February was the warmest February, for the entire world, on record. Which means in the last 175 years or so. We are on a skiing trip. Unsurprisingly, the skiing part of this trip is not going brilliantly. We have seen many washed out ski slopes and, in places, green fields where there should have been ski slopes. At times we have pondered whether we are seeing the final, declining days of European alpine skiing. Last year it was raining in Chamonix throughout January. This year there was some early snow but many of the ski areas feel like spring – which would previously have been in April.
Leaving Romania, we set out to explore Hungary. For a few hours we drove through flat wetlands. There were a few ducks and a few more geese. Then we arrived in Slovakia and felt as if we had missed out on Hungary. Slovakia had some interest in the shape of the Tata mountains, so we headed there. On the way we saw the remains of several ski resorts. All looking remarkably sad. A couple of days later we arrived at the Tatras and they are indeed magnificent mountains. We spotted a ski area that appeared to still be operating but the weather was not very nice and we were still hoping to see some more of Hungary.
Our last night in Slovakia was spent at a castle that had been converted into a hotel. This was great fun and not expensive. The corridor walls were festooned with the heads from numerous dead animals. Fortunately, there were none in our room although the large boar’s head right outside the door was a bit alarming.
Heading towards Budapest, we crossed the Danube by ferry. At 2,850 km the Danube is Europe’s second longest river, after the Volga. It rises in the Black Forest, heading east and south to the Black Sea. Commercial river traffic can travel between Bavaria and the Black Sea. With the opening of the Rhine-Main-Danube canal, vessels can travel all the way to the North Sea forming a major trade route. Back in the 19th century, the Danube was regularly frozen and impassable to marine traffic. These days, less so. We saw very little traffic on the river but we do enjoy a ferry trip and this seemed like a nice way to arrive in Budapest.
In Budapest we did a couple of days of city things. We looked at a lot of buildings, rode on a Ferris wheel, avoided museums and Diane found a new kind of ice cream in a cake. There are some amazing buildings in the city including the massive parliament building. We wandered around and tried to get interested in them but the overcast, grey, damp and generally dull weather gave the whole city a bit of a sober feel. The day we left it, the warm sun came out and it felt like summer. While this was pleasant, it also seemed unlikely that there was going to be much more skiing left. As best I could tell there was still some snow at some of the higher altitude resorts so we set off to find some.
From Estonia we drove south through Latvia and Lithuania to Poland. We had arranged to meet friends in the bottom, right hand corner of Poland.
Shortly after to getting to Poland I began to form an opinion that driving in Poland was a bit more exciting than normal. The typical driver tended to be faster, closer and more assertive that we had been used to. Clearly one always needs to be careful of broad generalisations so I looked up some statistics. In particular, I looked at the ETSC (European Transport Safety Council) website that contains up to date road safety information. Poland is right up there with a road death rate about three times that in Sweden. Romanian and Bulgaria appear pretty dangerous too. We have that to look forward to. Our first evening in Poland we parked by some lovely forests and found one of the more deadly poisonous mushrooms, Destroying Deathcap, growing abundantly. Feels like you need to be careful in Poland.
Look at this photo closely. It was taken by our dashcam, looking down through the front windscreen. In the top, left you can see another truck. This is approximately the same size as Baloo, 20 tonnes, and doing the same sort of speed. So the gap between the trucks is closing at around 160 kmph (100 mph) which is 44m per second. When that gap closes by another 5m there will not be enough space for the car to fit through. This will take approximately a tenth of a second. Baloo was already as far to the side of the narrow road as possible. I was breaking as hard as I dared given the queue of vehicles that were far too close behind me. All the first two or three cars could see was the back of the truck so if I slowed too rapidly they would all run into each other and me. Our rear under-ride guard suffers enough damage without having to disentangle cars from it as well.
At best, this guy and his passengers avoided dying and causing a major accident by less than two tenths of a second. That is not judgment or skill – just luck.
We met up with the wonderful Lars and Inge with their magnificent Volvo C303 and pottered around Poland for a few days. They have been working hard on the Volvo, turning an aging military vehicle into a terrifically capable overland camper. The weather was working against us. Rain and wind much of the time. We had a few pleasant walks and ate some foraged mushrooms one evening. We camped on a hill, by a river several times, on another hill and finally by a lake. Eventually they headed north to explore Kraków and we were feeling the call to go west in preparation for returning to the UK. A day later the road we been following for hours was abruptly closed. Lacking any diversion information, we wandered down some increasingly narrow lanes and then got forced, by weight restrictions onto the motorway. Five minutes later we were in Slovakia.
Destroying Deathcaps – do not nibble
8t max – we had to find another way
When we stumbled into Slovakia we had to buy a tracking box for Baloo. This is how the road toll is paid. The box is pre-paid, you can top it up and the funds trickle away at about €1 per 5 km. I am not a fan of road tolls. I doubt many drivers are. It seems to me that if each country maintained its own roads through national vehicle taxation and made them freely usable by foreigners then the costs would about balance out. However, while the cost of the tolls is an irritation, the implementation of the toll system in some countries can be a real problem. Arriving at the Polish border, I was expecting to need to buy a tracking box. However the border guards thought they were only needed for commercial vehicles and anyhow there was nowhere to buy one. They also cheerfully directed us down a road with a 7.5t weight limit. It was very strange and a bit uncomfortable. I was sure there would be a police car waiting round the corner for us. We got on to an unrestricted road as soon as possible and then avoided the motorways just in case. I still do not really know if a heavy motorhome needs a tracking box in Poland.
Some countries use toll booths. They are rarely suitable for a truck, at least, not a modern truck like Baloo. At the French Péage, my technique is to stop so that the door is just past the automated pay station. Then I can open the door and lean out, hanging onto the window frame, to reach underneath the door and access the ticket slot. In Morocco I looked down out of the window to see a hand reaching out of the ticket office towards me. At full stretch I could just touch the hand with the tip of a ten dirham note. The hand disappeared for a second and then reappeared with my ticket, which I retrieved using the same ligament stretching manoeuvre. Never saw the person, just a hand. Czech Republic uses a similar looking box to Slovakia but, I think, it only charges for certain major roads. For Austria we have a post-pay box linked to a bank account and for Slovenia a box linked to an internet account that I can top up remotely. Our collection of boxes is steadily growing.
Would you drive a 20t truck over a 10t bridge?
Baloo is registered as a motorhome (wohnmobile) rather than a commercial vehicle and in some countries this is respected. Germany for example, charges a toll on all heavy goods vehicles but not motorhomes. In Norway they use number plate recognition cameras. The implementation is almost painless in that you do not need to anything. You can register on the Norwegian toll company website. I think they will still find you and send you bill even if you do not register but it gave us the opportunity to prove our motorhome status and get a reduction. As described in an earlier blog, Hungary uses it toll system to prohibit all but the keenest large motorhome drivers. This may not be an intentional consequence so I would encourage them to rethink what they are doing.
Three more days of steady driving and a blast along the German autobahns saw us back at the Unicat workshop. We left Baloo to be serviced and tested, jumped in the car and set off back to the UK. The blast of Covid bureaucracy was staggering. Most of Europe is getting on with life now but approaching the UK we stepped back into the thick of the pandemic and country that loves its paperwork. At the port I had to spend twenty minutes re-doing our passenger locator forms. These cannot be changed, only re-done from the start. We had come from Germany and were told to include being in the Netherlands. The reality was that the only time our feet touched the ground in the Netherlands was the twenty minutes when we had to go into the terminal building to redo our passenger locator forms. Cent had a narrow escape. On the previous day his passport had only been marked with the date of his worming treatment and not the exact time. The requirements are that the treatment should be between 24 and 120 hours before entering GB. Mathematically there was no strict necessity for an exact time. The previous day was separated from the arrival time by at least 30 hours but no more than 54 hours. I considered getting out the blackboard and chalk but obviously it was more productive to just to smile hopefully while petting the dog. The official consulted with two other officials and someone senior. Not sure if they eventually worked it out but they did agree, on this occasion, to let the omission pass.
