.png.5ff10cca1d0967e44a17e4a2edde2a80.png)
Cal
-
Posts
1,209 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
15
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Articles
Posts posted by Cal
-
-
I think it was a Formula 1 we stayed in on our way to pick a hire boat up in Brittany a few years back now.
Basic but it did the job for a quick one night stopover.
Not much to report so far on our trip. A drizzly damp run down the A1. Quick coffee stop then we will be on the road again.
-
2
-
-
8 hours ago, kpnut said:
They always know, don’t they. You get no peace till they’re stowed and you’re off.
No chance of a lie in around here on a Friday.
The dog woke us up at 6am, the time we get up for work. Then the bin men were round at 6.15am. Then people setting off for work.
We have just accepted it's time to get up.
-
1
-
2
-
-
12 minutes ago, ChrisB said:
It was always lunch-time when we got to Montauban. 17 years later , 1991 returning from what was to be our last family holiday in Banyuls-sur-Mer.
By the river, maybe even the same bench! The steed was Judith's Rover 216VP. We crammed into it as my Peugeot 405 lacked air-con.
Our youngest son must have taken the picture.
Anyway must not hi-jack your thread. I look forward very much to following your adventure.
Please hi jack all you like. Loving your little snippets and memories. Loving the cars as well 👌
Sadly our modern euro box of a van is lacking the character of vehicles gone by. Would love to do the trip in our Sierra at some point though.
-
8 minutes ago, ChrisB said:
Have a wonderful trip. I am green with envy!
Continental motoring was my late wife's and my greatest pleasure. More so, even, than sailing as Judith was never as keen on the sea as me.
We started camping, then when the boys came, a caravan, and latterly Hotels, Routiers and Ferme Auberge.
This 1974 picture of Judith preparing lunch, sat on a bench by the river in Montauban is one of my favourites. The back seat was removed from the Dyane to accommodate all our camping gear. We were on our way back from our second trip in that car to Andalusia, crossing the Pyrenees via the Col de Puymorens. No tunnel back then!
The year after it was a Europa caravan towed by a Daimler Sovereign because what we did not know was Judith was coming home pregnant with our eldest son.
Hard to come to terms that that picture was taken 49 years ago, with a Russian SLR Zenit camera.
Such amazing memories 💖 ❤️
-
We are all packed up, the van is all packed up and we are ready to set off in the morning.
Just need to fill the water up before we go, can't do it with the van parked in the drive as the filler is up against the house wall.
The dog is overly excited. He will be a nuisance tonight. 🙄
-
4
-
-
Tomorrow we set off on our latest voyage with Milo the motorhome and are heading across, well more correctly under, the channel and into France.
I think pretty much every stop that we have on our very rough and ready (and subject to change on a daily basis) route is by water so may be of interest to some, if not all of you.
Tonight after work we will finish off loading up the van ready for a steady day tomorrow driving down to St Margaret's Bay where we have an overnight stop booked in at The Coastguard ready for a morning train on Saturday.
Now just to get the last afternoon of work over and done with. Roll on 4.45pm
-
9
-
-
Looking forward to your pictures. It is a trip we very much enjoyed when we did it.
Hope you have better luck with the weed than we did on the Lark and Wissey.
-
We had a lovely meal at The Fur and Feather, Woodbastwick last time we were down that way.
Thoroughly recommended.
-
12 hours ago, Wonderwall said:
That's a sad sight . The picture isn't very clear , but the boat appears to be adrift So potentially someone still on it ?
Is it a private boat ?
The fire often burns through the ropes setting the alight boat adrift.
-
3
-
-
34 minutes ago, SwanR said:
We were the same when we bought our static caravan. That did lose value and you have to consider it as money you can afford to spend not an investment.
Absolutely.
We "lost" money on the boat.But when you look back at the years of enjoyment, happy memories and firm friends we made, did we really?
Absolutely not. It was worth every penny.
-
3
-
-
Will just add that the value is to us irrelevant. We plan to have this van long term. It isn't a cash cow or investment, it is our enjoyment and holidays.
-
3
-
-
14 minutes ago, annv said:
Hi Lulu When we had a Motorhome they are much same as a boat in many ways when you moor/park up you are stuck there unless buses taxi's or walking. The big difference is in the cost of the home mooring and if parked at home no cost. the other difference is boats hold there price as against Motorhomes which deprecate. John
Our motorhome is now worth about £15k more than we paid for it 2.5 years ago.
Motorhome prices have gone through the roof the last couple of years.
We paid more for it at 2 years old than it was new. It's now worth far more than it was new.
The reasons, supply and demand. There are waiting lists for new ones with an 18 month lead in time for the manufacturers to receive new cabs. This has increased the price of used vans.
We had initially said we would be happy if the van was worth £10k less than we paid for it after 5 years. At the moment that looks incredibly pessimistic. But as the last few years has taught us, anything can and will happen!
At the minute unless you buy and sell in quick succession you would be incredibly unlucky to lose money on a motorhome.
Even old scrappers are worth daft money!
The dealer we bought ours from has twice rung with an offer to buy it back cash. One offer £10k more than we paid, the second £12k more than we paid. They have buyers waiting, just no vans to sell to them.
-
2
-
-
19 minutes ago, Lulu said:
I guess the towing of a car depends on the size of the motorhome on whether its worth it or not. Ive been watching the Bob Earnshaw vlogs. They have been on the Isle of Wight which looks, so far in this series, to be difficult to get to places other than in a small car. I think if we get serious about a change from water to wheels that we need to hire one and not just launch into this!
We had a week on the Isle of Wight last summer and really enjoyed it.
We didn't have a problem with the roads. Found some fantastic free stopovers on there as well, right on the beach.
I think you need to be careful and take the vlogs/blogs with a pinch of salt. They have to dramatise everything to keep their viewers interested. In reality its nothing like what they portray!
Hiring is a good idea. It certainly isn't for everyone. Finding the right layout of van that's works is also another minefield. There are so many to choose from.
I think we have fallen lucky that what we have chosen really does suit how we live with it. But again it wouldn't be to everyone's taste.
As for the tow car. Of you need that, I don't think a motorhome is the right choice. Also bear in mind that on an A Frame you can not reverse it. It will apply the brakes. You need to unhook it to reverse which on a narrow country lane makes life far more difficult than it needs to be.
We find keeping it simple keeps it less stressful.
The van is incredibly self sufficient. No need to complicate matters.
-
2
-
-
8 minutes ago, Lulu said:
Thank you. It maybe for us in the future. I’m really keen to explore other areas of the UK, especially Scotland. The issue we both have is the thought of dealing with cassette toilets 🤢and problems finding parking spaces for a motor home when on day trips off the camp site. Ive seen little cars being towed behind motorhomes which seems the ideal. I know a caravan is completely out of the question for Graham.
The toilet really isn't as bad as it initially seems. The toilet chemicals (we use the green environmentally friendly one) just turns everything into a green liquid that doesn't smell and pours away easily.
We carry a spare cassette in a dry bag to increase our off site "range" We tend to use a site every 3-4 days to deal with the tanks.
We don't stay put on a campsite for long. That's the whole point of having a motorhome for us. We move on every couple of days normally. Three is an extended stay so equally we don't bother with awnings or other associated clutter with long stays.
We have never struggled to find somewhere to park the van wherever we have wanted to visit. Ours is short at 6m but there is always somewhere to park. If we are pitched for a couple of days we don't move it. We walk or use public transport.
We really don't see the point of towing a car. You may as well get a caravan in that case!
-
1
-
-
12 minutes ago, Lulu said:
I’m curious as to costs of running a motorhome annually including fuel and pitch fees compared to owning a boat. I’m quite keen on the idea but Graham isnt.
We keep the van on the drive at home which helps to keep costs down.
We also got rid of my car so the insurance and VED we saved from getting rid of the car essentially just switched over to that. Insurance and breakdown cover is £305 this year and VED was £285.
Obviously needs an MOT every year. Our local garage charges us £35 for that. We do an oil and filter change every year, every other year a full service and every 5 years it needs a cam belt. Had cam belt full service and MOT in April and it came in at £900.
Fuel costs depend how many miles you do I suppose much the same as a boat. We get anywhere from 20mpg to 30mpg from it depending on the types of roads we are on. Not refilled it yet but we reckon this weeks trip will have cost around £90 in diesel.
Pitch fees vary wildly. We do a mixture of free park ups, pub stopovers, small 5 pitch sites and larger campsites. Pubs normally let you stay for free if you are eating and drinking in the pub. Small sites are usually in the £20-25 a night range. Larger sites anywhere from £25-£60 a night. Some bespoke sites with hot tubs etc. are over £100 a night.
The most we have paid is £40 a night. There is so much choice you can make it as cheap or as expensive as you like.
This trip we have had two free stopovers, a pub stop, two small sites at £20 and £25 per night, a larger site at £26 a night and a more commercial site at £40 per night.
We find it far cheaper each year than having the boat. We are finding it a fantastic way of getting out and about and exploring new places.
The dog loves it because he gets to explore new places but has the familiarity of the van to eat and sleep in.
-
5
-
-
Back home again now after a traffic free journey back from King's Lynn.
Total Miles 426
Average MPG 28.2mpg
We were concerned we wouldn't enjoy this trip as much as we did by water. But we needn't have worried. It has been a great holiday. Much less stressful than by boat and we didn't need to be weather watching the whole time to pick a weather window to come home again.
We have visited our favourite places and managed to find parking for the van easily at them all.
The roads although narrow in places were fine for travelling with the van, much better than we expected.
We look forward to going back at some point in hopefully the not too distant future.
-
6
-
-
Our last night in Norfolk and we are staying at a beautiful little CL site in Middleton near King's Lynn called Westfield House.
Beautiful spot ideally located close to the A47.
Only just over an hours drive home from here tomorrow.
-
10
-
-
We have passed a lot of the yards this year and they all seem to have a lot of boats moored up.
Rivers seem very quiet.
Not the school holidays yet I suppose. But certainly quieter than we remember in previous years!
-
10 minutes ago, SwanR said:
I heard that it was like the M25 on the Bure today. The sunshine has probably brought out all the day trippers.
It was busy. Glad we hired a bit earlier because it was red hot with no breeze. We hired from 10am to 1pm. Don't envy those who were setting out we got back!
Not been much air height under the bridge today so not seen much other than day boats passing under the bridge part the site.
-
1
-
-
Back into Norfolk today and our destination of Wroxham.
We hired a day boat for a few hours and boiled ourselves and poor Syd!
Now we are on our mooring at Landamores motorhome aire. Can't get much closer to the water. Loving watching the world go by with a few beers.
If I'm honest thought we would have enjoyed being on the water more than we did. As it was we both found it overly expensive for what it was. Probably won't bother next time!
-
5
-
-
Another night in Suffolk tonight. We have found a nice spot in Aldeburgh for the night.
The weather is loads better today. Fish and chips weather sat on the beach better.
There has been plenty of walking involved again. The dog is shattered and fast asleep while we are grabbing a half hour chill out on the van.
Back to Norfolk tomorrow.
-
5
-
-
Surf and turf was worth the soaking 🤣🤣🤣
-
1
-
-
What a night that turned out to be. We had heavy rain and strong winds from 8pm until about 6am this morning. Sadly several pitches and their occupants were under water this morning.
Our pitch is on a bit of a mound which kept us dry.
This morning we had a wander into town and a walk on the pier.
Did a spot of shopping and then back to the Harbour Inn for a couple of drinks. The weather dictated it was 3 drinks instead of 2.
Hope tonight's surf and turf is worth it. Had we not stopped at the shack for prawns we would have probably made it back dry. As it happens we got soaked.
It is our last night here tonight. We move on tomorrow. A slight change of plans for tomorrow as the site we should be on is under water. So it is another night in Suffolk unexpectedly. Different town though.
Despite the weather we have really enjoyed our few days in Southwold but we are looking forward to being on the road again.
-
5
-
-
10 minutes ago, Smoggy said:
Hope to be there next week as long as the wind plays fair, got 2 weeks bobbing time and 2 full tanks of diesel to burn, fancy getting down to burnham on crouch via woodbridge if weather allows.
Hows the harbour looking since the chip shop burnt down?
It's fine. Surprised thet haven't set up temporary premises to be honest!
The French Adventure
in Tales from Other Waterways / Places .
Posted
It took longer to get here than expected due to M25 traffic. But its very pretty when we did get here with a lovely view of France.
just waiting for our friends who are stuck in traffic then its dinner time!