The weather forecast proved somewhat accurate, with gale force winds through the evening. Our stopover proved to be quite protected and, with little traffic passing by, we had a pretty good night’s sleep. Woke to the wind picking up strength, but, with no real concerns (apart from our fresh water tank dripping), we set off to our anticipated stop around 260km away – no rush!
Almost immediately the rain started lashing down, soon turning to sleet, and then to driving snow. Traffic crawled along at 30km/h, apart from those doing 50 and those doing 10! Remembering that any similar weather simply shuts the UK down completely, it was still no surprise to see a veritable armada of snow ploughs and various salt & grit spreaders looming through the gloom. However, with no real time constraints we decided to cut the day short upon reaching Ravensburg, a distance of … 25km!
And a good thing we did too. Lovely old town characterized by towers, semi-pedestrian inner town, and the usual amazing coffee houses. Having made a deal that, with the next flurry we would duck in and have a cozy coffee, that’s just what we did. No downsides here!
So, a leisurely time spent in the town necessitated an afternoon nap – we are still recovering from a 12 hour time difference (and 30 degree temperature difference), but can’t quite sync that we both collapse at the same time. Not bad though, with sun coming out, birds warbling in the hedges around the van etc.
Trying to sort the dripping water tank led us to empty our supply in order to clean and grease the valves. Drove a few meters to the dumping station, emptied what little water we had, paid our €1 for 100 liters of water to find … there was no water. As it’s now dark we head off to the nearest gas station to find there facilities are closed until the end of March. This proved to be very common and explains why we are staying for free in our Stellplatz. Eventually found a nice person at the next garage who opened her car wash for us to fill up with water… and that might even be drinking water, time will tell.
So back to camp, settled down to cheese and biscuits, good wine and a movie – we might even push along a little faster tomorrow. Oh, and leak seems to have disappeared …
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