Traffic, tyre blowouts and rain were the main ingredients picking up our hired VW Campervan
So after the exciting news last night that the camper was fixed, it was up, in the car and off. Picking up our VW Camper.
We were expecting a bit of traffic and we were not disappointed. What we were not expecting, however, was a tyre blow out!
Sailing along quite nicely on a welcome stretch of road without traffic, then Bang!! and a shudder.
At first, we thought it was a drain, but on paying closer attention to the steering it was clear something wasn’t right.
Luckily there was layby up ahead so we pulled in. I jumped out and confirmed our fears. Flat as a pancake!
I looked skyward. Could our trip get any worse?
Straight onto the phone to the AA. 35 minutes to wait so I started unloading everything from the van. I then got a text saying they would be with us in 10 minutes, so I decided to wait for them and turn our attention to letting the campervan hire place know we would be later than expected.
As luck would have it (for them and us I guess) we had the blow out right by a tire fitting company. The AA man tried to repair and get a bit of air into the tire but I don’t think he managed it. We trundled back a few hundred meters anyway to the tire place.
Fixed, and ready for Picking up our hired VW campervan
Some guitar playing and £77 pounds later we were back on the road. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful and we arrived to collect the camper at about 4.30pm, some 90 minutes after we wanted to.
Excitedly we hit the road and an hour or so later after a quick stop for supplies, we were at the first campsite ready to set up.
It was a basic site, but perfectly fine for us. I am typing this while we are at another mainstream campsite with hundreds of kids still running around and playing football at almost 10pm. That’s fine. Kids will be kids but it doesn’t make the camper experience better for me. I’d prefer a bit of calm and peace. I must be getting old!
We easily set the van up, plugged it in, and after a simple tea we have named Pasta a la Franc(furter) we settled down for our first night. We dozed of in eager anticipation of what tomorrow would bring.
Not good news, it would turn out!
