On the Road Again!

This would be first test of the new Victron and lithium battery setup. Four nights off grid at the Newbury Showground. The plan was to set off at around 1030am on Thursday and drive across to the South of London and then west to Newbury. In the end we left at nearer 1050am. Not too bad.  The first stop at the garage on the way at West Malling.  It was a bit of a faff finding the LPG pump. There is only one and it's access was a bit difficult. Involving a bit of reversing out of the wrong place and queueing.  Despite the gauge on the top of the bottle being close to empty we could only get £2.93 (at .99 a litre) in before the pump.m stopped and displayed "stop". Very odd. A quick check of the gauge showed it was full!!! Anyway, we set off again. The M26 and M25 were very civilised and moving. We stopped at Cobham Services for Reggie's breather and got a coffee from Starbucks at the McDonald's ordering machine...

"Whaaaat!!" After three days of "off grid" living the new setup has worked quite well.  We have used the kettle quite a lot and the air fryer. The air fryer peaks at around 1800 watts. The kettle around 1000w. Getting up on the morning of the fourth day, the battery is showing at 81%! To be fair the weather has been very overcast and raining at times since we arrived. So we aren't getting a lot of solar energy through the panels on the roof. 

I have revisited this trip and at the moment the target is still Aulendorf and that might be the furthest we go.  I had been thinking of making that beginning of a wider trip taking in Bavaria and Austria, I think we'll cut the distance we travel. With no end to the war in Iran and fuel returning to normal it looks as though we'll cut down the distances and go from there. Cathargo City Aulendorf

Before our next weekend away, I decided to take the Canon rather than the old Nikon D50.  I have 4 batteries.  All of them when in the camera show a low battery. So it's charger time. Before that I took a couple of pictures from the garden. It was early evening and probably not the best light.

Today we went to a  "wake" for a friend. It was a wake with a difference. He's still alive. After recovering from several bouts of cancer and with a terminal diagnosis a year ago, he wanted a party with family and friends. Raise a glass and wish John well.

With the cost of living still high, and with the added cost of fuel due to the Iran situation, I have been looking at cutting the distances we might be doing on this trip. So that brings us to Plan D!! I have missed the first few days off this rough map. Oyambre to Potes and then across to León . I have been using  https://app.tripstop.eu/map and the app on my phone to look for stops along the way.