My new Northstar demountable was collected from the importer, Niche Marketing, from Manby, Lincolnshire on 10 September 2011 and I took it home to Poole, Dorset to fit a few personal bits. These included a CD/radio unit and a DVD/TV with satellite receiver and the associated aerial on an extendable mast. Jan started loading our stores for the trip, but at that time we still didn’t know when, or where, we were going to go. Ben, our springer spaniel’s pet passport was up to date so the world (or at least Europe) was ours to explore.
I ended up booking the Channel tunnel crossing for lunchtime on 16 September with a return booked for 15 days later. We set off after lunch on Thursday and made our way sedately eastwards along the south coast – seeing loads of interesting cars making their way to the Goodwood Revival Meeting. We overnighted at a campsite near Rye and the following morning visited Dungeness, home of two nuclear reactors and also the end of the line for the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch narrow gauge railway which I remembered travelling on over 40 years ago.
Dungeness
Arriving on French soil we made our way eastwards and wild camped at Dunkirk for the night in a lovely spot overlooking the river.
Dunkirk wild camp
The following morning we travelled to Brugge for lunch and then on to Brussels to meet up with some friends for dinner. Whilst at their flat we studied predicted weather patterns for the next week on the computer and decided to head south for the best weather. The next morning the rain had stopped and we lunched in Luxembourg before filling up with the cheapest diesel in western Europe and crossed the border into Germany. We wild camped that night in a remote forest car park with great dog walking, though it was a bit creepy in the dark (are there still bears or woves in the German forests?)
German Forest wild camp
The next day we pressed on and decided that our next overnight stop would be on the shores of the Bodensee Lake on the German/Swiss/Austrian border. We again wild camped in a car park, this time by a church overlooking the lake, the weather was still overcast but at least it stayed dry. We ate in a lovely restaurant that evening on the edge of the lake and had a superb meal. The following morning we drove in steady rain around the edge of the lake and entered first Austria and then Liechtenstein for lunch. Our next country was Switzerland and we overnighted in yet another car park between Chur and St Motitz at a height of 3500 feet. Next morning we climbed up and up to above the snowline maxing out at an altitude of 7500 feet before dropping down into St Moritz for lunch.
Swiss Wild camp
St Moritz
Although cold the sky had now cleared and it was blue skies all the way. After lunch we descended over 4000 feet of altitude very quickly in a series of steep hairpin bends which really tested the efficiency of the Defenders brakes! As we descended and entered Italy the temperature increased significantly – we had a range of 2 deg to 28 deg in three hours! We found a campsite on the eastern shore of Lake Como which was absolutely beautiful with the mountains coming right down to the lake. Jan took the opportunity of drying out towels and doing some washing and for a short while the truck resembled a Chinese laundry.
Lake Como
Chinese Laundry
After dinner at a lakeside pizzeria it was decision time again and we had three alternatives: head south into Tuscany then return through France; head west to the Mediterranean and return through France; or head east visiting the other Italian Lakes and the Adriatic coast before returning via Slovinia, Austria and Germany. The first option would be a bit of a whistle stop tour and Jan wanted to spend more time in the area, the second option was rather boring, third option therefore agreed!
Next morning we travelled south towards Milan before heading eastwards stopping for lunch on the shores of Lake Iseo before moving on to Lake Garda staying at a campsite on the south side of the lake overnight. The next day we circumnavigated the lovely lake stopping for lunch just west of Riva. We then left the main road and wound our way up and then down a narrow mountain road passing a sign that said maximum height 3 metres and maximum width 2.2 metres. The camper is “only” 2.15 metres wide and a shade over 3 metres wide so I thought we’d be ok. We met a few cars and had a degree of difficulty passing them on the narrow road – then we came to the grotto. It just didn’t look possible for us to squeeze through but the signage indicated we could so I went for it. The tunnel we entered was more like a cleft in the cliff face and was only one car wide and weaved to the left and right alongside, and sometimes in, a stream bed. We emerged victorious but, unfortunately, there was nowhere to park to take a photographic record of our achievement, Shortly after exiting the grotto we encountered a car coming in the opposite direction and I had to squeeze under an overhanging cliff clipping the front right corner of the camper on the protective netting covering the cliff face. When we eventually stopped I was relieved to find that it had sounded far worse than it was and that no damage had, in fact, been done.
The Grotto
Lake Garda campsite
We stayed another night on the shores of Lake Garda in a super campsite on the southwest corner of the lake with the most amazing views of the lake. The following day we stopped in Verona for lunch then carried on eastwards towards our next destination, Venice.We wild camped overnight at the top of a no through road which ended at some massive military gates beyond which appeared to be a disused army installation.
Next morning we drove over the causeway to Venice – a new destination for Jan (and presumably Ben). It was well over 30 degrees on the streets of Venice and I had to keep lowering Ben into the canals to let him cool off – Jan and I had to make do with Italian ice creams! On one such canal visit I came very close into following him in when I slipped on some weed – every time I moved I slid nearer to the edge and it was a very close thing. Only damage though was dirty shorts and embarrassment.
Venice Grand Canal
We next drove to lido di Jesolo where I had holidayed 35 years before and we found a campsite near the beach. Ben loved both the warm Adriatic and tearing about on the almost empty beach. Next day we followed the coast to Trieste before heading north into Slovinia and a visit to the amazing caves at Postojna which you enter and leave by a narrow gauge railway. We stayed overnight in a nearby superb campsite in the forest, which was beautiful.
Postojna Caves
Next day we started our long drive home via Austria, Germany and the Netherlands using a mixture of campsites and wild camps. We arranged to take Ben to a vet in Eindhoven in the Netherlands for his pre-return check-up. In the Netherlands a lot of people have pet rabbits and many of them seemed to be in the vets waiting room for their myxomatosis jabs – Ben thought he was in bunny heaven! That night we wild camped in the overflow car park for a campsite whose reception was closed by the time we arrived – their loss was our gain as we were able to use the campsites facilities for free.
Eindhoven "wild camp"
Next day we headed for the Dutch coast of Zeeland before heading west to spend our last night at a camping car aire in Gravelines, twelve miles east of Calais. We brought fabulous weather home with us and England was basking in an Indian summer for a few days to welcome our return, however, it did mean that we encountered our first serious road congestion of the trip – at Cadnam in the New Forest!
Distance travelled in the 16 days – 2925 miles. Which sounds horrendous but it was, after all, a shakedown test for our new camper!
Countries visited 11
Highest altitude reached 7500 feet (2284 metres)
