Week 9 – 2nd February 2024 – 5th February 2024 – Peniscola, Spain to Home, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK (1140 miles)
Friday 2nd February 2024 – Peniscola, Spain – Montech, France (415 miles)
We are setting off today, back to the UK. The news about Hayley’s mum, and all the uncertainty surrounding it, means that we need to get back as quickly and as safely as we can. It will be quite a slog back, more than a thousand miles. We haven’t changed the ferry yet as we are unsure when we will get to Calais with all the farmer’s protests in France.
It’s a bright fresh morning here in Peniscola and we are setting off hoping to get to France later today. We are aiming for a place called Montech, which has some interesting water transportation we would like to get a quick look at on the way.
9 hours later we arrive at an aire. It’s dark and it’s cold, but we are safe and parked up for the night.
Saturday 3rd February 2024 – Montech – Vatan (270 miles)
After yesterday and the 9-hour slog, we feel we need some exercise before pressing on.
Today we are going to look at a water lift. The Montech Water Slope is an unusual piece of French engineering. Opened in 1974, it is in essence two diesel train engines that are strapped together. Between them and at the front, there is a large rubber wall that forms a leaky seal between two walls and bottom of a canal. the device then pushes a boat and a wedge of water uphill to get the boat up a 13-meter incline, thus cutting out several locks and probably several hours of a journey. It’s crazy really.
It worked, but not really well and quickly fell into decline and ultimately retired. It hasn’t been broken up, in fact, it has been made into a well-deserved tourist attraction. There is a visitors centre, a multimedia presentation and they have painted the trains up in bright colours. It looks fabulous and well worth a visit.
The size alone is quite a sight, so to hear the two trains revving up to push many tonnes of water and a boat up a hill must have been amazing to watch.
Back at Jess, we set off for another long day behind the wheel. We are hoping to do at least 300 miles and get ourselves well up into France. It’s bigger than you think… On the way we stop at a service station that has a fabulous restaurant where we have an amazing burger and fries. Tasty. The motorway service stations in France are very good. They are clean and serve good quality regional food. They have the usual stuff in them, but the restaurants can offer some excellent cuisine. Not like smelly Scratchwood services with its Burger King and W.H. Smiths…
France has recently been under siege. The farmers have been protesting against EU red tape and rising costs and have been demonstrating. The aim is to seal off Paris so the main roads have all been closed by them. Some of the roads have been damaged by their equipment and at one place a whole roundabout had been set alight with trees and bales of hay. A right mess.
Timing is everything. An agreement has just been completed between the farmers and government so we are getting the tail end of the protests. Most of the roads are now open, and there are a few diversions that we have to navigate, but after 270 odd miles and 6 hours, we arrive at Vatan which is bang in the middle of France. Again it’s dark and it’s cold.
Sunday 4th February 2024 – Vatan – Calais (350 miles)
It’s the last push today in Europe as we are due to be in Calais tomorrow, well placed for the ferry tomorrow morning which Hayley has had to buy new tickets for, as the Caravan Club phone line is not open on the weekend to change the original booking. Because of the continuing road closures, we have decided to get to Calais today via Paris, not through the middle of course but on their version of the M25.
It’s a good drive until we get closer to Paris. The traffic is getting heavier and the driving less patient.
Like most cities, the outskirts are not the prettiest. It’s overcrowded, too many cars and the traffic has almost stopped.
After a while of stop/start, we are on the northeast side of Paris and back on the motorway heading toward Calais and we finally arrive at a huge aire just outside of Calais. It can accommodate her 100 vans but when we get there we are 1 of 6! It’s windy. Very windy.
Monday 5th February 2024 – Calais – Home. East Cowes (185 miles)
We are up early. Our ferry to Dover is at 8:30, so at half 6 we are up, having a quick coffee and we are off in the dark towards the port. We are going back to Dover with Irish ferries, who leave on time and get us to Dover safely and on time. We have the last long drive left from Dover to Portsmouth and the last ferry to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight.
The journey from Dover to Portsmouth is always a bit dull. It just seems to go on and on and has the usual roadworks and slow traffic. However, we do arrive at Portsmouth on time for a quick crossing to Fishbourne.
We get back home and unload Jess right outside the door of the flat, something which makes life so easy as we no longer have to ferry stuff back and forth across the road from the van to the house. Soon she is cleaned up, parked and wrapped up, stored away ready for her next trip which will probably be May. We shall see.
Summary of our trip.
Miles on this trip: 4257
Diesel: 1066 euros
Tolls: 287 euros
LPG: 68 euros
| Belgium | 1 day |
| France | 5 days |
| Germany | 7 days |
| Switzerland | 11 days |
| Spain | 29 days |
| DAYS AWAY | 53 days |
For this trip, we had new tyres! They are excellent. You would think that it wouldn’t make any difference but it does. She drives better and goes around corners better, less “floppy” It’s like driving a different van. We were also equipped for all weather. We bought snow chains, and new winter coats, and we took shorts with us – everything to go from sub-zero to mid-20s temperatures. In the end, it was all a bit disappointing in that respect. However the whole van trip was excellent and we went to a lot of new places, saw and did plenty. A good trip.
We went to Switzerland expecting heavy snow and cold temperatures, in the end, it was cold on occasion but we didn’t see any falling snow, never tried out the snow chains and never got the chance to build a snowman or have a snowball fight. There was a distinct lack of snow for the places and the time of year.
Spain, which is where we expected high teens to mid-20s weather was similarly disappointing. Yes, it was sunny and yes it was warmer than Switzerland, but we had some cool, windy days. The best weather was in the Mar Menor when Del went off to Berlin to work, the weather then was mid-20s.
Fuel was expensive and the French motorway tolls are very expensive. Food and drink were more or less the same as at home. Switzerland was very, very expensive. Switzerland is recognised as the most expensive place to visit, while Monaco is the most expensive to live. Prices to eat out in Luzern for example were off the scale and would have broken our daily budget. It was a wonderful trip, most enjoyable and one that we will probably do again but in reverse so that we get the start of the winter sun in the south and by the time we get to Switzerland there should be more snow. Maybe…
Once again thanks to all our family and friends for following us and reading our ramblings of the day. Thank you for your comments, they are always great to get and read. We do this blog for our family and friends, but more importantly, we do it for ourselves. It’s great to sit down and read and re-live the trip again, and again.
Until the next time, we would like to wish you all good health and happiness and to remind you to get out and about while you can…!
Lots of love
Del, H & Jess
Thanks Ann. Great to hear from you... Have a great Christmas...xxx