Due to mainly health and Insurance problems we decided to have one last trip across the water in Late April to Late May. It was our first time abroad in the motorhome, having previously done many trips with car/caravan.
After a month touring France, mostly in the rain, being towed off sites, finding several sites closed due to being waterlogged we decided to head back towards Le Shuttle five days earlier than planned. Having said that we did have nine days of sunshine on two super sites, one in Pont de l’Arche and the other at Bois Soliel, St George de Gironde.
A few days previous there was a sound of bearings starting to whine a little. Not enough to be concerned about but something to get checked out once home. It sounded like either the belt tensioner or water pump.
We were 150km from Calais on the A28 for an easy drive to Calais Eurotunnel when…the low sound whining stopped, battery light came on and within a minute the temperature started rising. As luck would have it there was an exit 2km away. At 1km the temperature gauge was hitting the ‘Hot’. We made it off the motorway and again as luck would have it, there was a pull in half way around the roundabout to a farmhouse. How lucky was that!
Lifted the bonnet, left a few minutes to cool down a bit and poured a gallon of water I carry via the expansion tank. It all instantly came out of the bottom, presumably the water pump bearings had disintegrated, As the engine has casing above and below there was no way of checking.
Pressed the RESCUE ME button on the Green Flag app on the phone. They answered within 30 seconds and said their French Counterpart would ring me, which they did in five minutes. Perfect English was spoken and I was assured a Recovery Vehicle would be with us within 45 minutes. In fact, it was there in under 20 minutes. Naturally the driver spoke no English and loaded the motorhome on the lorry within a few minutes. Now, here was a challenge…getting Jean and Benji the dog up into the high cab with four steps. Jean now refers to the lorry as her new Climbing Frame, lol. He also had his two Terrier dogs with him, which Benji decided to bare his teeth at them. They just sat there looking at him, having taken notice of his warning.
We were driven down several miles of narrow country lanes in the middle of rural France to the recovery vehicle’s yard, unloaded and parked up in a quiet location amongst all the wrecked cars. I say quiet location…it was all quiet as it was a Saturday, Bank Holiday weekend and not a soul about. The recovery vehicle disappeared and we had no idea what was happening next.
About thirty minutes later the French Green Flag Counterpart rang to say there was nothing they could do to get us home until Tuesday as everything was shut down in France until then. Looking on the map the nearest shop was five miles. We were just surrounded by Hamlets. Green Flag France gave us the option of being picked up and taken to a local French Hotel for the weekend. As we had Benji and spoke no French we decided to stay with the motorhome. After all, we had a safe location, food, drink, bed, heating, etc. It was a no brainer. The only disturbance we had was the occasional pony passing through and recovery vehicles bringing in damaged vehicles.
Green Flag France rang us each day to make sure we were OK and discuss options that suited us. We decided there was not a lot of options. Jean had another five days of medications, Benji’s AHC ran out on Wednesday as he had had his worming pill on the Friday and, our Le Shuttle was a non starter for the Sunday. Le Shuttle were brilliant, refunding all of our £268 paid for our return.
We had a pleasant Bank Holiday weekend, the Sun shone, the wine and beer was chilled. On the Monday we made a special booking as foot passengers with DFDS. Special because it is the only European Port that will take Walk On Passengers with a Dog. It has to be done by phone and we had to wait until Monday as they are closed on the weekend.
Once the booking was confirmed we phoned Green Flag, France and they organised a brand new Mercedes Taxi for the Tuesday morning at 0800hrs to take us the 40km to Dieppe Ferry Port for the 1200hrs crossing. Green Flag UK also organised a Hire Car to be waiting at Newhaven when we docked for us to get home via Enterprise Car Rental. We only had to return it to our local Enterprise Car Rental two miles away from home. Green Flag UK said they would refund the Ferry Crossing.
DFDS were brilliant too. They escorted Jean in her wheelchair to Deck 3 while I took Benji to Deck 4 to put him in the cage supplied. Certainly not an ideal situation by any means as Benji was left on the deck between the cars, all alone for five hours. There was no choice and we are still helping him get over the ‘being left alone’ at home. When we docked at Newhaven the whole ship was put on hold until Jean had been taken off down the ramp. Unfortunately, it took 45 minutes to get her off because a porter put her in a lift and left her. She was going up and down all the levels and the staff we chasing up and down trying to find her. So funny at the time. All ended well though.
Our journey from Newhaven to home took six hours, travelling the M25 at tea time and the horrendous weather conditions. Who cares, we all got home safe, in four days from breaking down, all thanks to Green Flag.
The repatriation process has begun and our motorhome is expected back at our local garage in the next week or so. Even that is a professional company, ONTIME AUTOMOTIVES who specialize in vehicle repatriation in closed vehicles. I think by the time it returns the dirty washing will be walking out on its own, the left over food will have left and all of our clothes will be in the wrong season.
So in our book GREEN FLAG deserves a terrific pat on the back for their superb service to us. Thank You Green Flag. We will be eternally grateful to you.
After a month touring France, mostly in the rain, being towed off sites, finding several sites closed due to being waterlogged we decided to head back towards Le Shuttle five days earlier than planned. Having said that we did have nine days of sunshine on two super sites, one in Pont de l’Arche and the other at Bois Soliel, St George de Gironde.
A few days previous there was a sound of bearings starting to whine a little. Not enough to be concerned about but something to get checked out once home. It sounded like either the belt tensioner or water pump.
We were 150km from Calais on the A28 for an easy drive to Calais Eurotunnel when…the low sound whining stopped, battery light came on and within a minute the temperature started rising. As luck would have it there was an exit 2km away. At 1km the temperature gauge was hitting the ‘Hot’. We made it off the motorway and again as luck would have it, there was a pull in half way around the roundabout to a farmhouse. How lucky was that!
Lifted the bonnet, left a few minutes to cool down a bit and poured a gallon of water I carry via the expansion tank. It all instantly came out of the bottom, presumably the water pump bearings had disintegrated, As the engine has casing above and below there was no way of checking.
Pressed the RESCUE ME button on the Green Flag app on the phone. They answered within 30 seconds and said their French Counterpart would ring me, which they did in five minutes. Perfect English was spoken and I was assured a Recovery Vehicle would be with us within 45 minutes. In fact, it was there in under 20 minutes. Naturally the driver spoke no English and loaded the motorhome on the lorry within a few minutes. Now, here was a challenge…getting Jean and Benji the dog up into the high cab with four steps. Jean now refers to the lorry as her new Climbing Frame, lol. He also had his two Terrier dogs with him, which Benji decided to bare his teeth at them. They just sat there looking at him, having taken notice of his warning.
We were driven down several miles of narrow country lanes in the middle of rural France to the recovery vehicle’s yard, unloaded and parked up in a quiet location amongst all the wrecked cars. I say quiet location…it was all quiet as it was a Saturday, Bank Holiday weekend and not a soul about. The recovery vehicle disappeared and we had no idea what was happening next.
About thirty minutes later the French Green Flag Counterpart rang to say there was nothing they could do to get us home until Tuesday as everything was shut down in France until then. Looking on the map the nearest shop was five miles. We were just surrounded by Hamlets. Green Flag France gave us the option of being picked up and taken to a local French Hotel for the weekend. As we had Benji and spoke no French we decided to stay with the motorhome. After all, we had a safe location, food, drink, bed, heating, etc. It was a no brainer. The only disturbance we had was the occasional pony passing through and recovery vehicles bringing in damaged vehicles.
Green Flag France rang us each day to make sure we were OK and discuss options that suited us. We decided there was not a lot of options. Jean had another five days of medications, Benji’s AHC ran out on Wednesday as he had had his worming pill on the Friday and, our Le Shuttle was a non starter for the Sunday. Le Shuttle were brilliant, refunding all of our £268 paid for our return.
We had a pleasant Bank Holiday weekend, the Sun shone, the wine and beer was chilled. On the Monday we made a special booking as foot passengers with DFDS. Special because it is the only European Port that will take Walk On Passengers with a Dog. It has to be done by phone and we had to wait until Monday as they are closed on the weekend.
Once the booking was confirmed we phoned Green Flag, France and they organised a brand new Mercedes Taxi for the Tuesday morning at 0800hrs to take us the 40km to Dieppe Ferry Port for the 1200hrs crossing. Green Flag UK also organised a Hire Car to be waiting at Newhaven when we docked for us to get home via Enterprise Car Rental. We only had to return it to our local Enterprise Car Rental two miles away from home. Green Flag UK said they would refund the Ferry Crossing.
DFDS were brilliant too. They escorted Jean in her wheelchair to Deck 3 while I took Benji to Deck 4 to put him in the cage supplied. Certainly not an ideal situation by any means as Benji was left on the deck between the cars, all alone for five hours. There was no choice and we are still helping him get over the ‘being left alone’ at home. When we docked at Newhaven the whole ship was put on hold until Jean had been taken off down the ramp. Unfortunately, it took 45 minutes to get her off because a porter put her in a lift and left her. She was going up and down all the levels and the staff we chasing up and down trying to find her. So funny at the time. All ended well though.
Our journey from Newhaven to home took six hours, travelling the M25 at tea time and the horrendous weather conditions. Who cares, we all got home safe, in four days from breaking down, all thanks to Green Flag.
The repatriation process has begun and our motorhome is expected back at our local garage in the next week or so. Even that is a professional company, ONTIME AUTOMOTIVES who specialize in vehicle repatriation in closed vehicles. I think by the time it returns the dirty washing will be walking out on its own, the left over food will have left and all of our clothes will be in the wrong season.
So in our book GREEN FLAG deserves a terrific pat on the back for their superb service to us. Thank You Green Flag. We will be eternally grateful to you.
. We've also spent an overnight in a recovery yard, in Portugal, on top of the truck. Character-forming!
Oh my! I couldn't have let them take my van on that.