Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 14:09:19 +0300
Reply-To: Stebbins <stebbins@AUCEGYPT.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stebbins <stebbins@AUCEGYPT.EDU>
Organization: The American University in Cairo
Subject: CDA to UK: Trip report – longish
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
As some of you might remember, I live(d) in Halifax, Nova Scotia and I
have taken a job at The American University in Cairo (where I sit as I
write this). Enroute to Cairo, I shipped my 91 Syncro Westy from
Halifax to Liverpool, UK. I used the RORO (roll-on-roll-off) service,
but you might want to use a container, (shop for prices). ROROing my
van cost about US$700 (one-way) and took about 7 to 10 days. Halifax is
the last port of call in North America and Liverpool is the first port
of call in UK/Europe. If you ship your van from another place to
another place, it will take longer.
Regarding the formalities: all went well, a minimum of paper work from
very friendly folks:
Eileen McMullin
Customer Service Team Leader
Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Halifax NS
Tel: 902 425 2873
Fax: 902 425 2873
EMail: emcmullin@wlna.com
I also obtained good service from:
Jim Creer jim.creer@2wglobal.com
And Brett Harris <b.harris@OGMA.ie>
Liverpool Manager
Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines UK
Phone 44 (0)151 922 6861
Fax 44 (0)151 928 7688
And Brett Harris <b.harris@OGMA.ie>
It took only about 2 hours to get the van out of UK customs and we were
on the road. You will need: Proof of ownership of the van
(state/province registration papers), International Drivers License,
proof of van insurance (called a “Green Card” and this is expensive –
contact your CAA/AAA office or search the web), shipping documentation
(Manifest?), & of course passport etc.
We stuffed every cupboard and drawer of the van full of all of our
personal effects, but to the casual observer, the van appeared empty.
No items were missing from the inside of the van, but the gas cap was
stolen and 1/2 a tank of gas was siphoned out of the tank.
One item that I did not get sorted out prior to our departure was the
issue of Propane. As I knew that I was shipping the van on to Egypt, I
decided to remove the propane tank prior to shipping the van to the UK
(I did this as I did not know how I would/could get the Westy propane
tank filled in either UK or Egypt). I will never know if this was the
correct thing to do. But a MISTAKE that I made was that I also removed
the copper propane pipes (from the stove/fridge to the tank) from the
van. Next time, before I leave Canada, I will find a way to attach
some flexible propane hose to the "olive" nipple up behind the
fridge/stove or, just saw the pipes off just under the sink where they
come out from behind the fridge/stove unit (pointing towards the front
of the van, towards the sink). This would have made life MUCH easier
for me/us, as then I could have gone into ANY Calorgas (the local
propane bottle co.) shop and bought a bottle of propane, regulator,
splitter valve and hoses, clamps and had my propane hooked up in about 1
hour, right in Liverpool! As it was, in the 4 weeks that we were in UK
I never did find any fitting to screw onto the “olive” fitting for the
propane lines that come from the stove & fridge, so we only had DC for
the fridge and we used a small Coleman stove for cooking. Very
sub-optimal, but workable as it is not too hot in UK.
Costs: UK is very expensive compared with Canada, about twice as
expensive (and Canada is more expensive than the USA). For example: in
the UK petrol was about 79.9 to 84.9 pence per liter (and rising). On
average it cost the 2 of us (my wife and I) over CDN$200/day for the 26
days that we were in UK (this does NOT include airfare, or ROROing the
van). Now folks, we stayed in camp grounds every night (except for a
hotel the first & last night) and we ate all breakfasts in the van and
80 to 90 % of all dinners were cooked and eaten in the van, and we don’t
drink much beer, I consider us to be frugal. This cost does not include
my wife’s 3 p.m., £3 to £4 English tea, that she paid for nearly every
afternoon. We either paid the money out in petrol, on the days that we
were driving, or we paid the money out in entry fees for all of the
touristy stuff that we did (castles, museums, gardens and the like, (no
Disneyland stuff for us)). Also, internet access is expensive, we paid
between CND$2 and CDN$10 for 30 minutes of access!!!!!!
As a syncro note, I removed the front drive shaft and bolted it
horizontally to the back vertical face of the pop-top, this worked
fine. The extra low syncro gear worked well for some the tight spots.
Also we found that the VERY detailed book of maps that is available in
your local big bookstore was VERY helpful (as opposed to a single fold
out map). We used the big Collins(?) book of map but next time we would
buy the Michelin book of maps as it shows the scenic roads better. We
used the Lonely Planet UK guide book and found it excellent. We
traveled extensively in Scotland, Wales and southwest England. We
particularly enjoyed the “B” & “C” roads (as opposed to the big highways
and motorways), often one lane and often you could reach out and touch
the buildings that we were passing in the small villages.
Many of the camp grounds are NOT up to North American standards (but
still £10, £17 in London), but the best one we found was on the
outskirts of Bath (Newton Mill in Twerton?) with easy bus access to
Bath. Many camp grounds have laundry facilities but often they take 2,
£1 coins!. Also when we were in London, we stayed on the east side of
London (Abbywood camp ground) and took the train into London each day
with an all day rail pass (after 9:30 a.m.). You might consider joining
the Caravan Camping Club of England
http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/ as you get discounts and
some of the small – nice- campgrounds are “members only”, we were turned
away from nice places that we would have like to camp.
Of course, my van is left hand drive, and I found it little trouble to
drive in the UK. We both tried to be extra vigilant about driving, I
did make some ‘mistakes’ but they were minor. Driving off first thing
in the morning when there was no traffic was the time that I would
“forget”, but a car coming straight at me in “my” lane was a good
reminder.
I hope that his helps any of you thinking of a similar visit. We will
NOT do UK again as it is just too expensive. I have been told that
continental Europe is a bit cheaper. I now await my van here in Egypt
and we plan on traveling through Egypt, Jordan, and Israel over the next
9 months. When we leave this job, we will drive back up through Israel
and take a ferry to Greece, then Italy then out through UK ROROing the
van back to Canada, that is if there is much van left after a year or 2
in Egypt :-(
Lots of vanagons on the UK roads, but VERY few seemed to feel any
affinity to me and my van as FEW gave the “vanagon wave”.
Cheers. I will remain on the list for a few days, but I will then have
to “set vanagon nomail” as I am busy here with my new job. But I
thought that some of you might like to read this. When I have anything
to say about Egypt, I’ll post it.
Re travel arrangements, to get from Heathrow airport to Liverpool (or
any other port city), check out the feasibility of a direct bus from
London airport to Liverpool rather than the train, the bus might be a
direct service and the train entails lugging suitcases up and down, on
and off trains/subways – a PITA.
All in all, for a trip of less than 2 months (who can afford that?!?!?).
I’d suggest renting a van in in Europe (try the guy in Amsterdam) as
shipping your van over and back will just about equal the cost to rent a
van. For me, the cost to ship the van over and back was paid for by the
university here, so that is why I tried.
I am in DIGEST mode for the list, so if you want to contact me directly
you can.
Malcolm Stebbins MALCOLM.STEBBINS@MSVU.CA
