Col and Pams Travels: Starting Out

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.

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

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).