We’re fortunate that we don’t need a loan, but at the moment we’re trying to find places to invest our hard earned (!) dosh.  ISAs have a low return; Premium Bonds are dire; so what else is there?

Well we found ZOPA which is a sort of Internet Loan exchange, where savers lend money to borrowers at a rate they both agree on.  Its actually simpler than that, and safer as well as you only lend a small amount to each person and you can decide what level of risk/return you want.  The company is backed by a lot of known investers and also is managed in such a way as to minimse risk of bad debt (that can happen – though Zopa do chase debts down). 

I’m fairly new to it, but my loan book is currently averaging over 8% returns (minus fees/bad debt) on low risk markets, so using real figures I should get more than 6.5% cleared return…..  Its actually easier than you think

The main downside for lenders is that if you lend, say, £3,500 over 3 years, then if you want your money back it may take 3 years for you to get all the money back (at c. £100pm) – but if you can live with that….

On the flip side, if you are a borrower, you get a flexible low-rate loan you can over pay as you wish….

Zopas ads above which will give you more information.

2 – 29 September 2009 (27 days)
Trip distance: 2355 miles (excluding Home to/from Dover)
Trip cost: €975 (c. £877 ) – €36 or £32 per day

For France we recommend All The Aires France primarily, and BordAtlas for free/cheap aires

Summary

France is a country we’ve only previously driven through on route to other destinations.  So this is our first attempt to enjoy France.  Unfortunately the 4 weeks we had available aren’t really enough to see all of France, so we have clearly missed off huge chunks, and the parts we did see were rather rapidly examined before departing.

As such, this trip is a sighting trip leaving us knowledge of where to go and spend future trips.

Overall France varies between really very good, and rather mediocre.  There is hardly any dire but there are quite a few exceptionals – so overall we’ll be back in France to see some more of it later!  We were fairly uninspired on the SE corner of the med (bar Frejus which we enjoyed).  We were expecting Nice, Cannes, and St Tropez to be wow places but in effect we’d suggest they are not worth the detour.  The gorges and mountains in the SE were however exceptional and a huge surprise and are absolutely worth seeing in the summer.

We were fairly uninspired by the food and eating out establishments – in a lot of towns and villages the eateries were almost deserted and seemed to lack atmosphere and quality, and apart from pizzas we struggled to find places to eat out.  We can’t comment on wine as this wasn’t meant to be a wine tour – another time

We also seem to be spoilt as a lot of sites may be “wow” sites for some people, but having spent a lot of time in Italy this year a lot of the French Roman ruins are quite poor in comparison.  So if you like Roman ruins – see France before Italy

France does cater for motorhomes rather well though in some places we felt there were too many motorhomes.  Considering we were there out of seasons we’d hate to see some places in July and August!

Overall an 8.5/10 trip.

CLICK HERE FOR WEEK 1

Review of Italy and Switzerland trip

25 February – 14 April 2009 (48 days)
Trip distance: 3689 miles (excluding Home to/from Dover)
Average: 34-35 mpg
Trip cost: €1636 (c. £1500) – €34 or £30 per day

Summary

This tour of mainly Italy and a little Switzerland has been our best so far being a very interesting trip taking in countries we knew little about, over routes that we knew nothing about, and having to learn along the way. We had loads of tips off the Internet forums which helped no end with essentials, routes, and places to see which made things a little easier for us.

Switzerland is lovely, great landscape and very interesting views and sights along the way. Apart from Geneva where you are NOT permitted to wild camp, you can (apparently) camp anywhere overnight (15hrs max) as long as you comply with any local parking restrictions. This meant we were able to find some absurd locations such as in the Alps! All good fun though. There are many “motorhome services” – but not many marked overnight stops so just make your own. You do need to research which passes are open (or at least read the signs!) as we did end up a road with no exit to Italy. Knowing where we were going and looking at a map would have helped…. We did buy a Swiss Vignette (24€ ish) for access to their motorway network, but the route we used down to Italy was really motorway free so not really needed. The way back however was almost all motorway and a lot easier (though we were never checked if we had the Vignette or not).

In truth, we didn’t really do Switzerland justice as we stayed in Italy longer than expected and the way back was pretty much a dash through. We will return and give Switzerland a good going over one day.

The real north-westerly part of Italy where we entered was too stressful, chaotic, and dense for our tastes but Tuscany down to Rome was much better. Wild camping seems to be frowned upon though there are many official overnight spots and we never had any issues where we did wild camp. We did find many of the documented stopovers (in Boardatlas 2009 and Guida Camper) to be wrong at times – the locations either had “no overnight parking” signs; were pay & display and not “free” as per the guides; or facilities such as water weren’t actually there. That said, some were great and some random POIs from my database which weren’t in any guides worked fine.

Some parts of Italy were SUBPERB and absolutely worth seeing. Stunning places, stunning scenery, and just a great environment to tour. There were a few places that felt lower than 3rd world, and in places the lack of maintenance and investment showed. We did find Italy became visibly poorer and messier near Napels and below, and apart from some amazing sites (Pompeii, Paestum, Matera, Alberobello) the south doesn’t really give you much to like. Interestingly, our database of sites/aires has a visible line from Rome on the west across to the east, with loads of stops above the line, and not many below it. This line does seem to tally with the areas we didn’t like. As mentioned in the diary, in hindsight we’d still visit the sites in the south as they are spectacular, but just route between them as fast as possible rather than try and linger and stumble on nice areas.

Generally we try to avoid toll roads as the free roads are normally not much longer for time or distance (especially if you are just pootling along) and a lot more picturesque. Italy is different – the toll roads can, for example, be 1hr for a 80km route; whereas the free route is 2.5hrs and 120km! And though more interesting, the roads can be especially challenging. We asked TomTom to route both ways and then make a judgement call. When on the motorways the tolls seem to work out at maybe 5c-15c per km – so 50-80km may be 5€. Sometimes you get a ticket and pay on exit, and on others (e.g. Pompeii going South) you pay a fixed price as you enter and stay on as long as you like.

LPG is widely available – a lot more stations than my GPS database.

We don’t need to say much more on L’Aquila apart from we’re gutted for the city that was so kind to us. We glad we went and saw it as it was before it was devastated. Hope they recover well.

Overall though this trip was great – a few blips near the start and half way through but the rest of Italy more than made up for it. We saw everything we imagined, we did everything we wanted, and we ate out till we’re Pizza’d out. We would wholeheartedly recommend a tour of Italy – but would say out of peak season (probably April/May/early June) would be the best time.

How did the Van do?

As ever, the van did really well. When keeping to slower routes (50mph) it managed an average of 36mpg which is mightily impressive considering we weigh almost the maximum 2.8 tonnes. Normal average mpg is 33-34 ish. When driving in the Italian towns, the van actually felt very nimble and agile and to be honest we drove it like a car. Anything much bigger would have caused us issues on a fair few occasions!

We pushed the van much more on this trip than previous, wild-camping for up to 14 days at a time without facilities – and it coped perfectly. The shower and bathroom was in frequent use (unlike most vans). We never ran out of water, gas or power – the Gaslow and extra batteries worked flawlessly.

Obviously, we topped the fresh water and emptied whenever we found somewhere free and easy, but apart from that we had our freedom!

Even over the very bumpy roads (imagine a main road worst than unpaved UK roads), nothing broke, no rattles developed, no cupboard doors fell open and everything stayed in place. We know our van has solid (oak frame) furniture with thick wood elsewhere – but we were still surprised to the extent of the shaking it received and remained unscathed. Not sure how many cheaper-made vans would fair in the same conditions.

Considering how many nights we’ve been away in it of recent, and how many miles it has done – the van will receive a good clean, a bit of TLC, and we will ensure the brakes have something left in them!

CLICK HERE FOR WEEK 1

Summary of trip and tips learned

28 November – 16 January – 49 days.
Trip distance: 4327 miles (excluding Home to/from Dover)
Average:  33 mpg
Trip cost: €2400 (c. £2280) – €48.97 or £46.52 per day

Summary

This trip was planned around an already organised motorbike trail riding trip I had in the south of Spain, so we simply just extended the stay to incorporate a tour of Spain and Portugal.  As this covers the Christmas and New Year periods we thought it would be a popular run for all the winter sun chasers.

Spain proved to be a huge disappointment.  We’ve both visited bits briefly for holidays, but fortunately none of our parents are Costa-Del-Veterans – and for that we now thank them!  The country had some stunning gems and places that really had the wow factor, but these were too few and far between.  Most of the place was run-down, dirty, desolate, and almost third-world in places.  The Spanish camp sites were the lowest quality we’ve seen in any country so far (with a couple of notable exceptions).  Far too many semi-dilapidated concrete rendered buildings for our liking, and even the main tourist traps looked awful, roads unfinished, and everything lacked quality.  We can see the attraction of a week doing nothing in the sun, but apart from the climate we do not know why people over-winter here when there are so many other options.

That said, some villages were sweet, some of the national parks and mountains in Andalusia and Pyrenees are stunning, and we had an excellent time in the mountains walking, motorbike riding and snowboarding!

Portugal though was a huge surprise for us.  Our expectations were not high expecting it to be similar to Spain, but our findings were more of what we expected Spain to be like.  It was much cleaner; finished to a higher quality; a lot of the smaller towns were stunning; and the whole atmosphere was more positive and people seemed to care about how things were.  The larger cities weren’t really to our taste, and there were some quite poor areas but none as tatty as Spain.  The tourist destinations were reasonably tasteful, of high quality, and not over done.

We would happily visit Portugal again, and even have a package-holiday week to laze in the Algarve sun – but we can’t see us coming back to Spain unless there is something specific needing us to be there.

Overall though we really enjoyed the trip – we pushed the van a bit more, wild camped in some unbeatable places, and had some most excellent adventures on the beach, in the mountains, and in the snow.  Just a shame we didn’t fall in love with Spain….

How did the Van do?

After our last trip, we knew the van is perfectly capable of long trips.  This time, the test was more down to wild camping and use in the snow.  The subtle changes we made in this area seem to have helped out no end.  The van is warmer, and when wild camping we had plenty of electricity (200AH) which we didn’t get close to using – and that includes charging phones; laptop etc as well as running the heating (gas powered blown air).  Though we were careful we always washed; washed up and showered we didn’t run out of water.  The Gaslow refillable gas was superb meaning even with only 6kg of LPG we never ran short.  So the van is now really very capable of wild camping.

We winterised as much as possible, with insulated tanks, fresh tank antifreeze heater, extra insulation, insulating external pipes, and also sealing around the windows to prevent water getting trapped and freezing and potentially breaking seals.  It has to be said the van wasn’t designed for full winter use, and we found a fair few “cold air inlets” and areas where insulation was nonexistent which we rectified as much as possible (without compromising propane drop-hole safety).  We are also concerned about the bathroom as we can’t get to the pipe-work and as the bathroom is generally colder than the rest of the van we presume it isn’t well insulated between the bathroom and the body – so pipes freezing here was a worry. 

However, the execution of camping at in the snow and up to 7,800ft in the winter was absolutely fine and flawless.  The van encountered no problems and was as snug as if it were on the beach!  The coldest night was (according to forecast only) probably between -6 & -10’C and it could probably do slightly colder.  Obviously heating is more powerful on electric hookup, but we also camped in the freezing cold (the pond next to us froze overnight) with just the gas heating without problem.  However if it is very cold AND very windy the gas heating isn’t up to the job (until I find and block all the holes!)

We encountered one fault – one of the mains electrical breakers failed and refused to latch “on”.  This was away from power and with all devices isolated so a simple failure.  Fortunately this happened late on the trip and did not cause any issues.  After a cleanup the van still looks pretty much unmarked and as new, nothing damaged, squeaking or marked, testimony to how strong the conversion was made.

Incredibly, despite the exchange rate being pants, and a couple of snowboarding breaks and a motorbike weekend, we still came in under budget!

CLICK HERE FOR WEEK 1

Summary of trip and tips learned

5 October – 15 November – 41 days.
Trip distance: 2209 miles (excluding Home to/from Dover)
Average: 34mpg
Trip cost: €2098 (c. £1690) – €51.17 or £41.22 per day

Summary

This trip was a test as much as for the van as it was for us – to see whether we could survive in a small van for a long time.  Starting in Holland which we know well, and then into Germany which we didn’t, it would give us many challenges!  We knew this trip would mainly be a sightseeing tour which would mean moving frequently and lots of exploring taking in new sights with little time to rest.  Future trips will have more rests and chill time in!

Holland was as lovely as ever – and we will go back again in the warmer months.  Germany was a bit of a surprise – we were constantly astounded by some of the stunning sites we saw – though most has been rebuilt since it was destroyed in WWII.  The old East Germany is currently getting substantial investment and reconstruction and as such many places are improving much beyond their neglected original states.  That said, some of the places in the northern and eastern parts are not attractive enough to make a visit.  Central and Central-West Germany seemed to offer us more fun without having to go to the cities.  We will return to Germany to cover the southern areas possibly on a trip to Eastern Europe…

Overall the van survived; we got on fine and we enjoyed the compressed space!  And we saw far more and enjoyed the experience more than we expected.  More rest and chill days will be planned in future trips – but it’s a challenge to justify doing nothing when there is so many new things to do!  We didn’t get bored; didn’t have time to read as much as expected; the 4 magazines still are not fully read; and we didn’t go mad!

Key tips

• ACSI Camping card, and campsite DVD are essential and a good investment
• CCI card can be used as ID at campsites – we’ve never had to leave our passport.
• TomTom is our new best mate!  Superb piece of kit.  Faultless throughout.
• Never leave the van without some form of GPS device!
• Microfiber towels (Blacks/Millets) are superb!
• “Technical” clothing (e.g. activewear) is superb – stays clean longer and dries quicker!

Essential Items

• TomTom!
• Toolbox, oil, WD40
• Laptop with good translation software, Autoroute (with GPS databases of all campsites)
• Good map (or GPS) of campsites.  ASCI DVD is great as it has so much information on the sites, such as open dates (essential in October!), prices (who accepts discounts) and pictures.
• Camperstop overnight camping guide.

Items thought essential, but not

• Satellite TV (left at home deliberately – and not missed)
• Outdoor table.  May as well just use the floor!  The chairs don’t fit it anyway
• The amount of clothes… We could have easily survived on half!

Changes to plan/views

• Lack of wild camping – Holland do not permit this, and Germany has loads of Stelplatz which are always convenient.  Also whilst the gas heating is okay, it doesn’t beat electric and we like it snug.  Hopefully more wild camping in the summer
• Balancing “touring” with “seeing and absorbing” is difficult.  You can’t see everything, and it is tough getting the balance right – more challenging than it appears!

What we need to take more of as we could not buy abroad

• “Options” Belgium Chocolate hot chocolate
• Squash

Bottom Line

A really good start to our adventures! May there be many more to come!

Goto week 1 details

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Ryan & Mel