Postscript - that engine problem

Strangely enough the motor behaved itself all the way home from Germany, but something obviously not right so I arranged to take Bertie into our local garage. They seemed to think they knew what it was, worked on it and pronounced it "fixed". Yeh, right - well it was a bit better but still not right but we'd planned a run out to Lincoln so agreed to give it a chance.

However it definitely wasn't fixed so they tried a chemical cleanup of the inlet and exhaust system, which made the van seem smoother and quiter but had still not fixed the misfiring. So, I bite the bullet and arranged to take it into the Fiat dealer who assured me he knew exactly what was wrong and would sort it.

They had the van for 10 days but, true to their word, it was fixed - a known fault that had been the subject of warranty repairs when the van was new, but of course not to ours. So it cost! But replacement of the throttle body, refit a slightly leaking exhaust and "fix" what the local garage had done turned Bertie into a new van - the change was remarkable. So we took ourselves off to Blackpool for a couple of days to prove it.

And everything is now okay (except of course £900 poorer).

Final thoughts

This has not been one of our most successful trips, although we have enjoyed it and have actually achieved a great deal. To be fair it didn't start off well, with health issues and our normal pre-trip preparation out of the window together with problems with Bertie which dogged us throughout the trip. Then having reached our objective, Nordkap, it was so disappointing that the weather refused to cooperate and indeed spoiled almost all of our time in Norway itself. Yes we bought the videos and books but it's not the same.

But that's life, so some general observations. First of all it was, as expected, a long long drive – just short of 6000 miles in total which in five and a bit weeks is a lot. Limiting ourselves to around 200 miles per day and no more than four hours driving helped, as did the few “days off” we took along the way. There are few motorways in Scandinavia athough the main roads are generally well maintained and traffic free. We would certainly recommend that you need six weeks minimum.

The advice to drive north through Sweden then return through Norway was spot on. We'd just add that if you are intending to return south without touring the fjord areas, come back into Sweden; the roads are much better and it is somewhat cheaper. The E6 through Norway was an awful drive. Norway, in particular, is very good at springing tolls on you unexpectedly and we're waiting to see how many we used – they send you the bill at home if you haven't made other arrangements.

There's no getting away from it, Scandinavia can be expensive. We do not have any extravagant habits, such as regular meals and drinks out, but even so we felt that things were still just that bit more expensive than the UK. Food shopping can be economised by using the chain supermarkets; we found Coop (not Co-op) to be quite reasonable. Fuel was about on a par with UK prices and didn't seem to vary much although maybe it was a little more the further north we went. Forget buying alcohol, even if you can find the shops! Souvenir shopping is, as everywhere a rip-off but sometimes you have to – stuffed fluffy reindeer anybody?

Despite all we've read about being able to stop anywhere, it turned out not to be as simple as that, especially on the main roads. In Norway rest areas and dump stations were frequent and well marked but we encountered several places which had notices discouraging overnight parking. Campsites, however, were everywhere with usually superb facilities and free wifi but at around £20 per night which did not always include electricity. To be fair due to our problems we did not get far off the main roads so things may well be different in quieter areas. Do get the Keycard, a camping carnet card which almost all campsites want. You can buy it at your first campsite but it is easier to order before you go and the first site will validate it for you. It also offers discounts on a wide range of things – we saved 10% off the ferry fare from Germany to Denmark, which alone paid the cost of the card itself.

Without exception we found the people everywhere to be friendly and helpful, but not pushy. The best part, though, was that everybody speaks English naturally, as a second language. Just as well because thankyou (tak) was about the best we could do otherwise!

So would we go back? Yes, but probably only to south west Norway, the area we really wanted to see and didn't. Sweden was fine if you like trees for scenery, as was Finland, and probably has more to offer than we encountered but we don't feel the urge to return, except maybe to concentrate on a particular area. Visiting Father Christmas, of course, is every kids dream.........

Next blog -  Winter Trip to Southern Europe and Morocco.

Friday 8 July 2016 - Wissant homeward

Early start so that we can get Jamie checked in with the Pet Passport then get our Scandinavian cash changed - don't like using port-based Bureaux de Change 'cos they're a right rip-off but we've little alternative so we just grin and accept it. Allocated a slightly earlier than booked train which meant it all worked out very well and we enjoyed an uneventful crossing.

Can't really say the same about the drive north though; UK roads are so much more crowded and everybody is rushing all the time so by the time we arrived at Mums we were exhausted. Much prefer to drive abroad!

A pleasant afternoon and evening, a last night in the van (saves work for Mum) then an uneventful drive home on Saturday. Mountains of post of course and the lawn grass was two feet high; you sometimes wonder if it's worth going away.............

Thursday 7 July - Wissant

Last day of our trip as such as we're booked onto the 0950 Chunnel tomorrow and from there will make our way up to Lincolnshire to stopover with Terrys Mum for one night, returning home all being well on Saturday.

Another warm dry and sunny day, the solar panel having recharged the batteries before we got up, the morning was spent quietly with the occasional foray when Jamie started complaining - he doesn't like sitting doing nothing and in fairness this isn't an ideal place for an inquisitive pup. Took the opportunity of reviewing the photographs we've taken (over 400) and ready them for a slideshow for Mum tomorrow and realised that, despite the negatives, we've actually had a good time with some fine pictures bringing back good memories.

After lunch we thought we'd take Jamie down to the beach for a run around, but of course had forgotten that French schools are now on holiday and Wissant is a favourite spot. Also with the tide being in there wasn't a lot of beach and what there was was absolutely jam packed with young French families; we couldn't even let the lead out as apart from into the sea there was nowhere to go. So we walked up into the town proper and had an ice-cream before returning to Bertie, taking the chance whilst it was still quiet to empty the waste tanks to save time in the morning.

So that's about it - we'll post a note to complete our journey once we get home. Hope you've enjoyed reading this rubbish.

Wednesday 6 July – Gravelines to Wissant

The weather has finally decided to buck up and the day started, and remained, warm sunny and dry. After a chat with a solo Brit parked next to us we had breakfast and walked into the town to see if we could find the vet mentioned in our database.

We were delighted to find a very nice, typical French town with lots of bars and restaurants, although not much of anything else, including the vet we were looking for. However there was a Tourist Information office so we called in and the lady found a vet, just on the outskirts of town. Just a tad too far to walk we made our way back to the van and drove round – but of course typically for us it had just closed however they checked and said come back after 2.00 pm. It turned out that it happened to be the vets morning off so we would have had to come back anyway.

Returned to the parking to relax and have lunch before returning. We were met by a very nice lady vet who spoke good English (although we did of course speak French to her; it's only polite but she was better at it than us....) A thorough checkup followed by administration of a tablet – Jamie doesn't like tablets and was having none of it... until Madame La Docteur sorted him out; must remember how to do that. Paperwork completed and we were relieved of €43; bit of a rip-off really but it would probably cost the same at home.

With Jamie sorted, our next task was to refuel and get some final shopping in, so headed off to our usual haunt of Auchan in west Calais to get that completed. We now have to wait a minimum of 24 hours before we can take Jamie back to the UK so we headed off south to a favourite aire at Wissant, which turned out to be almost full but we found a nice pitch. Then on the phone to Eurotunnel to rearrange the return crossing for Friday which of course cost us a surcharge being so close to the departure time.

So now we've nothing left to do for a day or so except enjoy whatever nice weather we get.

Tuesday 5 July – Neukirchen Vluyn to Gravelines

Dull, breezy start but at least it'sn not raining (yet) so after the usual back on the road, stopping temporarily when the fruitbowl, which hasn't moved in the last five weeks, decided to jump onto the floor! That cleared up we headed for Holland, only around 45km away on the motorways, stopping again to refill the LPG bottles and the fuel tank.

The roads were very busy as we crossed Holland, only a short distance as we are quite close to where Germany, Holland, Belgium and France are close together. Then into Belgium where it was busier still, especially around Antwerp but at least it moved relatively quickly and we had no holdups.

Finally turning onto the Ostende road, we took a lunch break just after Ghent, deciding we would head to Gravelines, get settled and plan our next moves from there. So that is what we did, discovering a vet within a few minutes walk of the aire de camping-car who we'll go and visit tomorrow. After that we'll rebook the Chunnel and maybe head into Calais for some shopping while waiting the required 24 hours before we can take Jamie back into the UK..

Monday 4 July - Neukirchen Vluyn

With the sun shining brightly on a warm sunny morning, we decided to stay another day so a lazy morning. Bren had a bit of a cleanup in the van whilst Terry had another look at the engine problem.

We're pretty sure now what it is but fixing it is another thing; for the most part the engine behaves normally but under certain conditions it misfires. For the technically minded, we think the turbocharger wastegate valve is sticking partially open. It's going to have to wait for a garage to fix, meanwhile we'll just take it easy.

After lunch we took Jamie for a walk into town, looking to change our Scandinavian currency but the only bank wouldn't do it (not a customer) neither would the DHL Postbank. So we'll have to find a proper Bureau de Change. So back to the van for more relaxation and get ready to move on tomorrow.