On the Road Again!

We took Molly to Choose Leisure again this morning.  I had booked it in for today last week.  The airbag problem isn't uncommon for Ducato vans and the other derivatives. Of course we were hoping that it was going to be something simple and not the very expensive airbag module itself. We dropped it off just after 9am. They asked us if we wanted to wait for it. We said no. Good job as it was around 3.30pm when they called to say it was fixed. We collect it tomorrow.

Sadly cancelled for us with the airbag module failure.

I used ChatGPT to suggest a route from Dieppe to Calahonda right to the door of the apartment. I set a daily driving limit, in hours and/or miles.  It came up with two alternatives. As well as a daily mileage limit I also said that we had to: Avoid Paris Avoid toll roads as much as possible Avoid areas most likely to need winter or all season tyre The route is decided on, of the original two, was basically to go as far west as possible to avoid the mountainous centre of France. Then to swing south-east to the Mediterranean coast into Spain. It has come up with a breakdown for eight travelling days and seven possible overnights.  What is good is that it also was able to create actual .gpx files I could download and then edit in MyRouteApp. I have downloaded the .gpx files into a folder on the laptop. What it hasn't done is suggest aires, it's basically checked towns and that's it. What I need to do is to cross reference the suggested stops against ...

Set off today to get the tap looked at by ARC and I had gone 200 yards when the airbag light came on. I carried on as it's only a few miles. ARC fixed the tap but couldn't do the airbag module as they don't have the special equipment.  When I came home I got a fair way and it had magically fixed itself... then it started up again. It's booked into Choose Leisure on Wednesday the 4th. It means our trip to the NMA is scuppered.  I had to email the campsites. Bollocks.

On a roll now. Counting backwards to the third night before the timeshare week in Calahonda.  Spain being the place that "snowbirds" flock to from Northern Europe it's quite difficult to get a campsite on the Mediterranean coast with vacancies. Many of the sites in the more popular places were full. I have lost track of the number of websites I have been onto looking for one night each way. I used pitchup.com this time and found two the other day. With pitchup.com you can specify the travel date and then it only shows sites with vacancies.  Some of the "search" sites show you what's in the area you have chosen but not if there are any pitches. I had a look again and found a few sites around the right sort of daily distances.   This time I found Camping Peñiscola and Camping Alegria de Mar . We have stayed at Alegria twice before and whilst it's a friendly site I wanted to try somewhere else.  Alegria has a bar restaurant and that's a big tick in its...

I have been working on the trip down to the Malága/Marbella area for quite some time. The problem of travelling across France and into Spain in February will always be the weather. I used ChatGPT to suggest a route taking about a week to arrive at the timeshare apartment in time to check-in on the right day.  A criteria was to use non-toll roads in France as much as possible and another to avoid areas where winter or all season tyres are necessary. As I have already booked the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry (return) the route takes us along the western, Atlantic, side of France before cutting across to the Mediterranean coast. I have plotted the route in MyRouteApp and can refine it over the coming months.  I have also started to look at all season tyres! It makes sense not to tempt the devil in the weather. The Mediterranean coast especially the more south you go is very popular with northern European travellers.  Many of the sites and camper parks are full already, or at leas...