Calatanazor to San Pablo de los Montes – Central Spain By 3.30pm this afternoon and driving past a ‘Camping’ sign. A hasty screech to a halt and back up to the entrance. But it looks abandoned. Not just from last summer, but for several years. What the hell, we are…
Our last two nights have been in Ibis hotels. The first a ‘shoe box’ in Niort, but totally adequate. Last night’s Bordeaux room was more spacious. Driving has mainly been on motorways in atrocious weather. TomTom has us avoiding toll booths. It doesn’t stop us enjoying the roads but avoiding…
Following on from the last blog entry ;- Late in the afternoon Thursday we got a message, Poki’s ready to collect. It’s been a roller coaster ride of emotions trying to source information and new parts for her. John, the Gumtree owner, suggested we should take a spare potentiometer (electronic…
With 6 days till departure, what could go wrong? After arriving back to the UK it’s full steam ahead to get ready for a 15th December departure. We received Poki back from Gumtree with the Maxtrax (sand/mud recovery planks) nicely fitted to the roof-rack, and a solid 6mm aluminium steering…
On the happy side, we are back home in Rotorua. But only just. A 4am rising in the UK for the taxi ride to Heathrow and a 10.15am flight. We nearly never made the flight! When checking in for our Vancouver destination, the clerk seemed to be taking an inordinate…
Preparations for Africa are proceeding at pace. The biggest step forward in preparations, has been the reconstruction of Poki. Over the month of August, Gumtree 4X4 of Ditching, West Sussex, have installed a second, stainless steel water tank, in the space behind the nearside rear wheel. It will be fed…
We’re on a DFDS Ferry from Dieppe to Newhaven. It’s 3.05am French time and sleep eludes me. Mind you the lights are on and there are people chatting, some snoring. Jen though, is fast asleep. The drive back to France from Slovenia What an interesting few days we have had.…
We’re sitting in our camp chairs in the Municipal camp at Straubing in Germany. It’s 34deg and glorious amongst the trees and few other campers. This camp is much more expensive than French camps we experienced. But maybe not a fair comparison, as we are now back in Poki. A…
Ten hours in an airport terminal is not a great way to start your travels. The alternative was a fight from Rotorua that would have allowed us an hour to switch terminals in Auckland, assuming all domestic flights were on time. Air NZ flight NZ8 to San Francisco was full…
In the absence of overland travel I thought a description of life in New Zealand under Covid conditions might be of interest to our international visitors? We are a country geographically slightly larger than the United Kingdom, with a population of 5m people. Approximately 16% are the indigenous Maori, of…