The disappearing posts

Those of you who subscribe to Bertha's blog received an email with an old blog on last week - my finger slipped as I was trying to delete it!

The reason for deleting it was that all of my JoGLE entries are now in my first e-book! It's only short, and those of you who have followed the blog all the time will have read the majority of it before, but it is now a complete version, with photos, and available on Amazon if you have a Kindle or the Kindle app.

At some point I will write up the rest of my time away into a full book, but in the meantime I wanted to publish this section. It might only be short but every copy purchased means another drop of fuel in Bertha's tank!

Link to e-Book on Amazon

An educating trip

A selection of things I’ve learnt during my trip.

Sea sickness is one of the worst feelings in the world. I have been very fortunate not to experience it fully before.

Washing is not a daily necessity. Nor is wearing clean pants. The world does not end if you do neither of these things.

My language skills are embarrassingly poor. After I’ve said my set phrase I rarely understand what is said back to me. This is something I’m going to change.

I’ve learnt how to crochet.

That cycling 1100 miles in 3 weeks is entirely possible.

That my favourite season is Autumn. I love the multi-coloured trees and crunching through the leaves.

However strong the wind feels, it is highly unlikely to topple my van over.

That the sock monster exists even in vans. It not only eats socks but also bags of foreign coins (that are particularly needed when you first arrive in a country and need to feed a parking meter)

Almost any meal can be cooked on a single hob ring camping stove. Often in one pot, using only that pot, one knife and one fork to both cook and eat with.

A cutlery drawer need only to consist of 5 items. A knife, fork, spoon, wooden spoon and sharp knife.

When you accidentally leave 40% of the items in your cutlery drawer at a campsite, as long as you have a Swiss army knife, you can survive for at least 3 weeks without replacing them.    

Breaking down in bad weather, in a remote place with no phone signal is not the end of the world. You deal with it.

Pre-trip vehicle checks should be taken seriously.

Washing up a full meal can be done with only one wet wipe.

Travelling alone means people talk to you far more than if you travel with someone else.

I don’t miss having things. I don’t miss buying things. I do miss people.

How unhealthy working in an office is. Since I left I’ve not had one cold, one bug or one headache.

That having a post-it note which says “lights” stuck on your dashboard is an adequate substitute for a lights left on warning buzzer.

That I have no idea where I think of as home.

When your toilet is in reach of everything in your home it is tempting to multi task. I’ve learnt it is important to maintain standards, even if no one else would ever know.

That not everyone understands why someone would want to live in a van for 7 months. And that other people think it’s the best idea ever.

That working for a company where ultimately you’re just a number is not something that I want to be a part of.

That having tried all brands of baby wipes, Aldi’s are my favourite. Washing with antibacterial kitchen wipes is not a good idea.

You can buy baked beans in Iceland and the Czech Republic but not Germany or Belgium.

That whether they get wet or not, within a short space of time any footwear I own which is in the van makes it smell like the home of a dead rat.

Sports world trainer tamer de-odour balls are magical.

That travelling in a van can be an attractive trait. I have been proposed to 3 times this year. I declined all offers.

Wherever I am, if I have phone signal I feel much safer than without it.

Having sampled many, the optimum temperature for a hot tub is 38 degrees.

I don’t miss tv. I do miss radio.

Punctures, both van and bike, will only happen in bad weather.

You shouldn't leave buying goodies for people until the last day of a trip. (Who knew the French and Belgians might have a bank holiday and everything be closed on a Tuesday?)

That many of the world’s most interesting people are accompanied by big backpacks.

Cheap bikes have saddles like sponges. I’ve learnt why people put plastic bags or covers over their saddles. I’m now one of those super cool people.

That leaving my job to travel is the best decision I have ever made.

                           

Cologne

After a good day of riding and another night at the same stopping place it was time to carry on. My aim for the night was Cologne - it would be my last big stop before the (still unbooked) ferry.

The drive was slow going, roadworks, traffic and the tricky part of not having enough power to overtake lorries on the dual carriageway motorways when you’ve got cars screaming past at 90mph, so I just plodded along. I stopped for a shower and a lunch break at a services, bit the bullet and booked a ferry home, and put in a drop of extortionately priced fuel as I hadn’t seen anywhere to top up at before I’d got onto the motorway, and eventually made it to the outskirts of Cologne.

Cologne has an Umwelt zone, a low emission dirty diesels unwelcome zone. An exception is made if you go straight to the Wohnmobilplatz (campervan park up) via a specific route and straight out again. I’m not sure how they police the zone but I had exact instructions of which route was allowed and I would be following it. I came to the motorway exit I needed – closed. I went past it and looked to see whether it was open in the other direction – also closed. After 5hrs of driving this isn’t what I particularly needed. I took the next junction and pulled in as soon as I could, it happened to be a Lidl car park so I went and got some food before deciding what to do. I’ve learnt a lot about calculated risks this year and I decided I’d just follow the route the satnav wanted to take me on and hope I didn’t get caught. Anyway, I think it was a justified reason to be deviating from the route (clearly my German language skills meant I'd be able explain this if needed)

With some slightly hairy driving through Cologne I made it to the Wohnmobilplaz. Even if you have a green light pedestrians have right of way, as do bikes and so do trams. Add in driving on the right, unfamiliar junctions and trying to look out for turnings when it’s starting to get dark, I find driving in cities here takes a huge amount of concentration.

I’d arrived later than planned and it didn’t wholly surprise me to find the wohnmobilplaz was full. The book said it had 60 places and it was the only one in the city. On a Saturday night with the campervan obsessed Germans that's probably not enough space. There was a car park by the entrance to it which had a no campervans sign, but there were a couple of vans parked up there. I took another calculated risk and decided I’d spend the night in the car park. A few more vans arrived to find the same problem as me and also parked up, with safety in numbers I stealth cooked my dinner and went to bed.

I woke up to noise outside, I looked at my clock – 0453. Are these people heading home or heading into the city at this time of night? Then I could hear an engine running behind my van, I could see flashing lights so I got up and looked out the window. There was a police van and two police cars! A bit extreme just for people who have overflowed from the wohnmobilplatz I thought. Then I looked out the other window, 3 fire engines. Phew, probably not campervan related then. After a while, not before my bike rack had been walked into a couple of times which always makes me jump a mile, they packed up and left and I went back to sleep, glad of the extra hour in bed.

Things like this would have used to have bothered me but I’ve realised it’s just part of the adventure and find it annoying rather than anything to get too worried about. Having a day of wandering and riding round Cologne was worth it, so much so that me and Bertha are flouting the rules again tonight and staying put, hoping for no more dramas.

Almost hometime

My finger hovers over the 'book now' button on the DFDS ferry website.

I'd had a great few days in the Czech Republic, sightseeing in Prague and then a day in Kutna Hora a sleepy town with an even sleepier chapel. I'd then driven back into Germany to Nuremburg, a beautiful medieval town. But then I got stuck - so many places to go and potential routes, but which one to take? I had no idea, nothing really grabbed me. Was I just trying to drag out the last 10 days of my trip? The 7th is an absolute insurance deadline, the 8th is Mums birthday, there's nothing to stop me booking a ferry for before that.

Maybe I was travelled out and it was time to go home. I Googled the shortest route and decided I'd head that way, having overnight stops where needed, and found somewhere an hour or so up the route for that night.

After a quick trip to the supermarket I got on the motorway and stopped at the first services I came to - I needed a shower. A long, untimed shower in the closest to a proper bathroom I've been in for 3 months, it was bliss.

I got to the campervan park up, and after some confusion with the man over whether they had much needed chemical waste disposal or not (the book said yes, he said nein, I said are you sure - chemikal? Nein he said, I walked away, then I went back to try again, he said he didn't understand, I played charades, ahhh chemikal he said...ja we have)  I paid for the night.

The park up was on a river and cycle paths so before it got dark I went out for a ride. I got back to my van with a renewed energy, suddenly I definitely wasn't travelled out and wanted to do some more exploring. I decided I'd stay there for the next day too so I could go out for a longer ride.

It turns out that all I needed was a shower and a bike ride. The 'book now' button is still unclicked,  I know it's got to be done, I just can't bring myself to do it quite yet.

Northern Lights photos

For the first time in a long time I have some wifi - a few more pictures from Iceland.

Saxon Switzerland

This is my fourth night in the same place, Saxon Switzerland. No, I haven't done a mammoth drive, Saxon Switzerland is actually nowhere near Switzerland but a national park which spans the German/Czech border, recommended by Paul and Linda who I met in Iceland as it's where Linda comes from.

I've done some brilliant walking and biking whilst I've been here but have had one problem. Insects in the van. There are these little flying bugs, I have no idea what they are but it turns out they bite. I can tell which bits of me have been peeping out from the duvet in the night as I've been bitten on my forehead, hand and the soles of my feet.

Today my feet were really sore and itchy so I decided to go to the spa in the nearby town to have a soak.

The first issue was one that I've found over the last few days - the locals don't speak any English. My pigeon German is improving but at a very slow rate, and most questions asked of me are met with a completely blank look. Eventually I had managed to pay for entry and had been given a little yellow token which I had no idea what to do with. I tried to put it in a slot by the entry turnstile, it got returned to me and nothing happened. Tried again, nothing. I pushed the turnstile without putting the token in and it opened.

On to the changing rooms. Just a bank of closed doors. After a bit of confusion it turns out they were Narnia changing cubicles, in the front and out the back. Essential to remember to lock both the in and out doors. Then through to the lockers where it now became apparent what the yellow token was for - you put it into a slot, turn the dial and it locks the token into a wrist band, which then looks like a watch - the strangest lockers I've ever come across.

The pools were nice, but they were no Icelandic hot pots, all of them needed to be a bit hotter. The darkened salt water floating room with mood lighting, under water music and people being dragged around the pool by others, then flapping and spluttering when they've drifted off to sleep was just weird.

And then there was the sauna and spa zone. Linda had joked on the ferry about how Germans get naked far too readily which is why there were signs by the sauna on the ferry telling you to keep your towel on. No such signs here!

Getting dressed was uneventful and I went to catch the last vintage tram of the night back to the campsite, with the tram driver convinced that if he kept repeating himself I'd understand him (he'd carry on past the stop to drop me at the campsite gate...that had me worried for a few seconds) my mind well and truly distracted from my bites.

Berlin

Having finally got to Berlin I found that I didn’t know where to start, so on Monday lunchtime I caught the U-bahn into the city and decided to walk around without visiting anywhere, I’d pick up plenty of tourist leaflets and see what I might want to do for the rest of the week. I did crack and visit one attraction – the Berlin wall 360 exhibition but only because on Monday afternoons they do a ‘pay as you feel’ entry fee. The logic behind pay as you feel is that you pay what you think something is worth – this place was a pay on entry though, without seeing it how do you know what you think it’s worth? It wouldn’t have been worth the full entry fee but it was interesting so I’m pleased I’d seen the Monday offer. I needed to get back to my van at a decent time as on Sunday I’d failed to find the campsite I’d been looking for and things are so much easier to spot in the light – turned out I had been one wrong-turn away from it. The site was worth the hunt though – cheap, un-timed showers and not far from a U-bahn stop. I spent Monday evening putting a plan together for the rest of the week.

Tuesday’s itinerary was to go to the Topographie de Terror museum and the Checkpoint Charlie museum. Both would now make it onto my essentials list for visiting Berlin, although the Checkpoint Charlie one was a jumbled maze so hard work.

Wednesday’s culture was the DDR museum, showing how life in East Germany was before 1989. Probably my favourite museum that I visited. Then some more walking round the city, it’s quite a small city and apart from getting the U-bahn in and out each day, I didn’t catch any other transport.

Thursday – I decided to cycle in from the campsite. I’d been told there was a cycle path alongside the canal right into the city centre. 6 miles of very quiet riding and even when you get into the city centre its proper cycle lanes or you can just ride on the path. One place I wanted to visit which is away from the centre is the East Side gallery where there is an almost mile long section of the Wall, all painted, still standing. Over this side of the city there is the Computerspeile museum – the history of computer games with plenty of old consoles to play on. A perfect way to spend a rather chilly afternoon, and something a bit lighter than some of the other museums. By the time I’d dragged myself away from there it was starting to get late. I’d wanted to see the city lit up as there’s a festival of light on at the moment but getting home in the dark would be an issue. End up at a U-bahn station towards the end of the line, deserted and then walk out and along to wherever I might have parked Bertha earlier in the day wasn’t an attractive option. The ride in that morning had been straightforward though and I had proper lights with me so I took a calculated risk and decided that I’d rather cycle in the dark than do the U-bahn option another night.  I’m glad I did, I only saw the light display at the Brandenburg gate but it had been worth staying for. Considering I was in a capital city centre the ride out wasn’t too bad, although my memory of the route backwards had to be jogged by my GPS trail a couple of times and I don’t think I’ve ever ridden my mountain bike that fast before.

Friday. On Monday morning I’d finally got some tyres ordered for my van, knowing I’d be there for the 3 day lead time made it make sense to get them in Berlin rather than anywhere else. Friday morning they had arrived but by the time they’d fitted them it was 3pm, so not really long enough to do anything. I’d thought I’d spend one more day in the city but as the campsite was fully booked from Saturday onwards, rather than find somewhere else in Berlin to stay I decided to move on – Dresden was calling me.

Some Icelandic photos

I realise I'm way behind in adding photos to my blog and have deleted lots of them from my phone as it was full. Here are a few taken on my phone from the last week in Iceland - I shall upload some from my camera when I can.

Ich bin ein Berliner

In late 2005 or early 2006 I read about a round Europe train ticket that you could buy to cover all train travel for 30 days.
I can clearly remember sitting in my damp room with the slugs in Telephone Road whilst on placement in Portsmouth and sending a link to the ticket to my friend Mel. I got an almost instant reply "When are we going?"

And so it was in June 2006 that we set off on our interrailing trip, my first holiday abroad without my parents. We each had a huge backpack and for anyone who has seen the film "Wild" with Recce Witherspoon - that was us. We had grand ideas, we were starting in Brussels, going to Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, through Austria and Switzerland and to Geneva for the mid point of our trip. A few days in we realised we might have been over ambitious and cancelled our plan for Berlin and Prague, instead heading straight from Amsterdam to Salzburg - we decided we could go to Berlin and Prague on future trips.

It took a while but early in 2010 we both marked a weekend in our diaries when we could go to Berlin together. When it came to it, we hadn't been organised enough to book flights and instead had a lovely weekend in York. But it did prompt us into booking a weekend in Berlin for the end of the year. Christmas markets, a sprinkling of snow it would be perfect.

We met at Gatwick to check in and just as we handed over our passports... our flight was cancelled. Berlin airport had run out of de-icer. With no alternative flights we went back to Mel's house and were tourists in London for the weekend.

Failed by train, failed by plane. What's left? Bertha!

Having spent a couple of days on the outskirts of Berlin visiting the Sachenhausen concentration camp and museum and the old royal palaces in Potsdam, today I parked up by a U-bahn stop and headed into the centre of Berlin. That was as far as Bertha can go, she's counted as a dirty diesel in the low emission zone.

It was worth the wait, I loved my day walking round and deciding where I want to see and which museums to visit. I think I'll be spending a good few days here. There's just one thing missing - my Euro-city partner in crime.

Tourists

There is one thing I haven’t enjoyed about Iceland and that is the number of tourists, a large number of them being completely inconsiderate.

Most people only have a week or two for a holiday so try and pack in as much as possible. If they have decided to go around the ring road then there's a lot of travelling to be done in a short space of time. Early starts and late finishes, quick visits to sites and quick photo stops to try tick the next item off the list. I’ve covered this before – I’m not a huge fan of people. Even less so of the type of people I’ve just described above.

Campsites in Iceland are nice and cheap and generally with good facilities but don’t expect much sleep if you visit one. I have used them when it’s convenient or too dark to go and look for somewhere else but out of choice – I’d not use Icelandic campsites, purely down to the other people who use them. The vast majority are in rental vans and have no idea about being considerate to other travellers. Of course, you also get the ones who are too tight to pay for the campsite so will spend the night in any layby or other place they can find before walking onto the site in the morning to use the facilities and leave without paying. Most campsites rely on some honesty when it comes to paying. I’ll admit I didn’t pay on 2 sites. One because I’d managed to get very little sleep due to the demon diesel heaters running all night and van doors opening, closing, opening, slamming, opening….you get the idea, up until about 1am and restarting at 5am. The only facility I used was the toilet in the morning so I left without paying. The other was in a prime tourist area. It was far more expensive than other sites, was on the roadside, they wanted extra for a shower (I didn’t bother) and when I went to wash up there was only cold water and it drained out of the sink straight onto my dry trainers. I decided if no one made an effort to come and collect my money, I wouldn’t make an effort to pay.

The tourist sites are generally free with free parking but are also poorly maintained. With the number of visitors these places have, there needs to be some investment in them. At the icebergs there were parts of 2 bumpers in the car park which had been caught on the huge underwater pot holes in the ground as you go in. Tracks up to waterfalls were mudbaths and there were rarely toilets at these sites so anywhere a little out of sight was best avoided. I’m not suggesting there should be charges everywhere but the number of visitors is so huge that these places look trampled over and are suffering – even gravel paths in places would help this. Having marked car parks would also help to control some of the aforementioned people from making it nigh on impossible to get out of where you’ve parked when you return to your van.

Aside from the iceberg lagoon where I spent an afternoon, night and morning, I spent very little time at the main tourist sites.  Iceland is huge and beautiful, there is no need to be surrounded by hoards of tourists in the bubbles, or even one or two other people.  I have had days where I’ve been out walking and not seen anyone at all, those are the best kind of days.

Fellow vanners

This blog starts 5 weeks ago – the day that I arrived in Iceland. As I was sitting in my van ready to drive off the ferry I had mixed feelings of excitement and nerves. There’s a perfect Swedish word for this feeling “Resfeber”. If there’s one thing that was making me nervous it would be something going really wrong with Bertha.

I looked in my wing mirror and in the lane next to me could see a green T4 with its bonnet up, and it was British. I did what I hoped would happen to me in that situation – I got out of my van and went over and asked if I could help. I know very little about engines and the most help I could have actually practically offered would have been to lend him my Haynes manual but I went over all the same. He seemed to know what he was doing and said he thought his clutch had gone. To see someone with a similar van having problems added to my nerves a bit.
We both got off the ferry and an hour or so later in the town he came over and introduced himself properly – Ben. He was going to drive to the next town and find a garage, he reckoned it could be in there for a week.

I often wondered how he’d got on but 3 weeks on I hadn’t seen him (and his trip was due to last 3 weeks). One evening I was speaking to a Canadian man and his young son who were on a boys camping trip and he told me of a natural hot pool in the middle of a lava field which they’d come from and recommended I go there. I asked what the road was like and he asked what I was driving. “We saw a green one of them with a British guy in yesterday” he said. I was genuinely pleased to hear that Ben was back on the road.

As I drove to the hot pool through the lava field I saw a green T4 driving in my direction. When we met we stopped and had a chat, it was nice to see a familiar face even if we had only met for 10 minutes before. It’s the same when I’ve bumped into anyone for a second time on my travels. The weather was awful so I stayed at the hot pool all day and decided to spend the night there – probably having the worst weather battering I’d ever had in my van.  I woke up to see that Ben had made it back there for the night, being far braver than me to drive roads like that in the dark!
Another soak in the hot pool and I got on my way, the sun was out and there was a glacier I wanted to see.

Another week passed and at Pingvellir national park I saw a white British van parked up with bikes on but no one around.

 It was a couple of days later that I saw that van parked up again at a waterfall. I went for a walk and when I got back to the car park I saw Ben’s van again. British van convention!  We caught up on where we’d been since we last saw each other and then carried on. Now we were in the south there are less detours to make so we were on a bit of a tourist trail, stopping at the same places. Also, being this far round the country at this point in time it was fairly clear we were all getting the same ferry back to Denmark as there is only one a week. After a swim in a geothermal pool in the mountains I decided I was going to head up to a glacier to see if there was anywhere to park up for the night. I pinged Ben a message to say it was clear to park up there and an hour later he appeared, along with a bike rack full of firewood he’d collected on his travels.

Parking up next to a glacier was cool, having a campfire under the stars next to a glacier with company was even cooler.

 By the next evening I’d bumped into the other british van again, Paul and Linda. We were both having issues putting fuel in whilst being blown away in the wind and rain, we spoke very briefly but it was starting to get dark and I wanted to go and find somewhere for the night.

Mine and Ben’s paths crossed a few more times and his crossed with the white van. On the penultimate evening I noticed a hot pool and went down to investigate – I will never get tired of dips in geothermal pools. Not long after, a green van pulled in. Not long after that a white van pulled in. We had ourselves a convoy! The northern lights forecast was good for the evening so after hot pooling and dinner the 4 of us watched the lights together and then headed to bed before getting up again when the sky came alive in a way I’d never seen before.

After a lazy morning hot pooling we went on our ways, knowing we all wanted to get close to the ferry that day. I realised that I hadn’t used my bbq in Iceland so a plan was put in place – we’d all meet up for the evening, bbq and watch the lights again. Having been to the supermarket I went on a recce to try and find somewhere suitable for the 3 vans for the night before sending coordinates to the others.  They took their time – turns out they’d all been for showers first! We set up camp in a forest clearing and bbq’d and then kept it going with wood whilst watching the best northern lights showing of the trip.

 I like travelling alone but to share a couple of evenings like that with fellow van travellers was fantastic and a brilliant end to my Icelandic adventure.

Day 2 on the Golden Circle photos

The Golden Circle

You can get on a coach from Reykjavik and do the golden circle tour in a day or even just an afternoon. It takes in the big 3 sites on a loop - the mid Atlantic ridge tectonic plates, Geysir with the Geysers, and Gullfoss, a huge waterfall. Those coach trips are fine if you're on that kind of trip. But this isn't that kind of trip.

Day 2 on the golden circle and it was freezing. I put on a t-shirt, jumper, fleece and coat on my top half. Thermal leggings, waterproof trousers and 2 pairs of socks on my bottom half. A buff round my neck and a hat on top - I'm not joking when I said it was freezing.

I walked up to the Geyser park and it's cool. Strokkur erupts every 8-10 minutes and fires a plume of steam around 25metres high. There are other bubbling hot pots, all surrounded by tourists with selfie sticks and tripods. And umbrellas. It didn't take long until my tourist tolerance level was reached and I walked up the hill at the back of the park. I knew there were some forest walking trails not far away and could see a track down the otherside of the hill - I wondered if they'd meet up.

It started pouring with cold rain so I wanted to get down from the hill. It was a bit of a scramble and when there are bubbling hot pots in the area it's best not to assume solid looking ground is going to be solid. I made it down though and started walking along the track when the sun came out. It was roasting hot so layers started coming off, I'd now have been better off in summer kit like I had been in the day before.

I saw a puddley stream on the track and it had bright green algae in it. I put my hand in - warm water. That was the start of my new game - when I saw any type of water I had to guess hot or cold before touching it. With glacier rivers next to geothermal springs, the game's not as easy as it might sound.

Eventually the track brought me to the start of the forest trails and there were some paper maps in a holder. I took one and then sheltered under a tree whilst putting all of my layers back on. The forest was beautiful, I'd read and heard that there were a lack of trees in Iceland but it's not something I've really noticed. In the space of a few days the country has turned from green to every shade of orange - very autumnal and the temperature ranges from summer to winter. I had my stove and some noodles to cook for lunch and found a little wooden shelter with a table and chair so stopped for a lunch break. The trails were poorly marked but there were forestry tracks so I followed them more than the map. I always have GPS running in my pocket as a safety backup so although I don't have a map on it, I can at least see my track.

I knew there was a geocache in the area and also a geothermal pool so that was where I'd aim for after lunch. I popped up at the geocache completely unexpectedly - not being anywhere close to where I thought I was on the map! I signed the log book and headed to the geothermal pool. If you didn't know, you'd walk past it thinking it was just a pond but it was hot bath water temperature. I had a long wallow and then boiled some water for hot chocolate whilst quickly trying to get some clothes on, the hardest part about the hot pools is getting out.

A kilometre along a track and I was back at the Geyser car park, back into the tourist bubble. I smiled at the thought of what was outside the bubble and having only seen 1 other person all day, my tolerance level had been restored enough to stand and watch Strokkur erupt a few more times, with my eyes rather than with my back to it smiling at a phone screen.

A few more Iceland pics

Ups and Downs Part 2

Of course a Down day is usually followed by an Up day where seemingly nothing can go wrong. Never a dull day!

The tourist trip I'd booked on was where you go inside a glacier. I've never seen a glacier let alone go inside one so I decided to spend the zillion Kroner to do it.

Glaciers aren't the easiest beasts to get to. It was a 30minute 4x4 coach journey to Base Camp, then a 20min journey in the ice mobile to get to the tunnel entrance. The ice mobile was a converted Nato missile launcher, so high tech that the air pressure of the tyres can be changed whilst it's moving - controlled by a phone app.

Going inside the glacier was fantastic as was the tour guide, although when you're reminded that there's 50metres of ice and snow on top of you a little unnerving.

I got back to Bertha and had earmarked somewhere to head for the night, I didn't want to rush straight to Reykjavik but certainly didn't want to detour off paved roads with the aforementioned less than ideal spare tyre. Wilson the wheel sat on my passenger seat and kept me company, I stopped 3 times during the 40miles to check the spare and it's pressure.

It was a 2km detour to Borgarnes up a main road, acceptable. The first thing I saw was a supermarket and a huge services. Before I went to find somewhere to sleep for the night I popped to the supermarket - opposite the turning in was a tyre place. It was Sunday so it was closed but it meant Wilson could be fixed tomorrow without having to go straight to Reykjavik which was a huge relief as that was another 50miles on and there were detours I'd ideally like to make.

How could today get any better?! A whole roast chicken reduced to only half a zillion Kroner in the supermarket which improved my planned veggie curry no end, and a campsite on the waters edge with a glowing sunset alongside some friendly campervan neighbours. Definitely an Up day.

Ups and Downs

My new tactic of staying 2 nights somewhere and having a day out walking worked well for the sheep walk so I was going to do the same again. I drove to Husafell and with a clear weather forecast for the next day I got ready for a big day out walking, even cooking extra dinner so I'd have a good lunch to take with me.

I woke up to rain on the roof, not happy. I got up, had breakfast and it was still hammering down. Knowing how soaked through I'd got 2 days before I wasn't keen to go out so plan B, drive to a swimming pool nearby and hope the weather cleared. I got as far as the washblock on the campsite when Bertha's wheel didn't look right. I had a puncture.

I got my pump out and got some air in it, stupidly optimistic that it would solve all my problems. I drove to the car park at the entrance to the campsite and had a look - still looked ok but I could hear air escaping. I went into reception and asked where the nearest garage for tyres might be - he reckoned Reykjavik 100miles away.

At this point I decided to book on the tourist trip that I wanted to do from Husafell for the next day, I didn't want this puncture changing my plans for that.

I was texting a couple of knowledgeable friends for advice and moral support and the verdict was my spare had to go on. Then they got sent pictures showing the condition of my spare - I had checked the tred before I'd left but I'd not spent the time getting it out of its cradle under the van to check the condition of it - pretty poor it turns out. The verdict was still that it needed to go on.

The car park was a pick up point for tourist trip buses. Not one tourist asked me if I was ok or if I needed any help.

I got the locking wheel nut off, double checked where the jacking point was and then hit a problem - my wheel brace doesn't fit my wheel bolts. There were some pre-trip checks I should have done before I left - the list will be complete by the time I get home.

I spotted an Icelandic monster truck with a personalised number plate and reckoned that as it wasn't a hire car, he might have some tools and the right sized socket. He did! But the socket bar wasn't strong enough to get the bolts undone and it split. He told me not to worry, he'd make a phonecall and we'd get it sorted. Peter the glacier tour guide - my knight in shining armour. He found out that the next glacier tour bus coming in had a full toolkit on-board which we could borrow. The bus driver, glacier cave electrician and Peter set to work and in no time it was done. They also thought I'd need to get to Reykjavik to sort it - it would hopefully be a repair as it was a horseshoe nail in the middle.

With my less than ideal spare on I drove back onto the campsite - driving to Reykjavik would happen after tomorrow's trip.

The Icelandic sheep round up

One thing I’ve struggled to do so far is go out on too many long walks. I have a wander somewhere and then end up driving on and having a wander there rather than basing myself somewhere for a couple of days. So a new strategy today – 2 nights in one place with a big walk during the day.

There was a trail walk that started from near the campsite, it was only 4.5km but it would be a start and then I could carry on up over the hill and find my own way down somehow. The weather forecast wasn’t great so along with my lunch I packed my waterproofs in my bag and put my fluorescent running top on – partly because I don’t think it’s a bad idea to be seen and partly because it’s one of the only clean items of clothing I have at the moment.

As I was walking up the first hill I could hear some sheep being particularly vociferous. Not too unusual, there are rather a lot of sheep in Iceland. There were some running across the hill and I heard a quad bike. I looked around and in the far distance could see someone in a fluorescent jacket. Then it dawned on me. I’d accidentally walked right into the middle of an annual sheep round-up, which is a big event in Iceland, and I was dressed looking like a marshal.

I quickly put my coat on to hide my top and headed in the direction of a marshal and in my best Icelandic I asked her if it was safe to walk here – feeling satisfied that one of the phrases I had learnt was coming in handy. I didn’t understand her reply but her expression was pretty clear. Then in perfect English she explained to me where they were moving the sheep from and to and told me where it would be ok to walk. So I carried on, surrounded by 4 quad bikes, 2 motorbikes, 2 horses and plenty of marshals. I’d read about the sheep round up and thought it would be good to see one if I could whilst I was here, but this isn’t quite what I had in mind.

I carried on making sure I was behind the sheep and then tried to get above them. These are huge hills so knowing if you’re in front of any isn’t the easiest thing to do. Especially when the rain starts driving across the hills. I thought I was above any sheep so it was safe to walk across without disturbing any but no, a motorbike then re-appeared driving some more towards me. I was trying my best not to be a nuisance but I imagine they didn’t think that. I waited until I was sure they were past me and as the weather was now really bad I needed to start coming down from the hills. I circled round the back of the sheep and spotted a gravel track – I’d get on that and it would eventually lead me down onto the main road. Or right into the farm. One thing I did notice was when one of the quad bikes had driven the last of the sheep over a ridge he waited on top watching me until I reached the track. Either he was making sure I kept out of the way or he was watching to see that I made it off the hills ok, I like the think it was the latter as the wind and rain were sweeping across and visibility had got pretty poor.

The gate into the farm had been closed across the track so I waited for one of the marshals to come over and asked if I could walk through. 500 sheep running around you like loons are a bit scary! I made it through and finished my walk – back to town for some supplies then up to the campsite. An eventful day – just the type I had been craving for the last few days.

Bertha

As it's called Bertha's blog, I realised there should really be a blog about Bertha.

 In return for me working for a week helping to set up a festival in the summer she went to a T4 specialist garage in North Devon.

When I was in the Outer Hebrides I'd noticed I had a cracked windscreen. She also had a lot of rust around her windscreen which is possibly what caused it to crack. I was reluctant to get a new screen without having the rust sorted and luckily the old one held out so that was job number 1 on the list. Next was the cambelt - the one thing that is particularly catastrophic if it goes and the thing that worries me the most.
She also had new alternator and power steering belts, an oil change and some extra antifreeze.
As she was in the garage for the week I was living in my tent. With a couple of stormy nights it was good to be reminded of how a van is one of the best things in the world.

For most of my last trip I had no working leisure battery. Who knows why, but I struggled with keeping things charged, especially if I wasn't driving very far. I had a solar panel which just about got me through but I needed to get the battery working and ended up buying a new one. I met up with a friend enroute (thank you Kev) who helped me fit it - the main problem being that my seat had to come out first.

The only other addition was a set of wind deflectors for the windows meaning I can keep them down a bit at night whilst being more secure, and stopping the rain from coming in.

I'm not sure she's enjoying some of the bumpier roads here but apart from that she seems fine, hopefully enjoying the adventure as much as me!

A few Iceland pics

Camping

There are campsites everywhere in Iceland and maybe surprisingly, they've been packed.

There tends to be a carpark and some grass next to it. People with tents carry their stuff onto the grass and vans sleep in the car park almost touching each other. Which is fine until you get people who like to run their diesel heaters all night and it feels like the noise is right next to your head. Or when there's a knock at your door as you're about to get into bed asking you to move up a bit as the owner wants to squeeze another van in next to you.

Before I left work I was given the money to buy a camping card which would cover me for 28 days of camping on affiliated sites but when I looked into it, sites are going to gradually close through September so instead of buying the card I planned to use the money to stay on sites when I wanted them or until they close and the rest of the time I'd wild camp. I like to wildcamp for far more reasons than to save money.

As the ferry came along the fjord on the first day I spotted a van parked up in the middle of nowhere - perfect, that's where I could go for the first night. And I did, deserted and peaceful a successful first night of wild camping.

Then the weather changed, I had to drive up a huge mountain road to get out of the port and after a long afternoon out walking, I took the easy option and stayed on a site. I did this for the next 5 nights at various sites but it was the van with the heater running all night which broke me, I needed to wildcamp.

That night was the night when I laid in bed watching the northern lights and listening to whales, far better than any campsite and since then I've only spent one night on a site, the other nights have been spent tucked away in the mountains and two nights just back from a fjord.

Every town (often just a cluster of houses and a petrol station) has an outdoor heated swimming pool so having a shower is easy. I've carried enough water and refilled at a water tap on the side of a public toilet block but a waterfall would do for a refill if I need, and then it's just a matter of needing to empty my toilet once a week or so.

I'm sure I'll use some more sites but there is so much space in Iceland that I don't feel an urge to spend my nights feeling like a sardine surrounded by tourists.

Iceland

5 weeks in Iceland, that's going to be expensive people said to me. It depends.

I woke up and looked behind the curtain, clear blue sky. Yesterday had been cold and grey all day, I find blue sky exciting. I looked at my clock - 0807, time to get up. The waterfall I'd seen up the road yesterday would look even better in the sun so by 0820 I was ready to leave (ready to leave = dressed. Everything else is optional) I got to the waterfall and although there were people there it wasn't too busy so I was able to have a good walk around and take some photos.
I needed breakfast so I left the tourist car park and stopped a couple of miles up the road to cook myself an omelette - my standard breakfast so far this trip.

As it was sunny I wanted to go out walking by the sea or a fjord so I had a look on a map and picked somewhere. I'd not heard of the village or read about it in any leaflets but it was off the tourist trail and not too far and it looked like the minor road turned into a track up the side of the fjord. Perfect.

I found a grassy/gravelly pull in and got out to have a look, it was stunning, somewhere to spend the night too. A fairly narrow fjord, snow capped mountains around it and then I heard something. A whale's blow. They were a long way away but I could just make out that they were whales, and after my visit to the Húsavìk whale museum the other day, I could tell that they were humpback whales. With binoculars I sat and watched them, a group of 3 and one on its own. Until this trip I'd never seen a whale, I was mesmerised and watched them until my omelette had worn off.

After lunch I walked a few miles up the fjord, it was a slow walk as I kept stopping to watch the whales - I counted 8 at one point. There was only 1 house up the track so the whales outnumbered cars and people by 8 to 1.

Back to Bertha and I read some guidebooks to see where I might head for tomorrow and enjoyed the warmth of the sun behind glass - Iceland really does have changeable weather.

I cooked and cleared up dinner, put a podcast on and started making a wooly hat from some wool I had stashed in my van. The sky was still clear, this excited me as much as it did this morning. Clear sky and being in the middle of nowhere - that's northern lights territory.

It got to 10pm, I was tired and cold but the sky was still light. I got into bed with my curtains open and waited. 2320 and having got dark the sky then seemed to be getting lighter again. I jumped out of bed and opened the door. For the next hour and a half I watched what I think is the most magical thing in the world. I'm lucky that I've seen them before but not on this trip and not from land. There was a bit of green but it was mostly white light. It's so difficult to describe, almost like soft searchlights pulsating in the sky. With the door wide open I got into bed and watched them until they seemed to fade away. The only background noise all night was from the whales still blowing in the fjord.

Total spend today: Ikr 0

(to be balanced out tomorrow when I go to a supermarket and spend a zillion Kroner on some basic food)

The Faroe Islands

The ferry from Denmark to the Faroes was 30hrs long. And it was long. Smaller than your average cross channel ferry and without a proper lounge to sit in, the 30hrs dragged by. I did have a proper bed in a shared cabin so had a very long nights sleep in the middle of the crossing. It arrived into the misty Faroes at 2230 so I drove straight to the campsite. Firstly because it was late and secondly because my van was uninsured there, so I’d be driving to the campsite and not moving it for the 3 days until the next ferry came.

 I’d been a bit worried when it came to checking in for the ferry as I’d booked Bertha on as a 1.9m x 5m vehicle. She’s very close to that so I thought it was worth the risk as the next size up was much more expensive.  I got waved through with no problems, as did the other T4. The T5’s (newer transporter vans) are slightly bigger and were loaded with the campervans. At the other end this had the advantage that I left with all the cars rather than being at the back of the queue with the campers. Feeling quite smug, I was second to arrive at the campsite and got one of the waterfront pitches all ready for the view in the morning. The morning arrived, I pulled back my curtain – couldn’t even see the sea for the mist. It didn’t lift all day, I walked into town and had a long wander, but really couldn’t see too much. After a few hours I went back to the campsite and saw the forecast was better for the next day so I thought I’d be productive and get some washing done.

I had a slight epic with the washing machine and it ended up getting halfway through another cycle before stopping and switching off. When I eventually got my washing out, the machine was still half full of water and my clothes were decidedly soggy. I put some in a drier (where the minimum of 300kr gave you 5hrs of drying time?!) and put non tumble drier clothes on the line outside. They weren’t going to dry but it was better than getting my van wet.

The next morning at 0530 I woke up to a quiet beeping. Not my phone, not my alarm, it beeped once then stopped. I thought it had stopped then it beeped again. It was my smoke detector low battery alert. I was going to have to do something about it so pulled back the curtain to get to it and the sky looked like it was on fire – the sun was about to rise so I watched it for a few minutes, took the battery out of my alarm and tried to go back to sleep. It wasn’t happening so I decided to get up and go out, given yesterday’s mist I was going to make the most of clear skies. So by 0620 I was out on my bike, riding up one of the huge hills behind Torshavn. The views from the top were stunning but it was starting to cloud over and was windy so I turned back, pleased to have at least got out for a short ride. Back at the campsite I went for a shower and when I came out everywhere had disappeared again, it stayed like that for the rest of my time in the Faroes.

I didn’t not enjoy it, there was a really good museum and Torshavn had enough to look round to keep me amused for a day but It was disappointing to not see more. That was until the ferry left and once we were out of the harbour we came out the other side of the mist and then the islands looked beautiful! Maybe somewhere to revisit at some point.

Denmark

Saturday 20^th August

It may have something to do with that route planning at Dover but this week it came as a surprise to me that I had time to have a holiday in Denmark. I’ve had more time than I thought I would have as the cheapest day to get a ferry across the channel turns out to be a Thursday, so having initially planned to have around 5 days to do the drive, it turned out I had 9. I blitzed through Belgium, Holland and Germany to give myself as long as possible in Denmark.

This is my 4^th trip to Scandinavia and it has made me love it even more. I’ve had no guide books, maps or internet so have really just wandered. There were 2 places I wanted to visit whilst I was here – Thyboron where the Battle of Jutland memorial stones are and another place, which I’m saving for on the way back. I’ve been using my campervan book to find places for overnight stops although they only have location, cost and facilities so you never know quite what you’re going to get until you turn up.

Night 1: I was heading towards a stopping place when I saw signs to a campsite. I fancied a shower so I followed the signs and ended up on a busy site. Busy with lots of caravans, in fact, almost full. But there was no one there – I assume people leave their vans there for the summer and only visit them at weekends or in the main holiday season which is already over in Denmark. So I had 1 night in the slightly spooky ghost-town campsite before quickly moving on.

Night 2: I’d headed up the coast and through what seemed like Danish holiday towns, lots of wooden cabins in amongst the sand dunes. After an afternoon on the beach, the book said there was a beach side car park that was good for free overnight parking. I went there and it was packed with vans but there was space and I parked up with another British van. Proper conversation! It was one of the best places I’ve car-park camped and it had even a toilet block with cold water showers but I didn’t need to wash that badly.

Night 3: I was in no rush so after a walk and a bike ride I didn’t see any reason to drive on somewhere else and spent another night in the car park.

Night 4: A night on a site for a proper shower. I put the coordinates of a site in the book into the sat nav and blindly followed it. It turned out the site was the grounds of an art gallery and sculpture garden with a beautifully decorated bathroom and a chocolate Labrador who decided to adopt me. Somewhere a bit different to spend the night!

Night 5: I got to Hirtshals ready for the ferry the next day and I had a campsite pre-booked but there’s a Danish camping card you have to buy for official campsites so I wasn’t going to buy it for just one night having avoided needing it so far. During the day I followed a road which I thought would lead me to the coast and it did – right onto the beach where you then drive and park at the back of the beach. There were no signs of any restrictions and when there were still plenty of vans there at 9pm I thought I’d stay the night. By 10pm all the vans had left, there must have been a late ferry going somewhere. I got a bit twitchy about staying down there on my own and ended up car-park camping in Hirtshals – not particularly scenic but safe.

Night 6 in Denmark will be spent on the ferry – somewhere in the North sea!

Brit Abroad

Monday 15th August

This trip has been planned for a long time – long before I booked the ferry from Denmark to Iceland 6 months ago. But there’s planning and there’s planning. I’ve done endless planning for necessary stuff – insurances, breakdown cover, making sure I have the right documents, buying maps, a campsite for the night before the ferry and one for in the Faroe Islands. That seems like quite a lot of planning to me but what I hadn’t thought much about was the week before the ferry leaves. The week where I need to drive close to 1000 miles through 5 countries to get to the port of Hirtshals.

I’d had a look on a map before I left but I’d not decided on a route. I left that until 0630 on Thursday morning sitting in the loading queue at Dover. I typed “current location” to “Hirtshals” into google maps and wrote down the main towns and cities along that route onto the back of an envelope. Route plan done.

To decide where I’d spend each night there is a book called Camperstops Europe which lists all the motorhome stopping points in Europe. It’s a long story (involving being let down by someone, having someone else in Norway Amazon Prime’ing me one, the road to my house being resurfaced, borrowing a French version and realising how I really did need the full book and then a last minute dash to Guildford Waterstones) but I now have a copy in my van (and one in my house..). That meant that when I started to get tired on the drive, I would look in the book, find a nearby stop and spend the night there. So far it’s worked well, I’ve had a couple of free stopovers in campervan areas and a couple on campsites.

So that’s the route done, overnight stops sorted, the one thing that has really let me down is my lack of languages. I left the ferry and thought I’d drive for an hour or so before stopping at a French supermarket to get some goodies for lunch. An hour or so later though and I’d left France, finding myself in Belgium and I’ll be honest – I don’t know a word of Flemish. Being in a supermarket and not even being able to say please and thank you in the same language as the cashier is just embarrassing.

By the evening I’d made it to Holland where I at least know some very very basic Dutch, although wanting to talk to the other campervan where I spent the night and only being able to say Please, Thank you, and Bubbles didn’t get me very far. When you travel with someone else it doesn’t seem to matter too much but one thing I enjoy about travelling is the people I get to meet and language is a real barrier - relying on other people speaking English doesn’t always work.

Germany was a little better - my AS Level German meant I could book into a campsite, ask how my neighbours were and understand what I was eating. I could have done with remembering the difference between entrance and exit in a multistorey car park though and being able to read a sign in a service station to work out where you need to put the money to raise the barrier to get into the toilets would have been useful. One place where I spent the night I went out on my bike and had stopped to say hello to some goats in a garden when 2 young girls from the house came to say hello. I told one of them I couldn’t speak German and she offered me some cherries they’d been picking. Her sister then said something to me – to which the first one, who was only about 7, replied “she speaks English”. She then shouted “Come here Molly” to the apparently bilingual goat who came running over.

And now onto Denmark for a few days before my ferry on Saturday – I’ve got my European phrase book out desperately trying to learn some basic words at the same time as making a real effort to learn some more Icelandic so that I don’t feel quite as clueless as I do now.

JoGLE - the final few days