blaven Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 On our September jaunt we stayed in an ACSI campsite east of Nantes called Belle Rivière as we travelled south. A month later on our way north to Caen our penultimate stop was in La Flèche, a campsite I’m sure many of you know and like. Looking at the distance involved to Caen we had a leisurely lunch and set off north. Feeling ‘demob-happy’ as one does when going home, I blithely set the satnav to the co-ordinates in Ouistreham I had previously entered,- or so I thought. Blindly followed the satnav recommendations for about two hours feeling vaguely uneasy about heading in the wrong direction on the peage until the penny dropped. Pulled into an Aire and realised I’d keyed in Belle Rivière (Nantes) instead of Riva Bella, Ouistreham. Much profane language ensued, mostly from me but expertly added to by Mrs. B. How we laughed! A bit of background: ........ a week previously we’d had a bit of a ‘robust conversation’,a ‘free and frank exchang of views’. Mrs. B. had been in the habit of supplementing the Garmin instructions with her iPad version of Maps me. The simultaneous audio instructions had been often contradictory and on one memorable occasion by ignoring the Garmin, we had ended up driving on what seemed to be farm tracks, through farm yards and through a disused railway siding. As a result, Mrs. B. had been asked in no uncertain terms to ‘cease and desist’. So there was a bit of an atmosphere. All navigation had been delegated to me. Long story short, had to retrace our motorway miles back to La Flèche and start again,- four hours’ worth of diesel burnt plus peage tolls. The final insult was entering the interminable Caen peripherique at the height of the 5pm rush hour and crawling through, stop-start for about an hour before arriving in Riva Bella about half past six. There truly is no fool like an old fool. Still, won’t be doing that again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Good for you for owning up to it!I'd probably have changed the route and gone up to Ouistreham via Rennes & Avranches.My inbuilt sun compass would also have kicked in fairly early I think? I seem to always know if I'm going in the wrong direction.But equally I always - Look at a paper map first to get an overall view of the route, then, after putting in a destination in a SatNag I change the view to map view to see the whole route. That way I can check if it is doing what I want it to do, not what the programmers think I want. What penance did she make you do! Tee Hee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaven Posted October 13, 2018 Author Share Posted October 13, 2018 Jeremy, Thank you. We did briefly consider taking a more direct line across country but we figured we’d be on roads designated at 80 kph. We may have been an awful long time getting to Ouistreham and the campsite may have been closed. We were well west and had been motoring for 2 hours at 70 mph. I think we did the right thing even though the balance of mind was disturbed. I think the inbuilt sun compass needs re-calibrating. It was my own stupid fault. What could possibly have gone wrong with a short journey to Caen? As for penance, none really. We’re both highly volatile but it doesn’t last long. You can’t harbour a grudge (even a good one) for long in a small van! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjsbc Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 About ten or more years ago we were house hunting in northern france the agent "english"was using his sat nav to suplement his local knowledge. On our return to the camp site it indicated a right turn onto a "road" two ruts in a field but his trust in his sat nav paid out after about 4 ks we hit a main road saving about half an hour on our trip to camp. Personally I have done very similar things thinking I was getting lost I was losing confidence in the sat nav but lo and behold hit a major road with signs to my destination. Used to get lost in france many times in 1995 on a return trip home result,pleasant quiet drives through small villages with minimal traffic even got lost on the m25 using my southern hemisphere sat nav (sun over the right shoulder going South) ? some how they must have moved Heathrow to the other side of the motorway oops!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 blaven - 2018-10-13 1:06 PM Long story short, had to retrace our motorway miles back to La Flèche and start again,- four hours’ worth of diesel burnt plus peage tolls. The final insult was entering the interminable Caen peripherique at the height of the 5pm rush hour and crawling through, stop-start for about an hour.... Sod all that for a game of soldiers! I'd sooner have called it a day, parked the van up, found a good place to dine and wine, then back to get head down! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roryboy Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 I'll bet there isn't one person with a Motorhome that hasn't had a bad experience with a SatNav. Here's one we did earlier - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John52 Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 The narrow potholed lanes in Cornwall where you can barely get above walking pace have a 60mph speed limit on them. Wheras main roads are usually restricted to less. So my Sat Nav logically assumes the narrow lanes are faster and directs me off the main roads on to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaven Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 Roryboy - 2018-10-14 9:41 AM I'll bet there isn't one person with a Motorhome that hasn't had a bad experience with a SatNav. Here's one we did earlier - Trust me, I feel your pain. When you feel those branches gouging into your paintwork and acrylic windows and roof vents as you execute a 12 point turn.................when you meet a hay wagon coming towards you after you’ve acomplished that turn......aaaarrrrggghhhhh! To be fair though, our mistake was my own fault, not the lady that lives within Garmin’s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Roryboy - 2018-10-14 9:41 AM I'll bet there isn't one person with a Motorhome that hasn't had a bad experience with a SatNav. Here's one we did earlier - Your clip gave me a good laugh......sorry!! :D I had a similar experience in Bulgaria this year when my gps sent me down a 'road' only mine wasn't even fit for horse 'n cart let alone a vehicle, In fact a local lady who came out to see what the hell was going on indicated it had never been a road! A good indicator that not all is quite right is when on a decent road, as you were, and the gps directs you down a small road with very few houses. It's generally going to get worse as you drive on. Moldova is even more odd. They have some pretty good surfaced roads.....but then the tarmac suddenly runs out and you're driving an unsurfaced rough grit road made worse by ridging which shakes everything in the van. Most you can manage is 10-12mph. Photo doesn't really show how bad it was but i had 12 miles of this stretch.....and it was baking hot weather! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wirehaired Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Most of the time I go old school and use a Map,i have had several bad experiences with the sat nav,once ended up on a building site in the Dutch city of Leiden by following the bloody thing,another time it sent me south towards Antwerp instead of north west to the Hague. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjsbc Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 Gravel roads,it pays to keep the speed up suspension takes the heat and the occupants don't many roads in NZ and OZ are not sealed corrugated rod surfaces are better taken at speed. What do corrugations and temperature have to do with each other ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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