I’m nicking our daughter’s Road trip experience for a little bit of vicarious joy this morning. Although the driving hours were on the long side, the joy of zipping through the French countryside, the vineyards, Air BnBs, tiny hotels and auberges, a balconied suite in Monaco and an eventual delightful destination on a remote Tuscan hillside, all apparently made up for the rigours of the road. An incredible adventure too in an all-electric Tesla, with ample charging points throughout Europe these days. We chatted at length yesterday evening as she relaxed at home again into the descriptions of the holiday.

Looking for a possible route map to describe her journey, I’ve found a variety of blogs which illustrate the intrinsic joys of a Road Trip, notably Smudged Postcard’s travel advice. The travel odyssey makes us so eager to get our Harry Hymer back on the road again! There’s been one salient example of an all-electric motorhome, the Iridium E-Mobile, more of an introductory concept than a practical vehicle, and with a base price upwards of £150k, rather more than a small house, an impossibility. Otherwise the movement is towards smaller campervans like the Mercedes EQV conversion, which is just too small for the convenience we enjoy now on the road. Looks like it’ll have to be diesel and the joys of ancient Harry, a 25 year old classic Hymermobile, for the foreseeable future for us.

Our next foray in Harry, we’d thought, might be a little jaunt through Ireland, north to south, boarding the ferry at Cork for Cherbourg, and then a research adventure throughout Brittany and east to the Belgium border at Albert. Not until autumn of next year at the very earliest though. Another idea we’ve had is to venture from Portsmouth to Santander and across to Barcelona, ferry over to Sardinia, and again to Citivecchia outside Rome for a land trip back home to cross perhaps at Zeebrugge with the new ferry to Edinburgh. That would be a wonderful circular adventure, wouldn’t it!

Until we manage to hit the road ourselves, we’ll have to settle for the vicarious thrills, the joys related by close family, to assuage our own wanderlust.

We can be patient, of course we can. But there will also be joy in planning and thinking, anticipating the possible adventures ahead, while sharing in the delight experienced and related by others.

Thank you darling daughter, for the vicarious road trip!