Stranded!

The morning of 1st August started well but the day was eventful and we ended the day stressed and stranded without our car in the remote high Pyranees. This is the story of how our historically reliable Landrover showed its true colours and the resulting events that led to us being stranded.

01 August

We left our campsite and headed out to traverse the Pyranees and make it into Spain by early evening. We could have gone a direct route that would have taken maybe 3 hours, but instead I wanted to go 'the pretty way' and take in all that the national park had to offer and so we embarked on a planned route that would take about 4.5 hrs.

By 2pm we knew something was not right. The car suddenly indicated that it was overheating. We pulled over, and let the car cool for an hour while we had some lunch and talked through what the issue could be. We decided to go a different and potentially less challenging route, turned the car around and headed off on attempt no. 2. 45 mins later after the route had become more challenging with steeper inclines and slower traffic, the car overheated again. See the vid below.

Given that we had no phone reception and no data where we were, we again allowed the car time to cool and decided to give it one last go. At 4.30pm the car overheated again and we knew we couldn't continue. We again had no apparent data, but we had a couple of bars of phone reception. I tested whatsapp and messages went through, so I asked a few friends back in the UK to help get us some phone numbers etc... and thankfully they came through. We were able to contact our European breakdown service and our scheduled accommodation to plan the next steps. See the next vid.

At 7.30pm Llaurent arrived. He was a smiley french tow truck driver who spoke no English and he seemed unable to read the iTranslate app on Gaz's phone so things got confusing very quickly. I called the breakdown service and they kindly translated and helped us debate and plan what was to happen next. Ultimately he didn't attempt to fix the car at all at the roadside. We don't know why. Lovely Llaurent loaded the Landy on to the back of his truck at about 8.30pm and we jumped in his cab and we were headed back to Tarbes in France. This was expected to be about 1.5hrs and while we were en route, a very helpful lady called Aud was sorting somewhere for us to stay for the night. After 10 mins, Aud called Llaurent and he made a detour taking us back into the mountains. Aud wanted to get us somewhere safe and rested quickly (such a lovely lady) and we could sort the rest the next day. Both of these people really helped sort things out and remove some of the stress.

We arrived at Hotel 4Ours at the Station de Piau-Engaly an out of season ski resort in the shadow of Pic de Montferrat 3000+m. Kitchen was closed and the hotel had seen better days, but the room was comfortable and we were safe. We found a small restaurant serving and had a good meal and 2 cold beers each - which were amazing!

We got back to the hotel at 10.30pm and we were asleep within minutes.

02 August 09:00

I had a restless nights sleep. The frustrations of yesterday, combined with the challenges of trying to communicate to multiple parties and understand what is going to happen to our car and what is going to happen to us, was tiring. To be honest we both handled it well - no upsets, no jabs, no shouting. No tears, no squabbles. It was just tiring.

Today we've woken up and we still have a lot of unknowns that we need to sort out. We are probably 2hrs from wherever our car is and we currently have no arrangement for accommodation or travel today. We have none of our belongings - no clean clothes etc... as it's all still packed in the car. For someone that loves a plan, I really need a plan now. I've coped really well, but now I need a plan.

11:00

Some positive news has helped lift our mood.

A garage has agreed to look at the car at the start of next week! We aren't happy with the timeline and we have argued it but the fact remains that 50% of the garages in France are closed for the holidays and the ones that remain open are heavily booked. One garage quoted September as the earliest that they could look at it. I know!

So there is a plan for the car at least.

We have located a nice hotel very near the garage that has our landy and we have 5 nights free booked there courtesy of our breakdown cover. It has a nice swimming pool and I am going to treat it as an opportunity to top up my tan! we will probably have to stay longer at our own expense, but we would have been paying for accommodation anyway so it's no biggy.

We have a taxi picking us up at 2pm tomorrow (3rd August) and taking us to our car (so that we can get our belongings) and then to the hotel. With luck we will revert to travelling sometime in the next fortnight.

03 August

We had to be checked out by 10.30am so it was a bit of a boring wait for our taxi coming at 2pm, but we were so grateful for the taxi, the driver of which was the bubbliest lady. She spent the 1.5 hr journey chatting away in a mix of French and English and we tried to keep up. The drive was so relaxing and she was so endearing and human; it was just what we needed.

The taxi took us to the garage where our car was scheduled to be looked at initially on Monday 8th. We needed to get some of our things because we'd been wearing the same clothes for 3 days and in this heat, we were getting a bit ripe. Gaz got the opportunity to speak to a chap at the garage, but received some further disappointing news. Apparently the issue with the car wasn't going to be even looked at until 15th Aug!! They had clearly been overly optimistic with the breakdown company and the reality was quite different.

4pm

When we were dropped off at the hotel, our new home for 5 days (paid for by the breakdown cover), we sat in the room and talked through the timeline from the garage and what the impact would be. There's so much to consider -

1. financial outlay - the cost of accommodation in this area at this time of year, with no notice is higher than our budget

2. disruption to our plan and expected time spent in Spain and Morocco. we aren't able to get refunds on all of our bookings.

3. No. of days left on our 90 day allowance for European countries under the Schengen treaty. Gaz has spent 25 days in the Canaries already this year. + the 34 days booked for Tenerife in Oct and Nov, + the time already spent in France and any additional days we need to spend waiting for the car. In summary - Gaz is seriously running out of available days.

Its no surprise that I finally cracked and I cried about the situation. No-one likes the feeling of being out of control I guess, but I really don't and I don't cope well with continually shifting sands that dislodge even the smallest amount of positivity. But, once I'd let it out, I was ok again. I think I just needed a release.

7pm

Showered, changed and feeling more ourselves, we sampled the restuarant in the hotel. Fancy! I had a cod fillet with some pesto cream sludge elegantly piped and some pools of bread sauce (I think) and a couple of pansies. Gaz had a TBone with cheffy baby potatoes. A drop of vino rouge helped it all go down quite nicely.

We spent some time this evening emailing the insurance provider that arranged our breakdown cover, just to see if they could do anything to encourage a faster resolution. It was a long shot but it felt like it was something we could do whether or not it made a difference.

04 August

This hotel is actually a casino, and as such it's out on the highway away from any village or town by about 2 km. The rooms are fairly good, but the best bit is the pool. After brekkie, where we discreetly acquired food to keep us going throughout the day (baguette with meats and cheeses, fresh fruit) we spent the day at the pool; pure bliss to relax on the lounger, top up the tan and be the only people at the pool all day. I swear I could pretend I want to be here.

10am

We took a call from the breakdown people. There had clearly been discussions internally, so perhaps our email did do something? We were asked to consider repatriating the car or whether we will wait for it to be fixed. Either way the timeline continues to tick down.

11am

Spoke to my parents for the first time since leaving the UK. Brought them up to speed on our travels and on the car crisis. They were brilliant and were just who they always are. They reminded me that travelling was never going to be easy and that this crisis really wasn't one. They also reminded me that tougher things will come along and this is just helping to build resilience so I/we can cope with the next thing. They are so british. I love them for it. They embody the mantra of " is anyone hurt? Are we all ok? Right then, what do we need to do next? No point crying over spilt milk. What's done is done. I'll put the kettle on, and you can start the plan." lol

7pm

After a glorious pool day, we took control a little. We found a nice little flat not far from here on Airbnb that we could stay in more comfortably than a hotel room, so we've booked that from when this hotel stay ends; 8th Aug to 13th Aug.

05 August 10:00

So who is playing around with our fate?

Apparently the car is fixed.

erm...

Breakdown people are confused about the mixed messaging from the garage. We are confused about the messaging from the garage.

We're suspiciously grateful.

Gaz collected the car and was told that there was a blockage which has been flushed and the car is no longer over heating.

I guess we're left with feelings of 'Thank goodness it's sorted and the timeline issue has been removed (not entirely sure how)' along with 'Have they done a thorough job? Is it just going to fail on us again?'.

Of course this would happen when we'd just booked 5 days in a cute flat not far from here. non-refundable of course! (I don't only book non-refundable options)

So given that we now have no plan to follow, we have decided to stay in the area for a bit, test the car, see the area. Enjoy ourselves. And then head towards Spain and Morocco in a week's time. That's the loose plan. (At least I have one now).

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