TravelStream™ news feed for member nz2uk on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nz2uk en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:32:03 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1240632000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1240632000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1240632000/tpod.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:32:03 -0500 Susie and Dave's Big Adventure

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Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

It was a great moment when Crash turned up at the apartment with the Surf on the back of a truck! We really need to thank the two Steves at Cargoclear and Cargo-online for their efforts in getting the truck cleared and to save so much time by delivering it straight to us, instead of to the depot. It really saved the day, so thanks very very much. We could not have made it otherwise. Crash got a big hug from Susie for waiting at the AQIS queue for ages whilst the publicly employed ones did their bit. Luckily for us, they didn't insist on the full steam clean so we are grateful for that.


We managed to get out of Brisbane with only one wrong turn at some roadworks and I can't blame the GPS for that. After that it was plain sailing. We had decided that since the trip was to be a mission, rather than a gentle touristy canter , we would go via the inland route and save 100km as time was so tight. I think this was a good choice as there was very little traffic to contend with, just the gentle 'thumpity thump' as we traversed the various varieties of road kill and the gentle thud of zillions of insects who insisted on ending their day sunning themselves on the windscreen.


We were quite surprised by the poor state of the roads in Q'land , especially west of Roma, with a very uneven surface, caused I suspect, by run off of the tar in the heat. In fact it wasn't until we approached Mt Isa that they really improved and we were able to cruise comfortably at the limit. We were determined to put some kms behind us so we decided to get as far as we could and then decide a plan for the next day. Augathella was where we dropped and surprised ourselves by finding somewhere very nice to stay. No, I didn't know where it was either, until I saw the map. Think Eketahuna. We were off before light to try to get west of Mt Isa but a review of the map showed us that there really isn't anything to the west, until you get to the Stuart Highway. So we decided to stop there for the night and do the big push the next day, aiming for Katherine, but maybe Darwin if we were still talking at that stage!


After a couple of hours, a hearty breakfast was had at Blackall, but to my dismay, I later discovered that this is the home of the 'Black Stump' and we didn't get to see it! Shame. Anyway, we were now the other side of it so we must be making good progress. A pit stop at Longreach gave us a chance to see the Qantas 'Hummer' parked in the desert. This is the birth place of Qantas, but confusingly, just about every settlement within 50ks claims also to be the place. First board meeting, first flight , first scheduled flight etc etc etc. We had now reached the greatest distance between fuel pumps and set off with plenty left of our 150 litres and 370ks to go to the next roadhouse. 'No worries' said I, as we sailed past the last stop before Cloncurry. Later, with both tanks now showing empty, we were able to fully explore the capabilities of our cunning fuel system, as an ever deepening silence overcame us. Not once was 'I told you so' uttered so the truck and navigator both passed the test brilliantly and thus we learnt that the range was at least 1270 ks , not 1220 as previously tested. We won't try that again. This was where the roads really improved, and after a good night at Mt Isa, we were soon across the border with a 130kph limit and able to maintain almost that as an average.


This meant we could get ahead of the game and continue on to Darwin. I haven't worked out the MPG yet but an idle moment in Singapore will do for that. One thing is for sure, I wouldn't like to tackle the Gafa without extra fuel and the system designed by Paul, Jason, Andy and the boys at Lineside Automotive in Rangiora is perfect for the purpose. One gauge, one switch and an extra 80 litres. I know it was a pain fellas, and you'll never do it again, but it takes a lot of worry out of the driving for us and I wouldn't be without it. They even threw in some spares for us!!


Thus we were able to deliver the truck to the wharf on time but not before a thorough washing in the mother of all car washers. I suppose you need a good machine up here, but we were still not prepared for the ferocity of it. I bravely selected the 'tradesmans' wash and in we went. Rule number one.. ensure all windows are tightly closed. Well I didn't check the tailgate window and we ended up with a bit of an internal wash as a bonus! The sound was deafening and I have never experienced such a powerful wash. Call it drivers revenge as every trace of squashed anything was consigned to the big plug hole in the sky and we duly delivered a nice shiny truck to the wharf.


The price of Diesel varies greatly in Aus and is generally more expensive then NZ. We started at AUD$1.08 on the east coast, increasing to $1.59 at some forgotten watering hole south of Katherine, back to $1.29 up north.


With apologies to those who have travelled the outback before. I have to say it looks nothing like it did on all those Singapore flights, gazing down from the jet. What I thought was desert was often horizon to horizon grassland.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1249168286/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1249168286/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1249168286/tpod.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:11:46 -0400 Susie and Dave's Big Adventure

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Christchurch, England, United Kingdom

It was four months ago today that we boarded the flight to Brisbane, nervously wondering if we had got things 'right' or would we have to sneak home with our tails between our legs, admitting defeat and wondering what else to do with 6 months unpaid leave. It was only when we had successfully transited into the EU, we realised that we had made it and only needed our luck to hold to get to England. The borders were no longer an obstacle and no undiscovered complications could get in our way. We had no firm plans after that point, so we were able to amble across Europe with no deadlines to meet and entirely at our leisure. The advanced nature of the European roading network saw us making much faster progress than we had been used to and so we made our landfall in England about a week early. By this time we had a hankering to return home to our family, our friends and our cat. We thought she must be missing us by now but ... well, you know cats. We were determined to make our planned calls in England though, so we enjoyed a week catching up with some damned fine people, some who we hadn't seen for many years. We were able to do that before our Latvian 3rd Party Insurance expired, and then, with our well established hangovers intact, we parked the Truck and boarded a flight home. We are still undecided about which way we will drive home as the political situation will have some bearing on that. It will be a toss up between Southern Europe, South Asia etc or we may ship to the States and travel on from there. In any case, we expect to continue the Blog in April/May so we look forward to boring you with further tales of our 'Big Adventure' next year.

Stats'
Overall Mileage 28.2 MPG (10km/ltr ?)
Most expensive $2.10 Belgium ... we avoided filling in Germany and UK
Cheapest 65c Kazakhstan
No of fills 24
Average/per litre $1.27
Total litres 2568 (565 Gals)
Max Ks/fill 1500km
Max Ks/Back tank 800 ( we needn't have worried in Aus)
Tyre tread remaining 6.5 - 7mm
Number of stops 55 some for more than 1 night
Average Drive 466 km
Longest 1596 km
Oil Changes 4 (due one!)
Police Stops 4
Punctures Nil
Breakdowns Nil
Distance Covered 25665 Km (15912 Miles)

Best Worst
Roads Euro Zone Laos/China
Coffee French Cafes French Motorways
Bread France Russia
Hotel Laos (Hotel Beau Rivage) Jianshui, China
Drivers Euro Zone China
Border Latvia Boten/Laos
Surprise Kazakhstan Malacca
Campsite Krakow Pl ( Clepardia) Niewiesze Pl
Port Singapore Brisbane
City/Town Moscow Boten
Cost China Russia
Scenery China Nil

And Last but Not Least-

Our Thanks To;

All our friends for their encouragement and support, even those who thought we were crazy!!


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247775793/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247775793/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247775793/tpod.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:08:26 -0400 Susie and Dave's Big Adventure

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Christchurch, England, United Kingdom

Thur.16th Jul. Cherbourg - Christchurch U.K.
We can't believe it, we've made it !!!!!! NZ 2 UK. (Christchurch NZ - Christchurch UK) and driven a total of 25665 k's.
And what a lovely welcome we had. Frank, Pete and Teresa, met us at Poole as we drove off the ferry and then we went to a park in Christchurch to celebrate with a couple of bottles of bubbles.
We hope those of you, sitting in the back seat with us, have enjoyed our amazing adventure as much as we have. And, maybe next year you'll join us again when we'll be back on the road, driving the truck home to New Zealand.
Bye bye for now.......

PS Stats to follow-Ed


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247681118/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247681118/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247681118/tpod.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:07:12 -0400 Susie and Dave's Big Adventure

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Cherbourg, Normandy, France

Mon. 13th Jul. Viville.
Not our usual sort of morning this morning. Michel, the Mayor of Viville and a journalist popped around after breakfast to interview us and take our photo's for the local newspaper. What a surprise that was!
Just as well it was another of those glorious sunny French days so we could pose around the truck with Dave, Maureen and Jane.
At last, we're famous! ha ha.
Our wonderful friends took us to Angouleme for the afternoon, a stunning old medieval city. My camera was very busy trying to capture absolutely everything we saw!

Tue. 14th Jul. Viville.
A very lazy day and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
After dinner we watched Bastille Day celebrations. More than 20 minutes of fireworks at a little village called Jarnac. A warm still night, we stood on the river bank to watch this fantastic display and its reflections in the river. We wouldn't have missed it for quids.

Wed.15th Jul. Viville - Cherbourg.
This part of France, the Charante, is my favourite part of the world. Lightly populated, unpolluted, beautiful countryside, lots of home gardening, gorgeous flowers, friendly people, great climate, a stress free way of life and the best aperitifs ever! So, it was ever so reluctantly that we left Dave and Maureen's fabulous home and village.
Motorway all the way to Cherbourg....very exciting.
Apart from our wrap-up blog, which we will write in a month or so, we will be writing our last blog tomorrow, from Christchurch, England - barring an untimely maritime incident, it will be mission accomplished!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247485111/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247485111/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247485111/tpod.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:04:36 -0400 Susie and Dave's Big Adventure

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Viville, Poitou-Charentes, France

Fri. 10th Jul. Bouzonville aux Bois - Viville.
Jolly cold again, 8 deg. this morning and secretly thrilled it was our last night of camping.
We packed up in record time and pointed the truck in the direction of Dave and Mo's house in the Charante Region. Again, a gorgeous day and stunning scenery. We ended up taking an unintentionally slightly longer route to the Ainges - they came to find us at a little village not too far from their home!
A lovely welcome when we did arrive in Viville. A 'Kiwi' signpost at the corner of the street and balloons decorating the gate. Aperitifs that evening with Dave and Mo at the home of the Mayor (Michel) and his lovely lady Jane. Not just aperitifs though as we sat enjoying the sun in their garden. Soon, red wine, Pineau, Champagne and Cognac was flowing whilst we enjoyed the tastiest of canapes. Charentais melons with strawberries.Yummm. What a welcome, such wonderful hospitality and lordy knows what time it was when we staggered home....
Aaaah, the French way of life...it could be addictive!

Sat. 11th Jul. Viville.
Dave and Mo's massive house is an old farm house nestled in the small village of Viville. It was probably built in the 1600's.
They have spent a few years restoring it themselves and now it's absolutely stunning, complete with a swimming pool and glorious gardens.
Today, Dave and Mo took us out sightseeing to some of their favourite spots and at lunchtime we stopped for a delicious picnic, prepared by Mo, at the Charante River.
Rural France, it's beautiful. Gently rolling landscape, fields of sunflowers, grapes and wheat. The most wonderful old houses, churches and chateaux. So much to see in too little time.
Later in the afternoon the swimming pool beckoned then a leisurely dinner was had outside. Bliss.

Sun. 12th Jul. Viville.
A lazy day today with Dave and Mo. After seeing some wonderful sights we were taken to Le Poirier for lunch - it lasted for three hours and we had seven courses!



]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247324911/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247324911/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2uk/1/1247324911/tpod.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:02:15 -0400 Susie and Dave's Big Adventure

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Bouzonville aux Bois, Centre, France

Thurs. 9th Jul. Lanaken - Bouzonville aux Bois. 578ks. (11 hours in the truck).
Woke up early, fully clothed (again) to 10 deg. Brrrr. Too cold to have a lukewarm camp shower so we were packed up and off in record time. Well, almost off. We were ready to depart at 8 but had to kill an hour, wandering around a nearby town until the camp office opened so that they could return our Euro25 deposit.
We decided to go across country, enjoy the scenery and avoid the motorways.
Our drive through Belgium was lovely, through the Ardenne Region. Lots of forest and 'chocolate box' villages. France was just as gorgeous, especially the drive along the Champagne Tourist Route (No stopping, just looking)! Such a beautiful and picturesque part of the country. Fields of corn and wheat. Small villages of old stone houses, colourful window boxes everywhere. Magnificent old churches-lovely to hear their tolling bells. Fields of sunflowers. I could go on and on....(yes, that's enough - Ed).
By now, it's getting quite late in the afternoon. Too much oohing and aahing going on and not enough attention to looking for campsites. Ardent campers swear there are camping signs everywhere but where are they when The Cables need one.
It's after 6pm now so we stop in a little village and ask for campsite directions. One gentleman tells us there are none around the area and another man gives us directions to one on the outskirts of town. That was a wild goose chase!
All we could do was travel south to the next town (Orleans) an hour away and hope for a hotel.
Feeling really ****** *** we set off and after 5 minutes came across a wonderful sight, a tent symbol on a sign pointing left. Yipeeee.
Half an hour later we were quite at home in a campsite full of lovely chatty people.
Isn't it amazing how some things turn out?
We had such a great evening. We met Christelle from Paris, who spoke English very well and her two gorgeous children. Christelle's Mum was a delight and plied us with gifts - a bottle of wine, cheeses and homemade rhubarb marmalade. Thank you so much for making us feel welcome we so enjoyed your company.


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Lanaken, Limburg, Belgium

Wed.8th Jul. Kalkar - Lanaken,Belgium. 197ks. 12 degrees at 7pm!
Still jolly cold, wet too. So cold last night that I wore my merino woollies to bed.
We went on a 'find an internet cafe' mission this morning. A couple of villages proved fruitless then we decided to check out the information centre at Venlo. Why didn't we think of it....The library! God, we can be so dumb at times. Peace and quiet and a very fast WiFi. Perfect.
We had to resort to that stupid camping book of ours again. We were looking for a particular campsite at Dousberg, were instructed to take a certain road and it would be well sign posted. Yeah, right. Two hours and umpteen stops later, mainly to ask people for directions and a couple of inadvertent Belgium/Netherland crossings, we found where it used to be ... four years ago.
So, on we drove.
We arrived at Lanaken, Camp Jocomo, around 7.00pm. It was bucketing down, 10 degrees and too wet to put the awning up. What else to do? Sit in the cab and drink Black Russians whilst map planning and writing up the diary. Yes, amazingly Dave seems to have developed a taste for them now. (Any port in a storm, Ed )
We set up for the night, between showers and cooked our dinner under cover on the mattress. Went to bed fully clothed and I was ever so thankful I had stashed some socks into my suitcase. Such fun on our big adventure!

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Wernsdorf, Brandenburg, Germany


Sun.5th Jul. Niewiesze - Wernsdorf (SouthEast of Berlin). 501ks
We set off, somewhat tiredly (I hope those loud drunken revellers have giant hangovers this morning) for Berlin. We have hit motorways proper now and finding it difficult to find anything photographically exciting. Always on the lookout though...
I have been meaning to thank our wonderful family and friends for the lovely encouraging newsy
emails that have been coming through. Fantastic to read and re-read.
I'm just sorry that we haven't always had the time to reply to them but rest assured we have devoured them!
Some of these blogs have been written on the run, may sound a little disjointed and have heaps of mistakes in the grammar department. Hopefully they haven't been tooooo bad! We are having such fun writing them. You can imagine the banter-'No, it didn't happen like that' or 'stop exaggerating' or 'you can't tell them that'!
We arrived in Germany, very fortuitously, at lunch time. I celebrated with saukraut and a baked spud whilst Dave had bacon and eggs!
Our campsite tonight is in a forest, It's absolutely beautiful and blissfully quiet. Squirrels are darting about through the tree tops and the bird life is amazing.The amenities are
fantastic and we are looking forward to a nice lazy evening, me reading and Dave sorting through his facts and ammunition for the Boys Blog.
Aaaah, time-out.

Mon.6th Jul. Wernsdorf (SouthEast of Berlin)

Wowee, 10 hours sleep last night, in the deep, dark, quiet forest.
Camping ground - Krossinsee. We can thoroughly recommend it.
It
took a bus, tram and a train to reach Berlin City this morning - we had
decided to do a double decker bus tour of the city, which was well
worthwhile, especially as the weather was nice and we were on top in
the open air. Amazing to see remnants of the Berlin Wall. The
differences between the east and the west of the city are still
apparent, the west looking much more affluent. Lots of new buildings
going up in the east though so the differences, in a generation or two,
will be negligible.
Soon it was time to set off back to the camping
ground so caught the train then the tram before stopping at a
supermarket for all the goodies to make a ham salad for tea. A bus
whistled past us just as we were approaching the bus stop at 4:50 and
the bus timetable revealed that the next bus wasn't due until 6:50pm.
Damn. The only bit of the timetable with a 2 hour gap. We tried waving
our thumbs into the traffic to no avail then spotted an Italian
restaurant over the road...so that's where we whiled away a couple of
pleasant hours until the next bus.

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Niewiesze, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland

Sat. 4th Jul. Krakow - Niewiesze 195ks

We visited Auschwitz and Birkenau.

It was 6pm by the time we found a camping ground....we weren't too sure about this one but it was getting late and it had been quite a harrowing day. The camping ground 'blurb' did say it was by a lake so we were hopeful. We parked where we were told to. Beside a tennis/netball court. It was a huge, tightly packed camping ground, capacity 650 people. After unpacking we went off to investigate and found we were surrounded by four bars....that played loud music. Last night we discovered there are camping grounds and camping grounds!




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Krakow, Southern Poland, Poland

Fri. 3rd Jul. Warsaw - Krakow. 305 k's. (22186 k's to date)
We had a fantastic sleep in the truck. On our new comfy mattress with awning windows open and mozzie netting firmly in place. We woke up when the sun did around 5am, had our showers, boiled the billy and had our porridge. Then lazed around until everyone else in the camping ground stirred! Camping is much more fun than staying in hotel rooms...honest, Roger!
We took a drive around Warsaw before heading South. Normally we are really keen and excited to look around or investigate a new city but, the parts of Warsaw we saw seemed a little drab and unkempt. It was a shame we didn't have time to visit the best parts.
We didn't take many photos today as it was pretty much nondescript main road driving all the way to Krakow. Slow progress too, which made it a long slow day for us. Continually slowing down to pass through all the villages...and there were heaps of them.
We eventually checked into the Clepardia camping ground, recommended by Tom and Gordon, our fellow travellers, the ones we met in Chelyabinsk. Thanks for the recommendation guys, we really enjoyed our stay there.
First impressions of Krakow.... can't wait to start exploring. At the moment we are at Toyota. The truck is having a 15000k service and we are making good use of Toyota's WiFi! Many thanks to Pawel Krupa at Toyota, he looked after us so well (the truck too) and we left laden with gifts - a map of Krakow, key rings, stickers and a brolly. We were very spoilt.
We have decided to expedite our big adventure and zoom through Europe - apart from missing home (hugely) we will have a problem with motor insurance in England because the truck is NZ registered and our European insurance runs out on the 30/7. It could be sorted but we have popped it into the too hard basket!
We have a list of places/cities we would love to come back to, maybe in 2011. Places where you need to spend more than a couple of days. Krakow is at the top of the list.

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