Travelling

 Visiting my friend Muth.

Shopping.

Sightseeing.

Having tea and cake on the balcony.

Preparing for a weekend travel

Before using the van, I need to remove all tools and materials that have accumulated in the Luton Box. I also removed the temporary vertical shelving, to save space and weight. Now all the boxes are standing on the floor, which is also not ideal. But is ok for temporary use.

From construction mode into travel mode. Does not look very much different...

Travel in Switzerland

Once again the camper went on a road trip. This time to Davos in Switzerland. There is a hotel in the center with motorhome spaces. One can connect electricity - and use all the hotel facilities.

I did some travelling on mountain passes. As expected, the van drove very well. 

Here are some pictures.

In Switzerland, south side of Lake Constance (Bodensee). In the background the alps around Bregenz.

Breakfast in the camper.

In the forest.

Towards Flüela Pass.

At Flüela Pass Hospice.

The barren landscape of the Flüela Pass.

They only had a little sticker.

At Morteratsch near Bernina Pass.

High alpine mountains at Morteratsch. Piz Bernina is about 4000 m high.

Top of Bernina Pass.

Another sticker.

Also sticker from Albula pass Hospice.

Single lane road at Albula Pass.

Single lane road at Albula Pass.

Travelling to Switzerland

The camper is ready, weight limit is observed, the total weight is below 3.5 tons now.

Got the annual motorway toll sticker at the Raststätte Hegau.

There had been many weeks of warm, hot, sunny weather. Now that I am travelling there is a weather change: lots of rain will be coming.

I travel to my "usual" camp site: Remo Camping in Altdorf . I like the site and the whole region. The camp ground has very clean facilities, and it has something special: an outdoor LGB model railway is set up, an the campsite owners have a store for model railways: https://www.modellbau-widmer.ch/

Also the camp site has a terrain for RC model cars. 

As I arrive at the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne), the sky becomes cloudy. 

And when I arrive in Flüelen, rain and hail starts to pour down.

At the camp site I take my space, connect the electricity, and enjoy the rain drumming against the roof.

Better fuel mileage

Another long distance trip. This time I tried to watch the fuel consumption by driving slower, trying to keep speed even on the motorway below 50 mph / 80 km/h . And it worked: the consumption changed from 15 mpg (15 l per 100 km) to 17.7 mpg (13.5 l per 100 km). Still not overwhelming, but at least an improvement.

Waiting for the ferry in Dunkirk:

In comparison, my blue camper is not that large. The white van in front looks somehow more massive.

And back in the UK:

Terrible mileage

On some pamphlet of the seller there was a mention of 30 mpg for the fuel consumption. Turns out that was overly optimistic: the big Luton box is not very smooth in the wind of driving, and when going more than 80 km/h, this is a major factor. Not sure what the cw value for this vehicle is...

But when filling up, I got around 15-16 mpg. Not very impressive... the LDV had an overall average of 25.5 mpg, over all the past 6 years.

I will probably need to drive much slower. Even though the vehicle drives very smooth at 70 mph. But that is probably not a very efficient speed... 

Waiting in Dover for the ferry: