Europe

Friday March 15th
Peter and me to Dinard by air. Taxi to St. Malo. Picked up Dormobile which had been shipped over two days previously by Commodore Shipping Co.

Opening Speedometer reading: 552

Filled both water tanks and left St. Malo at 3.15 p.m. Good scenery. About 6/7 miles west of Mayenne camped in wood 2-3 miles off main road at 7.00 p.m.

Speedometer Reading: 627    Mileage: 75

Saturday March 16th
Both slept very badly – stone cold and made a mental note in future to park Dormobile on level ground. Got up at 5.30 – cup of coffee and on the road by 6.00 a.m. Breakfast 8.00–9.00 about 60 miles on near Alençon. Drove on to Chartres and looked over Cathedral. Magnificent. Cheese sandwiches and cold drink while driving. Parked for night down side road (disused) 7 miles beyond St. Dizier (Bypass).

Very pretty scenery – through Forest of Fontainebleau – soup and meat roll and salad for supper – Horlicks in bed, and a sherry with supper. Kept paraffin heater on all night and were warmer.

Speedometer Reading: 959     Mileage: 333

Sunday March 17th
Off at 5.50 a.m. Bleak country – 100 mile drive before breakfast outside Blâmont (1.6 miles from Sarrebourg). Crossed frontier at midday at Strasbourg – Autobahn non-stop to Munich – long, dull, but fast travelling, averaging 45 m.p.h. at least. Then on to Salzburg Autobahn (after difficult passage through Munich) – turned off autobahn soon after, down side road, then down track into forest, covered with snow. Dormobile stuck. Fixed chains and backed into small clearing for the night. Put all perishable food out into snow. Stew for dinner. Horlicks in bed. Used heater again. Changed money at frontier and spent zwanzig pfennig to spend a penny – never again – too expensive.

Speedometer Reading: 1382    Mileage: 423

Monday March 18th
Were, shifted at 8.30 from our wood last night by a man who said there was a storm blowing up and a tree might fall on us. Moved to a lay-by for the night. Woke up cold, as usual, and got on the road at 5.50. German/Austria border by 7.30 a.m. (near Salzburg) – through Salzburg where we changed money (Bank at Austrian border would not take Sterling travellers cheques). Breakfast at Wolfgang. On to Bad Ischl – over Fotschen Pass (road clear, no chains) – v. bad road to Leoben – faster to Bruck-an-der-Mur. On to Graz – straight on to Austria/Yugoslavia frontier (5.00 p.m.). Sent P.C. to Carol, (Posted letter to Ronald at Wilden in Austria) – settled for the night in wood half way between Maribor and Varazain. Meat Roll and salad for supper – Horlicks in bed.

P.C. to Carol caused trouble as we couldn’t find the letter-box – it was a small little yellow box and we didn’t recognise it.

Speedometer Reading: 1715    Mileage: 334

Tuesday March 19th
On the road at 5.45. By-passed Zagreb. Took photograph of loggers at Dugo Selo while halted at level crossing. On to Autoput (Motorway) for Belgrade. Very poor surface a good part of the way, then improved. Into Belgrade at tea-time – collected letter from R. at Poste Restante. Ghastly city for traffic and jaywalkers. Parked Dormobile in centre of town – everyone stared at it! Drove out of Belgrade on to Motorway for Niš. Nowhere to get off the road for the night, but we were lucky to find a Motel which allowed us to park in the grounds for 11 New Dinars – cheap. Ate and slept in Dormobile but had shower in Motel – great luxury. Very cold. Put watches forward one hour – hope we are on the right time but do not know for sure.

Speedometer Reading: 2071    Mileage: 356

Wednesday March 20th
On the road at 5.45 – very cold and rather foggy. Slow passage to Niš. Through Niš – nasty place – and on to road for Sofia. Lovely and sunny after Niš, and warmer. Pleasant drive along river. Yugoslavia appears to be a poor country, but people very friendly. All but the peasants, who seem to be in the majority, seem to speak German, but not English.

Crossed Yugoslavia/Bulgaria border at 12.00 midday. Not impressed with Customs Officials – unfriendly. Cobbled road to Sofia, and on to Plovdiv it was cobbles on and off. Bulgaria has most of its roads cobbled – hard on tyres and bumpy riding.

Had difficult time getting through Sofia – a Policeman blew his whistle at us and made us stop, but as neither could understand the other he let us go on. We still do not know what we did wrong.

Nearly ran out of petrol, as we ran low, and on going to Garage, found their pumps weren’t working. Next garage 15 miles further on – we made it, registering “E” all the way.

Speedometer Reading: 2455   Mileage: 384

Notes
Although we had been told that the Bedford would run on cheap grade petrol we found this was not so. We started off on the cheap grade through France and Germany but found that the performance was poor – involving a lot of gear changing, and no pull on hills. We also pinked constantly, and the engine was over-running when ignition was switched off.

Changed to super with marked improvement all round, both in performance and m.p.g.

French petrol is the most expensive of all, at 8/6d per gallon. Petrol becomes progressively cheaper as one travels East.