Euro13 Airstream Gathering, and Taking a Dog Abroad

I'm using my time in the Outer Hebrides to slow down and catch up a bit. Before getting up to date, we need to go back a couple of months:

June 2013.


Back in June '13 it was time to take my wee dog Dougal abroad for the first time. For some inexplicable reason that no ferry company can explain, dogs have to be left in cars on 'short sea' international ferry routes. That would probably be fine if it wasn't for all the numpties who fail to isolate their car alarms that screech incessantly for the entire crossing, freaking out any animal on the car deck and no doubt also annoying any off-duty crew who are trying to sleep in downstairs cabins.

Caledonian MacBrayne and WightLink, on the other hand, have no problem providing a pet area on board their ferries. Pets can go upstairs and travel with their owners in a dedicated lounge with vinyl seats and flooring. They're not allowed into the bars or food areas.

Not wishing to leave Dougal scared and alone on the car deck, we booked our passage to France with Eurotunnel. As ever, we booked through the Caravan Club who managed to do us a better deal than we would have managed even booking direct on the internet.

Very impressed with Eurotunnel I was too. Boarding was hassle-free, parking up a doddle, and for the 35 minute trip both myself and Dougal could travel together in the civilised comfort of our own Airstream. Meanwhile, 50 metres above us people were elbowing each other in queue for the cafeteria. Gas must be isolated in the Tunnel, so I had earlier prepared a flask of coffee to enjoy during the journey. Disembarkation was unbelievably quick. No getting wound up on crowded car decks while asphyxiated by lorry fumes… simply drive off, and within just two minutes you're on the motorway. It was all just so quick, easy, civilised, and dog-friendly.

For a few days we camped in the gorgeous yet little known German town of Oldenburg, which is in the North of the country between Hamburg and the border with the Netherlands. A very dear friend of mine lives in Oldenburg and I spent an enjoyable time being spoiled by his lavish hospitality and taking our dogs on longs walks in the lush green landscape of Lower Saxony.

A few days was also spent staying with some Dutch Airstreaming friends near Groningen where we met up with some Airstreaming friends from the UK. Many a boozy night was spent sat around the campfire talking until the small hours. I loved it. I'm not sure my liver did.

One day we all headed off back over the border to Germany to a village called Bockhorn, which was hosting a massive 'Old Timer' car show, including some lovely vintage caravan rigs too. Beautiful!

Why were we all overseas? We had a 'big' weekend to attend, the Euro13 Airstream Gathering in Weilburg, Germany. 56 rigs turned up from across Europe:

What a brilliant weekend it was too. For me it got off to a bad start when the local 'yoofs' thought it would be funny to chip golf balls out of the woods and into the queue of Airstreams waiting to enter the site. One of them hit my trailer and smashed the Heki causing over £300 of damage, and necessitating an afternoon spent in the Police station making a report. How grateful I am to fellow Airstreamer Phill for his help as an interpreter.

Other than this setback, it was great. The weekend was the perfect balance of being organised enough but not overly organised. It was certainly a credit to the organiser, the charismatic Armin Heun, and his friendly, enthusiastic, cheerful team from Airstream Germany. Attendees were free to do their own thing although a couple of activities were laid on for those who wished to go along. I very much enjoyed the visit to Airstream Germany's showroom and service centre, which is the absolute epitome of what you would expect from a premium retailer selling a premium brand. In fact, the entire UK contingent was very, very impressed.

Beer and food was generously laid on by Airstream Germany and by Airstream Europe.

We were even honoured to have the company of Rich Luhr (of Airstream Life magazine) and his lovely wife Eleanor who had come all the way from the US of A. Rich gave us a brilliant talk and an interesting insight into Airstreaming in the US and how it compares to how we do it in Europe.

Rich's verdict? It seems that here in Europe we are more willing to head off the beaten track and use sites without facilities than our US cousins, where 'boondocking' (off-grid caravanning) is less popular than it is here. I think we can thank the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning Club for that, thanks to our enviable and maybe taken-for-granted network of Certificated Locations/Sites.

Another highlight of the weekend, for me at least, was being given the opportunity to have a go at playing the bagpipes by the very talented and all-round lovely fellow Airstreamer Elaine. Well, I say that it was a highlight for me. I think the 'strangled cat' noise that I produced was no doubt one of the low points of the weekend for the unfortunates whose ears witnessed that terrible assault.

Sunday came way too soon, bringing with it the departure of good friends old and new. As we started to say our goodbyes, the tears started to flow. As daft as it sounds, I was so sad that it was over.

If you have a spare few minutes, do have a peek at the video I made of the weekend:


Euro13 Airstream Gathering video






Dougal and I headed off on our own to Belgium and spent a lovely couple of days chilling at Camping Blaarmeersen in the beautiful city of Ghent. It seems that the E40 motorway traversing Belgium has improved greatly over the past few years, as in general it was well surfaced and traffic flowed freely.

Blaarmeersen was as pretty and perfunctory in equal measure as it has always been, and it was super to catch up with another friend on a lazy summer's day.

Of course, there was also the small task of getting Dougal's worming process signed off for his passport.

On Eurotunnel, the return leg was as straightforward as the outward. First of all we had to stop at the Pet Passport area for Dougal to be scanned and his paperwork checked.

Here we saw a poster telling us that a million… yes, ONE MILLION pets have now travelled with Eurotunnel.

Don't the ferry companies want a slice of that pie? It appears not.



The smooth 35 minute journey was spent cuddled up on the sofa of the Airstream having a snooze while the hoards 50 metres above us were still elbowing each other in the scrum for the bar. I know where I would rather be.

Sort it out, Scotland!

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I make no secret of the fact that Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides, is my favourite place in the world. It’s one heck of a trek when you are based in Kent, but gradually my time North of the Border increases every year. 

There is only one thing that riles me about Scotland. OK, to be more accurate, about Scottish proprietors of food and drink establishments. That one major bugbear is ignorance, or hiding behind fake ignorance, of the correct law regarding dogs in a place where food and drink is served.

Where food and drink are SERVED, dogs ARE permitted by law.  Dogs are only NOT permitted by law in a place where food is being PREPARED, and quite right too. If you want to check that out, it is Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 Annex II Chapter IX Section 4.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a staunch believer in choice. I firmly believe that no proprietor should be forced into adopting any policy when it comes to dogs. In fact, when I used to rent out my house as a holiday let, I myself had a ‘no dogs’ policy. Enough of my neighbours allowed dogs into their holiday homes, and I wanted to give the allergy-sufferers an alternative, as well as not trusting the minority of irresponsible dog owners.

Responsible dog owners are as numerous as responsible parents. One or two let the side down by letting their dogs run riot, just as the one or two ‘pathetic’ parents have no control over their screaming kids. Bad behaviour is bad behaviour, and a proprietor has the right to ask people to leave.

Not one single café proprietor in Scotland outside of the Central Belt has welcomed Dougal into their premises. Every single one makes the same excuse: ‘It is against Health and Safety Regulations’.

As you can see if you do a search on the above regulation, it is not. I have argued this with many a proprietor until I am weary, but to no avail.

There is only one exception to this, and that is the proprietor of my favourite café in the world ever, in the Outer Hebrides. Here there is a lot of very gorgeous, very expensive art hanging on the walls. Dogs are barred here because if a wet and dirty dog comes in and shakes, that’s thousands of pounds worth of art written off. Who can blame a dog ban here?

I get so mad at ignorance of the law, or the spineless act of hiding behind fake ignorance to try and hide the fact that they would simply rather their café or pub be dog-free. I would have NO problem being told: ‘It’s simply our policy’. It’s then my choice to stay, or to eat elsewhere.

I guess this is where the problem lies. More often that not, there is no ‘elsewhere’ in rural Scotland. Take it or leave it. In the Central Belt, encompassing Glasgow and Edinburgh, the situation is very different and you can quite easily find a dog-friendly pub or bar serving food.

The ‘take it or leave it’ attitude was made so obviously apparent one Sunday on the Isle of Harris, when Dougal and I were out on a motorcycle ride. For those who don’t know, Harris staunchly observes the Sabbath and very, very few places are open. 

As we cruised into Tarbert, the heavens opened. With Dougal still in his rucksack in his biker gear we parked up and dashed into the only place open, the Hebrides Hotel. Naturally, we aimed for the public bar, not the posh restaurant.

I asked the barman if we’d be OK to sit and have lunch, and he looked at Dougal in the rucksack and said we would have to sit in the garden outside.

Remember, folks, it was teeming with rain.

Even the ferry waiting room was locked up. We ended up sheltering from the rain in a doorway.

I took up the issue with Visit Scotland. Their response? ‘There is a feature on our website that allows you to search for dog-friendly accommodation.’ My rant had nothing to do with finding somewhere to stay; we were in the Airstream after all. It would appear that the organisation is only interested in increasing the number of bums in beds, not educating its members that are providing tourist services by means of its newsletter.

Go somewhere far, far more populous and tourist-frequented like the Lake District in England, and you are tripping over signs everywhere that say ‘Dogs Welcome!’ In the Lakes, you’d be hard pushed to find a pub or café that did NOT welcome pooches.

And this is where Scotland needs to watch its back. In the short-term, there may be no alternative for the dog owner other than to leave the dog in the car if it’s not too sunny, or grab a takeaway and eat it outside. Or, in our case, sit on the ground in a doorway in the pouring rain hugging each other as we miserably sat cold, wet, and hungry. But longer term? It makes dog-friendly places like the Lake District, the Cotswolds, and Cornwall look far, far more attractive.

Scotland, I love you. But for goodness sake sort yourself out, get educated or at least be up front about your policies if you want to remain in the game longer term. 

...and Dougal came, too!

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Carrying a dog on a motorbike

In the previous entry you saw how I finally managed to have my motorbike come with me when touring with the Airstream during the summer months.

‘Riding your motorbike is all very well,’ I hear you cry, ‘but what about Dougal the Dog? That’s who we tune in to the blog to read about and see pictures of, anyway!’

Yes, I know where I come in the popularity stakes, and I know my place in Dougal’s shadow.

Dougal is very much part of my motorcycling. Indeed, even when deciding which kind of a dog to get, I settled on Jack Russell (or something thereabouts) as being ideal for me; easy to carry on the motorbike, doesn’t take up too much space in the Airstream, yet still a ‘proper’ dog and not an inbred fashion accessory that spends its life in discomfort.

The only slight fly in the ointment is that Dougal didn’t read the instruction manual properly and forgot to stop growing. And growing. And growing. While he isn’t quite the size of a Parson Russell Terrier, he now stands head-and-shoulders over most Jack Russells.

Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem, but it now means that he is a little big for the dog-carrier that I use when we go biking together.

I’ve seen a few ways that dogs can ride with their owners, including in the sidecar a la Wallace and Grommet. However, the three main options appear to be:

Dog-carrying Rucksack

Tank Bag

Tail (saddle) Bag

Whichever your dog chooses (you didn’t think that this would be YOUR choice, did you?) it is vital that there is a way to secure the animal to the bike or rider to ensure its safety.

We went for the dog-carrying rucksack by Outward Hound which I bought from doghaus.co.uk.

It’s similar to an ordinary rucksack, except that it has mesh sides, a roll-back top that can be clipped neatly out of the way, and a clip attachment to attach to the dog’s harness.

The rucksack training regime took over six months to prevent Dougal going through any unnecessary stress.

From the day after he arrived home as a puppy, he was put into the rucksack for short periods and would enjoy a short walk on foot, starting off at about a minute in duration and culminating in 15 minute stretches.

Similarly, he has a pair of ‘Doggles’ that he wears on the bike to prevent damage to his eyes, and the training regime for these followed a similar pattern. These came in useful for windy walks on sandy beaches to protect his eyes from the sand. 

Eventually, after about three months of rucksack training, we took off on the pushbike, which Dougal loved and you can see a snapshot of him enjoying a sunny ride on the Hebridean island of Benbecula in this video, click here. The bits of Dougal on the bike are at 4:03 and 4:10.

Three months on, we introduced the motorbike for a short trip at a maximum of 30mph. Here’s a pic from that first trip:

You can see here that I put the rucksack on my front, thinking that Dougal would prefer to sit on the tank and see where we were going. Very quickly Dougal let me know he was not happy with this arrangement, and for the next trip I put the rucksack on my back. This was far better, and it was no doubt down to the fact that this is where Dougal is used to riding.

Slowly I increased the speed to a maximum of 50mph, and to prevent any damage to Dougal’s ears I strap them down with a doggy bandana. As our trips now cover greater mileage (although never more than 30 minutes without a break) he wears a dog coat inside the rucksack to keep the wind out, which looks quite like a biking cape.

It was a long process to get there, and it seems strange on a sports bike to bimble along at 50mph and sometimes have to pull over and let traffic pass, but it’s been well worth it. Needless to say, the reaction of other people when they see a biker dog in goggles and a bandana with his paw on my shoulder, looking at the road ahead, is an utter joy. We’ve made a lot of people smile. And, funnily enough, have posed for more than a few photos!

NB – THIS STORY IS PROVIDED FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT AND INFORMATION ONLY. IT IS PARAMOUNT THAT THE OWNER TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS/HER PETS AND DOES NOT SUBJECT THEM TO UNNECESSARY STRESS. THERE ARE SOME DOGS THAT WOULD BE EXTREMELY DISTRESSED TO BE CARRIED IN SUCH A WAY, AND TO DO SO WOULD BE AN ACT OF CRUELTY AND MAY RESULT IN PROSECUTION. IT IS ALSO IMPERATIVE TO RESPECT ALL LOCAL LAWS AS REGARDS ANIMAL TRANSPORTATION.

Excel-lent!

February brought the big caravan and motorhome show at Excel in London. Highlight was the Caravan Writer's Guild Dinner during a Thames Cruise; a wonderful reminder of what lovely people populate the caravan industry.

Stars of the show in my eyes were naturally the Series 2 Airstream 685 and the 534, but also Lunar's new lightweight Venus range of caravans, and Bailey's Orion Evo. Venus is ridiculously cute, and it's great to see some 'proper' lightweight caravans. Likewise it was interesting to see how Bailey managed to shave 100kg off the Orion by omitting services that only a few caravanners actually use. The silver exterior was great, and I understand why Bailey chose to remain with the established Orion interior. But I *do* wish that mainstream manufacturers would bring out something a little more colourful and contemporary, even if as a limited edition. Still no-one has filled the gap created in the touring caravan market after ABI's exit in 2001, although Adria's Action came close.

After Excel, it was a jaunt to one of my favourite sites, Alderstead Heath. Dougal the dog's arrival has added a new angle to my travels, and now I look at the dog-friendliness of sites along with everything else. I used to like Alderstead a lot. Now I absolutely love it. Fantastic walks for the dog, right from the site entrance. Brilliant.

Baptism of Snow - February 2012

Once Dougal had finished delighting the staff of the Ibis Gloucester, we went to collect the Airstream from its service at Airstream and Co's Southern Depot.

First port of call at one of my favourite cities in the UK, was Cambridge Cherry Hinton Caravan Club Site.  Why Cambridge? Simply because I really like it. My good friend Mr Perks lives there, so the plan was to spend an evening relaxing in a welcoming hostelry and possibly spend a day or two out and about getting some snaps. Which is exactly what we did!

Ah yes, the snow. It got cold. REALLY cold. But thankfully the Airstream remained toasty warm throughout.

Next stop, a regular haunt of mine, was Commons Wood Caravan Club Site at Welwyn Garden City. Still the snow fell.

This stay was supposed to dovetail into the Caravan Show at Excel in London. But the on-site campsite was cancelled. causing me my first 'doggy responsibility' reality check. Could I have camped on site at the show, I could have left Dougal in the Airstream for a couple of hours at a time and gone back frequently and seen him. But now I had to camp off-site, it meant that I had to stay near someone I could trust to take care of the dog while I spent all day at the show. Therefore we went down to Rye, East Sussex, where my very dear friend T could have Dougal while I went gallivanting off up to London. An added bonus was that Airstreamers D & J were on the same CL.

It's at this point I want to go off a little on a tangent about CLs and CSs. For the uninitiated, they are Certificated Locations (Caravan Club) or Certificated Sites (Camping & Caravan Club), basically the same thing but different acronyms for different clubs. They are informal, part-licenced sites for up to five caravans apiece.

Every other caravanner seems to be able to find the 'Perfect CL.' You know, where they are parked up in a delightful spot with a stunning view and the cheery rosy-cheeked farmer's wife lays on gifts of fresh eggs and home made jam, all for something ridiculous like 25 pence a night.

Me? I am the world's worst CL finder. If there is a rubbish CL in an area, it's pretty much guaranteed that I will find it. So, if you want to be up to your wheel arches in slurry next to an industrial estate on the land of the grumpiest grumpster in the county, come with me.

Or, as was the case this time, wedged in a yard between a tractor and a skip for the princely sum of £15 per night:

Not the best pitch I've ever had. Especially when Commons Wood was a tenner a night the previous week. Hey-ho, such is the price of dog ownership. But I did get to spend time with some lovely people, which of course is priceless.

Dominoes and dog-friendly accommodation

Life would have been so much simpler had the Airstream been on hand while I moved out of my house. But it wasn't. It was in Gloucester. Despite the fact it was all serviced and ready for me to collect, I simply couldn't afford the three days it would have taken to go pick it up. As it was, I ended up with long days and little sleep the week I had to leave the house.

After a week or two holed up at the parents' surrounded by boxes of rubbish, at last it was time to take a couple of weeks out and start establishing my new life in the Airstream. Only start, as I had a three-week trip to the Hebrides planned in March, and having been blown off the beach at Baleshare the previous October and going four days without sleep, I was doing it in hotels and cottages this time.

To complicate matters, it's not just me decluttering my life. A knock-on effect is that I'm helping my parents get rid of some stuff to, in order to make room for the little bit of stuff that I'll be keeping at theirs. It's a kind of domino effect.

They had boxes and boxes of vinyl records to get rid of. And fortunately I found them a good home with my good buddy Mat who was nothing short of delighted to receive them. But it meant I'd have to fill my car with records when going to get the Airstream, as Mat would meet me in Gloucester to collect them. So I could only take the bare minimum of stuff for my fortnight away in the Airstream. Which was completely empty and had nothing in it as I'd removed the stuff prior to the service to do the Dunster House Concordia project the previous November.

UGH!

Have you any idea how much space a double duvet takes up in a car? Or a rat cage? Or a dog crate?

But it was lovely to see Mat, albeit briefly, and we had a nice evening in Gloucester.

Dougal the Dog is a new addition in my life, so now when I stay in hotels I need somewhere that is dog-friendly. But I also want somewhere affordable, clean, and comfortable.

Premier Inn? Forget it, they don't allow dogs. Travelodge? Well, they take dogs, but at a charge of £20. That can be more than the room.

So thank goodness for the Accor Group, better know by its hotel brands of Ibis, Novotel, and Mercure. Many of their hotels allow dogs, and the Ibis doesn't even make a charge.

Mat and I were both delighted with the Ibis Gloucester. Clean, smart, modern, comfortable, reasonably-priced, and wonderfully friendly staff. We were so impressed and comfortable their we even ended up eating in the hotel restaurant.

Natually it's a lot more spendy, and less convenient than staying in a caravan. Lots of trips to and fro the room unpacking and re-loading the car the next day. But when needs must, Ibis definitely gets the thumbs-up.