Réinitialiser la recherche
Adventures of Blu
  • Alexandra Hicken-Davidson
  • Alexandra Hicken-Davidson

Adventures of Blu

Alex, Carla and I are travelling from Lisbon (pt.) to Nottingham (U.K.) and back in our electric car!
Follow our adventures En savoir plus
S’abonnerAperçuAperçuCalendrierCalendrierPhotosPhotosPartagerPartagerListe de choses à faire
AperçuCalendrierPhotos
  • Début du voyage
    1 décembre 2022
    Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    The wait is over

    1 décembre 2022, Portugal ⛅ 11 °C

    Bags packed, route planned, ferries and overnight lodgings booked, we’re finally ready to start a trip we’ve been planning for almost 12 months.

    The plan for day 1 is to travel from Lisbon to Guarda in Portugal via Castelo Branco for lunch, it will be a short day with only 325km of driving, but a few charging stops to get us through the hilly regions of central Portugal.

    Vamos embora!    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Day 1 lunchtime

    1 décembre 2022, Portugal ☀️ 13 °C

    We pushed the car to its *limits* on this leg and arrived in Castelo Branco on 8% battery 😬.

    Despite some worries from AH-D, we arrived safely and can now enjoy some food whilst the car charges.

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur
    1

    Delayed start day 2 - freezing fog

    2 décembre 2022, Portugal ☀️ 0 °C

    Today we drive from Guarda to Burgos in Spain via Salamanca and Valladolid 🇪🇸. A total of 417km. Whilst we’re very excited to get going, we had to delay our start due to some freezing fog this morning in Guarda. Currently waiting for visibility to improve and temperatures to rise 🥶.

    Our morning walk to see the Guarda Municipal stadium (a thing of beauty if you search for it) was cold and unsuccessful (hence my furrowed brow).    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Lunchtime charge

    2 décembre 2022, Espagne ☀️ 5 °C

    Our first roadside charge in Spain… with a view of the cathedral of Salamanca 😍.

    Time to wander around this old university city and fill our bellies with vegan tapas 🤤.

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Valladolid charge

    2 décembre 2022, Espagne 🌙 6 °C

    Following an unsuccessful charging attempt on the outskirts of Valladolid (charger not connecting to app or usable by fob 👎🏼) we just headed into the centre of town…

    I’m gonna say it was worth it to see Valladolid in all its Christmassy glory! Realistically, the faff added an hour or so onto our already long day…En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Thoughts from day 2

    2 décembre 2022, Espagne 🌙 -1 °C

    It’s bloody cold up ‘ere. 🥶

    We made it to Burgos, tired, cold (did I mention it’s cold?!) and a little stressed from range anxiety (AH-D). The car battery is taking a bit of a beating from temperatures dancing around 0c. Something that our route planner (ABRP) seemingly can’t factor into its calculations.

    Today was always going to be the most difficult day of driving - we’ve got a short, treat of a day tomorrow to take us to Bilbao so that we can enjoy more of the Basque city than those in Castile and León.

    Feeling grateful for the little team of three that’s got us this far. Carla is doing her bit by sleeping through ALL THE THINGS and making timely toilet trips 🐕.    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Day 3 - Burgos to Bilbao

    3 décembre 2022, Espagne ⛅ 0 °C

    With the car back up to 100% after charging overnight in a carpark (I cannot speak about the price of the charging + parking combo 😂) we’re about to leave Burgos for Bilbao!

    A relatively short journey going down from 800m to sea level. We’ll see increased temperatures and a lot of rain today, but hope to be able to explore Bilbao before getting the ferry tomorrow morning.

    Adeus, Castile y León!    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Another freezing charge

    3 décembre 2022, Espagne ⛅ 3 °C

    There were some amazing views on the way to our charging point from Burgos, driving around and through the “Obarenes-Sierra de Cantabria”.

    The continually high altitudes meant that we saw snow(!!!!!) (it was probably more like sleet) for the first time in years.

    My one gripe today is that I’m struggling to get used to the Spanish cafe solo vs the Portuguese espresso. A small worry after yesterday! 😆    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Earning the well rested token

    6 décembre 2022, Pays de Galles ⛅ 3 °C

    Oh to sleep on dry land! 😴

    Day 6 is the final day of our journey and it’s gonna be tough… we’re going to be travelling 420km using an unknown charging network, but we’re taking the route with high charging point density to mitigate any problems.

    Next stop… Nottingham!    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Cardiff charge

    6 décembre 2022, Pays de Galles ☀️ 6 °C

    Mmm… turns out uk service stations might not be the most reliable source of charging!

    After pulling into Cardiff East services on 12% battery, we were in a queue to use 2 (should be 3!) CCS chargers. Luckily, our very dear friend Nicole, a local to South Wales service stations 😉 helped us get to a Tesla dealership, where we had to use her phone (Portuguese App Store Tesla app doesn’t give us the option to charge a non-Tesla!!!!!!) to charge the car.

    We’re back to 98% now and back on the road… but with a warning light.

    After reading through the Honda e forums, it looks like this warning light is nothing to actually worry about, and can occur after using Tesla superchargers… but naturally, we are a little worried.

    Next stop in an hour is Strensham services, where we will try again with Gridserve.

    Strensham will be close enough to the midlands that if we need a recovery vehicle, we hope someone will be willing to help us 😂    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Alexandra Hicken-DavidsonAdventures of BluVoyageur

    Back on track

    6 décembre 2022, Angleterre ⛅ 4 °C

    So… that error message I mentioned in my last post was a real error message.

    When we got to the charging station at Strensham services, the light on the charging port on the car was flashing red when we tried to connect the CCS and Type 2 charger…

    Fortunately, we were 13 miles away from a Honda garage, and managed to get there with the remaining battery we had.

    After a battery reset and code refresh(!) the car now charges absolutely fine… the garage’s best guess (they’d never seen that error before) is that the Tesla Supercharger essentially ‘dislodged’ something slightly on the charging port which caused the error!

    Lesson learned - never use Tesla Superchargers & always call the Honda garage for help 😁💪🏼    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction