Onstag Part Tva (2) - We're off

Following a leisurely breakfast at my local coffee shop the time came to go and collect the motor homes.  I met Dan and Chris and we drove to Bourn for the pickup.  None of us were really sure what to expect so were delighted to be handed a pair of quite new vans which appeared to be in very good condition.

Which is camper, the vans or Dan?

I soon got to grips with driving my van by reversing into a wall outside my flat, time from pick up to losing some of damage deposit < 10 minutes, it was OK because only about 50 people were watching.  On the plus side I was able to pick up a couple of trays of delicious looking flapjacks from Giggle and Wiggle so the morning wasn't a total bust.  The next task was to park the vans on the grass just outside the village to see how long it took to start the village facebook page traveller spotters off..........

Packing the vans mainly comprised me putting my spare pants all over the best bed in the hope no one would dare to move them, I will report back on that later.

Early driving errors aside the convoy left Cambourne more or less at our target time of 17:30 to head for the tunnel and our rendez-vouz with Jon at a petrol station somewhere in Kent.  The journey started well by listening to the classic road trip tune 'Convoy' then going through the CB radio gags from Airplane.  This made the first 8 miles go really fast.  Dan drove for the first stint leaving me to act as DJ choosing a selection of ABBA and Roxette tunes to get us in the mood for Sweden.  I belatedly remembered we needed to pass through France, Belgium and Germany and that the playlist is bereft of artistes from each, luckily Spotify came to the rescue with some well timed Jonny Halliday for France, Plastic Bertrand for Belgium and me remembering that I had already included Kraftwerk on the normal playlist.

Elite athletes queuing for Burger King (it was rank)

On arrival at the tunnel terminal we prepared like true athletes by eating as much Burger King food as we could carry and took a chance to use the facilities, the motorhomes have a strict 'no poo loo' rule so this was important.  The tunnel crossing was at 22:22 meaning with the time difference we arrived in France at 23:32, both good strong palindromic and not strictly accurate times. The plan was to drive as far as we could for probably 3 or 4 hours to get us well into the journey.  I took the stint from the tunnel until somewhere in the middle of Belgium, no idea where it was dark.  In the event instead of stopping we set up a bed and took the opportunity to sleep in 'watches' and drive all night.

The way and about as much map detail as we have

The route plan to get to Motala in Sweden looks a bit like the route shown above, I say a bit like as it is fairly likely we will get lost quite a lot of times, in fact that is a given seeing as we managed it before we had even left Kent.  We are aiming to be in Sweden by tomorrow evening so we can be fresh for the ride which starts on Friday evening.  As usual when travelling I have taken the time to assimilate with the local culture and learn a few facts about each country.  France is named after the France family who are most famous for being behind the legendary NASCAR motor racing series.  Belgium on the other hand does not take its name from a person but from a type of iced bun.  I was unable to find out much about Germany, it is a very secretive country.

At the time of writing this we are somewhere near Bremen having driven all night, so far so good.  I am not entirely sure we have parked in the best of neighbourhoods as the below picture of a roadside vending machine shows.  On the other hand they do have a diner which features an 'Elvis Breakfast', my German wasn't really up to it but I think it comprised a peanut butter smothered burger that you had to eat whilst sitting on the loo.

Sadly no one had any change

Anyway off to do a bit more driving now.  Next stop Sweden or perhaps Denmark.  Who knows?

Coming up tomorrow - fun fun fun on the autobahn