It is a four hour drive to Egmond aan Zee and considering we had a big drive to the ferry we think we will stay around Brugge in Belgium, that is of course if you can find a camping ground in Brugge, we stayed there in 1995 but it seems to be invisible this year so we grab a loaf of bread stopping at a roadside stop to make some soup and sandwiches, and push on towards Netherlands. We travel the motorways around the cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam which is just as well as the traffic and the new driving conditions were much easier at this time of night, then we end up free camping at a roadhouse 10 kilometers from Thomas and Cointhas (our Dutch friends) and there children’s Joris and Sarah home.
After a pommy bath we navigate to the home of the very shocked Thomas and Cointha as we have arrived a day early and thanks to all these different country codes which I had not forseen we have difficulty phoning them before we arrive, therefore we arrived unannounced, it seems this is a theme that is becoming regular on this trip.
After a wonderful lunch of all sorts of meats, breads, cheeses and cakes topped off with chocolate sprinkle (called Hagel slaag here and seems to be a very consistent part of the diet) sandwiches we ventured into town and we ran into Astrid and Frans some other Dutch friends, Frans was playing trombone in a festival to mark the start of the Easter carnival so watched a bit of that before returning to Thomas and Cointhas via the Supermarket (our first foreign language market) where we had some difficulty working out what a few things were. We had some wonderful Dutch meals including a night with Frans and Astrid indulging in local dishes like Curly flower which looks a bit like parsley and more hagel slaag.
From Egmond we visited Alkmaar, where they roll the cheese, Bergen a beautiful old village, Edam and Volendam an old fishing village with some great pubs and restaurants, then we were off to Amsterdam via an old village full of working windmills. In Amsterdam we took a canal boat ride around the city then we walked the streets taking in the Grand Dam and palace then off through some eye opening alley through the red light district, (I don’t think Daniel will forget that walk in a hurry as a lot of women in g strings thought him quite cute giving him winks and nods ) It was great to have Thomas and Cointha available to share there Dutch cultures and history with us. It will be good to return here when the weather is warmer.
As we are about to leave Holland Atrid arrives to deliver a wonderful bag of Dutch goodies that she and Cointha have put together full of Chocolate, cakes, biscuits and of course Hagel slaag.


So off we go again with our mouths full of chocolate.

setting out

It’s your money Ralph, well not according to some banks. As much as we tried we could not access our money, thanks ANZ and National Australia Bank.
Between ANZ travel cards, National Bank Visa/ access card, ANZ access savings card, we were not able withdraw more than ₤500 per day so we had to change money at bad rates and withdraw money from all these accounts at extra cost in order to access our money. Whoever said banks were out to screw you at every opportunity was dead right.
Lucky we got such a good deal on the camper. Banks although being very hard to get along with still need to be bigger pirates if they wish to be more do difficult than insurance companies. No insurance company in the UK it seems will insure our motor home as we are not UK residents. After 3 hours on the phone being told that no one will give us insurance, except 1 broker who said we just wont tell them you are not residents, ( I hung up on him ) I moved to the internet and started to contact caravan clubs.
Somewhere in the UK I knew there had to be somebody who would insure us as I know we are not the first Aussies to purchase a camper in the UK, besides you cannot get Road tax (registration) in this country without it.
Finally I contacted an insurance company called Downunder Insurance who specialise Australians buying campers, AT A PREMIUM of course, but we are happy now we can be on our way.
Do you know what a 13.5 tog duvet is? Neither do I but I bought 1 long with some cutlery, crockery, cleaning implements, pillows and some food, now we are set up to travel, So I book a ferry from Dover to Calais on the internet with Ferry Savers. ₤33.00 for a 6.310 meter long, 2.250 meter wide and 2.708 meter high campervan, 2 adults and 2 kids was much less than I anticipated. So we load up the kids and we are off at 8.50 in the morning for a 12.30 boarding. 186 miles/ 300 km, I haven’t checked out it’s top speed yet Let's hope we make it.

!2.45 and guess who is the last to board, no not us there is 1 vehicle behind us but they load all the trucks last, we only had a 10 minute wait before boarding so our timing was impeccable.
Beautiful skies and calm seas ensure a pleasant trip across the English Channel and an hour and a half later we are in France.
This is where our adventure gets interesting as we now have to navigate the opposite side of the road as well as communication skills will have to be very sharp if we are to enjoy as little stress as possible.The children are buckled into the back with strict instructions that total concentration is required in order for me to safely transport them onto the motorway where we can then acclimatize ourselves to driving down the right hand side of the road

Well here it is

Gloucester Cathedral was another filming site for Harry Potter, some of the Hogwarts scenes were filmed here so we made a visit on our way to Studley to look at some more vans. Lunch was at the monkey Tree, a family restaurant quite reasonably priced.
The car yard in Studley had about 6 campervans ranging from ₤5000 to ₤14000.
Beige was the only color available in a hi top Talbot and the consensus was that it may be a bit of a tight squeeze for a 9 month journey, besides I had been out voted and the rest of the gang made up there minds on a pale blue ₤10000 van.
My name was mud for the trip back to Bradford as I had encouraged the gang to view a few more options before rushing into the first van they liked.

Glastonbury Tor was the aim of our next day via the van we were not able to view when the yard was closed, so we set off earlier, around 10 o’clock for Lyddon on Fosse. The van was in good order so we took it for a test run, it drove OK, it’s major weakness was it was petrol.
So off to Glastonbury for some lunch a climb to the top of the Tor. This was our first real experience of COLD, it was blowing like the clappers and I was so glad I had some shoes. Lunch was interesting as we watched the different people of Glastonbury, from your suited businessmen to the homeless, the hippies
And the witches. Glastonbury is known for being a place of Mystic charm as the Tor is supposed to be very spiritual and it also is strategically placed on a lay line.

Deb and I decided that Cointha and Daniel needed some down time. They had been so good and we felt that we could not keep dragging them around looking at vans, so we spent the day with Anthony as he showed us some of the finer points of Bradford before heading to the Castle Inn to meet some of his friends.
Learning to use a pottery wheel was the afternoons excitement as Anthony shared his skills in the art of making medieval pots. { Anhony spends time each year at a Manor called Kentwell where all the artists recreate life in the Victorian Era, the rules state that they must make all there own clothing in the traditional ways and colors, they must speak in traditional language and while there they use there crafts and make products or services as communities did in these times}. Cointha, Deb and I made bowls while Daniel made some cups. When we return we hope to fire them in Anthony’s home made wood fired kiln.

I had promised the gang that Sunday we would decide which van we would buy so we set off towards Bridgwater to view a van from a private seller. I had tried to contact some private sellers during the week who had advertised in a UK classified magazine called trade it but none of them bothered to answer there telephones.
We had options today Bridgwater, Chepstow inWales , Bristol and Swindon.

Bridgwater was a very dodgy Bedford van with a toggle switch for a 5th gear and some very choice décor that not even Deb could make look good.
Chepstow would not answer his phone.
Bristol was unavailable until Monday
Swindon was the best we had seen and reasonably priced soafter a test drive and a discussion with the gang, negotiations were begun. Not that you can negotiate with 3 heads sticking out of the door of the van yelling we’ll take it.
So we left a deposit and arranged to return Monday to pick up our brand new secondhand 1988 Fiat Ducato Auto Stratus 2.5 litre turbo diesel motor home.

The hunt begins

Well I managed to get into Bath and pick up some new shoes with only a few hiccups.
First was the fact that the family were a bit dubious about walking the streets with me while wearing thongs and socks.
Also it was raining so negotiating steep wet concrete paths was a bit hairy as I skated along trying very hard not to fall over.
We picked up a few essentials and had a look around some of the sights before heading back to Bradford On Avon to a wonderful warm meal and to study the classifieds in search for our new home/campervan.
We were to search for a campervan on Tuesday but as soon as we found out parts of Harry Potter were filmed just a few miles away in an old village called Lacock, we decided to treat the children, so off we were to Lacock.
Lacock is a beautiful old village that has been preserved as it was 400 years ago and is now used for filming many period dramas. When entering the town there is no sign of light posts or tv aerials and very little signage which must be removable.
Lunch was at one of England’s many pubs with a quaint name, it was called the dog wheel.
The Dog Wheel was so called as it has an open fire with a rotisserie powered by a dog treadmill, I am sure that it would not be legal to use dog power nowadays.
Cointha and Daniel were rapt to see several places of interest from the Harry Potter movies and where the moonlight seen was filmed recently for the upcoming movie.
Unfortunately the Abbey was closed for Winter so we will visit there on our return in August.
The afternoon saw us travel 2 hours west through an amazing gorge into the town of Cheddar in our pursuit for a camper.
Proving to be a fruitless trip as we only managed to view 1 van and the yard was closed so we will be out again tomorrow.

Well we made it to England,
Malaysian Air were fantastic, the flight was uneventful.
Daniel and Cointha were so good. We are so lucky to have great kids.
Daniel didn’t sleep much due to the availability of endless movies and games, while Cointha was happy to listen to audio books and music.
We arrived into London about an Hour late due to a 230 km\h head wind but an extra hour on the final leg of 14 hours was hardly noticeable.
After landing we proceeded to pick up our hire car, a Citroen Picasso, then off to our Hotel.
We all lay down and were fast asleep by 8.00pm Sat night but at 2.oo am Sunday Morning we were wide awake, so a bit of Television later we decided we had had enough of watching square screens and decided to pack our bags and head along our way.
At this point I would like to mention that the only pair of shoes available to me are a pair of thongs which are not very accommodating in an English Winter.
How does this happen?
Well we Traveled to Melbourne From Kyabram in our summer clothes and decided to change at my sisters house in Melbourne before setting off to the airport.
Well after a shower and with 40 minutes before we need to be there I pull on my Blundstones only to discover that Debbie has packed one of my boots and one of her boots.
So it was quite amusing that I was heading to England with no other footwear but Thongs.
The moral of this story and the advice given by embassies and customs is.
PACK YOUR OWN BAGS.
So now we are eating breakfast by Windsor Castle at 6.00 am and trying to acclimatize to our new surroundings.
We avoid the motorways in order to capture the scenery of the English villages along the way.
A stop at Henley on Thames and I am receiving sound advice from a few locals that flip flops {thongs} is not really appropriate for this time of year.
As it is Sunday the availability of a decent shoe shop does not really present itself so we continue along our way to the Beautiful town of Bradford On Avon.
Well here is where we are staying with the most fabulous people in Anthony and Moira, they have given us some great advice on where footwear can be sought after so there are no prizes for guessing what tomorrows adventure will be.

Picture Deb, Daniel and Cointha in front of Windsor Castle

Deb has retired

Well happy new year everyone.

Now that it is 2008 we can finally say that we are going to Europe this year.

Deb has finished work and as of today I have 7 working days remaining. Wahoooo for Deb but my 7 days are going to be a real drag.

As soon as those 7 days are finished someone has to empty all the furniture out of our house, no prizes for guessing who that some one is.

I am now wondering whether 9 months will be long enough to recover.

The kids are starting to get excited I think it is starting to dawn on them just what we might be up for so stay tuned as I am sure they will be posting some very interesting views of their experiences.

Well we survived Christmas, just the new year to come.

I am really starting to look seriously at some camper vans now.

I will attach a photo of the van type we are looking at and you all can visualise just how CLOSE our family will become over the net 9 months.

Bruce

Still Learning

Hi! This blog, even though it doesn't have much, will actually get better! So keep coming back and checking it out as it gets more posts and remember to leave comments! Later on, when we go on our trip, there will be HEAPS of info on what we're doing and some photos aswell. Maybe we'll get polls for you to vote on and other various things. So come back and remember, we're just beginers!
By Cointha Walkeden

pre trip

1 month to go.
The plans are falling into place.
We fly out on the 18th January.
We have tickets, insurance, accommodation for our arrival in London.
After catching up on sleep we will hire a car and then we are off to Bradford on Avon to visit our wonderful friends, Anthony and Moira.
We are soooo!!!looking forward to seeing these guys again, after meeting them in 1994 on our previous trip we have kept in contact and are now making the much promised return.
while in Bradford on Avon we will search for a Talbot auto sleeper 4 berth motor home that will carry us through England and onto the Netherlands to meet up with more wonderful friends.
Stay tuned for further updates of our adventure.