Travel Alone Together

diggie says: I'm going to drive to the CCC event in my VW T3 camper (instead of on a touring-car). I'm expecting some others to be driving their own cars, buses, army trucks or other contraptions as well. Maybe we can "travel alone together"?

What I'm thinking of here is taking it easy and camp a few nights during the trips to and from the CCC event.

Way of travel

While driving in column does have its advantages, it may be annoying to be that much tied together. I think that meeting at the end of each day and camping together will be a lot of fun. We can stay in touch using walky-talkies, text messsaging, and possibly using the prepaid german interwebs.

I think it's a good idea to leave a couple of days earlier than the rest of the people, because:

• (at least) my camper is not a very fast mode of transportation
• it's a pretty long journey, with plenty of opportunities to have breakdowns etc. (which take extra time to fix)
• no stress about getting there in time
• slow travel is nice :)

Travel time

The route from Amsterdam to Finowfurt is nearly 700km (6.5 hours by an average car, without stops). But that consists almost exclusively of highway. When driving somewhat older vehicles, at around 80 or 90km/h, highway travel is boring, loud, and usually quite bad for your vehicle (not to mention that it's very annoying for others on the road). That is why I think it is a better plan to avoid highways, which will about double the travel time. That means that the travel time neede (without breaks) is almost 12 hours.
I would like to travel no more than 4 or 5 hours per day, so that leads me to the following daily routine:

• have a nice (bacon) breakfast
• leave somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00
• have lunch somewhere around 13:00
• drive some more with a break around 15:00, during which we can get bearings on a spot to camp for the night
• drive to that spot and be there somewhere between 16:00 and 17:00
• have dinner
• have beers and possibly a fire

This will give us 4 to 6 hours of driving each day, resulting in a two or three day journey.

Here's a schedule to give you an idea:

AUGUST 2011	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Travel to the camp*	1	2	3					8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Hx2 buildup	1	2	3	4	5					10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
CCC 2011	1	2																		20	21
diggie's B-day parteh**	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Hx2 teardown	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13					18	19	20	21
Travel back home	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16					21
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21

* With optional travel time extension in case of vehicle troubles. We leave no man behind! ;)
** ...and everyone's invited :)

Wanna join?

If you want to join, you're very welcome!

Put your name/comments below:

• diggie - driving in (loose) column is fine by me
• Stoney3K - Great idea, it might be a good idea to rent a camper as a mobile hacker-space. Depends on the costs.
• Tenyen very interested, please get in touch. will be trying to get a cheap "dutchflyer" ticket in the next couple of days. how much do you think fuel costs will be?
• You?

Please note

You don't necessarily need a camper vehicle (camper van / army truck / etc.) to join, but be aware that we will most probably be spending the nights at official (free or cheap) campervan spots (which are not campings!). This means that if you do not have a camper vehicle you will have to sleep in your car (or in someone else's camper vehicle), because putting up a tent outside of official camping grounds is not allowed in Germany (although "wild camping" on private property is allowed with permission of the land owner).