Wanda’s First Adventure

October - November 2021
This is our first road trip and test of Wanda in all weather conditions
  • 69footprints
  • 4countries
  • 54days
  • 435photos
  • 5videos
  • 5.3kmiles
  • Day 2

    The big house

    October 4, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today at 12:00pm we closed our kennel business, said goodbye to all our customers drove the 4 miles back to our home, where we met my dad. We gave him the keys and instructions on how to run the house and look after the dogs and then we packed Wanda and left Norfolk to embark on our first adventure.
    2 years of planning and plotting co-ordinates into the sat Nav will take us into France, across the Alps, into the Pyrenees down through the central plains of Spain and along the coast into Portugal to stay at Ellies mum and dads holiday home near Faro. From there we will head to Lisbon, then along the coast and back into Spain through the mountains to Bordeaux, France and then along the western coast of France before starting our return journey back home.
    This is our test journey, the journey to see if all our modifications will work, all weathers, all conditions. Will we be able to refill our new refillable gas bottles easily? Will the newly fitted diesel heater keep us warm? Will our newly fitted WiFi system actually give us internet in hard to reach places? Have we packed enough clothes for all weathers to keep us going for 2 months? And most of all will our 18 year old son be happy living in such a small place with his parents or will he bail out when we get to Portugal and come home with his grandparents. At 8am, Tuesday 5th October we leave England on the Eurotunnel to embark on our adventure.
    Read more

  • Day 3

    The underground city of Naours

    October 5, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    It had started to rain at about midnight, we could hear it hammering away on the roof of Wanda all night and at 4am we got up to leave Essex and it was still throwing it down. After a quick cup of tea we secured everything and done our pre flight checks and left for the channel tunnel at 4:45am. By the time we got to the M25 the roads were already starting to flood quite badly, but traffic was relatively light and flowing nicely even if it was slower than usual. The M20 was quite chaotic with big pools of standing water in the slow and fast lanes and more than once we lost visibility completely being swamped by torrents of water from the road and the sky.
    We reached Eurotunnel on time at 7:20am and boarded with no problems, then I noticed a funny little symbol flash up on our sat Nav so I tapped it and a warning came up for severe heavy rain on the other side of the tunnel. In all of my years as a lorry driver I have never seen a sat Nav warning of dangerous weather conditions.
    Exiting the train, TomTom was right. The rain was horrendous and the roads were like a skid pan with an inch of water running across the surface constantly. Fortunately we only stayed on the motorway for 20 mins before hitting the quieter roads through the villages and heading towards Amiens. 130 miles of wet roads led us to our first destination, les Grottes des Naours or the caves of Naours and just before we got there it stopped raining.
    This place is a truest amazing spectacle of caves, or tunnels made from the limestone of the Picardy plateau and was dug out to form refuges. These refuges were called "muches" (hideouts in Picard language). Those in Naours, rediscovered at the end of the last century, are the largest known: all the underground areas combined can house around 2,600 people with their livestock. The layout is remarkable: around 300 chambers, public squares, stables, wells, chimneys, and a chapel with three naves. These underground areas were used by the British forces during the First World War and were used as the headquarters of the German forces during the second world war. We spent 2 hours here exploring and just as we got back to the motorhome it started raining again but by now it was late afternoon and time to start operation tortoise, our way of saying we need to find somewhere to camp.
    Fortunately for us we found the perfect spot just 9 miles away down a quiet little back lane, in the little village of Candas right next to a beautiful old windmill.
    Read more

  • Day 4

    Our Second free camp

    October 6, 2021 in France ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    This morning we didn’t bother hurrying to get up, we were all tired from a long day yesterday and our first stop didn’t open until 10am, so after a hearty breakfast of french sausage and rolls we left moulin fanchon, the windmill and headed into Albert to visit the 1916 Somme museum. Finding somewhere to park was a nightmare and I was just about to give up when we found a few spaces outside someone’s house. We checked with the house owner that it was ok to leave Wanda there and off we went. The sights and stories in the museum were pretty harrowing to say the least but to see what the soldiers had to deal with gave us all an appreciation for life and how lucky we are thanks to the sacrifices of others. They even had the medical equipment there and photos of how they reconstructed peoples bodies and faces after they had been blown up or hit by shrapnel, it was disgusting but fascinating at the same time. Then we saw the trench art, hundreds of old shells that had been painstakingly carved and moulded by soldiers in the trenches.
    When we left the museum we wandered the grounds for a while before visiting the local church, which in true french fashion was utterly amazing and beautiful. Then it was back to Wanda to head into the Alps.
    By the time it was evening we still had 160 miles to travel and it would be getting dark within a couple of hours so we had to start operation tortoise.
    We found a spot in some woods, right next to a lake about 10 miles off the motorway, it was a bit of a challenge getting there through the tight little villages but Wanda did it and this is home for the night.
    Tomorrow we head into the Alps.
    Read more

  • Day 5

    Third night free camping

    October 7, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    This morning we left our camp in the woods by the reservoir at Saint-Ciergues to drive to the Alps. It took us the best part of 3 hours travelling the motorways but we eventually reached our first destination, the cascades de tufs. This is an amazing waterfall covered in grass and moss and stands about 50ft tall, we even climbed the steps next to it and saw the pools where the waterfall starts. From there we drove higher into the Alps, stopped to get some last minute food at a the intermarchè and then continued to the Barrage de Belvedère, this is where we will spend the night. The outside temperature had dropped by 5°c within an hour it is going to get cold tonight.Read more

  • Day 6

    Col de aravis

    October 8, 2021 in France ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    We set the alarms for 6:30am this morning. Skipped breakfast and drove 30 miles to our first destination, les Gauges des fuirs. A 50 metre boardwalk 25 meters’ above the canyon floor that was full of rushing water and waterfalls, we got there at 9:30am just as it opened and got the place to ourselves for the first 30 mins which was great for pictures. We were lucky because as we left 2 coaches of school kids turned up.
    From there we walked to Lè Chàteau de Montrottier, this was a privately owned Chateau in it’s hay day and the former owner was a huge antique collector, it was full of original artifacts from Henry 2nd to Napoleon. We even managed to get a private tour around the tower which had a weapons room and another room full of things from all over the world including, china, Japan and Africa.
    From here we drove to the bottom of the mountain pass and climbed the Col Des Aravis, on the climb we saw the the names of the riders sprayed in the road from the 2020 Tour de France. At the summit we stopped to look in the Alpine stores and see the cows, all of which wear cowbells. Then it was down the other side of Du Col and up the Mount Brisbane Mountain pass. We were well above the clouds now and could see through the clouds to the crystal clear lakes below with the alpine landscape as a back drop. From there we descended over the Barrage de Rosaland which was engulfed in cloud and then a steep climb to the summit of villard sur Don where we picked up a hitchhiker who was a professional athlete on the french alpine skiing team. The it was on to the Villard sur Don, the tightest mountain pass yet and luckily we were going down instead of up because the was an 18% gradient and full of switchbacks, but apart from a smell and the squeak from brakes Wanda did well.
    By now it was getting on in the day and we were looking for a place to park up for the night, but luckily our new hitch hiking friend told us about a free airè in his hometown of Beaufort, and that is where we spent the night.
    Read more

  • Day 7

    Col del la Morte

    October 9, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    We had a nice lay in this morning listening to the cows with there cowbells ringing away before leaving Wanda at 9am and walking up into Beaufort for some breakfast from the local patisserie. A Beaufort Cheese and Ham croissant was ordered 3 times and we all enjoyed them, but Beaufort cheese is extremely rich so you probably couldn’t eat a lot of it.
    From Beaufort we travelled south, towards the Le Grandè Mason, a huge reservoir with a damn holding the water back, then we climbed the Saint Alban des Villards stopping to to take some drone shots before descending and then climbing Saint Colombon des Villards with an average gradient of 8% peaking at 18%, but Wanda did great making the climbs and then descending down to le Viaduc du Lillè. From here we chose a camping spot, we didn’t realise it at the time but this would involve 14miles of ascending at another average gradient of 8% it it took us the best part of an hour to get there but finally we arrived 1370 metres up at le Col de La mortè, it looked like it could snow but luckily for this camp we have electric, showers and toilets......... and so far it’s all free.
    Read more

  • Day 8

    The Walled City Of Cremieu

    October 10, 2021 in France ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    After a short lay in this morning and a cup of tea in bed we set off from our high altitude camping spot at le Col de Morte at 9am heading for Grenoble and Fort Bastille. This is where we could have camped last night but thank god we didn’t.
    Heading off the main road up a tight road started us on a gradient of 19%, the road was an utter nightmare with 180° hairpin bends and at the very last bend the gradient got to over 20% and the bend was 190° which was just to much for Wanda and after trying the turn and wheelspinning a couple of times we admitted defeat and we had to make a precarious U turn so then it was back down the hairpin bends while we all held our breath. This was quite possibly the most scared I had been while driving.
    From the we decided to go to another nearby Fort. Fort Eynard and I had 2 sets of co- ordinates but I knew it would be up high so I opted for the walking option after the last fiasco.
    This also turned out to be a nightmare with an 870m climb on a 19% gradient our legs were burning and in the end at 1340ft we gave up and turned around without reaching the fort and that little escapade cost us 2 hours.
    From Fort Eynard we headed towards Lyon stopping at Glendieu Falls which was amazing before arriving at our final destination of the day. The Medieval Walled City of Cremieu.
    Cremieu town centre just isn’t made for motorhomes and after negotiating the tight little streets for about 20 minutes we eventually found a gravel Car Park to stop in, from there we spent 2 hours wandering the town, got some food and had some well needed beers before setting up camp in the car park and bedding down for the night.
    Read more