Alpine summer

Following the mechanical troubles of the JOGLE run we planned our own summer adventure on the return of Roofus.  We are probably going to alternate summers in the British Isles with slightly further afield travels.  As last year finished with the Devon trip, this year is another Euro-jaunt.  Poland or Italy were the likely destinations and I don't remember why but the southern compass point won the day, Italy it shall be.

Trummelbach Falls

We've never made it to "proper" Italy, just managing to break into the lake areas at the top a couple of times.  So we though we would make a go of it this year.

However, when it came down to it, we failed again.  We had a good could of days driving down through France at a leisurly (for us) pace, stopping in Verdun for a couple of nights.  A flappy gearstick later and confidence in the "it'll be OK" diagnosis, using google translator, from a VW dealer in Besancon we carried on.

The we found ourselves in northern Switzerland and kind of decided that actually we should have a look around.  It is a beautiful coutry and we bought ourselves a motorway vignette and headed off to Interlaken.

Camping in Stechelberg

We found a great campsite at the head of the Lauterbrunnen valley with views down to Wengen and towering cliffs on either side.  I took myself off for a full day hike up into the foothills of the Schilthorn (I think) meeting goats and other wildlife.  Fran enjoyed  a lazy couple of days reading and chilling in / around the van.


I guess we then decided to move on and seemed to spend the next few days going up and down the Alps.  We certainly managed a lot of alpine passes - Sustenpass and St Gottard into Ticino (Italian Switzerland) where we stopped and took in the Madonna del Sasso before getting caught in the mother of all thunderstorms at the campsite.

Climbing in the Busenbrand

Mountain wildlife

As we were so close we felt Italy itself was calling, so we did a token drive down to Lake Como before returning to Switzerland by way of St Moritz and the Fluelpass to Davos and departing via Klosters.  How the other half live!

We continued north into Germany and flirted with the Schwartzwald again staying in St Peter before spending my (40th) birthday driving up to Bingen to join the Rhine gorge up through Koblenz.  We then headed across country into Belgium and spent the night at a campsite very close to the Spa Grand Prix circuit, not quite realising that one day later and we'd have been fully caught up in the GP frenzy.  The countryside round here is fantastic.  Birthday dinner was an interesting selection of deep fried items containing cheese and other indistinguishable content.

Madonna del Sasso, Locarno

From Spa it was a long motorway haul to overnight in Ypres, where we took in the last post at the Menin gate.  The quick blast from Ypres to Calais and then M20, M25 home...!
Back to work

Loans and tribulations

This year Roofus has had lots of ups and downs, not just physically but mechanically too.  A full check-up including timing belt, and LPG service should have set things up well and for a while all went well.  I also had enough of Wipro, so resigned in early May without anything to follow, maybe a bit rash, but it felt good at the time.

Thanks to our long serving monarch we were blessed with an extended weekend in early June so, following on from the 2011 Easter trip, we planned a weekend in St Neots with C+S.  On the morning as we prepared to depart we receieved a call saying the site was waterlogged and they would be unable to have us to stay.  Undaunted, we rearranged to a much closer site, near Ivinghoe and toddled off bunting and all.  We had a very pleasant couple of days interpersed with an entertaining Italian meal in Tring, torrential downpours and a stomp up the beacon.

I got a new job, starting late July, for PayPoint in Welwyn Garden City.  Notwithstanding all the great things about the job, the fact I no longer have to commute daily into London is a massive bonus for me.

Fran's friend Neil decided to undertake the challenge that is the Lands End to John O'Groats cycle, except for logistical reasons he decided to do it from North to South.  In support of this he managed to engage his parents as a support crew, and asked if they could use Roofus as the support vehicle.  As the first ever possible leasers of Roofus we were a bit uncomfortable but slowly came round to the idea.  In early July they departed for the North to begin the challenge - Neil has his own blog for this at http://neilsjogleadventure.blogspot.co.uk/.

Unbeknownst to us trusty old Roofus was not behaving herself and had a couple of not insignificant failures on the trip:
1 - LPG fuel line failure at a filling station which involved the AA and the Police and resulted in the filling station being closed for a number of hours.  The cause was a badly worn fuel hose which had failed and leaked LPG (Propane) all over the forecourt.  Being heavier than air it didn't disperse either!
2 - Catalytic Converter failure requiring a full replacement
In some ways we are really thankful these failures happened on british soil which meant getting them fixed did not also become a linguistic challenge, but ultimately to have major failures on a vehicle that you don't own cannot have been any fun for the JOGLE team.  Top marks to Geoff for the cost of getting both problems fixed though - less than £200 all in!  All finished successfully and Neil raised loads of money and has returned safely, but I bet there were a few heart stopping moments.

I still need to have a chat with my man Ian who services the van to see his views on the corrosion of the fuel pipe, especially as it has been regularly serviced, and the whole system is significantly less than 2 years old!  Writing this makes me remember I still need to have that conversation.

2011 fun and games

2011 started with the new job, which for about 3 weeks had me based in the London office.  Then a couple of day trips to Paris by Eurostar to meet clients.  Then a consulting engagement based in La Defence, Paris which turned into a 4 month weekly commute.  I now have a reasonable working knowledge of Paris as a City and grew to quite like it, especially for jogging along the Seine, around the Arch de Triomph, the Jardin Tuilleries and Luxembourg etc...

And by the end I'd built up enough points to bring Fran over for a couple of days to enjoy a weekend for very reasonable cost.  I can't find any pictures of Paris, but I'll add them if I do!

Family Davies for Ruby Anniversary

Easter in sunshine at Olney

When we got back from our Europe trip we were convinced we would use Roofus for all sorts of little getaways and overnighters...  We have done a bit, and certainly the fact she is parked outside the house all the time means it's really easy to jump in and go.  The reality is not quite so idillic but nothetheless we do try and use her, even just for pinic or takeaway lunches on Chipperfield Common!

Roofus did have quite a busy 2011 when we had outings to:
- Thetford Forest for valentines
- Easter weekend in Olney with Chris, Sarah and SPAR

Birthday at Samyeling monestary

- Graham and Amanda's wedding (Staffordshire) in May
- Mum and Dad's Ruby Anniversary in April at Whipsnade Zoo
- Natalie and Mark's wedding (Surrey) in August
- James and Nicki's wedding (West Sussex) in August

From Sussex we took a Roofus on a trip of northern England taking in Hull, Segways, Keilder, Peebles, Lake District including the Wrynose and Hardnott passes, and returning via Blackpool and the Peak District.  Beautiful scenery and pretty good weather to boot.

My Birthday this year was partly spent at the Samyeling Buddhist Monestary somewhere in the borders.

October Half term 2011 was perhaps the least successful housing selection in all the years we've been doing the holiday.  We stayed in Shoreham by Sea and the location, company and weather was up to standard, it's just the the house itself wasn't.

Sometime in November we had a random and not fully successful night out somewhere near Duxford where we stayed in a pub garden and ate in the pub.  An experience to be remebered but hopefully not repeated.

Boxing Day 2011 was spent in Farnsfield, near Mansfield and included using Roofus as our overnight lodgings, which was pretty refreshing although the heating did us proud.

Remainder of 2010

38 today

So, the end of the summer holiday took a slight detour through Thorncombe for my Birthday where I was presented a splendid cake.  Rufus became re-christened "Roofus" and spent a happy afternoon being treated like a playhouse by the little Monkies.

The October half term trip (10th anniversary) was spent in Barton on Sea (New Forest) and we had some fantastic weather for a change enjoying trips out and about including the Isle of Wight.  I remember one phone interview in the flat competing with really poor phone reception and a smoke alarm.

Then reality properly hit and I started looking for a job. 40 or so applications later and only something like 3 getting to interview stages.  I landed a job with Wipro Consulting working out of the Paddington Office in London, Starting January 2011, which I delayed as much as possible.

As I wasn't quite in employment I took Roofus a brief trip to the North to visit Kirsty and Charles in York, followed by Bob and Phoebe in Warrington.  Main memories of this trip was the minus temperatures overnight when I insisted in staying in the van.  I also just missed, by hours, some fairly heavy snowfalls which caused chaos across most of the areas I had just left behind.

Catching up... after a blogging drought!

Hairy big man

This is to update the time between summer 2010 and autumn 2012!  Quite a big gap really and no valid excuses.  Anyway, I've decided to catch up by filling in as many blanks as I can between the end of the 2010 summer break and now...

Looking back at some of the photos from Devon 2010 reminds me how stupidly long and ridiculous my hair got when I didn't have a job.  I'm the one on the right.

And also quite how wet and dank the holiday was, but that's the joy of a staycation.  We could hardly see 50 yards up on Dartmoor but it certainly was a different experience to southern Europe at the beginning of the summar and 40°C in the shade.

Hosepipe ban?