We returned back from Stingray Rv at 11pm and then had to load ‘the beast’, check everything, lock up the house and get a good nights sleep. Clearly something was going to have to ‘give’ and when the alarm went off at 2:30am we had slept for about half an hour. The boys were great and we were packed up and off by 3am. We were in a bit of a rush as I had hoped to leave at 2:45 and I learnt my first ‘RV’ lesson which was that despite an engine that would drive a frigate they are not designed to go quickly. Apart from two broken glasses (sorry to the guys at Stingray!) and a broken cafetier (ours!) we spent ten minutes at Folkestone unpicking branches and leaves that had collected in anything protruding from the side of the vehicle as we rushed towards the motorway along the country lanes.
We made the crossing on time, which was a relief , only to find that given our size the lady had filled up the carriage and we would have to wait until the next one. Grrr – although we were on holiday and it didn’t matter, we had three weeks to kill and so half an hour wasn’t going to make a difference. Eventually we were loaded on and we were put on last; I can now see why! There was about half an inch either side of each wing mirror as we entered the carriage. It was a rather apprehensive moment. As you can imagine it took us a rather long time to exit the carriage, which was about a quarter of a mile long when we got to France.
Once in France we were off and on our way to Switzerland……. The good news was that the steering wheel was at least now on the proper side and the bad news ……… what was supposed to be eight hours took us thirteen! It was a long journey and given the lack of sleep was managed through complete fear and adrenalin! Driving an RV is like sailing a boat; they are unresponsive and sway from side to side. On some of the minor roads the wing mirrors of oncoming lorries passed us with about three inches to spare. To be fair our journey time was increased by two things: the first of which was that we were supposed to have a four foot square board with diagonal red and reflective stripes on the back of the bicycles. We stopped at every service station within the first half of the journey to find one but to no avail. Secondly I was having problems with the filling up of the LGP. The RV works on unleaded and LPG. We had a full tank of petrol but LPG is cheaper. Not every service station had one and when I did find one to fill up it was all rather new. Depending on how tightly you fitted the nozzle to the connection depended on much you received. It was only until the third fill up that we got a proper tank’s worth. A full tank does about 350 miles.
The boys were great and slept a lot of the way. We stopped a couple of times for a break. Eventually after 550 miles, £300 worth of fuel and £150 of tolls we arrived at Engleberg and our campsite. We were pleasantly surprised and the Alps provided the perfect backdrop. The camping fraternity spent the first hour after our arrival all coming to ogle at ‘the beast’ which took up two normal spaces. As you would expect the campsite has clean showers, loos and washing facilities. On arrival we put down the stabilising legs (they automatically set the vehicle on an even level – v impressive) unpacked everything, had supper and went to bed – absolutely shattered!
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