Explore europe in a campervan

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

We left Dorset with a few errands to run on our way to the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone. For once we arrived there on time - only to be delayed 3 and a half hours due to volume of passengers and cancelled crossings.

The route that the sat nav suggested sent us through Belgium and Luxembourg, but we were keen to stay in France so navigated via Reims, then Bourg en Bresse to avoid the ski resorts and mountain passes north of Geneva that we crossed on our way down last year. We also chose not to use toll roads as the total cost of tolls down to the Alps is around €100 and not worth it for the steady speed we travel.

First stop for the night (in the early hours due to the delayed crossing) was a town called Bavay which has a motorhome ‘Aire de Service’ where campervans are permitted to stay free of charge. It looked a bit grim and deserted so we headed back to a car park near the centre of the town where another British van was parked. It was a quick sleep and an early start, a little bleary eyed.

Next leg was Bavay to Bourg En Bresse, but we didn’t make it that far.  Not far out of Dijon the windscreen wiper arm on the driver’s side snapped. Very bad luck (or a Mercedes fault perhaps) as the passenger side broke earlier in the year on a very wet day in the centre of Sheffield. Fortunately the rain eased off and we stopped at a caravan dealer that showed as an ‘aire’ on the sat nav. Although it was closed there was another British van there so we felt comfortable. An hour after a call to the AA via our Safeguard insurance policy and a mechanic turned up and swapped the passenger side arm to the driver’s side - a temporary solution but got us mobile. We stayed the night and chatted to the man from the other van who had converted it himself, spent time in our old haunt, Tarifa, and was heading (not to “Morrocco as usual”) but to Sicily for the winter.

My sister very kindly researched the location of some Mercedes dealers on our route and we headed towards Geneva, choosing to take the toll road as we had lost a fair bit of time. €33 later! and we couldn’t find the dealer just outside Geneva. Rather than divert to Annecy, and as having one windscreen wiper was manageable, we carried on directly to Morzine and went straight away to the friendly garage in the town centre to order a replacement that should arrive on Tuesday.

So a safe arrival - but starting to question the build quality of Mercedes vans!

Summary -

Kimmeridge to Folkestone - 182 miles
Calais to Bavay - 120 miles
Bavay to Sampans - 290 miles
Sampans to Morzine - 180 miles

Average fuel consumption - 27mpg
Average speed - around 55mph

Fuel price in Poole, UK - £1.089
Fuel price in France - between €1.019 and €1.20! we paid €1.10 and €1.20

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Diary, Travel, Campervan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.