A quart into a pint pot

5 June 2014 by Geoff Nimmo Posted in 2CV, Feature Tagged 2CV, CharlieCharleston, extraordinaryplaces

Houdini and a coffin – phah. The TARDIS, yeah, yeah. Geoff Nimmo, our gear for a year and a 2CV – now THAT is a magic trick worth seeing.

Read on and you might even win something!

So, this is all we own.

ALL WE OWN (2)

Yes, we did actually unpack it all and arrange it – for YOU! Now you too can see just how many underpants and how much nail varnish you need to travel the world!

This is all we own, packed into bags.

ALL WE PACKED

This is the boot (trunk if you are American) of our 2CV – with 6 eggs and a coffee pot for scale.

ALL WE HAVE ROOM FOR IN THE BOOT

All we own goes in there and on the back seat…. It really does. See!

ALL WE STACKED

Sardines quiver at the mention of Geoff Nimmo’s name.

We are often asked how we decided what to pack, so just for fun, we thought we would not just show you all we are travelling with on our Grand Tour, but give you a chance to profit too.

In the spirit of ‘guess the weight of the pig” – we challenge you to guess the amount in the ugly duck! Using the first photo from this blog and the close-ups below, see if you can guess (or count if you have small children you can bribe, are off work sick or have no friends and nothing else to do) how many items we fit into Charlie Charleston.

We are going to run this little competition until the end of June, and whoever gets closest to the number will get a nice bottle of whiskey/wine/perfume/video/book or something else of their choosing.

Post your number in the comment section below, or on our Facebook page. In the spirit of full disclosure, we should add that since these photographs were taken, we have bought a toaster, a pressure cooker, two new therma-rests, two camel and goat hair blankets and a hot water bottle (there was still snow on the Atlas mountains), but thankfully Geoff did get rid of five pairs of socks to make room.

BEDS

CLOTHES & TOILETRIES (ALL)

CLOTHES (GEOFF 1)

CLOTHES (GEOFF 2)

CLOTHES (SARA 1)

CLOTHES (SARA 2)

CLOTHES (SARA JEWELLERY)

CLOTHES (TOILETRIES)

COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS

KITCHEN (ALL)

KITCHEN (CLOSE-UP 1)

KITCHEN (CLOSE-UP 2)

KITCHEN (CUTLERY & PLATES)

KITCHEN (TOAST TOPPING)

MAPS

STORAGE (CUPBOARD & BAGS)

STORAGE (SAFES & BAG)

TOOLS (ROPES, SPADES,CABLES)

TOOLS

Letting the train take the strain

21 May 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged 2CV, extraordinaryplaces, Italy, motor rail

Many people ask us how fast our 2CV goes. Well, for awhile Charlie was going at 160kmh and travelled a thousand kilometers. Pretty damn impressive, huh? Well, also pretty unlikely. Charlie let the train take the strain as we motor-railed our way to Amsterdam.

All aboard for Dusseldorf

To be honest we didn’t realize that motor rails still operated in Europe and had come across the service by accident – but it’s brilliant! The motor rail brings together a regular sleeper train and a car carrier and leaves Italy from Alessandria, just north of Genoa. There are other services from other places as well, so we strongly recommend you check it out. The car can remain fully loaded when it is driven on, and because Charlie has a soft top, he was loaded at the bottom and behind another vehicle for added protection. At those speeds he would have had quite a nasty face lift on the top deck! It was still a pretty tight squeeze.

Charlie is ready to roll

We left Alessandria in the late afternoon, with a five-person carriage all to ourselves. All that was left to do was sit back and enjoy the ride.

Nothing to do but relax

Later in the year, with longer days, we would have seen the Alps speed by, but not long after we left Italy it was too dark for a view.

Last views of Italy

Charlie is back there somewhere

The morning dawned misty and grey, but we breakfasted with river views and Rhineland castles as we rattled toward Dusseldorf.

Grey days and morning haze

Imposing castles and dwarfed caravans near Koblenz

Misty moutain morning

Rhine castles even in the river

Speeding through Germany

By 10:30 we had arrived in Dusseldorf and Charlie came rolling off, none the worse for our high speed adventure.

Slowly coming off the carrier

Setting our sights on Amsterdam

Another three hours and we were back home to Amsterdam, with a new-found love of motor rails!

Broken Charlie

8 April 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in 2CV, Blog, Feature Tagged 2CV, Carlo Falcone, CharlieCharleston, extraordinaryplaces, Italy, Livorno, Lucca, Puccini, Villa Panicucci 1 Comment

One minute we were laughing about our day in Pisa, the next moment a loud bang and lurch had Charlie’s back end virtually on the tarmac and us going nowhere.

Our little car has conquered the highest mountain passes in Morocco, but a simple bend in the road in Italy was all it took to snap part of the suspension. It didn’t look good.

Midnight nightmare – a broken car in a strange town

Here’s the technical bit – the knife edge, or suspension end piece, has snapped in half.

Down at heel – Charlie’s rear end is virtually on the road

Geoff getting the car jack from under the bonnet

Geoff gets under a jacked-up Charlie to see the damage

This little thing is all it has taken to stop us in our tracks.

This is the offending item

It might sound bad, but if bad is going to happen, it couldn’t have been better. We weren’t on a snowy mountain road in Morocco. We weren’t three days away from our visas for Morocco running out. We weren’t somewhere where parts cannot be delivered, or mechanics will just make up a number and add two zeros because we are tourists. We weren’t hurt and Charlie is not terminally damaged. But there is more.

Our overnight in Livorno may be turning into a slightly longer stay, but Italy is already weaving its magic.

We broke down at midnight, outside a pizzeria that was just closing. Despite the lateness of the hour, our lack of Italian and their lack of English, our combined mime routines meant they called us a taxi, wrote a note to put on the car so it would not get towed and promised to watch over Charlie and all our gear.

The owners of Villa Panicucci, the lovely B&B in Montenero in the hills above Livorno in which we are staying, also could not have been more helpful.

Gianfranco and Betty Messina had already stayed up until 2am the night before because our ferry was horribly delayed from Morocco. News of our car nightmare got them organising a place to stay for us that night, as they were fully booked. They put us in their grandmother’s cottage up the road, until we could return to the B&B the next night. They drove us to the train station so we could get to Pisa to pick up a hire care. Last night they were having friends over for dinner and Geoff was introduced to one of guests who spoke fluent English and offered to go to the garage with Geoff and act as translator.

Turns out that not only is he nice man who is generous with his time and linguistic skills, he is also Carlo Falcone – a top Italian classic car racer, owner of the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, father of America’s Cup winner Shannon, and fresh from the San Remo rally where he and his Porsche came second. First thing Monday morning Carlo drove his Shelby GT500 Mustang down to where Charlie was parked, and as he stepped out of the most powerful production V8 car in the world, he took one look at all 600ccs of Charlie Charleston and declared him a beautiful car in his favourite colours!

We think Charlie will be well taken care of at the local garage. Take a moment to imagine the look on the face of the mechanic, when an Italian racing car hero marched into his shop at 08.30 on a Monday morning, to act as translator for an Aussie dude with a broken 2CV. It was a picture!

On Sunday, before all of that excitement, we went to Lucca, a nearby ancient walled city. We would not have gone if we had not been stranded here. We discovered that it is the birthplace of Puccini and very pretty.

The house of Pucinni’s birth

The ancient eliptical piazza

Pretty Lucca

But there is more!

As we tucked into a most delicious lunch of freshly made ravioli, risotto and scallopini in the main piazza, a salsa dance troupe appeared and put on an impromptu show.

Impromptu dancing in the Piazza

Later, strolling back to our hire care, we spotted a performance of arias from Madam Butterfly was on, for one day only, starting at 17.00. It was 16.50 and they had two tickets left. We couldn’t believe that pure chance would have us listening to Madam Butterfly in the concert hall of Puccini’s home town!

The stage is set

Driving back to Montenero, we stopped to check on Charlie and eat pizza with his guardians at Pizzeria Rosticceria.

Keeping Charlie’s position on GPS

As well as their own small, dish-baked pizzas with whatever topping you want, we had the local speciality ‘torta de ceci’, a savoury pancake made from chickpea flour, and ‘il ponce’– a delicious local coffee liqueur with rum, sugar and lemon, said to have been invented to warm the cockles of stranded sailors when the weather was too bad for sailing. It is said that Il Ponce is ‘capable of comforting the soul and helping in difficult moments”. How appropriate for us! The restaurant staff greeted us with open arms and promised again to keep looking out for the car until we got it to the garage. If you are ever in Livorno go to this pizzeria on Via de Monternero 28. They are charming, smiling and generous people and their pizzas are delicious!

So what better place to be waiting for Charlie to be repaired.

The view from our B&B in Montenero, overlooking Livorno

Our unexpected home from home in Montenero, Livorno

Lazy daisy days in Livorno

The very orange bees in the garden

One of the long-toed friendly geckos

All of this human warmth and good fortune has come from one small broken piece of metal. So although we wouldn’t wish any more trouble on poor old Charlie, we count ourselves very lucky indeed. Grazia mille to all of those who have helped us in these last few days and if this is what Italy is like, then we are going to like it a lot!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

27 March 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in 2CV, Blog Tagged 2CV, Atlas Mountains, extraordinaryplaces, Morocco, snow, white-out

“There should be snow by the side of the road so it really feels like we have driven in the Atlas mountains” I said. Be careful what you wish for, Holden.

As we had climbed over the highest road in Morocco a few days earlier, we had certainly seen the remains of snowy peaks, and there was even some of the white stuff still clinging on by the side of the road. So, we could tick that box.

Snow by the side of the road – tick!

The High Atlas sure is pretty!

The day before, sugar-coated mountain tops and sunshine!

However, just a few days ago – long after the mountain passes had been declared “snow-free” we were driving from Midelt, in the Mid Atlas range, to Fes over a lower pass, we had our customary roof-off-whatever-the-weather approach, despite a few spits and spots of rain.

“Hang on, ” we said, almost in unison “that’s not rain, it’s snow!”

The first few flakes were fun, fluttering down in soggy splats on the windscreen, but as we climbed higher, at around 1900m, it started to come down so thick and fast that the roof was definitely going back on and that was the least of our worries!

The visibility when it was still okay

Visibility was closing in fast – this is a mountain road!

Suddenly our colourful Moroccan world become monochrome

We were 60km from our destination, on a winding mountain road in a virtual white-out!

Honestly – there is a mountain over there

An almost total white-out

Three times we had to stop to clear the windscreen. So much snow had packed across the front of poor old Charlie Charleston that no air could get to cool the air-cooled engine and it was in the bizarre danger of overheating in the snow, the headlights where virtually blanked out with the white stuff and at one stage the wipers simply stopped in mid-swing, too jammed with snow to cope.

The third stop to clear the windscreen and headlights

Geoff is standing at the front of the car and is barely visible

Finally as we descended into Ifrane – ironically one of the top ski resorts in Morocco (no, we didn’t know there were ski resorts here either!) – the snow stopped.

A white-knuckle ride we didn’t expect, but all part of the adventures. By the snow on the side of the road measure, we have driven across the Atlas mountains in style!

The high road to Marrakech

19 March 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog, Slide Show Tagged 2CV, Atlas Mountains, CharlieCharleston, extraordinaryplaces, Marrakech, Morocco, Tizi n'Tichka

The road to Marrakech is worth a mention in its own right, for the sheer beauty, variety and breathtaking scale. It was a truly gorgeous and memorable mountain drive.

We left the dunes of Merzouga and found ourselves crossing wide valley floors, at first still with hard packed desert crust – known as reg, but soon scrubby bushes began to sprout in the valley and the distant mountains had a touch of white on their peaks.

After the desert sands, the earth gives way to barren road and mountains

And then desert becomes scrubland and rocks turn to ice

En route we passed through the beautiful Gorges du Dades, with its curious rock formations, glorious mud kasbahs, almond blossom and deep canyons.

Gorgeous colours, shapes and angles in the Gorges du Dades

In the Gorges du Dades the colours almost defy nature

The Gorges has every rock formation imaginable, from boulders to melting wax

The houses in the Gorges du Dades are almost invisible against their mother earth

The Gorges houses ancient buildings that look more like clay models

Gripping the sides of the Gorges du Dades, strange rock formations are a characteristic of the valley

Great builders created beautiful kasbahs straight from the mud and earth

We made a short stop at the most recognized kasbah in Morocco – Kasbah Amridil.

The most famous kasbah in Morocco – Amridil – as seen on a 50 dirham note

The modest courtyard of the Kasbah Amridil

The mudbrick walls of Kasbah Amridil have stood the test of time – just!

The music may have stopped but the kasbah Amridil lives on

Soon we started to climb, and despite our 2CV Charlie Charleston being fully loaded, his mighty 600cc engine, combined with Geoff’s navigation of every twist and turn – finally brought us over the highest road in Morocco – the Tizi n’Tichka at 2260m.

Just the spot for a picnic in the High Atlas

The palms give way to rock and ice

The barren hills on the south side of the High Atlas

There is always a place for a pot seller, even on the highest road in Marrakech!

The slopes are starting to show more vegatation

The long, winding and glorious road through the mountains

Almost immediately we began to descend, we found ourselves in another world, very far from the desert roads and dunes to which we had become accustom. Verdant valleys, bright with green grass and fields, it felt like another country, not the other side of the mountain.

The southern slopes give way to green hills on the northern side

The sudden change is like a different country, with succulent cacti and rolling hills

But the snowy Atlas Mountains never really leave you – even in the heart of Marrakech, they are quietly peering over your shoulder in the distance.

Welcome to Marrakech – with the snow caps faintly showing in the distance

The Sahara

4 March 2014 by Geoff Nimmo Posted in Feature Tagged 2CV, desert, extraordinaryplaces, Morocco, Sahara, sand dunes

Our first attempt to drive amongst the dunes of the Sahara left us stuck like a turtle on a rock and rescued by camel feeders – but we were undaunted!

Yep, we got bogged again!

Getting a tow from the camel feeders

At the end of the main street in M’Hamid is the desert. One minute you are driving on Tarmac and the next on sand.

M’hamid – the last town on the map

We trundled for a couple of kilometers until a sudden hummock of sand stopped us in our tracks. Thankfully it was feeding time for the camels and some cheery handlers offered Geoff a tow rope with a metal hook more like the end of a coat hanger. But it did the job and we were off again, finding a suitably Charlie-friendly dune for a few shameless photo ops!

Geoff in traditional headgear in the dunes

You might laugh at the headdress now, but believe us, it is much better than a scarf and baseball cap in the desert.

Charlie at the base of the dune

Charlie couldn’t shake off the camels

Camel tracks going up the dune

Next stop N’Kob, where we saw the less exciting side of the desert. A dust cloud enveloped us and everything else for three days.

There are mountains inside that dust cloud

Trying to shake off some of the dust

The sun blotted out by Saharan dust

The sun was blotted out with a sickly yellow coating and even the view across the street was blank. Our tent Chubby Coleman was encrusted, but did a fine job keeping it on the outside when expensive motor homes were inundated.

After two days we could see a little more, but it was still through a veil of sand

Desert as far as you can see through the dust clouds

As the skies cleared we left N’kob and headed further east. Finally in Merzouga we could really say we were in the dunes.

The view from the terrace!

Erg Chebbi is a series of dunes that sit alone in the south east of Morocco. So the story goes that when a wealthy family would not give hospitality to an old woman and her son, God was offended and buried them under a huge pile of sand.

They are far more beautiful than their rather macabre legend might suggest – with golden, pink and ochre hues that warmed, cooled and glowed as the day grew long.

Kasbah in the dunes

Pink gold at sunset

Some really were golden yellow

The pink and yellow dunes

The rich colours of sunset

The setting sun over the dunes

The desert here is a multi-coloured affair. Blackened hard sand covers much of the land, contrasting against the golden, pinky dunes and crushed, whitened dirt roads, known as pistes.

The sun-blackened hard sand – reg, contrasts with the soft, golden sahel sand

The white sand road through the black sand desert

Walking in the dunes was easier than expected, with the top sand crust hard and impacted, except where the ubiquitous 4x4s and quad bikes had been. There are moves to ban both from the dunes because of the damage they cause. It is claimed that Saharan dust levels have increased more than 1000% since the 1950s and much of that has been attributed to the breakup of the sand crust from vehicles. Camels don’t damage the surface in the same way and look and sound a lot better too!

Finally in the dunes

Standing in the Sahara desert – tick!

Where’s a camel when you need one?

Almost directly in front of our tent was a tempting and deceptively easy looking climb.

It didn’t look too bad from here

We couldn’t have been more wrong! One step forward, 9/10ths step back, while sinking up to our ankles on a never-ending ridge was lung-poppingly hard.

It doesn’t look that high, does it?

It still wasn’t too bad from here

It was starting to get hard from here

Nearly there

Nearly, nearly there

Now, he’s made it!

I had to stop because it was too hard on my injured knee. Geoff carried on and, despite a low point when he was overtaken by a small, but surprisingly speedy beetle, finally made it to the top!

Speedy beetle

The dot on the ridge is Geoff, still going

At least one of us made it up there and we both concluded the dunes are a lot easier on the eye than they are on the knees.

The slide show has plenty more pictures for you to enjoy from the comfort of your chair.