A few disjointed van related learnings :
- The van doesn't like hills. She specially doesn't like the highest mountain ranges in Spain in 42 degrees. Nursing your engine takes on a whole new meaning, when you are permanently running one or two notches hotter than normal, and a 5mph difference on a long hill climb can mean the difference between flashing warning signs on the dash, and a bad tempered but resigned humph from the engine as she drags up the hill
- Cloth covered seats, and a lack of airconditioning is a *really* bad mix. I've invested in a cheap and cheerful fan for evenings, but it doesn't run whilst on the move, so sitting on towels becomes order of the day. Its a desperate attempt to not repeat one evening's experience, after a long 4 hour run and having got out to check in at the campsite, getting back into the drivers seat to find it wetter than the North Sea!
- Investing in the sports drink bottles with the drop in ice wedge is a fantastic idea, and makes drinking so much more pleasant and refreshing than tepid to lukewarm sludge in a bottle. And you will be drinking like crazy.
- Combining your satnav with your phone has some unexpected drawbacks :
- The GPS component of the satnav is the most incredibly battery hungry piece of technology I've ever seen, so the phone has to be permanently charging off the car battery whilst it's running
- Charging the phone generates heat
- Running the Satnav software generates huge amounts of heat
- Fried phone and shutdown, usually just before I reach a set of complex and unknown junctions.
- If I don't answer your call and I'm parked up, it's probably because the phone is in the fridge, recuperating.......
- Spanish traffic police don't feel too worried about stopping distance, driver behaviour and other traffic on the road when nabbing speeding cars - still it gave me my thrill for the day :) and I could feel virtuous as I ambled on at a steady 60mph....
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