We planned to leave Barcelona at lunchtime with the intention of reaching France for our first night but with plenty of last minute things to do it was closer to tea time by the time we finally got on the road.
After only half an hour into the journey we started getting a few flashes from passing cars and at first we assumed it was impatient drivers but soon we realised they were telling us to pull over. We pulled on to the hard shoulder and checked Charlie and found that his exhaust pipe was broken and trailing along floor. Oh no! We were able to improvise a few temporary solutions to hold the pipe up enough to reach a campsite in Pineda de Mar.
We pulled up to the entrance of Enmar Camping and a guy came out of reception and asked if we had a reservation because the site was full, but once we showed him Charlie's injury he told us to follow him and he kindly took us to the one empty spot in the site. Back at the reception he wrote down a couple of names (of the brothers who run the site) and said we should speak to one of them in the morning as they should be able to help us with the van, or at least they'd know a mechanic. This put our mind at rest somewhat so after parking up we went to the site restaurant for tea and a couple of beers. We were disappointed at this set back but we agreed that there was definitely worse places to be 'stuck'.
The next morning we went to the reception to see if we could get help as Carlos had said. There we spoke to Kim, one of the brothers who runs the campsite. He came round to our pitch and assessed the damage. After speaking with his mechanic mate he gave us a couple of spanners to unscrew the pipe so he could take it to the mechanic to weld the broken bits together. It was hard work getting the pipe off in the baking sun and with little room for manouver but after a lot of sweating it was off so we took it to Kim who then ran the part across town to his mate. While we were waiting for the exhaust pipe to be welded we took advantage of the nice campsite and spent a few hours round the pool and made the decision to stay an extra night and set off in the morning, when hopefully the exhaust would be sorted. That also meant we could enjoy a few beers in the sunshine.
Kim came back with the exhaust and a smile on his face which told us it was fixed so after more sweating with the spanners we fitted it back onto Charlie. The pipe was still hanging a little bit low but Kim assured us it would last us back to England. We thanked Kim with a nice bottle of wine and went out to a chirunquito for tea to celebrate.
After bidding goodbye to Enmar Camping we hit the road again (woohoo!) with some serious miles to make up. Within no time we had crossed the border into France, over the windy Pyranees. Charlie did really well up the steep climbs and touch wood the exhaust seemed to be fine. After a few good hours of driving under our belt we decided to stop for the night at an Aire, which are service stations/picnic areas where you can camp in a van for free, and these are scattered nearly every 10km in France. The bigger ones have shower facilities and cafes and shops to pick up supplies. Some also have beautiful views of the countryside. This one, in the Lanzac region, was right next to a little village called Le Caylar, so we went for a walk into the village and had a few beers and played cards in a bar.
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The drive around this area was really scenic. We were about 1000 metres high so you could see all the beautiful valleys and surrounding mountains.
The following day when we were back on the road we stopped at another Aire for lunch and this one had a particularly amazing view overlooking the countryside. We covered a lot of ground this day and Charlie managed to pick up a bit more speed as the roads got flatter as we headed in the direction of Paris.
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A couple of hours into the drive the next day we passed through Paris and hit the only real bit of traffic on this trip. By the evening we had reached Calais and we passed camps of migrants just as we were leaving the motorway. Some groups were playing football in between the shanty town of tents. It made us feel even luckier that we're enjoying our dream of travelling seeing something like that firsthand.
We booked our ticket for the following mornings crossing before parking up at the Aire just outside the town centre and by the beach. The site was just a carpark and the toilets were weirdly only open from midday until 7pm. It was supposed to be 8 euros for a night but there was no one around for us to pay that night or the following morning so we managed to complete our trip up through France without paying for a single nights stay.
We were hungry so we walked into the town centre to find a place to have tea. The weather was a contrast to the rest of the trip, grey and cloudy and the wind coming from the English Channel was cold and wild. We weren't too impressed with the town and it seemed pretty rough, with quite a few shady characters hanging around. Angie renamed the place Scalais. In the centre there was a town festival going on with live music outside a lot of the bars, though the standard was definitely questionable and you could hear about 3 or 4 different bands or DJs at the same time on the street. We found a restaurant by the main square and ate moules frites with a bottle of wine before walking back to the van.
It rained all through the night and in the morning we left early to get our ferry to Dover. Angie and Charlie had done great to get through France in 3 days and it turned out to be a good job as the next day was when there was strikes at the port.
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Charlie's Travels 