Experience comes from what we have done. Wisdom comes from what we have done badly together........ We are NOW more than a REPAIR/ SHOP/ MAINTENANCE & SERVICE MANUALS WEBSITE Have a look around Lots Free Help & Lots of Free downloads(sum at a small cost) More In all our pages:::1000s sale ITEMS Repair Manuals show you how to service your vehicle . Fix it right the first time with the factory repair manual and save money by doing lots of the job yourself In the credit crunch . Avoid costly mistakes by knowing the right repair procedures. Factory experts prepare these manuals for their dealership service departments, so they're the most complete source of repair techniques. Repairs manuals are also called shop manuals, maintenance manuals, service manuals, or technical information manuals. We will stock the most complete inventory of repair manuals for domestic and Import vehicles from all over the world.
ADDRESS If, like us, you kept your house for its capital gain and the income that tenants provide, you can use its address and pay Royal Mail to divert letters to a friend or agency. This service costs £32 per year, per surname and is limited to 2 years. Ring 08457 740740 or visit: http://www.royalmail.com/.Many officials will require an address in the UK - for travel, health and motorhome insurance, driving licence, vehicle registration, pension, NI and NHS registration, credit and debit cards, bank statements, mobile telephone, income tax, club membership, etc. internet banking and on-line purchasing and bookings. Without a house, a close friend or relative may let you use their address, or even open your letters, deal with urgent matters and send you the minimum amount of paper. See POSTE RESTANTE. Urgent papers can be scanned into an email attachment. Without a friend, you can use the address of an agency that collects the mail and posts it on for a fee. The Royal Mail offers a PO Box service for £53 per person per year. However, the address of an agency or PO Box might not satisfy the needs of some official.INSURANCE, MOTORHOME and visit www.insurance-caravan-motorhome-help.co.uk/ on this website for the particular needs of motorhome insurance companies. They don't like the idea of you living permanently in the van and even if they agree that you can, they usually need to base the premium on the post code where the vehicle is normally kept!.
BOOKS carry a small library of books and magazines for reference, for hobbies and for pleasure.Visit: BOOKS on this website for a mail-order service
BORDER CROSSINGS & VISAS The visa for Turkey is bought at the border for about £10 each (cash, in Euros or Sterling) and the motorhome is entered in your passport so you can't leave without it. All countries, even those of the EU, put a limit of between 30 days and 6 months on the length of your stay, although this is difficult to enforce in these days of unstamped passports. Outside the UK, your passport also acts as your identity card and should be carried at all times and not left with a campsite receptionist. Don't forget to keep a copy of the photograph page in a safe place in case you lose your passport Visit BOOKS on this website for a mail-order service
CAMPING, FREE Our Guides to Campsites in Europe leads to many websites which altogether list tens of thousands of camping places throughout every country in Europe, including guides to free camping places. It is quite possible to find places to stay other than campsites. In France and Germany, there are well-signposted places in towns for overnight motorhome parking, often with water and toilets, free or for a small fee. Reisemobil, the German motorhomers' magazine, lists over 2,400 Stellplätze (Standing Places) in its annual guide: Bordatlas (about £10 from newsagents that sell Reisemobil and online at www.bordatlas.de). Every entry is illustrated and there are excellent maps, which cut through the language barrier. The other German motorhome magazine, Promobil, offers a similar publication. ADAC, the German motorists' club (www.adac.de), lists 1,200 Schlafgelegenheiten (Sleeping Opportunities) in a new book or CD: ADAC Stellplatzführer Deutschland, on sale in all good German bookshops.For France, the excellent annual Guide Officiel des Étapes Touristiques Camping-Cars lists 4,500 Aires de Services in France, with a separate map. It also lists the farms and vineyards taking part in the 'France Passion' scheme, French Fiat and Electrolux dealers and a few Aires in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. It is published by Camping Car Magazine and costs about £5 from good newsagents in France (Maisons de la Presse), though it can be hard to find out of season. The UK has the most restrictive legislation against 'free-camping' of any European country and is keen to enforce it, fuelled by mild paranoia about gypsies and 'new age travellers'. Even so, all that might happen is that you are asked to move on, perhaps the following morning.Some travellers 'free-camp' all the time; some never do. It's all in the mind (or in the wallet). On sites, you meet other travellers, the locals on holiday and the campsite staff. Free-camping, you meet the rest of the world! We mix the two ways of camping, finding a campsite to settle while we explore a locality, perhaps with a reduced fee for a longer stay. On the road, on a journey, we stay overnight where we can.
camping-site For links to many websites which give full details of many thousands of campsites, all over Europe (which includes the UK!), click: Books for Campsites. The websites are from clubs and individuals in Holland, Germany, France, Italy and Austria. They are free and do not require membership of a club, registration, passwords, etc. Often there are photographs, Google-type maps, GPS co-ordinates, opening dates and links to the campsite's own website. The article also contains a criticism of the UK Caravan Club's weak attempt to provide information on campsites in mainland Europe. GPS, SatNav, Google Maps and the Internet provide another way of locating and giving information on campsites. See,MAPSon this website for a mail-order service In the UK, membership of the Caravan Club (www.caravanclub.co.uk) and/or the Camping and Caravanning Club (www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk) brings details of their own sites and thousands of small, usually rural, Certificated Locations ('CLs'). The Caravan Club also publishes a Continental Sites Guide (now absurdly renamed: 'Caravan Europe', forgetting that motorhomers are also members of the club. A Camping Card International (CCI - visit: www.campingcardinternational.com), formerly the Camping Carnet, costs about £5 per annum from organisations like the Caravan Club. It saves leaving a deposit or passport as security when checking into campsites, provides some third party insurance on site and sometimes allows a 10% discount. Somehow, ours never seems to expire! In Scandinavia, similar benefits come with the 'Camping Card Scandinavia' which can be bought for £4 at most campsites, valid for one year in all 4 countries. The ACSI camping card (valid for a calendar year) and book with a full description of the 1601 campsites in 18 countries in the scheme (3 in the UK!) and their location, cost 12.50 euros in 2009. Later in the season, they may be cheaper. The campsites charge either 11, 13 or 15 euros per night, including electricity, off-season. Being published by the Dutch, the information is in good English and very thorough! Visit: www.campingcard.com for more details.
CLEANING It's a long list of all our cleaning materials: washing-up liquid, bleach, liquid Ajax, 'Puriclean' for the water tank, toilet fluid, spray polish, soap, laundry tablets, shoe cleaning kit, car-, hair- and carpet -shampoos, wax, silicone spray, WD40, awning cleaner, oven cleaner, black spot remover, dusters, chamois leathers, sponges, brushes, buckets, bowls.
ELECTRICITY : BATTERIES In addition to the 12-volt battery (or two)needed to start the engine, long-term travel demands one or more 'leisure' batteries in the living quarters for lighting, the water pump, TV, inverter, fans, gas heating and even to flush the toilet. Since a battery holds very little energy (less than 1 kilowatt-hour) it has to be used efficiently and recharged regularly. We have 2 'leisure' batteries, each 90 amp-hours, for living, connected in parallel and recharged from the alternator in the engine (not very often), from a battery charger (when there's a mains hook-up), from the generator or from roof-top solar panels (arrays of photo-voltaic cells). To avoid the build-up of explosive gases, they are all vented to the outside of the motorhome. We avoid running the batteries down ('deep-cycling'), keep them topped up with distilled water and, in return, they typically give us over 3 years of continuous use.
ELECTRICITY :GENERATOR Before buying one, think about its potential use versus its cost, noise, weight, size and the energy required to carry it on your long journey.
ELECTRICITY INVERTER That excellent invention, the inverter, plugs into a 12-volt socket and runs mains accessories at 230 volts and 50 Hz. When there's no mains hook-up, our 3000-watt inverter, fitted by Me and bought from RING, can run a soldering iron, electric drill, food-mixer, small-battery charger, electric blanket, video, laptop computer and printer, etc. Great! Wiring the inverter directly to the house batteries saves losses on the high current that might be drawn (100W = 10 amps or more). Expensive inverters generate a purer sine wave; cheaper ones are more like a square wave or a saw tooth.
ELECTRICITY MAINS: The universal hook-up socket in Europe (including Scandinavia but excepting France and the UK) takes the German 2-round-pin plug with 2 side contacts for the earth. The French sockets also require 2 round pins but the earth contact is also a round pin pointing the other way (ie the plug has two male connections and one female). You will, of course, also find that the proper 16-Amp 3-round-pin CEE17 plug is needed where modern outdoor sockets are provided. So an adapter cable is needed. Rarely have we found an electricity meter in use on a pitch, Usually, a small extra fixed sum (2 or 3 euros per day) is charged for electricity, with a cut-out limiting the current. Greece is very free with its current, sometimes with no apparent limit. Other countries are more parsimonious - Italy and Spain can limit you to as little as 3 amps, which just runs lights and fridge. On our present site, the winter rate of 8 euros a night covers everything – copious hot water, large pitch, hot showers, key to own toilet, free use of washing machines and unlimited electricity. No reduction if you don't use the electricity. use a digital multi-meter to ensure that there is a good earth on the supply and that the live and neutral connections are the right way round Our basic mains lead is 25 metres long with spare leads of 25 and 10 metres. There have been times when we have had to use all 3 leads you may find that a voltage exists between your chassis and the ground – 40 to 60 volts, perhaps. This is because of a poor earth connection on the campsite supply. You may feel a tingle if you touch outside metal on the motorhome when you are earthed – eg in bare feet or on wet ground - but it is not dangerous. Do not earth your chassis, otherwise a major current from the rest of the campsite may go to earth via your vehicle! Avoid two other potential dangers: a connecting plug lying in wet grass, and a tightly coiled lead overheating when in high-current use In several countries we found the voltage too low to run our microwave oven – it would light up and go round without actually heating the contents. Campsites are no longer supposed to sell electricity separately at a fixed price: an EU directive proposed that they install meters or make a fixed charge per pitch, including all services. The word has reached the Caravan Club.Campground practices vary a lot. The best give you a full 16-amp (= 3.5 kW) connection with external and accessible cut-outs that you can reset yourself. Some limit the supply by having cut-outs at 5 or 10 amps; some have fuses hidden away in one of their cupboards; some say the supply is limited to 3 amps ('battery and lights') when it isn't. In Germany once, the unsympathetic Campingplatzfűhrer had to be knocked up every time we blew his too-sensitive fuse! One thing is for sure – you will be overcharged for what you use and they will make a nice profit. Even with a meter.
ELECTRICITY SOLAR PANELS roof-top solar-panels,the electricity would still cost 32p per kilowatt-hour! What you pay for is the convenience of being able to camp for longer periods without a hook-up or having to run the engine. In effect, they slow the rate at which the house batteries discharge!
ENTERTAINMENT, AUDIO & VIDEO Have a radio/CD player in the cab that has extension speakers each side of the bed, Our laptop computer plays DVDs, audio CDs, slide shows and stores its own musical compilations.TV which we fitted to a wall overlooking the bed at the rear of the motorhome. This multi-function modern miracle is an analogue and digital TV with stereo sound and Teletext, a DVD player, a CD player, a PC monitor, an FM radio, a reader of cards and it has a USB connection. All remotely controlled .DVDs, often given away free by newspapers and magazines, are replacing books as the motorhomer's travelling companions. Easily stored, easily swapped, easily watched. The ubiquitous MP3 player plays music wherever you go. 'Talking books' can be collected in the UK and the pages turned down the road, on tape or CD.
FERRIES The ferryboat is much more than an old-fashioned alternative to the Tunnel. Ferries have taken us to Europe's furthest north (Nordkapp in Norway) and to its furthest south (the island of Gavdos off the coast of Crete). Check that the ferry's ramp doesn't catch the motorhome's bottom.Most UK ferry companies now operate 'fluid pricing', so it's best to book as far ahead as possible. We find booking on the internet, directly with the ferry company, usually gives the best deal. Visit visit FERRIES on this website for the particular needs of your motorhome
FOOD, BUYING IT, COOKING IT: Eating is an unavoidable expense that can be reduced by buying fresh, unprocessed food to cook yourself. We had this in mind when we bought a large motorhome with a 4-burner hob, gas oven and grill, as well as a microwave oven and a large fridge/freezer .We buy in bulk where food is cheap – weekly farmers' markets and roadside stalls for fruit and vegetables and special offers in supermarkets for packets and tins. When changing countries, you need to know if prices will increase or decrease: if food will be plentiful or scarce. For very different reasons, stock up before entering Norway and Bulgaria! But see WEIGHT (the motorhome's, not yours!). general, we are equipped to cook with either gas or electricity. We use the microwave for most of our cooking on campsites with unmetered electricity. It produces bread, cakes,Without a microwave, we might have bought a low-power electric hotplate or a slow-cooker. When using gas, a pressure cooker saves time and fuel, and de-pressurising outside helps to reduce condensation
FUEL With soaring fuel costs, it does pay to think about where to buy – which filling station and even which country! In general, diesel was cheaper than petrol throughout Europe,We avoid filling on motorways and compare prices elsewhere. In many countries (especially France) fuel is considerably cheaper at the big supermarkets, though access to the pumps can be difficult for larger motorhomes. In Italy, choose a self-service pump to save a few cents per litre! Before crossing a border or boarding a ferry, consider whether to fill up or wait. In general, fuel in Eastern Europe costs less than Western Europe
GPS RECEIVERS A map of Western Europe is built in and a 32 MB card holds more maps, selected from a CD-based contoured map of the world. Waypoints can be set and routes planned, entered and followed. The GPS gives: distance between any 2 points; altitude; current, average and maximum speed; distance covered; heading; current latitude and longitude; time and date; bearing of the sun, moon and current waypoint; sunrise, sunset and moon phases and much else. A track is left on the map with profiles of the track's altitude and time. CD-based GPS systems (known as Sat-Nav) can be fitted permanently in the cab. They give detailed street maps and routes for a small range of well-developed countries in Western Europe, with voice instructions on how to reach a desired destination. Product Features Use the route planner to create multiple stops or let AutoRoute optimise the route to get you there even faster Change your preferred road types, petrol costs, driving speeds, and frequency of stops MAPS on this website for a mail-order service
HEALTH, DOCTOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRAVEL KIT EUROPEAN HEALTH INSURANCE CARD Within the UK, you can in principle get treatment from any doctor or hospital by showing your NHS Medical Card or quoting your NHS Number. If you go abroad for more than 3 months, you are supposed to return the NHS Card to your local Health Authority. If you do this, make a note of your NHS number so that you can get medical treatment or re-register with a doctor when you return to the UK .In addition to the usual bandages, plasters, medicines, pills and potions, we carry a few hypodermic syringes, needles, silk for stitching up wounds, dressings and protective gloves. Since 1 January 2006, the EHIC has replaced Form E111. You get the EHIC by completing and posting a form obtainable from any post office. You need to know your NI or NHS number. The small plastic card (valid for 5 years) is posted to your home address within 3 weeks. For a faster service, you can also complete a form on the website: www.dh.gov.uk/travellers (card within 7 days) With the EHIC comes an excellent booklet 'Health Advice for Travellers' published by the Department of Health. It lists all the countries in Europe where the EHIC will get you free or reduced-cost medical and dental treatment which becomes necessary while you are travelling abroad, and other countries where some free or reduced-cost health care is possible. In practice, for minor treatment, the doctor or hospital may want neither payment nor the EHIC paperwork. If you have to pay for medical treatment, the booklet explains how to claim the money back, locally or from the NHS on return to the UK, depending on the country. 'Health Advice for Travellers' also gives excellent guidance on health risks, precautions and safety for travellers as well as a comprehensive list of possible diseases and their prevention, including inoculations. Health advice is available from NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or visit the comprehensive www.nhs.uk.
HEALTH, INOCULATION We maintain a full programme of inoculations including polio, tetanus, typhoid, hepatitis A, meningitis and rabies .All but rabies were free. Walkers should take advice about the tick-borne encephalitis injection (we went without, it cost too much). Again, the EHIC booklet gives good advice on all these things. Visit: www.travelhealth.co.uk and www.masta.org. Tick borne encephalitis (TBE) mainly occurs in central and eastern Europe - Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Russia and Ukraine. Generally, the risk to the average traveller to affected countries is small. Immunisation is recommended for people who intend to walk, camp or work in heavily forested regions of affected countries between April and October when the ticks are most active. In particular, if you stay in areas where there is heavy undergrowth. It is also recommended for people who handle material that may be infected by the virus (for example laboratory workers). Rarely, you may be at risk if you eat or drink unpasteurised dairy products from infected cows, goats or sheep.A bite from an infected tick can result in inflammation of the brain (encephalitis). The immunisation is not supplied by the NHS and the cost can be quite high. Given all that, we have not been immunised but we do take precautions walking in forested areas or through undergrowth, to minimise the possibility of picking up a tick - eg covering our arms and legs. There are various ideas on how to best remove a tick - pull, turn or burn. Remember that it has to be an infected tick (ie it has fed on an infected animal) and that it has to disgorge into your bloodstream. Correctly removing the tick minimises the risk of infectious material being injected into your bloodstream.Overall, it's a small risk and there are greater risks
HEATING There are many ways of warming the small space inside a motorhome. We have an energy-guzzling 10-kilowatt gas-fired blown-air heating system for instant warm-up, although a small catalytic gas heater by the door is quite adequate for a cool evening (with good ventilation and the carbon monoxide detector switched ON!).We have a 2-kilowatt electric oil filled heater ready for a user-friendly mains supply and, with a permanent bed, an electric blanket is left in place throughout the winter. Hot water bottles can provide back-up! Many European motorhomes are fitted with Carver or Truma gas-powered convection, blown-air or radiator heating; some systems can also run on mains electricity or take heat from the engine.Motorhome help on this website for a mail-order service Hot water, one of life's essential luxuries, is not always free in the campsites of Continental Europe, so it is a good idea to have both gas and electric water heaters to make maximum use of the available energy supply. Diesel-powered systems are also available and the engine cooling system can make sure there is hot water on arrival!Hot water for smaller jobs comes from a gas-fired whistling kettle . Budget travellers hang a black plastic bag of water on a sunlit tree.
INCOME TAX Any income arising in the UK (pensions, house rent, interest on UK investments, etc) will be taxable in the UK. If you stay 'resident' in the UK, you complete the annual tax return in the normal way and are taxed through your income, as are all other UK citizens. If you are 'non-resident' and therefore presumably resident in another country, then some changes may occur but not to your benefit. For example, any house rent you earn would then be taxed at source (deducted by your agent and not paid to you) rather than later through your income tax.If you have a substantial income and/or capital, no doubt you will also employ an accountant to advise you on the best place(s) to keep your money and whether or not to remain 'resident' in the UK.The Inland Revenue now allow you to make your returns and calculate your own tax code on the internet, after registering with them at a UK address. Visit: www.hmrc.gov.uk
INSECT CONTROL The main thing is to keep insects out, with a screen on the door as well as on all the windows and roof vents.
INSULATION Get an outer screen for the cab windows, thermal window curtains and also fitted with internal screens for both the cab and overcab windows, to add when it's very hot or very cold. thick carpet and room dividers or curtains will help.We also use the internal screens for privacy when we free-camp, being easily removed from the inside for a quick drive-away However, go south with the birds remains the best way for long-term travellers to keep warm!
Breakdown Our insurance policy has been extended to give AA Breakdown Assistance in all the countries covered by the policy, including repatriation to the UK if local repair is not possible.Visit: www.insurance-caravan-motorhome-help.co.ukWe have used the service once in the UK . We have yet to use the AA outside the the UK.
INSURANCE, MOTORHOME Insurance agents advertise in the MMM, but check carefully that their policies are suited to your motorhome and your travels. For example, many restrict the length of your time outside the UK and their 'Green Card' may provide only the very minimum of insurance cover. Friends were halted in Istanbul, unable to cross the Bosphorus, when they discovered they were covered only for European Turkey! Some insurance companies have limits on the size or age of the motorhome, others exclude American vehicles. Click: www.insurance-caravan-motorhome-help.co.uk for further general information on motorhome insurance,and lots more, a table of UK-based motorhome insurance agents and details of each of these agents and their policies.
INSURANCE, TRAVEL & HEALTH: Most companies put a limit on the length of the stay abroad or on the number of trips you make. Some even ban older people! It's cheaper to look at
www.insurance-caravan-motorhome-help.co.uk, rather than by phone or in person at one of their offices. You can also renew or extend by credit card on the internet (or by phone). The website will give you an instant quote and enables you to print the policy and the conditions. cover includes medical expenses overseas in case of illness or injury (including emergency dental treatment), air ambulance return to the UK if necessary and, if all else fails, compensation for death, an overseas funeral or shipping your body home. They may also pay the cost of your return to the UK for the serious illness or funeral of a close relative. We do rely on the EHIC (see HEALTH: EHIC) when in Europe, taking out travel and health insurance in European countries not covered by EHIC (eg Turkey or Romania) or when travelling outside Europe.
INTERNET & EMAIL Our laptop has enabled us to read and write emails off-line, Run this website process and store digital images, write articles and diaries, listen to music, watch DVDs, use spreadsheets, make cards (visiting, greetings and Mother's Day) and analyse data from the GPS. Until recently, we had to use internet cafés or libraries to access emails and the World Wide Web. We carried data back, a 1tb USB memory data. Finding the café or bar with a good price and usable equipment was also an interesting way to get to know a town and its people! Visit: www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk. Despite its name, it also has a very good coverage of internet access whilst on the move, using the mobile phone network in different ways, with links and the shared experience of travellers. A Sony(x2) laptops also has a wireless facility, which was very useful. Slowly, these WiFi hotspots are spreading across the face of Europe (England has thousands; Greece has several).
LANGUAGES English is rapidly becoming the language of Europe and the world; it is already the language of tourism in many countries: Hello, OK, Parking, Camping, Stop, WC, No Problem, Bye Bye. If the shopkeeper doesn't speak English, talk to their 12-year-old! For a second language, learn German: the first language of 100 million Europeans and useful in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey. School French has limited uses, even in France! We are fluent in English, German and French, which means we can read many other languages but using a phrase book to ask a question in (say) Swedish is no guarantee that you will understand the answer!
LAUNDRY: Most campsites have deep laundry sinks, sometimes with hot water but rarely with a plug.We have now come to terms with the idea that automatic washing machines are a great invention – and they turn up often enough on campsites, costing from nothing to 5 Euros! Outside the UK, launderettes are uncommon and dry-cleaning is always expensive.We carry a universal sink plug, plastic pegs and bowls, a long strong washing line, a folding clothes propwhich is useful for hanging small items to drip-dry in the shower when it's wet outside. Tumble driers are not needed (and rarely found) in the warmer countries of Europe – do your laundry on a fine day and peg it out. Campsites in ski-ing areas and in Scandinavia often have a free drying room . In Australia and New Zealand, outdoor clothes lines are always provided on their well-equipped campgrounds. Only in the UK and the USA have we found a ban on hanging out washing, but we can accommodate several lines under our own awning.There are travel irons on the market, we carrying an ironing board form ikea.
LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas - butane, propane or a mixture of the 2 - is used for heating, cooking and refrigeration in the motorhome. The gas is stored as a liquid under pressure - up to 170 psi (12 atmospheres) on a hot day - and needs a portable bottle (refillable or exchangeable for a full one) or a tank fixed to the chassis (refillable at a garage selling LPG - 'GPL' in France, of course - or Autogas). Tank and bottle each require an appropriate regulator to ensure that the gas flows at a constant low pressure.Butane and propane have about the same density and energy and burn at around the same temperature, but propane has a lower boiling point (-40°C compared with -1°C for butane) and can be used when it's freezing outside. Our tank fills with 60 litres of LPG, which is widely and cheaply available now in just about every European country, including the UK, but not including Scandinavia and Greece. Visit:
www.calorgas.co.uk. There are 3 types of connector for LPG refills at petrol/gas stations. Most common is the claw; the UK uses a bayonet type and there is a screw fitting. Within a given country, the tendency is for everyone to use the same connector. Adapters can be purchased, one fitting into another, and we have all 3. Many petrol/gas stations have adapters for brief loan. Since LPG refills can be hard to find in some countries (eg Greece, Morocco, Scandinavia), we added a T-piece connector ('Extend-A-Stay') to fit a grey 5 kg German propane bottle, which is the easiest to carry, refill or exchange throughout Europe (if you don't know where, ask a German). Calor bottle fittings are unique to the UK, and Camping Gaz, though widely available (claiming 130,000 outlets in 100 countries), is expensive in its small bottles. Gaslow (visit outdooor bits on this website for a mail-order service supply purpose made refillable LPG cylinders and all the required fittings.
MAPS & GUIDES Large-scale maps can often be bought locally - if there is a tourist office, check out what is going free. On a smaller scale, an atlas covering the whole country is always better value than buying several individual maps We have a love/hate relationship with the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet series (the 'Rough Planets'), but we do use them a lot. They give good local information, town maps and some details of camping places. Google Maps and the Internet provide another way of locating and giving information on campsites. See,MAPSon this website for a mail-order service
MONEY, EARNING IT/ SAVING IT BY HUNTER-GATHERING SPENDING IT We living in their own motorhome, helping out in return for a free pitch, a small income, or other perks. Those with language skills can translate, interpret, coach or teach. Travelling hairdressers or mechanics have a ready market on any campsite. we met motorhomers eking out their pensions in many ways: making and selling jewellery, or cakes, or producing all kinds of visiting and greetings cards to order on their laptops, perhaps featuring a photo of the customers or their RV. Fruit and vegetable picking and packing can provide seasonal work, while the WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) Scheme may appeal to some motorhomers, helping out in a wide range of countries in exchange for food and accommodation (or a place to park and hook up). Visit:
www.wwoofer.com if you see yourself as a Wwoofer! Here in Finland, as we write, August/September is berry-picking time. Gather the free harvest of the forest and sell your excess to a commercial buyer – see www.arctic-flavours.fi. It is still a complicated process to get a work permit in another EU country, so these efforts to earn money may often be described as 'informal'. Visit: www.vacationwork.co.uk and get ahead of the students. If you plan to write for money, start on this before you leave the UK. Try to get a commission from a magazine or publisher or get an agent. It is much harder to set this up once you are travelling. Match your writing to the publication(s) you are aiming at: this may determine the direction in which you travel. See if a guidebook or magazine wants a particular region explored or a campsite guide wants a country surveyed. Visit, for example, www.writewords.org.uk. Take a laptop with a printer, since magazines increasingly prefer material in digital form. A digital camera (see PHOTOGRAPHY) will take the photographs that are essential, and you can make them available to the editor or publisher via the internet or on a CD through the post. There are many opportunities to gather fruit and vegetables as a second harvest gleaned from fields and orchards, or from hedgerows and wild trees. In Finland, there are enough lingenberries on the forest floor to tempt Russians over the border to pick and sell (see above). In Greece there is a winter glut of oranges and lemons. We pick fruit to make jams and marmalade or vegetables for soup. Herbs such as thyme, rosemary and bay leaves are easily dried in the microwave! Sometimes the campsite itself is also a fruit or olive orchard, or part of a farm. We have gathered or been given: oranges, lemons, tangerines, grapefruit, apples, melons, pomegranates, quince, raspberries, lingenberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, prickly pears, olives, grapes, nuts (including walnuts and pine-nuts), potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, cauliflowers, aubergines, spinach, herbs and bay leaves as well as eggs, wines and olive oil. If you fish (we don't) take your rod, line or octopus spear. Or wait with the seagulls for a fishing boat to dock. We can draw money from ATMs throughout Europe (and the world) using credit ( Visa and MasterCard) and debit cards (Cirrus and Maestro). We pay off our credit cards in full each month by direct debit on the pension account, avoiding any interest payment or personal intervention. Internet banking(for example ABBEY) is a great paper-free way of monitoring accounts, checking direct debits, making payments and dropping the bank a line. We also carry some extra cash in Euros (hidden in a safe-box) but we no longer use traveller's cheques, given the trouble and expense of cashing them. The Euro has rapidly displaced the US dollar Plastic cards are safest, because they are easy to hide and can be cancelled if lost or stolen. They also provide some insurance cover on purchases.
ORGANISATIONS TO JOIN There are many clubs that might be of interest to motorhomers. The Caravan Club or the Camping and Caravanning Club (see CAMPING, SITES) are of direct use for their campsite guides, magazines, insurance and legal services. The Motor Caravanners' Club has offered advice, a magazine and club rallies for many years. People with special interests are well served: the retired, snowbirds, Silk Route adventurers, Christians, classic motorhome enthusiasts, self-builders, naturists, folding bike riders, nice people – there is even a group for loners! People with similar motorhomes can meet and share experiences - Hymer, Swift, Bambi, Pilote,Rapido – and American RV owners can choose from several competing clubs.See,Owners Clubs
on this website
ORGANISING INFORMATION: (See also INTERNET & EMAIL.) Travellers have a long list of essential codes and numbers: passport, National Insurance, National Health, VIN, credit and debit cards, PINs, driving licence, short-wave frequencies, equipment serial numbers, phone numbers and international dialling codes, exchange rates, etc. A pocket-sized or palm-top organiser can store all these things, coded if necessary (see SECURITY, PINS & OTHER CODES), and behind passwords. Our ipod organiser also stores dozens of addresses (email and actual),, gives space for memos, has a perpetual calendar and anniversary reminder, gives the date and time in many parts of the world, records expenses as they occur (listing them according to type and giving daily, weekly or monthly summaries - see COST OF LIVING), converts currencies as well as British and metric measurements, calculates, schedules future activities, and lists and sorts by priority all the things there are 'To Do'. We started travelling with a laptop(now 2) but now we use a ipod too. We also have a filing system for letters, photographs, receipts and guarantees, manuals for the motorhome and its accessories, stationery, tourist information leaflets, articles cut from magazines, maps, etc.The laptop computer, which immediately found a wide range of uses: writing, digital images, CD audio recording and playback, keeping and analysing data, video editing, spreadsheets, watching films on DVD, maps, route planning and analysis.And now we have a sony laptop with wireless! (See INTERNET & EMAIL, GPS and PHOTOGRAPHY.) The epson printer, scanner and copier produces good printouts for documents and photographs, scans key documents for storage, turns printed words into word processor data (using OCR), turns printed photographs into digital images, and saves us looking for a photocopier. See also in this website:wifi/ Internet
PARKING: We hadn't even considered leaves/branches touching the van would be a problem before the ant invasion. We liked parking near Eucalyptus trees as they seemed to deter mozzies but, once again, we needed to sweep the awning down carefully and clear out the roof lights because of the bits I hadn't considered was the position of the van in the sunshine. We had 40 degrees plus last year and the poor fridge struggled in the heat. We soon learnt which way was best to park. We have also learnt not to park near refrigerated lorries in Aires if we want any sleep, and to keep away from vans with sliding doors. I have a sticker on the dash board for setting off as invariably we forget to do something - like close the bathroom door, shut the roof lights, switch the fridge over to battery.See also SECURITY IN THE MOTORHOME and CAMPING, FREE.
PENSIONS If you stop working before retirement age, you can continue to pay voluntary contributions to enhance your state pension - providing you are 'ordinarily resident' in the UK and aged under 60. To see if you are 'ordinarily resident', contact The Pension Service, Tyneview Park, Payments, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE98 1BA or visit
: The UK Pension Service. NEW RULES 2010 Men between 60 and 65 and not working are automatically given voluntary contributions towards their pensions.Once you reach 60, you can receive the annual Winter Fuel Allowance (while it lasts) and, when eligible, the state pension payments with annual increments. Check out Pension Credits (visit: www. etc) to receive more money if your total income (as an individual or a couple) is presently below a defined minimum. An existing pensioner can also receive a supplement if their spouse has not yet reached pensionable age and has no income. Visit: UK Pension Credits.
PET PASSPORTS From July 2004, the EU Pet Passport replaced the Pet Travel Scheme for taking pets in and out of the UK and around Europe – the EU and several other countries. More information from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - visit: Pet Passport Scheme) or talk to your vet who will issue the passport. Do this well in advance of your travels
PHOTOGRAPHY we bought a digital camera, a sony. This transformed our approach to photography – we could click with impunity and save only the best images for future use. The camera was compact, its battery rechargeable and the 2 gb memory card (storing up to 2000 good quality images could be used repeatedly. Every image carried the time and date it was taken, details of the exposure . The camera also took short videos and long audio recordings. Splendid! Many shops provide a printing service for digital cameras, and images find permanent storage on a CD. However, the camera comes into its own if you also have a laptop or PC (see ORGANISING INFORMATION), which can store the images or copy them to a CD, rotate, crop and enhance them, send them in emails, print them as photographs or as inserts in letters, set up a slide show, add sound, make a video, add them in various ways to a website – everything a creative photographer might want
POSTE RESTANTE This is easy to set up, sometimes frustrating to use and always takes the form:
Example
SURNAME, first name or initial
jones, Barry
Poste Restante
Poste Restante
Address of Main Post Office (if known)
Post Code (if known)
20100
TOWN
KORINTHOS
COUNTRY
GREECE
Put your surname first, as mail is kept in alphabetical order and checked against your passport when you collect it, sometimes from people who don't know your alphabet. In Alexandroupolis, a package addressed 'F.A.O. Margaret Williamson' took 15 minutes to unearth, filed under 'F'.
The words 'Poste Restante' should be recognised everywhere, although in Germany and Austria they use Post Lagernd; in Italy Fermo Posta. Any post office will tell you the code of any other post office in the same country. If the Poste Restante isn't at the main post office (this happened in Innsbruck and Dubrovnik), they will tell you where to find it. The Rough Guide or Lonely Planet (see MAPS & GUIDES) for a country is quite good at giving the address and location of post offices in major towns and cities.
One Poste Restante will pass mail on to another in the same country. For example, Chamonix passed a packet to Séez in Haute Savoie where we had moved on to the excellent Camping Le Reclus. Chamonix wasn't very far away, just the other side of Mont Blanc! Sometimes you pay a fee on collecting the mail: France charges for every single item, Austria and Italy only for parcels, but Greece, generous as ever, is free.
Even large articles can be sent Poste Restante: a set of table legs and a new water pump came from CAK Tanks of Kenilworth; A smoke alarm, a Shimano bicycle cassette remover, oil and fuel filters - all these essentials arrived safely. Countries outside the EU (including Gibraltar) require a completed Customs Declaration Form to be attached to a parcel. Always ask the sender to put their name and address discreetly on the back of the packet.
Post Offices usually have a rule that they keep letters and packets for a month (14 days in the UK) and then return them to the sender, but so far only the French have actually done this. American Express offices will hold letters (not packets) for up to a month, if you have their card or use their traveller's cheques. See also ADDRESS.
RADIO A 20 ft horizontal external aerial improves reception enormously!
SAFETY We have 2 fire extinguishers (in the cab by the door and in the rear bedroom), a fire blanket and 2 smoke alarms on the ceiling (the kind that can be cancelled for 10 minutes during toast-making). There are isolator taps for each gas appliance, easily accessible heavy duty isolator switches for the batteries, an emergency exit through a bedroom window, and carbon monoxide and propane detectors (the latter also detects narcotic gases). And what we hope is a good insurance policy!
SECURITY, IN THE MOTORHOME A lot of thought has been given to security. We have a hidden safe for cash, credit cards and documents and a double deadlock on the solid side door plus an external Fiamma lockable bar. If we had cab doors (we used to have, on the Rapido), we would have chains to fasten each cab door together or to the floor and telescopic rods to lock the cab door pop-up catches (sold as shelf guard-rails in packs of 3 at motorhome accessory shops). We currently have a 'Kwiklok' steering wheel clamp; screws that lock the sliding windows; personal alarms; an alarm and immobiliser for the motorhome with a 'panic button'; a CS gas spray (freely available in Greece and Germany, perhaps not legal in the UK) kept by the door; heavy bat; a powerful rechargeable flashlight; external lights above the entrance; and the excellent ultrasonic 'Dog Dazer' for the German Shepherd next door. The bicycles have 3 good locks, a tough cover,We don't open the door to strangers, even in uniform: we might open an adjacent sliding window and put on the outside light. We leave the vehicle parked with the radio on and all the blinds closed and we have stickers on doors and windows graphically warning of guard dogs, alarms, police and dire consequences. We consider our exit routes and leave the vehicle 'ready to drive' when we park in a public area overnight, with the mobile phone by the bed. The International Emergency Number throughout most of the world is 112 (see Mobile Phone Tips for more information) – check and store any other numbers for the country you are in. All this seems to be working - so far.
SECURITY, PINS & OTHER CODES
C
A
M
P
F
I
N
D
E
R
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
the PIN 4270 is written as FMDC. A thief is unlikely to crack this code – it's not the one we use, but you should create your own 10-letter word.
SERVICING, SPARES & REPAIRS No problem for a European motorhome in Europe – your Fiat should feel at home in Italy. Basic spares that we carry include bulbs, fan belts, oil and other engine fluids for top-ups (transmission, brake and power steering), as well as oil and fuel filters. Don't forget a jack strong enough to safely lift the heaviest corner of the motorhome (ours is a Swedish-made 8-ton bottle jack) and a spanner to undo and fasten the wheel nuts. Learn to change a wheel before you have to! We carry a wide range of tools for inside and outside jobs. These include a full socket set, air compressor and pressure gauge, hammers, pliers, screwdrivers (including a ratchet set with many heads), a rechargeable electric screwdriver (indispensable), pop-riveter, soldering iron, duct tape and a hacksaw. We have a fibreglass kit, exhaust-pipe bandage, mastic, sealers, wire, electrical fasteners and several different kinds of glue. We often open our box of washers, screws, nuts, rivets, bolts and other fasteners. Other repairs require a sewing kit, including needles and thread strong enough for an awning and some tent-patches. The step ladder we carry for our own use is also our most borrowed item! recommends dental floss! "I've used it with a wide eyed needle to mend all sorts - lately, the headstrap on Pete's snorkelling mask. It's great stuff, not least for getting the last bits of pork chop out of the teeth."
TAXING & TESTING A MOTORHOME There are only 4 possibilities. (1) You have a current vehicle licence (tax disc), (2) the vehicle is off the road in the UK and you have declared a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification), (3) you have exported the vehicle, or (4) you are illegal and the Swansea computer is automatically penalising you daily, wherever you are! To hit the really big fines (up to £1,000) and the possibility of the vehicle being wheel-clamped, confiscated and crushed, an official has to actually see you on the road with an untaxed vehicle.
Leaflets V100 (Registering and Licensing your Motor Vehicle) and V526 (Taking a Vehicle out of the Country) are available from the DVLA, Customer Enquiries Group, Longview Road, Swansea SA99 1BL (phone 01792 783920) or from your nearest VRO (Vehicle Registration Office). Visit: www.dvla.gov.uk for on-line forms and all the rules and regulations. Here is a brief summary: Any vehicle taken out of Great Britain for less than 12 months is classed as being 'temporarily exported' and the vehicle licence must be kept valid throughout its period abroad. If the licence expires while you are abroad, you may apply for a new one by post up to 6 weeks in advance at one of the UK Post Offices listed on V100 or on the internet. Explain the circumstances in a covering letter and the tax disc can be sent to your overseas address. Without a licence, you will be committing an offence in your host country as well, since proof of British tax paid exempts you from paying their taxes. French police may check on this on your return, as you approach Calais! Your motorhome insurance may also be affected (check this) and, for example, the RAC may refuse to tow an unlicensed vehicle. You cannot declare a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) whilst the vehicle is out of the UK. We have met motorhomers who have done this and foolishly think that their UK insurance is still valid. It isn't, and they are committing a criminal offence (with a large fine and up to 2 years inside if caught) in declaring a SORN while the vehicle is not off-road in the UK. In addition to a current vehicle licence, you should carry your V5 (Vehicle Registration Document), a valid MOT Certificate (for a vehicle more than 3 years old) and an Insurance Certificate clearly showing its validity in your current country (see INSURANCE, MOTORHOME). You also need to display a full-size GB plate, except in the EU where a number plate carrying a small 'GB' is sufficient. The MOT, cannot be taken or renewed outside the UK and its absence may invalidate your insurance or lower the value of a future claim (check this with your insurer). Returning to the UK after your MOT has expired, you are legally permitted to drive to a pre-arranged MOT test. Sadly, the local equivalent of an MOT in any other country has no validity for a UK-registered vehicle. The DVLA should be informed if you intend (note the word 'intend') to take your motorhome out of the country for more than 12 months (leaflet V526). It will be classed as 'exported', your V5 should be surrendered and an export certificate (V756) issued. However, it would be awkward to do this unless the vehicle is to be registered abroad where new registration, tax, testing and insurance arrangements will have to be made. A UK insurance company is unlikely to knowingly insure a foreign-registered vehicle. On return to Britain, the vehicle can be re-registered at a VRO using form V10, if you still have your registration document, or V62 if you haven't. Vehicles registered after 1 March 2001 pay a Graduated Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), based on their engine size, fuel type and CO2 emissions. If you passed your driving test before 1 Jan 1997, you can drive a vehicle up to a MAM (see WEIGHT) of 7,500 kg (C1+E) with an unbraked trailer of 750 kg and an MTW of 12,000 kg. Since that date, you only get a Group B licence allowing a MAM of up to 3,500 kg; a further test is needed to upgrade to C1+E. The driving licence has to be renewed at the age of 70. For a vehicle weighing less than 3.5 tons, you complete a form self-declaring your medical state. Between 3.5 and 7.5 tons (a class C1 licence) requires the successful completion of a medical examination by your GP up to 4 months before the birthday celebration. Visit: Renewing at 70.
TELEPHONES Mobile phones are now in use everywhere! 'International Roaming' has to be requested before you leave the UK but is easily obtained, even for a pay-as-you-talk top-up phone. Check carefully which foreign networks have roaming agreements with your UK provider – and make sure you only tune into those networks. Vodafone sometimes send you a text if you have chosen the wrong network and congratulations if you are on the correct one!
Take a tri-band phone if you roam as far as the USA. Be aware that European roaming can be quite expensive, since every international call is routed via the UK. You even have to pay for calls from the UK, or when you retrieve a voice message left for you! Look for UK companies with overseas subsidiaries - for example, Vodafone own Panafon in Greece (visit: www.vodaphone.co.uk). Vodafone operate a Passport Scheme: after registering (free), in a selected list of countries (all EU countries plus a few more), all incoming calls up to one hour in length cost the recipient abroad a one-off payment of 75 P. The UK caller pays the rate for calling a UK-based mobile. Ringing a landline number in the UK from the list of European countries, there is a one-off payment of 75 P plus what you would pay if you were calling that number from within the UK. We usually stay long enough in a country to buy a local phone card for public phones. Higher cost cards are usually better value and, with discipline, last a long time (the one we have now has a picture of Homer on it!) Those with a scratch-off code number are best of all. Our last €15 Greek prepaid card (Smile & Web) required the input of 36 digits, but worked out at 9p a minute compared with Panafon's 75p per minute to the UK, any time of the day or week. Motorhomers, thrifty as ever, use low-cost SMS text messages. We have kept in touch with ALL. Costs vary from 25p to 50p a message. Hide and safeguard your mobile in an old sunglasses case.
TRAVEL ADVICE Foreign Office travel advice and country profiles appear at
Other useful advice comes from MMM Travel Consultants, a country's Tourist Office website or London office, guidebooks (see BOOKS) and the Caravan Club's pair of European campsite guides. The latter list tunnels, mountain passes (heights and dates open), legal requirements and much more. See CAMPING, SITES and BORDER CROSSINGS & VISAS.
www.fco.gov.uk with links to Embassy sites. Register there for email updates. The need for reliable advice applies particularly to Eastern Turkey, North Africa, the disintegrated Balkans and the FSU (Former Soviet Union).
TV, SATELLITE You can receive a limited range of digital TV and radio channels from an Astra satellite with a decoder,Which channels you can legally view where and the price of the relevant card all constitute a minefield you should explore for yourself. We haven't! Visit:
www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk This is a large non-commercial site with wide-ranging advice on satellite gear and reception and links to suppliers and further advice.
TV, TERRESTRIAL This multi-function TV is an analogue and digital TV with stereo sound and Teletext, a DVD player, a CD player, a PC monitor, an FM radio, a reader of cards and it has a USB connection. It operates from either 12-volt or 240-volt and it is a multi-standard receiver workng in every European country.The TV provides entertainment and information and gives us an important link to the local language and culture. In Greece, other Balkan countries, Scandinavia and elsewhere, films and documentaries from the UK and America are sub-titled (not dubbed), which makes for easy viewing and listening. Our factory-fitted rooftop aerial winds up and rotates and has a 12-volt amplifier. Sometimes a local aerial is needed – we got an indoor antenna in Greece from the town's electrical shop. DVDs, often given away free by newspapers and magazines, are replacing books as the motorhomer's travelling companions. Easily stored, easily swapped, easily watched. The ubiquitous MP3 player plays music wherever you go. 'Talking books' can be collected in the UK and the pages turned down the road, on tape or CD. (see also ENTERTAINMENT, AUDIO & VIDEO).
WATER, FRESH Fresh water is found at campsites, filling stations, marinas, restaurants – and even cemeteries (for the flowers). We check that it is at least described as 'potable' ('eau potable' in French, 'trinkwasser' in German), avoid roadside fountains and springs and run the tap for a long time if it is little used. If in doubt, fill a clear glass and hold it to the light in order to look, then smell and taste for excess particles, chlorine or salt. We have two 15-metre food-quality cassette hoses, with lots of fittings to join them together and to taps of various kinds. Sometimes, the tap is too far away even for 90 ft of hosepipe (once, in Crete, it was 2 miles away) and then we use a 25-litre water carrier and our 12-volt submersible pump. Two old-timers in Australia gave us the tip of using a section of bicycle inner tube to get water for washing (not drinking!) from small, awkward taps in basins in outback dunnies - the long-term traveller is prepared for anything and everything! We add one 'Aqua Tab' sterilising tablet every time we fill the 340-litre fresh-water tank. Since the tank is in permanent use, we only clean it when the motorhome has been in store, giving it a good flushing through with 'Puriclean'. We have fitted a comprehensive filter on the pipe to our kitchen's cold-water tap and we always boil water before drinking. So far, water has caused us no digestive or intestinal problems.
WATER, WASTE In our case, 'grey' water from sinks and shower collects in a holding tank of about 120 litres. A U-bend on each sink drain, a food-trap on the kitchen plug-hole, bleach down the pipes regularly The holding tank is easily emptied directly into a suitable drain or via a bucket or a short length of 2" hose, although one campsite owner in Sicily encouraged us to 'irrigate' his trees and bushes. We try to avoid carrying 'grey' water far. Not least, an empty tank helps keep within your MAM (see WEIGHT) - 190 litres of water weighs 190 kg! 'Black' water collects in some sort of sealed tank: in the 'Porta-Potti' itself, in a removable cassette under a Thetford toilet The Porta-Potti and the Thetford cassette are simply removed for emptying and rinsing at a 'chemical toilet' ('CH') on a campsite. If they don't have one, you might be told to empty down an ordinary toilet - however, in Norway this can attract a fine of 500 NOK or nearly £50!'Green' liquids and granules give some odour control but cost up to 60p to treat a 20-litre cassette
WEIGHT It's best to read this section before you buy a motorhome, otherwise it could be too late.
MAM = Maximum Authorised Mass (formerly GVW or Gross Vehicle Weight). More than this, you should not weigh!
MAW = Maximum Axle Weight. A vehicle not exceeding its MAM may still be overloaded on its rear axle (a common motorhome problem), with its front axle under-loaded.
MTW = Maximum Train Weight. This is the maximum combined weight of a motorhome and trailer.
VUW = Vehicle Unladen Weight. This is the motorhome's least weight, without passengers, goods or liquids.
Your maximum load is therefore MAM minus VUW. Check this out. These weights are given on a plate, often attached to a cab doorpost. You may get a nasty surprise after you have filled the tanks, the larder, the lockers, the roof boxes and the passengers. For a full explanation, visit: the DVLA website. See also TAXING & TESTING.
WHICH MOTORHOME There is a whole magazine on this subject so we won't try to describe the many available alternatives. Enough to say that you can have a fixed or rising roof, a high top, a demountable or a coachbuilt, which itself can be A-class, C-class or low profile. We guess that most long-term travellers have a C-class coachbuilt and use the overcab space for extra storage. A length between 22 and 27 ft is about the right compromise for a drivable living space. More than a million Americans live long-term on the road and their excellent vehicles and services cater for this way of life. They build motorhomes to live in, rather than just a 'caravan on a van' for holidays, although we do like the more recent European coachbuilts, with a permanent bed at the rear. We spent months looking for our ideal motorhome: reading the MMM, visiting dealers and shows we bought a 23f t coachbuilt RAPIDO motorhome for comfort, space, load carrying, a permanent bed, a separate shower, cooking - all kinds of reasons.The motorhome is our house and Pickford's combined; we live in it and it moves house from place to place, steadily and economically. A smaller motorhome means less space and comfort but greater freedom in choosing places to visit and to stay it has to be left on the campsite or on the parking lot while you walk, cycle,smart car which we tow. or use the bus to shop, explore and enjoy tourist activities
ZEN OF MOTORHOMING Long-term travel is associated with retirement, and for us ageing gives urgency and poignancy to the whole process . . . we may never pass this way again! We have no regrets about our choice of this rich way of life and remember vividly the moment we finally closed the front door of our house, started the engine and set off On early retirement, we quickly realised that a motorhome was the only way we could afford to travel for long periods of time, comfortably, freely and carrying all the things we need for a full life (including bicycles and tent!) The rewards of travel are enormous and it doesn't lose its freshness and its challenge. Subjects that were dry as chalk dust at school - Geography, History, Languages - take on colour and vitality and many more reinvigorate everyday life: Ornithology, Geology, Economics, Politics, Religions, Art and Architecture, Photography, Computing … Wireless again becomes the miracle it once was; books and maps become travelling companions, and travellers met for an evening become friends for life! Motorhomers need only do what they are doing – no more and no less. Life can be lived more intensely in the present moment, replacing habit and routine with the ever-fresh stimulus of journeys on 'the road less travelled by'. This is the way to slow the ever-accelerating rush of time. As Robert Herrick advised 400 years ago...........
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