DAY 17 – 19: 23 – 25 AUGUST

Ĉeský Krumlov – Regensburg (Pielenhofen, Germany)

Camping costs: €20.70 – 1 night. 50c for shower.

Today was the earliest and quickest we have broken camp so far! We were up, packed and on the road by 8.30am!

We parked in one of the tourist car parks and walked into town. We thought it was a very pretty place but it must get extremely busy, because as we sat down for coffee and cakes, troops of tourists were already walking past us.

We were off and on the road by 10am. We will try and make it into Germany today for another 1 nighter. The car has developed a strange and alarming noise that is worrying Dan. He investigated the noise last night, but found nothing. What could it be?

We decide to stop at Penny Markt to do some shopping, something that we have been a bit lax about. Perhaps this time it’s because we’ve had Pete around for the majority of the trip?

We finally, after a long search, found a camp site. Dan immediately set about searching for the source of the noise. He thinks it’s the drive shaft pinion bearing, broken perhaps when he changed it back at home? We texted a friend back in the U.K to see if they could look up a Land Rover garage near where we were staying. The camp site didn’t have wifi so we couldn’t do it ourselves. Dan set about removing the rear prop shaft, putting the car into diff lock to see if that stopped the noise. To top the night off, Wendy ended up pouring boiling water over her hand and sitting with it in iced water for the rest of the evening. Going to bed with burn gel all over her hand. What a way to end a wonderful holiday.

There isn’t a garage near us either, what do we do? Limp home on the diff or go to a garage and risk getting stranded for days?

After a discussion, we decided a limp home it would be. Constant speed. not up and down or fast. Just try cover good distance and then stop. Maybe do as much as possible distance wise today, heading for Belguim. To make it even worse, for Wendy, her hair dryer blew up too!

Lets hope things get better…

DAY 18: 24 AUGUST

Pielenhofen (Germany) – Niederbreitbach (Germany)

Camping Costs: €15.00 – 1 night. €1 for a shower

What a day! We have made it to Koblem, then we couldn’t find a camp site! It was a LONG day in the car, we drove right up till 6.30pm. Finally, we found a camp site past Koblem in Niederbreitbach. A small town in the Westerwald Nature reserve. We decided to stay for 1 night as there was nothing to see in the town. We set up camp and went to find a restaurant for dinner. We found a restaurant owned by a married couple. We happened to be their only customers apart from a private party in the ‘smoking room’. Another early night. We decided that we deserved a lie in.

DAY 19: 25 AUGUST

Niederbreitbach (Germany) – Hove (U.K)

We tried to find our way onto the A61 to navigate ourselves into Belguim. We ended up crossing the Rhein at Linz on a lovely little car ferry. It cost €3 and took about 5 minutes to cross. Was a lovely little detour. We decided to go as far as possible again today and catch the ferry home tomorrow. That way, Dan can get the car sorted before we go back to school and work.

Change of plan!

We are now making it all the way to Calais to catch the ferry and try to make it home today. The unfortunate thing about this, is technically, we have now lost a week of our holiday by making our way home early. Oh well, Germany will still be there next time.

On the way home from Dover, the heavens opened. Dan had to stop and “hot wire” the headlight wires so we had light to drive home in. It was yet another interesting journey in Tusky. The sunroof leaked so much, that Wendy had to don her rain jacket to stop getting soaked. Finally home and back to reality.

If you are interested in the route we took, you can download a gps track file here