Explore europe in a campervan

I’ve just got back from a walk along the stream and up the hill.  It was fantastic!  I think I’m falling in love with the mountains now.  I just realised that when we were in the van we were mainly surviving in the Alps, but now we’re really living in the Alps and it’s great.

Simon and I took this route on a walk a few weeks ago, but it’s quite a steep incline and it was just too hard going in deep snow so we turned back quite early.  Today the snow is less and harder so I just kept going and going.  No one else (human) had walked that way since the last snow a few days ago so it was fascinating to see all of the animal tracks.  I just wish I knew what they all were!

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I know we’re not campervan-based right now, but our van is still our transport on the snowy roads so I thought I’d share our experience of the essentials that you need when driving a motorhome in snow.  I guess many of you in the UK are having to think about this in the current Arctic conditions!  Of course those of us travelling in campervans have a distinct advantage - if we get stuck in bad conditions we can brew a cup of tea, blast the heating for a while, fill a hot water bottle and bed down for the night.  Luxury compared to shivering in the driver’s seat of a car wondering why the only food is a packet of mints!

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Our days in Chamonix were spent with Simon on the mountains and me in the apartment where his friends were staying. Simon first met Anthony in Chamonix several years ago when he joined him and a mutual friend, Damien, at the last minute - booking a flight for the following day when he heard they were heading to the slopes! Anthony is a magician and came out with his assistant and mate Joy, and her boyfriend Oz.

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Well, the lift that used to carry people up the side of the valley from the car park below the gondola was unreliable last year…and this year they seem to have given up on it. To make matters worse the steps up the slope have been inexplicably removed so without snow it is like walking up and down a mud slide; when it freezes in the town it will be even more treacherous!

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Our journey to Morzine in our campervan including mileage and diesel prices.

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Finally the little story of how we made it back to the UK.

It was Monday when we left Morzine and our Channel Tunnel crossing was booked for Tuesday evening.  It was decided that we would take the sat nav’s route, avoiding any toll roads.  This involved some mountain roads north of Geneva, but the snow was so far gone that we knew the roads would be steep, but passable.  Straight away I was starting to get irritated by the squeaking wheels that had supposedly been cured weeks previously during one of our overnight stays at a garage. More >>

We saw the season to an end with some style - but with one less person in our on-piste party.  Steele unfortunately had a pan-accident with some boiling water and pasta which badly burned his foot and he was unable to snowboard for the last few days.  If there had been any way to get on a snowboard he definitely would have done so his readiness to stay in the van told us just how bad his foot was.  No photos here because it’s too nasty-looking.

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A little while ago we were contacted by a writer from InLondon magazine which is published for Australians and Kiwis living in London.  They were looking for content for an article about travelling in Europe in a van so we answered a few questions and here’s the article

I think we might be a little less wild than the Australian girls featured as we’ve found that we’re more healthy than ever before - while they got run down and sick!  But it’s nice to be quoted in print and to think that we might help others make the choice to escape by van some time.

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On Thursday the weather was perfect for being on the slopes!  But we really had to go shopping.  Well, the main reason for the trip was to fill up on gas and we really wanted to go before the weekend to avoid any traffic issues.

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