There’s been an update to the Bedford Bambi page which now sports a number of pictures showing the inside of the Sooty van for those who are curious.
I must admit that the neighbours had one for a couple of years before I bought one – if I’d know how useful they were inside, I would have bought one sooner!
Plans are now starting to come together for an Ireland 2014 tour. This will take place in March and April of this year, and the ferry is already booked!
The plan is to start off in Dublin and work clockwise round the outside of the island, ending up back in Dublin again.
Many campsites will be closed as it’s out of season so I’ve a bit of a job to find accommodation. There might even be a bit of wild camping thrown in – this has never appealed to me much before, but campsites in Ireland (especially the Republic) can be very expensive.
There are hundreds of “must see” attractions in Ireland so it will be hard work deciding what to cram into my limited two-and-a-bit weeks. Watch this space!
Three weeks before the start of the season, or before a long trip, the Sooty Van goes for a little run out to a local campsite near the house. A bit pointless, I hear you say, however it does give me a chance to test the van is OK, that the fridge, heating, water pump work and so on. I work on the basis that it’s easier to fix those things at home rather than in the wilds of Europe. The brakes completely failing in Vienna last year was a nightmare!
Normally I go to the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Polstead in Suffolk – about 30 miles from the house, it covers motorway, A roads and “twisties” so is ideal. However, they are setting minimum lengths of stay which does annoy me (shouldn’t I decide how long to stay, not have someone tell me?).
Enter Henry’s Lake run by Kate Henry. This is a C&CC Certificated Site occupying 5 out of 9 grass pitches at any one time to give them a bit of rotation. I have the whole site to myself in the Suffolk wilds and there is something quite relaxing about that. The van is performing well so is good to go for France, Germany and Belgium in three weeks.
We will be back here again, and may even do something with the Bambi Owners Club, a long weekend rally perhaps? The people who run the place are very friendly and it would make a great rally location for those wishing to get a bit of peace and quiet.
A couple of weeks ago the clutch started making expensive noises on the way to Shepton Mallet. All is now fixed, the clutch plate had disintegrated and one of the springs had started falling out.
New Borg & Beck clutch fitted, the old girl is back on the road and I’m happy again.
Here we are at the Royal Bath and West Showground, near to the Somerset Village of Shepton Mallet.
It’s also home to the Bambi Owners Club Annual National Rally which is our yearly blowout for buying up bargains. The good news is I haven’t spent much money. The bad news is that the clutch or gearbox has gone on the van, and is making expensive noises.
I always say there’s nothing like a simple breakfast to underscore the minimalist camping theme 🙂 What a great start to the day!
The sun is blazing so I’ll go and soak up a bit more and go for another bargain hunt when it cools down a wee bit.
On a sunny August weekend there’s no better place than the seaside! In this case, it’s Broadstairs on the East Kent coast.
We have the use of the grounds of a special needs school to use as our campsite, it’s in the top right hand corner of the picture. We are literally seconds from the beach which is superb as there are no campsites nearby and the parking is a serious problem.
Did I mention parking? I don’t know how they squeeze the cars so close together but I think I would have a problem trying to get in some of the spaces.
It’s a great venue here and our Bambi Owners Club rally always coincides with the start of the Broadstairs Folk Week.
The town centre comes alive with dozens of acts performing in 500 different events. A season ticket can be bought to do the whole week so you don’t have to cough up for individual events. Pricey though, a family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) with camping for the week is £591.
To be honest I just love it here for the atmosphere, the beach, and the nice fish and chips. This year we have had cloud free skies too so that’s a good result.
£1,345.32 is the final cost of the trip, not including spending money. I’ve updated the costs page. It sounds like quite a lot of money but when you think that the van went through 11 countries and stayed in 8 of them, it’s not too bad. When you take in some of the superb sites of Prague and Venice it sounds even better still 🙂
Tolls: Belgium, Germany and Poland did not charge me anything for the use of their roads. All the others did. The highest was Italy at £92.84 followed by France in second place with £55.72. I could have kept off the motorways in France and saved some money, would have had much nicer scenery too.
Fuel: Cheapest fill was at Brzeszcze in Poland at £1.039/litre the most expensive was Italy at £1.605/litre, a difference of almost 60p between the two. With the combination of tolls and fuel, Italy is a very expensive country to drive through.
Campsites: These did vary quite a bit in price. Cheapest was the Dialogue Centre at Auschwitz which worked out at £5.52 per night. It has 16 amp electric, water tap, nice showers and washrooms, washing line and even a BBQ for the use of the campers. Only me and one other camper in the whole place! Most expensive was the Knaus Campingpark in Nuremberg at £22.32 per night, but it is very popular and close to the city centre.
Over the last few weeks I’ve added a post every day as I’ve travelled round Europe. Today I’ve taken all of those posts and put them into the right order on a single page.
You can check the Europe blog by clicking here.
Last day, just a short run up to Calais and then the Eurotunnel home. I visited the Auchan hypermarket at St Omer and bought a few essentials.
Enough money had been taken off me by Italian and French tolls so I decided to take the D (Departmental) roads back to Calais to go toll free.
I stopped in a layby to empty the water tank in a bid to get the weight down as I planned to blow the last of my Euro’s at Calais on beer and bubbly 🙂
A quick visit to Leader Price in Calais to buy some ballast for the van was followed by a run to the Eurotunnel check in, I was well over two hours early but decided to chance my luck.
I managed to get the 18:20 swapped to 16:36 for no charge, a good result!
Unfortunately a train had got stuck in the tunnel so we had to wait nearly an hour for it to be extracted. Can’t complain, I was still back an hour early 🙂
So… 3,185 miles later I’ve had enough of travelling and its time to head to the Little Elms for a few pints…
Last day with any real travelling abroad, most of the journey was spent on the A26 L’autoroute Les Anglais.
The campsite at Buysscheure is superbly presented and the hosts made a fuss of me and the van as soon as I got there. As well as the sizeable restaurant, it boasts a swimming pool and even a small fishing lake.
It’s just a shame I wasn’t staying for.more than one night.
Tomorrow is Bastille Day in France and I’m not expecting very much to be open. Might try and track down a Leader Price supermarket and top up my allowance of French beer. They have on offer a 10 pack of “Burgbier” for €2.09 🙂
Last leg tomorrow, off to Calais for the Eurotunnel at 18:20, then home to a large pile of washing. I hope the Little Elms has plenty of beer in for me 🙂