Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is the small French town where pilgrimage routes from across North Western Europe converge, prior to crossing the Pyrenean foothills into Spain on route to Santiago de Compostela. Both the French Way (Camino Francés) and the Routes of Northern Spain are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites

This small town is on the river Nive and is only 8km from the Spanish border. It is the gateway to the Roncevaux Pass and the last stop before the arduous mountain crossing at over 1,000m

Pilgrims across the centuries have entered through La Porte Notre-Dame before crossing the river to the rue de d'Espagne. There has been a bridge here since at lease the 14th century



Initial steps from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port cross this bridge

Genny at La Porte Notre-Dame immediately before the bridge

Carcassonne

This trip seems to have turned into a medieval tour of Europe. Today I visited Carcassonne

Carcassonne is another UNESCO world heritage site with its roots in neolithic times

There are buildings from many periods making up this citadel but I particularly enjoyed the gargoyles on the 11th century church, the Basilique des Saints Nazaire et Celse. Apparently it is a gothic development of the 6th century Visigoth building

The inner walled town is lovely with fine buildings

In true commercial tourist style there are shops dedicated for all your present day crusading requirements

Étang de Montady

How cool is that?

I first discovered this looking around on Google Earth and today I visited the Étang de Montady. This was originally a wetland that was drained by monks in the 13th century. I tried to get to the very middle but was completely defeated by a train line and the Canal du Midi which can both be seen in the bottom right of the image

This is also the site of the Tunnel de Malpas which I had heard about but didn't realise I was going to find as well




The Tunnel was excavated in 1679 and was Europe's first navigable tunnel. It is 165m long and passes through the same hill that was tunneled by the monks in order to drain the Étang de Montady. In the nineteenth century, a third tunnel was excavated, passing through the Hill d'Ensérune beneath the Malpas tunnel to house the railway.

Charging Genny from 12 volt DC

If you travel with your Genny Mobility chair you have the issue of potentially different mains voltages or even no mains at all. Genny has the capacity to charge with between 100 - 240 V Ac 50 or 60hz, so as long as you have the appropriate adaptor to cope with differing sockets, it should charge. This post is about my experiences with charging from a vehicle battery

Charging with DC to AC inverter plugged into 12 cigarette lighter socket

I have a VW van with a rear hoist that can carry my wheels. Although not kitted out as a camper van it is big enough to take a small mattress and other bits to travel as I wish. Having my wheels with me enables me to do much more active holidays

My wheels have above 4,500 miles on the clock and I notice I am not getting the range I got when it was new. I am more conscious of how much life I have in the batteries and I would hate to run flat

In considering power options for my camper van I was not sure where to go with charging my wheels. Most camper vans would have an additional dedicated leisure battery that would power your fridge, TV etc. usually mounted under one of the front seats. It would be setup to charge from the vehicles alternator with maybe the addition of a solar panel. People use various charge splitting systems that ensure the main vehicle battery is always fully charged to avoid flat batteries when starting the vehicle

To turn 12vdc into something that will charge a Genny you need a DC to AC inverter which come in different sizes and qualities. I purchased the following inverter which I think is beyond the requirments but it was small and quoted to be about 90% efficient (LINK)

Genny is powered by 2 main batteries of 5.8Ah at 73.6vdc and a small 5Ah at 12vdc. I have read a number of forum posts on the charge consumption and I understand that a Segway requires about 180w to charge. I have assumed that Genny will require a maximum of 200w to charge for about 6 hours for a substantial charge

There are equations to work out the theoretical requirement for a vehicle battery that will deliver this level of charge rate. Unfortunately I don't know how to come up with the answer but I have some experience of getting it wrong

I did 2 charge sessions on my wheels, each of about 2 1/2 hours over 2 days with a run of about 10 miles to recharge the vehicle. This was done just using my main and only 95Ahr vehicle battery. When I came to start the van later it didn't have the power to start

I have not made up my mind what to do about an additional leisure battery for my van. There are various considerations like where it will live in the van as I have swivelling front seats that mean I can only use a short battery. Do I go for a standard or deep-cycle battery, how about lithium etc.

How I am coping is I only charge Genny when the van motor and therefore alternator, is running. I have also discovered you can get a very small but high capacity lithium jump start power pack something like the following (Link) I was rescued by a fellow camper with one of these packs and I couldn't believe that it worked. His pack was half the capacity of the one I have linked too

Lithium jump start power pack

Bonificio

Bonificio is an ancient town built on the southern limestone cliffs next to a fantastic natural Harbor. It bears a similarity to Mdina in Malta but is about 1000 years younger dating to 800 AD

It's ancient buildings are made from the local stone, many carved into the rock itself. Having my wheels enabled me to access the town surprisingly well and there was only a few bits inaccessible to me. It would of course be different if I wanted to enter some of the shops and restaurants but there is a lot happening on the street. I was able to see the sights and eat ice-cream

Corsican mountain villages

The central mountainous areas of Corsica have a mass of charming villages terraced into the hillsides

Moments in Corsica

Iim not finding the time to do proper posts of my adventures and I'm coping with intermittent coverage so I will post some pictures with comments instead

Just off the boat a bit north of Bastia on the peninsula. The Italian island of Elba sits on the eastern horizon

Great shared use of a shed: funeral directors on the left, butchers on the right

Heading into the central mountains I came across this beautiful meadow filled with autumn squill and what I think are crocus.

That night I slept next to an old beech wood. I love the twisted roots and an underlying carpet of cyclamen

I found this lovely wasp spider in my van the next day. It must have come back on my wheels from my jaunt in the meadow

The view above the beech trees

Genny looking at 1600m

Corsica Roadtrip

Jersey to Corsica is quite a drive. I love the way Google maps suggests it is 20 hours by car, 3 days on a bike or 10 days walking. It took me 48 hours followed by a 10 hour boat journey, but I took it leisurely

This has been my first proper road trip with my VW van and my wheels in the back. I have a roll-up mattress, one ring cooker and a Euro bank card

Driving through France was OK but poor weather. I took it easy, stopping loads and crashing in the back. It worked great but I'm not very organised with everything piled in as opposed to a converted sleeper

Arriving in Toulon (ferry port) with most of a day to spare was great with my wheels. Where normally I would be limited to 50m walks, I spent about 5 hours exploring the town and like it a lot

Toulon old town is now separated from the arbour

Like Jersey and a lot of coastal towns Toulon has largely separated itself from it Harbour by building inapproiate blocks of pile-em-high flats. I think this robs the town of its purpose. Moving away from the waterfront the old town is generally charming with twisting alleyways and limestone buildings. The town nestles between the sea and the limestone cliffs like a lot of Mediterranean towns. To me they look achient but I'm sure they aren't

There is good graffiti in Toulon

Toulon is full of interesting doorways:

Finaly the overnight ferry