Day 62 - 71, Jabbeke

We continued to relax and follow a routine of breakfast and playing games on the iPads in the morning with films in the afternoon and evening.

I took the opportunity to update our Amazon Firestick to include the latest Kodi as well as add the Black Panther APK. This allows us to watch a number of the latest film releases which included Aquaman, Green book, A star is born and many more. It allowed us to have some variety.

In the evenings I would often watch some football and we would catch up on the latest news from the House of Commons on the “Non progress” of Brexit. 

Our days were interspersed with trips to the local supermarkets to get the few essential items which included the odd cream cake. Yummy.

On Monday 18th we visited the local vet again. We had made the appointment 3 weeks earlier. This visit was for her to administer the required worming treatment and update the pet passports in readiness for our crossing on Wednesday. She examined the dogs and made a note in the passports that they were fit and healthy to travel. We will see what happens on Wednesday.

Tuesday we spent packing up all the unnecessary things we had out so that our departure on Wednesday would be somewhat easier. So we packed away the Aquaroll, Waste master, Washing line and fitted the towing cover.

The day of departure arrived and we left the site at around 10am stopping to collect our €25 deposit on the gate access card that we returned. We hoped that we would arrive in Calais maybe an hour early and get an earlier train. As in turned out there was a lot of traffic on the motorway and we were held up for some time on a number of times. I was getting worried that we may not get to meet our scheduled time. We passed a string of lorries that were being held by the police in the fast lane on the motorway with no apparent reason. The queue must have been 10 miles long when we were driving past. We did feel sorry for these guys.

We arrived at the Pet reception and approached with trepidation which was not needed as everything was fine. After making our way around to check in we were offered a train 30 mins before our scheduled departure. Tina was not convinced we would be going home until we were actually on the train. Bless her!

Our trip home and to the storage yard was uneventful. However, we did read on the gate that the storage yard had some thieves steal 3 caravans… 2 belonging to a local caravan dealer. They had broken through unused locked gates and moved a pile of pathing material which was in front of the exit. This would have been done by hand and all between midnight and 6am. Our thoughts went to how glad our van was not in the yard at this time.

When we started to open the post later on Wednesday I found out that the Caravan insurance renewal remainder and invitation had been missed by our insurance company and had been sent out after we had left the UK and we were given 2 weeks to renew. So for the last 8 weeks the caravan had been uninsured…. what a relief nothing happened.

Thursday saw me on the internet and phone getting quotes and quickly getting the caravan insured again. Fortunately the thieves did not revisit on Wednesday night.

In conclusion the holiday was enjoyable but not necessarily a complete success. At this point in time I suspect we will not be repeating the experience next winter.

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Day 53 - 61, Jabbeke

I know we have not been posting recently mainly because there is not a lot to say. Most days are spent along the same routine with the odd food shopping thrown in.
I ordered a torque wrench from Amazon and within around 4 days it arrived. This allowed me to swap back the alloy wheel with the steel wheel we had fitted from the spare wheel carrier under the van. I was able to torque up the wheel nuts to the recommended pressure of 130 nm.
The weather over the last week has continued to be periods of heavy showers and very high gusting winds. So pleased we didn’t bother with erecting the awning as we would definitely have had to take it down. I even lifted the awning carpet as this was blowing away in the 70mph winds.
Tina has managed to put some washing out but had to finish it off in the van again due to the strength of the wind and the rain.
In the afternoons and evenings we have watch several films from Netflix and then later I have streamed Champions League football. The internet here is free and really good speed and so there is very little buffering. There have not been too many people here during the week and a few more arrive at the weekend and occupy the 2 or 3 bedroom chalets.
Over the weekend I managed to watch live the AFC Bournemouth match and catch up with the current political situation…what a shambles. Not sure what will be decided but this week could be interesting.
We needed to take Woody to the vet as he has been limping with his left rear leg. She injected him and gave us a weeks course of anti-inflammatory tablets. He seemed to be getting better but over the last day or so he is still displaying the same issue. We will need to get him to the UK vet as soon as possible on our return.
We are now thinking of the time we will leave this place and be on our way home…not long now until the 20th.

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Day 50 - 52, Jabbeke

Most of the time we have been catching up on the washing and relaxing in the sunshine.
We moved the van on Tuesday to another pitch which enjoyed more sunshine and was bigger. All this on the motor mover.
Thursday I returned to the Tyre shop and picked up the new tyre and repaired rim. Very pleased as they charged me €105 for all this.
However, I did have some concerns on Thursday that they had fitted a commercial tyre and not a 6 or 8 ply tyre. I also wanted to check what tyre pressure I should use. I wrote an email to our caravan dealer in the UK and they confirmed that I needed a 6 or 8 ply tyre. The torque and tyre pressures were on a plate on the caravan.
Friday, we took Woody to the vet again as he was displaying symptoms of issues with his right rear leg. He was limping and we wanted him to be checked out. Another trip to the vet….she was packing up to go on her skiing holiday but did organise that we return later at 3pm. The other vet gave him a painkilling injection and some anti inflammatory tablets to be taken over the next week.
At the tyre shop I was reassured that the tyre they had fitted was correct and that the tyre pressure of 42psi was OK. I feel relieved. I did try and buy a torque wrench at the local auto parts shop. They quoted me €56 plus VAT so I explained that I could have one delivered from Amazon UK to the site for £21 + delivery. On returning to the site I did purchase one and it will be delivered to the site reception on Monday.

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Day 49 - Jabbeke

Today I set myself the task of sorting out our spare tyre. Fortunately there is a tyre and wheel outlet not far from the vet.
I took the tyre in and it seems that the alloy rim had been damaged so I asked for them to repair this and fit a new tyre. They explained that they would try and get the rim repaired during the remaining part of the week as they were on holiday next week. It seems that it is school holidays locally and people go skiing for the week.
I left the tyre with them and asked that they would contact the site when it was ready.
We also took the opportunity to go and find a Carrefour Hypermarket. We wanted to find some bits that we thought would be available there which included a Torque wrench I wanted when I get to refit the wheel. As it turned out we bought a few things but nothing that we had set out for.
Watch a few more movies in the afternoon and evening before we retired for bed.

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Day 48 - Jabbeke, Belgium

As arranged yesterday I was up at the reception at 9am to book an appointment at the vet in town. The staff in the office speak perfect English which really helps. We soon had an appointment for 10:30am.
After breakfast we drove to the address and found the vet. The Injections were administered and the passports were updated and she confirmed that we could travel home on our rearranged date. We made an appointment for Monday 18th March for her to administer the worming tablet. Travel can then only take place between 24 to 120 hours from the time of this treatment. I was expecting that we would be fleeced but we paid for both treatments and it was €108 which I was pleasantly surprised. 
On leaving the vet we did some shopping at the Aldi which was just up the road. We needed everything as we had been expecting an Asda delivery which we had to cancel. We also had a number of hospital, doctor, treatments and other appointments we also had to postpone.
We had accumulated lots of washing as we expected to do this when back in the UK so we had to use the on site facilities. No problems as the weather was fine and sunny and our clothes would dry on the line.
Later we used the free site internet to stream some Netflix movies. Our next problem is what to do about the disintegrated tyre….problem to be solved tomorrow I think.

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Day 47 - Euro Tunnel

We rose early and hitched up and on our way before 7am. It was about a 30mins journey to the Pet reception to get the pet passports checked before checking in ourselves. The receptionist took an age and then decided that we could not take the dogs with us. The rabies injections expired in November and we would need a vet to administer the injection to each of the dogs and then wait 3 weeks before we could bring them home. We would have to repeat the Tape worm treatment as well. 
We were given a choice of leaving them in a “Pet Hotel” (just a fancy term for kennels) whilst we go home and return in 3 weeks or we stay in Europe and sit it out here. Our dogs have never been in a kennel and left us for that length of time so there was no decision to make …we would sit it out here in Europe and visit a vet as soon as possible. We were devastated as we would not be able to travel home.
We sat out in the car park and looked for an ACSI site nearby. The nearest was in Belgium and about 50 miles away. We informed Euro tunnel of our decision and they made a change to our booking at no extra cost. I was in trouble now with Tina. 
We travelled to the site and booked in for 24 nights….we come home on the 20th March. We needed to leave sufficient time to visit a vet and organise the Rabies jab and the worming treatment. We found a corner sight right next to the Shower block. It has free wifi and seems to be very fast allowing us to stream movies from Netflix.
I organised that tomorrow morning (Monday) I would get them to call the local vet for an appointment to get the dogs treatment underway. 
We set up and started to relax and analyse why I had missed the expiration of the rabies entry in the passports. Fortunately, we were still talking !!!! Tomorrow is another day ...

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Day 46 - Hotel Bal, Tourneham-sur-la-Hem

Made the decision to not go anywhere near Paris today so we made our way west of Paris using mainly the N roads which are free i.e. not toll roads. There is a length of motorway close to Calais that is worth taking the toll road and we did so as to save going down through the valleys and up the other side which would significantly affect out fuel consumption.

On the way to the site I asked Tina to get out the directions printed on our paperwork. It mentioned that we should approach the site from the A26 as from the other directions there is an arched gate which some caravans might have issues with. It is 3.1m high with a width of 2.7m. Our caravan is 2.64m high so no problem there. How about the width .. 2.3m. Somewhat tight as we found it i.e. 20cm (approx 8in) each side. Fortunately we got through with no issues. I made a mental note to leave in the other direction in the morning.
I wanted to get to the site before the Bournemouth match started to transmit and we just made it. The site did not have any free WIFI other than in the bar. AFCB v Wolves ended as a draw 1-1 which was not a bad result except we missed a second penalty.
Went and found a Fuel station and filled after the end of the match. The price is very similar to the UK but filling when solo is so much easier than when the caravan is attached.



As a final treat we decided to have a meal in the restaurant. It was very tasty if not a little expensive.
Going home tomorrow but we do need to leave the site before 7am so we retired early tonight.

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