Ann and Roger travel: August 2026

Saturday 15th August 2026

We had a reasonably okay journey back to our house in Devon through the parched landscape.

The A303 has a few new dual carriage way sections opened since we were last here.

We stopped off at Brightside near Honiton for a snack.

We arrived at our house in Widecombe at about 13.00. Amazingly the lawn is still green, and not very long!

I'm starting to unload the van but there's no hurry.

There's very little water coming down the stream at the front of our house and the West Webburn river which flows down the back of our house is at an all time low.

Our bay bush has died.

We've got the start of a new budlea bush by way of compensation for the bay. Note the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly.

Today we travelled 117 miles (188 kilometres).

Our journey lasted 60 days and we travelled 5230 miles (8420 kilometres), plus the distance travelled on the ferries from Harwich (England) to the Hook of Holland (Netherlands), Frederikshaven (Denmark) to Goteborg (Sweden), Bodo (Norway) to Moskenes (Norway), Helsingborg (Sweden) to Helsingfors (Denmark), Rodby (Denmark) to Puttgarden (Germany) and Calais (France) to Dover (England). We also travelled on the back of a recovery truck from Hamnoy to Leknes in Norway.

Many thanks to anyone who has taken an interest in our travel. That's all for now. Roger.

Friday 14th August 2026

Kerry made us a very nice breakfast before we left her house. We travelled north to the dreaded M25, west and then north on M25 and then south west on M3 and A303. Horrendous traffic jams along the way. We stopped for the day at a service area in Amesbury.

We found a nice shady disabled parking place. There are a variety of eateries here: Greggs, Subway or Burger King. It was about 32C this afternoon.

We had a chicken tikka salad from Subway and eclairs from Greggs for our tea. Suprisingly nice! The service area was very, very busy. It 's a great spot for people watching!

Today we travelled 129 Miles (208 kilometres). We are at: N51.17856 W1.78074

Amesbury Street View

Thursday 13th August 2026

Very nice sunny morning in Marck. We travelled the short distance to the Calais Ferry Terminal. There were numerous passport checks.

Eventually we got to line up to get on the ferry.

We left on the 11.20 departure to Dover.

Irish Ferries beat us to it (we were on DFDS).

We arrived at Dover at 12.00 and travelled to Ann's daughter Kerry's place in Kent getting there about 13.15. It's about 36C here this afternoon. Here's Kerry's parched garden.

Ann had a little rest.

Kerry showed us her Greek Holiday photos. Very impressive.

Today we travelled 49 miles (79 kilometres).

Wednesday 12th August 2026

We did a supermarket shop before leaving Vosselaar. We had a very slow journey westwards with numerous traffic jams on the motorways passing Antwerpen and Ghent. Eventually we crossed from Belgium into France and stopped for the day at this shady car park at Marck just outside of Calais.

The car park is just next to the official Aire de Camping Cars at Marck.

It's a nice quiet spot.

There was a partial solar eclipse this evening but we didn't see any of it, only strange reflections on the nearby sports hall.

A few local Gamines turned up and left.

Then it got dark and the street lights came on and the reflections on the sports hall got stranger......

......and stranger!

Today we travelled 153 miles (246 kilometres). We are at: N50.95588 E1.92805

Marck Street View

Tuesday 11th August 2026

Before leaving Ladbergen we serviced the van. We travelled south, then west, crossed the Rhine. We crossed into the Netherlands and finally we crossed into Belgium and stopped for the day at this car park in the town of Vosselaar.

The car park has two dedicated motorhome spaces with a parking time limit of 48 hours.

One space was already occupied by a large Belgian registered A Class motorhome.

Ann went for a ride around on her scooter.

The car park adjoins playing fields and a sports hall.

There is a tourist information sign.

It was quite warm this afternoon, about 27C.

There is a field full of maize next to our parking place.

Later on the car park became quite busy as people turned up to play sports.

Today we travelled 171 miles (275 kilometres). We are at: N51.30247 E4.89550

Vosselaar Street View

Monday 10th August 2026

We had a bit of a frustrating day travelling south west. We stopped off in the outskirts of Bremen and washed our dirty washing at this laundrette. We then made variuos unsuccessful attempts to take on water but on each occssion found the tap listed on park4night app no longer existed or hadn't been there in the first place.

We eventually gave up looking and after doing a supermarket shop in Ladbergen we checked in at a nearby Stellplatz (Stellplatz are the German equivalent of French Aires de Camping Car. Unlike in France where most are free and provided by local authorities the German equivalents are usually run by the private sector and charge, in this case 25 euros a day).

It was much cooler than yesterday, about 27C in the afternoon.

Later on I moved our van to the very far end of the Stellplatz as a bunch of kids were playing football around where we were originally parked.

Today we travelled 113 miles (182 kilometres). We are at: N52.14968 E7.72437

Ladbergen Street View in winter!

Sunday 9th August 2026

We travelled south passing Lubeck and Hamburg, many traffic jams along the way. We stopped for the day at a parking area at Fischerhude. We stayed here on our journey north on 22nd June.

There's a nice field of sunflowers across the way.

It was very hot this afternoon, 35C!

Ann went for a ride around. It was too hot for me so I stayed in the van and had some beer.

Today we travelled 144 miles (232 kilometres). We are at: N53.11965 E9.05989

Fischerhude Street View

Saturday 8th August 2026

We travelled south west on the E47 passing through the outskirts of Kobenhavn without any problem. We took the ferry from Rodbyhafn in southern Denmark to Puttgarden in northen Germany. The ferry staff wanted us to get out of our vehicle during the 45 minute crossing but finally relented and let us stay in our van when they realised that Ann had limited mobility.

We stopped for the day in the parking area of Famila supermarket in Heiligenhafn where there are 4 dedicated Motorhome/campervan parking places. Many thanks to the supermarket for this inovative provision!

The least we could do, by way of gratitude, was to buy some items in the store.

We spent 34 euros and put the receipt up in our windscreen by way of a parking ticket.

It's a good spot for people watching. Lots of cyclists coming and going up and down this path just outside our sliding side door.

Today we travelled 142 miles (229 kilometres) plus the distance on the ferry from Rodbyhavn to Puttgarden. We are at: N54.36515 E11.00993

Heiligenhafn Street View

Friday 7th August 2026

We travelled south. We took on water and emptied waste tanks. We stopped at the town of Ljungby and took on LPG at this dodgy gas depot. A ridiculous situation ocurred as after we had filled our LPG tanks and went to pay we found that our card provider required a PIN but that the depot's card reader was unable to accept PINs, it could only accept contactless payments!!! We had no Swedish currency! Had I been in the UK I think I would have refused payment and driven off. However as I was in Sweden, and not sure about the legal position, I set off on foot to look for a cash machine. The bloke at the depot was unable to describe to me where I might find one so I had to ask around at local businesses as to where a cash machine might be! Eventually I found one, one of the nasty ones that charges you an exorbitant fee for taking out money. I returned to the gas depot and paid up, while telling the bloke in charge what a poxy shit ridden outfit he was running!

We continued travelling south, stopping along the way to buy groceries. We arrived at the port in Helsingborg and lined up to get on the ferry to Helsingor in Denmark,