As Edith and Didier had paid for dinner on the previous night we thought it would be good to take them out for brunch on Sunday. We went to the oldest inn in the oldest town in Belgium. We enjoyed a hearty brunch then made preparations to head off. We had hoped to spend our last day in Brugges and stay overnight in a hotel but with the van needing its nightly charge we had to change our plans and decided we would head for the coast near Dunkerque as we had a ferry to catch at 10.00am on Monday.
Didier, Edith and Dandy
We toyed with the idea of catching a ferry later that day but it was going to cost more than the return trip to change the booking so we decided that was not a good plan. We tried to get into a campsite near the port only to be told it was full, the receptionist was kind enough to phone around some other sites in the area but they were all full. We needed a shower and some groceries to get us by so we came up with a cunning plan. While I had been in the reception Dandy had been ‘casing the joint’ and we sneaked back into the site with our toilet bags and used the shower facilities. The reasoning behind this was that if we could get cleaned up and buy a few bits and pieces at the shop we could go back to a really nice spot beside a marina where we’d seen some other camper vans parked up.
In the Ladies I joined a small queue for the showers. The young, bikini clad girl who was at the front of the queue faffed about and admired herself and adjusted her hair in front of the mirror while the queue got longer and I got increasingly angrier with her. Finally she picked up her mobile and started playing some hideous, tuneless rap music at a ridiculous volume. I could see that she was going to leave her phone in this state of noise on the shelf while she showered and we would all be subjected to this racket. I cracked and enquired of the selfish young nymph whether she thought it was reasonable that we should all be subjected to her noisy music and would she turn it down please? She was French and indicated that she had not understood my request. The lady next to me obliged by translating my request and the young girl shrugged her shoulders and moved towards the cubicle, phone still blaring. I was incensed by now and resorted to some very visual sign language and a full verbal rant, so loud that Dandy heard the commotion in the Men’s block. She got the picture and turned it down a fraction. I was sorely tempted to pick it up and flush it down a toilet, but my desire for a shower overrode this compulsion. Nothing like drawing attention to yourself!
We picked up some wine, beer and bread at the camp shop and sneaked back out of the site and made our way to the marina where we spent a very pleasant evening looking out over the tidal river and watching young guys fish for eels.
Day Thirty Three – Monday 9th August, 2010
As we had no electricity hook up overnight we hadn’t been able to charge the batteries so we made the decision to get the van to Dover and finally admit defeat and call in the breakdown services. It was highly unlikely that the batteries would survive the 500 mile trip from Dover to Edinburgh without an overnight charge. We called Britannia and warned them of our predicament, they told us to call them again when we reached Dover.
We endured the usual hideous ferry holiday makers and screaming brats for the two hour crossing. Luckily the van started when we reached the white cliffs and we rolled off the ferry through the security checks. Dandy’s phone rang as he was driving and he was waved aside by a policewoman who gave him a real dressing down about driving and talking on the phone, she let him off with a stern warning. It was amusing to see Dandy so contrite and I had to suppress a snigger.
We found a car park near the front in Dover and spent the next few hours negotiating with the breakdown service. It was finally agreed that a mechanic would come out to confirm that the van was genuinely broken down and then we would be able to get a hire car. The van would be trucked back to Edinburgh separately. There were no hire cars to be had in Dover so we finally got one in Canterbury some 17 miles away. The technician arrived to inspect the van and agreed with Dandy’s diagnosis then some time later the breakdown truck arrived to pick up the van and he agreed to take us to the rental company in Canterbury.
On arrival at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car office Dandy went to complete the paperwork while I emptied all our possessions from the van onto the pavement with the help of our driver. All our dirty washing and other stuff that had been on the go for the last five weeks were piled up, it was like a jumble sale and I felt I had to keep apologising for my schemieness. Dandy had a tear in his eye as he waved bye bye to his poor Hiace leaving on the back of the truck.
Poor Hiace takes the slow route home
We got an upgrade car that had just come in – a Seat Leon which was a great car. We piled all our possessions into the boot and the back seat and finally got on the road just after 5pm. There was no petrol in the car so we asked Thomas, our SatNav, where the nearest petrol station was and as usual he took us off in completely the wrong direction then he found us one that had obviously been closed for years. Finally we found a petrol station, we were running on fumes by this time, and filled up. Dandy went in to pay and the friendly cashier asked him how his day had been. His face contorted and his eyes rolled, he placed his hands on the counter and replied ‘Right, where do I start?’ I bet she doesn’t ask that question again in a hurry!
The journey through Englandshire was great. We made good time and the car was good to drive. We stopped halfway for some food and made it home at 1am on the Tuesday morning. We were exhausted yet strangely on a high and chatted until at least 3am before finally falling into a well deserved sleep.
Our adventure was finally over and we were home safe minus our Hiace which arrived on Thursday morning and is still lying in bits at the bottom of my garden much to the delight of the neighbours! We had agreed that the van was definitely getting sold when we got home but are now having second thoughts. The problems were not caused by flaws in the van but by the replacement of a high pressure oil pipe which turned out not to be fit for purpose. This high pressure oil escape is more than likely also the cause of the alternator failure later in the holiday. It’s staying for the moment!
Some Statistics:
Travelled 4217 miles
Used 170 Gallons fuel
Used 12 litres oil
Cheapest diesel in Luxembourg @ .80p per litre
Most expensive diesel in Italy @ £1.20 per litre
Visited 10 countries
Highest temperature in camper van was 48 degrees centigrade
Steepest gradient 12.5% for 35km
Highest point - the Grosglockner in Austria at 8,000feet
Lowest point – falling out over icepacks
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