day 1 map

Hymer parked at Stafford services UK

Taking a break at Stafford services M6

Day 1 - Home to Portsmouth


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Day one of our holiday. I say day one, but of course there has been a lot of preparation work done before we leave home, sometimes I think it's not quite right to call it day one when we leave, maybe we should count all the days spent planning our motorhome journeys around Europe.

We are booked on the Brittany Ferries sailing at 0815 Tuesday, so we have allowed all of Monday to travel from Lancaster to Portsmouth in our Hymer B544. It's a long journey. Motorway travel in the UK can go well, or it can be a nightmare with delays caused by collisions or roadworks. Changes to the motorway network to create so-called 'smart motorways' are predictable in the sense that you will be delayed. On completion of all the work you will still be delayed so there doesn't seem much sense in it.

To save time on the journey we make a flask of coffee so that our stopping time can be kept to a minimum. Gill and Alan share the driving, usually in about 2 hour sections. Today the journey to Portsmouth goes well, we covered the 281 miles in 6.5 hours of actual driving plus a couple of stops for breaks and lunch.

Portsmouth is not an easy place to find an overnight stopping location, although the UK is starting to have a limited number of places where motorhomes can stay overnight. There is a real problem in the UK in the shape of two organisations for caravan and campers. These organisations have networks of small campsites as well as their own larger sites, but access is limited to members of the organisations, the facilities are very rudimentary and variable, and costs far outweigh the value of the service. Europe is served by a huge network of 'aires' (as they are called in France) most of which are free to stay at and have nominal charges for water etc if those additional facilities are not also free. Motorhomes are seen in a positive way in Europe, they bring visitors who spend freely, especially on fuel, groceries and wine, not to mention eating out in local restaurants and paying to visit tourist attractions.

We use a well-know phone app to locate our overnight stop at Portsmouth and phone ahead to request permission to stay on a car parking area. There are no facilities except refuse bins, but all we need is a place to stop and sleep overnight. Having a ferry departure at 0815 means checking in by 0730 at the latest so there will be no sightseeing today.

Summary of motorhome journey

Total
miles
mpg average
speed
mph
hours
driven
281 27.6 43 6:28

Totals for this journey

281 27.6 43 6:28