Don Jolly: A European Tour

            I first undertook a European tour 40-odd years ago when I drove in my Mark 1 Cortina with a couple of friends from London to what was then Yugoslavia. The whole trip was just three weeks long, we took a tent, sleeping bags and cooking equipment in the boot, and we had an amazing time, visiting places like Sarajevo, Mostar and Dubrovnik that unfortunately became headline news in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, as well as cities en route like Munich, Salzburg, Graz, Venice, Milan, Luzern and Reims.

               Back home, I resolved what I needed for even longer tours abroad was a VW Campervan and when one came up for sale locally I arranged for a test drive. The only problem was the thing wouldn’t start (they were not noted for their reliability). I gave up and bought a VW Beetle instead, along with a new tent, and explored Europe - but mainly France - bits at a time.

               I’ve been doing it ever since, writing travel articles for national and regional newspapers and magazines, and contributing to guide books, and editing outdoor magazines. But I’ve still hankered after that European tour. And now we - Gill and I - are about to set off!

               We’ve gone for the Brazilian built VW Type 2 with a conversion by Danbury, and since we bought it we’ve done local trips just to get to grips with it. While it’s only three years old, it still has the feel of something older about it, though it does have one important mod-con not featured on the original - power steering. Oh, and a water-cooled engine, which, hopefully, will improve reliability.

               As motor-caravanning on this scale is new to us, we’ve taken our time, gathering our bits together. Space in the vehicle is somewhat limited compared with some of the gin palaces you see on the roads, so we’ve been pretty selective about our purchases. We’ve limited the amount of clothing we’re taking too, so we’ll be wearing stuff until it falls apart and buy replacements as we go - I wonder if Albania has the equivalent of Primark or Aldi!.

               Anyway, we’re done now, all loaded up and if we’ve forgotten anything, we’ll just have to make do for now. It’s the first day of March, we left home way before dawn and we’re crossing the Channel on the P&O Ferries’ Spirit of Britain on a beautiful sunny morning, heading for France.

…after France, it's Spain, Portugal, then east to Italy, across the Adriatic to Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Holland, Belgium, and back to Dover via Calais. 

Please join us as we go...