After a great year in Africa, Cuthbert is now back in Europe for the summer. The primary plan is to visit family & friends, and to prepare Cuthbert for his next adventure…. off to South America in September. Here goes the blog for Europe – Summer 2015:

April/May 2015

Having left Cuthbert with the shippers in Port Elizabeth, we flew back to UK via a stay with friends in Dubai. The vehicle shipping wasn’t quite the smooth and seamless experience that the agent Seabridge, had advertised. See the posts at: Bad News & Good News  and Hurry up and Wait. Oh well… that’s life as a globetrotter 🙂  We ended up spending a bit longer than expected with family in UK waiting for Cuthbert to arrive.

May 2015

Back to the future in Belgium

At the end of May we travelled to Belgium by Eurostar to collect Cuthbert from the docks in Zeebrugge. Not having seen him for over 4 weeks, we were ‘well chuffed’ to find him safe and sound on the dockside. Time for a few days in Belgium to re-introduce ourselves to truck-life 🙂

Aaaaaaaand…. drum roll…. Ta daaah! Finally Cuthbert arrives in Belgium from Port Elizabeth, safe and sound albeit over two weeks late. The ‘Great Africa Chapter’ is now closed and we’re looking forward to three months around Europe before we ship to South America in the autumn.

So… where first? After collecting Cuthbert from Zeebrugge docks, we set-off down the road for a quick stopover to see the sights of Brussels. The Belgian capital has plenty of old cobbled streets with beautiful old architecture to wander around, plus the added bonus of some great traditional bars, beer and waffles to sample. No trip to Brussels can miss the world famous ‘Manneken Pis’ statue of a small boy urinating into a street fountain! Not the most positive example of best-behaviour to set for children, but we also saw a few stag-party chaps who were no doubt skilfully emulating the iconic statue by the end of their night’s festivities. Bizarrely, when we first walked passed the Manneken Pis he was dressed in a very odd looking hooded monk’s cloak and holding a miniature broom-stick. We never got to the bottom of this strange attire (possibly the artistic expression of an over-enthusiastic stag-party? 🙂 ) but when we returned later he was back to his famously naked self.

Still in Brussels… we moved on to one of Europe’s most famous landmarks: the Atomium. Built for the 1958 World Fair it still, after 57 years, looks like something from the movie ‘Back to the Future’. It has an unmistakable ‘futuristic’ feel and from inside the top bubble there are great views over the city. Inside the Atomium, you get the feeling that this is how the architects predicted the early 21^st Century would be: everyone living in metal-blob structures and pods. With the benefit of hind-sight we now know that ‘the future’ has not turned out quite the way envisaged in 1958, but as you walk around inside the Atomium you have to keep reminding yourself how old it is and how far ‘we’ have come since it was conceived. In 1958 the space-race wasn’t much off the starting blocks, jet air travel was barely off the ground, TV broadcasts were in black and white and not yet widely received across most of Europe. The interior of the Atomium in 1958 must have truly felt like the early US Starship Enterprise come to life (come to think of it, even the original Kirk and Spock were not yet on our screens at that time!), yet in 2015 it still feels like a piece of ‘forward thinking’ architecture. Pop in to see it next time you are passing through Brussels and let us know if you agree 🙂 .

We really enjoyed our short time in Belgium and – contrary to the impression created by the eponymous Christmas dinner vegetable – we found no sprouts in Brussels 🙂 .

Moving on from Belgium, we went on our way to Germany to the Abenteur & Allrad Show in Bad Kissingen, east of Frankfurt. This is a great four day event for anyone interested in overlanding and 4×4 vehicles. Watch this space for the story, coming soon to a computer screen near you…

June 2015

Beer, würst & camper-trucks

The Abenteuer & Allrad Show in Bad Kissingen, Germany: Europe’s largest overlanding exhibition, held over 4 days in June every year. This is where we first came in 2012 to choose a builder for ‘the Truck’ (the vehicle currently known as ‘Cuthbert’). The show has lots of overlanding stuff and, being in Germany, there is naturally also plenty of beer and würst on offer too… so what’s not to like? (click here for link).

On the day before the formal opening of the show, we parked Cuthbert in the designated campground with a rapidly accumulating crowd of camper-trucks. When Cuthbert arrives in a campsite he tends often to be amongst the larger of the trucks in the ground, indeed he is usually the biggest by some margin. But not at the Abenteur Allrad Show!!! Here there are monster-trucks of a scale dwarfing Cuthbert, making him look like the Mini Cooper of the camper-truck world. All the main manufacturers of camper-trucks and 4×4 vehicles are there, showcasing the latest trends in camper-truck construction and gadgetry. Then there is stall after stall of the overlanding associated guff that the well-equipped overland traveller just has to have (because of course, we all have soooo much spare room in our trucks to store all this ‘essential’ stuff!)

We had a great four days both at the show and at the very sociable camp-ground populated with like-minded overlanders. The weather was fabulous and we made lots of new friends. First we met up with our friends Peter & Heike (drivers of a Cuthbert sibling truck, the original Iveco Daily 4×4 camper-truck from Bocklet), then Roger & Sue from the Silk Route Club (Sue freshly arrived from a stupendous overland cycle from Cairo to Cape Town – big respect!). The next day Darren and Clare from Bimobil UK parked up next to us and proved to be a poor influence on our alcohol consumption over the next 3 days! On the Friday evening, relaxing with a beer outside Cuthbert, a friendly voice came from behind us: “Allo… Markuus?” Some very nice Cuthbert fans from France, Co and Eric have recently bought a camper-truck similar to Cuthbert for a forthcoming trip around Africa and been following our travel blog over the last year. We were very pleased to meet them and have arranged to visit them in Reims later this summer. Very sociable this overlanding stuff!! 🙂

Cuthbert is now back in UK for a couple of weeks receiving some attention to his ‘stop/go mechanism’ (installing a super new shiny electro-retarder) ready to take on the challenges of the Andes and the rest of South America. You now have a bewildering choice of two future options to look forward to:

• • Option A: If the term ‘electro-retarder’ is not alien to you and you have at least a passing interest in the braking systems of the Iveco Daily 4×4, then you may enjoy the technical update Preparing Cuthbert for South America or….
  • Option B: If you have absolutely no idea what an electro-retarder is and (like most sane people) you care even less, you may prefer to await Cuthbert’s next travel-blog up-date when we hit the road again in a few weeks time (see below).

July 2015

Did we mention the cheese?

The absence of recent contributions to the Blog could well have aroused suspicions that we are sitting idle, squandering the days of the European summer. But on the contrary, dear Watson! The life of the overland traveller allows little time for frivolities; one should not underestimate the level of commitment and determination required to plan overlanding trips and to consume so much delicious fayre (in particular… French cheese!) with good friends over such a short period of time!

Overlanding trips don’t just plan themselves you know 🙂 ! Whilst on the road with Cuthbert’s Grand Euro-Tour 2015, we have, in between the consumption of wine and cheese, been preparing for South America (setting sail next month – very exciting!): researching the minutiae of insurances, mapping, border and visa requirements, vehicle modifications, low-sulphur diesel availability, detailed shipping arrangements, vaccinations and medical requirements, and, and, and…. So much to do! Then of course there was the cheese to be eaten… every meal. Did we mention the cheese?? We like cheese… which is just as well when dining in France.

Cuthbert’s Grand Euro-Tour 2015 started with a couple of loops around UK catching up with great friends and family. Hospitality was outstanding throughout and at this stage of the tour, with the exception of the odd bit of Cheddar, cheese was reasonably ‘thin on the ground’.

Phase II of the Grand Euro-Tour 2015 was taking Cuthbert back to mainland Europe for further over-due visits to our friends in the conveniently monetarised ‘euro-zone’. The first stop was a great evening with Eric & Corrinne near Reims. Eric and Co have just taken delivery of Ulysses, their new Cuthbert-sibling truck; it was great to see the very smart ‘new generation’ overland truck (without the scratches that Cuthbert proudly sports as evidence of his year off-road in Africa).

Collecting a tank-full of Europe’s cheapest fuel in Luxembourg, we passed briefly through Frankfurt then back into France to visit Alison & Gerome Patain in Roanne, Clive & Christine Jones in Toulouse, Paul & Julie Smith in Bergerac and finally, Julien & Karine Walther-Moutte in St Malo. Phew! All that in 3 weeks! The result? Significant consumption of wonderful French cuisine, a fabulous amount of cheese and a corresponding increase to our waistlines. Fortunately for us, we don’t carry weighing scales in Cuthbert, so we’ll never actually know the exact extent of our excesses! Handy eh? 🙂

But stuffing our faces with cheese was not the only pastime in France… No Sir! 🙂 You may be impressed to hear that we also managed to squeeze in a bit of sight-seeing en-route! The towns of Besancon, Auxerre, Dol and Bayeux may not be the highest profile attractions that France offers to the international tourist, but they are delightful and worthwhile stop-offs for anyone with a bit of time to wander and take in some real culture. The Atlantic coast near St Nazaire is also very scenic with lovely beaches and pre-historic relics at Carnac. The WWII destroyed village of Oridour-sur-Glane is tragic and thought-provoking.

We spent an interesting and very moving few days at the Normandy D-Day Landing Beaches, the Allied cemeteries and the remains of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanche. Watching Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ the evening before our visit to Omaha Beach brought a tremendous reminder of the reality to the experience. And stepping back almost 900 years before the D-Day landings, we went to see old Harold taking an arrow in the eye for England, at the Bayeux Tapestry. I’m not sure whether it’s right that the great loss of life in war should be so much less moving when depicted by stick-men embroidered onto canvas, than it is when depicted by photographs of faces. They died hundreds of year apart, but they were all brave men fighting for their countries in their time.

Inevitably, with France being France, we had to end the trip in the wineries of Burgundy… the village of Chablis to be precise. The worthwhile outcome from this visit to Chablis is that we now know our Petit Chablis from our Premiere Cru and our Grand Cru. This can clearly be classed as a resounding “Result!” And equally importantly we have learned a lot about French cheese. Did we mention the cheese? 🙂

Moving on now to Germany and Austria for a bit of schnitzel… schnell, schnell 🙂

August 2015

The Hills are Alive!

Leaving France and the cheese behind, we hopped over the border into the south of Germany near Freiburg. First to the Bodensee, better known to most Brits as Lake Constance (not sure why we English feel the need to rename places in our own language, when the locals have allocated a perfectly good name already, but let’s not digress…) to visit our German friends Klaus and Jasmine who run a restaurant near Lindau: the fabulous Strandhaus. It was good to catch up with them and hear about their plans; Jasmine is the manager and sommelier, whilst Klaus is a ‘celebrity chef’ in Germany with his own TV cookery series specialising in amazing grill food. They don’t need any advert from us (they are mostly booked-out anyway) but we love going there and couldn’t miss the opportunity to give it a mention here.

From Lindau it’s just a few kilometres into Austria and the spectacular Alps – it’s all so wonderfully ‘Sound of Music’ – Julie Andrews and the Von Trapps could have popped out of the forest at any time 🙂 ! As the Austrian motorway tolls are ridiculously high for poor Cuthbert , we avoided the autobahn and made our way on the smaller roads over the mountains. This was an excellent opportunity to test properly Cuthbert’s new electro-retarder braking system: it worked brilliantly, even on the long 16% descent from Seefeld towards Innsbruck – this all bodes very well for tackling the Andes in the New Year!

The small roads across the Alps can be slow going…. in fact very slow in places, but sooooo worth it for the views…. Wowser! You just don’t get the opportunity to take in these kind of stupendous vistas when you blast down the fast-lane of the autobahn. We spent a few days in the lovely Zillertal/Gerolspass area where apparently ‘The Hills are Alive’!

Moving on to some more of ‘My Favourite Things’ … our friends Max and Uli, near Linz. Max is one of our oldest friends and the brave chap who first introduced us over 20 years ago! We had a lovely time going out with them exploring the northern foothills of the Alps, all very beautiful but no sounds of yodelling or any ‘Lonely Goatherds’ 🙂

After Linz we wanted to head south into Italy, but the best route avoiding the pesky, exorbitant autobahn truck-fees, is to go west to Munich before heading south. En-route around the ring-road, we passed by the Dachau memorial site and popped in for a visit. The gruesome history of this place is well known but we wondered whether it is still supported by the younger generation. No need to worry about any lack of attendance here; quite the opposite in fact. But for us there was something disappointing about the whole experience… maybe the overcrowding and happy-chatter noise, or the lack of respect for the significance and solemnity of the venue. It’s hard to put a finger on it exactly, but we felt something missing from Dachau… the ‘something’ which should generate in visitors a quiet sadness and respect, the ‘something’ which was present at the memorials to the Normandy beach landings that we visited a few weeks ago.

Anyway… moving swiftly on to something a bit more uplifting… southwards and back to the hills at Garmisch where we found the incongruously named but very scenic Wank Mountain… (we kid you not… check it out on Wikipedia if you don’t believe us 🙂 ). This is still very much ‘Sound of Music‘ country, but we doubt that the name of this particular peak would feature in Mother Abbess’s crusade to ‘Climb Every Mountain’!

Moving even more swiftly on, we did a quick skip south through central Austria and into the Alps of northern Italy. Our chosen route was westwards over the Stelvios Pass, but unfortunately someone had rather inconsiderately closed the road on the other side down into Bormio. Undeterred, we wanted to see the views from the top anyway so we put Cuthbert through his paces climbing the 48 hair-pin bends – yes… the ones made known to motor-heads by Mr. Clarkson and chums the (famously former) presenters of the popular BBC TV motoring programme, Top Gear. We knew from our mountain drives in Lesotho last year that Cuthbert would do an awesome job taking us up the Pass and negotiating all the steep, tight turns, but we really had to take off our proverbial hat to the numerous cyclists undertaking the arduous climb on two wheels – “Jolly well done chaps!” Had they worked harder at school they might have been able to afford an engine for their bike 🙂 !

Our time in the ‘Sound of Music’ Alps was finely followed by the great Italian hospitality of the Marinoni-Richardsons in Bergamo (many congratulations to Patti and Dave who are expecting Bambino No.1 🙂 ) and a stunning drive north over the Mont Cenis Pass to Val D’Isere. We have visited the area many times on winter holidays, but the chair-lifts all look at bit ghostly at the moment, quite different without the benefit of a coating of snow and a pair of skis 🙁

Finally, it’s time to head north back to UK for final family visits before we head to South America. On the way back north we had a short stay to catch up with Julie’s Uncle Roger and Lynda on holiday by Lake Annecy. As we were now back in France, the cheese obviously had to feature again: a fine Raclette and bottle of Pinot Noir with them to round off our Euro-tour.

We’ve had a lovely summer catching up with all our Euro-friends and we’re not sure when we’ll next be back to see them all again, but we are now itching with impatience to get going on Cuthbert’s next Big Adventure! Watch this space for the next instalment when we’ll be setting sail for Montevideo!

September 2015

Ship Ahoy!

Here it is at last… our home for the next 4-5 weeks! Grimaldi’s Grande Nigeria is on its way into Hamburg tonight and we’re joining it in the morning for our ‘Grand Voyage’ to Montevideo. Hurrah! Much anticipated…. we had to book it a year ago to get one of the few passenger cabins on the cargo ship to sail with Cuthbert!

Over the last 3 weeks we’ve done a quick wiz around UK to say farewell to our family, then had a couple of final missions to accomplish: first a few days in Berlin to celebrate Julie’s (biggie!) birthday and finally, we couldn’t leave Europe without a visit to our good friends Paul, Mags, Charlie and Eva in Leipzig. Mags is Cuthbert’s god-mother having christened him with the inspired name on our last visit to them early in 2014. As always, we had great time visiting them in their amazing Leipzig mansion project.

Cuthbert’s final Euro-leg is from Leipzig to the docks of Hamburg. The Grande Nigeria was due on 26th September but with freight ships the schedules are a bit vague; it could be 4-5 days either side of this so we arrived in Hamburg on 21st… standing-by…

Whilst waiting in Hamburg, we arranged some new shoes for Cuthbert – he favours a particular Michelin XZL over a Jimmy Choo loafer 🙂 It was a tough decision whether to fit new ones before we leave Europe: his current shoes have around 10,000km of wear left (and at around £500 a pop we don’t like to waste the remaining mileage!) but these won’t take us around South America and we don’t want to reach tyre-criticality half-way up the Andes. Bizarrely, Michelin have been unable to assure us regarding availability of their XZLs in South America 😐 so we decide to ‘bite the bullet’ and do a switcheroo now.

Then Marcus had a brain-wave… we already carry two ‘as-new’ spare tyres, so to make a full new set we only need two more new ones. With a bit of heaving and a few ratchet-straps, we could probably just about squeeze the two new tyres onto the top of Cuthbert’s front top-box. This means we can keep the current four tyres on the wheels and carry four new ones. When the current tyres are finito, we’ll fit the four new ones, scrap the two worst tyres and keep the best two of the old tyres as future spares. Problem solved. Ha-ha!

In addition to a bit of tyre-juggling, we had another last minute problem to sort in Hamburg. In UK we had made our health preparations for South America, but we hadn’t thought about our stop-offs in West Africa on the way. Marcus previously went to the area on military service during the Sierra Leone war and saw how the troops suffered with malaria – this is not a part of the world where we want to take any malaria risks. Luckily Hamburg has a good ‘drop-in’ travel clinic – thanks for the tip, PJ Edwards! Two (expensive) Malarone prescriptions later, we’re done! Phew.

Two days before the ship was due into Hamburg we checked the internet maritime tracker: rather than steaming towards its rendezvous with Cuthbert, the Grande Nigeria was still moored up and sunning itself off the shores of southern Portugal! A school-boy’s ‘rough and ready’ time/distance calculation told us that it wasn’t going to make it to Hamburg by the scheduled 26th September.

Anyway… better late than never… it’s almost here now, three days late. And to be fair, we were always told that the schedule was set in jelly rather than stone. So we’ve had a bit more time enjoying the delights of Hamburg, which isn’t a bad thing 😉

Not sure when we’ll have connectivity again to update the blog… watch this space for the next maritime instalment with tales of ‘Cuthbert’s Life on the Ocean Waves’!