18
Camping da Villey le Sec
The next day , the van was ready , along with a bill of € 988 ! We rang Camping da Villey le Sec back to ask if we could stay that night . They said yes . We got there , and it was a beautiful campsite , right on the river with good families . Unfortunately , it was too late to paddle as darkness descended and a large barge passed the campsite . We didn ’ t have lights , so we had an early night , ready to reach Austria in the morning . We were already 24 hours behind . So , to make up time , we had cancelled one night of the three at Plansee .
Day three in France started well and in beautiful sunshine . But that wasn ’ t to last , and we are not discussing the weather . The gremlins in the van got to work again . Just short of Strasbourg , the van started shaking again . This time , we stopped and phoned our breakdown service only to learn never to break down on a French motorway . The only people that can recover you are the police . I used the SOS phone only to find my limited French , and the call takers ’ lack of English meant I gave up after hearing 112 ( the European 999 number ). I rang that and ended up in an endless electronic voice in multiple languages going on and on .
Limped on
We gave up and limped the van to a Renault dealer in Vendenheim , near Strasbourg . They diagnosed the drive shaft as worn and said it had damaged the suspension . They couldn ’ t get the part until Monday , four days away , so we were left trying to decide what to do . We spoke to our breakdown service , and these were our options . 1 ) they pay for a hotel ,
2 ) they ’ d get us a hire car or , 3 ) fly us home and repatriate our vehicle in approximately five ( yes , five ) weeks .
We stayed locally in the van and spent some time in the stunning city of Strasbourg . On Monday morning , we dropped the van into the Renault garage , which had some fantastic news for us . They said instead of the 17:00 collection time , they would get it ready for 10:30 . This meant Switzerland was now a possibility . At 10:30 , the van was ready , and we pointed it at Lake Thun , and we left beautiful France .
Lake Thun
Arriving at Lake Thun , we pulled into Camping Alpenblick , almost on the lake ’ s shore . The campsite is possibly one of the nicest we ’ ve stayed at . It has a lovely cafe , very modern and clean facilities , and a footpath tunnel under the road to the lake for all of us watersport enthusiasts . We decided to relax that night and get ready for a morning paddle . We went out early and were stunned to see so many sporting activities .
We met Domonic , the Polish paddle boarder out enjoying his European trip . There was another paddle boarder out with his rather large dog , but we couldn ’ t catch him to chat . Tombstoners were jumping off vertical cliffs and other motorised pleasure craft , and the sky was full of paragliders – 17 at one point . We had a great day out . On the way back from the lake , we passed a hire shop with a range of paddle craft available .
We spoke to the staff , who were very friendly and busy . Check them out , Neuhaus Wassersport . We then spent the afternoon ringing the ferry company ( DFDS ) to see if we could delay our return to the UK . They