Devall Travels

The slight change is that we are no longer going to fit in a visit to Claire's friend near Saint Etienne.  It's simply to cut down some of the mileage involved and free-up a few hours on the road. Another change and what could be called a spanner in the works is that John, whose "surprise" 70th we are going to for lunch on Sunday, emailed to say that we shouldn't be too late arriving on Saturday as there is a dinner!  We were unaware of that! And it's not a surprise. He also said friends in the village had offered to put us up in their house (or apartment) whilst we are there. The problem we have is that we will have a fridge full of stuff bought on the way down, including Reggie's food that we can't keep frozen in the freezer compartment unless we are on an electric hook-up, or using the LPG onboard. It's not safe to leave a van with the gas burning when you aren't near it! We will need to address that nearer the time.  It may be that we can p...

We arrived around 2pm and wound our way past the entrance to the air museum to what we thought was the entrance. In fact it was the entrance to the "holding area".  We weren't told anything more and so after a while things got a bit heated, especially as it was very hot and sunny. Our journey from our overnight stay at Cresslands near Bourne took longer than we anticipated as we chose to take a more eastley route over the Humber Bridge . It's quite spectacular and only £1.50 for a car and van under 3.5 tonnes (3500kgs). It was worth the experience but if I had to do the journey again I'd go the quicker way via the A1! We seemed to be in the last of the holding area lanes and I had a walk to see as it looked as though the actual entrance was nearby. It was actually about a mile away. We were in the tenth lane.  As the vans moved from lane 1 across to us, the area they had vacated was filled with those that arrived after us. Then we had the long run to t...

This was a last minute decision really.  After having the last two trips cancelled by the weather and then a few denial emergencies we wanted to get away.  I chose the Premier Parks site at Fishery Creek on Hayling Island primarily as it's not that far away, not north of the Dartford Crossing and had hardstanding! We picked Molly up from the storage site on Thursday afternoon and then started to put the stuff we'd need for a weekend.   Friday   The plan was to leave on Friday morning, late enough to avoid the traffic.  Claire had a massage booked for 10am.  I was putting stuff in the van when the carbon monoxide detector started to beep. A single beep every thirty seconds is, according to the Kidde website, showing that the battery has expired or about to expire. So whilst she was being pampered I drove to Wickes in Folkestone and bought a new one. It's not that long ago that the one in the house had the same problem. The van version was supposed to have been installed in ...

What are the chances that both the carbon monoxide detector battery and the smoke alarm battery would go at the same time? We have had a few problems with the Kidde CO one before. But it seemed to resolve itself. I removed it and have replaced it with the one from the house. It's only recently been replaced. A quick dash to Wickes bought a new one for the house. Fitted the house one and there it was "peep". The old one peeped all the way to the bin. So remove the smoke alarm. Check battery is the 9v rectangular one. Rush to Sainsbury's for a new battery. Fitted. Peep free environment. All on the morning we are going away for the weekend. What next?

It seems like weeks if not months since we last went away in Molly the Moho.   Our asy couple of trips have been cancelled either by the weather or by Claire's emergency dental appointments.  We are still out of pocket after giving Nelson's Patch plenty of notice that we couldn't make it.  As their park wasn't full it wasn't as if they couldn't have let us change the booking until this coming weekend. Instead, they didn't bother to even acknowledge my emails.  So in future they can get stuffed.   So where to go. We have left it a little late as we still have the ongoing saga with Claire's dental appointments.  I locked around on the various camping websites and there wasn't much that caught my attention.  In the end I discounted the Caravan Club sites, not where I wanted to go and the costs seem to grow to be nothing like the "from" price you start with. In the end I had a look at " Premier Parks " and chose a large site i...

A little more planning this evening for the second day we are in France.  WSe will overnight at the CCP aire at Formerie and the plan is to head almost due south to the CCP aire at Beaulieu-sur-Loire. Leaving it to Google Maps and TomTom of course come up with several different routes. One that goes into Paris and on the  périphérique (shudder the thought!) and others that bypass Paris to the east and the west.   I decided that as we have "done" the east side so many times, maybe the east ought to be given a chance.   Ticking the boxes in both apps to "avoid tolls" came to one route!  No doubt when it gets onto "Max" it will all change. So the attached screenshot is the proposed route for Day 2.

I have formulated a rough plan for the outward journey that has us stopping in three Camping-Car Park (CCP) aires on the way to Alcoceber. We could stay at free aires rather than spend between €10 and €15 a night, but we should be guaranteed an electrical hook-up and some sites are municipal campsites that have joined the CCP system and have loos as well. We have already booked the first night away at the CCP site at Formerie. This is far enough to drive on the first day after getting off the boat at Calais around 1pm and then going to do some shopping for us and Reggie. It's only about 115kms from Calais and we are travelling on a Tuesday and there are no school holidays! Day 2 is a little more complex.  Paris sits like a huge spider in its web, and getting past it can mean large detours. Usually, we head towards Rouen from Formerie and then from there head south taking in Chartres and along the N10 route towards Tours, Poitiers and Bordeaux. This time I decided to let TomTom Plan...