The Unexpected End to our Adventure in Fiat

Wednesday 24-Sep-2019 (Ghent)

We were both feeling unwell, and it was still raining, so decided to stay another day at the campsite (Camping Groenpark). As we had good WiFi this also gave us a chance to update the blog – with comments on our travels from Fehmarn (Germany) to, and including our visit to Ghent (yesterday).

Thursday 25-Sep-2019 (Ghent to Ghent)

Still raining on and off, but our plan for the day was to travel to a campsite at Ieper (for which the French name is Ypres) – to visit the place where much of WW-I played out. It was only 70km from Camping Groenpark, so a short day.

We left the camp just after 11.30am, and as we needed bread for lunch, and because Karilyn had not yet seen the “lake” that was near the campsite – we took a small detour to the lake, and on the way back found a bakery (we had intended to buy at the Supermarket (“industrial bread” as one of our fellow campers referred to it when we went to get it yesterday)), and there was a good parking space across the road (in front of a furniture shop) so we parked, and went and bought a loaf of bread. But, as we were parked in front of the Furniture shop – we decided to take a quick look inside before getting on our way.  We had been in the store for perhaps 30 seconds, when there was a noise outside, and all the staff started running to ward the front door.  We followed and discovered an unpleasant surprise…

What we saw when we came out of the Furniture Shop (it is on the right).

The culprit... a BMW 3 Series... where it ended up after hitting Fiat.

This is the direction from which the car came.. not even a curve in the road!

Very sad image... while the car seems to have skimmed the back of Fiat (everything below a certain level has been sheared off, it clearly hit the side too. The chassis extension that sits und the garage has been severely bent - probably by at least 30deg, and of course it has detached from the floor of the camper.  Both side panels of the camper have been damaged (as well as the back etc.)  But inside - you can see no damage, and while the reversing camera is not sending a signal to the GPS, everything else, including the heating which runs all of the way to the back of the garage appears to be working correctly.

Here you can see how far the BMW travelled after it had hit Fiat and came to rest in the house next door (between the two emergency vehicles)

And this is what theBMW looked like after it had been extracted from the house - perhaps the white material behind the rear wheel is a piece of Fiat (if it isn't the heat shield over the muffler??

Which led to this…

It took quite a wile for McRent's accident/breakdown service to find a company that could tow Fiat back to a central depot... but the owner and staff in the Furniture shop were very helpful and kind.  

Where Fiat now forlornly sits - outside Botterman's recovery depot.

And a final view, as we left Fiat, yesterday...

The driver of the car (a young male) seems to have lost control of his car on an almost straight piece of 50 kph road, and spun, hit the back of Fiat (probably from the back of his car, or the left handside, because there seemed to be little damage on the right hand side of the car) before crashing, backwards, into the house next to the Furniture shop.  The car came to rest within a few centimetres of an elderly lady. So on the positive side, no one was injured, and the car driver was insured. 

Sadly though – our time of adventure in Fiat in Europe is over.  The damage to the extension chassis (which supports the garage etc.) is severe, and we have lost all rear lights etc.  McRent’s breakdown/ accident insurance company HDI Gerling arranged for Fiat to be towed to a a depot in Sint-Denjis-Westem (i.e. in Ghent) – which is where it now rests, awaiting developments.

We were able to stay in it that night, as the towing company provided us with a power source… but not a multi-day option as we had an Autobahn above us on one side, a two track railway line 50m away… quite noisy (but we slept… as Fiat is very comfortable!), and no means to add water, or drain grey water.

Friday 26-Sep-2019 (Ghent)

No news from McRent on our options for the next 3 weeks, so we booked a rental car through to Tuesday, and have moved to a hotel – and will await developments.  Our original plan was to complete our “travels” by around 11 October and spend the last week at one camp site (probably in Switzerland), readying Fiat for the return to NZ. Including tasks such as, sorting out the travel information material that we planned to take home, packing suitcases, ensuring the bikes were suitably packed for the travel, and giving Fiat a thorough clean (and a polish(!), if possible) have all changed! 

If McRent are unable to provide us with a replacement vehicle – then we have a number of difficult decisions to make – around how to get our bikes and other gear that we have accumulated along he way home, as well as pack our suitcases etc. and book a rental for the next 3 weeks  Hopefully we will get a better understanding of the way forward on Monday.

So in summary… this may be the end of our Motorhome adventure in Europe… with the remaining three weeks completed in a rental car and hotels / Airbnb’s… but nobody was injured, and “stuff”” can be fixed (I hope!).  At times like this, one always thinks of the little things that we could have done that would have lead to a different outcome… e.g. not visiting the lake, buying bread at the supermarket rather than the bakery, or if I had parked maybe just 30 cm closer to the Furniture shop – this event would not have occurred (to us) – some/all of the “ingredients” of an accident – which by definition is an unplanned event. On the other hand – if we had not decided to visit the Furniture shop after buying bread, we may just have been backing out onto the road at the time the out of control car reached us – leading to much more severe damage to both Fiat, and potentially to us. So although this event has curtailed our travels in Fiat (in Europe) we  will“Rejoice Always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18).

Finally - some statistics on our travels, since picking up Fiat in Isny on 25-April-2019, we have covered 17,201 km (there were 4 kms on it when we picked it up, so the odometer reads 17,205 km)), at an average speed of 49kph (we did reach 50kph just before hitting a traffic jamb when entering Belgium, so if I was to guess another two significant figures I would make the current average speed 49.48 kph), at an average fuel consumption of 11.2l/100km.

There may be a delay, before the next post is added to the blog... as our "Unplanned Travels", become even more "unplanned"!