Next week, we’ll be back to our usual travelling posts but if you’ve read the last couple, you’ll know we had a fantastic time away skiing this year. Probably our best season yet.
But how much does it cost to do a ski season in a motorhome?
The headlines are that we were away for 85 days and spent a grand total of £7072. That works out at £83 per day.
Showing off my rusting excel skills, we’ve made this little chart to illustrate the breakdown of this seasons costs.
I’ll walk through some of the detail but suffice to say before we start that it would be possible to do this sort of trip much cheaper than we did. Alternatively you could spend a lot more too. This was the right balance for us.
Where did we go?
Our journey took us down through France via Merlin’s vet in Ay-Champagne to Beaune and on to a lovely new stop on the side of the Rhone at the Port of Virignin.
Most of our time was spent in the Via Lattea resorts of Montgenevre and Sestriere but as the Easter holidays started, we sneaked in a quick trip to Barolo, Italy. On the way home we had a couple of spare days which we spent cycling along the Rhone.
The breakdown
Our detailed costs are broken down below.
Item
Cost
Seasons ski pass
£ 1,512
Supermarket
£ 1,405
Eating Out
£1,208
Overnight stays
£ 880
Diesel
£ 500
Le Shuttle (Travel)
£ 390
Internet (Starlink / SIM)
£ 302
Tolls
£ 261
Travel / Health Insurance
£ 236
Merlin
£ 93
Laundry
£ 82
LPG
£ 80
Tours and Attractions
£ 47
Phones
£ 39
Supplies and Household
£ 37
Total
£ 7,072
Unsurprisingly, the biggest cost was the two seasons ski passes. This year, we opted for the wider more expensive Via Lattea pass which allowed us to ski in all 8 resorts which are connected across the region. We’re happy we went with this but it was disappointing that the motorhome Aire in Sestriere was closed this year so there was nowhere easy to stay which limited our time there.
As you can imagine, eating and drinking in the ski resort isn’t cheap and we did have a cracking time this year.
At just over £10 a night, our overnight stays were brilliant value but providing our internet was a little disappointing. We mainly used Starlink but the monthly charges have increased to £96 which explains this cost and we need a reliable connection for work so didn’t want to take any chances.
Travel insurance was expensive as we needed to get additional cover in France for our extended stay and we included Merlin’s rabies vaccinations too.
Best bits
Sally’s best bit: Overall my best bits are related to food and the great company we shared the mountain with this year. We managed to find some great eateries in Montgenevre that we hadn’t been to before e.g. Le Caesar’s and I loved just popping across to ski in Clavier – more this year than before as our wider ski passes meant we had more access and enjoying more Italian food and drink. With regards to skiing I loved skiing in Sestriere and found some of it a lot trickier than the “home” slopes of Montgenevre and enjoyed the challenge that brought for me.
Toby’s best bit: There were a lot of fab memories but I think my favourite moments were skiing together with Chris and Kim for the first time in Sauze D’Oulx which was brilliant fun. It was also amazing to cycle around Barolo and have that whole experience in Italy.
As the snow starts it’s retreat up the mountainside our thoughts have already left our alpine retreat, leaping forward to what’s next.
We find ourselves longing for the bright greens of Spring. Staying so late in the mountains last year, we missed Spring and the verdant, rolling hills of Piedmont are tempting us where the ‘King of Wines’ awaits.
A visit to Piedmont feels like unfinished business. The Autumn storms of 2023 chased us out of Italy before we’d had the chance to explore here.
Our final sign came from a kindly gifted bottle of red we just opened. The answer was in the glass; Barolo was calling.
Leaving the peaks behind
On a quiet Sunday morning, we pay our last weekly ticket and slip out of Montgenevre. The annual changing of the guard has begun. Most of the people and vans we know have finished for the season and the aire is starting to fill with new faces. The school Easter holidays are about to start.
Still, leaving feels sad this year as we’ll not be back next Winter.
Heading across the border and it’s east and downhill all the way to Turin. We’ve not come this way before and there are a lot of tunnels. Finally, the road emerges into daylight and extends out along the base of a wide glacial valley lined with towering white peaks. As the snow disappears we turn south skirting Turin, which is mercifully free of manic drivers over the weekend.
Pretty soon we can see the hills of Langhe ahead. With a sense of quiet complacency we opt for the twisty route over La Morra.
It’s spectacular.
The sky is blue and so clear. From the top at La Morra we can see across the green vineyards that cover the hillsides, over the plain beyond and out as far as the snow capped mountains in the distance that ring this region in a horseshoe. It’s amazing. We don’t know it but today will be the only day of our trip when the view is so clear.
Of course a lot of my focus is on the driving.
Initial complacency quickly evaporates as it becomes clear that the hilltop roads can be just as challenging as the mountains. Steep gradients and hairpin turns wind through renaissance style villages which add a new complication.
Eventually, and with a long, frustrated tail of Italian Grand Prix drivers behind us, we reach our destination. We’ll be staying at Alberto Ballerin’s vineyard and winery for the week in the heart of the Barolo wine region.
View over the Ballerin vines to the hilltop town of La Morra
Barolo
Alberto was very welcoming although made little attempt to hide his surprise at the size of Beatrix. He shows us to a spot behind the house, away from the camping area which faces the vineyard.
It was spectacular and, we realised on stepping outside, more than warm enough for shorts and tee shirts. With our patio set up, it was time for an early evening barbecue.
Beatrix and our patio at Alberto Ballerin
Since we last caught up together, we should let you know that we’ve brought brand new secondhand bikes to replace our electric scooters. They’re a couple of hybrid style bikes that we thought would be suitable for most of the places we come across. Somehow we managed to shoehorn them into the garage with everything else and they have been brilliant.
As Sally had a work day, I decided to explore the area and there was a nice looking cycle loop up to La Morra, round through Barolo and back down to our campsite.
I chose the ‘moderate’ rated 5km route up that climbs the 280m up to La Morra. Huffing and puffing my way up, it sure didn’t feel moderate and I ran out of steam a couple of times on the way. The views from the town were stunning but a spring haze denied me the amazing view to the mountains that I’d cycled for. If it took me and hour to reach the top, getting down was more fun and much quicker. I was home in 10 minutes!
La Morra to the Alps in the distance
The wine
Barolo is described as the ‘King of Wines’ and although I suspect it was given this moniker by the people of this region, it is fantastic. Like so many of the wonderful Italian foods we’ve sampled, it’s a DOCG and can only produced on these few hillsides.
The geology and the very earth here are reason for this. They help to balance the acidity of the grapes and the clay soils on the La Morra give a smoother more aromatic flavour.
Barolo is made from Nebbiolo grapes that are so slow to ripen, they can only grow on south facing slopes. After a long fermentation period, the precious, tannin rich liquid has to spend at least 3 years aging, 18 months of which must be in oak barrels.
Riserva wines need at least 5 years.
After this the wines can take another 10 years in the bottle to soften and reach their peak but thankfully the wine from our hosts is ready to drink.
That’s the first cycle where I used all of the 27 gears on my bike and honestly I could have done with a couple more on each end.
A second cycle adventure took me up to the charming little town of Novello. The viewpoint Monviso gives a fantastic views across the whole region.
We took a scooter trip out to the castle at Grinzane Cavour. The castle is pretty impressive and dates from the 13th century. However, it became famous in the 19th century when the Count refurbished the building and revived it’s vines for Barolo wine making.
The garden walkway has an excellent season by season guide to the Barolo wine making which was super informative before we did our tasting.
We went on to the hilltop town of Diano d’Alba. At a height of 496m gave the best views back across to our campsite and La Morra in the distance.
Castle Grinzane CavourSally in the gardensDiano d’AlbaNovello panoramaNovello town
Alberto Ballerin
We booked a wine tasting with Alberto later in the week and shared the experience with a German couple and a Dutch chap who had arrived that day. People seemed to stop for a couple of days at a time and we were surprised at how it stayed busy so early in the season.
Alberto’s son took us on a tour and talked us through the vineyard. They have 9 hectares spread across three of the ‘Cru’ areas of Barolo. The majority of their vines are right in front of our motorhome on the south facing hillside but grapes from Monforte and Novello are blended to create their signature bottles.
They make 2 white wines from grapes on the lower slopes and a lighter, ready to drink Dolcetto d’Alba which is made in the ‘new world’ way. Then of course two types of Barolo DOCG which are fabulous.
Sally asked how they create the blend. Apparently it’s a real family affair with everyone around the table tasting and discussing and then dad makes the call. Given the cost of the wine and time it takes to create, it’s a pretty important decision for the estate.
The tour costs 15 euro unless you buy six bottles….. so it seemed like a good deal to do just that. Not all the Dolcetto made it home as there’s always something magical about drinking wine in the place it was made.
We thought this little corner of Piedmont was an absolute gem. We definitely recommend it and I’m sure we’ll be back.
For us now, after a great week and with our Brexit days counting up toward 83, it was time for us to say goodbye and begin our journey north. Our route back to Calais would take us through the Frejus tunnel to the Rhône. Then it’s onto Beaune which would have been idyllic except for an untimely electrical gremlin…. But that’s a tale for next time.
By way of a brief explanation, the second half of 2024 didn’t turn out quite the way we had imagined. For one reason and another it ended up being a tough year for us and in the end we didn’t travel very much.
That said, like little stars twinkling in the dark sky, there were some lovely moments too. Our unusual lifestyle meant we were able to spend quality time with family and we had chance to catch up with some old friends plus make some wonderful new ones.
Happily, 2025 started with a boom for us!
We’re not long back from France and Italy after a cracking 4th season of skiing in the mountains of Montgenevre. We even had to break out the snow chains for Beatrix this year, which was a bit of an experience.
At the risk of boring you, our small and precious crew of Road Less Travellers with weekly updates of mountains, sunshine and snow, fresh tracks and dancing on tables we thought a short video might better condense the start of 2025 into four minutes.
As well as spending time with all of the Usual Suspects, 2025 seems to have been the year of visits and we’ve skied with Tim, Chris and Kim, Simon and Nina, and Mum and Dad.
Feeling adventurous this year, we splashed out for a Via Lattea (Milky Way) ski pass which allowed us to explore the resorts of Sestriere and Sauze D’Oulx too.
After joining the party mid January we found ourselves as the last ones standing by the end of April. With the snow fast retreating up the mountainside we decided to take a couple of weeks to explore Piedmont in Italy but that’s a tale for another time.
Montgenevre 2025
Plus a few bonus photos….
Winters ComingWinters arrivedNew shoes for BeatrixSnow chains won’t always workSally’s guitar lessonsWith broMountain life
Just when we think the heating is sorted, a radiator bleed valve breaks during bleeding and we’re stuck with no central heating again! This time we have to source replacement parts whilst in France, which is no mean feat, before our friends come out visit us and we then have to say goodbye to the mountains “our home” for another 9 months. Never a dull moment when you live full time in your motorhome.
Setting the scene
Our last blog told the tale of the heating failure at -7 degrees, in the dark. Thankfully by the end of the tale we were happily back “home” at the Aire in Montgenevre.
We were excited and looking forward to more snow that was forecast, Tim and Chris were due to fly out from the UK to ski and although our vanlife friends in the mountain were slowly leaving, it did mean a lot of farewell drinks. It promised to be a good few weeks.
One of the many leaving do’sRecent snow fall in Montgenevre
In Gap, they had fixed the broken pipe and topped up the missing fluid and we were left to bleed the radiators to get rid of air and make sure the radiators were working optimally. The process is pretty much the same as bleeding radiators in a house and Toby had managed to do the first bleed successfully. We’d leave it a couple of days and then do a further bleed depending on how it was working. We’d now learnt so much about our heating system and the irony was not lost on us that we had a full service booked for the system in June in the UK!
“Sh*t, Sally help me”
Skiing resumed, and the temperature began to get colder again. One afternoon, we were in Beatrix and Toby was at the back of the vehicle. All of a sudden I heard swearing. This was most unlike Toby. The Sh*t word was on repeat, “Sally help“, “Sh*t”, “Sh*t”, “Sh*t”.
Dropping everything and racing to the back, I found Toby was at the radiator behind the cupboard, with kitchen roll and his hand seemingly stuck to the top of the radiator.
“What’s happened? What do you want me to do?” I said.
“I don’t know. I think I’ve dropped the bleed valve or it’s come off in my hand. There’s glycol leaking everywhere….Can you go outside and see if you can find the valve. Can you see if it’s fallen into the underfloor and also see how much fluid is leaking?”
I went outside and looked – not really knowing what I was looking for. I couldn’t see the valve. What I could see was leaking fluid dripping down into the lower floor. I got some kitchen roll and started blotting the leak in that location.
I returned inside, fluid was still coming out of the radiator at the top. We both suddenly thought about the clothes in the cupboard. Whilst Toby had his finger stuck in the radiator, I quickly got the clothes out to see which clothes had been leaked on. It’s a Toby cupboard and quite a few clothes had glycol on them. We bagged up anything with glycol because Toby is allergic to the stuff to get them washed. More kitchen roll mopped up the glycol – the only thing we could do was wait for the fluid to get below the level of the valve. It didn’t take too long!
Electric heaters keeping us toasty part 2
The smell of glycol was prevalent- however relatively quickly the glycol level reduced and stopped coming out the top of the radiator. We were again in the situation where we couldn’t use our amazing heating system. Luckily though we now had our own electric heaters to keep us warm. Knowing the garage in Gap carried no Alde spare parts we immediately googled where we could get a replacement radiator valve with our little heaters keeping us toasty warm!
Getting replacement Alde parts in France over Easter
The broken radiator valve
Google is good if you know what you’re looking for! There was a company in the UK – who could get a replacement radiator valve with bleed to a UK address within 24 hours. Fantastic however when we told them we wanted it shipped to France they said it would take at least 10 days but that, in their experience, it may not arrive at all. Thanks Brexit!
We were not discouraged as at least it gave us an option.
We talked to Alde and got hold of their people in Sweden to see if there was a French supplier where we could get the part.
They recommended two companies. We managed to order the parts online. This was promising and could be a much easier solution. Knowing that not all things go to plan, we decided to order the part from the UK company as a back up and get it sent to Toby’s parents with the 24 hour shipping. Hopefully they could then forward it to us as an Easter gift with an Easter Egg!
Thank you to Montgenevre Tourist Information
At this point it’s worth mentioning the fantastic Tourist Information office at Montgenevre. We obviously don’t have a postal address to get the parts sent to us in France. So we headed to Tourist Information and explained our predicament and asked could we use their address. They were fantastic and said yes of course!
Top Gear challenge – which part would arrive first UK versus France
Now we just had to wait – it felt a bit like a slow motion Top Gear challenge – which part would arrive first?
Firstly, the UK part was hindered from the off. There was an issue at the post office and it did not arrive within 24 hours into Exeter even though we’d paid for the quicker delivery.
The French part was also delayed – it was in a hold pattern. When we logged onto the website the order status was “order received”. It hadn’t moved and there was no info about delivery dates.
I tried to call the French company. They were in Lyon and all I could get was an answer phone message. I couldn’t fully understand – but knew it said something about we’re not taking messages we’ll be back after Easter!
Toby’s Mum phoned us – the part had arrived with her and she would courier it to us as quickly as possible. Progress for the UK part. The date was 28th March, there were two Bank Holidays who knew when the part would arrive. No update on the French part!
UK friends and more snow
Whilst all of this waiting was happening and us using our electric heaters, our friends Chris and Tim arrived for a short ski trip. As last year although heading into April, strangely it snowed the night before they arrived and 3 days out of the 5 that they were here. There was fresh powder and as the boys had a car, Toby got the chance to ski Sestriere and Sauze D’Oulx. All of them had massive grins on their faces and they were exhausted when they got back. After a cracking break, Tim and Chris headed out just before Easter.
Men in black or should I say blue and greyToby in SestriereThe snow
Although there was fresh powder the afternoons were sunny and warm and meant it was slush riding after 1pm. We were still skiing and it was fab.
The UK part arrived first and was fitted!
The UK radiator bleed valve arrived on 2nd April. We were skiing and got a call from Tourist Information that our parcel had arrived! Yay! We skied down and collected the part. Thankfully there was also a few mini eggs in the parcel for Easter! Thanks Mum!
The newly fitted UK radiator valve
Toby, being the engineer, looked at the problem first with a cup of tea. Then he made a plan, working out how to get the old valve off and put the new one on. It was easier said than done. As usual better tools would have helped however within 1.5 hours the new valve was in place. Our spare glycol was used to top up the system and once again we were back in business.
Goodbye Montgenevre and quick stop at Sestriere
As we were heading into spring and having to leave we knew we wanted one last experience of great food in the mountain. It’s becoming a bit of a tradition that thanks to Richard and Michelle that we love having Tartiflette at Les Terrasses.
Tartiflette at Les Terrasses – goodbye Montgenevre
On the 19th April, we said goodbye to Montgenevre and headed across to the Aire at Sestriere to see if that could be an option for some short stays next year! The resort was fully closed. We stayed for free at the Aire and now know how to get there and what the facilities are like. It would give us a bigger ski area to explore although the facilities are not as nice. There were only 3 motorhomes there and much less electricity points than in Montgenevre which was worth noting for next year!
The Frejus Tunnel
As we left Sestriere we had decided to try the Frejus tunnel. We’d avoided using it so far as officially our vehicle could cost about €400. Our friends Jigs and Lucy mentioned they’d used the tunnel and only been charged circa €70. This was much more in line with our budget! We asked details about how they went through whether it was a person or a machine and were told to go through the bus and car lane and that it was a manned payment.
We were very excited and only got charged €72.40*. It was a lot easier drive than the one we had been doing from Lyon to Gap and then across. There was an additional toll that we could have avoided, and we were soon formally on our route home to the UK after a fantastic ski season with some interesting heating experiences.
*we used our Revolut card to pay for the Frejus tunnel and did get a bit of a shock as we ended up being charged twice for the tunnel as one of the payments was “held” and ended up being that amount down until it was refunded at the end of the month. just thought I’d mention it as we went into minus figures on the Revolut card because of this.
That’s the last of the ski season ’24 tales. We hope you’ve enjoyed it – press like if you have and remember to follow us on Facebook and WordPress.
We’ve been in Montgenevre for well over five weeks now.
It feels like coming home – staying in Montgenevre as @tobydenn mentioned on our Facebook page . We’ve skied here for the last three years. In fact, during that time we’ve spent more time here than anywhere else. A total of 143 days so far in the last three years!
Our skiing routine has quickly returned. However, living in the mountains means that any routine can and will change depending on the weather and snow conditions.
On a typical ski day we firstly have a walk with Merlin, enjoy a cuppa (Yorkshire tea these days) with a quick bakery based breakfast, then we hit the slopes. Our favourites are chasing either fresh powder snow or bluebird sunshine! We’re back for lunch at Beatrix and to walk Merlin and then sometimes, not always, another ski in the afternoon!
Arriving in mid-Feb, the resort was desperately in need of some snow. Luckily for us within 3 days there was a dump of 30cms or so and we were able to ski fresh powder.
Montgenevre with snow and sun
By the end of the first weekend an extraordinary metre of snow had fallen for us to enjoy. It seems like everyday Toby was diligently clearing the snow around Beatrix including off her roof this year. Typically, he ended up falling off the ladder at one point. Luckily into a pile of powder so he didn’t hurt himself……. it just made me laugh.
“Look what just happened”
Ski conditions
Toby’s been skiing for many years – me less. I’m only just beginning to understand some of the subtleties that when I first learnt I couldn’t comprehend. I get that this comes with learning and experience.
When I started skiing I had to think about everything. From how to put on the ski boots, snow plow to stop and turn, balance, what to do with the darn poles and a phrase called “hugging the bear”. In those early days when Toby mentioned snow conditions I glazed over and congratulated myself if I’d skied a run without falling over. Now I get the differences he spoke about – the different feels of snow. From fresh powder, icy corduroy, slush or snail snow (my own term!). That first powder weekend in February 2024 I did a face plant in the fresh powder trying to get my own fresh tracks. It was fun – I landed softly, it didn’t hurt and I could get up!
Sally post face plant
Can you see where you’re going?
The snow is one thing on the slopes, another that can make or break a day skiing for me is visibility.
The ideal bright, bluebird sunshine days that are chilly (to keep the snow good!), contrast greatly with the fog or low cloud where you can only just see a meter or two ahead. Needless to say, the latter are my least favourite.
Luckily, as we are here for a while we don’t have to ski on low visibility days. It’s a great situation to be in and we are, as ever, very grateful for the life we are living. In the mountains the conditions can change quickly. On a bad visibility day we’d decided not to ski – at lunch the skies had turned blue and the cloud lifted. We headed up the mountain. By the time we got to the top of the lift I needed Toby to reassure me how to get down – I couldn’t see the poles at the edge of the slope. Skiing really can take you out of your comfort zone – very quickly!
We’ve also met some great people up here too. Some friends from previous years and some new ones too with whom we’ve enjoyed the social life and apres ski in the Aire! When I talk to friends and clients I often use the phrase “living our best life” – because that’s what it is up here.
The Little Britons
The Alde heating leak at 7pm and -7c
As with any of our tales – life is not always as simple as just going out and having fun. We were cooking dinner and both suddenly noticed that we felt chilly. It was 19:25 and the heating said it was running but no heat was coming out of our radiators! Toby checked all the radiators – none of them were working. He looked for leaks of the heating fluid. In the dark with a torch, we slowly realised we might be in trouble. It was dark and we had no way of heating Beatrix and the temperature was supposed to fall to -7c tonight.
After a bit of fault finding, we found the Alde heating fluid (glycol) in its little reservoir was the problem. I looked and couldn’t see any fluid at all – this was bad – it meant we definitely had a leak. Dinner – a home made pizza was ready and neither of us felt hungry. We toyed with the idea of driving down the mountain in the dark to find a warmer location. Now for those avid Tales From The Road Less Travelled readers, you will know that Beatrix does have lights, it’s just they aren’t terribly good. When we can we choose to drive in daylight.
Taking stock we reached out to our friends in the Aire to see if anyone could help. We immediately got the offer of some low wattage electric heaters. This meant we could stay the night and leave in the morning. We ate dinner half heartedly and then made our plan. There was an Alde heating service centre in Gap about 100km away. We emailed them to see if they could help and decided to drive down in the morning.
The Alde heating fixed?
We got up early and drove the 100km to Gap. We arrived and removed everything from the Garage. Luckily it wasn’t raining! The Alde guy found the leak quite quickly but he didn’t have the replacement part. He drove off into the sunset and we were left waiting to see what our next move would be. We got a bit nervous when he arrived back with some plumbing fittings and 10 litres of car coolant – not the Alde heating fluid we were expecting.
It was getting later in the day and nearer closing time.
When Toby had researched how to change fluid and fix leaks on the Alde system, the service centres all had “smart” pumps to make filling easier- the place in Gap did not have this!
The guy fitted the part, topped up the fluid and then basically left us to it! We were foolishly expecting him to help us bleed the radiators however after a look at his watch, it was clearly knocking off time. He said “Run the heating overnight then bleed the highest rads. It will be fine”.
The sun had set and not being 100% confident in the fix or the drive back up the mountain, we decided to stay at Savine Le Lac. We’ve stayed before (link) and know it has electricity and we could test the system a little.
It all seemed fine but the radiator bleed valves were really stiff and we couldn’t get them opened!
Return to Montgenevre
We headed back to Montgenèvre as our new Moho friends who also have an Alde heating system were able to give us some help. Jigs has bled his radiators before and with some advice, a little WD40 and some gentle persuasion the first radiator was bled! Toby then bled the rest of them and we were back in business!
Well I’ll leave it here for now and let you know more of the mountain tales soon.
Looking good in fresh powderFresh tracksMontgenevre with snow and sunDo you like my coat?I love snow!
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We’re in Montgenevre, France. We arrived in the Alps a few weeks ago and it is, as always, wonderful.
As I sit down to tell this tale, it dawns on me that nothing unusual or particularly adventurous happened.
This is pretty strange for us.
We easily remember our feelings of two years ago. The trepidation when we first carefully guided Beatrix onto the Eurotunnel. The revelation of the calm and smooth French roads with their pricey tolls. The joy of finding picturesque stop overs in rural towns, often with connections to famous wines. Our fear and excitement when venturing into the mountains for the first time with all the new experiences they brought.
I couldn’t forget last year, which was routine until we broke down on the mountain roads and had to load Beatrix onto her first low loader for recovery.
This year, by contrast, we made a plan and journeyed smoothly down through France to reach the Alps. In fact, we were so blasé about it that we didn’t really plan the trip. We have some favourite places that we love going back to like Beaune and seeing Le Petit Train de la Mure and we sort of pottered our way south.
Savines Le LacApproaching the Alps
Now, us being us and Beatrix is a grand old lady of the road that she is, I don’t doubt that there are more unexpected adventures ahead of us but for now, we’re luxuriating in the routine. Taking in one of our favourite views with the fresh mountain air and catching up with friends.
Now I realise us Brits do like a bit of a moan about the weather and being at the whim of the elements means fulltime vanlifers’ can be more pedantic than most. That said, this winter feels like it’s been worse than any other we’ve had with it raining, drizzling or bucketing it down and frequently all three together. We three have been cooped up in our little space for too long.
This year though, it’s the wind that’s been different.
For us, it started after Christmas in Gatwick as Storm Gerrit blew across the UK. We ended up manoeuvring Beatrix mid-afternoon to avoid the 40+ miles per hour winds battering us broadside all night. It’s not easy to sleep when you hear the springs creaking and feel your home lurching from side to side.
Still, I think we were happier than some of the poor people flying out of Gatwick must have been!
Then it was Storm Henk causing us twitchy moments and leaving plenty of flooded roads on the journey up to Norfolk in January.
Storm Isha arrived on the day we’d planned to drive across country to Exeter. The forecast 40-50 mph winds meant we chose to get an early start and were on the road by 06:00. In the dark. Thankfully, we met the steadily increasing gusts head on coming down the M5.
Given our aerodynamics, this did slow us down quite a bit.
Vanlife, it turns out, is more like sailing than we realised. We decided that we are prepared to travel if gusts are below 35mph. Anything more and we’ll just baton down the hatches and sit it out.
We’ve never watched the wind so carefully before.
North Norfolk, finally
If you read our last blog, you’ll know we didn’t quite make it to the Norfolk coast as planned last year. In January we righted that wrong and enjoyed a wonderful and quiet week in Stiffkey.
Stiffkey StoresSqueezing Beatrix in
With a few clear days we walked on the beach at Wells and along the coast. Tim and Victoria looked after us with a lovely dinner and somehow we ended up with a lock-in at the Red Lion in Stiffkey. It helps when you know the locals I guess.
Wells Harbour
York, Holmfirth and a new mattress
Our Christmas present to each other this year was to treat ourselves to a new mattress.
Duvalay make a lightweight mattress specifically designed for motorhomes and caravans. As the products are made at their factory in Yorkshire, they can also make custom shapes. Even for a bed as oddly shaped as ours.
We received a warm welcome and choose our new mattress, with memory foam topper, which was in the January sales. After providing them a slightly wobbly template to work from, we headed out to a campsite in Holmfirth that had been recommended.
Holmfirth in Yorkshire is the home of Last of Summer Wine in case you didn’t know.
I didn’t either.
I had a pleasant walk around the town, which is very pretty, and found Nora Batty’s house with it’s famous steps. Sadly, the rain didn’t let up and most places were closed for the season so perhaps a trip back to Yorkshire in summer is on the cards.
Being so close, we enjoyed a long weekend in York, a city we absolutely love, before heading south.
On the way, we’d called a local garage to see if they had LPG available as we were almost out. (We use Liquid Petroleum Gas to cook with and also for our central heating).
Whilst there used to be loads of places to stop for LPG in the UK, the decline in gas powered cars has meant the number is steadily dwindling. As with most things, there’s an app to help you with this but we’ve found it’s worth calling ahead to make sure it’s available and working.
The helpful garage chap said he only had a little gas left as they’d not had a delivery. However so long as we come in the morning we’d be ok to fill up.
Excellent news.
Except when we arrived we’d been beaten to it by another motorhome! As we were absolutely out, we decided to try it anyway and thankfully we were able to fill up our main tank. Phew.
Life without a cup of tea would not have been easy.
Winter’s coming
Dodging the wind, we headed south to a favourite stop at Rosehill Cottage and the first proper freeze of the year set in.
Frozen view to Beatrix over Rosehill Cottage Farm
Thankfully the freezing temperatures came with clear blue skies and brought a brief hiatus to the seemingly endless rain.
Warmly wrapped up, we enjoyed some long dog walks across frozen fields and didn’t even have to deal with muddy paws when we got home.
A downside to the sub zero temperatures was that our new gas froze in the pipework.
Technically, I suppose the gas refused to evaporate but either way the result was the same…. no cup of tea. Fortunately our spare tank was filled with premium ‘French Alps’ gas and so we were able to keep warm and tea was available!
I’ve read about the possibility of LPG ‘freezing’ depending on the mixture but after two years of travel I didn’t really believe it. I do now.
Next trick is to get rid of it all before we get to the mountains!
Frozen Beatrix
Exeter, Essex and a few stops in between
January and February gave us chance to spend some time with our parents before heading out for the ski season.
Although the wind and rain initially threatened to wash out our week in Exeter, we had a couple of lovely days out, including a walk out on stunning Dartmoor.
Somewhere in the middle of a busy month, we found time to stop by Kimmeridge in Dorest to visit The Etches Collection. I’m not sure if you saw the David Attenborough documentary about the Giant Sea Monster over Christmas?
As we were quite close by, we popped in to check out the enormous fossilised Pliosaur.
We weren’t alone, as apparently the collection had seen over a thousand people a day visit in January, all due to the popularity of the documentary. It’s well worth a visit if you get the chance.
Toby and Sally at The Etches CollectionThe famouse Pliosaur from David Attenborough’s program
We managed to squeeze in a return trip to Duvalay to collect our new mattress. Remarkably our dodgy template proved to be ok, just, and wow, it was so worthwhile getting it.
In Essex we made it to Isabelle’s birthday party and had chance to catch up with Ryan, Jan, Martin and Janet which was great as we’d missed them at Christmas. We stopped over with Anthea and Kevin to collect the staggering amount of post and parcels that they had been very kindly looking after for us…. oops and thanks guys. Our final stop was with Sally’s folks to say farewell before heading to the aire at Canterbury.
France bound
Our next stop is Montgenevre, France. Home from home for us really and we’re hoping for snow and sun for the rest of ski season. We’re also looking forward to catching up with our friends from last year but that’s a tale for another time.
Our November arrival back in the UK was to pretty awful weather. Rain with wind that creates the sort of cold that you only seem to get in the UK. You know, the type that seems to seep in and chill you to your bones.
Wintering in the UK isn’t ideal, we’ve got friends and family to visit plus admin/health tasks to tick off the list so here we are.
Little did we know, things weren’t going to go according to plan!
The first task was my diabetes eye check in Welwyn Garden City. It’s a pain, once a year the optician puts drops in and takes a photo of the back of my eye to check I don’t have diabetic retinopathy. The good thing is that I can see the results as soon as they’ve taken the photo. Considering I’ve had diabetes since I was 5, the results were pretty good, some mild retinopathy which needs monitoring once a year – nothing had changed. That was relatively easy – tick one thing off the annual checks.
Beatrix service and MOT
Our next stop was for Beatrix. Her annual service and MOT. Everything went swimmingly with both with all the fluids changed and no findings on the MOT. We left Iveco in Dunstable excited to be heading out to our winter time adventures with time booked at the Norfolk coast.
The first and second occurrences of an unexpectedly loud noise and loss of power
Alas, it was not meant to be. Driving only a few miles after we filled up with diesel, Toby exclaimed “I’ve lost power”. At the same time there was a loud rubbing noise coming from what seemed to be under my feet, maybe the wheel arch? We had no idea what it was.
The power loss was short lived and we had no real time to assess it and continued to drive. At the next roundabout just outside Luton the same thing happened, loss of power and the noise.
We immediately phoned the garage (they’re on speed dial at this point), swung around the roundabout and took Beatrix back for triage. The mechanics had her on ramps for a couple of hours trying to diagnose the intermittent fault – the worse kind! They couldn’t find anything under the wheels nor the source of the power loss.
Uh oh.
We were left with no option but to head out without knowing if we’d make it to our destination…….
And here we go again
Happily, our destination was a local Farm and Stables site that was recommended by friends. This was lucky as it was now getting dark.
On the way we had another instance of the power loss. Despite the problem, there was no warning light or message on the dashboard. This is a real pain as it make diagnosis really difficult. At least with a warning light there’s proof something ain’t quite right.
I can’t believe I was wishing for a warning light!
After a few restful days in the countryside, we continued our journey to Norfolk . After starting fine and building some confidence, the power loss and noise happened once more. We were pulling onto the M11 which was a bit unsettling. Finally, as we reached King’s Lynn, Beatrix got so fed up with her tickly cough that she spat up an engine warning light. Enlightened, it appears our issue is Fault 148?
We’d travelled 111 miles and now had our proof that something was wrong.
Parking up at Tesco’s on the Hardwick roundabout we called our recovery company, Trinity. They were absolutely brilliant. Within an hour we were greeted by a mechanic with a suspiciously small recovery van to diagnose the fault.
The news wasn’t good for us hapless travellers. The mechanic said there was definitely an error that he couldn’t fix and he’d recommend taking it to an Iveco garage. He also recommended we not drive Beatrix as the fault could have something to do with the turbo and driving could make the problem worse and cost more to fix. He added that he wouldn’t be able to recover us as his vehicle was too small!
Not the best news all in all.
Luckily our friends live literally just down the road. Tentatively, we drove Beatrix to the yard so we could decide on our action plan. Phoning the local Iveco dealers, we were told they couldn’t help us until the New Year. This was not good enough as we are talking about our home!
Losing Beatrix for a week
The helpful, and perhaps slightly guilty feeling, team at Iveco in Dunstable stepped in to help. They were able to get her booked back in after a week and a half. They would need to have her for a week to be able to diagnose and get the work done. Obviously we wouldn’t be able to stay in her whilst she was at the garage.
OMG – we were going to have to lose our home for a week.
We decided to make the most of the opportunity we were given – we hired a car, stayed with some friends and saw my parents. Meanwhile Beatrix was fully “closed down” – something we hadn’t done in the 2.5 years we’d been living in her. This meant draining all water from her as there was a freezing, cold snap forecast and any water could freeze and damage her water system. We removed all the food – to make sure no mice or other creatures would want to move in whilst we were not there. She was then towed away on a low loader for the second time this year (see the first time here) back to Dunstable to get fixed!
Beatrix on her 2nd Low Loader of the year
Luckily Iveco fixed her and after a week of being without our home we had her back.
Finally we get to Norfolk and are full of gratitude
Our Norfolk autumn adventure could finally begin. Our first night was at Sandringham. We looked at the ‘Luminate” light festival and restarted all of Beatrix’s systems in a fully serviced, campsite environment. Thankfully, everything came back up OK and we could all breathe again.
We spent some time at D’arcy Equestrian Centre in Tiptree visiting my family and then headed to the CAMC site at Gatwick. If you ever contemplate staying at the site at Gatwick, it’s worth remembering that you are parked right at the end of the take off runway. You can literally wave at the passengers as the planes take off.
This means the airplanes are quite noisy to say the least! You do bizarrely get used to it however the site staff do mention it when you arrive.
Thankfully there aren’t planes flying overnight. At 05:30, the first one that took off in the morning made all three of us sit bolt upright in bed. We had a couple of nights before heading into Wimbledon and celebrating Christmas with our family there.
After having chance to reflect on our arrival back in the UK, we decided that we just needed to be grateful. We have some very amazing friends and family who helped out when we didn’t have a home, for Beatrix being pretty awesome most of the time and for our rescue company.
All in all the whole thing just reminded us that life isn’t always plain sailing and even when you’re temporarily homeless, there’s still a lot to be grateful for.
We hope you liked the tale and will give you more reading of our start to 2024 soon.
Through September, October and November of 2023 we spend our time wandering across northern Italy.
Here’s a summary of the trip, including the route and costs with some of our observations too. We hope you find it interesting.
Italy is fabulous and it turns out that even in the autumnal months, is still really busy. The famous sites are packed with thousands of people but it was a bit of a surprise to us both to see so many tourists in the places we thought would be quieter.
Italian roads and driving required a little time to get your head around but the food and drink was amazing. As was the scenery, architecture and history that we saw along the way.
Where we went
We’ve attached a link to our route below which includes all the sites that we visited. The details of all of these are in the blogs from this chapter.
Like our French tour last year, northern Italy had many locations we wanted to visit. We began with amazing weather in the Dolomites and enjoyed some fantastic scenery. There were some amazing thunderstorms at night but they didn’t impact what we wanted to do during the daytime. After a minor hiccup on Tre Cime, we headed south to the wonders of tourist filled Venice. Next a short stop at Verona was great before falling in love with Lake Garda. It felt like we were on holiday here with the sunshine, the beach and incredible sunsets plus being able to kayak on the lake and have Aperol spritz sundowners. The closure of the campsite and the possibility of meeting friends in Bologna eventually forced us onwards to the wonders of food in Emilia Romana .
After such a great experience with French Passions we decided to try the Italian version (Agricamper). Unfortunately the app wasn’t as easy to use and doesn’t allow the sites to use other marketing such as Search for Sites. This meant we bought an annual membership at £28.77 and didn’t use it at all.
We then had some time in Tuscany – exploring the Tuscan hills and experiencing the great wine and food before heading back to the UK amid stormy weather.
Summary and costs
In total we spent 76 days for our Italian tour throughSeptember, October and into November and covered 2881 miles.
Our key costs breakdown as follows:
Category
Cost (£)
Overnight Stays
£1421.48
Supermarket
£1291.57
Diesel and Petrol
£1084.21
Eating Out
£648.74
Tolls
£356.47
Eurotunnel
£381.00
Data SIM and phone
£349.00
Tours and Attractions
£222.94
LPG
£67.55
Public Transport
£87.55
Laundry
£62.55
Merlin vet costs
£36.54
Agricamper*
£28.77
Parking
£4.73
TOTAL COSTS
£6043.09
Firstly, we acknowledge the trip could be done a lot cheaper, however we stayed at some fabulous, resort style campsites near some of the worlds most famous locations and we loved it.
At €50 per night, the campsite in Florence was probably the most extravagant but many of the places we stayed were well over our nightly budget. To be fair, wild camping wasn’t as easy as we expected in northern Italy with the police seeming to be unexpectedly vigilant in the Dolomites for example.
I’m happy to report that every penny we spent on eating out was well worth it, as were the tours and attractions we enjoyed.
We spent quite a lot on Tolls through the trip. The roads in Italy were fine but it was more expensive transiting through France and Austria. Our rationale was that we wanted to spend as much time as possible in Italy so getting there quickly was worth it.
The data bill was more than expected too. We’re still using Popit Mobile when abroad which definitely helps but the Rugby World Cup and Strictly Come Dancing were mainly to blame here.
Our supermarket bill included restocking Beatrix’s wine cellar on the way back to the UK.
Toby best bit: Our first night in the Dolomites. Pulling over at a small park-up, we initially didn’t know if we could stay there or not. We ended up spending three nights there, hiking and were treated to an incredible sunset each day. Oh, seeing Michelangelo’s David was amazing…… Oh, and catching the ferry to Venice….
Sally best bit: I really enjoyed the summer holiday feel of Lake Garda, it reminded me of the sun seeking holidays we had pre Merlin and our pitch location was fab as we were on the lake and could enjoy the sun rise and sets. I also loved the food and drink aspects of Italy – staying in Montepulciano was brilliant and the Florentine steak well I still drool when I think about it.
Thinking back on our trips always gives us chance to reflect and to learn things we might do differently next time. Compared to our France tour in 2022, where we were away for a similar period of time, this trip was much more expensive. Sure we travelled further and visited some world famous, spectacular sites but with our mind with the cost of living increases this year, we’re keen to look at where we can make savings for the next one.
If you have any ideas or thoughts from our post please get in touch!
We loved having you along with us on our Grand Tour and if you have any comments or questions, please do let us know as we’d love to hear from you.
All the best,
Toby, Sally and Merlin x
A final word on:
Driving in Italy
Driving in Italy can be a little intimidating.
During our time here, we established the following rules of the road that may, perhaps, be helpful for future visits.
There’s no need to use indicators. No one does. They don’t appear to serve any particular purpose here
Any gap between you and the car in front, even if it’s only a meter, is an open invitation to pull out. Anything more than a meter and people will definitely pull out
Speed limits are really more for guidance than actual limits
Most of the time, everything works pretty well and it helps driving a big vehicle, taking as much of the road as you need.
We’d love to say it works all of the time but I saw more accidents in Italy than I’ve ever seen. Genuinely, one a week I’d say on average.
Roads
The roads in Italy are also interesting.
The autostrada toll road are super easy to use and are both good quality and reasonably priced. You do have to watch your speed at the exits though which are narrow and frequently have tight, off-camber turns. They’re also not consistent so you never really know what you’re going to get.
The intersections are uniquely Italian. If you’ve seen one, you’ll know.
Once off the autostrada, it’s a mixed bag.
You can see and experience much more of the countryside on the smaller roads which is much more exciting. Mostly, the road quality is similar to the UK (which is to say terrible) but some of the roads are truly shocking.
Crossing the border to France from Italy, just like from the UK, feels like we’re driving on the clouds.
Beer tentVenice CanalsVenetian MaskCastle ScaligeroFerrari MuseumLunch with friendsUffizi, FlorenceThe gates or LuccaMontepulcianoThe best steak ever?San Gimignano
Starting the trip back always elicits mixed emotions.
Planning brings with it that sense of anticipation and the ‘itchy feet feeling’ to get on the road. Anticipation is tempered with a sadness that the trip is over. Then there’s excitement to be heading back to family, friends and Christmas, knowing that we can always come back.
The journey starts, throwing you into the unknown. It has the energy and trepidation that comes with going somewhere new and not knowing what you’ll find there.
The journey itself is never from A to B. There’ll be surprises on the way bringing a whirlwind of feelings and that, of course, is part of the reason we travel.
Leaving Tuscany
With the storm raging around our Volterran hide out, we make our plans for our route north. Originally, I wanted to see the picturesque towns of Cinque Terre and then Genoa on the way along the coast. Alas the coat tails of Storm Ciaran brings high winds and rain sweeping into our path from the Ligurian Sea.
The twisty route out to the coast takes us to La Spezia. The simple but clean and tidy aire here is in the port and it’s great to see the sea again. The sea front of La Spezia is a half hour walk away but at the halfway point, the heavens open and by the time we get back to Beatrix, all three of us are drenched to the bone – Merlin is not amused!
We’re so close to Cinque Terre here and the billboards offer us trains, boats or scooters to reach the UNESCO World Heritage site. Unfortunately there’s no let up in the rain and sadly we’ve just run out of days on this trip. One for next time.
The next night, our last in Italy, we find ourselves at the stunning seaside sosta at Santo Stefano al Mare. On the approach the wind has really gotten up and is gusting at 50mph. This makes driving a bit hairy to say the least. The sosta itself is in a fantastic location and right on the seafront and we watch the angry sea crashing against the seawall. Well, we do for a while until the windows become completely covered in salt from the spray.
France then on to the UK
To reach Le Tunnel on time, we have a few long driving days ahead of us. The wind has dropped and our route takes us back into France past Monaco, Cannes and Nice. Although it’s not in the mountains, the coast road is in the foothills. As the valleys open up we catch glimpses of the clear turquoise sea out to our left. It’s really inviting and takes all of our willpower not to head back to the campsite we loved in Cannes.
Fuelled by fresh croissants from a lovely bakery in La Val, we head north to a cracking little stop called Aire de la Grappa in the town of Orange, famous of course for it’s duck.
We’ve decided to balance our trip back to Calais with a mixture of toll and non-toll roads. This means the drive up to Beaune the next day is much easier on the A7 but it still takes us 7 hours with stops.
We know Beaune pretty well now and it’s so comfortable arriving back at the town centre Aire. Sadly, the rain has returned and it cancels our planned glass of wine in town. Still, we’re able to replenish Beatrix’s cellars from the Carrefour next door.
Next day is a non toll day and we’re going to check out Chablis for the first time.
Our hearts are in our mouths for the second half of the journey as the dreaded Engine Warning light and beeping starts after the lunch. Engine Failure 0139 appears to be related to the Throttle Valves but doesn’t seem to affect us driving other than providing an annoying flashing light and beeping noise. On arrival at the campsite, I disconnect the battery and restart it to find with relief that the fault has cleared.
Will we make it to Calais?
Chablis is a very pretty little town, even in the rain, and well worth a visit. We’ll plan to come back here and hope for better weather when we do.
Our anxiety eases the next morning as we pull out with no reoccurrence of the red light. Kilometer by kilometer our confidence grows that we’ll be ok.
Today we’re stopping close to Merlin’s vets in Ay (Epernay) so that we’re ready for her appointment the day after. As we arrive at the little river side park up we used 2 years ago, we find ‘No Motorhome’ signs blanket the banks. The towns Aire is being rebuilt and whilst it looks like it will be fantastic, we can’t use it today.
Plan B.
Instead we try the nearby town of Avize and it’s town centre Aire. We’re really in the heart of champagne country here and on the way we drive past the enormous, sprawling, space age facility of Moet & Chandon.
It’s Sunday and Avize is really quiet. Exploring the town, we’re excited to find that Veuve Clicquot and Moet & Chandon have old warehouses here to gather and store grapes from the surrounding hillsides. Presumably they’re one of several that are used to triage the harvest before they’re combined at the space port.
Our night is restless. We’re a long way from level and an early morning bin lorry wakes us all up and we can’t get back to sleep. We decide on an early get away.
Happily, Merlin receives the stamp of approval from the vet and we make our way to Arleux as our staging area before Calais. It’s a super little Aire beside the river run by the local community and provides water, electricity and a drain. As we’re out of season it turns out to be free too!
The weather has made the final part of our journey through northern France really hard work. Driving rain and high, gusting wind makes it a constant balancing act to keep Beatrix pointing in the right direction. Although the motorways allow us to move more quickly, the effect of the weather is much stronger. By the time we reach the Calais terminal, I’m exhausted and very grumpy.
The rain is still lashing down as we check Merlin in for the train but Sally cheers me up with a big bag of sweets from Duty Free.
The end of the Grand Tour still has a mixture of emotions.
We can’t help but feel a bit sad with this wet and miserable end of our trip. Only a week ago we were wearing shorts and t-shirts in 22c and now there’s a thick, low mist and it’s 5c. There’s more rain to come as we arrive back in the UK but we’re returning with a long list of happy memories having packed so much in to the last 10 weeks.
Oh, to be back in Italy.
We hope you enjoyed coming with us on our Grand Tour,
