Autumn Adventures

September - November 2024

A 68-day adventure by Beccy Read more

69footprints
68days
627photos
3likes

Portugal
Spain
France
Italy
Germany
Belgium
England

Categories

Camper, Couple

3.6kmiles traveled

Flight-kilometers
Walking-kilometers
Hiking-kilometers
Bicycle-kilometers
Motorbike-kilometers
Tuk Tuk-kilometers
Car-kilometers
Train-kilometers
Bus-kilometers
Camper-kilometers
Caravan-kilometers
4x4-kilometers
Swimming-kilometers
Paddling/Rowing-kilometers
Motorboat-kilometers
Sailing-kilometers
Houseboat-kilometers
Ferry-kilometers
Cruise ship-kilometers
Horse-kilometers
Hitchhiking-kilometers
Cable car-kilometers
Helicopter-kilometers
Barefoot-kilometers
Heels-kilometers

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Traveler Autumn Adventures
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- Sep 4, 2024
- ☁️ 19 °C
- Altitude: 213 ft
- England Shepway District Peene 51.095252, 1.12344551°5’43” N 1°7’24” E
Day 0 - Folkestone
September 4, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
After a few stressful weeks (engine scares and a few motorhome pieces needed fixing), we have finally made it to Folkestone ready for our Shuttle across to France tomorrow.
Wish us luck! We are planning a week at a time and going where the weather takes us.Read more
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- Sep 5, 2024, 2:00 PM
- ☁️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 49 ft
- Belgium Flanders Brugge Sint-Kruis 51.205299, 3.2604851°12’19” N 3°15’38” E
Day 1
Day 1 - Folkstone to Bruges
September 5, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Day 1 of our autumn adventures!
The adventures began before we even got to Le Shuttle check in as we missed the turn off from the M20 (slight confusion on my part), thankfully I’d anticipated something like this and we still checked in with plenty of time to spare. Automated check in was fun as all the buttons on the screen were too low for me so I had to hop out the van to collect my paperwork. Then off to pet reception where I had to ask the lady to repeat everything twice, hard to hear over all the dogs barking! Paperwork all fine thanks to Anton Vets and we were given the all clear to wait for our boarding time. A couple of passport checks and we were boarding! 35 minutes later we popped out in France - it really was quite easy! Straight onto the main road to Belgium and after a little bit of scary town driving, we made it to camp in time for lunch and a beer to take the edge off! We’ve tried to relax a bit this afternoon, it’s warm and we have a nice little wood next to the site so we’ve been popping in there for little walks. A couple of Belgian beers have been sampled and we’re ready for a bit of TV and an early night ready for a very adventurous day tomorrow!Read more
Fantastic that you have finally made it to the continent! Have amazing adventures. All the best. [Ian G]
9/5/24Reply
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- Sep 6, 2024, 9:59 AM
- ☁️ 19 °C
- Altitude: 39 ft
- Belgium Flanders Bruges Het Brugse Ommeland 51.20845, 3.22545551°12’30” N 3°13’32” E
Day 2
Day 2 - Bruges
September 6, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Our first full day in Bruges and we wanted to make the most of a cool weather forecast, so we braved the possibility of rain and walked the couple of miles into the centre of Bruges for a bit of sightseeing. It was quite busy and noisy, so we hit our ‘must see’ areas straight away. For me it was one of the best rated Chocolate shops in the town - Dumon, and Charlie wanted to have an authentic waffle and House of Waffles certainly hit the spot! We then walked back to camp for a McCoy favourite lunch - bread and cheese!
We had a restful afternoon, Beccy wandered over to the closest pet shop to stock up on some meaty snacks for Marla (can’t believe we found hairy rabbit ears and chicken feet - Marla’s favourites!). We had a late afternoon appointment with a local vet who declared Marla a good girl and happily issued her with a Pet Passport to make future travel into the EU so much easier - you can see from the photos that Marla is thrilled by this 😂.
Back to camp again for a van staple dinner of tomato pasta, we have a couple of Belgian beers to follow and an early night is on the cards after all this fresh air.Read more
Traveler Loving these updates. Looking forward to following you jealously!!
9/6/24Reply
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- Sep 7, 2024, 7:45 AM
- ☁️ 13 °C
- Altitude: 30 ft
- Belgium Flanders Brugge Assebroek 51.197242, 3.26414751°11’50” N 3°15’51” E
Day 3
Bruges - Day 3
September 7, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Our final full day here in Bruges was forecast to be a warm one, so we decided to get up early and head out for a run before it got too hot and humid. We were out just after 7am and we did a little exploration in the woods and then crossed a couple of roads that led to a nature reserve, which consisted of a lot of fields of cows (safely behind barbed wire and electric fences). It was quite misty this morning which made it look quite eerie. Back to camp for some breakfast, showers and to do our first load of washing.
We’ve had quite a relaxing afternoon, it’s been warm and muggy so we got wound the awning out and put our chairs together so we could enjoy the fresh air from the shade. We didn’t fancy cooking a hot dinner in a hot van, so we treated ourselves to a Quick takeaway (apparently the French equivalent of McDonald’s), we had their Veggie burger and chips with a side of cheese balls!
The campsite is getting quite busy now, so it’s a bit noisy and cramped - we’re looking forward to a change of pace and scenery tomorrow when we move on into the countryside and an adults only campsite.Read more
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- Sep 8, 2024, 4:35 PM
- ⛅ 18 °C
- Altitude: 1,385 ft
- Belgium Wallonia Houffalize Engreux 50.120133, 5.70726350°7’12” N 5°42’26” E
Day 4
Day 4 - Camping au bout du monde
September 8, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
We’ve made it to camp site number two. The trip here was straightforward (lots of dual carriageways) but we may have bought ourselves a ticket by not coming off the motorway during roadworks where vehicles over 3.5t had to leave (we didn’t leave and a very angry looking policeman took a few photo of us!).
Anyhoo…. We made it to camp late afternoon and after setting up, we walked over to the bar / restaurant and ended up staying for quite a while longer than we expected…. We ended up staying for dinner and dessert which was very tasty indeed! Shame they only have one item on the menu as it would be great to take advantage of this restaurant for our trip.
Back to the van to catch up on the season finale of Casualty!Read more
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- Sep 9, 2024, 8:26 AM
- ☁️ 12 °C
- Altitude: 1,371 ft
- Belgium Wallonia Houffalize Engreux 50.120701, 5.70895850°7’15” N 5°42’32” E
Day 5
Day 5 - chill out day
September 9, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
It’s been a pretty awful day weather wise, so after the excitement of a travelling day yesterday we decided to do absolutely nothing today but relax. We started the day collecting our pre-ordered bread rolls, you order the day before and it’s ready for collection from 8am - I love the cute little bag that was waiting for us!
I’ve started a crochet project I bought with me and Charlie’s been playing on his Switch.
Marla has had a lovely day catching up on a lot of sleep that she’s missed out on over the last 5 days. Charlie made us a super tasty dinner of Tuscan Bean Pasta, and we are going to have an early night ready for some hiking tomorrow.Read more
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- Sep 10, 2024, 10:33 AM
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 1,302 ft
- Belgium Wallonia Houffalize Grinvet Martin-Moulin 50.130917, 5.71296750°7’51” N 5°42’47” E
Day 6
Day 6 - first hike day
September 10, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
Today’s weather forecast was for day and overcast so we thought it would make a perfect day for hiking. The campsite owner recommended an out and back route to Achouffe, a small village with a famous brewery. The route was a nice mix of small country lanes and woodland, a bit muddy in places and not too technical.
It was a 10 mile hike in total so we decided to stop for lunch at the village hotel / restaurant / bar - plus it’s our 19th Wedding Anniversary so it was nice to have a meal out.
We had a Goats Cheese Croque and shared some vegan Bitterballen (no idea what they were but very tasty!). After a couple more beverages, we started the hike back stopping at the brewery shop to buy some presents. Charlie picked me up a shower cap - only it turns out it’s a bicycle seat cover! I did think it was a bit small for me…. We also had a slight run in with a pack of angry Boarder Collies - rather strange and a bit scary.
Nothing else to report from the rest of the day, everyone’s quite tired out now from all the fresh air and sunshine!Read more
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- Sep 11, 2024, 12:14 PM
- ☁️ 11 °C
- Altitude: 1,371 ft
- Belgium Wallonia Houffalize Engreux 50.120193, 5.70717550°7’13” N 5°42’26” E
Day 7
Day 7 - last full day in Belgium
September 11, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Today has been our last full day in Belgium. We had intended to run / walk a 10km trail loop from camp today, but after yesterday’s 10 miles, Marla isn’t used to back to back long walks / runs so we had another fairly slow paced day today. It started off wet, windy and cold this morning. Charlie braved the conditions to do a workout around the van, and the sun soon popped out so Marla sat out with him to keep an eye on him 😂
We had a nice lunch of cheese and crackers and a leisurely afternoon walk around the local paths. There are a lot of Corn fields, and one massive Christmas Tree field - it’s a bit hard to comprehend how many trees there here, they certainly go as far as we could see.
Charlie made us a delicious Quorn curry for dinner, we bought some dehydrated onion with us to try out for when we can’t get any fresh and I’m pleased to say they worked out quite well!
It’s getting chillier in the evenings now so another quiet night tucked up safe and warm in the van - I’m looking forward to heading a bit further south for warmer weather! Travelling day tomorrow - fingers crossed for no policemen taking photos of us this time!Read more
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- Sep 12, 2024
- ⛅ 14 °C
- Altitude: 659 ft
- Germany Rheinland-Pfalz Stromberg Schindeldorf Eckenrotherfels 49.934296, 7.79080849°56’3” N 7°47’27” E
Day 8
Day 8 - willkommen in Deutschland
September 12, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
It was a chilly start to the day, 5 degrees! So the heating went on for the first time in a long time.
We packed up and headed off from camp at a leisurely pace. We opted to go the straightest and quickest route to our next campsite, Aumühle (south of Cologne and west of Frankfurt). The drive was pretty straightforward and I didn’t make any wrong turns or exits, so no bonus miles! Once we crossed into Germany, we headed to a supermarket to stock up on all the essentials. Goodbye strong Belgian beers, hello more sensible German beers.
The campsite is fairly small and quiet, it’s dog friendly but I’m not sure how friendly the pet chickens roaming free really are, we will find out in due course!
Dinner tonight was a tomato and mozzarella salad followed by a mushroom pasta ready meal we picked up in Belgium. There wasn’t any instructions so we went with the standard 20 mins at 200, after about 10 mins I went to turn it round and found the container slowly melting away - oops! Maybe it was supposed to go in the microwave, we’ll never know….
A bit of rain this afternoon meant we will save exploring the woodland next to the site for tomorrow.Read more
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- Sep 13, 2024, 10:41 AM
- ☁️ 10 °C
- Altitude: 1,030 ft
- Germany Rheinland-Pfalz Stromberg Schindeldorf Eckenrotherfels 49.938172, 7.77794249°56’17” N 7°46’41” E
Day 9
Day 9 - Camping Aumühle
September 13, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
Our first full day in Germany.
We took it easy first thing and had a leisurely breakfast, put a feta and lentil salad together ready for lunchtime and then headed off for a run in the woodland behind our campsite. We are at the bottom of a valley, so the only way is up! It was tough going but we just took it steady and enjoyed the fact it was nice and warm outside and not raining! We did find a strange carving in the forest, Marla really didn’t know what to make of it, so I did the grown up thing and started to record her freaking out.
Back to camp for showers and to set off our first load of washing. We took advantage of the campsite bread ordering service (every campsite should do this!) and had a couple of rolls with our salad, and also three different types of cake 😂 Apple, Cherry and Cheesecake - all very delicious!
The afternoon was a lot cooler and breezy, so after hanging up all our washing and hoping that it doesn’t rain.
We decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at the on site restaurant. We had the vegan Flammkuchen - I have no idea what it was, but it was pretty tasty. Sort of like a giant water biscuit, covered with a white sauce and tomato’s, asparagus and kale. Of course we also tried a couple of local beverages, all very tasty.
Marla spent the entire time watching the camp’s pet chicken wandering around …. I think it was just winding her up 😂 Travelling day again tomorrow, so another early night on the cards.Read more
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