Summary of day 11

For today’s journey from Jacou to Limoges, we had approx 275 miles to cover but we started with a range of 268, so clearly we would need to stop for a charge.

As before, if I had been driving more sensibly over the last few days, the car could have made it comfortably without needing to charge, but seeing as it’s a long journey we would be stopping anyway so both us and the car can have a ‘splash and dash’ at the same time.

After leaving the impressive viaduct, the car must have thought I needed a break from the motorway as the route it chose was made up of primarily ‘a’ roads with a few back roads thrown in for good measure. 100 ish miles of smooth tarmac and one pot hole. Some of the straights were as long and straight as the roads me and Laura encountered on our honeymoon travels across America.

We passed through picturesque villages and towns and even got stuck behind a tractor run for a good few miles. This meant that by the time we had joined the motorway and travelled 30 miles to the services the car had suggested we should charge at, the m/kwh had risen to 2.9, lots better but still not brilliant.

Unfortunately, the charger that was free didn’t work and all of the other chargers were in use. No need to panic though, we still had about 50 miles of range and looking on the Mercedes Me app, Laura found another bank of super chargers 2 miles down the road.

Once there, we plugged in, after making a British driver move his petrol powered suv as he obviously thought he was some kind of man and could park across 2 charging bays. I can imagine he does that a lot regardless of what country he is in, seemed the type. That is the first time we have encountered or even seen it on these travels. Unfortunately, it happens a lot in the UK. Different mentality I guess. Over here, they are embracing the change judging by the amount of ev’s you see and the fantastic infrastructure.

So we had wees and Elliott fell over. Not at the same time thankfully. After doing some squats and lunges (again not while weeing) to stretch the legs after a 2 hour journey, 10 mins had passed. The car had added just over 100 miles, the range showing 152 miles and we only had 75 to go and the hotel we were staying at on arrival has a bank of Tesla chargers that we can also use.

Pretty easy this really.Read more