InvictaMoto's Family Travels

What are the chances that both the carbon monoxide detector battery and the smoke alarm battery would go at the same time? We have had a few problems with the Kidde CO one before. But it seemed to resolve itself. I removed it and have replaced it with the one from the house. It's only recently been replaced. A quick dash to Wickes bought a new one for the house. Fitted the house one and there it was "peep". The old one peeped all the way to the bin. So remove the smoke alarm. Check battery is the 9v rectangular one. Rush to Sainsbury's for a new battery. Fitted. Peep free environment. All on the morning we are going away for the weekend. What next?

It seems like weeks if not months since we last went away in Molly the Moho.   Our asy couple of trips have been cancelled either by the weather or by Claire's emergency dental appointments.  We are still out of pocket after giving Nelson's Patch plenty of notice that we couldn't make it.  As their park wasn't full it wasn't as if they couldn't have let us change the booking until this coming weekend. Instead, they didn't bother to even acknowledge my emails.  So in future they can get stuffed.   So where to go. We have left it a little late as we still have the ongoing saga with Claire's dental appointments.  I locked around on the various camping websites and there wasn't much that caught my attention.  In the end I discounted the Caravan Club sites, not where I wanted to go and the costs seem to grow to be nothing like the "from" price you start with. In the end I had a look at " Premier Parks " and chose a large site i...

A little more planning this evening for the second day we are in France.  WSe will overnight at the CCP aire at Formerie and the plan is to head almost due south to the CCP aire at Beaulieu-sur-Loire. Leaving it to Google Maps and TomTom of course come up with several different routes. One that goes into Paris and on the  périphérique (shudder the thought!) and others that bypass Paris to the east and the west.   I decided that as we have "done" the east side so many times, maybe the east ought to be given a chance.   Ticking the boxes in both apps to "avoid tolls" came to one route!  No doubt when it gets onto "Max" it will all change. So the attached screenshot is the proposed route for Day 2.

I have formulated a rough plan for the outward journey that has us stopping in three Camping-Car Park (CCP) aires on the way to Alcoceber. We could stay at free aires rather than spend between €10 and €15 a night, but we should be guaranteed an electrical hook-up and some sites are municipal campsites that have joined the CCP system and have loos as well. We have already booked the first night away at the CCP site at Formerie. This is far enough to drive on the first day after getting off the boat at Calais around 1pm and then going to do some shopping for us and Reggie. It's only about 115kms from Calais and we are travelling on a Tuesday and there are no school holidays! Day 2 is a little more complex.  Paris sits like a huge spider in its web, and getting past it can mean large detours. Usually, we head towards Rouen from Formerie and then from there head south taking in Chartres and along the N10 route towards Tours, Poitiers and Bordeaux. This time I decided to let TomTom Plan...

I have had a few days off as there were other things to look into. The rear bumper fix for Molly being one of them - more on that elsewhere. So whilst I was playing with Max (the TomTom Go Camper Max satnav/GPS) I decided to let her/him/they calculate a return journey from Alcoceber/Alcossebre with the dimensions slightly altered to make the van wider.   If you have read the earlier blog about the journey to Invicta Caravan Services you will get an idea how even the best laid plans can be ruined by Google having the wrong information in their Maps application! Plus the roads chosen were too narrow for Molly to pass trucks and buses safely without one (usually me as truck drivers know the size and weight always wins!) of us diving to the left to avoid contact. On the summer trip in May we started coming north from Valencia.  This time Alcoceber is around 110kms to the north of Valencia.  The route though looks pretty much like the one we did on the way back in May. The non-toll route go...

... and back. The first part of this blog was written on Thursday and then left as a draft so that today, when I got back from collecting Molly I could upload in one blog! Thursday 8th August To get Molly up to Staplehurst for a 9am arrival meant leaving home around 8am. It's merely 40 miles max buty it would be during the morning rush hour.  With the M20 currently deployed as a contraflow, called Operation Brock , and a reduced speed limit, I let Max (Satnav!) choose a non motorway route. Not a non-toll as there aren't any toll motorways around here. The route on paper and on screen didn't look too bad.  It was. Once off the A20 after Ashford the route to Pluckley and Headcorn was on shitty little roads. At one point I had to avoid a lump of tree hanging onto the road. It was around a blind bend and luckily nothing came the other way. Car drivers that have no idea which side of the painted centre line they are supposed to be on!  Once in Staplehurst Max took us to where Go...

We have stayed at Nelson's Patch before and when I was looking for a weekend away at the end of the school holidays I thought it would be nice to go again.  Two nights and hopefully the weather will be better and we can take a walk to the coast and maybe to Happisburgh  and see the lighthouse and the beach.  Last time we had a walk locally but Reggie wasn't too enthusiastic as the road past the entrance to the site doesn't have a decent path, and the traffic was flying past. Hopefully, the pub right next door will be open this time as we will be there Friday and Saturday evenings!