In Summary.....

Mr Happy:

Travelled 821 miles over 450 with  Le Puck on the back and did not miss a beat, which is testament to Simon and the Boys at Absolute VW who gave the rattly engine a bit of seeing to before we set off, also when you consider it is a 1600 single port it coped well with extra weight and only had to to change down once on the steepest part of the Ridgeway (A34) we did do few hills at 40mph however. The overall mpg was 23.6. So really impressed overall

Le Puck:

Towed well and aside from disgracing itself by losing both wheel trims was fine. The roof canvas definitely needs changing as it does add a certain "musty" aroma to the inside.

Camping Chateau le Colombier

Not its fault it was in the wrong place, that was my lousy geography but was good with decent size pitches and spotless toilet blocks, how it copes when it is full as there well over 100 pitches who knows.

A few pictures below

Brittany Ferries:

Suitably slik, two very smooth crossings in Commodore (posh) cabins but bloody expensive!

Overall a good holiday with mixed weather and too much driving on the autoroutes to get to the bits we wanted to see, but would definitely go to the area again.

Next up Cornwall..................................

The Normandy Beaches

Wednesday dawned another glorious day so we decided to drive along the coast road west of Caen and take in some of the invasion beaches. The first one we reached was Juno beach where the Canadian troops landed with some of the Highland regiments at Bernieres sur Mer. We avoided the Juno Beach Centre further along the coast.
Below is a memorial to the Canadian troops

It is also the site of the first official monument to the invasion erected in 1949, which is next to the house which is claimed to be the first liberated by land forces in france

That house is now a museum in memory to the 2nd Canadian Army.
The drive along the coast really a very pleasant and sedate trundle with invasion memories everywhere.
We next stopped on the cliffs above Arromanches, where we picnicked in the car park overlooking the remains of the Mulberry Harbour

This was a truely incredible structure. It is difficult to believe it was manufactured in England in pieces in secret then floated over to Normandy and assembled filling Arromanches bay creating Port Winston.
Some of the concrete pontoons remains along with a preserved pieces of the modular bridging that linked then.

There is the obligatory museum in Arromanches town and a 360o cinema experience on the hill top.

We finished the day along the coast at the German gun battery at Longues sur Mer. These were 4 152mm guns built into the reinforced concrete bunkers on the cliff top, aimed by radio telemetry from a spotting station on the cliff edge. They were built early in 1944 as part of the defences planned by Rommel and were not fully finished at the time of the invasion, however they survived a 1000 tonnes of bombs on dropped on them the night before D Day and with a range of 12 miles they took on 3 warships and slugged it out on D Day until being put out action eventually before being captured by the Devonshire Regiment the day after.

This ended our day with lots unexplored but we needed to get back to base as we going out for a meal and it was an hour and a half drive.

Thursday was a bit of a washout as it p*ss*d it down for most of the day and I didn't want another days driving as we were back to the port that night. So it essentially involved a bit of shopping and waiting for the weather to break so we could pack up before heading for the overnight ferry home and on the way to the port we passed a dark blue and white bay whose registration ended BAY and were accompanied on the boat by a very nice splittie and a spotless late Westy in that lovely snot green!

Honfleur and Bayeux

Monday was an absolutely glorious day so we headed to Honfleur for a wander. Honfleur is very touristy so you get lots of restaurants, cafés and artists galleries.we had wander around the old town including the amazing wooden St Catherine church. We joined the masses and had lunch in one of eateries around the old harbour, before heading off to Leclerc for the obligatory shop. One comment I would make is that €4 to park all day near the harbour is pretty good value.
We then along the coast road alongside the vast expanse of sandy and pretty deserted beaches through the various resort towns including Trouville and Deauville which don't have a lot to recommend them along to Houlgate and back to camp. No piccies at the moment as I only used the camera and cannot upload them.
As forecast Tuesday dawned with persistent rain. We decided to head to Bayeux as I had never seen the tapestry. This was a bit of a trek as in all honesty the campsite was a bit far east for what we wanted to see.
We found a free car park near the old town (UK towns take note!) and headed off to the museum. It was pretty good value on a joint ticket with the invasion museum and included a good English audio guide.
Then it was back for a picnic in the car park!

By this time it had pretty much stopped raining so we had a walk through the old town. Bayeux unlike most of Normandy was left undamaged by the invasion and parts of it were like a scene straight from Allo Allo!

We then walked to the Normandy Invasion which again was well done and told the story in chronological order. Some of the statistics of men and equipment used were staggering especially the loss of life on all sides.

We finished with a visit to the British war cemetery across the road. This was very moving. It was stunning just how young most of the troops were. The sheer scale of loss of life is something we must never forget

Bienvenue en France

Well we had a very smooth crossing in a posh cabin. It is very civilised to be served warm croissants and coffee by a steward even if the time wasn't! We loaded up all the complementary goodies we could carry and headed back to the camper which started first time.
The trip to the campsite took just over an hour and we surprised them by wanting to check in before 9!
The campsite is in the orchard of the Chateau le Colombier and is fairly sparsely populated by Brits and the obligatory Dutch. Anyway first job park and get kettle on

Then we assembled the awning, which benefited from last weeks try out and then we basically dossed for the rest of the day

Mr Happy's Big Adventure

Well we are off. All the wiring was finished in the week. We loaded up and had a great ride down except that we managed to lose both plastic wheel trims which is a real pain as replacements are as rare as rocking horse droppings. Still now ready to board the overnight boat to Caen in a posh cabin.

The Test Run

With the Puck returning from my caravan man on Friday night, we ventured off for an overnight test trip to the C & CC site at Teversal, (which has possibly the poshest toilet block ever).
Mr Happy pulled the Puck remarkably well with the full gear on board. and we pitched up with the drive away awning attached to the Puck rather than the camper which also worked OK.
The only snags were a loss of right hand indicators on the Puck for the journey home, fortunately not many right turns needed, and we were not going to overtake anything! Also not convinced by the overrun brake but that may just be in comaprison to my much heavier modern van and lighter towcar.
So now set for Normandy adventure next week.
A few pictures below:

I also knocked up some window blinds using soem thermowrap insulation that I had left over which worked remarkably well and being foil based stayed in place without any rubber suckers.

A Photoshopped Puck

Courtesy of Bruce (Brucieboy) from www.thelatebay.com a photoshop of the Puck with camper. Real food for thought!

The Caravan Club

Or this could be entitled "rules are rules!"
I have been a member of the Caravan Club for over 25 years as I also have the conventional white box on wheels. I have always accepted that it is a bit pipe & carpet slippers and hidebound by rules, but the the sites are spotless and the pitches generous so I kind of put up with it.
This year they have got even more draconian in the pitching rules on where you put the van to meet fire "regulations" So with the impending arrival of the Puck I thought I would ask head office if my proposed pitching arrangement of camper reversed at right angles to the Puck which is at the back of the pitch with the campers driveaway awning attached to the puck giving a nice square rig which does not affect any fire breaks between pitches, the dreaded 3 & 6 metre rules, and ironically is narrower than if I attched the awning to the camper
Well that lead to several e mail exchanges and ultimately a phone conversation with the UK sites manager, which was err "interesting". He initially claimed that fire regulations stipulate that there has to be a 6 metre space between units and that the camper and the Puck were seperate units (only the Caravan Club have this interpretation of a unit) therefore it wasn't allowed, he corrected himself by saying that it wasn't regulations merely "Best Practice Guidelines" which I knew.
Having spent my career doing risk assessments I pointed out the blindingly obvious that from a fire safety point of view surely two people in seperate enclosed tin boxes were safer from  a fire spread point of view on a pitch than 1 person in a tin box and 1 in either an attached unprotected flammable awning or an adjacent tent on the same pitch both of which are allowed in the rules. He acknowledged that the rule didn't appear to make make sense but that was it, and I got a lecture about the importance of fire breaks between pitches which I fully agree with but was irrelevant to my request. I was further told that rules were all checked through and agreed to by committees of members and health and safety experts and could not be changed at will, so basically tough!
The response from the Caravan & Camping Club was as long as I only cook in one unit there shouldn't be a problem, and as I don't cook in the camper, as I dont like it smelling like a take away  that is definately not a problem!
So guess which organisation will be getting my business going forward

Getting Ready for the off......

So to bring the story upto date.
With the Puck safely on the drive the wheels were whipped off and the tyres changed for mini size caravan duty tyres, as it was going anywhere on the disintigrating smaller pair that were on.
A quick assessment then produced a list of jobs which were split into two, those which were needed before we camped and those which were needed probably over the winter.
Immediate:
Hubs & Brakes - It was patently obvious that that the parking / overrun brakes were, how to put it politely, crap!
Wiring - The 12v system was designed to be run from an external battery through the car 12n lead with no on board battery, and the condition of the lead was doubful
Mains - Original french design of hook up and socket, it came with adapters which at least allowed me to test it but it was a piece of originality I felt I could live without.
Gas - desribed as needing servicing, new hose & regulator soon sorted that.
Fridge - Did it work and was it safe
Poptop - needed cleaning & patching

Later
Poptop canvas  - replacing ( the original guy who sold them through ebay tragically passed away late last year, I have since found an alternative, more later)
Upholstery - It is original It may get overcovered to preserve it as we did on the camper.
Body seals - Should be a pretty bright red rather than black / grey through age so new ones required
Front window - Needs replacing, Original ones are as rare as hens teeth but I have a couple of leads on people who may be able to make me a copy
Body - I was thinking of having it sprayed to match the camper, but I am not now sure.

We are going to Normandy with the camper at the end of May and thought that it would be good to take the Puck back to the land of its berth so the pressure is on.

I took the view that with my time limited I would get my local caravan service man, Laurie, who looks after my modern 2 wheeled white box, to at least do the running gear, gas and 12volt. I checked the fridge in situ and it works on mains and gas, whether it is safe I await Laurie's verdict.

So far he has done the brakes which now function, and rewired the 12v which was a complete spiders web of different coloured wiring, and I have uprated the wiring on the camper towbar and fitted a new split charge relay to allow me power the fridge on 12 volt when towing.

I am promised the Puck back by the weekend... we will see!

Le Puck

My vision was I wanted a pretty original example from the same era as the the Camper. i.e. the '70's. A lot of trawling around the internet revealed that there were a reasonable number about and all roughly the same price about £2500 - £3000. Not cheap but that's life.
A lot I saw either had been "modified" or were just too battered to consider. A few dings were going to be inevitable bearing in mind the construction of an aluminium skin over a tubular frame.
The one I settled on was a 1976 model,  freshly imported from France, which was pretty original.
It was a long trip to Dover to look at it, however it did match the description pretty well, there are some pictures below

The only real defects being a tatty pop top canvas and slightly more problematical two old cracks to the front window covered by the stickers you can see. The interior was unmolested and in good order and underneath the chassis was solid and no sign of sponginess in the floor.
It doesn't seem to quite match the spec for the year shown in the following link:

http://www.bugpuck.be/en/eriba-caravans/eriba-puck.htm

but specs do vary from year to year and sometimes within years. This one having a later '70s interior but glass side windows so its either a crossover or the windows have been replaced.

Anyway all seemed well and the appropriate cash handed over. Beeing a bit wary of uncertain brakes and elderly tyres we set off back through the sleet on Good Friday, stopping at nearly every services for a check over. As it turns out the Honda CRV barely registered it was on the back and the journey home was uneventful, however I was glad I was travelling no further as the tyre walls were looking very dodgy by the time I got back!
So it was deposited on the drive and a weather improvement awaited for a closer examination....

In the Beginning..

Several years ago we were holidaying in Cornwall in our "big" caravan when a couple turned up on site in a VW Camper. My wife made the fatal error of saying "it could be fun to have one of those when the kids have grown up" to a classic car nut that was a dangerous statement to make, the appropriate magazines were bought, and 3 months later we bought a slightly frayed orange & white 1972 Westy in the car park at Vanfest. In my defence it did have 12 months MOT.
We enjoyed it for the next 12 months with only minor work carried out before it went in for the start of a rolling restoration.
Well that was the idea anyway! Things sort of snowballed and it emerged from Pirate VW fully restored and painted in very fetching BMW mini liquid yellow and VW Pastel white, at VAST expense
Christened Mr Happy  it has been lovingly cared for since then by Simon and the team at Absolute VW in Castle Donington and pottered around in by us both for picnics and camping.
It is seen below in full picnic mode last year

Anyway having seen a Camper pulling a matching Puck last year, I began to get itchy fingers again as I hadn't bought anything for some time, so I started to do some home work..........