miha2020NZ
miha2020NZ
vakantio.de/heute-hier-morgen-da

Staycation in the middle of nowhere

Published: 20.02.2020

What a great night it was....finally warmer than 5° and in a very quiet area. I slept with the rear hatch open again and wake up in the morning to the sound of birds chirping and the sunrise. After breakfast, I take a closer look at the radio: Yesterday, the fuse for the radio (not important), antenna (not important), and cigarette lighter socket (very important because it charges my phone and tablet for navigation) blew on the gravel road. I try to bridge the fuse with a bent paperclip...not a good idea, the strong short-circuit immediately causes the wire to glow and I burn myself a nice curved line on my fingers... So it's definitely better to fix it properly here. There are no spare fuses available and I wanted to go to the coast anyway, so I'm heading west towards Timaru. First, buy fuses, then use improvised tools to remove the radio from the DIN slot: apparently, a wire rubbed against a sharp edge on the gravel road, so I insulate it and reroute the wires, hopefully a bit better. Away from the city, I sit down on the rocky beach and plan the rest of the route. With CamperMate, a very good app for camping and parking spaces, I find a nice description of Mount Potts Lodge and choose their affordable parkings as my next accommodation. So, I'm driving back into the mountains again, straight ahead on asphalt and later gravel roads, for over 40km...so basically from Bonn to Düsseldorf on a dirt road, gravelled from Cologne, almost straight ahead without any turns...well, there is one...Okay, the lounge is closed this week...holidays are necessary too...BUT: why is the sign 'Sorry, we are closed' hanging on the front door and not 20 km away on the last sign before the gravel road?? I drive 5 minutes further to Mt Sunday and am rewarded with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. But I have to find a place to stay tonight, I don't want to stay here in the hiking parking lot, so I drive a few km back on the dirt road and find a small wind-sheltered spot on the shoulder of the road...this is where I'll park tonight...to end the tour, I'll have lamb steaks and corn on the cob, with a beer, all with this wonderful view in absolute silence...very appropriate for this great vacation.
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