Roadtrip

Where did I leave you? Ah yes, leaving Belgium on Friday morning.

Up and at it at 6am, we packed the final bits and bobs for my journey into the car, I checked I had all I needed food wise close to hand and then we both set off. Himself on his bike and me shouting "faster, faster" at him until finally he couldn't keep up. I was off and headed home!

I would just like to say at this point that I had a wonderful birthday and was spoiled rotten by an amazing boyfriend.

Ok, enough soppiness.

As we left the sun was starting to rise. A perfect start and sadly my photo does not do it justice, but I can be forgiven as I was driving.

Sunrise

Pat and I went at it and before I knew it I was beyond Frankfurt. Normally this stretch of road is quite busy and you get to see a plane or two taxiing over the motorway bridge runway. Not this time. This time I thought I recognised the bridge but very soon, I was beyond it and traffic was flowing normally. This was a real bonus, but sadly means I did not get to take the photos I said I would for the Beard. I stopped soon after for fuel and lunch in what I think was the hotel we slept in on one of our trips and where I left my comfortable pillow. I seem to remember the car park and the buffet type restaurant.  I had some (very salty) Indonesian noodles.

Lunchtime filler

I drove on and on at as steady a pace as I could, just around 75mph. Disaster struck. About 70km outside Nuremberg, here exactly, Pat flashed her "Stop" and battery warning light. I was lucky enough to be about 400m from a parking section off the motorway and I hesitated, wondering what was going on, but then heard a noise, like I had driven over something, so I pulled in.

So began the drama. After speaking to the Beard and he reminded me that I had taken out the EU breakdown cover I got straight on the phone to the RAC (other insurers are available).  They promised that in around on hour I would have someone out to have a look. In the meantime, the power of Google proved pretty danged good and we diagnosed that the fan belt had come off. Under the bonnet sure enough, the fan belt was off. This must have been the noise I heard.  To cut a long story short, and also because it is funny and embarrassing, a guy finally pulled up in a van behind me as I was calling the RAC back after 1.5 hours to see what was happening and I hung up. He proceeded to look under the bonnet and had no English and my German is limited to about ten words (numbers). I thought "great, this will be fun". Next thing I know he is off chatting to some truck driver parked up behind me and eating his packed lunch. Next thing I know is the truck driver comes over and in very broken English asked me if I have called a mechanic. I ask him if they have not called one. It suddenly dawned on me that he wasn't from the RAC at all, he had just stopped and offered to look in case he could help! Nightmare. Feeling rather stupid and a little bit amused, I was back on the phone to RAC who informed me, eventually, that they had messed up and not spotted an email coming from the rescue man and so he was unable to find me. Second time lucky then.  I gave them the coordinates from the TomTom again and was told another hour. By this time it was 7pm and I was not happy. I was running out of water and only had crisps and sweets to eat. I could not cook because I had no water, there were no toilets at this layby and it was around 30 degrees. I tried not to panic but realised that the sun was beginning to set and I was alone at the side of a German motorway.

By 8.30 I had a truck, a young mechanic and was getting Pat loaded onto the back of the loader to be taken to the garage where we would await the parts in the morning and book into a hotel for the night.. Frustrating, but by that stage I was extremely tired and the idea of an actual decent night's sleep was welcomed.

Poorly Pat

Hotel rear

Hotel front

I was on my way again later than expected around 12 noon. Originally I was supposed to be picked up at 9am, but at 11.30 Pat arrived with the mechanic to pick me up. I was just happy to see her back on the road, so I paid the hotel, dropped the mechanic back to the garage and paid him and I was on my way again. I drove nonstop, bar to get fuel for almost five hours and stopped in Austria for some food somewhere around Vienna. It wasn't a long stop, a bit like most stops really; fuel, toilet and a quick bite and back on the road. I even used the gas camping stove.

Lunch :/

I have very few other photos of the drive back, but I can tell you that once into Hungary I just wanted to keep going. I drove all evening and after dark, aiming for Szeged, but at around 10pm I was shattered and simply had to stop. I parked up in a well lit service station right outside the diner and made hard work of trying to get some sleep. The motel was full and I had no choice but to try and sleep in the car. Now, I am not the largest of people, but it was a struggle. Eventually I dozed off and woke about an hour and a half later.  I went into the diner, grabbed a coffee and ciabatta and hit the road again. No point sitting there tossing and turning. About an hour and a half later (around 2pm) I had to stop again as the old eyelids were starting to drop. My plan at this point was still to get to the Hungarian border with Romania. I felt safer stopping in Hungary overnight than in the mountains of Romania, so this worked out quite well. I grabbed another two hours sleep and was up and driving again when the sun rose.

Sunrise close to Romanian border

I crossed the border in daylight into Romania and I was happy with how this worked out. I was feeling this as the last stretch home now and was excited. I peaked too soon. TomTom and I had a falling out and he wanted to sleep every few minutes, whereas I wanted him to stay awake and guide me over the Romanian mountains. TomTom won and I had to resort to road signs and a paper map. Wasn't frightened at all, honest! Romania is such a beautiful country and I really hope that we can take a trip sometime to see more of it. Stunning. This was coming out of the mountains and heading towards the Bulgarian border.

Big dam

Beautiful

It was further from this point than I thought and, thankfully, Tom decided to wake up about here to guide me through the winding route to the bridge into Vidin. I was on home soil at last!

Home!

What a journey. I drove on, right through until 9.30 that evening so that I could have my own bed to sleep in. I was exhausted. And shaking. I arrived at the Old School to the neighbours shouting to make sure it was me who had driven in and was greeted with hugs and smiles all around. They let me go to bed very soon after though, so I appreciated that. They are lovely people.

I had driven that whole journey and made it back on the day I had expected to without foreseeing an 18 hour delay in Germany. I was so very pleased with that effort. Home on Sunday night.

Monday arrived way too soon. I think I woke at 7am and rolled over, waking again at 11am. I had arranged to get the dogs collected on Monday and was surprisingly up for that trip, even after driving 2000 miles in 2.5 days. I must have been on auto-pilot. I stayed the night with Chaz and Ivan, had a few beers and fell asleep on Ivan's lap whilst waiting for my dinner. I was so knackered still. They laughed and luckily did not mind too much as Chaz has done the journey himself and finds it tough for a good few days afterwards.

In all honesty, all of last week was a washout for me. I did very little to be honest and I took the opportunity to rest and recover. I had to get Thomas MOT'd before I collected the dogs. I ordered Pat's new headlights, have now got those fitted, change the speedometer sensor which was playing up and tightened the accelerator cable on her ready for re-registration next week. That took two half days to sort out, but hopefully we will have a straightforward import process next week.

Since then, I have found my eggs and preserved peppers that next door has kindly prepared for me whilst I was away.

Bless

So, I unpacked and made a mess in the kitchen on Monday. It drove me mad on Tuesday, so it went from this:

Mess

To this:

Much better 

I felt much better.  I also laid the dining table out nicely as I had bought a new table cloth/runner thing to stop the table getting more damaged.

I love this room

Apart from that, there has been very little happening. Although I have realised that I haven't actually sat down that much after writing all of that. The garden is still producing and still needs watering and there is only one chicken laying currently, but I still have an abundance of eggs. Pretty standard stuff here. I am not going to upload any more photos tonight, but I have harvested a load of peppers and processed them yesterday and today. I am afraid I am about done now and so I will update you further when I do another post. Possibly on Thursday.

On Friday morning, the Beard will arrive and make the puppies bark, waking the whole village at around 4am. But we will just have to forgive him. Two days/nights that I am looking forward to very much.

I am signing off now so that I can take half an hour before I hop in the bath to ease my back. One day at work after three and a half weeks off and I am already stiffening up! I am getting old.

Leka nosht.
A xx