We would like to thank you all for following our progress and also for your patience in waiting for the return pics.

We are now back safely and settling back in to real life. So as not to flood this blog I have created a seperate page to contain all the images and videos. I will be editing and adding more videos as and when they are ready. Anyone interested in higher resolution copies of these images please email me. If you wish to use any of these images for any reason please contact me first.

CLICK HERE FOR IMAGES AND VIDEOS

Pump

Filling up from a pump at a normal petrol station in cologne, germany. We are on the way home here with lots of driving to do. We put in 50 litres and a further 10 in a container in the boot. It should get up home. 90c a litre and quick and painless. Well almost, the nozzle was massive and heavy. I felt like a fireman.

Rhine on fire

Rhine on fire was great. Tons of people, coachloads of them. Fireworks were good, and seeing all the boats lit up and so close to each other was cool. Got to campsite to find the owner locked the gate 15 minutes early so we cant get in. We will be having words. We have a lot of miles to cover tomorrow so time to go.

Nurem

Last night we went to a big club called won, or world of nightlife. Interesting although i am not sure i would go back. Hit the road early today and have just arrived at our stop for tonight which is close to oberwesel, they have a massive celebration tonight called 'the rhine on fire' all the rhine steamers float down it letting off fireworks while broues line the edges. It was a planned stop off so the trip went out with a bang. Check out the view from our pitch ! Early start tomorrow got lots of miles to cover to get back to calais and then home from dover. Then back to work on monday.

In

We took our cues from the many helpfull sign posts showing how to walk in nuremberg. Hmm, i must buy a hat.

Blend

When feeling like a stranger in a foreign land its important to blend in.

Nuremberg

Nuremberg is lovely i wish i had more time here. We made up a whole day running from the weather so we will most likely stay here for friday night. A good mix of people, amazing old gothic buildings and lots of watering holes. Plus trams all over the place and all the cabs are mercs.

Bk

Its incredible the cultural differences we have found on this trip. For example in nuremberg they call an xl big king an xxl big king :) think of the confusion. Plus they do the elusive triple whopper. notice the beer too.

Lidl

Filling up on 24, 3 litre bottles of lidls finest in slovenia. We also stuck 5 litres in from a small expensive supermarket on route to keep us going. Weather was appaling so we motored on to nuremberg and beat the weather here. Lidl was 66p a litre.

Graz

Staying in graz, austria tonight. Its freezing and drizzling but i have my beer jumper on so my tent should do fine. Pic is a bit rubbish never mind. Very clean and friendly place, a bit of a student town. Most people speak better english than me!

Slovenia

Here i am filling up from 2 litre bottles in slovenia, 14 litres in total. I must say i love the slovenian people we have met. Unlike most other countries we have been to very few speak english and they are happy to spend a little time to try to help us explain what we want using hand gestures. You will notice we have a box for the bottles. This is because we tried to say we emptied the shelf, do they have any more.. It simply got us an empty box to carry it in. But with a big smile and a wave as we drove off. Oil is more expensive in croatia than most of the other places we have visited, about 90p rather than 60p or so. Now we are out of croatia we will be stocking up.

The weather

The weather turned nasty again as we headed back to plitvice to do the lakes we skipped earlier.the wind and rain was so bad we abandoned camping and checked into a hotel with the most moody staff i have ever come across. Almost surreal, none of the guests could quite understand why they seemed to hate us all. I wont bother with examples but 90 percent of the people in the tourist industry in croatia really hate it. Its very odd. Why do the job ? The national parks are amazing though and in the morning we luckily had a break in the weather and did a 3 hour walk round plitvice. Oh my god! i will post links to big pics when i get back but if you visit the country you simply must do the walk around the upper lakes. It tops anything we have seen by a mile! time to start to head towards home now :( the temp yesterday hit 6.7 ! car not having any problems.

Croatian stuff

Time for some general stuff about croatia me thinks. As with a few other countries we have passed though the law is you must leave your lights on all the time. It gets really annoying when popping from campsite to campsite all next to each other but it definately makes it easier to see oncoming traffic. Another oddity is starters. Twice now we have ordered a dish from the starter section and a main course and ended up with 2 full size dishes! Last night they even all arrived together. 2 tuna steaks a large lasagna a pizza and spaghetti for just 2 people, surely they should have thought something was wrong. Also they often dont give you change, or just give partial change. Its happened in bars, restaurants and even at a toll booth. It seems the custom here. Very few campsites have any grass and most have very rocky ground. The morning sun can heat a tent up like a sauna but if you camp under a tree you will get sticky pine sap on it. And the same goes for any washing.

Krka

We didnt head far down the coast as we found another national park called krka. Very glad we did. This time we took a 2 hour boat trip up the valley. We hardly spoke the scenery was so breathtaking, i am really going to miss this place. Still its only 4 tanks of veg oil away.

Away from tourists

Finally got away from tourists. This is the view 30 metres from the tent taken at 8.30 this morning. It is similar but different to the left. If you like mountains and water mixed up with trees and baron scenery this place comes highly recommended. There are lots of amazing walks and hikes into the national parks but at the moment its too hot to even walk to the info place. We are planning one for later today when it gets cooler. Last night was incredibly windy changeable is not the word. In the last 3 days we have had fog that you can hardly see in, massive flood causing rain, hail and ice storms, shocking wind that lifts the car up on its suspension, amazing lightening, thunder although normally not with the lightening and of coarse searing heat. I wont be using changeable to describe uk weather again. Its great though, nice to have variation. Car doing well. One of the front lower ball joints is just starting to creak occasionally, i will check it out but it shouldnt be a problem. Its giving me a buzzing warning sometimes when i open the door. Its like the headlight warning but slighly lower pitch. I suspect its the headlight switch failing but it could be an intentional merc warning i dont know about. Any of you 190 guys got any ideas? I can read but not post in the forum.

Hot

Here is a shot taken from the ground, which is where i am laying because it is so hot. We are camped by paklenica national park its about 35 degrees. View pics will follow. Had a strange night last night. We were just about to give up and go in after failing to find anything in the touristy resort when we heard the sound of distant bass. The kenny is a bass loving creature so we hunted it down ray mears style until we found a croatian discoteque. Spent the night dancing to c & c music factory with tiny croatians and wondering if it would turn out like the film hostel.