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Wanda’s First AdventureWanda’s First Adventure
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Wanda’s First Adventure

October - November 2021
This is our first road trip and test of Wanda in all weather conditions Read more
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  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 54

    The end of our Journey

    November 25, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    We didn’t get a great nights sleep at our last camp in Ablain Saint Nazaire. Just for comedy reasons, at 10pm last night a vanlifer pulled up next to us and out of all the spaces he could have slept he chose to sleep on the dump station right next to Wanda. Then at 1am he got up, opened his sliding doors to go to the toilet and then slammed them shut. Then at 5:30am he was back up wrestling inside his van until 6am when he left, parked around the corner and left his van running for another 30 minutes probably to clear his windows and not wake us up. How considerate.
    At 7:20am we left too. Our only real hold up was our tag for the tolls not working on the A20 because bip and go have cancelled our account because our IBAN number starts with GB and we’re no longer in the EU but we did think that might happen so Ellie had her purse on standby and we got the toll ticket and paid on the card exiting the tolls.
    We got to euro tunnel in plenty of time and even managed to get an earlier train and we were first on first off arriving back in the UK at 10:20am and getting straight on the motorway. Our first thought was how dirty the country is with rubbish littered down the sides of every road we went on, the second thought was how crazy the traffic was and how little it flowed. We’ve driven a total of 6085 miles through 3 countries twice and we had no hold ups.
    As soon as we hit the UK TomTom was constantly recalculating to avoid traffic jams and we still stood still for over an hour at the dartford crossing and had to pay for the privilege. Once you’ve been across the water you can see how badly England is doing. This country is greedy by charging you for every little thing, it is over populated with to many cars on the road and the infrastructure isn’t there to cope with it. Even when there’s a chance to do better like another crossing at dartford we won’t, we will always only do the bare minimum needed to cope and not consider the future. It’s sad and disheartening.
    At 1pm we finally reached Ellies mum and dads house in Chelmsford, also known as the big house. This is the end of our journey and it has really been amazing. Wanda has done really well and most of all she works. She housed us, got us to 99% of our destinations and a few extra surprise locations, kept us warm at night and most of all we always felt safe inside her. We think the only upgrade we will need to do is solar power and extra batteries so we will look into that in the near future, but all the other upgrades like the gaslow system, diesel heater, led lighting and cruise control have worked and we have used them constantly.
    She’s not everybody’s cup of tea but for us she works, and we do love her and she got us to places we thought we’d never see. Well done Wanda.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 53

    Last stop - Albein Saint Nazaire

    November 24, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    From the Canadian Memorial site we drove just 6 miles up the road to the town of Albein St Nazaire. This town holds the graves of the french and each grave is double crossed one grave one side and one the other, thousands and thousands of crosses lead to a Necropolis church in the centre which is also beautifully decorated inside with the names of the dead.
    Then just outside the gravesite is the memorial ring, a beautiful ring that looks like it’s floating and it is etched with the names of every person that died in that part of France during WW1 no matter what country they are from, over 650,000 names. It really is an incredible sight.
    From there we spotted a little museum just a little way from the car park and we went to go in but the door was locked. Then a man with a leaf blower came around the corner and asked if we wanted to go in, we said yes and then he got some keys, went through a side door and let us in the front door. It cost us €12 to get in €5 each for the museum and then €1 each for the battlefield. After payment he took great pleasure in telling us that everything in the museum was real and had been found or donated by local farmers that had found stuff in there haylofts because that’s where the soldiers would sleep when they weren’t on the front lines. The museum was amazing with the first part taking you through the trenches and telling a story with dummies and animatronics and the second part of items found in the trenches and in the local areas buildings.
    The best part of the museum was the battlefield, I initially thought it was a mock battlefield but it wasn’t. They were real trenches with lookout posts sandbags and the barbed wire front lines. All preserved. We felt very lucky and privileged to be there.
    This is our last full day in France and it has been a learned day and a very poignant day and it has been a nice end to our travels. We’re only 80 miles from Calais so there will be no mad dash of 200 miles like our usual journeys, we have finished on a calm and packed a lot extra in, today’s war memorials, Paris and Le Mans were all extras not marked out for this trip and each one has been a great experience.
    Our last camp spot is in the village of Ablain St Nazarre just down from the graves of the french and the museum and behind a 15th century chapel, it’s a paid airè but the card machine doesn’t work and I’d only pay if it was secure or we had electric and as we don’t have either I’m not that fussed that the card machine doesn’t work so this is our last free camp spot in France.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 53

    The Canadian War Memorial

    November 24, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Our airè in Arras was great, I managed to have a shower with quite warm water and although I didn’t sleep great that was more down to me rather than any noise.
    At 10am we left Arras and drove 6 miles north staying on the front line of world war 1 and heading for Vimy. Our first destination was the Canadian war memorial and preserved trenches.
    We hit the trenches first and they were amazing.The preserved ones were only a few hundred meters long but the unpreserved ones went on for miles and miles with crater holes from mortars littering the battlefield. Nothing we had read or watched can bring the reality of home, it really is an unbelievable sight.
    From the trenches we walked the few hundred meters down the memorial road to the Canadian memorial sight. It is an amazing sight of towers with angels on the top, soldiers on the bottom and engraved with 64,000 names. It is a beautiful sight and at night it’s lit up and at sunset we drove back to it to see it lit up.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 52

    A visit to Carrière Wellington and Arras

    November 23, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    It was a very cold night. Down to just 1°c but we were toasty in Wanda leaving the heater on all night. What did wake us up was the vanlifer starting there engine at 4am and banging there doors loudly while putting there stuff away ready for there departure at 4:30am. Did you know that all vans have atleast 6 sliding doors and 25 open closing doors? I think the rest are invisible but you can certainly hear them.
    We had no problems getting back to sleep and woke back up at 8:30am. I had already planned a little journey for today so after some coffee we headed a little further up France to the small city of Arras.
    I don’t know that much about WW1 but I’d like to think that I knew enough about key moments but Arras, and the battle of Arras was a complete surprise.
    Our first stop was Carrière Wellington a museum deep underground and a memorial to the builders and soldiers that lived there from 1914-1918.
    During the Middle Ages chalk was dug from underneath Arras for the building if the city which obviously left mines.
    During world war 1 Arras was on the border of the front line and to get the upper hand it was decided to join these mines up making a network of tunnels underneath the Germans and then a surprise attack would launch from behind enemy lines.
    The network of tunnels and mines runs for 12km and housed 24,000 troops. It was an amazing site and superbly presented and we had a great English speaking guide that immersed us in the history of the mines with her passionate explanations. It was a great surprise visit and learnt a lot.
    From there we found our airè just 10 minutes away right in the city centre. We paid our €10 and have access to toilets, showers and electricity it’s a great airè right next to the city canal.
    Our first stop from here was to visit heroes square in the city centre and the cathedral all of which were destroyed to dust in WW1 and have been rebuilt to there exact specifications. At night everything is beautifully lit and it was well worth the visit. Arras seems like a nice city.
    Then it was back to Wanda for some dinner before bed, we had enjoyed today. Sometimes the best days are the unplanned ones.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 51

    A night in Formerie and well needed rest

    November 22, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    We had a lovely nights sleep. It got down to just 2°c outside and 7°c in Wanda but as soon as I woke up at 8:30 I out the diesel heater on and it was up to 20°c in a matter of minutes.
    At 11am we went for a walk around the town and bought some fresh bread and mushroom soup from the little shop and then came back to Wanda and had lunch.
    Then I refilled the water and put the heaters back on low and we just chilled for the afternoon watching Dexter on DVD until dinner time and then Ben called on facetime so we spent 30 minutes talking to him and catching up. Then with the washing up done we went back to Dexter and just as we did, what turned up? A VW transporter Camper...... I quickly jumped up and ran outside, undone the side box and started pulling stuff out onto the floor so it looked like we had just got there and if I was out they wouldn’t park next to us.
    The van pulled in, I gave a wave a luckily they parked the other side of the airè so I put the stuff away and went back inside to another symphony of sliding and banging doors for the next couple of hours until finally they decided to stay in, keep the doors shut and go to sleep.
    Once it was safe that’s what we did to. We’d had a very lazy day but it was needed and tomorrow we’re going to push up a little bit further.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 51

    Paris to Formerie

    November 22, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    We did not have a great nights sleep. We were both completely exhausted, the arsehole vanlifers next to us decided to get up at 5:30am and proceeded to play there symphony of banging doors for 10 minutes before going to bed which obviously woke us up, so at 6am we were both up, bleary eyed and stocking up on coffee.
    We were going to have breakfast but as we were putting the oven on 3 classic mustang cars pulled up and started setting up a boules session, and then more classic mustangs pulled up and there was a fear of getting blocked in so at 10am we left Meudon.
    I had found a quiet little airè in a tiny village called Formerie. All of the reviews were 5 star, it had water, electric and was supposed to be quiet so that was our destination. We had opted for a lazy day as we were both tired from our 14 mile hike around Paris and decided we would hook up, pay for an airè and watch DVDs for the day.
    On route we found an open supermarket which is rare for a Sunday in France so we bought some fresh bread, cakes and non alcoholic beer and then went to get diesel. We found an intermarchè which had a laundrette so we decided we’d waste an hour there and done our final laundry wash of the trip, then we headed into Formerie.
    Our airè is beautiful, it’s small with only 6 places and there’s 2 other motorhomers here but they are both closed up with the blinds down and heaters on. It’s set at the end of dead end road next to a farm so except for the odd tractor there is no traffic noise. We explored the town which is closed on a Sunday and it is a typical French town with a square and the shops surrounding it so tomorrow we will explore that.
    This looks like a good camp, so we hooked up. Closed the blinds and put the heaters on.
    The temperature outside has rapidly been dropping the further we have pushed up and it’s currently only 7°c outside and it’s set to drop to 3°c overnight so we are in for a cold spell but I’m confident that Wanda will keep us warm.
    At 6pm we made dinner, washed up and then abused the hot water and heating by both having a shower and then settled in to watch TV for the night.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 49

    Paris - Again!!

    November 20, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    What a day we had today....... we woke up at 8:20am after a good nights sleep except for the rooster that started at 6am, however I had read about the rooster and knew what it was so I just turned over and went back to sleep.
    We had no hurry today as we were heading into Paris. Ellie bought tickets for the catacombs online and the earliest visit we could get was 5:45pm which was fine with us as that would give us a chance to look around the Christmas markets.
    We took the 100 mile drive to Paris and this is where the day started to go wrong.
    On the drive my best friend phoned me to tell me that his mum had died earlier in the week as I hung up I triggered a speed camera and I’m assuming it was faulty as I was doing 60mph on cruise control and the speed limit is 70mph.
    We had found a parking spot on park4night outside Paris in the town of Meudon and the description said it was a 5 minute walk to the station but in actual fact it was a 30 minute walk and when we got there the station we wanted was closed.
    There were some young french girls making a YouTube video there in English so we asked them where we could get the train and they told us there was another platform around the corner so off we went and while I checked our route on the Paris Metro app, Ellie bought the tickets.
    The train came and as I tracked us on the metro app I realised we were on completely the wrong train because our line wasn’t even showing up and the train was travelling to stations that didn’t exist on our app until we were 3 stops in but then we were on the metro line.
    Alarm bells were already ringing by then and panic was setting in that we were getting further away from Wanda who we had left locked up in the woods by a lake and we wouldn’t be able to find our way back.
    After 30 minutes we pulled into a station in the heart of Paris, exited the train and went to get on the underground but the barriers to leave the platform wouldn’t open. After 3 attempts a security guard came over, asked us where our tickets were and we showed him and he said they were wrong and didn’t look very happy at all. The fact that we couldn’t speak a word of french was just adding insult to injury. Then another guard came over who did speak English and he was frustrated that we couldn’t produce a ticket for the journey we had just taken. It turned out that the line we had taken was run by a different company and we had bought the wrong tickets, which obviously we didn’t realise and after telling them both he did say that he should fine us both €100 euros but as we are obviously idiots he would fine only one of us €50 euros and we paid the fine there and then.
    Not a good start to Paris, but like our last visit this seems to be a city we don’t get on with.
    From there we did get the tube and 2 stops later we were 1/2 mile from the Louvre museum and we started walking. Next to the Louvre there was a Christmas food market which was expensive but we looked away before I checked my watch and realised it was now 4:45pm.
    Then I checked google maps and realised the catacombs were 2 miles away and an hour walk.
    For the life of me I don’t know why we didn’t get on the tube again especially as we had tickets, but we did walk and got there just in time for our ticket time.
    The Catacombs were amazing, miles and miles of tunnels deep underground and an estimated 7 million bodies all stacked up on top of each other. It sounds gruesome but in actually fact, each year has it’s own tombstone and visitors are super quiet and respectful, I’m glad we got to visit as this was also high up on my photography list and last time we came they were closed.
    From there we walked back to the concierge building and by now it was dark and getting cold and we were hoping to spend the rest of the evening wandering the Christmas markets, but on reaching what we thought was the Christmas market actually turned out to be the night run of Paris for cancer. Gutted.
    We turned around and our legs and feet were really aching now. It was 8pm and we had spent 6 hours solid walking. We headed for the Louvre market and on the way I did manage to photograph the Louvre pyramid before finally getting back to the food markets where I got a paella and Ellie got a chicken curry which did fill us up. Then it was back on the tube to reverse course back to the station where we got fined and we actually got there.
    We couldn’t work out what ticket to buy to Meudon so Ellie went to the booth and got us tickets and it turns out they weren’t on the machines anyway so we couldn’t have bought one like that. 40 minutes later we were back at Meudon station and took the 30 minute walk uphill back to Wanda.
    14.5 miles we had walked and it was now 10:15pm, we were both knackered. I honestly felt like crying with relief once we had got back and just as I sat down with a beer who pulled up next to us??
    The vanlifers!!
    We are in a big car park in the woods, we were alone but out of this whole car park these idiots park right on top of us. Open and close doors for 35 minutes and talk right outside our windows until finally at 11:10pm they shut there sliding door and put there diesel heater on because they’ve let all there heat out leaving the door open.
    Vanlifers really are a different breed, the entitled, selfish idiots of the road and this has just reinforced that belief.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 48

    A surprise visit to Le Mans

    November 19, 2021 in France ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    We had another good nights sleep in the car park at Mont St Michael, there were only 6 other motorhomers there and we parked up the other end. As the sun came up and the sky turned pink I was tempted to send the drone back to get more pictures but I didn’t want to tempt fate and left it in the end.
    At 10:30am we left and took a 110mile drive south to the city of Le Mans.
    We arrived at 12:30 and I had already plotted a motorhome airè right in the heart of the city and TomTom took us straight there. On arrival there was a prat walking down the middle of the road in the car park so I slowly passed him and at the end of the airè there was one parking space left so I swung Wanda out to back in and let the walking idiot pass but instead he decided to kick Wanda thinking I was going to cut him off. Then he came around the drivers side and started mouthing off. My body wanted to jump out and deck the guy but my brain said just smile say sorry and leave it, so that’s what I did but the guy was definitely spoiling for a row and wandered off muttering don’t you know this is France in french and waving his arms.
    We stayed in Wanda for 30 minutes and had lunch and it didn’t look like he was feeling brave enough to come back so we locked her up and went into the city.
    It’s nothing like we imagined, old houses made with huge timbers and cobbled streets. There was even graffiti from 1766 on a doorway. It was really beautiful and because we arrived at lunchtime there were very few people so I got lots of photos of the empty streets.
    From there we headed to the cathedral and we were blown away by it’s size and beauty on the inside and outside. As we were walking around taking photos a funeral started and all the bells on all the churches in the city started ringing. It really was something special to witness.
    From there we went to the museum which again was free entry, just like the parking and the cathedral. The museum had a whole section deep in the basement on ancient Egypt and each room had been made to look like tombs and we had the audio guide which told us all about it. It was a great place.
    At 4pm we got back to Wanda and I’d already found a quiet little airè about 15 miles away in the town of Bonnètable so we headed for there and all the while the traffic was building up. It was obviously school closing and being a Friday I would think that some businesses shut early to so I was grateful to get to the airè in one piece with no hiccups except for a wrong turn into a dead end.
    We paid our €10 to gain entry, filled up with water and then hooked up. It is set to be a cold night so we’re glad to have the electric heater on. Then we made beef noodles, I had a shower with a newly filled fresh water and then we watched a pretty pink sunset and a huge full moon rise over the town before settling down for the night.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 47

    A long drive to Mont St Michael

    November 18, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We had another quiet night in Wanda, although I didn’t sleep particularly well because my knee has started hurting again after climbing the hills twice to get to petit minou, and to top it off when I went to get the bed stuff down I got a cramp in my shoulder that has now stated in my neck and I have a constant headache. Being on the road 24/7 is catching up with us, but I’m glad I’m doing this at 47 and 67 like most.
    There’s not a lot to report on today. We took a 170 mile drive from Petit Minou to Mont St Michael stopping a little over halfway in an airè for some lunch and arriving here at 3pm.
    We decided in the end to stay in P8 of the Mont St Michael car park. It’s a dedicated layover for motorhomes we’re relatively near although it’s the furthest car park and it’s safe and quiet.
    At 4pm we took the free shuttle on to the island getting there for 4:30pm and already the shops were shutting but it did give me a good chance to photograph the place with no people. Then we decided to walk the bridge back and go to my old shooting spot to get it at night.
    It wasn’t a particularly good evening for it as there was a lot of moisture in the air, it wasn’t dark enough when I started shooting and I wasn’t very happy with the results but I have shot this before so I’m not complaining.
    I also did my first drone night shots which were a disaster as I didn’t have the image review on so randomly taking pictures at a high iso for 3+ seconds didn’t really work. But lesson learnt.
    All in all with walking back we clocked up 6.5 miles which wasn’t good for my knee, and we got back to Wanda at 7:30pm so just through some hash browns in the oven turned the tv on and called it a night. We were both pretty knackered and I spent the rest of the evening working out where we might go tomorrow.
    Because I had to give my dad an end date we had to book a return ticket which is the 25th November, which I wouldn’t have done if I’d known Ben was leaving us. So now we’ve pushed so far up to the top of France we can’t go any further. Originally I’d planned to go to maisy battery but that’s temporarily closed so instead I’ve decided to head down the country towards Paris and hopefully see the Christmas lights. We’ll see what we find inbetween.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaWanda’s First Adventure
    Day 46

    Le Phare du Petit Minou

    November 17, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We had a great nights sleep again, it was super quiet with just the sound of the waves crashing against the nearby rocks to send us to sleep. At 8am we woke up, and by 9:30am we were in the road heading the 90 miles north to Phare de petit minou. This has been on my photography bucket list as a long exposure shot for a long time, especially as I skipped it last time we were here.
    Unfortunately when we first got there the sun was gleaming through the clouds and the sea was completely white from the glare and try as I might with all the different filters I just didn’t get a shot I was really happy with.
    From there we found a free motorhome airè just 5 miles away in a quiet little village so we parked up, had something to eat and drink and at 4:30pm just before sunset I decided to head back to the lighthouse.
    Lucky for me the sun was just dipping behind the clouds, there were very few people in the end except for the idiot that just stood on top of the rocks staring into nothingness and the light was perfect. Pink skies, long exposure and no people. I will have fun editing that when I get home.
    Then it was back to our little airè and except for the church bells that keep ringing randomly and a Barking dog that we’re hoping will shut up it seems nice.    Read more

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