VAN LIFE IN EUROPE

04.07.18 - 25.07.18

Sushi, my self-converted Vauxhall Vivaro that I purchased second hand from Gumtree travelled through Europe and clocking 6,000 miles for the first time with me in the drivers seat, passing through France, Spain, Andorra, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia and Hungary. 

Some of you may know, buying a second hand vehicle can be risky unless you know what issues you're looking for. Especially when it came down to the van that I purchased, a 14 year old van with multiple of owners and 188,000 miles on the clock. Fortunately it did have a new gearbox and clutch put in 12,000 miles prior to me owning it, which was always the benefit as I was told that the Vauxhall vans were notorious for having either the clutch or gearbox go. So to purchase a van that was old and potentially a little worn out was a risk, especially with what I had planned for it... Now if I were to have bought it to go around Cornwall in every now and then, wouldn't be too bad but to take it across water and into an area where they drive on the opposite side of the road? Warning lights were going off in my head thinking this would only end in disaster.

Now my trip across to Europe was a little spontaneous. I had planned to venture out, but not until the end of the month. It wasn't until I was invited to Barcelona, that I figured "I could drive that, it's only 1200 miles." 

My ticket was booked for the Eurotunnel to jet me across into Calais, France. But the first hurdle was to drive the van 500 miles from my home to Folkstone, the furthest the van had travelled was 100 miles, so this was a real test, followed with another 700 miles once I landed on the other side. 

Now, here is the issue I have with the Eurotunnel, I arrived 45 minutes before my departure time. I admit, I could have gotten there 20 minutes earlier but I took a wrong turn and yet I was still classed as "late" and wasn't able to board my time slot, not being told this I waited 2 hours until the next train and didn't arrive into Calais until 6:30am CEST. Not having slept for 15 hours, I decided to get out of Calais and head further down south until I was too tired to do so. Fuelled on hummus, flatbread and energy drinks, I was ready. It helped having arrived in France to see the sunrise as well, a naturally beautiful scene in a very boring area of France. I must of drove 100 miles along the motorway until I stopped at a service station, where I parked up at 8am in hopes to get 4 hours sleep to continue on my journey. Well, 10am came and I woke up from the sweltering heat of the sun baking me alive, inside the van. 2 hours sleep, I decided to crack on through "the city of love" that is Paris, well... I hated it. Further down the road, I realised 2 dashboard warning lights had lit up the "STOP" sign came up, followed with the battery. I stopped and ran numerous of tests, voltage reading is fine on both battery and alternator, must just be a fault somewhere in the system I thought, lets press on as I wanted to get there for Friday morning. Few 100 miles go by and I stop to pee , with the torrential rain passing over me I decided to grab a few hours sleep. This I did, alongside cooking me up some real food. Having eaten, washed up and checked the van I cracked on for the remaining 5 hours of the journey on Thursday evening, meaning I could get into Barcelona at 3am on Friday to surprise my friend when they rise from their deaths. 2 hours in... Disaster hits. I'm just about to go through the toll to cross the bridge that basically links France to Spain and my battery dies. Now, it's midnight and I'm alone, broken down in the only toll open on the motorway at the south of France and the van won't start, what do I do? I get out and push the van backwards to the side of the road so I'm not blocking anyone. Now, I'm not exactly big so to push a 2 tonne vehicle backwards and to the side of the road was no easy task especially when the breaks don't work when the vehicle is off. Luckily for me, people in the control office at the toll had noticed this, I mean they did see a little Chinese boy pushing a van backwards away from the toll, wearing a high vis vest and place down a reflective triangle a few metres back from the vehicle. 10 minutes later, after I've had a nervous breakdown and spoke to my dad, a highway maintenance vehicle turns up and he's already contacted a rescue vehicle to come and check out the issue. We talk for about 30 minutes, standing on the side of the highway waiting for the mechanic to turn up and when he does, you'll be dammed but it was exactly what I thought the issue was to begin with. My alternator was toast. Fortunately for me, his garage was close by. So he hooked up a battery charger and I followed him through the toll and back to his garage where I parked up and slept until the morning, he allowed me access to the toilet, shower and the kitchen which was rather kind of him as he could tell I was stressed out. The next morning, I woke up 3 hours later than I should have but by the time I had woken up he had found another garage with the part I needed and the time to fit it for me that day, WIN! Battery charger hooked up again, we set off 5 miles down the road to the garage where they confirm the issue and tell me I won't be on the road again until 7pm as they go on lunch soon and won't return until 2pm. I'm just thankful that they were able to fit me in so quickly, I just nod and agree to it all. I eat, edit and sit around for a few hours whilst they're all on lunch, when they return they give me a price and tell me that it can be done before 5pm. I hand over my keys, paperwork etc and take my drone bag out of the van with all my other valuables and set off to wonder around the village. 2 hours pass, I return and I see my van parked up outside so I wonder back in and they tell me "Everything good, all done" which was a massive relief. Now I admit, they did me a solid and only charged me cost price of the alternator and charge me 2 hours of labour, but it still hurt. €300 it cost me, which is roughly £250 when I know back in the UK I could have got it a lot cheaper, but hey. They could of ruined me and they fixed it within the day, so I couldn't complain. 5pm I'M BACK ON THE ROAD BABY! 3.5 hours until Barcelona, I could taste the victory... The freedom, it was bitter sweet. 

The drive was fine, 3 hours flew by and next thing I'm in Spain closing in on Barcelona. But heres the strange bit. I usually have my drone tucked away, under the bed or in the bag beside me in the front, but with all the tolls it just got in the way as I had to lean over to the left side to open the window and pay for tolls. So, I placed the bag with my Phantom, Macbook and multiple of lenses in the back of the van, but still within reach. 20 miles from my destination, I realised my GoPro was maxed out, so I decided to attempt to reach back and find my SD card case, I touch the drone and realise that the gimbal cover had come off and I thought to myself "I'll sort that out when I park up." Now from that moment, to when I got into Barcelona and found a parking space the drone bag went missing. Stolen out from my van, the only thing is... For the life of me I can't figure out how it happened, either way I was pissed, angry and ready to punch someone or drink myself out of anger. I soon snapped out of that mindset and realised, there is nothing I can do. It's gone, they're just things, objects, items that I think have value to my life when in reality they don't. Money can replace them and I can earn money. I'd rather enjoy the moment and the journey, than to be sat in a police station in Spain for the whole day trying to explain what happened, just so I could get an incident report for my Travel Insurance to get a measly £1000 for electronics, when the bags good was way over 6k. Having decided that, I thought to enjoy the company and enjoy my time away, I can deal with it when I return on. So that's what I did, I forgot about it and just enjoyed the fact that I was away from Cornwall. Oh another thing, I smashed my phone when I was in France and some how it got worse when I arrived in Barcelona, the screen was totally unusable so I had to wait until Monday so I could get it fixed. 

The weekend was a little nuts, it did involve a lot of drinking and walking around. Which, I admit I enjoyed too much. The world cup, heat, adventures and alcohol. I stayed in Barcelona for just over a week, little longer than I expected I would which did not do too kindly on the bank, but we live and we learn. On the Saturday, I made decided to make the journey to Rome without using the motorways. So that was 1100 miles and 22 hours, avoiding tolls. The plan was to get to Rome over the span of 6 days, to arrive on Friday 20th to meet up with a friend who was also in a self converted van. 

First day: I drive 250 miles to Montpellier and realise I need fuel, so I stop to get fuel and realised my main bank card has been blocked. Hour conversation to the bank and they said "it should be able to use it now" they lied. So I find a spot to park up and call it a night, I'll sort it in the morning. Well, Sunday came and I tried 3 other fuel stations and neither one of them would accept my card. Another 2 hours on the phone to the bank and they tell me my cards been blocked because one minute I'm in Spain, the next I'm in France. SHOCKER! Another day without my bank card, I find another place to set up camp and this time I came across a lake to which was busy during the day with locals. Sunday, France vs Croatia. What a time to be in France for the world cup, luckily then one because the atmosphere and vibe was incredible that day. I spent the evening with some a group of locals that came down to blow off some steam with a swim, we sat, shared a few laughs and had a few beers until they had to leave. Meaning I returned to the van to eat and sleep. Monday morning, rain in France which was a nice as the temperature dropped below 20 degrees for the first time in almost 2 weeks. I can finally move money from my main card to my back up, so that's what I did and used my secondary card to get fuel and get a move on. I drive through fields upon fields on sunflowers, until I eventually hit a mountain where I cut straight through and into Italy, but this point it was midnight and I had to stop in the mountains of Italy for a few hours of sleep. In the morning, I realise there I had parked it was such a beautiful place to wake up too. Refresh, i decided to crack on my journey only to receive news that plans are about to change. The person I was meeting in Rome, was 100 miles out from Rome as he had change of plans, so instead of me driving to Rome which would still take me 12 hours. We decided to meet at Genoa, 300 miles for me and 500 miles for him. only difference was he was able to take the motorways and tolls, as I was avoiding them. The timing was roughly the same of when we would arrive. I get to Genoa and find a spot on at the top of the hill, overlooking the city of Genoa. Hour later, Bondy arrives. We catch up on our journeys over food and beer. Having not booked a return, we decide to get the ferry back from Roscoff to Plymouth for the 25th, that left us over a week still to travel, Andorra was on both our lists so we decided to tick that off with a 18 hour drive split over 3 days to get there.

The next day, we go to Lidl to get some more food and after that is when it goes a bit pear shape. We're leaving Genoa and we both take a wrong turn, we find ourselves at a toll which we both didn't want to do. We go through at different times, he goes one way and I go the other not realising. It took us 2 hours to meet up again only 40 miles from the city as it just took forever to get through. At that very moment, we decided walkie talkies were a must. We then drive another 200 miles just before the French border to stay in the mountains with a lake by our side, obviously I took a dip but instantly regretted it with how cold the mountain water was. 

The next day, we head towards a Leroy Merlin's which is Europes version of B&Q, we get there 3 hours later which was the closest one and I realise, it's B&Q on steroids. Walkie Talkies found along with a bit of wire I needed to make my split charge relay to work properly, success. It's getting late, we're tired. So we decide to drive an hour down the road to a spot i stay at previously in Montpellier, there were showers and toilets there for the public to use for free, so it was ideal. In the morning we continue on our journey, but on route we go on the motorway, but still avoiding tolls and we're speeding down, finally we can do 130kph and knuckle down on some real mileage. But on route, we get a little carried away and the previous night we hadn't tied down the camping chairs properly on top of Bondy's van. They only just nearly miss my van as he overtakes and I'm about to pull out behind him, when bye bye camping chairs. We continue on towards Andorra and get there within a few hours, driving through the mountains and into a small town, which was basically just shops we come across Hippo Drome, a big store where we wanted food, but instead got tax free alcohol, cigarettes and memory cards. We continue on to the city, where another disaster occurs. Smoke starts bellowing from my engine bay, my clutch was started to wear out and stink the place out. Scared that my clutch was going to give in, I stop where I can and park the van and jump into Bondy's van to park closer to the city so we can explore. An hour later, we're setting off again for somewhere to stay, but realising that we can't use our phones in Andorra without being charged a fortune, we made the decision to leave and head down into Spain as it was closer. 2 hours of driving we arrive at the destination, on top of another mountain that overlooks Andorra. A perfect place for what we were expecting that night, a thunderstorm. We did everything we needed to do whilst the sun was still up and started cooking food, just in time for the sun to drop and the storm to start only 50 miles away above the mountains. We sat drinking beers, eating burritos whilst storm watching, what a great way to end the day. 

The next day, we decided to start heading up to Roscoff over the course of 3 days for out departure. So we head back up into France, but then I accidentally reverse into someone in a small French village and spend almost 2 hours sorting out insurance details. Once this had been done, I was too annoyed, too tired and too hungry to continue on so we just say "lets just wing it and go this way out of town" only to find ourselves at a dead end at the top of a mountain, which in the winter would be a ski resort. The weather had turned, the temperature dropped below 10 degrees and the fog had completely covered the area, we could see more than 5 meters in front of us. Bondy goes off to find some bins to dispose of our wastes, he returns with amazing news. Just below us is a toilet block, with a boiler and hot water. We sprint down to investigate further, only to realise we could unscrew the taps and fit our hose to it for a hot shower. That is what we do, it's surprising what a hot shower can to do your morale.

Onwards, we continue on our journey to Roscoff but with 600 miles still to go we stop and get to Aquitaine and a spot by the coast. Whilst cooking some food, I put the drone in the air to get some footage of the epic sun set. The next day it's long drive to Bono, where we stop to explore the area. Bondy had visited this place a few years ago and spent the whole summer. So we went around exploring and put the drone in the sky to get more footage, only to be told by some French kids that if I continued doing it the Police would come and take my drone away, unsure if it was a threat or a warning I proceeded to pack it away. Now, unfortunately at this point I was teaching Bondy how to fly the drone so he could record me jumping from a bridge into the water, not being able to do that I decided to jump off the 80ft  bridge anyway, not remembering to put the memory card from my drone into my GoPro I didn't get the footage and you can't exactly see me in Bondy's footage. So, it's like if I didn't capture it on video... Did it even happen?
After this, we moved our vans 5 miles up the road to another spot close to a pontoon which we can jump off and we could set up camp. We quickly made some food and went for a swim, on our return we met up with some French that were touring in their self converted van, there we were talking about wanting a bigger van like a Sprinter and they were in basically a Caddy van, it was small and their were two of them but they loved it and I understood why, it had everything they needed, it was properly thought out when they were building it. 

The next morning, Bondy jetted off early to meet up with an old friend. Leaving me to myself, to do whatever and meet later in the day. I decided that I wanted to get closer to Roscoff so ventured on the 200 mile to Roscoff on my own, to find an amazing spot that we could camp up for the night that was only 20 minutes to where we had to be early the next morning. I arrived and started making food, as I finished I realised that I had ran out of gas and the spares were in the other van. Disaster, especially as Bondy wasn't planning on getting to me until past 7pm. Luckily I had a kettle, which took roughly 25 minutes to boil enough water for 1 cup of tea. Spending the day, cleaning the inside of the van, sorting out my clothes and organising everything, followed with some more shooting of the drone - Bondy arrives. FINALLY, I CAN HAVE FOOD! We make our final meal which is basically everything we have left over, rice, noodles and lots of vegetables. Cook it, plate it and sat on top of my van reminiscing on our journey that month.

It's strange to think that one day you can be in Italy, the next you can be in France driving through Andorra and into Spain. In a space of a week we had gone through 4 countries and to be on basically an island back at home, it was a strange feeling. 

This trip has taught me a lot, I've grown more confident and have a whole new attitude towards life. I think the main thing for me is coming out of my shell and having more of a "fuck it" attitude towards everything. 

Oh, another thing I've realised... In concept my van design was great. It was functional and it worked for my needs. WRONG! Don't get me wrong, it was great during my trip but I realised over time I was missing things, the way it was designed was not convenient or everyday user friendly. I never put the bed away because it was just too much hassle, plus I still had lots of space even with it out. So I think now, now that I've spent some time away in it, I know what I need and what I don't. This is the time to replan, redraw and redesign the whole inside of the van so the next trip would be just as enjoyable... I hope.