A calamity of errors! Nice way to start your trip…

We made a catalogue of errors! Let’s put them in some sort of order, though not chronologically…

But before we start….

So anyone that’s ever gone on a long trip away from friends and family will sympathise with what happened when we finally got around to leaving. I couldn’t even speak I was so welled up! It’s not like this wasn’t planned, and that literally everyone knew when we were going. Nevertheless that family bond is super strong. Missing you fam already… but super grateful for the opportunity to do this round the world trip, so …

Error 1

So there we were on the train, second in the queue, waiting patiently behind an elderly couple in their posh beemer from Brussels. As usual the trip was super quick…never ceases to amaze me just how quick it is! Well worth the money over the ferry imho. The doors opened and we’re off… into France! Awesome.

The beemer shoots off like they’re in a race. Well they’re from Belgium, so presumably they do this trip regularly and know exactly where they’re going, as they wanna get home sharpish…right!! Top of the ramp, they turn left. We get there … no signs for the exit … this is not usual in our experience … and we’ve done this many, many times! So we follow the Belgians!

So you can see where we’re going with this right, lol! It was totally the wrong way. As driver, I suddenly noticed after about 20 seconds or so that there was a very faint illuminated arrow on one of the signs pointing the other way. Doh! So, as I’m in a Golf, handbrake turn … well not quite, but super small turning circle at speed. However ….

Everyone else was following us 🤣 Oh dear. oh dear! So there we were, suddenly going against the traffic towards the exit. Panic, pandominium, chaos! How will some of those larger vehicles turn around? Yikes, we’re out of there. The only saving grace was that I hadn’t been first in the queue … so it wasn’t really all my fault!

As for the Belgians, they’d shot off so quickly they’d disappeared. I hope they made it home!

Error 2

SatNav, ah SatNav! So excellent and yet so terrible at the same time! No we didn’t drive off a cliff into the sea. But we did drive down a farm track that should really have only been used by 4x4s, not our little Golf. That said, it was a tester for what surely will come later ….

Thing is though, was that it kinda looked ok. I mean, we were staying on a pre-booked campsite with our trusty tent. Thought we’d make it easy for ourselves on the first night. Site looked decent enough … not wild camping which is our norm, but not static caravan city either. So those kind of campsites tend to be on little farms. However, the staggeringly narrow track, the overgrown 4 feet tall grass, and the huge potholes should’ve been an earlier warning sign that they were. I guess this is what happens when you trust your driving instincts. Trust me, we’ve made it though a lot worse!

Eventually, we came to a muddy bog in the middle of a field. Thank god it hadn’t been raining – we don’t have any traction boards with us for this leg of the trip. And I wasn’t gonna get stuck within an hour of arriving in mainland Europe! So we ploughed on…

After some time of careful driving though fields of long grass…. remember we’re in a Golf GTI – it’s even lower than a standard one 🙂 We arrived in a village … thank god! Just around the corner the SatNav recalibrates another route… aha! Yeessss, as Clarkson might say! Not only a better road, but literally the proper entrance to the site! Why oh why, SatNav….why!!!

Error 3

Smaller error this one…

We were travelling down from Leeds and decided to stop off at a service station. This one had a Waitrose … oooh posh! Quick stop, only 15-20 minutes tops. Thing is though, that SatNav told us that we had 1h 20 minutes spare before the Chunnel train. After 20 minutes stop, apparently we only had 35 minutes left! Whaaaat!!!

Good job we’re in a Golf GTI that can recognise speed cameras. I knew there was a reason to take this car – love this car btw, it’s great! if you ever thought you might like one, do it! Excellent for daily driving as well as grand tours!

Anyway long story short, quick driving got us there in time … only to find that the train had been cancelled, and that there wouldn’t be another one until 40 minutes later. Lol, typical! Still, we ended up second in the queue …. behind the Belgians!!!

Great way to start a world trip!