Scandinavia 2018

I wanted to be away by around 10:00. I’d done most of the packing but got up reasonably early to finish it off. It was going surprisingly well and, although we wouldn’t make 10:00, we wouldn’t be far off.

Then, while I was in the MoHo doing some packing, the mobile rang. Now that I’m mostly retired, I shouldn’t dread the phone ringing – but I still do. On this occasion, it was an 0345 number so I nearly didn’t bother answering – but I did. It was an automated message from my credit card provider asking me some questions about some suspect recent transactions. Sure enough, I had no idea what they were so the automated call offered me the option of speaking to a real person – but the software screwed up and I had this automated voice giving me error messages.

I rang them back and spoke to a human and they had declined a number of transactions using my credit card number. I found it a bit disconcerting. Most inconvenient, I had to destroy the card because they were going to cancel it and let me have a new one. Clearly, that will not arrive in the next hour so I won’t be able to use that card this holiday. I have other cards – and can use Dud’s – so not the end of the world.

The journey went quite well. I thought we were in plenty of time so we went the Caistor High Street/Horncastle/Conningsby route for a change. We stopped for some lunch on the A1 and then set off down the A14 only to find standing traffic. I’ve been down that route many times and it would be a surprise if you didn’t meet standing traffic. But this one was hardly moving at all so it looked a problem,

Eventually, Radio 2 reported it and it appears the A14 was closed in both directions because of an accident – looks like a couple of lorries were involved but no-one seriously hurt (this link is to a local paper so may expire). We moved in stop/start fashion for a while and then were directed off the A14 and sent through Godmanchester – which, as you would expect, was gridlocked. We eventually got back on the M11 but it cost us a good 2 hours.

We had a quick stop at Birchanger Services and then pressed on to the Club site at Folkestone. What should have been an arrival at around 17:30 was going to turn out touch and go as to whether we got there before the 20:00 deadline. We got there around 19:40 so within time. The commandants’ office was closed but they respond to ringing the bell if it’s before 20:00.

Radio 2 was reporting that the A14 was still closed in the direction in which we were travelling even as we arrived at the site – so must have been a bit of a mess.

We are in a Ferry Pitch in an area that we’ve not stayed on before. There are quite a few vans and tuggers here presumably all set to get to the Tunnel or to ferries at all sorts of times in the night. Our train is not until 09:55 so not too early a start for us.

Tea was pork chops on Uncle Ben’s rice. We ate at around 20:30 which is a lot later than we normally eat.

There’s a dog-walk on this site so I could let Ellie off the lead. It’s not that big but, at least, it’s a bit of freedom for her. While we were in there at around 08:00, there was a loud bang somewhere in the distance. It frightened her – and it was made worse when it was followed by lots of other equally loud bangs. I suspect some kind of military training area because it sounded like heavy artillery fire. She ran off and stood by the gate – tail between her legs. Not sure where she would have run to. Home?

Our crossing was at 09:55 so we serviced the MoHo and set off from the Club site just after 09:00.

I hit the mirror on the check-in lane at the Tunnel – again. The lanes are quite narrow for a wide MoHo. No harm done – that’s what the protectors are for. We parked up in the waiting area but our letter was called almost straight away. We were put in a lane behind a couple of vans in spite of using the wheelchair option but the people from the vans did not look like wheelchair users (given away by the fact that they walked to the booth to get a coffee).

When we got to the queue just before getting on the train, the marshal made the vans move out of our way so that we were then first on. Made us feel important.

I’d learnt the lesson from previous trips and set the satnav before we got on to the train so we were being directed as soon as we set off from the train as opposed to looking for somewhere to park up and then set it. Nice to see no police presence and not even any form of traffic calming at the port exit. Either the Gendarmes have given up or there is no longer an issue with illegals.

We stopped for lunch in a scruffy layby near Ghent (Belgium). We headed toward Antwerp and, for the second day running, we hit (not literally) standing traffic. We crawled through Antwerp in what is presumably normal extremely slow traffic – I say that because there was no obvious cause of the slowdown. We lost over an hour before we got going fully again – only to come another slowdown on the approach to Tilburg in Holland.

We’d picked out a campsite from the Camper Contact web site. It had some good reviews. We rang the number but got no answer so decided to head there anyway and we put the co-ordinates into the satnav. That took us to some farm track with no habitation in sight. We tried it again on the satnav but using the address this time and that took us there.

This is the second time that we have used the co-ordinates from Camper Contact. The first time was when we stayed at Camping El Greco in Toledo and that took us to the wrong place, as well. We’ll use the actual address in future (which may be as early as tomorrow).

You appear to be allowed to walk round the farm. Ellie and I did that but a couple of the farm dogs saw her and were a bit boisterous – which she does not cope with and she gets frightened. There was a border collie and a small terrier. Airedales are supposedly King of the Terriers but you wouldn’t have thought that with the way that she was bothered by the much smaller dog.

Tea was a tin of Morrisons chicken in white wine sauce.

I bought a drone just before we came. I didn’t get much chance to use it at home so don’t have a lot of confidence with flying it yet. I got it flying after tea and got some decent video but not as good as I’d hoped so I may try again tomorrow and take it a lot higher.

Koeienbedrijf translates to “Cows company” and this is a working dairy cattle and possibly beef farm – I suspect the “beef” part because some of the cows don’t have udders! The cows are very close to the MoHo parking area and when we walked through the farm, there were some cattle just roaming around outside of the barns. All very quaint but I’m writing this at nearly midnight and the constant moo-ing of the cows is not so quaint – and it sets Ellie off. Shortly after writing that, I heard the clattering of gates and I think the cows have been put back into the barn for the night.

Another snag of being on a working farm is that there could be lots going on. There is some work going on here that involves heavy machinery and a lot of banging – and that carried on until just after 23:00.

Not a bad night’s sleep – although I fell asleep on the chair and woke up around 5 o’ clock before getting into bed.

I took Ellie for a walk but we kept in the MoHo area rather than walking around the barns. It had rained in the night and the cows’ habit of shitting while they walk meant that the ground was a real mess so we kept clear.

We had breakfast and serviced the MoHo before setting off. Not great facilities – adequate but no grey water drain that I could see. There is also a farm shop. The meat cabinet looked interesting but I didn’t know what any of it was and we have no Dutch dictionary with us so I couldn’t look the words up. In the end, I bought a couple of what look like beefburgers – I’ll report on that when we actually eat them. We also needed some milk so I asked for that. The farmer replied that he had loads of milk but it wasn’t “cooked”. Fancy being on a farm with hundreds of cows and you can’t buy milk!

Proposal was to head for Bremen which was around 240 miles. First day that we had no traffic hold ups but, because we hadn’t set off very early, that was going to be a tall order – particularly with a stop for lunch of the best part of an hour.

At around 15:30, we stopped and got an internet connection and looked for a site nearby. Reisemobilhaven at Greven was around 20 miles away so we decided to head there.

When we got to the site, there was what appeared to be a nicely kept area and then next door was what looked like a compound but with lots of MoHo’s parked up. The nice area had a rope across the gate. A Hymer that had followed us removed the rope and us and the Hymer drove round but it was full – hence the rope across the entrance.

We parked up in the compound bit. We are next to the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal and there are some fairly large boats that have been lifted out of the water so we parked up in front of those. I hope no-one wants to use the boat that we are in front of. We probably could have got away without paying but a bloke came round on a bike and he looked official so we asked him about paying. He directed us to the office and we paid €15.

Ellie and I went for a walk along the canal. A barge came past whilst we were walking.

I wanted to put the drone up to get some photos but was a bit concerned about losing control when there are about 30 MoHo’s that would all be watching. It started to rain so that made a decision for me.

Tea was spinach and ricotta ravioli. We then settled down to watch tv – ‘Who wants to be millionaire’ is having a re-run with Jeremy Clarkson as host so we watched that. I don’t fully understand how Freesat works but we seem to be able to see all ITV channels but not BBC. We have the Sky box with us but I haven’t even bothered to fire that up yet. I’ve lots of “Game of Thrones” to catch up on but that can wait.

On Ellie and I’s late night walk, we had an explore of the surroundings. There’s what looks to be a marina and various facilities close by. We’re moving on tomorrow so we won’t be sampling any of them.

We had a walk along the canal and then, after breakfast, we serviced the MoHo. Grey waste warning was sounding so we needed to let that drain.

Yesterday, we’d diverted off the A1 (which I assume is an important Autobahn) to get to the campsite so today, we headed back to it to continue the journey. We needed to make up some time. We would have to cover around 270 miles to get back on track with the original plan – that’s a fair mileage in the MoHo (I wouldn’t even blink at that in the VW!)

On the A1, the satnav told us to exit and take a diversion because the A1 was closed. I took that with a pinch of salt – surely, the Germans with their reputation for efficiency would not close one of their busiest roads. So, I ignored the satnav and we carried on down the A1.

We then came up to what looked like a huge queue of standing lorry traffic. We were in roadworks where the outside lane was restricted to 2.1m (we are 2.4) so we had to stay on the inside lane with the lorries. We stopped/started for miles still in the lorry lane.

In the UK, when you are out of the roadworks, there are loads of “End of roadworks”-type signs. We hadn’t passed any of those so assumed that we were still in the works so stayed in the lorry lane. Eventually, we realised that the works had finished so we moved into the outside lane which was moving a lot faster – or rather a lot less slowly – than the lorry lane.

We eventually came to where the problem was and the A1 was completely closed and traffic was being diverted on to other roads. I could be wrong but I don’t think that sort of total closure would ever happen in the UK on such a major route and during a working day. End result was that we lost around 2 hours.

Major lesson to be learned there – trust the satnav (which I find difficult to do but would have saved us that 2 hours today).

After the frustration of the delays, we stopped for lunch. The MiFi got an internet signal so we went on the Camper Contact site and picked a site to aim for.

The site is nothing spectacular and is actually a patch of land behind the workshop of a farm and garden machinery supplier but we’d had enough and just wanted to stop somewhere.

The cost for the overnight was €6 but we could have paid for electric. Problem there was that if we had to connect to the hook-up point, we would have had to park in a less than pleasant spot. So, we opted to do without electrics. That leads to another problem. Before we left, I’d connected the tyre inflator pump to the 12v socket in the MoHo. That blew the fuse for the auxiliary sockets.

When we were in Holland, I replaced that fuse but as soon as I switched on the 12v to 240v invertor, the fuse blew again. I replaced the fuse again but in doing so, used up our last 10A fuse. So, is the problem with the invertor? I could plug it in again to see but if that blows he fuse, we don’t have one to replace it. The consequence of this is that we do not have the capacity to charge up stuff such as laptop, phone etc etc. So I dare not test the invertor until we can get some more blade fuses.

I managed to get the drone flying and took some shots of the site and the area. Still not confident with it but slowly getting there.

Ellie and I went for a walk and we ended up in a central sort of area where the traffic is supposed to “mix” with the pedestrians. We saw a supermarket (albeit a bargain-type one) so I decided to head back there later – which I did and bought some supplies

Tea was the last of the ravioli and with an ad hoc tomato sauce.

There was little or no noise from the road alongside the site so a peaceful night’s sleep.

We had breakfast before we set off and I was pleased that we got away at a reasonable (for us) time. Satnav reported early on that the A7 was closed so it worked out an alternative route. After yesterday, we decided to follow its advice.

Nothing bad to report on the roads today – though we went through some major road construction/reconstruction works

Driving a relatively slow vehicle on the German Autobahns needs some concentration. We overtake lorries but we’re only travelling 10 or so miles per hour faster than them so you need to check that there are not 120 mph (and more) vehicles in the outside lane before you pull out. It leads to some lengthy spells in the inside lane waiting for a clear chance to pull out.

We finally got to Denmark and I was surprised to see a slowdown at the border. There was a (presumably) policeman picking out vehicles to check. We were waved through. He looked a bit of a bruiser so I suspect most people take note of what he says but I was surprised given that Germany and Denmark are both Schengen that there was any kind of border control.

We picked a site from the Nordic campsites book that we’d bought before we left. Looks like there is a system of farms offering no more than 3 MoHo spaces and this site is one of those. The commandant was very helpful but had little English (which surprised me) so we ended up communicating in German.

We needed to empty the toilet cassette so I asked him where the chemical disposal was. He got a shovel to use as a lever to open the lid of the septic tank. I ended up levering the lid and he lifted it. So I emptied the cassette while he held the lid open – a bit too public for my liking.

The farmer has 3 dogs. One of them is a German Shepherd but it is friendly – at least with humans. He said it was a bit boisterous with other dogs so he put it on a lead so that we could walk Ellie – which we did. It was Dud’s first venture out of the MoHo and we had a walk around the farm in the sunshine.

I’ve been to Denmark for work a few times and have never seen either pigs (Danish Bacon) or cows (Lurpak). Mind you, they don’t tend to have farm animals on docks and in offices which is where I inevitably spent my time. So, it’s an objective of this holiday to see both and I ticked one of them off today because the farm we are on has cows. Some of them gathered at the fence next to the MoHo. According to the farmer (if I understood him correctly) they are for beef and not for milk and some were going to slaughter tomorrow.

Tea was a fish fillet that I’d bought from the supermarket in Tarmstedt – in fact I’d bought 2 because I thought that they were individual portions. I’d left them in the fridge so they defrosted so we’ll have to have the other one tomorrow. They are made by Iglo – which is part of the same firm as Findus and Birds Eye. The packaging has a picture of Captain Birds Eye but in Germany, looks like he’s known as Captain Iglo!

I wanted to fly the drone because the farmer had gone out so I could practice while no-one was watching, Unfortunately, the Alsatian was watching and would not leave me alone so I abandoned the idea of flight,

We watched a dvd of “The Girl on a Train”. It was hard going and confusing and eventually Dud decided that she wanted to go to bed so we said we’d finish it tomorrow night.

I couldn’t take Ellie out because the Alsatian was hanging around. I tried to get her to accept it and, at one point, it was in the MoHo but she wouldn’t have any of it.

We woke up to the Alsatian barking outside and waiting for Ellie. I tried to take Ellie out but she was frightened of the other dog so I gave up. That meant no opportunity to do what dogs do on walks so she must have been building it up.

The farmer was working with a tractor and a big enclosed trailer. He went into one of the barns with it and then came out with at least 2 cows on board. He came back 30 minutes later with no cows in it so I suspect I had understood him correctly yesterday and they had gone to slaughter.

We decided to head for an ACSI camp site on the east coast of the island of Fyn. We made good time on the road in spite of a few slow-downs because of the volume of traffic. We pulled in to a service area and I took Ellie for her first walk of the day – during which she duly delivered! There was another Airedale being walked by a couple and the woman came over to us and made a fuss of Ellie. Her husband stayed a distance away with the Airedale because, apparently, it is aggressive to other dogs – particularly bitches.

We got to the camp site in good time. It is down some narrow lanes and we had to do a bit of reversing to make room for a car coming the other way. The commandant spoke excellent English and we checked in for one night. It’s in a great location on the shore of the Great Belt which is the stretch of water between Fyn and Sjælland (the island which has Copenhagen – or København as us Danish speakers call it). We have a good view of the causeway and bridge linking the 2 islands. It was tempting to make it 2 nights but we need to catch up the day that we lost because of the traffic hold-ups.

We are on the edge of the site overlooking the water. We’re at a hopeless angle. We’re on the ramps but that doesn’t compensate for the slope but it’s only for one night. One thing that could be an issue is that we are on grass. It doesnt seem too bad but grass is not the best idea in a 3½ tonne front wheel drive vehicle. I’m hoping the momentum of rolling off the ramps will get us going.

The weather has been good – around 20°. Lots of people are sat outside their vans sunbathing. Sue sat out in the sun while Ellie and I went for an explore. We got back and managed to catch a lot of the Spanish Grand Prix – which was not particularly exciting.

Tea was the other Iglo fish fillet. Just as tasty as last night.

I got the drone flying in spite of being worried about it blowing away or just flying off over the Great Belt. The range is supposedly over a kilometre. I wish I’d had the confidence to send it out over the water – but I chickened out.

We watched the end of “The Girl on a Train”. It got quite tense at the end but not the most rivetting of films.

The bridge is all lit up at night so quite an impressive sight out of our front window. Sweden tomorrow.

On our walk this morning, Ellie and I went down to the water’s edge. The camp site is elevated above the Great Belt and there is a footpath down to the beach. It was stony and the water did not look particularly clean so we didn’t hang around.

Yesterday, the camp site was quite busy. A lot of the caravans are tourers but are set up semi-permanent. There are patios and garden furniture and all sorts of home-from-home type stuff. This morning, there was hardly anyone around. Looks like people spend the weekend in their van and then clear off home on a Sunday night ready for the working week.

My worry about the MoHo pulling away on the grass was unfounded. It wasn’t a problem – but that might have been a different story if it had rained overnight. As it was, there was a noticeable indent where the rear wheels had been.

The site is near Nyborg – that’s a city even though the population is only 16K. On the way there, we passed a pig farm – or, at least, some fairly big buildings with a few pictures of pigs. That’s almost my objective reached – though we didn’t actually see any pigs and, thankfully, we didn’t smell any.

We’d passed a Lidl on the way in yesterday and we needed a shop today so I decided to go there. I suspect I’ve made this comment before but they really are dreadful places. Anyway, it served a purpose and we stocked up on supplies.

We were on the causeway across the Great Belt almost straight away. It’s 18Km of causeway and bridge. Toll was DKK 365 – which is around £42. Sounds a lot for a bridge toll but when you think that, before it was built, the only option was a ferry – would you think that £42 was a lot for a ferry crossing? Probably not.

The road got quite busy around København. Denmark has a population of around 5.7 million with 1.2 million living in or around København – so that suggests a pretty heavy concentration around this area.

Then came our next bridge toll of the day. The Orresund causeway and bridge costs SEK 960 – which is €100 – which is around £87. The Humber Bridge is £1.50 – the Dartford crossing is £1.67. Can you compare them? As mentioned earlier, prior to these causeway/bridges, the option was ferry so that’s the comparison.

I’ve made these crossings before and we knew how much they were going to cost us but I wanted Dud to experience them so cost was not an issue. We’ll probably look at ferry crossings on the way back, though.

The Denmark/Sweden border is in the middle of the Orresund and the toll booths are on the Swedish side. Again, surprisingly, there was passport control and we were stopped. I’ve done the crossing by train a few times and have only once had passport checked so maybe it depends on the level of any terrorism alert.

We’d decided that once in Sweden, we would look for somewhere to stop and have a sandwich and a cup of tea. We couldn’t see anywhere obvious. At one point, we turned off the main road and ended up driving through a low-cost accommodation area. We gave up and decided to press on to the camp site.

I’d picked the site from the ACSI book. It’s more or less on the route that we want to follow. I used the satnav co-ordinates from the ACSI book and guess what – it took us down the wrong roads. But we were in the correct area because we chanced upon the camp site anyway.

It’s a nice site by a lake. We picked a pitch with good views of the lake. We all went for a walk. Again, there are a lot of semi-permanent caravans with permanent paraphernalia around them.

Tea was pork sausages – made by me at home before we left. Dud bought me a sausage maker for Christmas – 37 years married and you start to run out of ideas!. It is a bit of a clat but worth doing because they are much tastier than most shop-bought ones.

We can’t get the satellite dish to lock on. There are trees around so I suspect that is the cause. Terrestrial signal looked strong so we tuned the TV in to Swedish stations. The only English language programme we could find was “Antiques Road Show” – which was in English but with Swedish sub-titles.

I took Ellie for walk while it was still light. I saw the biggest flying flock of geese that I’ve ever seen – are they returning from migration or going away?

Early night for Dud while I tried to catch up on typing this blog.

We are noticing that the nights stay lighter a lot later. Granted, there is an hour’s difference between BST and CEST but it is still lighter later. Is that because we are further north?

Our first day of not driving. After a lie-in, we had a leisurely breakfast. Weather is still great – probably low 20’s. All of the skylights were fully open.

I kept building up to using the drone but didn’t want to impinge on anyone’s privacy. You wouldn’t stand and take a photo right across someone’s personal space so that’s how I feel about using the drone. That’s the sensible explanation – another part of the reason is that I don’t want to make a tit of myself by losing control or dropping it into the lake.

It was good just chillin’ and I got up to date with the blog. Dud sat outside with her Kindle. Ellie and I went for a few walks.

There were a number of occasions when loads of geese flew over. I mentioned yesterday that I’d seen the biggest flight of geese that I’d ever seen. It may have been the same flock – I didn’t recognise any of them but my goose recognition skills are not that great.

After tea, I decided to fly the drone and get some shots. There were a few people about but it got to one of those moments where you just have to go for it or you go for the rest of your life regretting it (slight exageration). I went to the edge of the lake and just set it flying. I went higher than I’ve been before and further away than I’ve been. Footage is ok but I need to go higher and further.

Tea was the beef-burgers that we bought from the cow company in Holland. They were tasty – and on the big side so Dud could not eat all of hers – our canine companion benefitted from that.

We’ve been in Denmark and are now in Sweden so, after tea, we watched “The Danish Girl” (no connection, really). It seemed to go on for ages. If he’s not careful, Eddie Redmayne is going to become one of those actors who gets all of the misfit-type roles.

We’d not serviced the MoHo for a couple of days but I’d topped up the fresh water a few times with the watering can (very handy accessory) and the waste tank warning kept beeping. So when we went to the service point, it took an age for the grey water to empty. I must have a look at that when we get home because I suspect there is some kind of filter or something in there that is slowing the flow.

We pulled in for diesel in Höör and, as we were driving out of the town, I saw a sign for a veterinär so we went down a farm track and came to the clinic. Dogs (and possibly other animals) need proof that have been given worming treatment when they enter Norway – in the same way as one is needed when returning to the UK. Same time limits apply as well – ie no less than 24 hours and no more than 120 hours (5 days) before entry. It’s always an inconvenience and I’d had visions of it taking a few hours to find a vet today or tomorrow so it was a godsend when the vet could see to Ellie straight away. She actually injected her which is the first time that’s happened.

We drove through some roads equivalent to UK A roads and it was pleasant but not particularly fast going. We eventually were routed on to motorway type roads (numbered with E) and that was less pleasant but, obviously, much quicker. Still quite stressless, though, because it was not busy.

We set the satnav for Villa Björkhagen – a site that is part of the same group as Jägersbo. We had a satnav issue in that it took us down a route that ended in a block end but we could actually see the site. Must be a common problem because the site owners had put up a sign showing what route to take to get to them.

My provisional plan was for 2 nights at Jönköping but we’d decided that we would play it by ear. Jönköping is by the Vättern which is the second largest lake in Sweden (6th largest in Europe). When Richard, from work, and I drove from Gothenburg to near Stockholm, we’d driven through here so I thought it would be a good spot. Given the mobility issues that we need to consider, it is probably not the place for us so we intend to move on tomorrow.

We all had a pleasant walk round the site and the surrounding area. Weather is still great – mid 20’s so nice and warm.

There are some Kabe caravans that look to be semi-permanent. We’d seen a lot of these at the previous site but we’ve not seen many of them on the road. It’s as if Kabe’s selling point is buy from us and leave your van on a site. It’s also as if they had a job lot of red and white paint because they are all the same colours.

Tea was chicken risotto – probably not for the last time.

Satellite dish had locked on so Dud could get her fix of Emmerdale and Corrie.

On Ellie and I’s late night walk, we walked back towards the town. On our way in, we’d passed a huge car park which appeared almost full. Turns out it’s the There are some Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre. That may explain why there were a few groups of similarly dressed blokes walking back on to the camp site – presumably exhibitors at the Elmia staying in the cabins on this site.

Tonight, the car park was empty apart from a lot of giant hares that were running around and probably foraging the food litter that the cars had left. Ellie saw them but they are much bigger than rabbits that she would normally chase and kill so she was not so keen on giving chase.

Weather was a lot cooler this morning. Still sunny but low 10’s as opposed to yesterday’s low 20’s. It warmed up a bit later on but not to the level we’ve been having.

It was around 11:30 when we set off and we were expecting to do around 150 miles to get to Karlstad.

We finally found a supermarket. Sadly, I was quite excited to see what Swedish shopping would be like. The store was a reasonable size and there was a good choice of different stuff – and there was also McVitie digestives and HobNobs (and, yes, I did buy some).

I got most things I wanted but couldn’t find the wine aisles. I looked up the word for it – it’s “vin” but pronounced “veen”. I asked one of the shop workers if they spoke English and asked where the wine was. She didn’t know and she went and asked a colleague. He looked at me as though I’d asked a stupid question – a bit like asking where is the fish when you’re in a shoe shop! He said they didn’t sell it. I should have been sensible and asked him where did sell it but I thought maybe no-one drinks wine in Sweden.

Turns out, sales of wine and spirits and anything other than the lowest alcohol drinks are state controlled and only available in special outlets. How weird. If it’s not out of our way, I may try and visit one tomorrow just for the experience. So writing up the blog tonight is being done wineless! Instead I have a glass of Lidl milk.

Rest of the journey was uneventful. Driving here is very controlled with few drivers driving up the vehicle in front’s backside. Most drivers are quite content to just stay in line as long as you are doing round about the speed limit.

We got to the camp site just before 17:00. It’s on the shore of Lake Vänern – which is the biggest lake in Sweden. It’s a big place and follows the pattern of the other sites that we’ve seen in that there are lots of caravans on permanent pitches. Ellie and I have been near the lake but it’s a sandy beach and dogs are not allowed.

Tea was a beef ragout. Tasty.

We were open minded about possibly staying 2 nights but there’s no great attraction for us here so we go into Norway tomorrow. We’ve effectively gained a day on our provisional plans so that gives us the opportunity to stay extra nights if we find somewhere we like.

Ellie and I went for an early morning walk by the beach – but not on the beach because she’s not allowed – which is fair enough.

We serviced the MoHo and got it at a great angle for draining the grey waste – it gushed out in no time.

Last night I found that there is a System Bolaget (state-owned beer-off) in the town of Grums which is half a mile or so off the road that we will be taking to Oslo. I was curious what one would be like (nothing to do with wanting some wine) so we diverted there.

It’s a bit like visiting a sex shop (not that I have ever done that) in that everyone who sees you going in knows what you are going in for. If I want to get a couple of bottles of wine from Morrisons, I can nip in but can buy a loaf of bread or a couple of Scotch eggs as if I were going in for a general shop. I half expected to see people outside with banners trying to save me. That’s all a bit of an exaggeration but surely, it would be so much easier to treat people like adults and allow supermarkets to sell wine.

Dud is wondering whether Sweden is the Land of the Lakes. We’re either passing a lot of lakes or we’re passing one big one because we see them/it everywhere. Actually, Finland is generally accepted as the Land of the Lakes but it’s probably a Scandinavian thing.

We crossed into Norway with no border controls. So, we’ve been honest and paid £30 to get Ellie an official worming treatment and it was not even checked.

There’s signs on the roads of automatic tolls. We weren’t sure what that meant and half expected automatic toll booths. But it’s all done via ANPR cameras on gantries across the road. Given that we hadn’t even registered, how would they know that we were British? And how would they know that we are under the 3.5 tonne breakpoint between being charged as a car and charged as HGV? Tonight, I’ve registered us on a web site so they will know who we are but it says that it could take “a few months” to get the charge to us. We passed a few of the toll points so difficult to know how much it has cost us today so I’ve not added any tolls into the costs table.

We got to Oslo and, after a couple of wrong turns, we arrived at the camp site. Unfortunately, it was closed – not open until 1 June. I didn’t even think to check on the web site to see if it was open. I find it difficult to believe that they don’t open earlier – but I found it less difficult to believe when the next one we tried was also not open until 1 June. That was an aire type of place by a marina. This is a bit like Spain where sites were not open because it was winter, here, they don’t open if it’s just spring. We set the satnav again for Bogstad Camping and, thankfully, this was open.

It’s not a bad site with a good view over a golf course and a lake but it’s very very busy with lots of kids – nothing against kids but they have a tendency to make noise. And it’s near a quite busy road. We had to have a couple of circuits around the site before we could find a pitch – and, even then, we’re at a crap angle.

Weather is still good. We’ve been mid to high teens all day but, at the end of the day, it was around 20 deg C. The far north of Scotland is around 58 degrees north – we are at around 60. I’m sure this is the exception rather than the rule but it’s exceeding our expectations in terms of weather.

We have the satellite dish locked on and, strangely, we can now pick up the channels on the Sky box that we can’t get at home – eg BBC. I suspect our box is faulty but maybe, there’s another explanation.

After tea of fishcakes (fancy one for me and plain one for Dud), Ellie and I went for a walk. There is a path outside of the campsite and it leads alongside the golf course and down to the lake. There was lots of activity – radio controlled boats, some saddo flying a drone and lots of youngsters on a Friday night out.

After a week and half-starved of BBC, Dud wanted to watch Graham Norton but it would have been too late so she turned in.

Dud fancies watching the royal wedding tomorrow. I don’t. But, she is not keen on this site so probably, we’ll move on and catch the highlights later.

Reasonable night’s sleep but the MoHo is at such an angle that Dud decided she was going to get up “because it’s 8:30 and because I keep rolling towards you in the bed”. Actually, it was 06:50 so she rapidly changed her mind and went back to sleep – and less of that rolling towards me, if you please.

On the road, we started climbing and the scenery became more rugged and we could see mountains in the distance. At one point, we entered a tunnel (first of many) and when we emerged from the tunnel, it was like we were transported into a different world because there was a huge lake and then snow-capped mountains in the distance.

The lake was Tyrifjorden. I’d always assumed that fjords were inlets from the sea but it appears that they can be inland with no inlet from or outlet to the sea.

We passed a few of what looked like nice sites but carried on heading to the one that we had picked on Camper Contact. At least, it looked as if we had options if the one that we had selected did not look very good.

We got there and it looked fine so we booked for 2 nights. We pitched up alongside the river – the Hallingdalselva – though it looks more like a series of lakes. The site is spacious and tidy. There were a couple of lads water-skiing on the river.

A couple of cars turned up with families and one of the blokes asked me if we minded them using the table that we had parked near. They’d brought picnic stuff and it seems they regularly come here when the weather is good. I’m not sure what they would have done if I’d said that we did mind.

The only slight downside to the site is that there is a train line running along one end of it. The noise is not that bad and it doesn’t appear to be particularly busy.

Weather is still warm and we ended up sat outside for a while – it was even warm enough to take my shirt off!

Tea was some ravioli that I’d bought at the Swedish supermarket.

Some more MoHo’s turned up later but it’s not particularly busy. We ended up watching the end of “It”. Some of the scenes were quite scary but the end was a bit disappointing. Nothing like the book but Stephen King has the ability to make the ridiculous sound totally credible and it would possibly be difficult to put that across on film.

A day chillin’. Only our second this break. The temperature was in the low 20’s so another good day.

I got the drone out over the lake. I thought it was very high but when you play it back, it’s not nearly as high as I would have expected. Still more confidence needed.

I serviced the MoHo. There is no grey waste disposal so the commandant said to drop it on the grass. You can see lots of brown patches which I suspect are caused by this. I don’t like doing that but there’s not a lot of choice.

We’ve not done any clothes washing yet this trip so we did a couple of loads today. Has to be done but it uses a lot of water so, in spite of filling up this morning, I had to make a couple of trips to the tap with the trusty watering can.

Tea was chilli con carne for me. I bought a tin of it on the Spain trip so it needed using up. Not particularly great – even after I added some Scotch Bonnet chilli’s. Unfortunately, the beans had the usual effect on me later on. Beauty of having Ellie with us is that I can blame her. Dud had the last of the ravioli from last night.

Took Ellie for a walk around 22:30 and it’s still light. No torch needed. That’s good but, psychologically, you don’t think it’s time to sleep.

Nice, relaxing day. We move on tomorrow.

Another warm start to the day and we got off just after 11. It’s been a pleasant stay and we’d recommend the site.

During the drive, we reached the most northerly point that we’ll get to. That’s around the town of Gol and it’s 60.7 deg north. We’re travelling mostly West today so the site that we leave and the site that we end up at are on a similar latitude.

After a while we found a supermarket and did our first Norwegian shop. I checked on line last night and Norway has the same policy on alcohol sales as Sweden. In the shop, I noticed that the shutters were down in the alcohol area – ie the weak alcohol content that they are allowed to sell. At the checkout, I asked the girl where the nearest wine shop was and she answered along the lines of nowhere today because it’s a holiday. I checked a bit later and, sure enough, today is Whit Monday and a Bank Holiday in Norway. So, no alcohol purchases today. Trade-off is that there’s not many trucks on the road.

We started to climb and the tops of the mountains were snow-capped again. We got to one point where the snow was becoming thicker even though it’s mid to high teens. The road was tracking the Hallingdalselva which is the river that we were alongside for the last 2 nights. It eventually becomes a fjord but as we were climbing, we could see that there was lots of ice in the river. It must not have thawed out since the winter in spite of the current temperatures. That was only a taster of what was to come.

The road was now going through heavily snow-covered areas – in many places, the road was the only thing not under snow. There was lots of water flowing from the snow areas. It must be so thick that it will probably take all summer to melt.

At one point there was a lake that was almost completely frozen as far as you could see. We parked up and I got the drone out to get some pictures. I must be getting more confident because there were a few people about. Though, maybe not because I was actually quite nervous – it was just too good a photo opportunity to miss.

We got up to around 4,000 feet before we started to come down again. There were quite a few buildings. Probably not housing but more holiday lets for ski-ing? Dud spotted that they have gardens on the roof – well, not gardens with flowers and things but more like soil and grass. Presumably for insulation.

We were starting to descend quite rapidly. Even in 3rd gear, I was having to brake a lot. When in The Black Forest last year, the brakes started to overheat so I wanted to avoid that today – and I did.

Some of the waterfalls were quite spectacular. Snow was melting on the peaks and there were sheer drops so it was just falling from great heights. I had to concentrate quite hard on the driving so could not see as much of them as I would have liked.

We then entered a series of tunnels which were badly lit. That’s a problem for me because my glasses would be tinted from the sunlight and they don’t clear straight away so we’re effectively driving in darkness with sunglasses on. It was like coming down in a car park because were permanently turning right and dropping at the same time in spiral staircase fashion.

Some of them were quite long and you come out in completely different scenery to when you went in. As we came out of the last tunnel on the descent, it was quite a surprise to see a big cruise ship parked up. I know they do cruises round the fjords but I hadn’t expected to see a ship so close up. Unfortunately, I probably missed all of this on the dash cam because it had frozen – which it has done a couple of times this trip.

We were getting close to Kinsarvik which was the destination that I’d set on the satnav but we were passing lots of campsites so it would not be a problem if the one we had picked was full.

There were a couple more tunnels – a bit better lit this time. It was quite a surprise in one of them to come across a brightly lit roundabout! A roundabout in a tunnnel – that’s tunnelling showing-off.

The final stretch of the journey was on some very narrow roads. Passing oncoming traffic was very tricky. One MoHo was a bit of an arse and could have moved in more than he did and our wing mirrors touched – we have protectors on ours but I’d rather not get that close. Later on after we’d parked up, we saw busses and artics going down there. I was pleased that we didn’t come up against any of those.

Bråvoll Camping is the first site that you come to in Kinsarvik. I’d seen it recommended on Camper Contact so we pulled in. It’s a small site but the commandant was helpful and we are parked alongside what looks like a fjord but is shown on the maps as Kinsarvikbukti. Bukt translates to bay so it’s actually a type of bay off Sørfjorden. We can see snow-capped mountains through the front window. I thought our spot for the last couple of days was the best pitch we’ve ever had but I think this one tops it.

I switched on the satellite dish. It automatically finds whichever satellite system you have it set for so you just leave it to rotate until it gets a signal. I took Ellie for a walk and left the dish rotating but when we got back from the walk, the arm on the dish had snagged against one of the roof vents and it has fused the unit. Lesson learned there and don’t let the dish seek out the satellite with the vents open. I have a replacement fuse (the last one of that type – again) but we’ll have to wait until we can get a signal before I’ll know whether it’s damaged or not.

We’ve seen a ferry coming and going a few times. Looks like it goes just a bit further down the main fjord but it cuts off miles of road that you’d have to take to get to the same place.

Tea was pizza – small Tesco one that we bought with us for Dud and one I bought today for me. I think it was some kind of minced beef and chilli but I always add chilli and garlic and many other things to spice it up.

All in all, a really good day today. We’ve booked for 2 nights so another chillin’ day tomorrow.

A little bit cooler this morning but eventually, the sun came out and we got to the customary mid-teens again.

After breakfast, we all went for a walk round the side of the bay. There’s a really fast flowing river close to the camp site. Lots of rocks in it so the water is all churned up – you can hear the noise from the camp site. Water is crystal clear so presumably the result of melted snow working its way downward.

We sat for a while in one of the public areas. All very pleasant.

Back at the MoHo, I got the drone out. Obligatory shot of the MoHo by the side of the water but I also wanted to get a shot of a lorry or a bus going down the narrow road that we came in on. I swapped the drone battery after the initial flight and then we waited for a required vehicle – and we waited and waited. Eventually, one came along so I got the drone flying again and got the shot I wanted. Getting a bit more confident now so I brought it back – much too fast and it hit the MoHo. No damage done to either (I hope). I don’t think anyone saw it. It makes interesting footage and lesson learned.

There’s a Spar shop along the road so I went on a shopping trip. Beer is allowed in supermarkets so I got some. I hadn’t paid much attention to prices for yesterday’s shop but I did today and stuff is very expensive. A litre of tomato juice: £2 – it’s around 80p in Tesco. 2 x 6 packs of 0.5 ltr cans of Carlsberg: £35 – yes, £35.

This is a small site. Yesterday, I would have said that it was a brilliant place to stay but this afternoon there are a couple of things that may affect that opinion. We are across the road from what is a kids’ play park. Yesterday (Bank Holiday), it was packed and there was fair bit of noise. Today, it’s not so busy but you can still hear fairly loud music – and constant repetition of something that sounds like “March of the Mods” – but probably isn’t.

The other issue is that, because the site is small, the commandant probably wants to maximise the number of MoHo’s that he can fit in so someone has parked next to us and they are very close – not quite French Aire type close but closer than you’d want to be on a camp site.

Tea was pork chops with Uncle Bens rice. I’d got the rice from the first Norwegian supermarket. I had no idea what flavour it was when I bought it but it was the only flavour they had. I Google Translated it tonight and it’s something to do with Indian. We had it anyway and it was fine.

A German lad in the MoHo next but one to us has a drone flying. I hoped that he would crash it – but he didn’t.

The evenings don’t seem to get any cooler until the sun goes down so Dud and I sat out until about 20:30. It was still really warm even then but I wanted to have another walk round the bay with Ellie.

We’re moving south tomorrow. In effect, we’re starting the journey home but we’re in no rush.

I noticed last night the number plate and the graphics on the back of the German MoHo parked next to us. I wanted to take a picture but didn’t do it until I asked them this morning. They were ok about it and said I could put in on the internet but asked me to obscure the numeric part of it – which I have done. The AW means that they are from Ahrweiler, Rhineland Palatinate – the rest of the numbers are random so they were lucky with this one (or they paid for it, I’m not sure). Very good.

We got going and the road out of Kinsarvik was, as expected, just as narrow as the road in. We were ok most of the time but there were a couple of squeezes.

After a while, we saw some standing traffic and a bloke in high-vis flagged us down and made us pull into the side as much as we could. He then told us that we would be an hour before we could move because of road works ahead.

We had a coffee and sat for a bit. I then took Ellie out and ended up chatting to an Aussie who was here on holiday. I didn’t recognise the accent as Aussie but then he told me that he was originally from Holland – that part of the accent I did recognise. Part of the conversation drifted onto not being able to buy wine in supermarkets and it turns out it’s the same in Australia – so not so unusual after all.

Eventually, the high-vis man came along and said that the traffic was coming through. Quite a queue had built up behind us so I suspect it was the same at the other end. We were held while the opposite end came through. It wasn’t going too bad until there was a gap and then a truck with flashing lights came along. Then he stopped and picked up a wheelie bin. One man auto operation but he was stopping at every wheelie bin so all the traffic behind had to stop in turn. Took ages for it all to come past eventually. When we were let through, there was some major work going on so you could see why there were delays.

Still narrow roads, though, and we had some tight squeezes with trucks and busses coming the other way.

I’d checked previously for the nearest Vinmonopolet (state beer-off) so I could get some wine. We are in Norway for a few more nights and then in Sweden for a few more so it will be a while before I will be treated like an adult again and allowed to buy wine in a supermarket. The nearest one was in Odda and was not far off our route. The appearance was similar to those in Sweden. I still felt as though I was doing something wrong by going in (didn’t stop me, though)

The roads were now a bit wider so we made better progress. The scenery was superb and there were some spectacular waterfalls. There weren’t many stopping places and the few that we saw were too busy for us to pull in. It’s not like being in a car – you need a fair bit of room to park.

Eventually, we found a place to stop. It a MoHo service spot. We’ve seen signs for these. They are basically on the roadside and allow you to drain grey waste and fill up with fresh water. I suspect you can empty the toilet as well but I couldn’t see how that worked.

With a relatively late start then the hour or so waiting for the road works and also the slow progress on the narrow roads, we weren’t making much progress. We’re actually aiming for the south coast somewhere around Kristiansand but had no intention of doing it in a day (250 or so miles) so there was no great pressure to get anywhere.

There weren’t many campsites on the road and the 2 that we saw signposted did not look to be open. We had just under a quarter of a tank of diesel and the computer was predicting a range of 130 miles but I’m very wary of that after the Spain trip when it went from 100 plus miles to low fuel warning in no time at all so we stopped at the first opportunity to top up.

We’d been looking out for site for around an hour when we saw the sign to Sanden Såre camping. It’s off the main road but in a wooded area next to the river Otra. We found a pitch in a wooded bay. The payment system is self-service and you fill out a form with reg number etc and then leave 200 Kroner in an envelope and pop it into a wooden box. Can you imagine what would happen to that in the UK?

Tea was Findus cod with a cheese and bacon sauce. Very tasty.

There’s an impressive rapids just down the road. I’m tempted to fly the drone up it but there’s a road that’s really too close and also my confidence is dented after the crash landing yesterday.

It’s so peaceful and the nearby road is not too busy. This is one of those places that make you really appreciate the motorhome.

The blinds that cover the windows and the roof vents in the MoHo are really effective so it’s dark inside whatever the conditions outside. So, when you wake up, you don’t know what it’s like outside until you open one of them. This is getting a bit like the Spain trip in that every day that we open them, it’s a cloudless sky and bright sunlight. As previously stated, the weather is far exceeding our expectations.

We got ready to set off around mid-day. The pitches are a bit tight on this site and last night, I’d had to reverse in and be very careful about avoiding some of the drains and ditches. So why did I think I could just drive out and not be so careful? I dropped the driver-side rear wheel into a drain. The wheel was resting on a drain pipe so no damage but it put the MoHo at such an angle that the near-side front wheel had no weight on it. Front wheel drive so as I let the clutch out, nothing happened because the diff put all the drive through the wheel that was almost in the air.

I tried reversing to rock it but nothing happened. Luckily, there was a German couple parked fairly close by and they asked if they could help. They brought their MoHo up to us and towed us out. Once their tow strap was tight, it was painless. They pulled us and then we got grip and out we came. If it hadn’t been for the drain pipe in the ditch, it could have caused some damage. And, if there’d been no-one else around, we could have been stuck there all day.

We are heading to the south coast of Norway and the closer we got to the sea, the less dramatic was the landscape. Plenty of lakes and still mountains but fewer and fewer of the mountains are now snow-capped.

We headed to Kristiansand but had no intention of staying there so we reset the satnav to Lillesand which is close by but on the road to Oslo so in the direction that we need to head.

I didn’t bother looking for any camp sites in advance because there seem to be that many of them so we pulled in to one that was signposted – it’s Tingsaker Familiecamping. The reception was closed but a woman came up to us and said to park up and then go and see the commandant in the morning.

The campsite is alongside Tingsakerfjorden – but it doesn’t look like the stereotypical image of a fjord – so, again, that word is used to describe all sorts of lakes/waterways.

The satellite dish locked on – which was a slight relief given the potential damage that we might have done when it snagged against the hatch and fused. We couldn’t get anything on Freesat but some of the Sky channels were ok. Strangely, we couldn’t get those Sky channels after 21:00. Is that a sign that the dish is damaged or is it one of those anomalies that seem to be associated with satellite reception?

Tea was a minced beef ad-hoc ragout type dish. Another lesson learned is not to bring a 500g pack of mince and put it all in the freezer. We only need half of that for tonight’s meal so we have the other half that we’ll have tomorrow. I fancy beef-burgers.

We couldn’t receive any Sky channels but we could access stuff that we’ve previously recorded. I recorded the Steve Jobs film ages ago so we watched that. I found it modestly interesting because I was involved in IT and remembered the development of the LISA and the Mac but it was a bit heavy going. Dud started knitting half way through so that is a reflection of what she thought of it. I’m ashamed to admit that I was surprised to see Kate Winslet in the credits – I hadn’t even remotely recognised it was her – perhaps if she’d got her baps out, I would have realised.

As seems typical of Norwegian campsites, there’s a mix of tourers, semi-permanent caravans and chalets. There is a group of Harley Davidson type motorcyclists renting a couple of chalets. When Ellie and I went for a walk earlier in the evening, they were all sat out drinking beer and bbq’ing. When we went for our late night walk at around 23:30 (still light), all was quiet. I had visions of them all tucked up in bed in their Pooh Bear pyjamas and Wee Willie Winkie hats after changing out of their Hells Angel gear. Probably not.

This is an OK site but not a 2-nighter. We’ll move further along the coast towards Oslo tomorrow.

I went to see the commandant to pay for last night and he said that the forecast for today and tomorrow is mid 20’s – low 20’s for next week. I don’t know what we did to get this kind of weather but somebody up there likes us.

We stuck with the decision to move on today and the plan was to drive for an hour or so and then look for a site. Hopefully, also, find a supermarket along the way. I didn’t bother looking for a site in advance.

We did the supermarket bit ok. Second time we’ve used a Kiwi – they’re a bit like co-ops. We’re now stocked up and so can do a 2 nighter and not have to do any shopping tomorrow.

Looking at the maps, there is what appeared to be a coast road and also a main road which looked a way off the coast. We imagined the coast road would be something like Cornwall where it passes fishing villages and we assumed that there would be plenty of sites to choose from.

That was a mistake. The road kept going round lakes and fjords and we barely saw the sea. Also, in places it was very narrow – only a single track, really. We met a couple of busses and trucks coming the other way and, thankfully, there was always somewhere for either us or them to pull in so that we could squeeze past. Apart from one instance where we met a big truck almost head on and we had to reverse until there was room for him to get by.

On top of this, we were not passing any sort of habitations and certainly no signs for camp sites.

It was quite stressful and no fun at all. And the worst thing was that there was nothing we could do about it because there was only the road that we were on and no options to get back on to the main road.

Eventually, we joined a decent road and, after a dead end trip into Risør town, we parked up on a garage forecourt and I got the laptop out.

We found that Risør Resort was close by so we set the satnav and got there within 10 minutes or so. It looks a nice place so we’ve booked for 2 nights. We’ve got a spot looking out on the fjord – Rødsfjorden.

We expected that it would get busy because it’s the weekend and a great weather forecast but it’s not too bad. A couple of tuggers turned up and parked nearby and they were out talking until around midnight but not a problem.

Tea was, as predicted, beef burgers. They were, as ever, delicious – though I must get some fennel seeds to keep in the MoHo – I usually add that at home and it gives them a nice lift. I always do 2 mixes – a boring, plain one for Dud and one with chillis and whatever else I fancy in mine. I put some curry powder in mine – and that gave them a different taste – in a good way.

Satellite dish would not lock on. We’re close to what looks almost like a cliff and that seems to be the way that most dishes are pointing so not a chance. We can’t even get terrestrial tv but that means that Dud and I can have some long, meaningful conversations.

Another chillin’ day. Needed it after yesterday.

We’ve got all of the roof vents open on the MoHo and the door is open with the fly screen pulled across. That means that Ellie stands against the door waiting for dogs to walk past and then she barks. I mentioned that we were close alongside a cliff. That creates an echo of her barking. I was at the top end of the site emptying the toilet and I could hear her barking and the echo so everyone on the site will be able to hear it.

Dud and I sat outside chillin’ and it was getting warmer. There was a lot of activity in the fjord with kids playing, people swimming and jet skis and motor boats tearing about.

We all went for a pleasant walk alongside the fjord and came back and again sat outside. I normally love the sun but I’ve not sat out in it a lot lately so have no tan. I could feel my neck starting to burn so I came inside the MoHo and switched on the fan. It’s only the second time we’ve used it – last time was in France last July in 30 odd degree heat. I don’t think it’s as high as that here but it must be at least mid 20’s.

Eventually, Dud came in as well to get out of the heat.

When you’re sat alongside a fjord with a beach and a bathing area, there’s an obvious way to cool down so I went for a swim. Not exactly a bucket list item because I’ve never thought about it but I can now say I’ve swum in a fjord.

Tea was sausages that I’d made at home. We’re working our way through meals that we’ve already had once since we’ve been away so that’s an indication of the length of the break.

We move on tomorrow.

We were ready to go reasonably early. The grey waste tank was showing 100% full (though the gauge is never accurate) so we knew it would take ages to empty – which it did.

We eventually got on the road and took the E18 – which is as main a road as you seem to get in Norway. It would have been tempting to take a road nearer the coast but we’ve learned our lesson there. We’re in no great rush as we’re further on than we’d planned but we’ve got a fair bit of travelling to do in the last few days and we’ll have to find a vet so if we can make up some distance, then that will come in handy.

We’d decided to take the ferry across Oslofjorden. 2 reasons: 1 – we’d rather not have to drive up to Oslo and then drive back – at least half a day’s drive; and 2 – it’ll be a new experience.

I’d assumed that it would be something like North Sea Ferries where we’d have to let them know that we have a wheelchair and we’d be positioned by the lifts and Ellie would have to stay in the MoHo so I was getting a bit tense as we approached it. North Sea Ferries are excellent in the treatment they show to disabled people but it is pressure have to get the wheelchair out etc etc whilst other vehicles are waiting so that was what was making me tense.

We stopped at a parking place so that I could walk Ellie and let her do whatever she needed to do. She wouldn’t like being left alone but would soon get over that and would most likely just fall asleep but best let her get rid of anything she needed to in the parking place rather than in the MoHo.

The ferry sails from Horten to Moss and the road signs were really good in that they signposted Horten but they also signposted Moss with a ferry symbol alongside so we followed those. As we got closer, there was a big batch of traffic coming the other way so we assumed a ferry must have just docked and then we saw the pay booths. I pulled in the manual one and took Dud’s blue badge and got out to pay the man. He said there was no problem with the wheelchair and we could stay in the vehicle. What a relief.

Funnily, he said to tell Dud, who was as always sitting in the passenger seat, to pull forward so that he could get the length of the MoHo. Err – we’re right hand drive. So, I got back in and pulled forward, got out again and paid. We were directed into lane 4 and drove straight on to the ferry – which, as you can see from the photos, is open and almost drive through. There are 3 ferries servicing this route and they sail every 30 minutes or so – so, there’s no hanging about.

They didn’t mess about getting away and before we knew it, we were sailing. I went on deck and some people had taken their dogs on deck with them. There was even a dog room where you could prepare food and give them water.

So, all that getting tense was for nothing. I’d read somewhere before we went that you should think of ferries in Norway as just an extension of the roads and I can now see what they meant. It’s not the big deal that we associate with crossing the channel, it’s more like the New Holland to Hull ferry used to be – ie just a means of cutting out a long stretch of driving and getting on and off as quickly as possible. I don’t think it will be the last ferry we take this trip – we hope to take one to Denmark instead of the expensive Orresundbron that we came over on the way in.

We’d set the satnav whilst on the ferry to take us into Sweden but it was around 15:00 so we started looking for campsite signs. We saw one pointing to Utne just off the E6 so we turned off toward that and it turned out to be a nice site – though it’s close to the E6 and so there is a bit of traffic noise.

The dish locked on and we could get some Sky channels but not Freesat. That meant that I could catch the end of the Monaco grand prix.

While I was watching that, Dud sat outside reading her Kindle but, again, she had to come in because it was too hot. She was wilting a bit and didn’t even want any tea – which, for me, was a Chorizo risotto with (because Dud was not having any) Scotch Bonnet chilli with the seeds left in – get in there!

We watched some of Cell which I’d previously recorded. That was the first Stephen King book which I read and it got me hooked on his writing. The film was not too bad but we’ll watch in 2 parts and so will watch the rest tomorrow. Strangely, after we’d watched that, we could not get any of the channels that we’d been able to see previously. That’s happened before and it’s as if Sky don’t make them available to certain areas after a certain time.

Our last night in Norway. We’ve really enjoyed Norway and would recommend it to anyone.

The weather finally broke today. It started off still warm but with some cloud in the sky. As we drove out of Norway and into Sweden, it became progressively cloudier and eventually we got some rain – and quite a lot of it.

We were driving on the E6 which is more or less motorway standard so were covering some miles. We needed top-ups in various areas today: shopping, diesel and alcohol.

We thought that, given the high cost of everything in Norway, it would be better to do these stops in Sweden so we got the diesel one out of the way shortly after crossing the border into Sverige and then carried on in the direction of Gothenburg.

We saw signs to a Shopping Centre at Tanum so pulled off the road. I did a shop in the Coop in the centre and have to say that there was a lot of choice given that it is a Coop.

There is a series of statues outside the centre. It appears to be a male chasing some females but I’m not sure about a certain part of the male sculpture. I’ve Googled it tonight and I suspect that the sculpture is showing exactly what I thought it was. Judge for yourself from the photo.

The alcohol stop came next. The Tanum shopping centre was a big one so I wondered if there would be a beer-off in there – but no, the nearest System Bolaget was 6 miles away. That was our next port of call. We duly stocked up with alcohol. I know that Dud likes to be stocked up with alcohol – me, I’m easy! (That’s a lie)

We had Gothenburg as the target on the satnav mainly as somewhere to head for but thought that we should soon start looking for a potential overnight spot. We saw signs to a camp site off the E6 so followed those and eventually arrived at the Anfasteröd Gårdsvik site.

We looked around a bit and the commandant came out and asked us if he could help. He said that a MoHo for the night would not be an issue and directed us to the MoHo pitches. I completely misunderstood what he had said because we ended up climbing right to the top of the site on a very steep and narrow access road.

We found a pitch that was ok but not ideal given that we were front end down even with the levelling blocks. Also, we were on grass and it was raining. We wouldn’t get stuck because we could roll forwards but the angle was a worry. I walked down to the office in the rain and on the way down I saw the area that we should have parked up in – and it was virtually at the bottom of the hillside.

I paid and walked back up the steep slope. I must be getting old or unfit or both because I have to admit that I had to stop a couple of times to get my breath. I decided to bring the MoHo back down the slope and park up in the correct place.

There was a break in the rain and not many people about so I got the drone out for the first time since I crashed it. I was quite pleased that it responded ok so there was no damage and I also manoeuvred it over power lines and between trees – and landed it without incident.

Tea was chicken frittata. Rather than flip between frying pans (which had ended disastrously last time I tried it in the MoHo), I put it under the grill to finish off and that was effective.

I’m not sure what the body of water is that we look out on to – it could be Halsefjorden – but we can see part of what I believe is called the Gothenburg Archipelago. I think this may be the first archipelago that Dud and I have seen – at least, knowingly.

The rain came again and we found that the front roof hatch – which is like a sun-roof – has a leak. I can see a split in the seal so that will need to be replaced at some point. It drips on to the seat that Dud sits in so not as urgent as if it had been on my side.

We can get some of the Sky channels and I ended up watching “War for the Planet of the Apes”. I enjoyed it but Dud went to bed – fantasy type films are not her cup of tea.

On Ellie and I’s late night walk, the rain had passed us but someone else was getting it because we could see lightning silhouetting some of the hills – quite impressive.

I suspect that this site is teeming in Sweden peak holiday season but there is nothing to keep us here today. There was (lots of) rain in the night but the morning was reasonably clear and warm.

There was no grey waste drain that we could see so we did the other parts of a daily service and then were off and on our way.

I set the satnav for Malmö because that was the only place I knew offhand that was south of Gothenburg. My intention was that that would make the satnav pick a route that would take us round/through Gothenburg rather than look for the centre of Gothenburg.

I recognised some of the roads and tunnels that we drove down to get through Gothenburg. In particular, I realised that we would probably see the big amusement park – which we did.

We stopped at a service station south of Gothenburg to have a cup of tea and also to finalise on somewhere specific to head for. We got Apelviken Camping from the Camper Contact web site. It had mainly good reviews so we set the satnav to aim for there.

On the way, we passed a big MoHo sales place – Vincents. I popped in to see if they had any blade fuses. I had assumed that there would be an accessories area but there wasn’t. The receptionist spoke perfect English as did her colleague whom she summoned to help me. I showed him what I wanted and he went off into what was presumably a workshop and came back with a handful of fuses. I asked him for a couple of 3A minis and 10A standards. He gave me them and refused to take any money. In fairness, they are only a few pence each but the gesture was much appreciated.

We got to the site and it’s a big one. We don’t normally like that type of site but it’s out of season and it’s a school day so no kids. And it’s in a reasonable location by a beach on the North Sea. We’ve paid for the biggest area – even though that means that we don’t get an ACSI rate. I’d rather have the space. We’re not next to the beach but we’re about 3 rows back and we have a decent view out to sea.

Because we hadn’t been able to drain the grey waste this morning, I went to the MoHo service point before we went to the pitch. The water was not flowing very fast so I suspect something is blocking the outlet. I poked around with my finger and that improved things slightly but it still looked like it would take ages. I then did something I’ve not done before and I lifted the carpets in the MoHo and unscrewed the top of the tank and looked in. It’s was around half full and didn’t smell particularly good. But I couldn’t see a drain plug so that was no help.

So I bit the bullet and decided that I was going to see if I could undo the outlet pipe. Once I’d set my mind to it, it was not difficult – it’s apparently only a push fit. That did the trick and the water gushed out. I’ll do that on the drain points in future.

There’s a quite busy train line that runs almost along one edge of the site but it’s the opposite end from us so not a problem. And there’s lots of Kabe caravans of various ages but of identical colour schemes. We love Kabes.

We had some more rain late afternoon. It was quite heavy but it cleared and was followed by sun again.

Tea was Findus breaded cod fillets.

We have Sky so we watched the end of Cell. It was quite scary – but different ending to the book.

Plan is to see what the weather is like tomorrow. It’s a good forecast: sunny and a high of 26. If that turns out to be the case, we’ll stay another day.

When we drew the blinds, we saw that normal service was resumed with the weather. Almost cloudless skies and it was warm. So the forecast was accurate and we decided to stay here for a chillin’ day.

I had to go the reception to let them know that we wanted to stay another night and I took Ellie – even though I knew I would not be able to take her in the office. On CAMC sites, they have somewhere that you can tie a dog near the commandants’ office but there was nothing like that here. So, I tied her up round a lamppost and told here to stay – which she did while I paid for the extra night.

When we got back to the MoHo, I put out the awning but it was quite windy and it flaps about so, rather than damage it, I took it in again. I’m really envious of other people with awnings that appear really tight when ours is not. I must raise it with Danum on the next service.

Dud was wary of spending too much time in the sun after the wilting incident a couple of days ago so we relaxed and people-watched in the MoHo. There is a couple next door to us and the woman seems to have a different set of clothing every time she emerges from the caravan. Considering that today, I changed my shorts for the first time since we left, I find that strange!

The wind was gusty but when it was blowing, it was quite strong. I knew exactly what drone shot I wanted – I wanted to get a view of the MoHo and the North Sea – but I was unsure how it would cope with the wind. Also, the lady next door laid out in a bikini (I think – I wasn’t taking too much notice!) and, as I’ve previously mentioned, drones can be seen as a bit of an invasion of privacy.

Eventually, the couple next door went out and there didn’t seem too much activity so I got the drone and got exactly the shot that I wanted. The wind did affect it but only slightly – the on-board sensors must cope with wind – and I brought it down quite well. I know there were 3 or 4 couples sitting outside their caravans/MoHo’s and they must have been watching so I half expected a round of applause – but it was not forthcoming.

It was still hot but we all went for a walk. We had to go back to the reception because I hadn’t taken the wristband earlier that gets you in to the services. The reception re-programmed the wristband so we would be ok. This is quite a high-tec site but I have no problem with that.

Quite a poignant moment at the reception. She said “Are you Christopher?” I told her that I was but I said (as I always do when asked that question) that only my mother calls me Christopher (present tense). This is our first holiday since my Mum died so I need to get used to using the past tense. Only a minor thing but it hits you a bit.

On our walk, I pointed out to Dud the many Kabes that I’d seen. I’m sure that she is as keen as I am on Kabes (you may get a different answer if you ask her that).

We walked around the site and then out on to what is a walking/cycling/power walking track. Ellie and I had gone down this yesterday but we went on a gravelled path that I did not think would be suitable for the wheelchair – so we took a different route.

The track took us past what was sign-posted as a Sanatorium. It’s really worth checking out that link (you’ll need to Google Translate it) because, although it is not now used just for children, it must have some health benefits – real or perceived.

We got back to the MoHo and the sun had moved around so that the MoHo itself provided shade. So, Dud sat outside whilst Ellie and I chill’d inside – aided by switching on the fan, again.

There is a swimming pool on site and I’d made up my mind that I was going to give it a try so I did. It was really refreshing but there were a few kids in there so I didn’t stay in it too long. When I’d finished and I went back to the lounger where I’d left my towel and glasses, and, looking really cool, I sat on the lounger to dry my feet. But I’d sat on the bit before the legs so the lounger shot into the air and I ended up sat on the floor. I’m not sure anyone noticed but if I’d wanted to impress anyone by being cool, I’d have failed.

Tea was Corned Beef Hash – something that I can make really tasty – and this one did not disappoint.

The satellite dish had locked on so we watched various Sky channels. After tea, Dud told me that BBC and ITV were working – but there was nothing on those channels that we wanted to watch. So, we watched some of the other Sky channels. I told Dud that I would record Coronation Street but it didn’t work and after 21:00 CEST none of the channels would work. Frustrating or what?

Tomorrow is a good forecast but I suspect we will move on. In spite of our reservations about big sites, this has been a good stop.

At the risk of repeating myself, we opened the blinds to another cloudless sky. We’d actually removed the quilt from the bed last night and it was still warm with just a sheet.

We needed a few supplies – mainly milk – so I went to the supermarket on the site. It was really well stocked so another plus point for this site.

Last night, we’d made up our minds to move on today. My provisional plan allowed for another couple of nights in Sweden but we’d decided to head for the ferry from Helsingborg to Helsingør (Danish spelling). Helsingborg was around 90 miles so we could do that in a couple of hours on the E6.

There was a bank of drinking water taps near the MoHo so we filled with water before we went to the service point. Once at the point, all we had to do was dump the grey waste – which was done using my new technique of disconnecting the actual pipe.

We were away for 11:30 and made good time so we stopped for a cup of coffee before getting to the ferry port. No stress this time – I was sure that it would be the same setup as the Horten to Moss ferry.

Once we got to the pay booth for the ferry, we got a couple of shocks. Firstly, having told the girl that Dud needed a wheelchair so could we stay in the vehicle, she said that we couldn’t. I asked her what we would do about the wheelchair, in that case. She telephoned someone who said that we could stay in the vehicle. I think she must have been new because there was no attempt by anyone once on board to make anyone get out of their vehicle.

The second shock was the price. I’d assumed that it would be similar to what we paid in Norway and got my cash out (may as well use up the cash because we will only lose out on converting it when we get home). I told her the length of the MoHo (7.5m) and the price was SEK 1,030. That’s more expensive than the bridge. I’ve checked on line and I think she should have charged us SEK 861 – so not that much difference. Anyway, it gives us a different route through Denmark and it was another different experience so no point in dwelling on it.

We had a 5 minute or so wait to get on. We were at the front of our queue and could see one of the ferries preparing to leave but we could also see another one coming in. They have 2 berths so the incoming does not have to wait for one to go out.

We drove on and I made a sandwich and by the time we had eaten it, we were on the way. I went for a walk on deck.

I knew there was a Hamlet connection for the area (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark – not the cigar) and I’d seen maps where Elsinore was shown but I hadn’t realised that Helsingør is the modern name for Elsinore. I did Hamlet at A level.

I took some pictures as we were getting close to docking. There was a castle that was quite prominent. I hadn’t realised until I checked later that it’s Elsinore Castle – as referred to in the play. Also, the ferry pulling out as we pulled in was named Hamlet. Bit of unintended culture, today.

We parked up straight after pulling off the ferry and got a site from Camper Contact. It was a pleasant drive of only 8 or so miles – most of alongside the sea between Denmark and Sweden. Dud keeps referring to it as the Kattegat and she says that further north is the Skagerrak. Every time she says it, I annoy her by singing the Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch song Zabadak – which is probably not related at all.

The site is pleasant and quiet. As we now expect, lots of cabins and semi-permanent caravans. Not seen any Kabes, yet. When Ellie and I went for a walk earlier, there were very few people about but later on, lots of white vans turned up so, as we’ve seen previously, it looks like contractors use the place for somewhere to stay.

Tea was Chicken in White Sauce and that’s all of those used up. We need to stock up again when we’re home.

Ellie and I went for a walk later and we went as far as the sea so we could see Sweden. On the way back, there were a couple of people talking and they both had dogs. A Labrador crouched low and I was a bit concerned that it would be aggressive to Ellie but it wasn’t a problem. Its lady owner then said “Ooh, an Airedale”. She then said something I didn’t understand so I said to her that I didn’t speak Danish. To which she replied (in a refined English accent) that she didn’t speak it too well, either. She was a Brit living in Denmark. We had a bit of a chat but the Lab was bothering Ellie so we moved on.

We have no Sky. Looking at the direction in which other dishes are pointing, there are loads of trees in the way. So, with no tv on in the MoHo, I keep hearing what sounds like an electric motor winding up and then it fades. When Ellie and I went on out late night walk, I found out what that was and it’s a railway line that passes the edge of the site. As with other railway lines that we’ve been near on this trip, the sound is nothing like as bad as you would expect.

This is a nice site and the commandant is extremely helpful but I think we will move on tomorrow.

When the commandant saw Ellie and I coming back from one of our walks yesterday, she said that there was a “gorgeous” walk to the right (we’d gone to the left) so we tried that this morning and it was gorgeous. The Scandinavians take their leisure seriously. I knew that from colleagues in Sweden and Denmark. The walk looked like a council/state provided facility and there were activity and rest areas and the obligatory cycle tracks.

We also climbed to the top of a hill and got what turned out to be our last view of Sweden across the water.

The grey waste drain is close to the commandants’ office and after we’d done all the other servicing bits, we went there. It’s a cast iron drain cover and there are keys that you can use to lift the it. I did just that and was going to position the MoHo so that I could use my new-found technique and disconnect the pipes. But as I was doing this, the male commandant (we’d only had contact with the female one, so far) came out and said to put the cover back on before positioning the MoHo. I can understand why he said that because they don’t want a MoHo putting their back wheel inside the drain but there followed a lot of messing about while I explained about the blocked pipe. I know he was trying to be helpful but if he’d left me to it, we would have been done a lot quicker. Anyway, we got it all drained eventually.

The route we are taking back is slightly different to the one that we took a couple of weeks ago. We are cutting diagonally across Sjælland but will end up at the causeway/bridge across the Great Belt.

Driving was pleasant and relaxed so we stopped for breakfast and then pressed on. As we got closer to the bridge, we stopped again for coffee and looked for potential camp sites. I fancied one with a pool because it is sunny and cloudless and hot again (you mentioned it again!) and the lure of a site with a pool was quite strong. But this is a Friday afternoon and so any site like that would most likely have lots of kids and so lots of noise. So we settled on Tårup Strand Camping which is where we stayed on the way in.

On the approach to the tolls, there is a lane marked up as “Manuel”. That is either a Spaniard or it translates to “Manual”. We’ve always taken that lane because of fear of the unknown in using the automatic card booths. The lady in the booth asked for the vehicle documentation. I have that but I would have had to root around in one of the cabinets for it so I told her that our length was 7.5m. She wanted to know the weight so I told her 3.5tonne. I must have a trusting face (I don’t!) because she accepted what I said and didn’t press for the papers. We were charged DKK 365 so the same as when we went over previously.

Not only are we visiting the camp site for the second time but we needed some supplies so we visited the Lidl that we had previously used. What is the expression: con me once, shame on you; con me twice, shame on me. Well, shame on me because it was just as crap the second time round. What sort of “su.permarket” has no carrots? Anyway, we got a few much-needed supplies (namely some beer!)

Dud spends a lot of time knitting. She does it in conjunction with her friend, Eileen and they knit socks and things for African orphans – or something like that. I asked her if she would knit some covers for some of the bigger knives that we have in the cutlery drawer so that it would stop any rattling noises. She did one for one of the smaller knives but it only covers half of the blade. I’m hoping that any subsequent attempts will be a bit more effective – bless her.

When we arrived at the site, we pitched up in a similar area to where we were previously but I asked for somewhere a bit further back from the edge because, last time, we were nose down quite a lot and on grass.

There is a white husky type dog next door and it is very friendly but Ellie still backs away from it. She became a bit more confident as the night progressed but still would not mix completely. We need to do something about her dog socialisation skills.

On our late night walk, it’s the first time in weeks when I’ve actually needed the torch – so we are back to something approaching normality regarding light nights – or rather, dark nights.

As nice a site as this is, I doubt we’ll stay here tomorrow. We’re getting ahead of our plan in terms of distance and I think we may appreciate that when we get into Germany/Holland/Belgium.

There was a bit of activity on the site near the entrance when Ellie and I went for our morning walk. Looks they host some kind of car boot sale.

Ellie was a bit braver with the dog next door but still backs away at the slightest movement from the other dog.

The hose that we use to fill the fresh water tank is proving an issue. When we first got the MoHo, you get one with it but that developed leaks after only a few months. It actually develops pin pricks or blisters but they are enough to allow water to spray out. It seems I could have got it replaced under warranty but I didn’t even think to claim so we bought a new one. They are not cheap at around £50 – they have a special fitting at one end that presumably bumps the price up. That was around 4 years ago and now the new one is doing the same. I have taped up some of the holes but others are appearing. Strange thing is, it has gone for 4 years with no problem and then the holes start to appear all at the same time. I’ll sort something when we get home but it makes filling with water an interesting exercise.

Given that today is likely to be our last day in Denmark, it’s my last chance to see a pig. I’ve previously mentioned the pig farm near this site so, if that is going to be the closest I get to a pig, then I decided to stop and take some photos. I’m pleased to report that there was a definite smell of pig shit in the air. I’m pretty sure that you couldn’t blame that on Ellie – or Dud.

We set the satnav for Kiel in Germany – not because we wanted to end up there but because that would give us a route into Germany. The aim was to drive until we felt like stopping and then look for somewhere. We drove over the bridge over the Little Belt (Danes spell that Bælt – which is their equivalent of ä) – which is, thankfully, free and eventually crossed back into Germany.

We pulled in at an Autohof to pick a possible camp site. Autohofs are like service stations but you have to pull off the motorway and on to other roads to get to them. We picked a Stellplatz based near the CITTI-Park stopping centre in Flensburg – which was only a few miles away from where we’d stopped.

There is a big car park for the shopping centre and then a separate area marked out for around 30 MoHo’s. There is a service point on another edge of the car park. It was quite busy when we arrived but as soon as the centre closes, it quietens down. We’ve had some good pitches this break but I wasn’t expecting a shopping centre to be one of them.

There’s no hook-up here so we will be on 12V. That means that we will be restricted to only an hour on the laptop until the battery runs out so I decided to check out the inverter which I’d not tried since it fused the 12V system earlier on. We now have some spare 10A blade fuses so I decided to risk blowing at least 1 of them. I took the inverter out of the compartment where we keep it and immmediately saw what was the problem. One of the blade connectors had come loose and was potentially touching the positive connector – hence the fusing. Once I’d screwed it back in place, I tried it again and there was no problem. So, we have the capability of inverting to 240V which will allow charging of the laptop and other devices.

We sat and chilled for a while in the MoHo. It was very hot outside again so I put on the thermal blinds. They keep you warm when it’s cold but they also absorb the external heat when it’s hot. They did the trick of cooling down the interior.

Tea was Hunters Chicken which we’d brought with us from home.

This is definitely not a 2 night stopover so we’ll move further into Germany tomorrow.

It was quiet in the night. The lights of the shopping centre went off – even the traffic lights on the road went off.

We were woken at around 07:00 with the sound of engines and of people talking. My immediate thought was that it was MoHo’s moving off so I tried to go back to sleep.

I got up around 08:00 and was surprised to see the car park full – including cars parking in the MoHo bays. I’d seen a couple of vans in the shopping centre car park last night and assumed that they were some kind of traders that had been there on Saturday but this morning the main car park was filled with what looked like a car boot sale.

We got up and serviced the MoHo and then moved on to have breakfast on the road. Within seconds of moving out of our overnight spot, it was occupied with car booters looking for parking.

We stopped for breakfast and decided to head for Hamburg and then stop somewhere along the way and pick a site. The satnav advised a diversion off the A7 which would, it said, save us 9 minutes so we took it and ended up on some A type roads which were an interesting diversion.

We got back on to the A7 and there were a number of major roadworks around Hamburg so I suspect the diversion did actually save us. The traffic was heavy and was moving slowly.

We got to the camp site and, to our surprise, there were notices that it was gesperrt – ie closed. Shame because it looked a nice site. We tried (unsuccessfully) to get an internet connection to find somewhere else so decided to head in the direction of Bremen and then look for somewhere else.

As we were looking, another MoHo pulled up and I had a quick chat with him. He was also surprised that it was closed. We got ready to turn round and head off when a commandant appeared and took down the gesperrt signs and told us that we could stay. The camp site is attached to a zoo/safari park next door and it turns out that they are closed on a Sunday in case they need the room as an overflow car park for the zoo.

We got a reasonable pitch and the satellite dish locked on and we have Strom (that’s hook-up for us German speakers).

Ellie and I went for a walk and had a look at the zoo and there were hundreds of cars parked so I could see why they might need the overflow parking.

Weather has not been great today and has been a bit overcast for most of the day but it started to warm up and the sun eventually came out and it’s nice and warm again.

There’s a few others on the site including what looks like a Swedish gay couple of tuggers (that’s a term for caravanners, not another term for gays!). It made our day that they are pulling a Kabe!

Tea was chilli con carne. We’ve now used all the mince that we had and we used the can of kidney beans that we bought somewhere in Sweden.

We start looking for a vet tomorrow so that may decide what route we take. We may be lucky in that there is a Tierartz just down the road. It took a while for me to recognise the word but I realised that Tier is animal and Artz is doctor so it’s a vet. I’ll pay a visit in the morning and see if they can fit us in.

A very quiet night and we woke up this morning to an overcast sky and a fine drizzle.

I went round to the Tierartz (vet) first thing to see if he could administer the worming treatment to Ellie but the gate was locked and there was no reply when I pressed the buzzer.

We decided to set off straight away since we had no bread for toast so the intention was to head for another vet that I’d found nearby and get some supplies from a supermarket and then have breakfast. We, in the UK, have an expectation that shops will be open 7 days a week so no need to plan and get stuff in over a Sunday. Germany seems to be one of those countries where nothing is open on a Sunday. Had we realised that, we could have got stuff on Saturday in preparation.

We set off and had one last attempt to see if the vet round the corner was available – but he wasn’t so we set off to the other one that I’d programmed into the satnav. When we got there, it was closed. Opening hours were 10:00 to 11:00 and then later in the day. It was after 11:00 when we got there so we set off again in search of a supermarket.

I’m sure that when I was at school, I knew that Tierarzt was a vet but next to the vet that we visited was a Zahnarzt – Zahn is tooth so a tooth-doctor – ie a dentist. If I ever knew that, I’d forgotten. It’s exposure like this to the vocabulary that makes you remember it.

We drove into the nearby town and found a supermarket. My heart sank a bit when I saw it was an Aldi but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the choice. I had expected it to be as awful as Lidl but it wasn’t. Amongst other things, I got some rump steak that we had for tea and it was good. And they had carrots – luxury.

After the shop, we set the satnav for Bremen which took us on to the A1 and we stopped at the first opportunity for breakfast.

We then reset the satnav for Osnabrück and decided to drive until around 15:30 and then see where we ended up. There were lots of road works. The satnav suggested an alternative route for one of them. We took it and went down some quiet and pleasant roads but eventually ended up back on the A1 – for more roadworks.

We stopped to pick an actual site. We couldn’t get an internet connection and Camper Contact on Dud’s Galaxy was not responsive so we picked a site from the ACSI book.

It was only 20 or so miles away to so we headed to Alfsee campsite.

We took a wrong turn near the campsite and, for the second time this trip, I grounded the rear chassis – hopefully no damage. We found the site and checked in and found a reasonable pitch and we all went for a pleasant walk around the site. There are lots of semi-permanent pitches which we’ve seen a lot of on this trip. There was also an activity area around a lake which has huts that appear to be there to cater for school trips because there’s lots of kids about.

The lake has an overhead pulley system installed which can pull people around on water boards. We’ve not seen one of those before.

We can get BBC and other channels on Sky that we can’t get at home and we’re back to getting ITV on Freesat. There seems to me to be no logic to which channels you can get in different areas – but I won’t lose any sleep over that.

I asked the receptionist if she knew of a vet locally and she wrote down some contact details but I think she just Googled it when I asked. We need one tomorrow or, at the latest, the day after.

We move on tomorrow.

I rang the vet that the receptionist had given us first thing. Originally, he was going to make an appointment some time tomorrow but when I told him we were leaving the area today, he found a slot for us at 11:45. I started the conversation in German but he had really good English so we ended up using that.

We had breakfast and then got to the vets in good time but couldn’t find a close parking spot so I ended up parking in a Netto. I popped in and bought a couple of bottles of wine to ease my conscience about parking there. I’ll probably get round to drinking them eventually.

I’m sure there must be decent supermarkets in Germany but we’ve not seen one either on this trip or when we were here last year.

We saw a female vet who didn’t have great English but we got there with a mixture of my German and her English. She gave Ellie a good examination – which not all of the vets do. She then gave me 3 tablets to give to Ellie whenever I wanted. I’ve not done that before. She’s normally given the tablets in the surgery. I could cheat and not give her the tablets and no-one would be any the wiser. Anyway, we gave her them when we stopped for a cup of coffee.

Across the road from the Netto, there was a lady selling what I assumed is local produce from a stall on the roadside. I bought some Erdbeeren (strawberries), Kirschen (cherries) and Spargel (asparagus). We’ve seen lots of asparagus fields and lots of stalls selling them – and we saw some in Scandinavia as well. They’re mainly the white ones that you don’t see very often in the UK.

We set the satnav for Eindhoven because that was on the proposed route that I planned. We ended up back on the A1 with all of its associated roadworks. We eventually passed the part that was completely closed on the way up and they’ve done enough work to open 2 lanes on each side. It slowed us down but not significantly. Can’t say the same about the other side where there was a huge tailback of trucks.

We stopped at one point for diesel on another autobahn after we’d come off the A1. The garage was quite close to the carriageway. As I was at the pump, the noise from the fast cars was very loud. Some of the big SUV’s doing 120 mph plus must be shifting some air and it creates a lot of noise. I can’t help but think that if the UK had no speed restriction on motorways then maybe we would have kept our motor industry because we would have produced cars that can do long distances at high speeds – which is what the Germans do. According to a couple of web sites I Googled, around 70% of cars on German roads are built in Germany. I’m really envious of some of them.

We did our usual and pulled in around 15:30 to pick an actual site and we finally settled on this one that we got from the ACSI book.

We set the co-ordinates into the satnav but we know that that will only give us an approximate destination. True to form, it led us down some narrow lanes with no sign of a camp site. An interesting detour in that we passed lots more asparagus fields – “asperge” for the Dutch – which I think is similar to French. The satnav did not recognise the address that was in the ACSI book but there was another identifier in the book and I put that in as the post code and – hey presto – it recognised it and took us to the site.

The receptionist said that they took cards but she looked at my debit card and said it would not be any good. Not sure why because we’ve used it throughout Scandinavia. The lady at the vets said the same. I’d paid cash at the vets and didn’t think I had enough cash left to pay the site fees but I managed it – just. We have lots of Kroner from all 3 countries we visited but we’re now almost out of Euros.

The site is a big one but is amongst trees. We have a nice pitch but I doubted that the dish would lock on and it didn’t. Also, we have no terrestrial signal so no tv of any sort tonight.

Tea was the last 2 Findus breaded cod fillets. For me but not for Dud there were also a couple of the Spargels – and delicious they were too.

We’ve broken the back of the return journey. We’ll probably aim for somewhere in Belgium tomorrow. But we’ll do all we can to avoid Antwerp given the 2 hours that it cost us on the way up.

Sorry to mention it again but we drew the blinds to a cloudless sky and a temperature approaching the 20’s. It was certainly warm when we serviced the MoHo – but luckily I get cooled down by the ever increasing number of jets of water that are emanating from the now badly deteriorating hose.

We needed some Euros since we were down to only small change and we saw a cash machine at a Rabobank in the town of Helden. I only know of Rabobank because they are major sponsors of a team that competes in the Tour de France. The receptionist at the camp site had cast doubt that our cards would work in an ATM. I have no idea why she thought that because it was no problem and we are now topped up with another €100.

When we first saw the bank, we struggled to find somewhere to park. It’s never easy in a town centre in a 7.5m long vehicle. It was lunchtime and as we drove around looking for a parking spot, we passed a couple of schools which must have been on their lunch break. There were pupils in high vis at each crossing who had stop signs – a bit like lollypop people. They must be very trusting of drivers to hand that power to kids.

Something else that we noticed this morning and something that we’ve seen a lot throughout this trip is that there are bike stands at the bus stops. So, people ride their bikes to the bus stop, leave them in the bike racks and get the bus to wherever they are going. What is even more surprising is that most of the bikes are not even locked up. I’ve seen that before on trips to Denmark and I think it is good to live in a society where that can be done.

We pulled in somewhere to buy something. I can not reveal too many details on this because I don’t want to spoil what we hope will be a surprise to some of our readers! The boss came out and I said that I could not speak Dutch so can he speak English? Surprisingly, he could not but Deutsch was ok so we conversed in German. I can’t reveal what we bought but the transaction went OK in what to both of us was a foreign language.

We were hoping to avoid Antwerp because of our 2 hour delay on the way up. Given that we would have to travel more than 2 hours out of our way to avoid it, we bit the bullet and set the satnav for Ghent knowing full well that that would take us round Antwerp.

As it turned out, we were not delayed at all. It was very busy and slowed down once or twice but there were no stops at all so we got to the other side of Antwerp and pulled in to look for an actual destination.

Our satnav is a CAMC special and when we originally got it, it had the capability to search for ACSI sites. We used that quite a lot but the facility disappeared on one of the updates. I thought it would be worth spending a few minutes to see if I could get that facility back. I couldn’t but I did find the ability to search on categories and one of the categories was camp sites. Great time to find that capability on the last time that I would actually need it this trip. It came up with a few sites – one of them being Groenpark so we headed for that.

It’s quite a small site and after we’d checked in, I parked up and walked round to look for a pitch. It was not very organised but I saw a couple of possibilities and we parked up.

Temperature was in the high 20’s but we all went for a walk. The site has seen better days and there is a big section that has electric points but it looks like the grass hasn’t been cut for a few weeks so no-one is parked there.

We walked through one of the semi-permanent type sites that we’ve seen so much of this trip. There were a couple of big dogs barking that had Ellie pretending she hadn’t seen them – but her tail between her legs was a giveaway. Then we came out on to Donkmeer so we walked alongside that for a while before we made our way back to the MoHo.

Tea was bacon and eggs and tomatoes – with hash browns and sweet corn and onion for me but not for Dud. Simple but nice.

I had a nap after tea and woke to the sound of a few people playing ping pong. I originally assumed that they were playing in what appears to be a games room across the road to us but they were on a table right in front of us. They appear to be eastern Europeans so, again, contractors staying in the site accommodation (I have no proof of that – just my guess).

It was not a major problem but I was unhappy with what I saw as an invasion of our privacy. Dud was watching Emmerdale and Coro so was not too bothered but the longer it went on, the more annoyed I became. I gave it until 21:00 and then went out and asked if they spoke English – which they did – and so I asked them to go and play somewhere else. I half expected a knife through my chest but they were very polite and one of them said that they did not want any trouble and they packed the table away and cleared off.

They don’t fool me and I have locked the MoHo and have the baseball bat at the ready!

On the return from our evening walk, Ellie and I passed the Brit MoHo parked next to us. They wanted to engage in conversation so, being the social animal that I am, I obliged. Turns out they are full-timers in the MoHo and are going to Norway right up almost to the Arctic Circle before turning round. We had a good conversation and they were interested in what we’d found out about Norway and they also made a fuss of Ellie and gave her some doggie treats. We also got a “You don’t see many Airedales”. Nice couple.

Surprisingly (or not), this is our first overnight stop in Belgium – in either the MoHo or any other form of transport.

We move on to Gravelines tomorrow – I always look forward to that. Personally, I’ve loved this trip but I’m now ready for home.

There was a lot of rain in the night. It didn’t wake me up but I could tell that there had been a lot by the mud splashed up the side of the MoHo.

We didn’t rush to get going because we were less than 100 miles from Gravelines so no great effort needed today. The weather cleared up and it was warm and sunny again.

Belgium is nothing special but it’s pleasant and I’m pleased we managed a stopover there just for the experience.

We went through some country roads but soon ended up on the motorway and we weren’t on it for long before Calais started to be signposted. Another sign that we are getting close to the Channel ports is the ever increasing number of UK number plates that you see. We went for almost 2 weeks in Scandinavia without seeing any Brits but now we’re seeing them all the time.

We pulled in for lunch at a service station and there were 3 classic Jags queueing for petrol – one of them was an E-Type – which was always my dream car.

We got to Gavelines and went straight to the service point which is a couple of miles away from the aire. There was a French MoHo on the point so we pulled in to wait. There was a couple milling around but it soon became obvious that they didn’t have a clue what they were doing so I got out and offered to help. The bloke (possibly being a typical bloke) blanked me because I had probably insulted his manhood. Eventually, they sorted themselves out and got the services flowing but they took an age to finish. All we needed to do was empty the grey water but I also emptied the toilet and topped up the fresh water. We do that so that we have nothing to do in the morning and can get away sharpish.

We got to the aire and there were a few MoHo’s in the field but not many on the riverside. We parked up and paid and then all went for a walk.

The intention was to visit the nearby wine shop, come back to the MoHo and have a cup of tea and then I wanted to take Dud into the town square which she’s not seen. That plan was ruined because the wine shop must have gone bust and the building was empty. So we went into the town and I tried to show Dud the areas that Ellie and I had visited previously but the surface was cobbled and so not comfortable for a wheelchair.

We needed bread and milk so we found a boulangerie where I got the bread, We also saw a Spar supermarket so we got the milk – and I got a couple of bottles of wine whilst in there. I wanted to take Dud down some of the streets that I had found last trip but, again, the paths were cobbled and quite narrow and with having to control the wheelchair and an Airedale that is pulling in all directions I was finding it quite stressful so we headed back to the MoHo.

It was threatening rain but was still quite warm so Dud sat outside for a while whilst I readied the drone so that we could get some photos of the aire. I’m still quite nervous of flying it but I sent it out over the river and got some good video.

Tea was a couple of the pork schnitzels from the German Aldi. They were good and I had the last of the German Spargels.

I know that we have been away for a month because the Three data that I bought before we set off has run out and we have no internet. So this won’t be posted until after we’ve got back. We’ll be home tomorrow night. As I said yesterday, as much as I’ve enjoyed the trip, it will be good to get back home.

I woke up around 07:30. There was more traffic noise than I remember from previous Gravelines stays. I’d set the alarm for 07:45 so I got up anyway. Our train was 09:50 so I wanted to be at the terminal for 09:00.

We were on time to make that but there was a slight delay on the road. A lane was coned off but nothing appeared to be happening but there was a police van with blue lights flashing at the start of the cones. They would not normally do that for road works so I wondered if there had been some trouble with illegals.

When we got to the tunnel, there didn’t appear to be any queues which is unusual. I took Ellie into the pets’ clearance building. There were a couple of other dogs in there all quiet and well-behaved. Ellie did what she always does and started barking and generally trying to liven things up a bit. We were processed no problem and went straight through the check in lanes.

A queue had started to build up because it looked like the Gendarmes were making extra thorough checks on the vehicles. It was getting to around 09:30 and they usually start boarding around 25 minutes before departure so I started to get concerned that we were going to miss our train and would have to get the next one.

We spent what seemed ages in the queue and then we could see the Gendarmes all went back to their cabin – presumably for a tea break – and so the queue quickly went down.

Ellie was getting a bit stressed about something and she slipped her collar and so was loose in the vehicle. What she usually does is rest on Dud’s lap and look out of the window. Given that we were not actually driving on a road, we let her do that.

French passport control just waved us through but UK control gave us a bit of a grilling on where we had stayed. They even asked how long was the drive from Gravelines and had we kept our locker locked overnight. I suspect this was tied in with the lane closure that we’d seen so maybe there was an issue overnight.

We were put in a separate lane at the last check point but they let other cars through while we were held. I assumed that we would be put on first on the next train – especially when the board displayed that loading was closed for our train. I was very stoic about that and did not get at all annoyed and wound up (not). Then the barrier lifted and we were actually put on last. I suspect first or last does not matter for wheelchair users as long as they are not somewhere lost in the middle.

We had breakfast and the crossing seemed to go quickly so we were soon on our way on the M20. During the crossing, the red light had come on the toilet tank – which means it’s full. Given that I’d emptied it the previous afternoon, that should not have happened. I put it down to the movement of the train but it stayed on once the train had stopped. If it was full, then that would mean that we could not use it.

Ellie slipped her collar again on the M20 and spent the journey resting on Dud’s lap – including the M25 and M11. I’m not sure why she does it but something was spooking her – or she was just doing it because she could.

We pulled in at Birchanger Services – which we always seem to do. The red light had gone off on the toilet so Dud could use it but I chose to use the facilities in the service station building. Given the possible implications of overflowing the toilet, we were going easy on liquid intake so didn’t have a cup of tea or coffee.

Traffic was quite heavy on the M11 and the satnav reported that there were delays that we could avoid by taking an alternative route which we did. Turned out to be more or less the same diversion that we were forced to take on the way down and we ended up going through Godmanchester again.

We got back on to the A14 and traffic was quite heavy as it was on the A1. When we got to Lincoln, the bypass was busy and I got to do something I’ve often thought about. The junction with the ring road and the A15 has 2 lanes. The inside one is for if you are going to left or straight on, the outside one is for if you are turning right. 90% of traffic queues in the inside lane so you get a queue there but nothing in the outside lane. That was the case today so I went into the outside lane, signalled to turn right and went round the roundabout 360 degrees and took the exit that I would have taken had I stayed in the inside lane. Given the size of the MoHo and the distinctive number plate, I’m sure it didn’t go un-noticed but it saved 2 minutes of our precious time and was good fun.

Arriving home, the front of the house looked ok because my brother-in-law, John, had been cutting the front grass but the back is like a jungle. I know what I’ll be doing for the next couple of weeks.

Always a strange emotion when you get back. It’s been a good break and you’re ready to be home but then you start to think of that great view over the Great Belt or the stunning sights of the Norwegian fjords and you wish you were still there. We start to plan for the next trip wherever that will be.