COL AND PAMS TRAVELS
IN LEFTY 2012
20.04.2012
Finally
after years of talking about it, planning it, and boring people to death about
it, we are embarking on our Europe Campervan adventure.
Had a great
taxi service to Auckland airport thanks to Marg and John, very cheap and a good
service apart from the driver talking too much!
An uneventful flight to London via Hong Kong, even managed a good amount
of sleep thanks to the wonders of modern drugs.
21.04
Arrived LHR
and met by Serge, our taxi ride to Bosham, took about an hour and a half to
arrive at Windward House, our B and B run by Leslie and Peter. Treated like royalty and had a wonderful stay.
Had a walk around the quaint
village of Bosham, a very picturesque seaside village.
22.04
Up early and
a full English breakfast to start the day! Peter
kindly dropped us off at Church Farm to pick up Lefty.
Seeing our new house was awesome.
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Lefty is a 6m long, Fiat Ducato 2.5 Turbo diesel. In fantastic condition and decked out with
everything needed including bikes, thanks to Don and Val who we purchased him
from. It has made getting started so
simple!
An
interesting 5k drive to our campsite just outside of Chichester with me driving
on the left hand side of the van. Fair
to say I was slightly tense! A quick
stop at Tesco for diesel and a suprise at the cost, NZ$200 for 67 litres. The price of fuel is exorbitant. Provisions purchased and the rest of the day spent
exploring the workings of Lefty and getting things ship shape, or should we say
van shape!
An amazing
feeling, excitement mixed with anxiety, and each day a new adventure!
23.04
Up early
after a good sleep in our futon above the driving seats. It’s still a bit
chilly here, 8 degrees and showery. A
moment of dismay to discover we had left all our power adaptors for the
computer behind in NZ, hope we can get
something here or we are doomed!!!!!
Guess as you’re
reading this, we managed to get sorted!
Ran out of
water this evening right in the middle of Pam’s shower!
Don’t
worry! I cried, I’ll shift the van and fill up....all went
well until the return journey I got stuck in the mud after all the
rain.....guess we’ll stay here for the night! The following
morning, red faced, we were towed out by the camp people! A lesson learnt!
24.04
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A three hour
trip to Cardiff along the motorways to see our friend Peter who we met in
Greece on Lipsi in 2006. The driving was fun until we got to about 6k from his
home where it turned into single track lanes and I nearly wiped out a car
coming the other way! I was surprised to
hear the tom tom using such foul language! Then realised it was Pam !!! Finding it quite
difficult judging the width of the van...more practice needed!
A great
evening spent with Peter at his local pub catching up and getting rid of two
bottles of Chilean wine! Lamb shanks
were awesome!
25.04
Peter took
us on a tour of Cardiff with it’s magnificent castle fortified by walls adorned
with zoological animals. Another great
evening with Chinese takeaways and dare I say more wine! (Suspect Peter may have a drinking problem!
haha).
26.04
A walk with
Hetty the labradoodle this morning getting a glimpse of the countryside and
walking amongst the bluebells and bright yellow rape.
Time to
leave as Peter was sick of us! We were
spoilt and looked after so well he was lucky we didn’t stay for a month.
A two hour
drive to the Midlands ( more narrow lanes and foul language) to see Keith,
Kirsten, Edith and Sandy in South Newington.
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