Mission Completion

Hi, reader

The home stretch, one more big push to get from Calais to Dover, was a real mission.

I spent my last two nights in France in a lovely little place called Bergues, about 9km to the south of Dunkirk and 15km from the Belgian border. My luck held out with the weather and it remained mild during the night. Not so lucky is my missing charger cable for this laptop I'm working on right now. I've wracked my brains trying to think where I've lost it, but can't work it out. I've searched through the van three or four times. I even drove about 12km to a big computer shop to get a replacement, but when I found out it was 56 Euros, I passed. 

I can actually charge the laptop to some degree from the van's cigarette lighter, but it's slow. It takes most of the day to get the battery above 50%. I've ordered a replacement from eBay for 15 pounds. Let's hope it works.

I think my son, Hugo, would like the library in Bergues. It has a whole room of board games and card games.

For those of you here for the travelogue aspect of my blog, here are some pics taken as I wandered around Bergues. It was an overcast, chilly day.

In order to get on the ferry, I had to achieve four elements: get a certified negative COVID test, book a ferry ticket, book a day 2 COVID test for my arrival in Wales and complete a passenger locator form. I won't bother you with the details, but with my computer battery down to 7% I finally got all four things I needed by about 6pm on the 3rd of January and ready to board at 8:30 am on the 4th.

The next day was a breeze. I enjoyed standing on the deck of the ferry, watching the coast of northern France recede into the distance. The drive from Dover to Glamorgan was uneventful and easy and I'm now camped out once again at my Mum's, ready to face my next challenges (finding a home in Scotland and finding a job).

So ... Said the mechanic (in Rouen) was wrong when he predicted the van wouldn't make it to Valencia and back. In fact, the van made it in style, with only one mechanical problem in the whole round trip. Much better than the journey around Scotland. And here's the fun bus, back outside my Mum's house, all ready for the next adventure.

Strange to think that since September this van has been to Cardiff, York, Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, Brighton, London, Calais, Bordeaux, Huesca, Valencia and lots of other places in between. 

Where will it take me next? Tune in to find out!

Thanks, as always, for reading,

Brian

Hello 2022

Hi there, reader

A Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you had an enjoyable New Year's Eve, however you chose to spend it.

I had intended to drive all the way to Rouen yesterday, but it wasn't to be. In fact I only got about 250 kilometres. I had pulled into a restaurant car park for a break and I phoned my friend, Lisa. She asked how the van was going, and I told her that apart from one fuel leak on the drive down through France, it's been running beautifully. Silly me.

About thirty seconds after I ended the call and pulled out of the car park, there was a loud rattling, scraping, bumping noise coming from the front left of the van. I pulled into the side and got out to look underneath. This thing had fallen off:

I decided it was time to stop for the evening, so I found a place to park in the nearest town, which happened to be Poitiers.

Since I don't drink alcohol these days, I'm not that fussed about celebrating the new year these days. I made some video calls and sent out some text messages, then settled down for the season finale of Money Heist. It was a good ending and I'm fired up for the next season.

This morning I woke up to sunshine and this lovely river. There were already some people out for a walk and I decided that would be a good start to the New Year, so I took a stroll along the river before my breakfast.

And then onward. I drove most of today, stopping only to make myself some cheese salad sandwiches for lunch. Sorry I don't recall the name of the village I stopped in, but it had this impressive church in the village square. 

It seems like France has a village with a huge church every ten kilometres. Often the church seems way too big for the town or village it's in.

This evening I'm back in Rouen, and I'm parked in exactly the same spot as I stayed in before Christmas on my way down to Spain. I posted on the Vanlife UK Facebook group last night, asking about that bit of plastic that fell off the van. The consensus is that it's an undertray or inner arch protector. Kind of a mud flap? So not urgent to get it put back in place, though I guess I ought to avoid rivers or heavy rain. 

Actually, since I'm in Rouen, I might pop over to see Said (the Moroccan mechanic who fixed my most recent fuel leak) tomorrow morning to see if he has any cable ties I can use to put it back on.

All quiet here in Rouen this evening. Not many people about. I took a walk along Rue de l’Épicerie earlier, mainly to get my daily step count over 10,000. I was struck by how mild it is this evening. It felt like September! According to Google, the temperature won't fall below ten tonight. I've been really blessed with mild weather since I left Spain. All I need now is for it to last a few more days and for me to get aboard a ferry to Dover with a minimum of stress. I'm thinking of attempting my crossing on Tuesday.

So good luck with your 2022 everyone. See you soon. Thanks for reading,

Brian