Hi all

After just reading my good friend Nigel's update I thought it was an amazing read and it really gave me a boost and made me smile so I thought I'd start this thread for all of the lucky enough Splity owner who'd like to share the story's with photo evidence of there trips / holiday

Remember the Bren rolls rule ...... No photos ...... It didn't happen


Very very soon I will be posting on this read myself .....

Come on ..... Share ya love and let's she what you and ya busses have been up to ..




Mark

Okay Mark, I'll repost here to get things started....



AUGUST 2013

What a frickin awesome trip!


So Wednesday we packed up and headed off for sunny North Devon, the reason being our good friends Helen & Mike were getting married at the private Tunnels Beaches (Ilfracombe) on Thursday. I had agreed to do the wedding transport way back around Autumn time last year when my bus still in many pieces and in primer, just from their hotel to the venue. Here's a few pics from the day.....



Up early to wash the bus








Ribbons added and ready to go































This was the venue - fabulous...


















Awesome BBQ food followed by an epic desert!!!







Returned to my bus so I could move it back to our campsite and have a few beers, to find someone taking a picture of it That made my day







Evening drawing in.... beautiful weather and setting




















So Friday we took a trip to Croyde (Saunton in the background) and again the weather was fantastic












Obligatory pic outside The Little Pink Shop







Saturday (this morning), we went into Woolacombe so the kids could go to the beach again before heading back to Brum (spot the teenager who didn't want his photo taken )

















The bus drew lots of attention and so many people came up to us for a chat about it and to ask questions.







We set off for home late afternoon and arrived home safely around 8.30pm, shattered but buzzing still from our fab few days away, and our first proper adventure in the bus in 2 years.

Back home....







We'll definitely be doing lots more trips away in the bus after such a successful few days. The kids loved sleeping in the bus too (we kicked them out the last night so we could sample it too and they slept in the tent for one night)


Nige, Liz & Family

Perfect Nigel

That's what I'm talking about
( as vettel would say gggrrrrrrr no wounded I can't stand him lol )


So I know Bren's away too so I expect an update soon from Bren


Who's next ?

Come on I know ya out there


Mark

Richard (8 8US) surely has a tale to tell when he's back from France too...

I will have a go tomozza im rubbish at this posting thing, but will have to dig out some pics first.

pipvan wrote:I will have a go tomozza im rubbish at this posting thing, but will have to dig out some pics first.

Hey Mark, good idea.

Here's my trip to France last Month. Will have another in the next couple of weeks as we're off to Wales in the old girl next.

Hey all,

Well as some of you know I have just completed my first trip across the Channel in the bus so I thought I'd share my experience with you.

Destination: Benodet France, 2 people, 2 dogs and one fully loaded bus!



Our trip started at home in Angmering, West Sussex. Bus all loaded we set off at 6am to travel to Portsmouth to catch the 9am high speed ferry to Cherbourg.

Quick stop at a park in Portsmouth to allow the dogs to have a good run before we headed off to the Ferry port.



At the ferry port waiting to board





The Ferry takes 3.5 hours and is a high speed catamaran. We were travelling with a couple of friends who took their 11 month old daughter in their Nissan Qashqi.

So my bus is low and I haven't had the steering box raised yet. We go to board the ferry and BANG! The bus stops dead on the first ramp. Steering box well and truly walloped! A slight adjustment to angle and speed and we're on with a slightly concerned look from the captain!

The ferry crossing was ROUGH! People being sick, passing out. Sea sky sea sky sea sky etc etc. The ferry company had to get ambulances to meet people at the other side it was that bad. Not normally that bad we were told. Lucky Kate and I have sea legs and were unaffected by the crossing. Our two friends and their baby however did feel rough so we assisted with the baby during the crossing.

We get to the other side, check on the dogs who seem to be unaffected of the whole crossing ordeal get off the ferry with no issues and stop briefly in Cherbourg to allow them to have a bit of a run before the next part of the journey.

So we start our journey from Cherbourg and head South for the 460km journey to Benodet. (no pics I'm afraid as I was driving)

The roads in France are fantastic and smooth. We didn't ground out on any of the roads between Cherbourg and Benodet However their are a lot of seriously long steep hills! With the bus fully loaded and the 1600cc struggling we were slowing to 35mph in 3rd gear on the longer hills.

I drove for a few hours then let Kate take the helm for a while from Rennes Whilst the dogs and I kicked back and relaxed. JZ-77 had made us a storage box for the dogs to sit on between the front seats and it worked brilliant! Cheers John







The only time the bus hit the steering box on the tarmac was on speed humps and the road just outside the campsite but nothing serious
We made it to the campsite in Benodet http://www.campingduletty-benodet.com just as the office was closing at 9pm. We checked in very quickly, agreed with the owner Mark that we'd sort everything out properly the next day, grabbed some chicken and chips from the campsites takeaway and went and saw Kate's Dad who had checked in earlier that day with his Drascombe Coaster sail boat. Still loads of light to set up camp as it didn't get dark till 10:30pm.

We set up camp, cracked open a couple of beers and settled in for the night.




It started to ....... down with rain pretty much as soon as we went to bed. I have sound deadened the bus with some material and fitted cellotex insulation all round too but the rain still dinged off the tin roof. Not enough to stop us sleeping really well all night though.

We woke the next morning to a bit of a cloudy day. Took the dogs for a walk on the beach and had some croissants, pain au chocolats and fresh baguette and coffee for breakfast. NICE!


This was our set up for the week. Khyam driveaway awning used as our living room / kitchen. Best buy ever for us! 5 minutes to put up and has seen gale force winds, snow, ice, driving rain and still goes up like new!











We know the area fairly well. Concarneau, Benodet market on Mondays and lots of other local places are worth visiting but we just wanted to chill out for the week so here's what's on offer at the campsite and nearby areas





The campsite beach








Benodet at night



Trips to the local supermarket. Bus got loads of attention wherever it went which was great!











Out on the boat













Me with the Captain (Kate's Dad)


Had to take the dogs to the Vets as part of the passport scheme for them to have their wormer treatments to allow them back into the UK


Some killer beer on offer at the local shop. Wasted after a couple of these bad boys!





Dogs not allowed in the pool......


Then after a week that flew by it was time to set off again.

Due to the incredible weather and being aware of all the hills we gave ourselves plenty of time to get back to Cherbourg. Left the campsite by 10am to take it steady for a 9pm ferry.



Only problem we experienced on the journey was my hex linkage falling to pieces due to broken and worn parts. Nothing a quick fix with some cable ties couldn't fix!





Back at Cherbourg after a stop at a local supermarket to fill up with booze



On the ferry heading back to Portsmouth.



And back home. 1500kms (about 950 miles) Bus did well, no breakdowns. Only the hex linkage caused us any problems. Barely used any oil so I'm very happy with it all.



Cheers

Nick

Nice .

Absolutely inspiring Nick

Love it ...... Camp site looked great .... Loved your tent set up

Camp beach too

Luxury

And the bus looking so sweet to



. That a classic pic .... Priceless ..... Talk about back seat drivers fantastic





Well done

That was a great read .... Thank you for sharing it with us and we / I look forward to you sharing your next holiday in the bus

P.s did that 11.6 % beer taste ok ? ..... Or take the skin off the back of ya throat ? Or after 2 didn't you feel anything anymore

Awesome story

Cheers

Mark

Cheers Mark,

Can't wait to see the adventures you have in your bus. I will be saying hello and checking Gerry out at Brighton Breeze.

Those beers were lethal!

They tasted ok when they were really cold but as they started to warm up it was a bit thick. Almost tasted like someone had poured a few shots of vodka in the beer. I don't know how tramps and alcoholics drink them. I only had the one, the boys got one each from the shop. (then consumed some normal beers after that )

Cheers

Nick

OK, here goes, after enjoying the previous posts I thought I'd add our very recent adventure. Not very exotic but as newbie owners and despite managing to clock up 3000 miles since October this is our first proper road trip so kindly humour us. Mabel is all packed up. This is our first refuelling stop all is well except our newly installed auto extinguisher we briefly checked looks dangerously close to deploying. Err right let's do without that then, travelling comfortably supported in the interior soft furnishings for the rest of the journey down to Cheshire.
On arrival at our campsite we sling up the newly acquired motordome trying not to look amateurish, fortunately we were parked opposite an absolute perfectionist with the same model and we could refer to his pristine example, unfortunately we didn't pack a spirit level as he must have used but we were happy enough.
Next stop: Pleasantly un busy on our arrival we explored casually the great site at Oulton and watched the track sprint, went to see the buses, had a bit of grub and watched the bands. Ey up Marvin

On Saturday we went into the paddocks to see all manor of machinery. Great to chat to the guys and girls exhibiting. Zillions of pounds worth of supercars but that's not really me. Most of them would never stand up to my lifestyle. What we like is something tough or useful. . Or novelty items? Attention to detail is key here!

. I did some girls stuff and watched diggers

DubMinx wrote:OK, here goes, after enjoying the previous posts I thought I'd add our very recent adventure. Not very exotic but as newbie owners and despite managing to clock up 3000 miles since October this is our first proper road trip so kindly humour us.

image.jpg

Mabel is all packed up. This is our first refuelling stop all is well except our newly installed auto extinguisher we briefly checked looks dangerously close to deploying. Err right let's do without that then, travelling comfortably supported in the interior soft furnishings for the rest of the journey down to Cheshire.
On arrival at our campsite we sling up the newly acquired motordome trying not to look amateurish, fortunately we were parked opposite an absolute perfectionist with the same model and we could refer to his pristine example, unfortunately we didn't pack a spirit level as he must have used but we were happy enough.
Next stop:

image.jpg

Pleasantly un busy on our arrival we explored casually the great site at Oulton and watched the track sprint, went to see the buses, had a bit of grub and watched the bands.

image.jpg

Ey up Marvin

Sorry we missed you, wasnt it great there? Catch you soon:-)

Music was ace and we had a great spot even from the car park.

On Sunday we snook over to Tatton only 15 miles away from Oulton Park. Great display of Dubs and loads of jumbly goodies. Seriously didn't take enough cash. Some awesome vans there but Rome wasn't built in a day I guess.

Despite being in a telecommunications time warp/black spot all weekend we managed to get a weather forecast for Monday and decided to bring in the awning that night - rather expertly actually - hope our neighbour was watching! Despite looking a little bit tiny on our pitch we had absolute delight this morning while taking breakfast watching campers packing up in torrential rain whilst surreptitiously placing towels under our major leaks and pretending they weren't there.

The weather broke so we made a break for our 3 1/2 hour journey home knowing the works traffic should have cleared for the delightful M6 and M62 wranglings.

After a couple of hours we were due to refuel M62 or push to Weatherby? Nah girl likes a wriggle and a walk so Hartshead Moor it was.
We found an exclusive part of the car park as always:
Oh .... that's our oil all over. Tarp out get on the floor Carl, check the dipstick.
We may have been Very lucky today!! Tiny tiny split in one of the oil lines!
The AA man was a but mardy at first but he thawed a bit and got on with fitting us a temp hose. A potential disaster but in the end cost me £11 to replace the litre of oil we'd dropped and a few quid for some choglud for the AA man

Not sure how much the residual repairs of full set of Pirtek hoses will cost but better safe than sorry.

Feel a bit more seasoned now we've had a breakdown issue but infinitely lucky it wasn't worse.

Incidentally the fire suppression system enjoyed its ride out too but is being replaced tomorrow after the manufacturer agreed it was faulty.

PS sorry its in instalments. Technological ghosts have followed us home!
Good old Mabel glad to get home under our own steam. X x