Southern Europe - Day 28

Home.

I'm writing this on the Eurotunnel train, sitting in the back of the van as we're whisked along under the channel. This is the way to travel! Just need a beer really but have some driving to do on the other side (and no beer).

We drove through the centre of Paris today and were rewarded with a panoramic view of the city with the Eifel Tower prominent. Not too bad a city to drive through.

We were supposed to be staying in Boulogne this eve but can't find a good camp site so we decided to try our luck with the tunnel and have managed to get a train 18 hours early for £18 extra. Well worth it.

On the way to the tunnel we took the coast road for a while and were rewarded with views of the white cliff's of Dover as its so clear today. What a sight after four weeks on the road!

The Cali has done magnificently. Not a single glitch or issue. No break downs, no problems, no worries. A true pleasure to tour in and streets ahead of our last van for this purpose. We really love it.

Had a superb 4 weeks on the road but we're both really excited to be home again. We can't wait to get back to english life: driving on the left, busy roads, traffic jams, rain, our friends and family and most of all Real Ale. God how I've missed it.

Next year we'll probably have a considerably more stationary holiday as Baby Blakey is due in April.

Cali comment: we're keeping it!

Sent from my ZX Spectrum.

Southern Europe - Day 27

Southern France.

We woke in an aire in the Pyrenees and camped the evening in an aire in the Loire valley. One thing the Cali gives us is much better ability to free-camp than the old van, with a 30 litre water tank and a brilliant fridge.

We woke in freezing temperatures with ice all over the outside of the van but as we'd slept down stairs with the heater on we were cosy enough. We did turn it off in the middle of the night as Mrs Blakey was feeling all suffocated - the heater takes all the moisture out of the air. When the heater was off it got very cold inside, although we did have the roof up (and bed down) which probably didn't help. Would like to try and work out a way to have the heater on all night. Maybe sleeping downstairs, roof down, front windows open a crack? Any Cali owners cracked this problem?

Today was a bit boring really. Just a driving day. French toll roads are superb of course so we made great progress on our way home but they're not cheap.

Tonight's aire is just by the side of the road. We haven't refilled the water tank for 2 days and we're still doing fine. It's interesting to see just how long you can be totally self sufficient - but we're going to want a shower soon!!

We did want to get water today but the last aire we tried was switched off so we drove onto this one which seems to want a token for water and electrical hookup. Sadly we have no tokens and haven't seen anywhere which might sell them. No worries, we have enough water to last us and the leisure battery is fully charged.

Tonight is much warmer so we'll be upstairs.

Cali comment: our laptop ran out of juice this evening. We've left our inverter at home so can't power it off a 12v socket. It's a shame the 240v socket isn't backed by an inverter which could draw from the leisure battery when the van isn't hooked up to mains.

Sent from my ZX Spectrum.