Hints and Tips from our first long trip (Latest - 27. Cap Corse Site Review)

[DM]

We've just returned from a two and a half week trip to Corsica returning via the Italian Lakes. Its the longest trip we have done in the Cali after lots of shorter trips last year and earlier this year.

I'm not sure if this thread will be indulgent or useful but I thought members might be interested in our experience of the trip from planning to our return home. it'll be a fairly random selection of hints, tips and anecdotes. Some relating to the Cali itself, some to travel and some just boasting about what a great time we had.

I'll keep it to short but regular posts. If its of interest to people I'll continue. If not I'll crawl back under my stone.

Edit.
Indexed Table of Contents added. You can click below to go directly to any of these posts.

1. What's not working
2. Ferry Bookings
3. French AutoRoute Tolls
4. The Dartford Crossing
5. Headlight Adjustment
6. Corsican Separatists
7. Lake Como
8. Priorite a Droite
9. Navigating Paris
10. So where exactly is Corsica?
11. Can I drink the water?
12. Sunsets
13. Ferry Check-in Times (and missing it)!
14. Overnight Stops
15. Gas Life Expectancy
16. Cali Pics
17. Italian Motorways
18. Critters and Creatures
19. Vehicle Documents
20. Breakages
21. Fires
22. Orleans Site Review
23. Keeping Cool
24. Does France have the best campsites?
25. Loading Kayaks doesn't have to be so hard!
26. Avignon Site Review
27. Cap Corse Site Review - Tollare


Dave

 

[T6 CFO]

It will be interesting Dave. Hopefully off for our first trip of note in early September. France, Italy, Sardinia and whatever takes our fancy is the rough plan.


Mike

 

[DM]

So to kick it off:

1. What's not Working?
Check that everything is working on the Cali before you set-off. I left this a bit late. The Cali had been in the dealer having the kitchen removed / replaced (a saga that has been posted on elsewhere). I discovered the night before we set-off that the leisure battery was not charging on hook-up. Panic set-in. This could ruin our trip and there was no time to visit (or even telephone) a dealer before we set-off for Dover. Fortunately a search of the forum threw up the solution - the IEC plug had not been replaced properly in the workshop. Thanks @WelshGas for your post on this topic - it saved the day.

So the lesson learned was check things out a bit earlier so that you have time to visit a dealer if necessary before you depart.

 

[DM]

2. Ferry Bookings
I've always booked ferries directly before and never seen the point of using a booking agent. However researching the options to get to Corsica became a nightmare. There are several companies sailing different (and the same) routes and they all use different methods for defining the vehicle (e.g. car or camper or motorhome, roof load or overall height, cycles on back or overall length). Then I discovered aferry.com (other similar sites may be available). It works just like flight consolidator sites (kayak / SkyScanner etc). All I needed to enter was the fact that it was a camper (which actually worked cheaper than a car for some reason), estimate the overall height and overall length and that I wanted to sail from France to Corsica and it gave me all the route options and costs for all ferries. Prices were exactly the same as on the ferry company websites and I was able to book the return trip as a single transaction even though we used different companies and different routes out and back.

It also automatically offers any special offers. I also ended up booking our Channel Crossing through aferry.com because it found an advance saver fare that I hadn't found on the P&O website.

Dead easy.

 

[Meoncoast]

I always enjoy "blogs" / "post" about travels and trips, not enough of them. Please add camp site links wherever possible.

 

[Jay586]

^^ This + Corsica is a marvellous place, so all good!

 

[DM]

I always enjoy "blogs" / "post" about travels and trips, not enough of them. Please add camp site links wherever possible.

I certainly will Andy. I've been having a bit of a think about site reviews and how easy / hard they are to find and comment upon on the forum. Might start another thread on that.

 

[Aidy P]

@DM we're setting off in a big trip this Sunday that'll include the Lakes so I'm eagerly awaiting the next post!!

 

[DM]

Ready for the off.


Hmm - that drive needs a good clean.

We were well loaded - sea kayak on the roof and two bikes on the back. I'll post about racks and loading methods in due course.

 

[sapto]

Thank you Dave for sharing. I like the way you write things/describe things. Keep your experiences coming please.
sapto

 

[Esandar#1]

Hi Dave, we are also very interested to hear about your experiences (ahead of a potenial trip to the Italian lakes). Our Beach is booked into the local dealership this week as the 12V circuit including the aux diesel heater appear to ahve stopped working...!

 

[DM]

Thank you Dave for sharing. I like the way you write things/describe things. Keep your experiences coming please.
sapto

Hi Dave, we are also very interested to hear about your experiences (ahead of a potenial trip to the Italian lakes). Our Beach is booked into the local dealership this week as the 12V circuit including the aux diesel heater appear to ahve stopped working...!

Glad to be of assistance. Hope you get everything is fixed for you in time.

 

[DM]

3. French Autoroute Tolls
This was the single most frustrating issue on our trip. I researched vehicle classifications before we left the UK. The rules are clear - vehicle classification is based upon the vehicle height without any roofload. The official height of the T6 Cali (according to the spec sheet) is 1990mm. So definitely a Class 1 vehicle. Roof loads do not change the classification. However we had a roofload which took the total vehicle height to just over 2.6m. The lasers at the Toll plazas are supposed to identify the base vehicle height but they don't seem to be able to do this accurately. I think we went through 6 booths and were charged as Class 1 twice and Class 2 four times. There are no manned booths anymore so we pressed the button and tried to argue the case but to no avail (probably due to our limited French). The difference in cost is significant. Class 2 is approximately 50% more expensive than Class 1. We tried to avoid Motorways for a while but whilst some RNs bypass towns and villages others do not and progress was slow - so we ended up back on the AutoRoute.

I have kept all the receipts and will possibly try to appeal - but I'm not optimistic.

I've done some more research since getting home. I think I will get a tag next time we go to France. There is still a possibility (likelihood) of being charged the wrong classification but with a tag you have an on-line account and there is an on-line process for appealing mis-classifications. Interested if anyone has successfully used this process.

 

[hirsty]

Welcome back, glad you had a good time - getting a faded yellow Corsica Ferries sticker onto the van is on my bucket list so I'm all in.

I've also bought a motorway tag for France after last years Italy trip, but yet to try it out.

 

[DM]

It will be interesting Dave. Hopefully off for our first trip of note in early September. France, Italy, Sardinia and whatever takes our fancy is the rough plan.


Mike

Sounds like a great trip Mike. How long are you going for?

 

[DM]

- getting a faded yellow Corsica Ferries sticker onto the van is on my bucket list

 

[DM]

4. The Dartford Crossing
I'm sure that regular users of the crossing will think me a complete amateur on this. But I only every use the crossing en route to Dover and it stresses me every time. It is so easy to forget to pay unless you do it straight away. Dartford Crossing, M20, Dover, Ferry , Holiday -Hurrah !!! Oops - forgot to pay............... . I haven't actually forgotten but always worry about doing so. I keep meaning to get an account but have never got around to it. My advice is pay as soon as possible - you can do in advance if you are organised.

At least Mrs DM is becoming much more internet savvy and managed to pay on-line before we got to Dover. We paid for a return journey to avoid any stress on the way home - but of course then neither of us could remember for sure whether we had paid for the return so there was some frantic searching of emails for the receipt.

 

[T6 CFO]

Sounds like a great trip Mike. How long are you going for?

Looking forward to it. Been working our way through those annoying things in life that restrain us and almost there. Hopefully trip will be open ended so 1-2 months with a bit of luck.


Mike

 

[J & S Saldanha]

Loving this already! Looking forward to more posts!
We did a fab trip all round the coast of Scotland (& Harris & Lewis) earlier this year with our lovely Cali. Loved every minute of being in the van and it was such fun!

 

[Loz]

3. French Autoroute Tolls
I've done some more research since getting home. I think I will get a tag next time we go to France. There is still a possibility (likelihood) of being charged the wrong classification but with a tag you have an on-line account and there is an on-line process for appealing mis-classifications. Interested if anyone has successfully used this process.

That reminds me, I have a link here that should give you £5 off your sanef tag subscription if you are signing up; https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/subscription?ref=RF-20130418-9E30913

 

[Max-Felix]

4. The Dartford Crossing
I'm sure that regular users of the crossing will think me a complete amateur on this. But I only every use the crossing en route to Dover and it stresses me every time. It is so easy to forget to pay unless you do it straight away. Dartford Crossing, M20, Dover, Ferry , Holiday -Hurrah !!! Oops - forgot to pay............... . I haven't actually forgotten but always worry about doing so. I keep meaning to get an account but have never got around to it. My advice is pay as soon as possible - you can do in advance if you are organised.

At least Mrs DM is becoming much more internet savvy and managed to pay on-line before we got to Dover. We paid for a return journey to avoid any stress on the way home - but of course then neither of us could remember for sure whether we had paid for the return so there was some frantic searching of emails for the receipt.

Definitely get an account, so much easier and you can list as many cars as you like - I cannot remember for sure if it is cheaper too this way? They email you too when balance is low.

 

[T6 CFO]

That reminds me, I have a link here that should give you £5 off your sanef tag subscription if you are signing up; https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/subscription?ref=RF-20130418-9E30913

Time I ordered mine. Did so with the link and got the discount

Mike

 

[hirsty]

I don't do the Dartford route frequently & haven't bothered with an account, but the disproportionate stressing & background panic is familiar.

I didn't know you could buy a return so thanks for that, there's usually time at the Tunnel on either leg to do it on the webpage by iPhone.

 

[DM]

5. Headlight Adjustment
So does the 'Travelling' setting on the LED headlamps really adjust them so you don't need deflectors? After researching extensively both here on the forum and elsewhere on the internet I concluded that that is the case. Then I panicked on the ferry and bought a set of universal deflectors 'just in case'. What ? Did I really think that the fact that I had a set of deflectors in the glove box would persuade the Gendarmerie to let me off? Anyway - approx 2,500 miles was driven on the continent of which a reasonable chunk was after dark on single carriage way roads (not the plan but you'll have to wait for future posts to find out why). No problems with any zealous Gendarmes and I wasn't flashed a single time by on-coming motorists. So - I am concluding that the 'travelling' mode does an effective job.

Anyone want to buy an unused set of deflectors?

 

[DM]

6. Corsican Separatists
Oops - it seems that not all the French like the Corsicans. We certainly became aware that there is a strong nationalist movement in Corsica. The evidence of this is widespread - many road signs are bi-lingual (Corsican is a recognised language) and the French place names are obliterated in many places. It seems the year 1905 is significant as that is scrawled in Graffiti all over the place as well - I haven't managed to find the reason for that yet - anyone know?

But we kept a low profile and we survived 10 days in Corsica without being shot by bandits or chancing upon carnage from a bombing (apparently these are regular occurrences).

Today a Client who happens to be French (from Brittany) asked me where we went on holiday. 'Corsica' I proudly told him - 'it's fantastic isn't it'. Apparently not! He was distinctly unimpressed and considered the Corsicans to be the lowest of the low and 'not really French at all'. Too late by then to gush that I love Brittany as well.