Europe

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site

GPS

Distance Today

Meals

Weather

Near Ludlow, Shropshire County, England

8 January 2004

Rainy & Cold

“I spent a month in Southampton one week…”

Connie came to the conclusion that many of the homeless people on the streets of Southampton, England were in fact travelers who had come to collect a shipment from overseas and have been waiting, in some cases for decades, for the well-oiled machinery of customs to perform it’s machinations. After our third day wandering the streets in the same clothes, we too began to feel and smell like these wayward drifters in search of their long lost possessions.

After waiting out Monday and Tuesday, hoping for things to happen naturally, we took matters into our own hands on Wednesday and delivered each bit of paper in person to its appropriate recipient. This cost a packet in cab fare, but did seem to move the process along a bit. By Thursday afternoon we were finally told that our container was ready to be unpacked. We ran (almost literally) to the location our container had been dropped, and discovered our vehicles upright and still in one piece!

With great excitement we re-connected the batteries, started them up and drove them out of the container. We immediately hit the road and made the four-hour drive to Ludlow, where we are the guests of Liz and Tony Jackson, Graham’s parents. We will be spending the next few days tracking down some last minute parts required for the vehicles and making final preparations.

We hope to begin our journey south toward the “dark continent” by the end of next week. After 2 weeks of typical British mid-winter rain and overcast skies, we are looking forward to some Moroccan sun!

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site

GPS

Distance Today

Meals

Wads, fish & chips

Weather

Portsmouth, UK

17 January 2004

50°48’34.7”N
1°0’25.8”W

233.9km

Sunny & 50 (F) degrees

We have finally embarked on our journey toward Africa. What’s done on the vehicles is done, and what’s not done doesn’t need to be done. We departed Graham’s parents’ home in Ludlow at 2pm to make the four hour drive to Portsmouth to catch our ferry to the France. We drove onto the ferry at 10:00pm. We stayed awake long enough to watch England disappear in our wake, then went to bed for some much needed sleep after a long day of packing and loading.

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site

GPS

Distance Today

Meals

Curry fettucini with mussels

Weather

Serris, France

18 January 2004

48°51’15.8”N
2°46’27.6”W

229.5km

Sunny & 40 (F) degrees

We were rudely awoken on the ferry this morning at 7 am after a restless night on a pitching boat. We finally found the route to Paris from La Havre, only to have to turn back to get Euros to pay the tolls along the way. We arrived in Serris (about 30km outside of Paris) at about noon. We plan to spend two nights here and do some sightseeing in Paris tomorrow.

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site

GPS

Distance Today: 0

Meals

Miscellaneous restaurants plus one hotel-room picnic

Weather

Odometer: 463.4km

Serris, France

19-20 January 2004

Hotel De Eleysee

48°51’15.8”N
2°46’27.6”W

Rainy & 40 (F)

The team split up on Monday, with Graham and Connie visiting Disneyland Paris (which was wet and cold and fabulous, and Connie couldn’t stop grinning the whole day) and Jen and Witt going into Paris for some sightseeing, visiting the Paris must-see attractions, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triumphe, and the Notre Dame cathedral.

A less-often-visited Paris attraction, the embassy of the Republic of Niger, proved to be a worthwhile stop, and we decided to spend an extra day in Paris to get a visa for Niger, potentially saving us going out of our way to get the visa in Ghana.

Having had enough of 3.50 Euro coffees, (exacerbated by a US dollar at it’s weakest point ever against the Euro) we visited the “Hypermarche” near our hotel. The place was like a Wal-Mart on steroids, selling everything from cheese and wine to auto parts. We found a good selection of French wines selling for about the same as the aforementioned Café au Lait, so we stocked up. We purchased fruit, bread, and cheese to complete a fine meal in our room, with several bottles of wine left over for future consumption.

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site or Accommodations

GPS

Distance Today: 773km

Meals

Finest French roadside cuisine (rest stop grub)

Weather

Pamiers, France

21 January 2004

Hotel Rocade

43°07.419’N
1°37.699’W

Odometer:1236km

Rainy & 50 (F) degrees

We departed Paris for what would hopefully be warmer climates further south. Our route consisted exclusively of motorways (interstate highway) and it rained for most of the day. We decided to get off the highways for awhile and make a trip through the tiny country of Andorra, and ended out about 40km south of Toulouse, France, when we decided to stop for the night at a very strange hotel in Pamiers. One of Witt and Jen’s tires developed a leak (after having been recently repaired in England) that was discovered earlier in the day. The first order of business on arriving at the Rocade hotel was to switch the tire for one of the spares. The hotel mascot was a puppy in his “biting” phase who insisted on gnawing at our ankles as we checked in. The proprietor seemed to find this perfectly acceptable and we were left to fend off the little menace on our own.

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site or Accommodations

GPS

Distance Today: 527km

Meals

Hotel buffet

Weather

Peñiscola, Spain (no, really, that’s what it’s called)

22 January 2004

Aparthotel Acuazure

40°21.551’N
0°23.968’E

Odometer: 1763km

Sunny & 55 (F) degrees

After breakfast at the Rocade, we checked out of the hotel. This was quite an involved process that included the puppy trying to eat Jen’s fleece. She extracted it from his mouth, but not without him leaving a couple of holes in the garment. We headed south, and as soon as we started climbing into the mountains the sky cleared and we saw the sun for the first time in what seems like months. The road took us from ~200m in elevation in Pamiers to a pass at about 2000m. The views from the road were stunning, with vast fields of powder just waiting to be poached. Jen and Witt were longing for their skis. After crossing into Andorra and over the pass, we drove through several small ski villages, one of which boasted the “Aspen bar” and the “Colorado Tex Mex grille.” We thought that we could sell our Colorado license plates for quite a bit here… We descended through the decidedly unattractive city of Andorra La Vella and entered Spain a short while later. One of the attractions of Andorra is that it doesn’t have any sales tax, which is pretty significant when compared with the 19.1% charged in neighboring France. Diesel was selling for .56 Euros per liter ($1.69/gallon), as compared with .90 Euros ($2.72/gallon) in France. Needless to say, we filled our tanks. Even so, a full tank cost us about $65. Our first stop in Spain was La Seu d’Urgell where we had a quick picnic lunch of the bread and cheese we bought in Paris. It was great just to be able to stand in the sun! After lunch it was back to the motorway and on to Barcelona where we picked up the Mediterranean coast. We picked a town at random and pulled off to find a place to spend the night. Peñiscola is a resort town during the summer, and in January we had a hard time finding an open hotel. We eventually got a room for 100 Euros for the four of us that has a huge balcony facing the sea. And, for an extra 5 euros (for all four of us) they let us poach the buffet set out for the senior group staying at the hotel. The food wasn’t great, but for 5 euros, who cares? It was great seeing the mountains and snow this morning and falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing tonight!

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site or Accommodations

GPS

Distance Today: 668km

Meals

Boccadillos

Weather

Near Adra, Spain

23 January 2004

Roadside Hotel

36°47.243’N
2°44.243’W

Odometer: 2441km

Sunny & 70 (F) degrees

We spent the day on the Spanish autopiste along the Mediterranean coast. The green truck has developed a disturbing shudder in the steering at about 55mph. We’ll need to look into that at some point. We drove until almost dark and stayed at a roadside hotel. Each hotel room was equipped with it’s own garage (kind of scary), but of course our vehicles would not fit.

Sunset from the autopiste

Updated Information

Date

Camp Site or Accommodations

GPS

Distance Today: 278km

Meals

Paella

Weather

Near Marbella, Spain

24 January 2004

Roadside Hotel

36°23.493’N
5°12.309’W

Odometer: 2719km

Sunny & 70 (F) degrees

The autopiste ended shortly after we started this morning, leaving us on a secondary road that hugged the coastline and passed through many seaside towns. It was much slower going, but more attractive. We stopped in one such town and had the oil changed in both trucks. Afterward we found a beautiful spot for lunch overlooking the Mediterranean. We drove on to Marabella where we stopped to have a look at the wheel alignment on the green truck. It was out of alignment and we spent some time adjusting it. At the same time we found an internet café and Graham and Connie went grocery shopping. According to guidebook, Marbella is the “place to be” on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. We saw lots fancy cars and fancy boats. We ended out staying in Marbella until dark, so we found a hotel and went out for some Paella. We found a hotel just outside of town.

On to Morocco!