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Published: August 7th 2007
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The Beast
This was the photo that sold us the van. Nice hey... Bonjour, Bonsoir, and Good day to you all,
Well a lot has happened since I last wrote. Some of you will already know that we finally got the van up and running thanks to some very expensive phone calls back home to my father (the greatest auto electrician around), and the help of the second greatest auto electrician come handyman come know it all, Alain.
Let’s start at the beginning…
In short, along came the idea to travel before I had to finish up my working visa in the UK. The plans started with a Euro Rail ticket and visit what cities lie in the way. After getting some feed back from friends, the plans changed to buying a campervan and doing a van tour around Europe. The more we thought about it, the better this seemed as you can then go where you want, when you want, with no time boundaries (apart from the money running out!!!). This idea was the same when I first came over to the UK for the World Cup last year. Instead of flying over to Germany, we decided to hire a car and drive over. Besides the long hours behind the
The Tower Bridge
Our first drive in the van in London. wheel, the sites we saw could not be matched with flying. So the decision was made to by a van, and then came the hunt. For some reason I thought I could give my notice at work, find a van, sort out what I had to and be off with no problems, however this was not the case…
I could go on and on about what went wrong trying to find the right van (just like finding the right car back home). And if I was looking for the right car back home, I would look and find one, test drive it, get it looked over by my mechanic, and do all the right things that you do. We didn’t. It took that long to find a half decent van, that when it came around, I had finished work two weeks before, and trying not to spend any £££ while not going insane. The van we took, looked and seemed the part so much, it was bought pretty much on the spot as we just wanted to get away. BIG MISTAKE!!! Again, no long stories, so, after a quick £1200 repair job for the MOT (UK road worthy), we
Julia's Chateau
The amazing place we finally crawled to in Senlisse, outside Paris. were on the road a month after I had finished work and spending my tour money in London.
So the road we hit. Myself, Yavanna, Tom and Jack were finally on the way to our first major destination, Paris. Along the way to Dover Port in the UK, the van started playing up a little, as I noticed she didn’t like going up hills, doing over 50 and other vital flaws that came to make the first week an absolute hell. The ferry was booked for 1.30pm Thursday 28th June. We left with heaps of time to make it, although with the oncoming problems, we realised we weren’t going to get there anywhere near in time. So a quick call to the ferry company, and another payment, we changed the ferry time to 3.15pm. Because we were having so much luck, we didn’t arrive until 3pm, too late to board that ferry. So at the Dover Port Gates, another payment and wait for our 4.30pm ferry to Calais. The first night was Calais, just into France. By this time I had just about enough of driving the beast. Anything over 2nd gear had to be driven that slow, so
Malibu
The very calming Malibu playing with dinner. it didn’t “bunny hop” along, it would have driven anyone up the wall. We then crawled along to Paris, normally about a 3 or 4 hour drive, turning into a 2 day venture.
So it sounds like I’m really enjoying the trip so far hey. Well, when we hit Senlisse (just outside Paris), we finally saw some light. This is where Yavanna’s cousin Julia lives. Julia kindly let us park our beast outside her place and use what ever we needed as we ventured in and out of Paris. To finally get to a house with a toilet and shower, was heaven. It has been many years since I last went camping without the luxury of a shower. It took 3 days to get here. 3 days of nothing but troubles. 3 days without a shower. We were smelly.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Julia, Oliver, Loic, Sophie, and Alain. Without the help of all of you, the van tour was to be no more. You all had a part in getting us back on the road and not heading back home with a busted up piece of s**t (this is the only reason we didn’t steal Malibu…).
So, we finally made it to our first destination, Paris. Don’t go anywhere as you will miss the next instalment of The Van Tour Adventure…
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JK
non-member comment
Hey!
Hey mate. Sounds like an ordeal, but great to hear you have pushed on! Hopefully you don't have any more bad luck. I'm sure the rest of the trip will be awesome! Safe travels.....JK