A New Adventure beckons.
Where does time go??
The winter has come and gone in the blink of an eye, and in fact it never really happened this year. Snow has fallen on the hills and there has actually been quite a lot of it, however between the snows have been devastating thaws so much so that I have not managed a single winter climb this year for the first time in probably 18 years. I have managed a couple of winter walks, and also managed to get the boys Callum and Logan up a couple of hills in the unseasonably warm weather....The ski touring kit myself and Kenny bought hasn't got out the cupboard, we did however have a great week skiing in Cervinia-fortunately.
Its not all bad of course and we are now firmly focusing on our time off this year. Myself and Joyce have decided to take 3 months out of work this year to go and hopefully travel up the length of Norway and preparing Bessie our motorhome is consuming a lot of time and finances. We have decided to do this as Callum will start school in mid August and it will for many years be impossible to indulge in a trip of this length. For me also, I really wanted to spend an extended period of time with the boys without work getting in the way and again this has to happen before schooling starts for them. I will probably be well into my 60's before the opportunity comes round again....YIKES!! 3 months sounds like a long time, until you look at where we plan to go, the distances involved and the amount of time we want to spend exploring and enjoying the different areas we visit. The plan is to tour Norway and probably come back down through Sweden, we do not know how long this will take. WILL we have enough time, WILL we have too much time (never)....if the Scandinavian part of the journey finishes early we will travel south in to Germany, Switzerland, France etc.....Maybe we need 6 months!! So after Ireland last summer, and a couple of trips later in the year where a few issues raised their head with Bessie it was time to make a few modifications and improvements......
First up, new alternator and engine battery have been fitted, we started having issues with this at new year and confidence was lost. The need to have a reliable source of charging and starting on our van is paramount, The alternator would seem to have been the offending article, it's now replaced as is the battery. We have a trip under our belt now since this was done and all seems well. A healthy 14.2 volts were showing as going to our battery whilst driving, a vast improvement on the 12volts or less that we were getting.
A new spare wheel was a prerequisite after last years Irish blowout drama, and this has required a spare wheel carrier to be fitted underneath the van. This has not been quite as simple as first thought, as there was a recall on vans the age of ours, and some engineering has been required to fit the carrier in a manner that it won't become detached as happened to some vans of Bessies vintage. We had the spare tyre purchased in Ireland just waiting on a new spare wheel (all tyres were changed after Ireland) and soon the new carrier will be finished and that part of the jigsaw complete. This should give us a bit peace of mind should we ever get a puncture in a remote area again.
We decided also to have a new refillable gas bottle arrangement fitted as in Europe the Calor bottles we use in the UK are not available, so a new Gasit system has been purchased and will be fitted over the next few days, weather permitting, and we will be able to just fill up with gas when we visit a fuel station that sells LPG. It remains to be seen how good an investment this is in the long term, LPG at a fuel station is substantially cheaper than buying Calor refill bottles but the expense of the refillable system is not small and will take a few years to recoup our money, there are also not so many LPG equipped fuel stations in Scotland but we will just need to take advantage of them when we come across them. I will also keep a hold of a couple of our Calor cylinders incase we are visiting an area short on LPG garages.
Some new shelving has been built in the wardrobe and also some overhead lockers, there's a lot of space in the van but often the cupboards do not lend themselves well to be able to make best use of this space. This is a mod that should have happened a while back but you always seem to forget about the things you have noticed that could be improved after a trip, and till now have never been done. This one is nearing completion for the time being. The faulty cooker ignition has been fixed, the wire had come off the back of the button, the gas fire ignition has been fixed-hopefully permanently.
Another area we are improving on, -well some may view it as an improvement, others not, is our ability to keep in touch with the modern world when we are away in some remote corner. Up until now we have purely relied upon our mobile phones 3 and 4G signals to access WiFi, or WiFi in a pub or resturaunt or campsite. This has worked with varying degrees of success in Scotland and Ireland, but it really is a pain trying to log on, and stay logged on to some campsites WiFi to read emails and communicate via WhatsApp etc. So we have purchased a mobile WiFi (MiFi) router and WiFi Antenna for the roof of the van. I need to get this installed, and up and running before we go, I have the hardware all ready to fit, just need to decide on what SIM to take abroad, probably Vodaphone as they seem to have the best coverage abroad and also allow an uncapped data allowance abroad. Again time will tell if we get this right. I decided for a 4G WiFi router by Huewai, with a Panorama antenna for the roof, There is a English based company called Motorhomewifi who have a kit that we could have purchased but at circa. £300 I figured it was deemed too expensive but with a bit digging around I have managed to source the same antenna, a better Huawei router and most of the rest the kit for just over £200, I just need to put it all together, set it up and see if it actually works. This sort of technology is not my forte!!
I have a couple of days off work now and will try and progress these upgrades as far a possible, time is getting a bit short for us. We need to have Bessie MOT'd also, this will be early this year year as wee will be away when it's due. I also need to apply for my IDL, International Driving License, a new passport for Callum and a green card for my insurance.....all brought about by the unknown Brexit outcome.
Oh, and to add to the mix I have a cycle trip to the Outer Hebrides to plan and complete before we go, so have various bike related purchases and upgrades to make for that trip also and also had to find time for training rides......Perhaps this should have been at the top of the blog as it happens before our Norway trip.....
The winter has come and gone in the blink of an eye, and in fact it never really happened this year. Snow has fallen on the hills and there has actually been quite a lot of it, however between the snows have been devastating thaws so much so that I have not managed a single winter climb this year for the first time in probably 18 years. I have managed a couple of winter walks, and also managed to get the boys Callum and Logan up a couple of hills in the unseasonably warm weather....The ski touring kit myself and Kenny bought hasn't got out the cupboard, we did however have a great week skiing in Cervinia-fortunately.Its not all bad of course and we are now firmly focusing on our time off this year. Myself and Joyce have decided to take 3 months out of work this year to go and hopefully travel up the length of Norway and preparing Bessie our motorhome is consuming a lot of time and finances. We have decided to do this as Callum will start school in mid August and it will for many years be impossible to indulge in a trip of this length. For me also, I really wanted to spend an extended period of time with the boys without work getting in the way and again this has to happen before schooling starts for them. I will probably be well into my 60's before the opportunity comes round again....YIKES!! 3 months sounds like a long time, until you look at where we plan to go, the distances involved and the amount of time we want to spend exploring and enjoying the different areas we visit. The plan is to tour Norway and probably come back down through Sweden, we do not know how long this will take. WILL we have enough time, WILL we have too much time (never)....if the Scandinavian part of the journey finishes early we will travel south in to Germany, Switzerland, France etc.....Maybe we need 6 months!! So after Ireland last summer, and a couple of trips later in the year where a few issues raised their head with Bessie it was time to make a few modifications and improvements......
First up, new alternator and engine battery have been fitted, we started having issues with this at new year and confidence was lost. The need to have a reliable source of charging and starting on our van is paramount, The alternator would seem to have been the offending article, it's now replaced as is the battery. We have a trip under our belt now since this was done and all seems well. A healthy 14.2 volts were showing as going to our battery whilst driving, a vast improvement on the 12volts or less that we were getting.
A new spare wheel was a prerequisite after last years Irish blowout drama, and this has required a spare wheel carrier to be fitted underneath the van. This has not been quite as simple as first thought, as there was a recall on vans the age of ours, and some engineering has been required to fit the carrier in a manner that it won't become detached as happened to some vans of Bessies vintage. We had the spare tyre purchased in Ireland just waiting on a new spare wheel (all tyres were changed after Ireland) and soon the new carrier will be finished and that part of the jigsaw complete. This should give us a bit peace of mind should we ever get a puncture in a remote area again.
We decided also to have a new refillable gas bottle arrangement fitted as in Europe the Calor bottles we use in the UK are not available, so a new Gasit system has been purchased and will be fitted over the next few days, weather permitting, and we will be able to just fill up with gas when we visit a fuel station that sells LPG. It remains to be seen how good an investment this is in the long term, LPG at a fuel station is substantially cheaper than buying Calor refill bottles but the expense of the refillable system is not small and will take a few years to recoup our money, there are also not so many LPG equipped fuel stations in Scotland but we will just need to take advantage of them when we come across them. I will also keep a hold of a couple of our Calor cylinders incase we are visiting an area short on LPG garages.
Some new shelving has been built in the wardrobe and also some overhead lockers, there's a lot of space in the van but often the cupboards do not lend themselves well to be able to make best use of this space. This is a mod that should have happened a while back but you always seem to forget about the things you have noticed that could be improved after a trip, and till now have never been done. This one is nearing completion for the time being. The faulty cooker ignition has been fixed, the wire had come off the back of the button, the gas fire ignition has been fixed-hopefully permanently.
Another area we are improving on, -well some may view it as an improvement, others not, is our ability to keep in touch with the modern world when we are away in some remote corner. Up until now we have purely relied upon our mobile phones 3 and 4G signals to access WiFi, or WiFi in a pub or resturaunt or campsite. This has worked with varying degrees of success in Scotland and Ireland, but it really is a pain trying to log on, and stay logged on to some campsites WiFi to read emails and communicate via WhatsApp etc. So we have purchased a mobile WiFi (MiFi) router and WiFi Antenna for the roof of the van. I need to get this installed, and up and running before we go, I have the hardware all ready to fit, just need to decide on what SIM to take abroad, probably Vodaphone as they seem to have the best coverage abroad and also allow an uncapped data allowance abroad. Again time will tell if we get this right. I decided for a 4G WiFi router by Huewai, with a Panorama antenna for the roof, There is a English based company called Motorhomewifi who have a kit that we could have purchased but at circa. £300 I figured it was deemed too expensive but with a bit digging around I have managed to source the same antenna, a better Huawei router and most of the rest the kit for just over £200, I just need to put it all together, set it up and see if it actually works. This sort of technology is not my forte!!
I have a couple of days off work now and will try and progress these upgrades as far a possible, time is getting a bit short for us. We need to have Bessie MOT'd also, this will be early this year year as wee will be away when it's due. I also need to apply for my IDL, International Driving License, a new passport for Callum and a green card for my insurance.....all brought about by the unknown Brexit outcome.
Oh, and to add to the mix I have a cycle trip to the Outer Hebrides to plan and complete before we go, so have various bike related purchases and upgrades to make for that trip also and also had to find time for training rides......Perhaps this should have been at the top of the blog as it happens before our Norway trip.....
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