And so our next adventure finally begins. All the little niggling jobs finished. Just spending a few days visiting family before the off.
Eurotunnel is booked for Monday afternoon. We will go a short distance in France before parking up for the night.
There is a potential problem with Zeus. It appears that when returning from a non-Schengen country to a Schengen country a titre test may be required. He doesn’t have one currently so it might restrict where we can go to do the Schengen shuffle.
To start with it is our intention to move in a generally southerly direction, towards Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece.
Because we will be away for approximately 4 months this time we will have to spend some time in non-Schengen countries so we don’t fall foul of the 90/180 rule, hence taking in Romania and Bulgaria.
We pass through France and Belgium, finishing the first week at Wiltz in Luxembourg.
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The Detail:
Distance Covered: 375miles
Financial: Fuel £113; Site Fees/Parking £16; Groceries £64; Alcohol £13; Total £206
Stopovers: Coudekerque-villages (France); Waggelwater (Bruges, Belgium); Bois dHavre (Belgium); Bouillon (Belgium); Herbeumont (Belgium); Wiltz (luxembourg) [2 nights]
Departure Day
Final preparations for leaving are done. The Eurotunnel is booked for 16.19. Planning to leave around 13.30 as it’s an hour’s drive and we have to make a fuel stop on-route.
Stopped at shell garage on the A249 to refuel. According to the internet price of fuel is similar in France at the moment. £1.689 per litre.
By 14.15 we are stuck in traffic on M20 due to an accident on the opposite carriageway. Closed our side to allow the air ambulance to land. Lunch in the Van while we waited for the traffic to start moving again.
One cheeky lady asked to use our toilet – of course we said yes then waited for more knocking on the door (fortunately just us needing to use)
16.00 and we finally started moving again. However, we have missed the 16.19 shuttle we were booked on. Fortunately we were able to catch the next one at 17.19.
Arrived in France at 18.55 CET. Headed towards stopover just outside Dunkirk, at Coudekerque-Villages.
Arrived at 20.00 CET, after initialling missing the turning in the dark and having to go round a roundabout, and shortly after there was a hail storm. Shades of the last trip – on a Welsh mountain side!
Bruges
Bit of a restless night. Not sure why. No disturbance during the night. Probably just excitement at finally getting away.
Very quiet location. Woke early the next morning and had a nice walk around the island before heading out.
Slow drive across France into Belgium, avoiding the motorways. Decided to head towards Bruges. We parked on the outskirts at a place called Waggelwater, right next to the canal. About 2km from the city centre.
Walked around Bruges for a few hours before returning to the motorhome. What a beautiful city. You can read more about Bruges in a separate post here.
Woke to a frosty morning with blue skies. A pleasant walk with Zeus around the lake behind where we were parked before departure.
Ardooie and Bois d'Havre
Stopped at Ardooie, Kasteelstraat for lunch. This was a nature reserve with paved walks, a play area, and a cafe.
Obviously a popular place for walking and dog walkers. Walked Zeus for a while before hitting the road again.
Our overnight stopover was at Bois d’Havre. A forest in Northern Belgium.
We arrived quite late so just parked up and sorted supper.
Had a walk around the following morning, but to be honest it’s just a bit of woodland, without much of any real interest.
Fondry des Chiens, Nismes
Heading further south, we stopped for lunch at Fondry des Chiens, just outside Nismes.
A forested hilly area, and the start of a Nordic walking route. Not sure if that explains the snow on the ground or not?
Almost got stuck trying to turn the motorhome around in the parking area.
Bouillon
Continuing South, briefly crossing into France and back into Belgium, we finished up at Bouillon.
Bouillon is a lovely little town, dominated by the château on the top of the hill. You can read more about Bouillon here.
Obviously, it’s a popular tourist destination during the warmer weather but it was very quiet while we were there.
The river was running very high, so parked on higher ground in the car parking area just in case.
Wiltz
Had trouble sleeping because the heating kept clicking on and off. Eventually got up and checked the hookup. It was full of condensation and the front cover was loose. I moved it to another one and it seemed to be better so eventually returned to bed and drifted off. Nevertheless, I still woke early but by then the heating appeared to be functioning normally.
Then headed for Wiltz in Luxembourg, but within half an hour of setting off the engine management light came on. Pulled over and tried switching off and on again, but didn’t clear it.
As everything seemed to be working normally we decided to continue. Almost at our destination and the engine started to miss occasionally. Very similar to what happened in Spain last year.
As it was Saturday we couldn’t find a garage open, so nothing for it but to hunker down until Monday.
Continued on to Wiltz and parked up. Took a walk around the town. Really cold. Dropping to -3 tonight, with a real feel of -10.
Slept in this morning. Nothing to do with the Belgian beer and wine I had last night.
Took Zeus for a walk in the morning and met a local gent letting his whippet run loose in the basketball court. Zeus was very interested of course, so the chap suggested I let him in to say hello. He wasn’t a bad boy, but he was desperate to play chase.
The other dog wasn’t sure about him. Zeus was playing a bit rough, so I ended up taking him out.
When I got back to the motorhome I popped the bonnet and removed the engine cover. The repair to the fuel injector cap on No.2 injector done in Spain last year was very loose. Fiddled with it a bit, but didn’t really do much. Probably needs a new lead.
While I was out there the gent with the whippet walked past, so I asked him which garage he would recommend, which he did.
A short while later there was a toot of a horn outside. The chap had returned with his car and insisted on showing me where the garage was. He also showed me another one in case the first couldn’t fit us in.
He then proceeded to give me a short tour of the town, pointing out the brewery, a good dog walking area, and an alternative place to park the motorhome. A really lovely gent, who went above and beyond.
Back at the van, I tried starting up the engine. Guess what – no engine management light and running perfectly. Don’t know what I did, but at least it confirms what the problem is. Decided to leave well alone, and if it happens again we’ll get it sorted properly. If it lasts until we get back to the UK then we can get Dave to sort it for us.
After lunch took Zeus out for a long walk round the forest. Mostly off lead. He loved it and was a very good boy 🥰
As before, There is so much more we saw and did that I haven’t included here – you’ll just have to go see it for yourself!
I haven’t gone into great detail about anything in particular in this post, so if you would like me to expand on anything please leave a comment and I will endeavor to write another separate post on the topic.
Happy Motorhoming.
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