Southampton as it was £30 cheaper than the train and about 5 hours faster and Gavin kindly met me at the airport. I have to say I was nervous waiting for him to arrive. We had spent a lot of time finding the van, sorting insurance quotes and spending money on travel. I just hoped the van wasnt a complete duffer when he arrived so it was with utter relief when he appeared around the corner in what appeared to be the van in very good order.


We had a test drive and found a car park where Gavin showed me all the bits and bobs. The deal was sealed as the van had lived up to and even exceeded all expectations. Hard cash was handed over, the V5 signed and paperwork completed and that was that. I dropped Gavin back at the station and then had an enjoyable drive back to Newcastle in our new van. 


I'm glad to say the family were all as happy as I was with the van when I got home, thankfully. So here she is:

View of the kitchen from the bed

 Dining area

Kitchen

 View from rear showing bed and upper bunks

One of the expected views on holiday!!

So that's how we got the van. Since owning it and in preparation for our trip I have had it fully serviced and replaced all oils and lubricants. I have also had a full brake strip down check, and all the tyre's scrutinised by the garage to make sure they are A1. I also noticed a bit of a squeak from the back wheel, so had the bearings checked and the drive axle's resealed. At the same time the rear diff oil was also replaced, just to be sure.


We added a commercial roof-rack, so that we can safely carry the kayaks on our trip, and also a roof box, for storage of dirty/wet kit. This is how it looks now:

I also jumped through hoops with DVLA to change the van as it was registered as a "Private HGV". I wanted it registered as a "Motor Caravan" to enable me to get cheaper insurance, drive faster on dual carriageways and get it MOT'd the same as a car. This meant sending off an amended V5 with a covering letter, a full 'tech spec' of the van (including details about bed sizes, cooker fixings and water storing capability to name a few) and approx 20 large glossy colour photos of the van inside and out with descriptions. This was so an engineer could assess the van and decide if it fell within the bracket for classification as a "Motor Caravan". After a tense 5 weeks, the V5 came back fully amended as we wanted. Happy days.


So she's good to go. We have taken her up the Northumbrian costal route and back. We have also taken her camping in the Lake District for a weekend and I have also been to Pwllheli camping for 3 nights whilst working down there, so she has had a few decent runs out. She drives like a dream, is comfy as heck for driver and passengers and also is quite good on fuel economy (doesn't say much for my old Discovery that I am happy with the fuel consumption of a 2.7 ltr twin rear wheel van!!)


Next week she's getting the full treatment with the hoover and the soapy sponge, and will be packed up with all the kit ready to go for departing one week on Tuesday.


The next blog in a few days will give more details on our itinary. I know these first few blogs have been quite long winded, I promise the ones on the road will be short and sweet, hopefully with some good pics as we go (fingers crossed for wireless in some of the holiday locations or we're buggered!)


Until next time. Oh and remember - Never stop exploring!


Chris

The Start Of The Adventure!

So, summer holidays for 2012 were on the menu for discussion at the Poole household. We have never taken the kids on a proper, proper holiday and wanted to do something special, especially since my retirement from the Army gave us more freedom to pick and choose what we wanted to do.

America (more to the point Florida) was high on the list initially and for a long time that's where we thought we would go. Stuff for the kids was important and so two weeks of Disney, Busch Gardens, Sea World, Marine Land, Animal Kingdom and Universal Studios were planned and researched.

To be honest, that wouldnt have been my idea of a fantastic holiday, stuck in theme parks for two weeks, holding bags and taking photos, although it would have been fantastic to see the kids (and big kid Kerry) have loads of fun. I pushed for us to take an extra week, possibly in the middle to hire a car and get out there and see some of the real America. That would keep us all happy. And then we started looking at the prices.

Obviously wanting to go in the school hols, prices were premium accross the board. Flights, accomodation and theme park passes, not to mention food and spends, it all added up to a pretty tidy sum I can tell you.

Then the God of fortune smiled down and had a word in Kerry's ear. "Why dont we forget Florida" she piped up one day. "We could buy a camper van and tour round Europe. We could still do a few days in Disneyland Paris, and Adventura in Spain and there are loads of water parks in the South of France. We would be spending the same amount of money, but when we get back we still would have the van to use any time we please". It would also mean that we could afford to go for a much longer break, probably the whole month of August.

And so the idea was born. Over the next few weeks we worked on where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. It was important to break the journey up because some long distances were involved and we didn't want the kids just sitting in a van for miles and miles around Europe. We also wanted to be booked in and confirmed at some locations, but retain the freedom to just do things on the spur of the moment and camp on the road if we fancied. We planned periods in between that we could just 'cuff' and make up as we went along. It also gave us some contingency plan in case we had an emergency or breakdown. 

A famous motorcycle adventure traveller (Ted Simon) once said, its not the travel that makes the journey, but the stops and the things that happen along the way that do. They are what give you the memories. I think he is a wise man.

We really didn't want to feel that we were constantly rushing to try and get to the next location, this was a holiday not a race. So if we feel like stopping to try a bit of bungy jumping in the Alps along the way, we can (not likely for me but you never know!!).

Eventually we agreed on our route. The plan is to travel to Hull and get the ferry to Zeebrugge. From there we travel to Paris for a few days, then on to Geneva and Lak Leman (Lake Geneva to those who prefer) for a three day stopover. Then down to the South of France, St Tropez and Cannes for a full week of camping on the beach. Next to Estartit in northern Spain, followed by Barcelona and further on down the coast to Valencia and Alicante. Then we begin the route homeward, via Madrid to Santander, ferry to Portsmouth and then to London for a few days stopover with Leanne (Kerry's sister) until we mosey on home to Newcastle four and a half weeks after setting out. The map below doesnt do the distance justice, its 2500 miles (3800 km) just from point to point!

I'll give a full breakdown of the itinary in a later blog closer to departure date which is on Tuesday 31 Jul 2012. Its also my plan to blog as we travel, hopefully posting some nice pics of the places we visit and things we do, every few days. Thats if I can get connected on the road. Fingers crossed.

The next blog however will be about the fine beast of a vehicle we plan to do the trip in. Our home for nearly 5 weeks and how we picked and bought her. As with everything we do it was not simple, we do like to keep things complicated! lol.

Speak soon, and remember: One life.......live it!

Chris.