Menooork... It's A Monday Post!

Have got several things to share from the first ten days of being oot and aboot, so will have to use some of the fallow space on the bloggy. 

The first thing to alert you to, if you have yet to find it, is that the first video for the trip is up and live on the tubular channel - click over from the badge on the sidebar, or click here. It's all a bit rough and ready, still. I need lots of practice!

The second thing for this post is to put some minds at rest. Several folks have wondered how I locate chargers and park-ups. The answer is really quite simple... there are apps for that! For chargers, I can simply ask, "Okay, Ford, locate the nearest charge point", - and the van's onboard system will direct me as requested. I don't do that, though, because it will tend to favour those affiliated with Ford and thus very expensive. But it's great if in a bind. I have two apps for specific services, one being MER, which I used a fair bit south of the border last year. The other is PodPoint, a service available at supermarkets and retail parks. Some of those may be free for customers, so great for a wee top-up if doing the groceries, but also middling cost if a charge is made.

Mostly, though, here in Scotland, I utilise the Charge Place Scotland (CPS) network. This is because, for the most part, the costs are kept below 50p/kW drawn. The average overall hovers around the 35p mark, but I am finding lots that are well below that.

There are big jumps in cost in the main urban areas, particularly the likes of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other major centres. But one must read the details of each thing properly; some will drop the price if used during nighttime hours - which is why you will see me sometimes capering about in the dark. Other times, that is just because of logistics... such as, you will see from the video, finding that the chosen charger is inoperative and having to trawl around for another... Although things are improving for EV charging, it has a long way to go to be as regular, accessible and reliable as the fossil-fuel forecourts. 

One of the issues I have come up against is the app showing chargers and costs but without showing any restrictions; for example, they may be only for local council staff use, teaching staff or whatever. The chargers, you see, despite being linked by the CPS network, are owned by whoever has a business where they are planted, be it a library, a school, or a council car park, and those owners have a say about who gets to use the facility. Some might provide access but put hefty fines for "overstaying". Say it's an hour, at 50p per unit, but add on thirty quid for being over the hour... Then you get counties like Fife, where I have found the local council offers chargers at a £1.75 connection fee and only 15p per unit with no time limit! It is all a bit of the Wild West sort of thing, but I still love my van and enjoy the adventure of finding a power hook-up!

The next adventure part is deciding where to park up for a night. Mostly, it's a single night, but sometimes two and very occasionally more - but only where there are no restrictions and it is not causing any inconvenience to others. It is often free parking, but there are also park-ups provided at a nominal cost. For example, one of my faves is the New Lanark stop, where a 24-hour stay is £3.30, but one can stay for 28 days for £75 (£2.68 per 24hrs). 

The app of choice for this task is Park4Night. There are others, as is often the case, but this one is very widely used and is a network whereby those in various forms of van or motorhome can alert others as to what the park up was like, what costs there are, what issues there may be (such as boy racers, van damage, in the negative, or very friendly, good local stores, fab views, and such like in the positive). As with any such social connection thing, one or two contributors only ever see (and almost, one feels, bring upon themselves) the negative. If I am attracted to a place, even with a negative or two remarks, I'll give it a go if others say it is okay. The main thing to rely on when in a spot is how the 'gut' feels. Instinct can be a great aid for some of the more remote spots.

I'll be honest; the only two times I have felt a tad uncomfy in parkups have been in more urban spots. The remoter ones have all been grand. The best ones are where the locals actively take an interest in who you are, where you're from, and what the van is like, and communities that actively offer places for overnighting. You'll read about one particular example on Thursday...

There you have it, the basics of factoring power and sleeping logistics in van life!