Malibu Molly

We try not to go anywhere over the bank holiday weekend. If the weather is good, the roads where we live are gridlocked. So as an exception we are off to Suffolk to stay for two nights at a Caravan Club CL near Darsham.  This is a new one for us. It's Friday to Sunday. So we will be at home for the bank holiday Monday.  The CL isn't all that fat off the A12 and so I hope it won't be too noisy.  At least this s the single carriageway section.  There are places to visit in the area from Pitch 13 at the CL. We are on the new site alongside the CL itself. It looks very rustic from the website -  https://barnabeesholidaycottages.co.uk/index.php/new-caravan-site We need to be away early Friday to make the most of the day. On the way up we need to look out for the petrol station where we bought the very cheap diesel on one of our previous journeys up that way. Of course, we have to expect the the Dartford Crossing will be usual nightmare.

A great resource for the city of Canterbury.  It's £4 to park per day. At midnight a new days ticks over and so it's £8 to overnight in the aire. It has fresh water plus grey/black drops. No electric hook-up. The fee also includes the bus into the city centre. Today we were there to drain the grey water tank and to empty the toilet cassette. Whilst there we took the bus into the city centre to do some shopping.

Friday we set off for one night away at a pub stop. Our first and another night off grid.  Claire had succumbed to the cold I had earlier in the week. But she still wanted to go. The TomTom took us on some random route that saw us avoid the coast road through Hastings and Bexhill. We even crossed the A28 by one point. I am certain that going to Ashford and onto the A28 would have been quicker.... On the way we stopped at Jo's Cafe at Brookland on the A259 for a takeaway coffee in our own mugs. Whilst there we had a bacon sandwich.  A half and half. One half brown bread and the other white for me! This is a regular stop when we are out of the bikes.  As it was there was a race day at the model car circuit next door and the parking in that area was full of motorhomes. We arrived about 1.30pm and there was plenty of space in the car-park. Only a Belgian registered motorhome in the back corner.  I parked on front but with plenty of room between us and for them to get out...

As one of the old systems programmers used to bawl at us when we had a problem; RTFM! Driving home Tesco yesterday I had a problem, or so I thought.  When I stopped in traffic or at a junction the engine cut out. As soon as I lifted off thr brake it started again. We have stop/start on the Nissan but nothing else stops. In the Ducato, everything stops. Even the DAB radio. I must have pressed the button when I gave the dash a quick polish with a cloth whilst waiting for the car at the pump in front to sort themselves out. Then I noticed that a green A light looking like the button appeared on the dash. DOH! Thank you Stan Cross for the RTFM advice.

I have booked four nights in La Nublière.  That should give us time to charge up all the batteries in case we need to have a few off grid stops on the next part of the trip. I have been looking at Route Napoleon. It runs from near Cannes to Grenoble. Napoleon Bonaparte escaped his exile on the Isle of Elba and returned to France. On March 1st 1815 he set off to march to Paris. For most of the way the road is numbered N85 with some departmental sections be Dnn85. It's easy enough to follow on Google Maps but less so in My RouteApp which also uses Google Maps. I have created lots of routes that  need to be uploaded to the TomTom website and shared to the Camper Max. I have mapped out the route to take, but so far I haven't planned any overnight stops along the way.  I also doubt we'll go all the way to the coast. Reggie is getting older and he doesn't like the heat. Staying in the mountains will be much better. I think for once we'll see what happens.

This weekend we are going to try a pub stop.  It will be our first as we usually stop at small sites with no more than 5 pitches or larger Caravan Club sites. It was a last minute decision to get away for a few days and today, Thursday, would have been ideal but Claire had a massage at 2pm that meant the travelling time would have been too late to benefit.  So instead we are planning to go tomorrow morning after the workers rush hour and see what time we arrive at the Beachy Head Hote l.  Hopefully there will be plenty of space. I dropped them an email and they said to come along and just pop into the bar when we arrive.  From the overhead photos it does look as though there is plenty of space in the car-park. Fingers crossed.