Internet@Sea, Blogging from the North Sea!
Zagan the motorhome’s buried deep inside the Stena Line ferry we’re sat on, as we ease our way west across the North Sea from the Hook of Holland to Harwich. The sun’s just set, casting reds and oranges upwards against a bank of cloud sitting low on the horizon. I’m sat using a computer with free Internet access, popping and fizzing these bits and bytes up into the ether and across to our server in Texas via a satellite hovering in space. How weird is that? Oh, and it’s free of charge too, woo hoo!
After a solid night’s sleep in the motorhome aire at Gouda, flanked by vans from the UK, Netherlands, Italy and Germany, we headed over to a nearby Lidl and stocked up. My eye for the bargain’s slipped a little recently, and Ju pointed out the deposit on the crate of beers I was lugging into the trolley, dispatching fruit and other unmentionables, was half the price of the beer itself. Since we’re not likely to be in the flat lands any time soon, we’d not be able to get said deposit back, a reverse-lug motion was enacted and the bottles were replaced with cans. A fair few award-winning bottles of vino cuddled up to the manly beers, and well they might at a whole £2.50 a bottle (with any luck we’ll avoid buying a single bottle of UK-priced wine while we’re back).
From there we cruised free motorways across the patchwork fields of the Netherlands, feeling for all the world we were inside the tiny version of the country re-created in the mind-boggling Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. Whole sections of road lifted skywards at canals as barges drifted across the road, big enough to dwarf the car sat incongruously on the front deck. Heltmetless mopeds road the cycle lanes, prompting an involuntary tut from me before I realised where I was: it’s OK to do that here, we’re not back in the UK quite yet. Windmills, old and new, failed to spin around us, all according to the plan we’d imagined into life for today: perfect weather for a North Sea crossing. Thanks to the gods – I can hardly feel I’m on a boat.
Ten minutes from the port I finally came unstuck. The roads since we left Sweden have gradually become more and more frenetic, easing me into the skills needed to remain alive and in motion on the UK’s packed roads. It wasn’t the speed of traffic, or the intense mix of traffic lights and cycles lanes which caught me out though. Nah, a couple of roundabouts had me perplexed. Needing to turn left at the first one I shifted into the left hand lane which had a ‘turn left in this lane’ Arrow painted on it. Then it didn’t. The three lanes had split into eight, and boom, I was in the straight-on set with barriers seperating me from the lanes I needed. Hah! In the end it was of course no problem, we just followed the sat nav to the next roundabout, which seemed to have even more lanes and managed to catch me out again. Safety’s key in my mind, no swerving about allowed, so I gave in and just followed fate into the port via the backroads through a housing estate.
So that’s that folks! We’ve completed a ten month tour, and hit our aim to get to the North Cape. It was another fantastic experience, one in which we learned more about each other than we thought there left to learn after being together over a decade. One in which we saw some beautiful landscapes, ate delicious food, stared at architecture, touched the motorbikes of champions, swam in the Arctic, saw the midnight sun and Northern Lights, caught and cooked fish, got a bit drunk from time to time (ahem), ran all over the continent, scared ourselves silly, blogged like fools and in turn were touched by the kindness and generosity of strangers, both in person and via comments through this blog. It’s been another blast, and we’re heading home ready to gear up for another one. Morocco calls, and Morocco ain’t easy in any sense of the word. It is an opportunity to learn though, a wonderful one, and we’re up for the challenge. We may enjoy a little of France and Spain’s hospitality on the way south though…
Right-o, many thanks to everyone who’s followed this blog over the months and years. Thanks for the information, the advice, the encouragement, the humour and the virtual company in lonely places.
Take it easy, happy travels and we’ll be back soon. Cheers, Jay
Thanks for all the info and something decent to read and laugh about. Have been following you since the start,we are in our sixties and have a self built boxer lwb 2001 vintage. The long term traveling is not for us we only do two months at a time, always abroad😀…cheers Steve and Maggie
Its been a pleasure and an inspiration following you and your exploits around Europe. Something which we are aiming to emulate next year in our Trundlebus. Enjoy the rest and the further adventures, I know we will even though at present they are vicariously
Already looking forward to your next adventure. It inspires us to visit new places and countries and one day soon (7 yearsish!) we will be touring around Europe in our motorhome.
Your blogs are fantastic, blisteringly honest and include so much information for the unsuspecting long-term motor-homer.
It’s been great following you across Europe and up to the North Cape and back – now we want to get there too and see the midnight sun!
In a year or so we hope that our Ruby will be Rambling for longer periods of time and we will get to Norway.
Enjoy your rest.
Ann
Have been reading your blog daily for a couple of years now and are just completing work to our outbuildings to create our own ‘chokey’, sell up and hopefully live on the income of some rental properties like yourselves and follow a similar path. Motorhome is set up and ready to go. Just to say it’s been inspiring reading your stories so far and all being well we’ll be there as soon as our house is sold. Enjoy your few weeks back in the UK. A word of warning: the roads are busier here than ever!
Thank you from here too. Our Vanessa will be on the road in December – not for as long, but still inspired by Dave and Zagan! And thank you for the tips and packing list, which have been checked many times.
I’ve really enjoyed your stories and inspirational travels and I’ll miss reading your blog while you’re stationary. You’ve written about many places on our tour list and we’re squirrelling away the information about best campsites, free aires and beer. I haven’t seen mention of how Charlie travels, if he’s on a harness in Zagan or free range as you drive along? Our mutt will have to take his chances when we collect our first ever motor home in 5 days time. We are just fizzing with excitement!!!!
5 days, woo hoo! Have a fab time! Charlie’s always travelled freely in the van. He can’t get to where we’re sat up front, to avoid any chance of him getting under the pedals, but he’s free to get comfy and access his water bowl. He’s learned to wedge himself in behind his basket so he doesn’t roll about when we’re on winding roads. Cheers, Jay
Welcome back to blighty…get a good rest and I will look forward to your next adventure 😄
Enjoyed your blog throughout, fantastic descriptions of visited places all supported with great photographs. Now time to enjoy some “Kimberley” ale, relax and get prepared for your next adventure. Best Wishes to you all
Thanks for everything. Try not to get too annoyed when you discover what we have done to the UK in your absence. I hope you recharge well and I look forward to your next adventure.
Thanks for everything, we are back in March heading all directions in Europe, your blog has been a great help in our planning.
Sue and Ray
From New Zealand
Thanks both for your (almost) daily reports, I really enjoy reading your blog, and have done so for the past couple of years. We’re going fulltiming ourselves in January, and so hopefully our tyre tracks will cross at some point.
Wow, 10 months. Where did the time go ? As ever, we have loved following your tour and have now started on our own. Your blog is regularly used for reference. Currently sat in an aire near Mont St Michel in sunny France, just over a week into what we envisage will be a 14 month ‘gap year’ and loving it. Enjoy your time back in the UK and looking forward to your return to the road
I look forward to picking up with you in November. Enjoy you time in the chiller.
This time we will not be far behind you. Our big adventure begins in February.
Thanks for the brilliant blog, I hope it’s not long before you’re writing again !
13 days till we get our motorhome, all excited and apprehensive ! We live not to far from you so will be looking out for Zagan at Lidl !
If you spot us, give us a shout guys! Cheers, Jay
Welcome back and we are looking forward to your next trip.
Can’t believe how the time flies. Been following your journeys from the start and another tour ends. Doesn’t seem like 5 minutes ago when Julie was getting her head shaved for charity just before you left on this tour. What an adventure and already looking forward to the next one.
Well we are almost done and ready. Sailing from Ireland to Cherbourg on 22nd November for who knows how long, but I imagine it will be a quick shifty south for some warmth in my bones!
Was that really 10 months? Incredible.
It has inspired us to start on the path to full-timing. As you know, we have Humberto now. We’ve modified him using tips from your blog and done several test runs, including a recent 5 day Off-Grid test of our Solar and Gas installations.
Now it’s just months of “House admin” trying to put ourselves in the correct financial position, and help our kids with their accommodation, before we can hit the road.
It’s been inspirational, Thanks Jay & Jules.
Hopefully you will follow us from time to time at http://www.gohumberto.com
Lee @ Go Humberto!
Welcome home. Still love reading the blog and looking forward to your next tour in 2017. Let us know if you are ever in the Cotswolds, we would love to catch up with a more reasonably priced glass of wine x
Hi both, enjoy your couple of weeks at home, hopefully catch up on your way south through France. I’ve just started my first tour so if you feel like having a giggle at the things we get wrong when we are just beginners take a look at https://notsograndblog.wordpress.com.
For the person asking about the dog harness, I’m travelling with my staffie and she likes to sit on the passenger seat and see what’s going on, so she has a harness which is attached to a seatbelt- I got them from pets st home.
Thank you’s so much for the inspirational blog , I’ve only recently started reading it so have much to catch up with
We hope to follow In Your footsteps (probably the start of 2018 ) , we’ve got to Finnish a farm house renovation first your blog shows there is hope for us yet
Kenny & Tracy
Hi J and J,
Well the end of what has been another wonderful and very inspiring piece of reading for us. it sort of leaves us in a “blog limbo” situation as we have truely enjoyed our weekly “tune-ins” to your site. As always, very honest and factual, covering all aspects of our wonderful world of motorhoming, entraling but extremely easy to read. your photographs do you proud, especially the one of the open aire loo in Gouda! We have just bought a Sony DSCH 400, because it was recommended to us as being of “the simple point and press”variety, and are trying to get to grips with it. As we speak we are in week three of a four month trip around Spain and Portugal and currently on a small Dutch-run site between Elvas and Evora to allow the ever mounting collection of dhobying to be completed, and good “huck out” of all the minute appatures of Ned2 to be releived of particals of…..well you know and for the cats to have a good run around. On the budget front we are in at a smidgin over thirty-five euros per day, so just about on target. May have said this before ut we wished we had done this years ago. We wish you all a good and easy “lay over” before you embark on your next period of travel.
Cheers guy, nice budgeting! Have a cracking time – we’re off again in 6 days and are heading your way, so may well bump into you somewhere on the (hopefully) sunny Iberian Peninsular! Cheers, Jay