Well finally it has just about arrived! In two sleeps on the 7th of Jan we will be setting off on our 6 month European tour, taking in, France, Spain, France again, Italy, Switzerlan and Germany. Getting home in mid July.
This will be our second long term trip in a motorhome. Our first was from May to July 2007 in our, then new, "Compass Avantgarde 140". Then as complete novices to "vanning" we set off on what we thought was an adventure as great as anything attempted by De Gama or Drake! Oh what an awakening we had. By week 2 we had discoved that our adventure was to some just like going shopping in the next town. We met people of all ages who had been out for months travelling the length and breadth of the world and some who lived permenantly in their vans.
We soon realised that as we loved our new life and we wanted to explore further and live in the van for longer then our Avantgarde just wasn't the vehicle to do it in. Although it is a really well built van with a good spec, if we wanted just to have a few weeks touring the UK/Europe staying mainly on sites then it was fine, but for more adventurous living it had to go.
After looking at virtually every make of van and layout we narrowed the search down to an Autotrail Cheyenne 660, a Swift Bessacarr E560 and an Autocruise Stargazer. We discounted R.V.s and tag axle vans because we felt it would restrict our use of aires and smaller sites. After comparing storage, space, life support systems etc we settled on the Cheyenne 660. A visit to Spinney Motors in Cheshire confirmed our decision and we placed an order for one with extra large water tanks, loose carpets and an extra leisure battery. It was dleivered at the end of May 2008. We went away for a week-end and had a 60 litre gas tank fitted and later on a self seeking satellite dish, a roof mounted Dometic aircon unit, an inverter and a microwave were added to the equipment. Over the summer after week-ends away finding our feet in our new home from home, a folding push bike and a twin tub washer saw our savings raided once more, but we were finally ready to load up and set off for Autumn in Southern Europe.
As with everything in life things aren't that simple and long illness to my in laws saw our plans delayed until now.
We have booked our ferry ticket through the Caravan Club and sail with Sea France for £26.75 one way to Calais on Thursday.
I have set up an e-mail address with Hotmail and we intend to keep our friends upto date, (or bored!) until our expected return date in mid July. We have set up all the bills for our house on direct debit, altered our insurance to allow for long stays away via the Camping & Caravan Clubs insurance service and have arranged for my sister in law and neighbours to look after things here in the UK. We have a Lloyds TSB Bank Euro debit card for day to day spending and our Barclaycard Credit Card will be our emergency financial life line.
Unless "Real Life" intervenes again and we have to cut short or trip, we intend coming home selling our house and "fulltiming" proper for a couple of years, unless we find we don't like it after 6 months then you can grab a bargain 2nd hand van in July August, watch this space!
France
