Campervanning Cornwall Day 4 – More car trouble

So we woke up after the first night in out hired VW camper van, with the plan to see Cornwall in a campervan. Weather was better, in as much as it wasn’t raining. See how we fared on Day 1

It was off to the showers for a freshen up and then back for a nice campervan breakfast. Simple sausage sandwiches as that is all the food we could find last night when travelling to the site.

We programmed the sat nav and off we went, with the first destination on our Cornwall in a campervan trip was Rame Head. The trip involved a short crossing on the chain ferry in Plymouth. Not very busy and didn’t have to wait long at all.

So far so good, when we see Cornwall in a campervan

It wasn’t long before we were enjoying the cliff top views at Rame. Every opportunity was taken to pull over and capture the amazing scenery, the green hills, the sea below crashing against the rocks. Occasionally there were steps leading down to the golden sands of the beach below.

We really wanted to try and find somewhere to park, preferably near a lift. As lifts didn’t exist in the cliff face of Cornwall, we would settle for stairs.

And then it all goes horribly wrong

But that’s when it happened. At first I didn’t think anything of it. I jumped out to take yet another photograph and the engine turned off.

Odd, I thought. Got back in started the van and there it was. The GlowPlug light. Flashing at me. I am sure at one point in morse code it spelled out “Your holiday is over!”

I pulled away and at first it seemed fine, but then it was obvious something was wrong. No power, or at least nothing like it should be.

We decided to make our way to the campsite as it was only about 15 miles away and by this time it was late afternoon. The next 45 minutes was a mixture of flying downhill and crawling up hill. At one point we did almost a mile at 12 mph. 1st gear all the way!

Worst journey ever!

The occasional glance in the mirror saw a long line of traffic piling up behind us with the only indication something was wrong was our hazard lights! Just remember if you’re travelling at just over 10 miles an hour on a country road in traffic, don’t always assume it’s a tractor you’re stuck behind.

Eventually, and with a huge amount of relief, we made it to the campsite. Parked the van and set about making tea, trying to forget all about the toils of the last couple of hours.

Again, no time to stop at our farm shop for good local produce. It ended up being frozen chicken cooked under the grill in the van with pasta and a sweet and sour stir fry sauce. Remarkably tasty considering how it was thrown together!

A few calls to and from the campervan company and we agreed they would bring our car to us tomorrow, Sunday morning, and a replacement van on Monday afternoon. But more on that in another post!

For now, we would retire to our campervan bed, and try and make the best of the situation that was not turning out as we’d hoped!