“One night or two nights?” – “One” – “ok, thanks”. 15 minutes later, kids mingling on the playground … “could we maybe still make it two?” That was last night. We did not regret it. 7 days of travel with 7 different camp spots is taxing in a way. Taking a rest day takes the stress out of everything.
I will try to keep this short and sweet. The day was near perfect. Both kids got plenty of opportunity to engage and play with others. Number 3 made me really proud with the amount of English he practices with other kids and adults. His English has improved so much already.
jump into action every time a horse walked by (this is 2m from the tent)
We had two solid meals and a sweet breakfast treat to boot (I had the presence of mind to grab croissants at our last minute Lidl shopping). Scrambled eggs for lunch and mashed potatoes and veggie nuggets for dinner. Minor aside: There is this great line of plant based “protein” foods at our local organic supermarket. We had the “non-meat-balls” before and the nuggets for tonight. They come as a powder, to be soaked in water and fried up and they both taste excellent. More vegetarian food should be this good. As a bonus, they last forever and pack very neatly and only need water to prepare, so a great camping food all around.
Only one event broke the stride a bit: Puru Hiko’s 12v batterie ran flat one again at some point in the afternoon. What a stupid engineering oversight (DC-DC converter only triggers when the “ignition” is on). But this time, I come prepared. Bought a tiny power bank / jump start battery kit and coaxed him back to life without an embarressing round of the camp looking for a jump start from a stinker.
That was really it. Great conversations with some of our lovely neighbours, great play time for the kids and we got to catch up on sleep and chores. All ready to tackle the road again!
both XYs pretty tired – time for cuddles!
the best place in the world to practice benign neglect – mama and papa are hiding
old enough to help as well now!
cooking time is family time
done yourself it always tastes better
jump into action every time a horse walked by (this is 2m from the tent)
Ok, first on-the-road packing day. We can do this. Today’s trip is only 190km planned. Smooth sailings. Maybe we even would have time to stop for a roadside attraction. After all, our friends would be at work anyways – no point in rushing, right?
still pretty good at packing – even with spectators
Everything worked out pretty well. First time we had to pay by use for electricity. 21€ for a 60% charge. Not great, compared to my usual charging card, but a major convenience. We could start with a battery 100% charged and not worry about topping up for the day. So, with packing up at a leisurely pace, we were ready to hit the road around 10:45 am. Would have been, I should say. For I, in my infinite capacity for foolish things, reprised a well-honed tradition: Draining the battery of my vehicle.
Yes, you heard right. As some have recently learned from a clip of a well-known former Top-Gear host: Electrical Vehicles have traditional 12v batteries in them, too. See, all the car tech is old world, well optimized towards the 12v ecosystem. My 48 Volt 64Wh battery pack has as much to do with that as the fuel tank in a stinker. There are some practical considerations, too. You can’t just run something of such a huge power source – some level of electronics is required. And as in a desktop computer, it has to start somewhere, usually small. That is the 12v battery. I drained it completely by forgetting to unplug a charger and keeping puku hiko in her half-on state. When we were ready to leave, there was no juice to register the key-fob, let alone kick start the other electronics. As soon as the main drive computer comes on, it would register the low voltage on the 12v and start feeding it from the main. But we did not get that far …
Hat in hand, I had to ask the campground warden for a jump start. Of my EV … much amusement all around. Jumper cables didn’t quite work, but an emergency starter / booster battery did the trick. Main ECU came onboard and the car ran. Just like jumpstarting a stinker … only that mine didn’t sputter blue clouds from the rear but instead hummed its artificial VESS hum as if nothing had happened. There was the first half an hour lost …
Charging made easy – right they are. Every supermarket should have these.
We had a shopping / charging stop halfway, having made good time. But then, both little ones had to go to the loo just as we were heading out … ah well, here goes another 30 minutes.
Our lack of (daring to start) planning bit us again, a bit later. We had to have another stop. I did not get the cooking facilities in order in time. The butane gas for the cooker was ordered a bit too late and did not arrive before we left. The first two options to stock up were deemed to expensive at 4 € a bottle (the ones now sitting at home were 90ct a piece). So I had to try my luck at two rest stops and a hardware store, only to pay extortion prices of 5.39 € rather than lose more than this additional hour.
By now it was getting late but we were finally on the last stretch. Crossed the border to Switzerland without hassle and about 15 minutes out from our destination, I almost bunged it up for good this time. Temporary traffic light at a construction site – I missed the “stop here while red” sign and thought I’d go that wee bit back down the hill. Only, I did not switch into reverse but rather let it roll. And only used the wing mirror, without realizing that no rear radar or rear facing camera was active without puku hiko being put into reverse. When a “bang” stopped us, I almost lost it.
That is the good kind of arriving
It must have been the luck of fools, as it turned out there was absolutely no visible damage and the other driver was super cool about it when he saw us in our whole kit. No time lost, but we gained a few more grey hairs on our scalps.
In the end, we arrived quite late at 4.40 pm. We were heading over to Number 3’s Godmother and her family, so the day turned bright from there. Dinner, quickly putting our kids to bed and then staying up way too long, as you tend to do with old friends, rounded off this rollercoaster of a day.
All the pebbels! They just get bigger
why is dad taking the bed down?
still pretty good at packing – even with spectators
a black forest back country road.
Charging made easy – right they are. Every supermarket should have these.
ready to feed the lion cubs?
he ate almost the entire roll, top and bottom half!
driving makes thirsty
letting off some of that steam before hitting the road again
the feeding stack, v2
His ambition: playing with the wooden train set of each of our friends’ kids
It all started so well, with us having a chilled breakfast at our cheap and clean hotel. With free coffee and tea, and with me even having remembered to buy fresh milk last night. All was well. A brief loop round the inner city, maybe lunch and then a light 200km to get to a hotel near the Thai-Cambodian border. Easy, right?
Brain freezzzzee incomming!
Not quite as it would turn out. The city was nice, but nothing to linger too much. We thought of maybe hanging around for a coffee or so at the riverfront. However, we did not find the place recommended by the Lonely Planet. Instead, we settled into a pretty restaurant / juice bar, as the only patrons for now. Their shtick is a strawberry slushy – so I naturally went with that while Nina opted for the orange version.
Well cooled down and with high spirits, we saddled up once more to get on the road … and failed! Rocinante would not start, the battery was drained. Oh, well. We did a bunch of short rides since yesterday and I was not sure if I had pulled the plug for the GPS. So not a big reason to worry. Continue reading →
You must be logged in to post a comment.