May Update - 13/5/08 - Woffelsbach, Germany (2,815 km)
We managed to have breakfast in England, lunch in France and supper in Belgium!! Mind you, we were only in France for a total of 2 1/2 hours and that included stopping for lunch!
We arrived in Dover and asked at the ferry terminal about crossings to be told that it would be much better and cheaper to book on-line so we wandered around town looking for a wifi connection. Once booked for the noon crossing the following day we drove to the seafront on the advice of a lovely man we met in the car park - he advised us we could park and sleep on the seafront without being disturbed and we'd get a nice view in the morning! At the seafront we were flagged down by a rather tipsy Irish gentleman who was trying to get his very dilapidated, ancient camper van started. We tried to jump it but no luck so, after getting some funny looks from the local policeman, we towed it up the road for a bump start. He (the Irishman, not the policeman!) was so grateful and told us that he had lived on and off in the van for 30 years... it certainly smelt that way! He wobbled off towards the docks with a tail-light out and we looked for him broken down at the dock but he had vanished! I'm sure this won't be the last time we're called upon to provide a towing facility!
At the allotted time the next morning we arrived at the dock to be told that we were supposed to be on the earlier 10am ferry! I gave the woman some spiel about the internet connection crashing when I booked and she let us on without paying extra! A thoroughly uneventful trip had us arriving in France at 2pm. We drove off in the glorious sunshine towards Belgium.
Now, it's not that we don't like France you understand... it's just we had planned on spending time in Germany instead. Suffice to say we were only in France for less than 3 hours! Belgium was a little more interesting but only just... far too flat for Oz! Diesel was £1 per litre (€1.23) which is about 20p cheaper than the UK per litre and fortunately we filled up in Belgium as the price went up again once we reached Germany.
Aiming for some lakes marked on the map in a national park we wound through some hills and into Germany. Once in the park our map was useless as it showed none of the roads or campsites. We did find a municipal campsite but it was already full. Finally we stumbled upon a delightful campsite right by the lake and they had space for us (although they did look rather shocked by the Mog!). It turns out that it is a major bank-holiday weekend in Germany and the site was full to bursting by the following afternoon. We settled in for a 4 night stay... we had lots still to do on the Mog, rather fancied canoeing on the lake and we didn't think we could get in anywhere else this weekend.
The campsite is rather odd... obviously one can buy or long-term rent a pitch and then add awnings, fences, hedges, flag poles, wooden structures and strange roof covers to your caravan and site! Every pitch seems to have a satellite dish and most a flag!
Click to enlarge
No-one speaks English in this region and they keep thinking we are Dutch. Our neighbours are Dutch and are a lovely older couple who have spent the weekend watching us sort out and clean the Mog. We had a lovely day yesterday canoeing the lake in our inflatable Gumotex canoe. Our neighbours told us that this is the lake that the Dam-busters used the bouncing bomb on!! So we had to paddle across to see the re-built dam. Now, our memory of this event is taken purely from the Dam-busters film and even that is a bit hazy but as the dam was re-built we assume they were successful with their mission. Either way, it was a lovely 12 km paddle but don't buy anything at the dam as the prices were astronomical!
Off again today towards Hanover as we want to see the rather strange town of Hamelin.
