Home is where you park it.

FINANCE AND QUIZ NIGHT.....

2012-02-02T02:37:00.000-08:00

February 2nd 2012

For avid followers of this drivel, the good news on the Caxton Card saga ..(do keep up, it was all detailed in the post of Jan 18th)..is that the money has finally been returned as I deem it, or no longer put aside as pending as they would explain it. The strange thing is that they told me it could take up to 16 days, a strange number, and lo and behold,it popped back into the available balance exactly 16 days after it had been removed. So how did they know it would take 16 days unless Shell had told them it would reverse the pending request in 16 days and if so did Shell or Caxton have use of that money in the meantime ? It's not just Caxton, who expressly warn of automated fuel pumps, car rental firms and hotels who want to swipe a card at reception, as I noticed a Carrefour pending charge of €120 remained on a debit card for 7 days after using a pay-at-the-pump last year(the card being debited with the actual fuel purchased immediately but the sum for the total amount of fuel that could have been purchased ie €120, being sent as a pending request and reducing my available balance......wake up at the back, questions will be asked....I think that this is a big issue as in certain circumstances it could mean that you cannot withdraw funds as these pending requests effectively block legitimate access to your account. And with the Shell garage episode this was not a pending charge in case the funds were not cleared but a commuincations error that sent 3 requests for the same transaction. Are we being ripped off again by the retailers and card issuers

or merely grossly inconvenienced ?

And the news that all are waiting for, it being the night after the Quiz...

Well, 30 teams last night, 120 people. We scored 44/50 and irritatingly knew the answers to 5 of the questions we got wrong, but argued over which were the correct ones. And I have to hang my head in shame at plumping for Graham Hill after crossing out Mike Hawthorn as first British F1 champion (well there was only 4 years between them) and what made it more galling was that the Good Fairy kept wittering on about Hawthorn and is now looking very smug and sniggering every few minutes. This meant that we came second after 45 won the top prize of €60 and had to settle for €40. But as was pointed out, if we'd tied again for 1st we'd still have lost it on a tie break so we repaired to the bar to spend our winnings...........

Weather continues to be exceedingly sunny and warm, and a mass electric bike ride-out...including a home-converted electric tandem....resulted in such ribald comments as Hell's Grandparents and brought terror and confusion to the local countryside.

WINE IN PLASTIC BOTTLES......

2012-01-31T00:51:00.000-08:00

I swore I never would. For 4 years I have avoided it here in Spain and anywhere else for that matter. But friday night's lets-get-pissed-at -the sports-bar event was cancelled due to a day of inclement weather which briefly cleared around 5pm but returned at 7pm and a decision was made to seek alternative entertainment. Paul & Marianne drew the short straw and we piled round there for an evening of drinking which included home-made Sloe Vodka and Cherry Brandy.During the course of this debauchery I refused the wine out of the 2 litre plastic bottle and was then forced into a blind tasting, the no-brainer outcome of which was that I chose the said wine from plastic bottle as the best of the bunch and continued drinking it for the rest of the evening.

Unable to believe this the following day, I went and bought a 2 litre bottle for the princely sum of

€2.19, a picture of which can be seen on the right. Far from consigning it to the kitchen I have found it very palatable at 13.5%. It is labelled as Dominio de Borgia which may conjure visions of Lucretia who I believe was Italian and poisoned people but it does slip down remarkably easily. I am prepared for the storm of derision which will descend but the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I'm sitting in my shorts drinking wine from a plastic bottle with my friends........what are you doing ?

...AND THE TIE BREAK QUESTION IS.....

2012-01-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

.......IN WHICH YEAR DID BLONDIN CROSS THE NIAGRA FALLS ON A TIGHTROPE ?

This was to decide who came 1st/2nd in the quiz last night. The Good Fairy plumped for 1878 and our opponents went for 1864.

So did we win the €50 or the €32 ? Our record in tie-breaks to date has been dismal..........you'll have to look the answer up yourselves

FUN IN THE SUN

2012-01-24T08:40:00.000-08:00

January 20th 2010.

How time flies when you're having fun.The sun is shining and Conil looks better than ever, prosperous even and a buzz about the place with more new shops opened than shops closed and at least one big new hotel that has gone up within the year.....and although it means a slight detour on the walk to beach, they have also landscaped the cliffs in front of it with boardwalks through gardens and some great viewing platforms. Conil remains essentially a spanish holiday resort, refusing any high rise blocks, Irish pubs or all-day english-breakfast emporiums and all new developments blend in very nicely with the andalusian 'white town' concept. I can recommmend it.

The local festival of San Sebastien was set for Sunday and the site management put on a very nice free lunch on Wednesday which was very well attended and at which an extraordinary number of jugs of Sangria were sunk...which may have accounted for a dismal showing in that night's quiz - our first - when we only managed 5th place by a whisker, should have been second and could have been first. Honour was somewhat restored on Thursday night when the Good Fairy took the Whist Drive by storm, winning a €1.46 bottle of wine for coming first ( as opposed to €50 for winning the quiz).

Friday night was lets-get-pissed-at-the-sports-bar night where all the drinks are a €1, things got out of hand and getting home by torchlight is hazardous.

On Saturday we cycled up to the fruit farm for oranges and veg and ran foul of the Polizia Traffico who pulled me over at a roundabout, where they were stopping motorists,because I wasn't wearing a cycling helmet.... I couldn't believe there was a law making helmets compulsory but I was let off with a caution. Subsequent investigation revealed that you don't have to wear one a)in town b) in hot weather or c) going up hills and that there is a nice shop in Conil seeling helmets from €40 upwards. I later counted 15 people not wearing helmets on the same stretch of road but when I went to buy one later in the week and spoke to the cycle-shop owner he said that they fined 3 people on Sunday at €100 a pop so you have been warned..

This disruption to my equilibrium may account for what followed. When we arrived back at the site and I was recounting this tale to much hilarity from the usual suspects I discovered that I had inadvertently left my rucksack full of veg and oranges at the cafe we had stopped at for coffee and had to make an another 11 mile round trip to retrieve it.

Most afternoons are spent playing Boules (in the sunshine), the ladies have yet to win a session.

The festival of San Sebastien on Sunday was much bigger,noisier and more colourful than previous years, the popular reason being that the warm winter has made everyone very happy and the population of Conil were all up for a 5 mile walk in the sun drinking sherry and sweet wine and sharing it liberally with bystanders-which seems to be part of the tradition. The very large carpark at the entrance to the site is the traditional first picnic stop out of a town and was soon covered with rugs,food,drink and horse droppings in equal quantity. And they were all very happy as they then departed for El Colorado and a massive BBQ under the pines..

On Monday we walked with Paul & Marianne along the cliffs to the port of Conil, about a 10 mile round trip relieved by a couple of glasses of beer in the cantina and a huge plate of fried anchovies (before they are salted variety) which are called Boquerones and highly reminiscent of whitebait and which were very tasty.

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN......

2012-01-18T03:18:00.000-08:00

January 18th 2012

Now well and truly embedded at Conil after a fairly straightforward and uneventful trip. Left home on Sunday 8th for CC site overnight at Folkestone and Eurotunnel on Monday morning. Booked on the 07.50 but arriving at 07.00 caught the virtually empty 07.20 and therefore on the A16 in Calais by 08.00 or 09.00 as it is in Central European Time. Pleasant run down to Lemans and the aire at Suze s/Sarthe and by arriving mid-afternoon managed to get one of the 3 hook-ups thus saving gas on heating and running the fridge. Outside temp chilly overnight and fairly foggy in the morning.

Tuesday to Bordeaux in mostly sunshine and Acsi campsite on the lakes north of the city and just off the ring road. Site looking definitely sad and evidence of itinerants and migrant workers especially in the chalets.....lot of coming and going at 6pm and 8am. Still, the site is very handily placed.

Wednesday, a shortish run down to San Sebastian and aire on the university campus. Topping up with fuel at a Shell station in Bordeaux there was a problem with the card at the cash desk-not a card-only pump- when the machines appeared to have a problem. The terminal said "paiment accepte" then blanked out and repeated this message another twice..the managment was summoned and put the card through another machine much to my annoyance as I subsequently discovered that although I was only charged once for €59.80 a further 2 requests were left pending on the card (Caxtonfx prepaid card) and the 'available balance' is €119.60 lower than the actual balance. I specifcally avoid autopayment pumps for this very reason as advised by Caxton and did not expect to encounter a problem in a manned station. Phone calls to Caxton revealed that they could see the transactions but could only say that they should drop off the transactions pending radar within 16 days and the balance would be restored.....lucky that the card is loaded with sufficient funds to make this an irritation rather than crisis.

Arrived San Sebastian early afternoon, met a charming Spanish couple who gave us chapter and verse on buses into town etc and spent a great afternoon exploring a very nice & classy resort. Very similar to Biaritz and St.Jean de Luz with a very striking town overlooking a wonderful horseshoe-shaped bay with great beach.

Off early on Thursday down to Salamanca. Very easy run on nearly toll-free motorways (€21 to just south of Burgos then toll free). Mixed weather but foggy at first then sunshine after mid-day. Arrived Acsi campsite in Salamanca and plan was to spend 2 days and explore city. Temp -3 overnight and awoke to very thick fog. Waited till 10.30 but no sign of fog lifting or temp rising above freezing so decided to give sightseeing a miss as it would not be much fun even if we could see anything.....Salamanca is quite high...and head on to Caceres. Fog disappeared as we dropped down and blue skies and sunshine were order of the day as we arrived Caceres early afternoon. We stopped off at the aire here last year when the old town centre was having a makeover and we said we would like to return to see the town in its full glory . And very pleasant it is too. Aire again was overflowing.

Saturday was a beautiful day and the last leg to Conil, arriving at 3pm. Site very busy this year (there is a CC&C rally here for 2 months) but our pitch awaited us, next to Roy and Joy who have been out since November and Paul & Marianne who arrived the day before us having used the Santander ferry for the first time...still can't justify the cost personally. So many old faces here that it was like going back to school after the hols and getting settled took for ages as we kept stopping to chat. First stop was the van wash shed to hose the dirt and grime of 1500 miles in lots of fog

off the van. Then a few beers as we caught up on the news. It has been a good winter here with hardly a drop of rain and everybody looks tanned already.

Ate in the restauarant on Saturday night. On Sunday we got really settled and put the sun-lounge up which is just about on its last legs. Good job we did because then it rained for 24 hours and naturally everybody blamed us.

Monday night we ate in the reastaurant again with P&M as they had a Flamenco evening which was excellent and lots of alcohol was imbibed.

By Tuesday the weather was back to 'normal' with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. Cycled down to the beach which looks better than ever and walked on the sand for miles........

IT'S A BIT COLD HERE........

2011-10-18T06:55:00.001-07:00

9th-14th OCTOBER

Good drive up the Rhone Valley to St.Laurent du Pape where we stopped overnight. Found a better route than last year, taking a toll round Aix for 1.40€ which saved over half an hour - unfortunately I obviously didn't explain it well enough to D&M who got lost and despite leaving an hour before us, arrived an hour later feeling very grumpy. So much so that next day they spurned my lovely route up the left bank of the Rhone and cunning deviation round Lyon, avoiding the centre, and took the motorway all the way to Beaune at a cost of 30€ and arriving about 2 and a half hours before us. At least they an afternoon to look round the lovely old town. We all went out for a meal in the evening which was pleasant enough, pricey and rather spoiled by a grumpy proprietor.

We went our separate ways on Tuesday as they had to go and get the dog innoculated in Reims. We spent the night at Gurgy on the riverbank after a nice exploration of Auxerre which we always seem to miss on account of parking problems but this time found a coach park on the left bank of the Yonne which was ideal. Weather getting chillier.
Made such good time on Wednesday towards Mareuil sur Ay, our usual stop, and with the weather starting to get rainy so that we might as well be driving as sitting in the van staring out, that we pressed on to Catillon sur Sambre where we found an excellent aire with electric hook-up for 5€ a night. As gas might be getting critical this was just what the doctor ordered.

This left a 2.5hr drive on Thursday to Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkerque where we had tried to find the aire some years ago without success. As there is a perfectly servicable ( if somewhat noisy) aire in Calais next to a great restaurant we had never bothered looking at Gravelines again, but in conversation with D&M we decided to have another go, this time with better instructions. And a jolly nice aire it is too, overlooking the harbour, quiet within walking distance of the town centre where we had a jolly nice meal that evening......the GF treating me to a late birthday dinner.

Friday was nice and sunny and home by 2pm. A very pleasant,warm and sunny trip with many memorable moments. Van has now been washed and polished and put to bed until January.....perhaps.

ALL GOOD THINGS........

2011-10-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

19th September - 8th October

28 days at CAVALAIRE-sur-MER draws to a close with a day of uncharacteristic bad weather in the form of violent winds. Since we have arrived here, we had 1 day on which it rained, 1 day when there were a few showers and now 2 days on which there were high winds and the temperature has remained constantly between 25-30.

Derek & Margaret arrived 2 weeks ago and the alcohol intake has increased to such an extent that the Good Fairy has forbidden me to go round to their place to play any more......and she is still trying to teach us all to say "No thank you, I've had enough" without much success.

We have found some good cycle tracks, visited nice beaches at CAVALIERE, about 8 miles down to the coast and introduced the Parkers to the joys of Boules to such an extent that they have bought their own sets.

A great day out was spent at sea following the regatta at St.Tropez. It was the last day and all the old classic yachts were in full sail as well as the modern huge racing yachts...a magnificent sight against the blue of the sea and the Provence sky. We boarded the boat at Cavalaire, sailed round the coast to St.Trop and spent the day in the Gulf watching the yachts all around us and then had a brief stop in the port to mooch around the town for a couple of hours.....still one of my favourite places.

We have managed to watch most of the Rugby world cup games and are now waiting to watch the England-France 1/4 final having just seen a terrific match between Wales-Ireland in which Wales were awesome winners 22-10. If we beat France (possible but our form has stuttered so far) we shall meet them in the semi-finals.

Starting back home tomorrow, 9th.Oct, with the Parkers until Tuesday when we separate as they head off to a vet to get the dog vaccinated.

Postscript...........

We won't be facing the Welsh in the semi-finals as England dismally failed to surmount the first hurdle of beating the French first. 16-0 at half time was enough to make a grown man cry as England decided not to bother the scorers and the second half was only marginally better.....but as the checkout girl at Carrefour said ,,it's only a game,,

LIFE ON THE RIVIERA

2011-09-25T02:47:00.000-07:00

10th September - 18th September

The site at MALLEMORT proved to be excellent. The large, shady pitches had water and drainage, facilities were very good, the town ( with a large Intermarche) was a a few kms cycle ride and had an excellent market on Saturday morning for fruit and veg. The local river is part of what appeared to be some sort of hydro-electric scheme run by EDF with a network of canals for pumping water back up to a reservoir and which allowed some nice cycle paths to be available. We stayed for 3 days and might well return in future years on the way to the coast. The opening World Cup Rugby game was fairly mundane ( NZ v. Tonga, not a great contest) and Englands opening game against Argentina was dire and embarassing. The best of the bunch was France v.Japan, a very good game and Japan putting up a terrific fight and nearly causing a magnificent upset.

Moved on Sunday to CAVALAIRE SUR MER where we shall be for the next month. Took the pretty route over Garde La Freinet much to the GF's displeasure, but it saves an hour. Last time we took this road, the Porsche Club of France were having a rally, coming from St.Tropez, and I suspect we ruined a few peoples morning and caused some unexpected changes of underwear; this time, the local Harley Davidson chapter were having a rideout and we seemed to have about 50 bikers behind us, all trying to get past on a narrow, steep,twisty road with rocky overhangs on the inside and huge unguarded drops on the outside. May have ruined their morning too.

Arrived to find Camping La Baie heaving at the seams......the weather is still awesomely hot but fortunately we had a reservation - lost count of the people being turned away. The pitch we were allocated, behind the swimming pool and handy for everything, turned out to be too close to the trees for the satellite, but we could get french tv on the digital so rugby was going to be available. However, on Monday morning I spotted a couple of people leaving, and when I explained in the office that I needed a satellite view in order to watch the rugby the boss overheard and turned out to be a rugby fan and insisted that we were accommodated......so we moved to another pitch at 9.30 and now hvae a near perfect set-up. ITV4 can be a bit iffy but we can switch to french tv for the the odd games - mainly early morning games midweek when breakfast tv takes precedence.

So a week has passed, and we have settled into a very relaxing regime of watching rugby,shopping, eating and lazing by the pool in the afternoon or cycling down to the beach. The camp is in the town and you can walk to the harbour and beach in 5-10 mins. Large market on Wednesday, plenty of shops and a Carrefour within walking distance.

On Saturday night we went to the restaurant as they had a live local Jazz band performing.... it was billed as a Soiree Boeuf, which turned out to be the french term for a jam session and was superb evening of impromptu jazz, blues and rock with some fantastic combinations of guys really enjoying themselves.

The rugby proceeds......England regain some respect but still give cause for concern over the penalty count. Ireland's win over Australia was magnificent as the aussie forwards collapsed, Wales almost come to grief with Samoa (again) South Africa look sharp and France recover from their fright with Japan.

Weather crashes spectacularly on Sunday with massive thunder storm followed by gales on monday ( a mistral) that required severe battening down of hatches..........awning retracted, everything put away or tied down but forecast predicts back to normal on Tuesday.

Have found some lovely cycle paths with great views...more in the next posting.

ANDUZE TO THE LUBERON

2011-09-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

September 4th - 9th September

Sunday dawned cloudy but bright after the rains of Saturday, and having discovered that the Voie Verte led to a local village classified as "one of France's prettiest villages" and then to a local Gorge highly rated for scenic content, no further invitation was required. The Voie Verte was another ex railway line, spectacularly hugging the hillside over great views, with some very unrailway-like steep bits - but who cares when you have battery-power. The sun shone, the birds sang and we saw proper red squirrels, which we may never have actually seen before. They are noticeably smaller than the greys ( which is obviously why they have been wiped out in the uk) but so much cuter.
As we swept downhill into OLARGUES (Plus Beaux Village de France) we ran into rain out of nowhere. As the sun was still shining, we sheltered briefly under trees, but as the skies darkened, made a dash for the village, only to find its charm of steep,narrow,cobbled streets now running with water were not bike friendly and we had to cower under trees in the lower regions for some considerable time. We were surrounded by mountains and the outlook was bleak so at a glimmer of bright and a lessening of wet, we hightailed it back along the railway track. Sods law being present meant that 8 miles back saw bright sunshine and no evidence of rain, and the campsite, another 4 miles on was roastingly hot and required a visit to the pool when we arrived back.. so Olargues will have to be taken on hearsay as being so beautiful because we never found out.

On monday we moved ever eastwards towards Provence and stopped at ANDUZE, last visited in 2007 during the rugby world cup when we stayed overnight at the splendid aire next the old steam train station and in fact had a meal in town with Dave & Briony who had checked into a nearby hotel. Our impression on that fleeting visit had been fairly neutral, but a few days there revealed hidden charms. WE opted for Camping Castel Rose which was on the river and were not disappointed. Less than 2kms from the town, an easy walk or cycle ride and a very pleasant place with a nice market on Tuesday to replenish supplies.. great pitch on the river bank, with an abundance of bird life.... a pair of herons and a pair of Great White Egrets came to fish each morning and evening and - joy of joys - a kingfisher was much in evidence sitting on a rock. Each time we sat outside for breakfast,lunch or dinner we were besieged by a flock of Great Tits, a nuthatch and several chaffinches, all picking up the crumbs.

And next door to us was small vineyard with a notice announcing that it would be open for tasting and purchases on Wed (4-6pm) and Sat (10-12). So at 5pm on wed I popped round on the bike. At first it appeared closed ( this France, after all) but I persevered on to the farmhouse where I met the owner ( Jean Vercier) and his charming wife (Claire-Lise) who immediately accompanied me back to the Cave ( big garage really) and started pouring wine in very generous quantities. They grow mainly Merlot, with some Grenache and Chardonnay. They produce 2-3000 bottles a year of Merlot, a Merlot-Grenache blend and a small amount of white and rose. The merlot was stunning (14%), the grenache blend less so (13%) so I bought a case of the merlot at 4€ a bottle which I thought was very reasonable. They gave a me complete tour of the operation, this year's harvest having already started and the place was full of boxes of grapes. This was a real family busines because they and their 3 school-age children do the picking in the evening when the heat retreats and the kids have done their homework. He then sorted and cleaned the bunches of grapes in the morning and pressed them in the afternoon. The garage was full of vats of fermenting grapes which he insisted,with a big smile, on lifting lids so I could hear them fizzing.
I didn't get round to discovering where the wine is stored and bottled since what I bought was 2008 and there was no sign of a bottling plant. So I had a lovely time and they were very nice people.

Thursday required us to move as our present location did not give good reception on ITV which is essential for the rugby world cup. So we headed to the Luberon where there were 2 possible campsites that might offer the correct blend of shade and clear satellite views on the river Durance. We arrived at the first candidate at 12.45 which was amistake as reception was shut until 3pm. However as we walked around it became apparent that although the sign said 5 star camping, it was not actually a campsite as we know it but a mobile home holiday park. After half an hour we didn't discover any campers of any description so decided to move on and not hang around to find out otherwise. The other site was only 10km down the road and proved ideal. Lovely pitches, great shade and good views of the sky. All set till Sunday.

CASTLES AND CANALS

2011-09-04T00:54:00.000-07:00

29th.August - 3rd.September

Monday morning dawned bright and sunny - hardly surprising after a very hot night, and having gotten within 4kms of the castle at PEYREPERTUSE it seemed silly not to go and have a look.....even if the 4 kms were almost vertical. The GF was anxious but a german next to us assured us that we would get the van another 2km up the mountain 'to where the coaches park'and then there was a path the rest of the way.. the road was fine, the parking area - which seemed to contain all the vans from the aire the night before - was fine and the path was steep,rocky and a bit of of a lung-buster but we got there and it was worth it for the views alone. The casle stretches out along a ridge with sheer drops all round and is remarkably intact. It was one of 5 built as a defense against the Spanish (the 5 sons of Carcassone) when the border with Aragon was this side of the Pyrenees,and with its visible neighbour, QUERIBUS on the next ridge, commands a series of valleys with spectacular views. It fell out of favour when the peace treaty of 12** settled the border along the centre of the Pyrenees and it lost its raison d'etre.

So from there we found a route back down the valley which avoided the road back over the highest ridges, much to the GF's relief, even if it was still a bit narrow and windy through some terrific gorges and the pretty road to CARCASSONE. Great camp site within view of the old walled city which was a 15min walk away. So good that instead of the intended 2 nights we stayed 5.
Walked into the old city on Tuesday and took a walking tour of the old walled town and the 'new' old town that was built to replace it down below, and ending on the banks of the Canal du Midi.......which made us think about cycling along it. Which is why we stayed. The tour was ok but a mite tedious as at every stop the guide gave a 10 min lecture in French and then repeated it in English and as it went on from 10am till 1.15 we got very very hot, thirsty and hungry. By the time it ended it was too late to go back for lunch so we had an excellent lunch at a brasserie under umbrellas in the main square and then returned to the site to spend the afternoon by the pool. The weather remained hot but a hot wind sprang up for 3 days which was very irritating and a short lived thunderstorm one evening. We cycled into town for more exploration......the castle is Very Touristy and there are more ways to separate the unwary from their cash than I can recall - it must be hell for people with young children.

A jolly good ride along the Canal du Midi, enlivened with the spectacle of watching a car being fished out that must have fallen in only a few minutes before we arrived. The Canal path is excellent and very well maintained and on the site we spoke to several people and families who were riding the whole length from Toulouse to Agde - an Argentinian, especially,with his wife and 4 children, aged 7-14, who had left the car in Toulouse and would be return from Agde by train after taking 5 days to cycle the complete canal. Will definitley investigate more about aires and campsites along the route.

Finally left CARCASSONE on saturday and went to MIREPOIX, a rather fine half -timbered medieval village, and then wasted a lot of time and fuel trying to find a decent aire for the night without success and so ended up at a campsite on the other side of the Black Mountains from Carcasssone having driven around 3/4 of a circle to get there. Camping Cerisiers de Jaure at St.PONS du THOUMIERS is very nice and on a Voie Verte cycle path so we shall explore a bit.

CAVES & CASTLES

2011-08-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

26th.August - 29th.August.

We got very wet on Friday and it didn't stop raining until the evening. Very Lake District like. Off on Sat morning bright and early as our visit to the caves at NIAUX was booked for 9.45, we had to 'check in' by 9.30 and we were about 45 mins drive away. Getting to NIAUX village was no problem and I had checked when booking that there was plenty of parking space at the caves for a large motorhome. What they had omitted to mention was the that from the village on the valley floor, the caves were 2 miles up a mountainside on a very narrow,winding road with overhanging rocks at every corner. There was however, just about enough parking space at the top at the enormous entrance to the caves. This complex is one of the few in europe,(14 I think they said), where you can still see the original cave paintings which is why entry is strictly controlled by allowing only groups of 20 to enter at any one time in order to reduce heat and carbon dioxide. The tour took nearly 2 hours and involved walking 800 metres into the mountainside through a magnificent series of galleries and tunnels to reach the main chamber with the paintings. led by a very informative guide. The caving system was carved out of the rock by water but are now nearly completely dry which is why the paintings have survived for 14,000 years (some paintings were damaged by water in 1978 and nobody knows why). There is no lighting in the caves, and we were all given rechargeable battery torches with low heat emission bulbs, which we had to turn off in the vicinity of the paintings whilst the guide used special torches to illuminate them for us as he described them. Altogether quite a stunning & unforgettable experience.
The drive down was just as hairy but we waited until the next group had congregated at the reception so that there would be little likelihood of meeting anyone on the way up.
Drove to AX LES THERMES, thought about going up to ANDORRA and then found a terrific aire at LES CABANNES where we spent the night for 4€ with another 26 vans. Superb mountain views and a pretty village ( on the Tour de France 2011 as it headed into the Pyrenees)

As we missed out on the high Pyrenees, our plans were somewhat scrambled so we decided to head for the Cathar country and the castles. As MONTSEGUR was quite close, and any visit was going to involve a strenuous climb, we arrived there about 10am. And the climb was very strenuous but a Gold star for the GF and we were rewarded with stunning views all round. The Castle is in ruins of course but the history comes alive when you reach the top.....500 people held out for 10 months in 1244 when it was besieged during the Albigensian crusade. The 220 Cathars they were sheltering were offered safe passage in a peace settlement if they renounced their faith but they refused and walked down the mountain and on to the pyres waiting for them at the bottom. I think it is one of the worst massacres of the middle ages and an atrocity that the Catholic church should never be allowed to forget. End of obsessive rant.

From there the road took us the strange phenomenon of the fountain of Fontesforbes at BELESTA....a cave at the side of the road which is the outlet for a stream running through the mountain. Due to some unique channels cut by the water, the flow is intermittently a trickle and a spectacular flood of 15000 litres a second. This complete cycle of trickle-flood-trickle happens continually in the summer months every 30 mins or so.
There a very detailed diagram and explanation about the level in channel Q falling below the level in the underground reservoir M and sucking air through hole P which is incomprehensible.But the effect is wonderful.

Stopped for lunch at PUIVERT, but did not fancy climbing up to the castle in the afternoon heat and headed for the CHAT.de PEYREPERTUSE, associated with the Cathars but more realistically a defensive fort, alongside its near neighbour at QUERIBUS, during the wars with Aragon/Spain, passing the Chateau at PUILAURENS on the way.

PEYREPERTUSE is a very iconic castle, perched on a ridge, and Mr Michelin thoroughly recommends a visit by campingcar in one of his Escapades. As there is an aire in the village below,DUILHAC s/s PEYREPERTUSE, it seemed the perfect night stop, esp. as All The Aires describes it as the 'prettiest aire in the Pyrenees'. Nobody mentions the access road over the GRAU DE MAURY which whilst not especially high, seems to be, with an unguarded road not much wider than the van and very steep with hairpins. White knuckle ride for the GF and when I enquired as we crested the summit if she was Ok, the response of 'what are you bloody going to do about it if I'm not?'seemed a tad edgey. But we got there in one piece with the happy thought of getting back to sustain us. Terrific setting for an aire and a dozen or so vans there. Walked round the village, found a man making wine in his garage and after a tasting bought 5litres of the red Corbiere for 15€ and a bottle of the white for the GF. Then found a man in a van with a wood burning pizza oven in it and bought what turned out to be an excellent pizza for dinner.

ALL THE FUN OF THE FOIX

2011-08-26T07:11:00.001-07:00

21st.- 25th AUGUST.

The gite had to be vacated by 10am as new arrivals were expected that afternoon. We said our goodbyes on Saturday night as there was much to be done with packing and young children on Sunday morning without us getting in the way and departed about 9.30, waving goodbye my new friend, M.Arnal the farmer on our way. Short drive to ST.ANTONIN and the aire.......whilst we Could have driven further, I felt the alcohol level in the bloodstream was high enough to justify driving to the nearest place and parking up for the day. Nice market in the centre and terrific boulangerie for the requisite tarte aux fraises.
Only problem was the heat and only part shade. By mid afternoon, with the silver screens on, all vents & windows open and the cab doors open, the temp inside was 39.8. and we were sitting in the only shade behind the van...and then we discovered that we could go and sit in the river about 100m away which probably saved us. Very uncomfortable night as temp never dropped below 32.

Up early on Monday because of the heat and on the road about 8.30. Good drive to TARBES where we parked for a few hours in a private guarded aire and walked into town for a drink and look around. Still rather hot in the middle of the day for sightseeing so a stroll through the very nice gardens was the highlight ( We decided to give the birthplace of Marechal Foch a miss, merely having a drink in his square, opposite his hotel). Then onto LOURDES. Ok I know, I swore I wasn't going to do another Catholic pilgrimmage site and the GF only agreed to go if I promised to not to rant on about a. Religion b.Religious souvenirs c.Gullible Religious Tourists....but I didn't promise not to write about them. So we found a very nice little family run campsite where we pitched under shady trees and did a bit of housekeepng. Next day, got the bikes out and cycled into LOURDES, only 3km away. Unfortunately the weather changed and thick mist hid the mountains and a fine drizzle fell as we approached the town but it soon cleared. LOURDES. Its better than it might be and whilst unashamedly attempting to separate you from you money ( I was offered, in dark alleys, enough splinters from the true cross to build an ark) it is obviously bringing enormous comfort (and hope?) to hundreds of thousands of unwell people so who am I to mock. And it's not up itself like Compostello nor are there armed guards in the church of the grotto which was an interesting church. So we had a cup of coffee and left them to it (I have several splinters of the true cross available at a reasonable price if anyone is interested).

Now. The real reason why we were in LOURDES was to begin an Escapade en CampingCar, from Mr.Michelins book of the same name, which is a tour of the thermal waters of the Pyrenees, including crossing the Col du Tourmalet, the highest of the passes. The GF had only agreed to this on the basis that Mr Michelin wouldn't send us up impassable tracks or dangerous routes, even though she had watched the tv pictures of the Tour de FRance crossing said Col in July. Well I thought it would be fun. But then the weather changed and the clouds came down and the forecast was for several days of thunderstorms in the Pyrenees so there wasn't much point.

We had also planned another Escapade after the mountains, touring the Cathar castles based around Carcassone, so looking at the maps we decided to head south to FOIX, another Cathar base and also close to Mont Segur, number one on my 'must visit'list ( having read several books about its place in Cathar history). Found a nice riverside campsite at BASTIDE DE SEROU after a very pleasant country drive with the attraction of being very close an old railway track cycle path (Voie Verte) to FOIX, about 20km away.
So on wednesday we visited the tourist offices, armed ourselves with maps from the very helpful young man, and after visiting the market (where we watched a man dispening wine from vats in the back of his van via hosepipes into any container you wished to present for 0.90€ a litre or 1.10€ a litre for the superior) we cycled to FOIX along the best cycle path we have ever done. A slight gradient as path follows the hillside with spectacular views over to the Ariege massif, foothills of the Pyrenees. Final 4kms on the road down into the town of FOIX. Stunningly restored castle overlooks the town and we climbed up to it in the heat of the day ( although not as bad as last weekend)and whilst it was open, the only English speaking guided tour of the day at 1pm was cancelled due to ill health. So we just did the best we could and had a good look round and a picnic under a shady tree with lovely views up and down the valley it was built to protect.

Had intended moving on but discovered on thursday that in order to visit the caves at NIAUX, which are as important as Lascaux, it is necessary to book a reservation as visitor numbers are limited and the earliest booking we could get was Saturday so we stayed on another day. Set off for a bike ride on friday morning, overcast but looking as though it would clear, only it poured with rain and we got very wet.

BIRTHDAYS AND HEATWAVES

2011-08-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

13th-20th AUGUST

On the basis that I haven't put proverbial pen to paper for 2 weeks, this will either be the interminable ramblings of an idiot or a very brief digest as I lose the will to live.

Left home Saturday midday and spent the night at the very nice Firtree Farm, just outside Dover. Not our usual eurotunnel crossing on Sunday since we had a cheap (£54 return) deal with Norfolk Line which was very good for high season. Leaving UK earlier than normal in order to rendevous with the Pates who have taken a gite nr. Toulouse en famille to celebrate his 70th birthday.
Ferry packed with probably the last big holiday exodus but on and off first so on the road from Dunquerqe just after 1pm. It being Sunday, the roads were clear of lorries and first night stop at the aire in BREZOLLES. Arrived not a moment too soon as it was packed, with later vans occupying the lakeside picnic carpark next door. Weather v.good. Discovered that Tracker is not working because they failed to initialise the sim card for international roaming when fitting the new one in June and it cannot be done after you have left the UK without resetting the unit....I seem to remember being here before in the winter in Spain when it would not work and the unit needed resetting......

Monday was a Bank Holiday so another lorry free run avoiding the motorways down to UZERCHE where there must have been 30 vans in the aire, with later arrivals using a smaller area which is used on Thursdays when the old station yard becomes the market place. All the other vans were french. Pleasant walk around town in evening sunshine.

Weather lovely and a good drive avoiding motorways down to CAHORS where we stopped briefly to pick up wine and beer for the coming festivities and then on to LAGUEPIE in the Aveyron Gorge where the Pates had rented the gites from clients/friends of Dave. As no-one had seen the gite beforehand it was not known in advance what the access would be like for us and photographs on their website were not encouraging. The gites was about 3km out of the village, which boasted a rather scrubby aire but would do at a pinch if all else failed. As instructed, we rang Dave on arrival at the aire and he came down in his car to pick me up for a recce, the general opinion being that access would be difficult. The shortest approach road was far to narrow, twisty and overhung but there was a long way round which was fine but the turn into the drive was fraught and a low tree halfway along ruled it out completely. However, next door was a large farmhouse with plenty of space and to cut a long story short we were able to email the owners of the gite who directed us to the farmer (whose son lived in the farmhouse but was away on holiday) and when I asked in my best french if we could park off the road in the shade of the buildings he became my best friend and said of course we could. Problem solved, so we went back to the village and picked up the van and the GF who had stayed with it. Note.....the temp was in the high 30's so nothing was being done quickly.

The gite was terrific, very secluded on the top of the hills with great views, a swimming pool and able to sleep a lot of people. Present were Dave & Briony; Maryon; Paul,Ruth,Toby & Mimi;Simon,Chris Theo & Siobhan; Cate, Matt, Brya and Mia ; making 9 adults,1 teenager and 5 children. We slept in the motorhome and when Geoff & Caroline arrived the next day, they were staying at a nearby B&B ( run by an English couple from Oakham with whom they shared mutual aquaintences and found by pure chance on the net).Thus the total complement from Wed night to Fri night for meals was 19.

On tuesday evening, the younger adults left the older generation babysitting and went for a meal downtown whislt we had a splendid meal on the terrace prepared by Maryon and quaffed much wine.

Weather remained v.hot and thank god for the pool. Geoff & Caroline arrived wed.evening and a splendid night was had in the courtyard with a BBQ prepared by Simon with much help from his siblings. The bottle bank already taking over the extremely large utility room.

Thursday, Dave's birthday. Most people went by train to VILLEFRANCHE ROUERGUE as there was a market and it's a nice place. Ended up Dave,Maryon ans us having lunch in LAGUEPIE , which was so good that we booked a table for Saturday lunchtime for my birthday.. Terrific evening party with all 19 sitting down to a BBQ in the courtyard and I must have had a good time as I was persuaded t0 play a duet on the spoons with Chris.......

Friday at leisure. G&C picked us up and we went to CORDES sur CIEL, a nearby
ancient hilltop village. Weather hotter so we all we really did was have a rather excellent lunch after a desultory look around....terrace restaurant with panoramic views and those misty sprays that kept us cooler than otherwise. A nice scenic drive back in their air condtioned hire-car with a short sight-seeing stop at ST.ANTONIN NOBLE VAL where we spotted a large aire for when we left on sunday. Another very excellent dinner in the courtyard for 14.

Saturday was my birthday. Geoff & Caroline had to leave for the airport in order to be back for her mother's 70th birthday on Sunday but not before we had an excellent lunch in LAGUEPIE for the 7 elders.Afternoon spent in the pool as temperature rose and a very pleasant ( and alcoholic ) evening.

A FEW DAYS AWAY..28th June-7th July

2011-07-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Spotting an advert for a motorhome show in Shrewsbury which included 2 evenings of concerts, 3 nights at the showground with entry to the show for an all-in cost of £40, we headed westward for a few days.
First stop BLADON CHAINS, next to Woodstock and close to Oxford for 3 nights. Walked to Churchill's grave.
Great cycle route round the countryside and canal during which we stumbled on JRR Tolkien's
grave in a cemetary at Wolvercote. Following day we cycled into Oxford along the canal towpath which was v.pleasant.
Then to Shrewsbury. Lots of vans there but show was not large and poorly supported which was a shame as the 2 concerts were excellent and the weekend was great value. Cycled into Shrewsbury on the Sunday and then along the Severn. Bought new digital TV for van.
On Monday we headed for WOLVERLY, on the Shropshire canal nr Kidderminster, via Much Wenlock where I managed to find myself in the very narrow high street and demolish the wing mirror of a badly parked VW Golf whilst inflicting damage to the rear of the van ( this looked worse than it was but will still require some cosmetic repair). The GF hopped out to placate the owner whilst I drove aroune for 20 minutes trying to find the coach park that I had missed on the way in, thus setting up the the scenario in the one-way high street. The lady was was very nice about the whole thing and even drove us round to her local garage who gave us a quote straightaway for £175 which seemed quite reasonable for an electric mirror. The car was booked in for 2 days time and I paid the bill which seemed much better tha involving insurance companies - esp.since the insurance is due for renewal in 3 weeks and I'm shopping around for quotes.
Nice couple of days at Wolvercote; cycled both ways up and down the canal. The Stourport basin where the canal meets the Severn is well worth a visit, having been restored over the past few years. I could still get persuaded to buy a narrow boat.
Back home to have the van MOT'd and serviced. What with the tax, insurance and habitation check due this month it's going to be an expensive time.....
We are now Great Uncle & Aunt as Anna was born on th 4th July to Matt & Beata

SO WHAT'S NEW........

2011-06-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

Just catching up because I have been very lazy and let this drift..........
Having left Bordeaux, we stopped first at VIVONNE where there was a very pleasant Aire in the town square (even if the directions were confusing) and then caught up with Derek and Margaret again at La SUZE s/SARTHE, one of our favourite Aires by the river. Another alcoholically fuelled night and I don't remember who won the card game. The next night was Calais and a terrific meal as usual at Cote d'Argent and back home the next day.

Home for 3 weeks, during which the remaining grass was covered with gravel to provide an almost maitenance free enviroment for the future then off to the ISLE of WIGHT ......I don't know why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. The GF had gone down to her mother's after we had spent an excellent Easter at Rutland chez the Clarks with JK+C who took her back with them,and as I was going to drive the van down to pick her up the IOW seemed like a good idea at the time. The cost of taking the van over being so exorbitant made me book for nearly 3 weeks to justify the expense rather than the 5 days we should have opted for. Suffice to say I got bored. We cycled a bit but the GF didn't like the narrow lanes with traffic and even with electric bikes some of the hills were hard going. We pottered around on buses a bit, the weather was warmish but a constant cold wind didn't help.
Then down to Dorset and a great campsite at EYPE near Bridport, on the cliffs with views from Lyme Regis round to Portland. Had intended staying 5 nights but ended up there for 11 as it was such a great place. Lots of walking not much cycling.........and D&M dropped in for a night on their way down to Taunton for solar panels & Lpg tanks to be fitted.
Then down to the New Forest for the Spring Bank Holiday to meet up with JK+C for the weekend. Unfortunately weather was not good, campsite was packed but they had kept a pitch for us next to their tent. J+K stayed the weekend then left Charlie with us for another 2 nights which was fun. Dropped Charlie back home on june 1st and then back to drought at Martlesham...good job we did away with the grass.

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS AND BORDEAUX CYCLE TRACKS

2011-04-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

MONDAY 4TH.APRIL

The Aire at St.Jean de Luz came highly recommended by several, esp. Marianne who declared it to be her favourite, and was therefore something of a disappointment. In fact we only headed there as it had been so warmly recommended and had we known what lay in store may well have gone elsewhere.
The location is perfect in one sense that you only have to cross the road to be in the port, 2 mins takes you to the heart of the town and superb restaurants and 4 mins to the superb beach and promenade that, in our humble opinion, beats Biaritz......BUT....
The Aire is long and narrow and only one entrance, about 15m. wide with spaces for 20 vans so that once you are committed to entering from the busy main road you are already pointing the wrong way if you discover that it is full as you had not had time to assess the situation before you were on it and had to make a decision. If it is full, you have no room to turn round and must therefore reverse out onto the main road, making a reverse u-turn so that you will be pointing the right way as you cannot cross the double white line onto the other carriageway. FORTUNATELY we did not have to do this but we spent many happy hours watching others do it. We arrived about 11.30 and there was just one space, nicely situated facing the entrance, so no danger of being hemmed in by other vehicles parking close....and there wasn't more than 3ft between vans.
All this though paled into insignificance when we discovered that whilst our front end was 8m from the main road,our rear end was 2ft away from the platform of the main town railway station with a busy urban timetable, an intercity connection to Paris and a TGV connection to Nice and Cannes. I assured the GF that the trains would not run all night, a fact she ungraciously threw back in my face at 3am as the TGV engine stopped opposite our bedroom and hung around,engine roaring, as it was presumably killing time to get back on timetable. Between the road and the railway, sleep was very difficult to come by and the Gf was not best amused come breakfast time since we had to contend with the hottest day of the trip and have all the windows open or suffocate......
Which was a pity because St.JdL is a great town with a stunning beach and promenade round a horseshoe bay and the views of the coast from the headland were terrific with great waves and surf. The town is extremely well healed and we realised we were back in civilisation when the first ( and only ) 2 coffees of the day came to 7€20 (the last 2 coffees in Spain -incl a baguette- were 3€25). So on Friday we walked all round the bay and over the headland through beautifully kept gardens and promised ourselves to come back and spend more time one day. On Saturday, I was told to find somewhere else to spend the night.
So we found a campsite just up the road. The TomTom, which has been extremely well behaved all trip decided that the entrance was in fact at the rear of the property down an extremely steep and narrow dead-end. Rude words were uttered as I extricated ourselves with difficulty....this followed the pantomime of finding the local Carrefour which had been relocated since I downloaded all the Carrefour locations onto the TomTom last year....
The campsite when we eventually found the entrance,only opened for the season on friday but was already doing good business. A 15 min walk took us down to the great surfing beach and so it seemed a good place to stay for the next 3 nights....wrong again. It started raining on Sat. night and by sunday morning the sloping grass pitches were looking distinctly wet and slippery. I watched 2 vans struggle to get any traction so made a management decision and we left whilst the going was good.
The rain got worse and we decided to head 15km inland,to an Aire that also came highly recommended by magazine article, on a lake at the charmingly named St.Pee sur Nivelle. Found it without trouble and it may one day entice us to stop and explore but as the rain was now set for the day we had coffee, talked it over and decided to head north to Bordeaux to a newish campsite we found in the book that seemed very convenient.
So indeed to Bordeaux and a real gem of a campsite a few minutes off the ring road, and adjacent to a lake a few miles north of the city centre. The site is very new but is nicely landscaped with lakes and fountains, full of ducks and croaking bullfrogs ( or maybe toads - who knows). It is not mature yet but will get even better with age as the trees and plants grow. It also has a very swish restaurant open to the public and as it was Mothering Sunday, I took the Gf for dinner courtesy of her 2 sons who's account has been debited with another €57 - (which has reminded me that last years €60 is still outstanding) - and I must say that the Chateau Pichon-Bellevue 2003 was worth every penny.
We also discovered that Bordeaux boasts 650km of cycle tracks so on Monday, having woken to the sunshine again, we set off to explore. I have never experienced city cycling like it ! The bike rules in Bordeaux and the cycle paths have their own signposts and traffic lights and bikes seem to have priority everywhere - even being allowed to cycle wrongly down oneway streets and through pedestrian shopping malls and squares. It was a real pleasure and we had such a lovely time that we stopped for lunch. We also ran into Paddy Ashdown who, I am sad to report, claimed that he had no recollection of me buying him a half of bitter in The White Hart when he was first canvassing to become the Mp for Yeovil and whilst perfectly civil, failed to respond in kind. I will not be buying him another one ! He did let slip that he was in Bordeaux researching for a book he is writing on the Cockleshell Heroes, a plaque to whom was unveiled here last week.
So this extremeley busy and convenient campsite will make a fine jumping-off point for going to Spain or returning to the UK. We could do Calais with one stop from here but will take 2 and I am sure we will use it again...and I would like to cycle round more of Bordeaux.

NB I discovered the cycle tracks when I picked up a booklet with maps and instructions - it lists 14 offences that can be committed when using the tracks, with instant fines ranging from 11€ to 750€. The contraventions range from having faulty brakes to using a mobile phone and riding more than 2 abreast. I managed 2 offences but got away with it.

NATIONAL PARKS AND RIP-OFF TOURISM

2011-03-31T09:41:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY 31st.MARCH

A pleasant Saturday at HORCAJO, apart from having to listen to England being ejected from the One-Day World Cup quarter final by Sri Lanka, and a nice stroll down to the village to explore its charms....which were few as it was shut and in the usual state of being unfinished. It boasts a hotel and is the gateway to the National Park and once tried to smarten itself up but gave up halfway through.
Left on Sunday for TOLEDO and drove across the Park with low cloud obscuring the hills and despite the deteriorating road were rewarded with the sight of a magnificent golden eagle swooping across in front of us to land in a field of cows...obviously looking for a nice calf for lunch.
TOLEDO campsite by lunch time and immediately caught bus to town 10mins away and looking great on hilltop. We agreed that TOLEDO is Top Town and cathedral is Top Cathedral. The GF rates it as the best Church ever but I still like the Mezquita as Top Church. The cathedral is Awesome and has a definite WOW factor everywhere you look...the stained glass is magnifcent, the carved choir stalls are the best ever, the altar blows your mind as it soars to the ceiling with its gothic artistry,the Treasury with its El GReco collection ( not to mention Rubens,Rafael et al) and there are over 20 chapels round the walls some of which are bigger than other churches.
After the cathedral, the tourist office map lists another 27 churches and buildings worth a visit, of which we did 2............BECAUSE TOLEDO IS ALSO
RIP-OFF TOURIST TOWN.......where to begin
Firstly, our intention was to spend 4 nights in Toledo in order to have plenty of time to see the sights but the first problem was the El Greco campsite.Maybe we have been spoilt by ACSI to expect €15 a night so to find them asking €28.70 was a blow to the pursestrings....and unsurprisingly only 3 other units were in residence. We decided to stay only 2 nights at that price and went into town.
Ok, we know that some (not all)cathedrals charge admission but this was €7 each and the audio guide (with headphones that could only be used by one person at a time)was €10........Evora town audio guide was €2 each and is a very representative price.
And then the 27 other minor churches ALL charged a minimum of €2.30 each admission...and nowhere offered an over-65 discount unlike anywhere else.
Nowhere else has charged admission to minor churches. To spend 2 days and see the lot would cost over €150 for 2 people.
And lastly, the Rough Guide's rating of a 'disappointment' due to the 'extraordinary number of day-trippers' taking 'the edge' off the experience was spot on, especially on the Sunday we were there.
So when we got back to the van we decided to move on the following day and did a quick internet search on the weather for likely destinations.
The plan A was to slowly move up to towards Biaritz to follow the same route home as we had taken last year but the forecast for Mon-Thurs was for heavy rain in that region. Plan B was to go over to Valencia where the weather was good, call in to see Terry & Jackie at last, then go up the coast near Figueres before heading home more or less on the plan A route but by a more roundabout way......
So we left TOLEDO on Monday morning but over breakfast I spotted another campsite that looked interesting in another National Park on the way to Valencia but still left room to then drive up to Pamplona-St.Jean de Luz-Biaritz and save a few hundred miles whilst also avoiding Barcelona.
And that's how we came to be at KikoPark (sister site of the one down on the med where the GF nearly came to blows with a surly swiss gnome) at VILLARGORDO DEL CABRIEL......forget the town, it was closed and might reopen next century if the one horse returns....The campsite was ace, out in the wilds on a headland overlooking a huge flooded-valleys reservoir with magnificent scenery. Campsite facilities excellent; even got the bikes out for a ride around. THe only noise was birdsong and the occasional whoosh of the Madrid-Valencia High Speed bullet train as it passed 500m away....the line apparently going straight through the national park 'Hoces de Cabriel'.
Fortunately it is electric,continuous rail,only ran between 7.25-22.30 scarcely hourly and only made a noise like a sudden gust of wind...otherwise it was very pleasant-if isolated-spot.
Like the site at Horcajo, it had lots of bungalows and I suspect that these would,like there, be busy at the weekend. However, on Monday and Tuesday we only there with 2 other vans and by wednesday the Gf had had enough isolation so we set off for PAMPLONA.
We had stayed at a pretty poor site there on the way down so decided to try the site 25kms south.
A terrific drive up there with some great scenery between UTIEL and TERUEL where we crossed great gorges-a mini grand canyon- and passed through an area of Aragon called Rincon de Ademuz, famous for being unheard of. It's the only part of Spain where deaths outnumber births and it has the hardest winters in the country. Teruel looked v.interesting but we couldn't stop and I would like to go back to spend some time among the best Mudejar architecture in Spain.
Finally arrived MENDIGORRIA, which turns out to be a splendid campsite on the Rio Arga nestling beneath a hilltop village with a splendid church of San Pedro and wonderful views across the surrounding hills and valleys,which we explored the following day (the village,not the surroundings).
Plan C now is to go to St.Jean De Luz and stay at the Aire in the town for 2 nights, then find a campsite for another 2 nights to stock up for 3 nights of Aires across France.
nb.....Mendigorria was site of a battle in the Carlist wars

nb2.....have seen Hoopoe on 3 occasions

2011-03-26T09:05:00.001-07:00

SATURDAY 26TH.MARCH 2011

Before leaving Fuzeta we had a great lunch at a restaurant we had passed several times on the bikes and it was always busy....in the middle of nowhere at a hamlet called Aire de Torres And we were not disappointed. Mainly fresh fish grilled on an open barbecue but also steaming tureens of eel stew and fish stewed with rice. We both had a whole grilled sole which were delicious.
The Portuguese gentleman next to us very nicely kept us informed about all the various dishes we could see around us and even insisted that the GF taste his stewed Cuttlefish eggs..apparently a delicacy..which she pronounced delicious and like scallops. After a litre of wine and a large brandy it was necessary to take a walk before attempting the cycle back.....

So on Sunday 20th we headed inland to EVORA, leaving the Algarve behind,and meeting up with D&M and their outward travelling companions, Brian & Rita on the Orbitur campsite, who provided a most delicious BBQ on Sunday night for all of us, along with a litre bottle of brandy that was nearly empty by 9pm......which was when I went to bed apparently, although I have no recollection. The whole episode prompted the GF to try and teach the rest of us the phrase 'No thank you, I've had enough' but with no obvious sign of success.

On Monday we walked into EVORA, a pleasant & interesting town and hired audio guides for a mere 2€ each to enhance the walk through the old town and met up in the evening for drinks...........

On Tuesday we headed to CACERES and an Aire just 10 mins walk from the centre. Brian & Rita don't like Aires so headed for a campsite out of town and then went off on their own.....
We stayed 2 nights. THe Aire was incredibly busy and the designated area for 10 vans already oversubscribed when we got there but another 12 vans were parked in the area for coaches so we joined them and had drinks.........
First thing in the morning the local police arrived and very politely told us all that we couldn't park in the coach area. As we wanted to go & look round the town and stay the night this was a bit of a blow but as luck would have it we not only managed to whip into 2 slots recently vacated in the Aire proper but also connected to the free electric point courtesy of a frenchman with a vast array of cables and adaptors he was only too pleased to share with us. CACERES has a delightful old town, wonderfully preserved.....the main square is undergoing a major reconstruction which rather spoilt things but we shall come back next year to see the results. When we returned to the parking area, the coach park was again full of motorhomes who then stayed overnight with no more visits from the police so who knows what that was all about. More drinks were then taken......this is worse than having Pates around.....And as we were leaving Paul & Marianne appeared, having spent the night in the coach park and now looking for a slot, so they were lucky. Small world again.

On Thursday a lovely drive through the countryside and up into the hills to a campsite at a village called
HORCAJO de los MONTES in the Cabaneros National Park after stopping at CIUDAD REAL to stock up with wine...
The Campsite is perched on a terraced hillside above the village below with great views and as we were the only visitors (it did get busy on the weekend) we had 2 great pitches on the terraces. The GF & I love the site, it is so quiet ..... the only noises are birds and sheep bells and the sound of corks being drawn from bottles. Margaret had bought a kilo of fresh prawns at the supermarket in Cuidad Real which we had for lunch on friday with enough wine to ensure we all had to go to sleep until dinnertime when the GF produced a wonderful meal for all of Gaspacho followed by boeuf bourguignon followed by fresh strawberries & icecream and accompanied by lots more red wine and finished off with tawny port..........

My liver was again waving a white flag. D&M have itchy feet and want to keep moving....we have 2 weeks to go and don't want to get too far north too quickly so are staying here another night before moving up to TOLEDO which is not very far away, over the hills. So they left this morning for RIAZZA in the mountains above Madrid
before heading through France at a leisurely pace. We shall stay in Spain and whizz through France stopping only at Saintes & La Suze sur Sarthe where we may catch up with them again....hope so as the last week has been a great time with a lot of laughs and we are 5€ better off after the daily card games which nowhere near covers the cost of the red wine, even at 1€64 a bottle!!!!!!!!..................only joking if you are reading
this.

SMALL WORLDS

2011-03-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

Thursday 17th.March 2011

So the weekend's bad weather continued into Monday with the forecast not improving until later in week. D&M decided to move on to OLHAO on Tuesday morning which actually dawned bright,sunny & warm - thus reinforcing the impression that this spell of rain is all their fault and that they didn't leave their little God of rain back in the Uk as they are supposed to. Although Olhao is only 8 miles or so down the road they were hoping to find some friends they met on the Greek trip who often winter at the campsite. The plan was to stay 1 or 2 nights depending on whether they found them, then head on to Lagos and Sagres to see the Algarve and eventually meeting up with us again at EVORA where we will be going on sunday at the start of a 3 week long slow journey home via CACERES,TOLEDO & SEGOVIA.
Paul & Marianne sent a text suggesting a lunch on wednesday in Olhao with them which sounded good.
Tuesday afternoon we cycled out on to the marshes and finally tracked down the beaches at PEDRAS DEL REI which we have searched for before in vain........everybody knows them but nobody could actually tell us how to find them....Down a tiny lane we found the narrow pontoon bridge that crossed the inlets to the outer Isle of Tavira where a tiny train ferried us to the old tuna fishing community a mile away on the beach. The train is a relic of the tuna fishing industry, now converted to taking paying passengers out to the village for 1€20 where the old stone cottages have been turned into a cafe, restaurant,gift shop and picture gallery museum.. The beach is immense and the views must stretch well down the Algarve and back to Spain. There is also the curiosity of the Graveyard of Anchors where hundreds of anchors, once used to weigh down the tuna nets, are half buried on the sand dunes. The pictures show graphically how the fishing boats were circled, the nets raised and men jumped down into them to gaff the enormous tuna that had been hauled to the surface. It all seemed a bit barbaric but very hard and dangerous. The community finally gave up the struggle to survive in 1966. A fascinating glimpse of a former way of life.

So wednesday dawned sunny & bright so we set off for Olhao to meet Paul & Marianne....and this is the small world bit...
They had asked another couple to join us, Frank & Glenys. Frank & Glenys said they had just met some up with some friends, could they bring them along as well ? Frank & Glenys told the friends that they would be joining Paul & Marianne, whereupon the friends said that they had heard that name mentioned recently.... and yes of course they turned out to be D&M..........they had intended to surprise us by turning up at the restaurant after the rest of us got there, but since their van was parked near the entrance to the campsite and we had to pass it, we stopped and called in, not having really expected to see them until sunday. As I explained that P&M had booked a table for lunch that did not include them they responded by saying oh yes they had been included....how we all laughed when all was revealed.!!!!!!! Gosh we know how to have fun out here........
So lunch was a table of 8 at Sergio's, (which we had missed trying last year as it was closed the day we went) where after a magnificent repast with much wine the bill came to 68€ !!!!!
Lunch lasted until 4 pm, then back to the site for a few beers before the GF decided I was in grave danger of being drunk in possession of a bicycle and we ought to make for home. Nicely, the earlier breeze had abated and we a very pleasant cycle back...only 30 mins by electric bike and the wonderful sight of a large flock of flamingoes.
Next few days look set fair so we shall remain at Fuzeta and leave on sunday for Evora

2011-03-17T03:43:00.000-07:00

Monday 7th March 2011

Pottered up the road and found a nice site at SAGRES, close to the town and overlooking the beach with lovely views. 6 vans parked there with another 20 or so parked up above on the cliffs and more exposed to the rather worsening weather to come. Walked over the fort on the headland in the afternoon and spent and enjoyable hour or two walking on the cliffs and reading about the exploits of Henry the Navigator who taught the Portuguese how to sail into the wind and navigate when out of sight of land without falling off the end of the world as this place was widely held to be. Tremendous thunderstorms overnight but Sunday was bright so we drove along to the beach at CARAPATEIRA with intention of staying there overnight. Terrific views from the carpark but as there were only a few surfing dudes in beat-up campervans and the inevitable germans in a WW2 panzerwaggen ( at least the swastikas were painted out) who looked like staying we headed back to Sagres and parked by the fort this time along with 34 other motorhomes.

Weather forecast very iffy for next week and we heard from Derek & Margaret who were heading for CONIL and intending to then make for Portugal, so we decided to head back along the Algarve and settle down in a campsite and wait for them. As we had liked FUZETA it seemed the right place to go.
Site still busy, mainly french and ok if not exactly topnotch but the location is great as you can walk out of the door onto the sands. LIke Tavira, the village and fishing port nestle behind islands of sandbanks and and you can get water taxis to take you over to them...which we will try to do if the weather improves. We had some horrendous rain storms (and the site manager insisted we change pitch at one stage as we were surrounded by water) but some lovely sunny days as well when we managed to cycle out along the saltpans and saw flocks of Avocets, Spoonbills, Flamingoes, Godwits and goodness knows what else.......there is an amazing variety of birdlife all around here and we have a Crested Lark thathops around the pitch and something as yet unidentified which may be a Firecrest or Goldcrest.
Took the van into OLHAO to stock up at the Intermarche and ran into Paul & Marianne who at still at the site there. Arranged to meet for lunch in Olhao one day but weather has not let that happen yet.

Saturday 12th. March

Derek & Margaret suddenly arrived having decided to leave Conil when the sun was shining. We had expected them on sunday and had bought food at the local market in preparation so we had a very jolly evening chez nous catching up on the news and drinking so much wine that certain people were very inebriated. And the same thing happened on Sunday night in their van.
Unfortunately the weather is very rainy.

And of course we have been and still are concerned at the earthquake in Japan. We had news from Julian at first that Justin had sent an email saying all ok...we have no wifi here....and then I turned the phone's data roaming on to connect to the internet and pick up Justin's facebook page.
By Saturday we managed to speak to him by, phone after they had got home after spending Friday night sleeping at the school, and heard the story of their adventures which whilst worrying are nothing like the horrors from the tsunami victims up north. Tokyo will now have rolling power blackouts and we wait anxiously for news about the failures at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Worrying times and we watch Sky news constantly. Spoke to Justin a second time and they are ok so far.

THE B-TEAM DOES THE ALGARVE

2011-03-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday 5th March

The Pates duly arrived looking pale and pasty from the long English winter and revelling in the sunny climes of Portugal. We entered them to dinner and after the requisit beers and wines I introduced them to the delights of Tawny port which must have been a success as I soon had none left.
Saturday morning was spent locating a bar showing the 6 Nations Rugby as I could not guarantee getting a satellite picture on Stream ..we were pitched near some trees and as the breeze swayed the top branches the picture could break up...despite dire predictions that our dish was too small for this part of the Algarve I solved the problem on Sunday by moving lower down in front of the trees and had a perfect picture for the rest of the week. Anyway I digress. We found a bar, then had a snack lunch at another before returning to watch Wales-Scotland and England-France which was a cracker. Unfortunately we had chosen an horrendous ex-pat bar run by Denise (50 - looked 60-drinking vodka by the 1/2 pint) with about the saddest collection of alcoholics you could meet outside of an AA meeting. But we had fun. Dinner at the Valverde Restaurant opp. the campsite was very good indeed - the Gf & I shared a Cataplana, the local variant of a Bouillabasse. Sunday saw us watch the Italy-Ireland game chez nous as the reception was now ok and D&B entertained us to dinner in their roundhouse chalet with garden furniture...apart from not being able to light the oven so we had to cook the chicken in our oven (Dave announced that their oven was unconnected to anything, thus demonstrating his grasp of gas installations as the manager showed him how to light it the next day....and the Gf showed him again later in the week when he failed to hold the gas nob in until the burners had ignited fully). The evening was further enlivened by Dave's patio plastic chair disintergrating under him, smashing one of OUR wine glasses and covering me with red wine. ( not funny really as he banged his head on the glass door panel and if it had broken.......).
The rest of the week maintained a highly enjoyable level of alcohol, sun, sightseeing and eating. WE showed them Lagos, MOnchique, Cape St.Vincent, the beaches of Saleema, Figueras, Luz, Port du Mos and Carapaterra and the grottoes of Lagos and enjoyed convivial evenings.....and even won the Quiz night at the Dukes where we had been recommended to sample the wednesday evening €8.50 buffet .. how the bill got to €110 was still a mystery on Thursday. We even had time for an afternoon barbecue of fish bought from the Lagos fish market......7 sardines the size of mackerel cost €0.66 and a lot of other unidentified fish only cost a few €s.
The fine weather finally broke on Friday night and instead of going into Luz for a classy meal at Mrs. Miggins we opted to just cross the road again to save messing around with taxis in the rain.
So my liver needs time to recuperate so we are going up the coast for a couple of days of wild camping........

SUNSHINE IN THE SALT PANS

2011-02-25T03:35:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 2011 PRAIA DA LUZ

Spent 8 days at CABANAS near TAVIRA in the Ria Formosa National Park....,(GF takes over as he has to go and sort out the electricity in the Pate's chalet. So Cabanas a site rather like a car park but so nice and easy to get on and off the pitches, always a plus in my book. The actual pitches were very small, although we could have gone to an area where there were two or three together, but guess what ???
So we settle in and on Wednesday night it's BINGO run by Mr Personality himself. You wouldn't think it would be difficult to make a bingo session depressing......

And he ran the quiz nite which is why only 4 teams turned up and we came 3rd as every other question was a pop song+artist from the 80's - 90's and guess what.............Partnered Stuart & Thelma, the couple from Conil renting bungalows along the Algarve as they argue over which motorhome to buy next.)

The cycle tracks are great, if a bit rough and stony in places, and run through the salt marshes which have large salt pans and are a haven for birdlife. Flocks of Flamingoes, hundreds of Avocets ,,flocks of curlews,Stilts, Godwits......all of which took much thumbing through the bird book. Also discovered the name of the birds first seen last year that looked like a cross between a magpie and and a jay are in fact Azure Winged Magpies.

The village of CABANAS is lovely now that the sun has returned and our bar continued to charge 1€ for all drinks. TAVIRA itself is charming and about 1/2 hour by bike along the track. Took the train to FARO on Sunday ( 5€60 for two people return and it was 50 mins each way) but it was shut so we had a snack and a beer and went home.
Cycled to FUZETA to meet Paul & Marianne for lunch which was great fun. A great place with a campsite right in the centre of town on the beach and to which we will return to stay at length one day.(Campsite not well spoken -of as iffy in the past, but we had a look and it was very busy with french and germans and seemed ok-esp when you consider the location) Had Chicken Pirri-Pirri off a charcoal grill with all the trimmings, 2 litres of wine, desserts and coffee for 40€ (£36) at a restaurant on the front run by a very cheerful ( & large) husband and wife.

We explored the tracks through the salt marshes, found hideaways where vans are wild camping and seem to be tolerated by the local police who patrol the area but I could not persuade the GF to follow suit for a few days. The weather is brilliant and getting warmer each day.
The Pates, as mentioned, arrive later today to stay in one of the chalets for a week and we have put some goodies in there for them which necessitated having the fridge running .... turning on the electricity at the fuse box is apparently a man's job so Igor had to go and flip the switch from off to on, it being rocket science and all that........

I also realise that I don't like this part of the Algarve which I had forgotten. LUZ is FULL of Essex English and it's very depressing...and the prices are double those around Tavira. The beaches are still great but I shall bypass this area in future and after Tavira & Fuzeta go up country or the west coast.

WEATHER,GAS & PORTUGAL

2011-02-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 16th February 2011

Finally left CONIL as the wonderful weather broke at last and a few days of storms set in but not before we managed 2 lovely days walking and cycling.
The walk was along the beach towards Cape Trafalgar, 11 kms away, and back on the footpath across the dunes, stopping for a picnic at the old watchtower.
The beach was almost deserted and the surf was crashing or doing whatever surf does and as the whole coastline is unspoilt the views from Trafalgar back past Conil are lovely, and the town , being so white against the sky and sea looks great.
WE finally completed the cycle ride to BAROSSA which ended abruptly when my motor gave up the ghost last time, by cycling on through the town after a coffee stop to SANCTI PETRI, a small ex-fishing village on a headland looking across to SAN FERNANDO & CADIZ and the castle island of Sancti Petri. This village has been abandoned by the fisherman and is just in the process of being developed by every type of water-based leisure venture imaginable. It still retains some charm but soon will be a huge sporting venue and marina and may well become a modern horror but for the moment it is a great place for a picnic.Great cycle path to it as well...27 mile round trip on the bikes.
Few drinks with Nick & Barbera, Dave & Geraldine to say farewell on Monday night and then the heavens opened for wind and non-stop rain. At 9 am on Tuesday morning we were resigned to not moving as though nearly everything was packed, it was decidedly unpleasant. The forecast was bad for 2-3 days though so if we stayed we would be there until FRiday, so when the wind eased at midday we made a decision to go even though it was still raining.
Off by 12.30, stocked up at the supermarket and left CONIL in the rain by 1.30. Rain stopped by JEREZ, sun came out at SEVILLE and arrived TAVIRA by 5pm in more or less sunny weather. Campsite busy, pitches very crammed but all hard standings, facilities fair to middling but hot water is dangerous.

Thursday 17th.

Wednesday a write off as storms swept in continuously;rain,hail,wind,thunder and lightning. Managed to walk down to the very pleasant village of Cabanas for a coffee. Still operating as a fishing community, the village nestles behind islands of sand dunes like the machair of the Hebrides. Look forward to trying some of the many seafood restaurants.
Having a problem with Spanish Butane gas which looks suspiciously like the regulator fouling problem suffered 2 years ago.Have used Spanish Propane for the last month without trouble, when it came to replace the cylinder I decided to switch back to Butane as it is much easier to find than propane in Portgal but when the bottle was connected the pressure was rubbish at the hob and fire. Discovered from neighbours that the only propane to be had was to go back to Ayamonte, just across the border in Spain and find a little petrol station down in the docks which had the only stocks to be had. A bit fraught taking the van down the cobbled streets of a busy little port but the excellent directions ( with dire warnings of avoiding getting sidetracked into old town with steep,narrow overhanging alleys) made it quite a pleasant trip and the directions of how to extract ourselves from the oneway system were most precise. So all sorted and propane gas working fine. On return shall switch to a Gaslow regulator from the second Trauma regulator that may be failing.....my last resort is to fit the spare that I carry but I am loathe to mess about with the gas system too much if I can avoid it .
A light bicycle ride pm and a glass of vinho in Cabanas at a very pleasant little bar on the front we have discovered ( mainly because it was the busiest) where every drink so far has been 1€.
The GoodFairy may be changing her opinion of the Portuguese as everyone round here is very smiley and very helpful and the area although busy with Northern Europeans is still very Portuguese.......unlike further along the Algarve - of which there will no doubt be more said when we hit Costa Skegness.

ALL GOOD THINGS.........

2011-02-11T13:56:00.000-08:00

Friday 12th February 2011

Somewhat hazy about the last few days as they involved the consumption of a considerable amount of alcohol. It started with another top 3 finish in the weekly quiz although having tied on 2nd ( because I wouldn't listen to the Gf and put Wellington for Old Ironsides instead of Cromwell.....hey - he was the Iron Duke and I was on a roll after correctly answering Antartica for the location of Mt. Erebus,Johnny Cash as the Man In Black and Persia as the country of Xerxes so I did my bit) and then losing in the tie-break ( length of the Suez Canal - Paul immediately said 220 miles and I had no idea so went with it.......look it up yourselves to see how close we were) so we came 3rd, preserving our previous record of 1st,2nd & 3rd.
As there is a starburst of people leaving over the next few days-some home, some to other spanish sites and more to Portugal - 8 of us had lunch at one of the bars on the beach that started at 3pm, went on till 6.30 ( the bill was 108€ ) and ended up in the bar by the sports stadium where every drink is 1 €.
Friday was Paul's birthday and more alcohol was consumed and the final boules match when the men were firing on all cylinders, possibly due to alcohol, and ran out 3-0 winners.
And the sun keeps shining. We are off to Tariva on Tuesday, new horizons for us, and Paul & Marianne are off to Olhao on Monday but as they are not too far apart we intend to meet for lunch at some stage as there is a cycle track along the Algarve coast linking them.
Conil has been great, the weather nearly perfect so we will be back next year.

BIKES, BOULES AND BEER

2011-02-08T01:26:00.000-08:00

TUESDAY Feb 8th.2011

The bike controller eventually arrived on Monday, having been posted last Tuesday ( but there was no delivery on Saturday, this being Spain ). Fitted in 15 mins with the help, advice and mastic sealing gun of Paul to make the housing watertight as the old controller looked definitely rusty round the edges - and rather more weather-worn than the new one considering we only bought the bikes early december. These controllers were higher spec ones than the standard fittings and so were changed at the point of sale.....mmmm was an old one used on mine ??. However I musn't be cynical since Eddie at the Electric Transport Shop has been more than helpful in sorting everything and is insistent that I go to Cambridge as soon as we return so that they can thoroughly check the wiring looms and replace the connectors I have vandalised in the 'diagnostic' checking. I cannot speak highly enough of their after-sales when it would have been so easy to say 'well come and see us when you get back to the UK and we'll have look at it'. If anybody reading this wants an electric bike ( and the GF says it is the Best thing we've Ever bought), go to the Electric Transport Shop....just look at their website.

So here we are and in only a week we'll be moving on to Portugal, probably Tavira for a week before heading to Lagos and Dave & Briony (and Derek & Margaret have emailed to say they are on their way). It has gone so quickly, mainly because the weather has been so brilliant and we have been out and about so much. We have played Boules every afternoon bar one, taking it in turns to provide the beer; a raucous evening after Nick & Barbera arrived when we invited everyone round for pre-dinner drinks; tapas in the sun after shopping in the market for olives and nuts; a terrific sunday afternoon when we walked down to the beach with Paul & Marianne after the re-scheduled fiesta parade to enjoy beer wine and tapas in the sunshine and surf at one of the beach bars....and the sun still shines and we still have things to do...

Roy, the token (and broken welshman, land-of-my-fathers plastered all over his van) wandered past and stopped to inform us that he had just booked our pitch for Jan-Feb next year. As we were going to re-book the same pitch for next year the GF called him a very rude name, calling into question his parentage. I then discovered that everybody had started making reservations so I popped down to the office and found I could book the pitch next to us, so done deal ( advance bookings were very ..er..advanced). Took great pleasure in telling Roy that we would be neighbours next year and that I would take great pleasure in gloating about Wales having made an early exit in the World Cup.....hopefully I won't have to eat my words. The campsite has also dropped the requirement for a deposit this year making advance booking even more attractive.

Nick & Barbera......the story of their 3 week trip to Conil was harrowing and costly. They have reported the first garage to the RAC ( who seem to have been rock-steady in their support,unlike the AA last year, even providing translators) for charging them 860€ to replace a fuel pump which Fiat said had not been replaced in their opinion. Having got here however, they have no running water as there is an apparently incurable leak if the system is switched on. Again much advice been offered but the pouring of water from beneath the sink remains impervious to new o-rings,jubilee clips, plumbers tape and even gaffer-tape, the motorhomers' answer to everything. Hymer have been contacted for advice.

2011-02-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

Sitting in the evening sunshine,under the awning with a glass of Rioja, a bowl of spicy olives and watching FRance stuff the Scots has an awful lot to recommend it, especially when England had a great win over the Welsh last night........watched by happy band of brits in the camp bar and one very sad and morose welshman who took it on the chin.

LATER......and the bottle is empty......actually, the scots put up a plucky fight ...3 tries to the french 4 is pretty good going although they never really looked like troubling the french too much. With Ireland sneaking a very lucky last minute win in Italy this could be a great 6 nations... england - france should be a cracker.

AND IT WAS ALL GOING SO WELL.........

2011-02-04T02:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Feb.1st 2011

Well it was going well until we had cylcled 12 miles to Barossa on Monday morning in the glorious sunshine. We pulled up at a cafe for coffee on the promenade but when we came to start off again my motor wouldn't start. At all. All the lights were on but nothing happened. This has happened before and seemed to relate to a sensor on the brake lever which cuts power to the motor when either brake is applied. If a lever doesn't return to its proper place then the power remains off so I had tightened and adjusted various screws and this seemed to have cured the intermittent failure of the motor to restart after stopping. Until monday morning. Nothing would get it to start so I had to ride back under pedal power and the apparently flat roads suddenly sprouted an astonishing amount of hills. Upward. Heigh-ho so we will be getting fitter.
When we got back to camp I emailed Eddie at The Electric Transport Shop (as they are closed on Mondays) with details and being the kind of guy he is he picked up the email and rang me straight away. He said it would be a faulty brake sensor so told me how to isolate the sensors which I did. Still no power to the motor.Too late to continue so he emailed to say he would ring first thing Tuesday which he.As we have two bikes the same he talked me through swapping connections between them until we could find the problem. Cut long story short, discovered lack of power at a connector bloc-when connected to F's bike my motor worked so not a duff motor. By now, half the campsite is giving advice and listening to Eddie on the phone. Wires were traced with multimeters and it seemed that the connector block itself was not making a connection so it was removed and the wires reconnected with a cable connector block. Switch on....nothing. deads as a dodo. So the only thing left was the heart of the system, a blackbox cpu which all the wires came out of.Making a management decision I undid the 4 screws holding the cover on (hoping I wasn't invalidating the warranty as Eddie had disappeared at this stage) and found a little molten mess of burnt out diodes and transistors.I emailed the shop with details and they rang back to say that they would put a replacement in the post immediately if I gave them the address which was done.But they are concerned as to why it has happened and it may be down to a suspect cable that may have been trapped during assembly in which case it will happen again....and this component has never failed before. So now its Friday and I'm hoping it will arrive today.

Having said that we went out for a bike ride on Wednesday with Paul, Marianne,Tony and Sabena and I was fine so the absence of power is an irritation rather than a disaster.......and it'll make me fitter.

WEdnesday quiz came FIRST with Paul & Marianne with a near perfect score of 48/50. A lot of beer was consumed followed by a vast amount of brandy back at their van and he and I very duntish on Thurs morning........

Weather, Quizzes and Punctures

2011-01-29T09:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday 29th January 2011

A week of fairly nasty weather interspersed with interludes of very pleasant sunshine . It started with high winds, turned to rain, developed into storms, settled into gales with ocasional thunder and finished with hail but there was always spells of of hot sunshine. Weird and unpredictable but I am writing this as the sun sets majestically over the Atlantic and the forecast is promising.
We have settled into the routine of La Rosaleda, managed to visit the farm shop, the market and the beaches between climate changes.....some stunning surf one afternoon.
Have renewed friendship with Paul & Marianne, parked nearby who we met 3 years ago on a bus to CADIZ and got on well with, saw briefly last year but not parked close to and who are now are best buddies......especially since they partnered us at the Wed. night quiz and we came 2nd (could have won). Since over 4 weeks last year the Gf and I were placed 1st,2nd,3rd & 4th with a variety of partners we have a reputation to maintain......and the money is useful.

Through Paul & Marianne we have joined the Boules set and having purchased our own sets at the Chinese Bazaar (7€50 each) have had 3 very jolly afternoons with P&M, Tony & Sabena, & Jim & Carol.

Dave & Geraldine arrived on Monday having abandoned Nick & Barbera in Girona still trying to get their Hymer moving. To be fair, there are no campsites open in bandit country at this time of year and N&B were being looked after by the AA rescue team so they had no option but to press on. As of today, N&B are back on the road and mobile...but around 2500€ poorer......having had both fuel pumps (high and low pressure) replaced although the second (fiat main dealer) garage has suggested that the neither of the pumps looked as though they had been replaced recently...???? An email this evening suggests that they will be here monday/tuesday after getting to Vilanova today.

Just to keep me on my toes, the small God of luck who normally watches over me presented me with a flat rear tyre on the bike this morning in case I was feeling overconfident. Last year we had a puncture on the scooter. Fortunately I had a puncture repair kit with me, although the glue tube was dried up but neighbours wre soon flocking to assist. Successfully mended said puncture and inflated tyre only to discover that the valve was leaking, albeit slowly. Rode into town to discover that replacement schrader valves are not a common item in the local bike shops (2) but I did get one in the motorbike shop...but the little twiddly tool to insert/remove them were unknown. Did pick up a spare inner-tube for a mere 3€50 which seemed very reasonable. Back at the ranch, word was circulated and a schrader valve tool appeared as if by magic and problem sorted..........which was a relief as changing the inner tube would involve removing the back wheel and disconnecting all the cables to the disc brakes and the hub gears which seems a daunting prospect.....I have emailed the Electric Transport Shop for instructions as the manual is more concerned with battery management and troubleshooting.

Phantom have still not sorted out the tracker gps......may have to drive somewhere remote and set the alarm off 30 times.

My great joy this trip so far has been the discovery that I can connect to Suffolk Libraries on the internet and download 3 books at a time for the E-Reader which last for 21 days before disappearing back into the ether..........don't ask me, I don't know how it works but it does and it's a terrific service which I would be quite happy to pay subscription for.....and they have 000's of books on the catalogue. The Gf is now getting interested and we may have to buy another e-reader.
Nextime: Radio Roda and the voice of america

A WEEK IN CONIL

2011-01-22T04:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday 22nd.Jan

A week of sunny warm weather has been replaced by cloudy with strong wind. THe evenings have been a bit chilly, sometimes requiring heating but never cold enough to need overnight heating. Had a very pleasant Buffet night in the restaurant on Monday (8€) but they have dispensed with the services of Jose the cuban who has been so entertaining in previous years with his interpretation of Bingo, Salsa lessons and Club 18-30 games for 60-somethings which have been great fun. Now we have a disco which precludes conversation and empties the restaurant fairly quickly. Shared a table with Stuart and Thelma who are between motorhomes, being unable to agree on the specification for their next one, so have flown out to stay in one of the chalets for a month before heading over to Olhao in Portugal for another month......nearly everybody seems to heading to Olhao this year and all start the conversation with "you either love it or hate it but....". We have no strong feelings either way but wouldn't go there for a month as parking in the roadways is not very comfortable and once you've done Faro there's not much else (see last year). The other couple we shared with were Dave and Jackie who have a house in Pembroke,a house in France(Aveyron),a motorhome,a caravan,a trailer tent and a tent. At one stage as Jackie was explaining their very complicated lifestyle arrangements, Dave looked up and said "I just go where I'm told and most of the time I don't know where that is" which must just about sum it up.
The local Romeiro festival is on Sunday 23rd this year and the restaurant put on a free lunch on Wednesday which was another fairly alcoholic affair well attended.
The electric bikes have been given a good outing everday and are proving excellent fun...and a great conversation point. Accosted on the prom whilst having coffee by an Austrian motorhomer who had to have full chapter and verse on them. But we see a lot of them around.
Prices at Mercadona, the local supermarket, seem less than less year, and the wine I was paying 2€50 last year is 1€80 this year and still as drinkable. 12 cans of San Miguel 33cl. and 5.4% was 5€34 which I am sure is cheaper...and certainly was cheaper than the local CruzCampo brew which I usually drink. Might have been on offer. Shopping has proven no problem on the bikes so far, and we were told about a local fruit & veg farm up the coast near Roche where 3€60 bought 6 oranges the size of grapefruits, a kilo of clementines, a lettuce,kilo of tomatoes and a bunch of bananas. Not bad for £3.10 so we shall return as we run out of east anglia's finest veg.
Site is still much emptier than previous years, Nick & Barbera have broken down for the 5th time and are now at Fiat Girona awaiting something to happen next Monday and I assume Dave and Geraldine are still with them........text message today said last night temp was -3.5 but at least they are in a hotel.
On the malfunctioning front, setting off the alarm by opening the door before disarming revealed that the tracking device is not working as the alarm did not trigger the usual phone call to check we are ok. When I phoned to see why they had not responded they say they had not received an alert. When they ran a check it seemed they were not receiving a signal fron the vodaphone simcard in the device that communicates with them. They checked with vodaphone to confirm the card was authorised for roaming..which it is and has been in the past..and now say that the device....which is hidden deep in the bowels of the dashboard needs resetting to kickstart the simcard into european life. I have no idea how to dismantle the dashboard & although I have a vague idea of where the tracker may be hidden I am not happy. They have also suggested forcing a reset by setting the alarm off 30 times in succession for more than 5 secs each time........that'll makes us popular round here !

.......and finally, CONIL de la FRONTERA

2011-01-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

Sunday 16th Jan

Should have been an easy and pleasant run down to CONIL de la FRONTERA, but the ubiquitous fog rather spoiled things, especially around a town called Marchena where the Tomtom was convinced that a new link to the A62 was open except that it wasn't. It may be open one day but not this year. As visibility was down to 50 yards at this stage things got a bit fraught as I tried to avoid the stagnating roadworks that will one day connect to the A62 and began retracing our steps back to somewhere with a signpost. When we eventually found the signs all became clear...except for the visibility...and the fog lifted by the time we in site of civilisation and glorious sunshine saw us to Conil. Arrived at 13.15 coincidently since that meant we had been on the road from Sunday 12.15 to Sunday 12.15 allowing for the time difference, 1540 miles with one days stopover.
La Rosaleda looked good and fairly busy, many smiles and greetings as we booked in and a lot of old faces to say hello to. Weather has been in the mid 20's since beginning of month soeverybody happy. We have a great pitch.......as expected since we picked it out last year and paid a deposit as we left. This is still one of the best sites and very friendly, same staff in the restaurant as we had a bottle of wine to celebrate our arrival and catch upon the news.

Note: I have failed to mention the problems that Nick & Barbera have encountered on their journey down. They left on the Friday before us and took their usual route from Calais down to Orange, then basically following the Med coast all the way down to Gibralter then across to Cadiz. We did this route with them in 2009 but I baulked at doing it again as it cost about £200 in tolls ( we spent £35 in tolls this Year and £5 of that was a mistake) and is slightly longer. Anyway, last year the turbo blew on their Hymer and cost them nearly a week and £1000. So we somewhat startled to receive a text from them on Wednesday to say that they had broken down near Montpelier but expected to be mobile soon. Dave & Geraldine were travelling with them so thay had help at hand. On Thursday a text to say on their way followed by another one saying oh no they weren't as had broken down again. I think it's something to do with the alarm. By Friday the problem was still not fixed and they were being transferred to a Fiat garage on Monday. Meanwhile they are in a chalet on a campsite courtesy of the recovery insurance and as of Tuesday there is no news.

MARTLESHAM TO CORDOBA...1300 MILES

2011-01-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

SUNDAY 9th JANUARY 2011

All packed and ready to roll. Despite the absence of the scooter we seem to have no more space than before and the Gf kept appearing with yet another bag of last minute items that required packing as essential items and I fear for the payload. We gained about 100kg from the scooter and the bikes weigh in around 45Kg with the necessary-for-insurance D-locks at 2 kgs each so we should be fine as there will not be much water aboard....or fuel at £1.30 a litre which will be cheaper abroad... but we do appear to have a vast amount of 'stuff'. The Gf has taken her winter and summer wardrobes, pessimistically. Optimistically, I have thrown in an a thick jumper to wear down to the Spanish border.......who'll be smug in Madrid?

Off at midday, sunny run down to Folkestone and straight on to 15.50 and in Calais aire by the port by 17.45 CET. Aire full of british vans heading south. V.cold night..and noisy, as the ferries berthed in the port seem to have reverted to running their engines all night, a practice they stopped last year. Consequently up and away at 8am.

Monday 10th. Jan

God run to Lemans. Used toll road down to Rouen for €11.30 to save time. Remembered that we had used an aire close to Lemans at Suze La Sarthe so changed plans halfway and got there about 16.00. Brisk walk round town. Everywhere very wet but temp. quite mild. Chat with other british van also heading to Spain.....their first van and first trip abroad with v.long Kontiki double axle. No guide to aires, finding them by luck and intending to cross the Pyrenees- when I raised an eyebrow, Adrian said that he thought they were like the welsh hills so what was the problem? I explained about alp-like mountains & snow and he seemed surprised.
Gave him details of some aires on the route. May see them at next stop.

Tuesday 11th. Jan

To CAVIGNAC, as last year. Good run mainly down the N10, no tolls, very busy with lorries.
Minor disaster to find height barriers at both entrances to aire ! Found details of another one in next village but as emerging onto main road saw aire sign pointing up towards church...they had relocated the aire next to the cemetary and a vineyard but it was very new and clean so fine. Walked down to the supermarket and bought 3x5litre bottles of water. Later joined by another brit van who I re-directed as we were walking back from shop, also stuck in front of the height barriers and feverishly thumbing through the Aires book. A sign at the barrier would be helpful.

Wednesday 12th. Jan

Horrendous journey to PAMPLONA. The A63 was 'fermee' between Bayonne and the Spanish border and there was a 'Stockage des PL' ?????? according to signs out of Bordeaux. As I intended using the A63 between those points this was worrying but not disastrous as we could continue on the N10. At coffee time in a service area I walked round the truckers asking what the problem was but they all shrugged and said that the road was closed for some reason not known. 50km from Bayonne we discovered what 'stockage' was.......stacking. The 2 lane dual carriageway was coned off and gendarmes were waving lorries into the inside lane where they parked. The nice policeman waving cars through thought about us but grinned (?) and waved us on. The queue of lorries, parked nose to tail went on for 15 kms ! Work that out. Suddenly we got to the head of the queue and there was no reason for the parked lorries. The road was clear for us and a few cars for 20 kms and then we ran up against another stack, this time 10kms long as we were waved through on the outside lane. As we joined the A63, the stack started to move so were slowed as they tried to filter into our lane because there were road works ahead. Chaos. And then there were signs saying we would have to leave the motorway at J.7 as there had been a bad lorry accident with a fire in the roadworks and which was why the road was closed ahead. Fortunately, it was cleared and re-opened as we approached and we saw the debris being carted away on flatbeds on the opposite carriageway. So we got through with only about 30min delay in the end.........I think the last lorries in the first stack would take 24 hrs to get moving so we were lucky. New Motorway not on Satnav caused some anxiety trying to find motorway to Pamplona as the signs showed Pamplona, didn't show Pamplona etc as the satnav went into a sulk. But we got there in the end. Should have been a spectacular view but crossed mountains in low cloud all the way until 20 kms from Pamplona when we burst out into bright sunshine. Campsite above town, we were the only visitors. Ground v.wet so parked on roadway close a hookup rather than a pitch. Nice and sunny and mild. Chilly overnight. Might come back this way and explore into town as there is a bike route.

Thursday-Friday 13th-14th. Jan

Terrific run to ARANJUEZ, just south of Madrid. Only spoilt by great banks of low cloud/fog for much of the way, spoiling any views. But the driving was great with very little traffic until the last 35 Km round the Madrid ring-road and onto Aranjuez. Very nice site behind the royal gardens which we explored in the late afternoon sunshine. Decided to stay 2 nights in order to do the palaces as we are here and break the journey. Ground again very wet and much signs of trouble getting off pitches even though sun is shining. Parked on the mats. Had the first bottle of Rioja to celebrate from the camp shop at a mere €4.
Woke to thick fog....the site is at the confluence of the Tagus and Jarama rivers and prone to this. Didn't burn off till mid-day when we walkked through the gardens....being Jan. not much too see but will return later as they look wonderful....to town,had bloody awful lunch including a soup like dishwater with a poached egg in it but 3 courses, bt.of water and decent bt.wine for 20€. Vist to the Palace, well worth the stopover and EU citizens over 65 with audio guide each for 10€ for both of us was value for money. We were vastly outnumbered by the guards as I rhink we were the only visitors that afternoon and monitored very closely. However, top monument and very informative guides.

Saturday 15th Jan.

Again woke to thick fog, apparently its normal. Good run down the A4 to CORDOBA (or VILLAFRANCA DA CORDOBA to be precise) spoilt by endless fog banks. Ground is very wet but sun is very warm. Having 'done' Cordoba twice now ....its still my favourite city....we are only stopping overnight so staying at Villafranca is easier and cheaper than the city site.
Arrived in glorious sunshine and sat outside for the afternoon after strolling into town. This is what we came for !

IN THE STARTING BLOCKS.......

2011-01-05T06:59:00.000-08:00

Well that's Christmas & New Year done for another year and probably the best one ever with us all together for the first time in 5 years...and altogther on New Year's Eve for the first time ever ! How weird is that ?

Justin,Minako & Marcus are back in Japan after a fairly fraught flight for Marcus who contracted some form of 'flu on Sunday night and had to spend 3 hours at Frimley Hospital Emergency Out of Hours Clinic...
Many thanks to William and Lynn who put up with us all over Christmas despite the weather disrupting many plans..............

So we are now getting ready to leave on Sunday for 3 months in the Sunshine ....we're off to sunny Spain, Viva Espagne......not forgetting Portugal where Sir Bruce will be joing us for (another) alcoholic sojurn at Praia da Luz and we try to avoid being pestered by Austin Healy again.

And of course we have entered a new phase.......the scooter is gone and we have 2 electric bikes.......one too many trips up into the mountains for the Good Fairy and the SanRemo riding experience I suspect. We bought them from the Electric Transport Shop in Cambridge who are terrific and have several other branches and whom I cannot recommend enough for their knowledge, help and service. With the weather we have had last month they have not had a great deal of use by we are both very excited by the trips we have done......so roll on the sunny weather....and watch this space

ALL GOOD THINGS...........................

2010-10-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

14th.- 17th. OCTOBER SANARY-SUR-MER

Campsite very good but a although the brochure states 800m from the sea we managed to get very lost on our first attempt to find it. We knew where it was because of the sun but the rabbit warren of private roads protecting the villas on the cliffs had us going round in the proverbial ever-decreasing, combined with the lack of any meaningful signs and extremely short,steep roads. We must have spent an hour and a half trying to get back to the site where I discovered we had gone in totally the wrong direction, despite the sun. However, when we got the scooter out and set off again the next day, the beach was a) more than 800m away and b) virtually impossible to get onto because of rocks and cliffs.
The town is a walkable distance away except for the exceedingly steep hill all the way back, but it is an extraordinarily pretty little fishing village with lovely bars and restaurants all around the quay and a terrific Provencal market all along the prom several times a week. 5kms away is BANDOL which is another very smart resort and we shall certainly be back here.
The news is that the French are on strike over pension reforms and blockading the oil terminal at Marseille....we can see the tankers at anchor on the horizon.....and that the refinereries are shut. Fortunately we have a full tank, good for 400+ miles, which will get us halfway back to the channel so will only need one full refill.

Despite the sunny days the evenings are closing in and getting chilly. We are booked back on Wed 27th but decided to start north on Mon.18th and take a leisurely route to calais for Sat.22nd.

Mon.18th. St.LAURENT DU PAPE...lovely Dutch campsite on edge of Ardeche/Rhone. Lovely road to AIX (past superbly situated Paul Ricard race circuit which has stunning views back to the Med); Tomtom let us down by routing through centre of Marseille which is overflowing with rubbish due to strike (looks like normal actually); came across stunning monument to Jean Moulin. Topped-up 32 litres diesel.

Tues 19th. BEAUNE.... Good road along the Rhone and through Crozes Hermitage; round LYON avoiding tolls on truck route and up to Boug-en -Bresse ; our favourite Aire in BEAUNE centre quite full; terrific meal at Le Fleury but pricey - 2 half bottles wine 42€. cars queuing for fuel in town but topped-up another 22 litres in small town.

Wed.20th. GURGY....another rural route to another favourite Aire on a river bank; topped-up 24 litres en route but passed a lot of closed stations; weather bright and sunny but v.cold with frost at night; had lovely walk along river bank in afternoon sun.

Thur.21st. MAREUIL SUR AY .....lovely route up through champagne region to another favourite Aire on the Marne canal; village in throes of beautification (as if it needed it) making access to aire very complicated; had great walk along canal.Stopped off at terrific monument to Battle of Marne 1914-v.impressive; picked 19 litres, filling tank again and plenty to get back home

Fri.22nd. CALAIS....Boring final leg, mainly toll-free motorways. Last year when we had to get back urgently for the GF's burnt leg, we did virtually the same journey in 2 days on motorways (1st night Beaune, 2nd Calais),733 miles and spent £144 in tolls. This year we took 5 days of easy driving,803 miles and spent £2 in tolls on a 2 junction detour round Avignon. Although the driving was fairly easy it wasn't quick and could probably be only cut to 4 days by missing Gurgy. Another terrific meal to finish at Au Cotes d'Argent, which has become a bit of a tradition over the last 5 years. The Gf kept her head down and did not start an argument with the chef this time.

Sat.23rd. HOME....unusually long wait to check-in at Tunnel as British customs stopping everything, esp.foreign registrations for in depth grilling. Took 40 mins to clear check-in but train on time and home at 1pm.......nothing too nasty in the post box and everything still working...so far !

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK IN FRANCE

2010-10-15T10:04:00.001-07:00

3rd - 15th OCTOBER 2010 SAN REMO TO FRANCE

We stayed in SANREMO until 10th October and only left in the end as I started to get itchy feet to be moving and the weather became very windy for the last 2 days, prompting a decision to head down to HYERES, only about 100 miles away but about 50 miles more southerly.

The days at SANMREO passed in a most pleasant fashion, alternating between beach and swimming pool and occasional trips out on the scooter.......but after one particularly hair-raising ride up a mountain to SAN ROMOLO (patron saint of SR) the GF was loathe to venture much further afield. Trips into town.....which really is a very nice to roam....became increasingly a walk there and a bus ride back as taking the scooter was not worth the wear and tear on the nerves. Everybody rides a scooter, from smart business women in tight skirts and high heels to mama picking up the weeks groceries and papa bringing the produce from the allotment and every category in-between.......and that's not mentioning the 'youth' element. And they have powerful scooters, not 50cc jobbies and they ride around at top speed. Unfortunately, the car drivers are used to this and expect everyone on a scooter act like a maniac and disobey all the rules and are therefore surprised when someone like me has an over-developed sense of self preservation and doesn't conform to the maniac stereotyping. Helle & Jan left early one morning, after staying a week longer than they intended, with much hugging and kissing and promises to visit then in Denmark next year.

A day out to MONACO by bus to VENTIMIGLIA and train to MONACO (15€ return for 2). The station is weird and tries very hard to ignore the fact that whilst it is in Italy, trains are coming to and from France..(they go no further)... and whilst everybody appears to be going to or coming from France, there is no mention of these trains on the arrivals and departures board which steadfastly maintains that only Italian trains going to Milan and Turin stop here or originate from here. Its actually quite funny and confuses the hell out of everyone as there are also no staff to ask so everybody walks around the train with SNCF and a french flag on it asking everyone else if this is the train to Monaco,Nice or Cannes and looking harassed as they all shrug. Once it gets going of course, a very reassuring french voice assures us all that this is indeed the train back to civilisation, so sit back and enjoy. Only takes 30 mins to Monaco, along scenic coast and the difference between Italy and France is very marked. The station at Monaco is fantastic as is the whole of the city. Give me the money and I would move there tomorrow as it is the best city I have visited...only sorry I have never been to a Grand Prix there. No problem to find the circuit and walk round it as all the red/white curbing is in place permanently......so we walked it and then after lunch took the tourist train trip which went round it again ( and other places). A very walkable city (albeit quite small) but exceptionally clean and tidy and SMART. We passed a ferrari dealership which must have had 50 cars on display in the showroom and forecourt. Great place.

So we left SANREMO on Monday the 10th in rain (first in 3 weeks) and had rain until HYERES, where this was changed for high winds. Pretty scrubby campsite near GIENS at TOUR FONDUE opposite the Golden Isles of Porquerolles,Port-Cros and Levant for 3 days. The wind got worse, over 50kph. We walked into GIENS on market day and caught the bus to HYERES the next. Both places very pleasant esp. Hyeres which we noted last year as a possibly interesting place to visit. Decided not to linger here as I took against the campsite and it was very remote (most southerly tip of FRance) and head round to SANARY SUR MER where there is a campsite highly recommended which takes Camping Cheques...of which I have 4 left, bought early 2009 and expire at the end of 2010 and must therefore be used or we lose the value.

2010-10-03T02:23:00.000-07:00

27th.September-3rd.October 2010 LIGURIAN LEISURE BREAK pt.2

Down the road 70kms to SANREMO (or SAN REMO). We had heard of a great campsite but it is very full, won't take bookings and you have to arrive early in the morning to see if any pitches are available. We got there at 10.07am and there was a choice of 3 pitches left, only one of which was really suitable for an attempted parking manoeuvre and that involved using one of the other vacant pitches....thereby breaking the golden rule of NEVER using an empty pitch to facillitate entry to your chosen pitch on an Italian campsite as sod's law dictates you won't be able to use it when you want to get off. These pitches are Very small, double length for back to back with hedges between adjacent pairs but lots of trees.
There are larger pitches on a terrace overlooking the sea but they cost another 10€ a day on top of the 15€ Acsi rate.. Electricity is only 3amp which barely runs the fridge and is not enough for the electric kettle. However, in every other respect it is a great site with accesss to beach, seawater swimming pool and jacuzzi, direct access onto 24 km old railway track cycle and footpath which goes through centre of town...30-40 mins on foot, bus/tram stop outside, 1€ each way into town, great views and lovely weather.

The longer we stay, the better we like the campsite and are contemplating moving down a level to the more expensive sites overlooking the beaches at an extra 10€ a night as they get the sun all day long whereas we are shaded by trees. We eat outside from breakfast to dinner, 8.30am-8.30pm but could do without the shade in the evenings. There is quite a lot of movement each day but everything is full again by 11am. When the germans behind us left I moved back 2 feet to get the satellite dish successfully working on Astra 2 instead of Astra 1 (german tv plus BBC World service for english news) but then a large swiss van moved onto the pitch 12ins from our rear.....and as I am on the front ramps I cannot roll back off them without asking the swiss to move forward - I did point this out when they parked but they could not move forward without sticking out into the access road. I trust that their smiles and assurances of assistance will hold good when I knock on their door at 8am one morning asking them to move.

Sanremo is delightful. A bit faded but like a dowager duchess still trying to keep up appearances and was obviously a rival to Monaco (30kms) Nice and Cannes in its heyday. There is still money here, evidenced by the shops,hotels,casino,yachts and marinas. It's Italian, however, which means most of it is in need of some TLC. The old town, another rabbit warren of steep,cobbled passageways and alleyways is incredibly interesting but a bit scruffy. The atmosphere is great, wall to wall cafes,bars and restaurants.....and scooters. This must be what a bee feels like in a hive. Thousands of scooters buzz everywhere. There is more parking space for scooters than there is for cars and scooters obey no traffic regulations at all. The roads are quite narrow and because the cars can't park they clog the roads nose to tail from here in every direction for as far as we have been and the scooters whizz passed them at high speed on the outside and inside without pausing for junctions or lights, and they take no prisoners. It is quite nerve wracking for me and the Gf is very nervous......so we have taken to parking outside the centre and walking a lot. Had a great trip along the (very scenic) coast road towards Monaco and inland to DOLCEAQUA, yet another mediaeval town with castle,steep,cobbled passageways (upon which we are now experts) and one of the most beautiful churches we have been inside.

On the site, we have made friends with our Danish neighbours, Ella and Jen, who are great fun and have taken 3 months off to tour Europe in an old, borrowed caravan which they have been told to abandon if it ceases to work. She has just had a new kidney after 8 years of dialysis and is lucky to be alive, hence the desire to get more out of life than working. He is a banker (but very nice) and she sells yachts and they sail all the time and organise a big international regatta for old,wooden sailing boats in June. We are seriously thinking of accepting their invitation to meet them in Denmark next year after they have done a great selling job, extolling the countries delights and a trip in May and June seems to be very much on the cards

The campsite arranged a free BBQ one lunch time as a thankyou to guests. Food was Ok and wine kept flowing, followed by grappa. In true b-team tradition, I am glad to say that our very giggly foursome was the last but one group to leave in the midst of the becoming-pointed clearing up and the afternoon was spent fast asleep until we decided to share a couple of bottles of wine late into the evening as we put the world to rights on war,religion,immigration and italian campsites (except this one).

The weather remains very,very warm and sunny.

THIS IS WHAT WE CAME FOR....................................

2010-10-02T01:55:00.000-07:00

20th.- 26th. September 2010 LIGURIAN LEISURE BREAK pt.1

A very pleasant 8 days spent on the Ligurian coast in very warm and sunny weather. The campsite ticks a lot of boxes but falls short of a top billing by being just too far for a stroll into town and the lack of a path on the road down to the beach. Being Italy, all the good bits of the beach are private concessions and the public bits are on the scrubby side. The campsite has an arrangement with one such operator and runs a shuttle bus to and fro. For 5€ you get the transport, changing huts, umbrella and 2 loungers which seems quite reasonable. We only did it once and that was the day the clouds came over in the afternoon along with a stiff breeze, necessitating a strategic withdrawal earlier than anticipated. Other afternoons were spent by the pool which was very nice. A couple of trips on the scooter, first to ZUCCARELLO, an old restored fortified village ....having climbed up the very steep path to the castle only to find it closed for further restoration...and secondly to CASTELVECCHIO DI ROCCA along a fairly hair-raising road to nowhere. We had climbed steadily but not seemingly spectacularly but suddenly the road was on the side of hillsides with no protection and very major perpendicular drops to the valleys below. I knew there was a problem from the grip being exerted by the Gf on the pillion but luckily traffic was very light (and careful) and we arrived in one piece. Lovely old mediaeval village with passageways and staircases carved into the rock and houses seemingly piled on top of each other.....the sky only glimpsed high above at irregular intervals. The next town along, ALBENGA, was also worth a visit but we missed out on the cathedral on account of it being shut between 12-3pm, this being Italy. The coast round here is very picturesque, area looks quite prosperous with lots of flower/herb/vegetable growing in huge greenhouses. Excellent supermarket within walking distance with a very drinkable Montepulciano D'Abbruzzo at 1€30 and 66cl bottles of Peroni at 0.95€. Campsite full until last couple of days when it started to empty as the town started to close down at end of season.....all beaches were 'free' from 27th sept.

SUN,SEA AND GRITTY SAND

2010-09-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

19th.September..........ITALIAN RIVIERA-

Naturally, Sunday morning dawned without a cloud in the sky so at least we had a very pleasant run down through Italy to the coast, just west of GENOVA, and the last 60 miles was very scenic. Joyfully, the overhead signs with local info gave the temperatures as 25-26-27 and finally as we turned off the motorway, a pleasant 28 degrees. And then we got a result at the toll booth ! We had joined the A26 at VARESE, for some 250 kms and when the GF popped the ticket in the machine it wanted 18.80€ and we had opted for the Credit Card lane. Nothing happened so she tried the card in every possible configuration but it kept saying 'carte illegible', so we tried 3 more cards with the same result, pressed the help button and a voice in accented english kept telling us to try another card. I got out...against instruction as I later saw...and tried all the cards again without luck and then kept my finger on the help button. Suddenly, the ticket reappeared, the barrier opened, and a voice said 'I 'ave 'ad enough, arriverderci, go,go go'So now we will a)find a charge of 18.80€ on all four cards b) be on a motorway blacklist, arrested and fined next time we use the autostrada or c)get away with it........answers on a postcard.
Our destination was a small town called CERIALE, nr. ALBENGA. The campsite is another typical Italian one (see above, except electrics are good) but the family that run it are great, especially the son, Paulo, who spends all day squeezing outfits into impossible pitches, even driving them himself when faint-hearts baulk at his optimistic assessments of what we will go where. Our first night on Sunday was spent on a pitch near the road but the place was full and he assured us that a lot would leave on Monday morning and we could have our pick. The site is very shaded and everybody wants to get a satellite siting which is the bane of Paulo's life but he seems to keep everybody happy !

LAKE CONSTANCE- SWISS PASS-LUGANO

2010-09-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

15-16th September 2010 IN THE ORCHARDS

Found a nice little campsite in a village called WAHLWEIS near STOCKACH at the western end of Bodensee but not very close to the lake....there were quite nice views when we walked up above the site through the apple orchards but not actually on the lake. The weather is not exactly brilliant with chilly nights, much like late September in the UK and whilst I would like to stay here and explore, the sunshine of the south is calling very strongly. The site owners are a very nice young couple who run the fruit farm and the site is extraordinarily pleasant......harvesting is going on all around with tractor trains of apples whizzing about all around us........the climate is such that the apples are picked by hand from now until november and mainly go for juice, with lots of small producers all around but surprisingly small numbers of pickers.

17-18th SEPTEMBER 2010 LAKE LUGANO

Time to head south. The cost effective route is through Switzerland in spite of the road tax sticker because the St.Gotthard tunnel is toll free. At the border in KONSTANZ I had hoped we might slip through because we would be through Switzerland in 3 hours but we were pulled over straight away and sent to the cash desk. The daily rate is 3.50 swiss francs but the minimum charge is 25 swiss francs which gives a 7 day permit....another rip off so you pay the 25sf and smile. Ran into heavy rain up to the St. Gotthard which still only has one tunnel open...just as 2 years ago..but the queues on the Italian side going into Switzerland must have been 10-15miles. I love this route because 17km in a tunnel is interesting and it seems that you you going downhill for about 60 miles and can virtually coast all the way down to the Itailian lakes using no fuel at all..........which was fortunate when I discovered that the Italian petrol stations were on strike and I had only put 20 litres in due to the high prices of the swiss diesel..
Lake Lugano is entirely within the swiss borders but the town right at the bottom ,PONTE TRESA ,where we were headed is in Italy and our campsite did not disappoint in being a typical Italian one.........difficult, narrow entry, narrow access roads, small cramped pitches under low trees and extremely iffy electrics but with direct access onto the lake and a view to die for. Fortunatley not too many tourers around so found the largest of the pitches available and ensured that once on we could get off again without difficulty and then had a lovely walk round the bottom of the lake together with our first delicious ice cream. Unfortunately it started to rain heavily in the evening and we had a thunder storm that seemed to last all night. In the morning it was clearer and we walked into the town 10 mins away along the the lakeside walk which turned out to be charming but we had little time to really explore as the heavens opened again as we left the local Carrefour with our weekly shopping and the roads were awash. This continued for the rest of the day, spoiling what should have been a nice stopover.

A LOT OF FUSS

2010-09-20T03:14:00.000-07:00

12th.September 2010 CZECHING OUT

A fleeting visit to the Czech Republic but time to head south for sunny climes via the bit of the Romantic Road that we didn't do last time due to Romantic Road overload. We intend to pick it up at AUGSBERG so turned towards Germany via the pretty route over some mountains (which did not appear on the map) despite the satnav wanting to take us the long way round. If I had known that the road between ZWIESEL and REGEN had been closed and that a long detour was now necessary (which was marked very confusingly) the satnav option would have been good. But we had a pretty enough route over what I now know is the Bayerische Wald, and whilst not dramatic appears to be a big ski centre. The border is is just before ZWIESEL and the contrast between the Czech/German sides is striking. No ski resort on the Czech side, just huts advertising cheap booze and cigarettes, then suddenly,at the border, a smart german ski resort with lots of bars and hotels,cars,bikes and people.
Ignoring the messing about due to road closures, we stopped at a Stellplatz in a village called PLATTLING but didn't like the look of it, being a bit isolated and the 2 motorhomes already there looked as though they were living there permanently......then 2 young ladies appeared out of the woods holding hands and the GF decided it was time to move on....another avenue of pleasure denied me....
So we drove another 50km to ALTOTTING which had a very nice Stellplatz close to the village centre and over a dozen motorhomes parking up for the night. Browsing the Michelin Guide I was amazed to find this place rating a fairly decent mention as a place of pilgrimmage for over 700,000 people a year........and the coaches were much in evidence. So we walked into centre to find a a very pretty little place making a fortune out of its Black Madonna housed in an octagonal chapel in the centre of a ring of churches,shrines and a monastery with remains of Bro.Bernard who has been beatified or sanctified in living memory for being the monastery gatekeeper and handing out bread to anyone who knocked at his door(he didn't even have to bake it himself). The Black Madonna is another of those nasty doll things, not as gross as Santiago da Compost-heap but getting close. There was a Big pile of wooden crosses by the door and people were picking them up and then circling the chapel on their knees. The place was covered with hand painted plaques thanking the Virgin for her intercession and just the sort of place I loathe but apparently very popular and a good class of pilgrim.

13-14th September 2010 WHATS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT

First to AUGSBERG. Stellplatz on outskirts a bit scruffy but quite busy and wanted 7€ to park overnight. As weather was iffy and a bit of a hike to centre we opted to park for 2hours (2€), walk into town, see the old buildings and cathedral and then move on down to FUSSEN.. here we found 3 basically private Stellplatz, catering for 40,50 and 100 motorhomes at 8-9€ a night plus tourist tax of 1.60€ each, plus slot meter for the electricity plus slot meter for showers and .50€ for fresh water....and by 5pm they were full but you could stay on a decent campsite for that money (if there was one). Fairly long walk into town centre but very pleasant village, lots of nice old buidings. Drove out to the KonigSchlosser at NEUSCHWANSTEIN -the whole point of being here -where mad Ludwig II built his fairytale castle and now lots of people make lots of money from herding tourists around. Entry to castle is long walk from carpark (7€) so get the shuttle bus or if you are a Good Fairy you flutter your eyelashes at gullible husband and opt for the horse-drawn carriage at 12€ one way for 2. Visting the castle is by tour guide only, so you book your language time slot and then hang around buying coffee and souvenirs until your tour is called (8€ each). Tour takes 30 mins, no photos allowed and explanation is perfunctory and then back to the souvenir shop. Took the shuttle bus back down 1€ each to find that the crowds waiting their turn to buy tickets was enormous, as were the queues for buses and horsecarts.........if you go, early is good. With 2 coffees, we spent 45€ for a very unsatisfactory visit.
Back to FUSSEN and stayed the night at a different stellplatz where the owner had a workshop and fitted a non-return valve to the water system to try and cure the minor problem I have with water seeming to run back from the hot water tank when we travel. Unfortunately this seems to have exacerbated the problem but it only cost 20€.
We shall head for Bodensee or Lake Constance and SWitzerland trying to avoid buying a motorway sticker by slipping into the country via Konstanz.

CZECH MATE

2010-09-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

10th-11th.September 2010 IT'S NOT CALLED CZECHOSLOVAKIA ANY MORE

Having been re-powered, we looked at the map and discovered that PRAGUE was less than a hundred miles away so it seemed silly not to go and have a look. However, a bit more research than 15 mins on the Web would have been a good idea......as my mentor Von Clauswitz pointed out "time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted" and this,once more proved so true. I knew that they were not in the €zone but would accept €'s and that there were roughly 30 of their thingies to the £ and 24 to a € and thought that I would have time to figure out the best currency to deal in before I had to shell out any hard cash. Wrong. Hadn't read the section in the European Drivers Handbook on Czech roads otherwise I would have known that you have to buy a sticker for the windscreen at the border in order to use the motorway which appeared to be the only way in to the country. I took too long puzzling over the signs to actually pull over at the border into the customs area where you buy the stickers and pulled into the next service area to read the book and discover I was now liable for a very large fine which they apply with glee.....and I had parked next to a police van that was stopping lorries and testing emissions or something with a large piece of equipment in the back. Fortunately I spied a kiosk which sold the stickers so quickly proceeded to obtain one. They wanted a mere 250 thingies..or crowns ....which in £s equates to £8.33 (I realised later) or 14€ which equates to £11.62 and but was the only currency I had. Even later, the actual exchange rate that the bank charged me for withdrawing cash the next day was 33 crowns to the £ which put the sticker at £7.57 or €6.28 not €14. And this was at a government office. Welcome to the Czech Republic. So then the satnav took us through the centre of Prague to the campsite on the opposite side instead of using the ringroad as its IQ routes thought the ringroad would be too busy on a Friday.......after crawling for an hour I was not amused and dodging trams was not funny. Anyway, found the campsite which was quite pleasant. Spent the next day in PRAHA which is top city but top tourist destination and the crowds are unbelievable by early afternoon...so much so that we gave up on some places as not worth the crush. Very walkable city, which is half the problem as there are no 'hop-on-hop-off' buses,most of the centre being a proper pedestrian zone. WE walked from one side of the river to the other via the Charles Bridge and back over another bridge, finishing in Wenceslas Square (which I found very emotional for the symbolism) and even had time for an afternoon concert in a church listening to a Norwegian ladies choir singing in English. The language problem is the same as eing in Japan in that everything is unintelligble, but the people are nice and speak english....even learnt how to order a beer (and they serve very nice large glasses of Budvar) and a glass of wine for the memsahib....Tesco is big in the Czech Republic and we spent the remainder of our 1000 crowns (after 2 beers 2 coffees,a glass of wine,a map,a concert and a days transport)on beer at the one near the campsite and I still have 100 left...£33. Decided that weekend crowds being too much we will move on but come back this way again for another look at a very grand city.

GERMANY PHASE 2......Berlin,Birthdays& Batteries

2010-09-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

1st. September 2010 PRETTY GERMAN VILLAGE.....and first signs of problems ahead...

The strange pricing structure meant that we had to be away by 8am as nights are free but days are charged for between 8am-6pm which involved finding a jobsworth to unlock a chain barrier....there were plenty around at night checking on parking tickets but they all disappeared at 8am when half the park was trying to get away before incurring another days charge.....and all of them, including us wanted to pass through the service area to empty tanks etc. This now took an hour so were not away till 9.30.
We had all decided to miss Hanover which had been on the itinerary for some reason and now headed for Hannoversch Munden, Nowhere near Hannover but in the vague direction of Berin and recommended in several guide books but without much detail
We stopped first at WUPPERTAL to gaze in awe at the overhead hanging monorail as proposed by D. but did not linger too long as parking proved problematic. Arrived HANN>MUNDEN to find lovely little town full of half timbered houses and a nice little Aire on the edge of town 5mins from centre with all facilities. D. opted to hook up to the electric for a euro/8 hrs whilst I did not, having 2 large batteries and a solar panel.......so I was somewhat miffed when the tv stopped working for lack of power-as it turned out-when I should be able to go for weeks without electric hookups, esp if we keep moving as the engine also recharges the batteries. So the faint stirrings that all may not be well........

2nd September 2010 THE PEARL OF EUROPE.......and problems confirmed

To MAGDEBURG which may have been the Pearl circa 19th.C but merely pleasant today. Some old buildings but evidence of where many were destroyed and replaced with the socialist workers vision. Nice Cathedral. Our overnight stop was on the quayside of the R.Elbe, entrance disguised successfully as no entry with bollards which sunk into the ground when 5 euros were put in a machine at the side but if you didn't know it was there you'd have missed it. We all had a nice stroll around. Batteries again ran down after a few hours so I have a problem.

3rd-6th September 2010 BERLIN-DON'T MENTION THE WAR-PLUS A BIRTHDAY

To BERLIN, a campsite near suburb called GATOW and across the road from the old British Army Barracks at SPANDAU. Bus from ouside the gate into City centre in 35/40 mins for 2.10€ pp each way although on Staurday we did buy a 3 day Berlin pass each for 22.50€.Into city on Friday afternoon for orientation as were meeting up with Katharine,Julian & Charlie who were flying in for the weekend as a 'surprise' 40th Birthday present for Julian who had already guessed anyway. On Staurday we all met up at 10.30 and organised bus passes and a city bus tour. BERLIN totally crowded and fairly manic. Hopped off the bus at the Brandenberg Gate for photo-op, had lunch at wierd asian fastfood joint, did the Holocaust Memorial which is v. good and the Reichstag. Back on bus to continue tour back to beginning. Quite interesting/amusing tour guides. Weather cool,hot,cool,wet. Drinks on the Kurfurstendam and look round the bombed-out church and replacement new one over which opinions were divided. On Sunday F and I walked from the cathedrals on the Gendarmenmarkt up to the Unter den Linden, past the Altes Museum to Alexander Platz for coffee, then caught the metro through the 'ghost stations' to meet up with family for lunch at Checkpoint Charlie and then the Wall Memorial, very informative,interesting and thought provoking, esp. the display in the old Gestapo headquarter ruins.. We then all walked down to Potsdammer Platz for the regulation beers and gaze in awe at the Sony Centre temple of technology.........
Arranged to meet for lunch on Monday at the Sony Centre but I changed the venue to ALBERTS on Karl Marx ALLEE as a fitting venue for a 40th Birthday lunch which as it turned out was not nearly so exciting as described, and its International Cuisine seemd to stop at Double Cheese Burgers; hardly a monument to a socialist workers paradise.
All in all, the whole group seemed to agree that BERLIN was worth a visit but had been over-hyped. I thought it was 'vibrant' and the tourists were like those in London. There are good things to see but take away the Wall and the War and there are plenty of nicer cities.........and you can only take in so much Holocaust info.......D&M did the new synagogue & museum, and had had there fill. We found the Nikolai quarter with old church and interesting old streets. Love the buses and metro......nobody checks tickets esp on metro, in fact saw nobody in uniform or authority at all in underground ( see Dresden Later).And BERLIN has more modes of transport than any other city...Bus,tram,metro,urban train, taxi,tour bus, bike rent,bike tours, rickshaws,tuktuks,segways,group bikes that you sit round in a circle and all pedal,the Beer BIke that is a mobile bar with draught beer on tap that you sit round and pedal, trabant safari tour in trabant convoy, hot air ballon, electriv scooters,river boat cruises and walking tours and some I may have missed.

6th-9th September 2010 RUDE SHOCK IN DRESDEN

We all wanted to visit DRESDEN and we found an Aire that appeared to be next to a Motorhome Dealership and as I have a serious battery problem this seemed an ideal location. Found The dealer with ease, and the Aire was actually a small campsite at the rear of the workshops with about 40 pitches at 11€ a night. I found the service department with a nice man called Marcus Laessing who spoke excellent english and explained that I thought I needed 2 new batteries. We found a pitch on the very crowded site and he took all the details. Couldn't do anything that day (Tues) but would have the electrics checked out next day. D&M turned up an hour or so later and with a bit of pleading we managed to squeeze them on the same pitch as us, causing a slight bottleneck in the confined space. Facilities were excellent standard but everything had to be paid for extra (water, electric,showers,waste) so no bargain. Very busy dealership and very pricey. 15min ride into DRESDEN on tram -7€ for a 2person day ticket-an Dresden is delightful and more than happy to pass that way again. Obviously rebuilt after 1945 fire-bombing but wonderful place and hardly a mention of the bombing and then only in a chronological context. Excellent place for just meandering and very photogenic. Lovely market place with food stalls and beer where we had a v.pleasant dinner to save cooking so we could play cards or something. On way back on tram we appeared to be accosted by a young girl who had been been sitting with 2 men who all looked like and were dressed like students. Far from trying to sell us the Big Issue I realised that the card she was holding covertly so that only we could see it had the transport company logo on it and she was asking to check our tickets-which were perfectly in order. She then sat down again with the men and they got off a few stops later without-and this is my point - checking any other passengers. We were targeted without doubt.....Stasi or what ? Because when D&M went in ahead of us next day, the men from the Same group of 3 demanded their tickets for inspection and no-one elses. Paranoia.
So they checked out all the charging systems on the van incl solar panel, declared everything working normally and batteries on the knackered side of good. My man is now Herr Koch, the young electrical expert. Unfortunately, german batteries are different dimensions to UK ones so we are limited to start with. They show me the catalogue and prices leap from the page in the 300-500€ range. I am expecting to pay £100 for a battery ! These are gel batteries. I ring the dealer in the UK. £120 is the price i would pay for lead acid which they fit. Herr Kock finds a lead acid battery of the right dimensions but it is 90AH instead of 100AH and the price is 199€ or £166. The choice is go home and abort trip to save 2x£46 or pay the extra £92 and continue. No choice really so we go ahead. In the end I pay 494€ which is for the testing and fitting. The batteries arrive next morning at 10am but due to local difficulties they don't get round to fitting them (10mins) until friday morning.........and when I go to pay, they won't take our debit/credit cards (only EC Maestro cards) and I have to go the local (excellent) shopping mall and get the cash....have to use 2 cards as can only get 300€ out in any one go....hey ho. D&M are heading for home, only being away for September, by way of Bayreuth and the Rhine. Jolly good last supper chez Parker after which D & I win convincingly at WitsEnd against the girls and F&I stuff the Parkers at bridge after not having played for over 3 years !!
Fond farewells and we have had a lovely time with them over the last 2 weeks and many laughs and lots of wine,beer and brandy....knocking on th e door at 8am to say goodbye was a bridge too far though..............................................

GERMANY PHASE 1

2010-09-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

25th.August 2010 BACK ON THE ROAD .....again

After what seemed like a week long 65th Birthday celebration...which also involved a street BBQ to include the other 2 neighbours who were 65 over the same weekend (that's an awful lot of Leo's) we were finally able to load and leave at midday on Wednesday.
First stop was the public Weighbridge at Copdock where for the princely sum of £7 I discovered that we were 35 kilos over the limit at 4040k. Not too much of a problem with a full tank of diesel at 90k and 2/3 full freshwater tank at another 60k and a fair amount of food. It does mean some careful calculations on the way home regarding Wine stocking. but at least it was not as bad as I had begun to fear. Down to Folkestone and the Blackhorse CC site to discover it was extremely busy with overnighters coming and going to the ferries/tunnel and that somehow or other I had booked for Thursday night not Wednesday. Not an auspicious start but they had room for us. Derek and Margaret arrived an hour or so later in thr rain and we a jolly night chez nous eating and drinking and planning the next few weeks.

26th August 2010 UNDER THE SEA TO FRANCE

Caught the 7.20 tunnel shuttle, D&M preferring the seasick ferry at 10.30 and headed North without incident through Belgium and into the funny bit of Holland that sticks into Belgium on the coast near KNOKKE. Destination GROEDE which was described as 'Hollands most beautiful beach'. Bit of Tourist Board over-exaggeration and the weather was overcast much of the time but a pleasant enough spot and a good ACSI family campsite.

27th-28th August 2010 A DAY ON THE DIKES

(Stop sniggering at the back)
We stayed 3 nights, took the bus to Knokke, which is a very nice seaside town and v.upmarket with lots of designer shops etc, and then SLUIS a very pretty little town but much like a designer retail outlet village ( my minority opinion).On the Saturday, by way of entertainment, we all hired bikes and rode around the dikes and polder with a picnic overlooking the estuary that runs down to Antwerp and across to Vlissingen. The bikes were very large typical Dutch ones that produce a very comfortable upright riding postion, with lots of gears for the unexpectedly hilly flat countryside....getting up the Dikes proved quite strenuous in places on account of a force 8 blowing off the North Sea. But I haven't had so much fun on a Saturday since the night in the Hot Tub in Kesgrave. Weather warmish but v.windy. Sun hot when out.

29th-31st. August 2010 DUSSELDORF MOTORHOME SHOW

One of the clinching arguments for the trip to Berlin was the opportunity to visit the Dusseldorf Motorhome Show, undoubtedly the largest in Europe and apparently a very lively affair in a huge exhibition complex which becomes a campsite for the week. Can Verify that. Arrived on the Sunday afternoon after fairly boring trip past Antwerp,Eindhoven and Dortmund to be confronted by v.large queue of motorhomes trying to access the caravan centre. Initially we managed to find the wrong queue as we decided to opt for a pitch with electric hook-up and getting into the right queue required the cooperation of 3 lines of traffic queueing for the non-electric pitches...........but everybody was very jovial about it. A strange pricing structure meant that staying for 3 days (arrive Sunday,leave Wednesday) only required payment for 2 nights and we got discounts by having joined the Duss.Motorhome Show Club for free some weeks ago so the 3 nights cost us 38€ . The vans are all parked in long rows, nose to tail and with constant coming and going required a great deal of organisation since we learnt that there were over 2000 motorhomes on site on the Sunday. The entrance to the site resembles a Filling Station but instead of fuel pumps there are rows of service points for water,waste and toilet emptying. Next to the entrance was a large collection of fast food and beer stalls plus a huge marquee,.long trestle tables, serving hot meals, lots of beer and an oompah band. We had a super time in there one night, great food, much ale and clinking of glasses with everybody around us. Good fun.
From the camping area, free shuttle buses run to the exhibition halls and back with great efficiency and we had a good day on Monday at the show which was enormous. Bought replacement LED light bulbs for a bargain 2€ each instead of £6, a couple of washing up bowls and other mundane items but not a new van as we didn't see any that we liked....(not in our price range anyway) On Tuesday caught the shuttle to the complex and then a train into the city.
The tourist office gave us a walking tour leaflet called Dusseldorf in one hour which was about right. A pleasant city, some nice old buildings, a modern housing developement around the old port and a very chic shopping area called Konigs Allee and an several hours were well spent.

Sting in the tail........

2010-06-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

And everything had been going so well...................we pulled into the CC campsite near Scotch Corner, breaking the journey home into nice bits. A niceish drive on the A66 across the Penines which is getting very busy with heavy lorries and spoiling the views. We parked on our pitch but after going up on ramps on one side I discovered that the short cable was just 6 ins away from the hook-up and I couldn't be bothered to get the longer cable out so I thought the easiest solution was just to turn the van round. So I did and went up on the ramps on the other side.... and as I checked that everything was ok I noticed what I thought was a large piece of gravel stuck in the tread of the nearside front tyre and went to flick it out.......only it wasn't gravel but a very large piece of metal that was very firmly embedded. Rude words were said.This tyre was only purchased in January. The site wardens were very helpful with telephone nos. and yellow pages etc and we eventually contacted Kwik Fit Mobile. They seemed confident about locating a tyre for Tuesday - Wednesday and only wanted £208 - I paid £130 for it in Jan. But we were stuck as I wasn't going to drive anywhere with whatever it was sticking out of the tyre so paid up. However, they phoned back to say they had missed the deadline for Tuesday and the tyre wouldn't be delivered until wednesday and it might be 5pm so lets book you in for thursday. No...I'm going home,I have things to do, give me my money back I'm not sitting round for 3 days - especially since a local tyre place could get one for tuesday but couldn't come out to fit it. So I rang them to check and they confirmed Tues.by 2pm AND only £135 fitted so we booked it in. I was tinkering with the idea of driving (slowly) the 5 miles to them but rang the AA on the offchance that they would come and take the wheel off and take it down for me. They hummed and hawed for a while then declined on the basis that they didn't carry 4 tonne jacks. You don't actually need a 4 tonne jack to lift a 4 tonne van at one corner, just a 1.5 tonne jack and we carry a 2.5 tonne one that will lift either front or rear axle but they are jobsworths and elf&safety rules. And I checked this out with people who know. Oh and no, we don't have spare wheel, just a Fiat Compressor thingy. But they decided it be 'easier' to send a recovery wagon and transport us the 5 miles. So at 11.30 on Tuesday, Charlie from Darlington Car & Commercial Recovery rang to check our vital statistics and was switched on enough to ask the length of the rear overhang which is substantial and decided on a very long low-loader fro us ( see pic). He was quite brilliant as we have heard horrendous stories abroad of French,Italian and Spanish recovery firms who have caused more damage than the original problems ( have a camera handy is the word on the street) . Every move was double checked, everything was done by inches, extra ramps laid when the overhang still proved too great, exiting the site under the trees was assessed and re-routed when he thought the branches were too low and it could not have been done with more care and attention and in a very jovial manner. Even the Gf was impressed and demanded (as if I needed urging) that we slip our Last £10 into his top pocket after he had deposited us at the tyre place with equal care. NIce one, Charlie ; thank you. Halls Autos were also top notch, and as they had to use a 6ft extension bar to remove the last nut ( Woodbridge Tyres having overtightened them all last Jan ) it was apparent that I would never have been able to get the wheel off myself. The foreign object stuck in the tyre was the remains of a large nut that must have sheared off from something (I trust it wasn't us) and 3/4 in was embedded in the tyre too close to the sidewall for repairing. Whilst I cursed my luck at having to replace a hardly worn tyre at £135, I also thanked my lucky stars that I had moved the van and thereby noticed the problem. The thought of being in the outside lane of the A14 in the midst of all the freight lorries and having a tyre burst is the stuff of nightmares so the money is incidental.
In the end, only delayed by 4 hours and back home -IN ONE PIECE- at 6.30pm, unloaded by 7.15 and down to the Maybush for a slap up meal in the garden by 8pm. Thank you and goodnight.

ARRAN,AYR & GALLOWAY

2010-06-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

16th-20th June

The pretty route ( not recommended by the Caravan Club but 'perfectly negotiable with care') up to CLAONAIG for the ferry to LOCHRANZA on the Isle of Arran. We intend to spend 5 days circumnavigating the Island and camp wherever as there are few campsites, and then cross back to the mainland from BRODICK to ARDROSSAN. No problem and 30 minutes and £97 later we are on Arran ( this is courtesy of a discounted Island Hopscotch Ticket No.5). As there are only 2 ferry ports (ie Lochranza & Brodick), I expected Lochranza to be a hive of civilisation and a decent urban conglomeration. We did stop at the ferry terminal and look around but we couldn't find any signs of the normal trappings of what passes for urban such as a bank (which we needed), a shop (which we didn't) or a pub (which would be nice) so we set off in a southerly (or anti-clockwise) direction.
The weather was perfect, the views stunning as the road follows the coast very closely, and the highway maintenance non existent....no thats not fair......they have repaired the roads-frequently-so frequently that the repairs on top of repairs make for a corrugated effect that rattles the teeth...and keeps the speeds down......as though the narrow,winding,hilly road was ever going to let me get into 3rd for too long. Anyway, a picnic lunch by seaside looking over to Kintyre,whence we had just come, and at BLACKWATERFOOT we found a Post Office dispensing cash (after waiting until 2pm) which replenished the cash stash. Deciding we ought to investigate the campsite situation, we studied the books and found a nice sounding site and rang to check availability. They took some time to confirm a pitch for 3 nights which I thought was just marketing, it being Wednesday, but it turned out to be quite small and mainly geared up for tents, with only 6 dedicated mhome/caravan pitches and when we arrived we were the largest thing by far. However, it was on the beach, had the most stunning views out to Ailsa Craig and was next door to a very nice pub-hotel-shop. This was KILDONAN and is very close to paradise. Our 3 nights turned into 5 nights as we couldn't imagine being anywhere else that was nicer. The site owner used to own the hotel and was a bit of a character and sorted our request for the extra 2 nights even though the place was heaving for the weekend as half of Glasgow descended for a camping/cycling/walking break. We had a great 5 days, out on the scooter, walking the hills, and having fun . Father's day lunch at the Kildonan Hotel next door, eating in the garden, great views and watching the gannets diving for fish. Ace spot.

21st.-25th.June

From BRODICK (which is a pleasant but unremarkable collection of houses and 3 shops) to ARDROSSAN ( which gave no reason to linger) and down the Ayrshire coast to CULZEAN CASTLE ( pronounced CULLANE) where we stopped 2 nights in the grounds at a Camping & Caravan Club site. Excellent site on the coast next to the grounds of the house which was a very enjoyable country park with great gardens well worth a visit and in which we spent a very enjoyable day. Left there on Wednesday morning, stopping at GIRVAN where I took the opportunity to join the MV Glorious on a trip to AILSA CRAIG, 10 miles off the coast and the secong largest colony of gannets in europe. It is also the origin of all the rock used to make curling stones. The weather was v.overcast and the sea v.rough. The Mv Glorious (crew 2, passengers 17 @ £20 ea) was like an old flat -bed truck, with Big Wullie and Dougal in the cabin in the front and thus shielded from the spray (unlike the rest of us ) as they bounced through the waves. The trip out took an hour, an hour circling the rock, 30 mins ashore and an hour back and I was very glad that I had taken the advice of nurse GoodFairy and taken a stugeron tablet - and I reckon I only just made it back in time. But the trip was well worth while. Not only millions of Gannets, but Kittiwakes, Fulmars,Guillemots, Black Guillemots, RazorBills and-joy of joys-PUFFINS. The big problem was actually getting good photos as the boat was pitching around so much in the swell and the birds were so numerous that it was difficult to know what to focus on - and they moved so fast esp. the puffins. The island(and lighthouse) is now uninhabited and an RSPB reserve and our boat owner is the only boat allowed to land - apart apparently from the 2 boatloads of marine commandos who suddenly appeared, all tooled up and ran ashore to do commando type things on the cliffs (without disturbing the birds ?!)
Onward down the coast, past STRANRAER to DRUMMORE where we stopped 3 nights at New England Bay (overlooking the SOLWAY FIRTH) and a CC campsite which is very good, large and landscaped into the dunes. Excellent day out on the scooter to the MULL OF GALLOWAY - the most southerly point of Scotland, with lighthouse another RSPB reserve worth a visit- and another day exploring the peninsular. Great botanic gardens at PORT LOGAN which was another picturesque ex-fishing village. Weather warm but cloudy

26th-27th. June

A short drive to KIPPFORD, a very pleasant site with terrific walks in the surrounding hills with great views over the SOLWAY FIRTH where we spent a great couple of days getting some good exercise interspersed with watching England get thrashed by Germany, Murray progress to the 2nd week in Wimbledon,Hamilton & Button get 2nd & 3rd in Valencia and listening to England go 3-0 up in the 5-series one day matches against Australia (for which we have tickets for the final game at Lords on July 2nd. This site has terrific holiday homes (norwegian log cabins) with superb views and beautifully landscaped. We may have to buy one when we stop touring as this part of Scotland is v.scenic and unspoilt.

Culture Note 1....avoid Gatehouse of Fleet.....nowhere near as interesting as its name
Culture Note 2....If you think David Coulthard is a legend, then you may be tempted to visit his birthplace, TWYNHOLME, where his father has established a museum dedicated to his son together with the PitStop Diner. The shed is packed with pictures,cars,helmets ,trophies and not worth the £4 .....especially as you can see everything from the diner whilst having a cup of coffee. The Diner's management have to be the most miserable uncommunicative couple it has ever been my misfortune to encounter and I reget the £2.45 we spent on coffee. We were the only customers at 11.30 on a Saturday and trying to engage them in conversation regarding DC was worse than blood from stones and is why I then refused to part with said £4 to look closely at the interesting shed of memorabilia. If DC's dad reads this, get shot of those two, they're costing you money getting you a bad name.

MULL of KINTYRE..Great Place, shame about the song

2010-06-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

15th june

After INVERARY we were going to just drive down to LOCHGILPHEAD and stay there for a night or two but on inspection the town seemed to offer little to detain us so we headed for the Kintyre peninsular. Great views after TARBERT, a pretty little town where we stocked up at the Co-op and arrived early afternoon at TAYINLOAN where the Great Sea Views Campsite book assured us of a site on the beach with superb views - and as usual they were quite right. Point Sands Caravan Park is a cracking site opposite the Isle of Gigha (pronounced Gee-ah) with Jura and Islay as a backdrop. The management has only recently assumed responsiblity after the long time manager retired and 'his' mother persuaded them to move back home (from Suffolk) and run the park. They are making lots of improvements apparently ( according to our neighbours) and our welcome was the best I have ever encountered on a site. They will soon need to spend money on the facilities, which is in the pipeline for next year they told me,but the views really are stupendous and you only have to step out of the van onto the beach. And the sunsets are magnificent as of course you are facing due west. On recommendation, we took the scooter the mile down the road to the village where we caught the ferry to GIGHA, a 25 minute trip (£23.70 return for 2 +scooter). The Island is owned by the community and was the first community buy-out in 2002 when it was purchased from the then landowner..It is 6 miles long by 1 mile wide and its main claim to fame is ACHAMORE gardens (Originally conceived by Sir John Horlicks of the hot milk drink) which the community restored with a 3 year project in 2005 and which are a riot of rhododendrons and azaleas and well worth the visit. We had taken a picnic and spent a lovely day in glorious sunshine exploring the whole island. It came pretty close to being the Perfect Day !

So 2 nights Tayinloan (£18 a night) and then round the peninsular to CARRADALE via CAMPBELTOWN where we again revitalled at a TESCO (a Metro, so nearly civilisation). Diverted off for the afternoon to SOUTHEND at the bottom of Kintyre where we found the caves that St. Colomba used when he landed here en route to IONA from Ireland complete with an impression of his footprint in the rock. Verily a miracle they all cried.

So back to CAMPBELTOWN and on to the CC site at CARRADALE which I had booked in advance for 5 nights in order to lay claim to a pitch on the front overlooking the beach. An excellent site (£16 a night) with lots of rhododendrons making little bays and terrific views accross the bay to ARRAN and AILSA CRAIG. We had some lovely walks along the bays and headlands and went back to CAMPBELTOWN (14 miles) on the scooter to explore. This was a mistake as the town is grim, decaying and mainly closed down and is very disappointing. However we did go on to explore The MULL of KINTYRE which is close to SOUTHEND but 7 miles up and down what the Rough Guide called a 'tortuous' track. The scooter struggled in places, sometimes first gear but the views are wonderful and we had another gloriously sunny day for it. THe views to Ireland are stunning as the ANTRIM coast is only 12 miles away and of course is where the Giants Causeway can be seen. So far the weather has been very favourable with only one mostly iffy day but everything does look so much different with the blue sky and sun shining.

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN

2010-06-13T02:08:00.000-07:00

The story so far

May was spent spending money like water as we sorted ourselves out after the winter away but also was a pleasant month of enjoyable breaks. The boiler was eventually fixed, a new Tracking device fitted to the van along with a new water pump and Tv monitor (both under warranty) which necessitated 2 trips up to Great Yarmouth and a bit of getting stroppy when having arrived at the dealers the second time and waited 2 hours for the monitor to be fitted I was told that "we're very sorry but we haven't actually got a monitor to fit as it's still on order". As I began to express my opinion of their service department in a loud voice they decided to follow my advice and pinch one from a new van just as I was beginning to enjoy myself. Since the van will be 3 years old in July and out of warranty, I doubt that I shallbe troubling Simpsons of Great Yarmouth again.
WE had a great weekend with Paddington and North Dakota mainly watching the twins win rugby tournaments, although getting to bottom of several bottles of wine seemed a secondary occupation. I then had successive boys' weekends away, firstly with Julian and Dave Brown (whom I may have to adopt, he's such a
nice boy) in Belgium as we watched the 1000km of Spa, a cracking race and then a weekend in London with Brucie at Twickenham for the Rugby World Sevens (where my 3 course picnic and Brucie's production of 3 litres of wine from the bottom of his rucksack brought admiring comments from the youngsters around us paying £4 a pint and eating inedible burgers). In between this frivolity, the GF racked up another year in the age stakes and on the basis of turning 65 tried to paint me into a corner by demanding a dog or a diamond which is why I am somewhat poorer than I was although I shall save on dogfood in the long run. Finally, in the course of having a new carpet fitted in the lounge I managed to split my head open when crawling under our home to lay the old carpet underneath to make crawling about more pleasant (?). This required the attention of the emergency services who were very efficient and glued the bits of my head back together with no apparent (yet) consequences.
Globally,the cost of diesel rises as BP attempts to pollute the Gulf of Mexico with crude oil instead of sending it somewhere to be refined, the value of my pension funds plummet as the companies begin to calculate how little they can get away with paying out to me in August and in response to Justin's vitriolic diatribes on the Japanese political system on his Blog, yet another Prime Minister calls it a day and North Korea senses an opportunity for a pre-emptive strikes whilst the Pacicfic Rim is otherwise engaged....

So we left home on Friday 28th May......

To WELLINGTON COUNTRY PARK, between Fleet and Reading where we stayed for 9 days looking after Charlie whilst Katharine and Julian re-enacted scenes from 3 Men in a Boat as they cruised the Thames from Chertsey to Benson.....a journey by road that takes an hour and a half max.....However we had a great time although 8 days in an adventure park made me appreciate the full horror of Groundhog Day. But the weather was good and Charlie was exceptionally well behaved and was still talking to us at the end so it was most successfull.
Left on Sunday 6th June and drove northwards to Scotland. Stopped at a farm CL in INGLEWHITE we have used twice before when heading north which is quite delightful -£9 a night - and then a campsite at INVERARY for 2 nights on the banks of LOCH FYNNE. An excellent lunch at the GEORGE HOTEL in INVERARY which has been in the same family for 6 generations where I had Loch Fynne Mussels and a bowl of the BEST chips I have ever tasted and the GF waxed lyrical over the local smoked Haddock.

I Wish I Was Somewhere Else........Is it just Me or what?

2010-04-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

The boiler finally got repaired after nearly a week of showering round at the neighbours but 24 hours later it started vibrating and making the most horrendous noises and it only cost £250......so the man is coming back. It takes him 3 hours each way from Coventry and he was here for an hour and then going home...no wonder they charge so much for a call out.
The van was supposed to go to the Fiat garage for the reverse gear modification on Monday- all arranged back in December by Fiat Customer Services, but when I rang to check on Friday they denied all knowledge. A call to Fiat verified my version and the garage fell back on the old 'he doesn't work here any more' excuse. Everybody ran around though and found the correct bits and then told me a) it was a 3 day job and b) had anybody checked that they could get the van on their ramps? So the Gf followed me to Diss, where the van has been serviced over the last 3 years, only to discover that they could NOT get the van up on their ramps as it was too large. Just as I was about to explode, the apprentice lad in the workshops piped up and said why didn't we go to their Bury St Edmonds branch (20 miles away) as they had a bigger ramp..........not that the chief engineer and the service manager had thought of that! So we drove over to BStE after frantic phone calls (it was 5pm) and loading a huge box of half a gear box onto the van and yes they could handle it and would be able to start on Monday so problem eventually solved.
But the tracking device needed a new upgraded transponder at a special offer price of £250 and whilst it has been delivered to me by courier, I am still waiting for the fitter to get in touch.....
And then we went to a motorhome show and I spent £115 buying stainless steel gas hoses, a new changeover valve and an adapter for coupling a spanish connector to the new stainless steel hoses.......hopefully to prevent any more regulators fouling up from rubber hoses.

BUT HERE IS THE BEST BIT>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I am sure that many of my readers will remember that I have a healthy cynicism for the Olympic movement and generally refuse to have anything to do with it and the profligate waste of money that it represents so imagine my unbridled joy at the following item in the Residents monthly newsletter: quote

2012 OLYMPICS
Some of you will have have read in the local press that the AZERBAIJAN team for the Olympics have selected Ipswich as its pre-games training camp. This is a major coup for the town of Ipswich and we are pleased to inform all residents that Falcon Park will also be playing a major role in welcoming some of the Azerbaijan team.
In a letter to the B.O.C. dated 1st April 2010 and jointly signed by Minister Idiota Abril and Ambassador Fulraparil of the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan, it has been confirmed that their women's beach volleyball team will be using Mr Ritchies field ( adjacent to Lugano Ave) as their training facility. This will initially cause some minor disruption on the Park, including some overnight disturbance, whilst heavy equipment moves in to temporarily convert the field to a beach by depositing 1000 tonnes of sand onto the field. Changing and restaurant facilities will also be constructed. A one way system will have to operate on the Park roads whilst this operation takes place.
In addition, Minister Abril and Ambassador Fulaparil have requested that accommodation be provided close to their training ground. Therefore any resident able to offer board and lodging to members of the women's team should contact the Park manager to register their interest as soon as possible.Substantial remuneration will be paid, in additionto which an Azerbaijan National flag (with pole) will be issued to those residents wishing to show their support for the team. Please watch the noticeboards for further information. End quote

Principles are one thing but the chance to extend the hand of friendship to a member of the ladies beach volleyball team should not be lightly spurned..........just don't tell the Gf that we may have a lodger in August.

Great end to a great trip

2010-04-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

We stopped first at another great site near San Sebastian at a place called ITZIAR. This is deep Basque country and the language is full of x,z,& k's and sounds like something nasty in the bacof your throat. We came off the very scenic - sometimes motorway sometimes back lane that is being upgraded as we speak - road that runs along Spain's northern coast in order to get diesel before we ran into France and having cut it a bit fine, at a place called Durango and I spurned the opportunity to go back onto the A8 in favour of a pretty route as there was only a few miles to go. Big mistake. The A8 or its little brother and constant companion, the N634 ran right past the door ( although about 500 ft lower down the mountain) of the site we were aiming for,whislt we now meandered along increasingly narrower and hillier back roads. Such is life but it was great scenery if occasionally terrifying. The site, called ITXASPE ( don't even ask how to prounce it) at the end of a very narrow track, is stunningly perched on a hillside above cliffs and surf and has great views and beautifully run by two charming brothers. I'm sorry we could only stop the one night, although we did have time to descend to the beach when we were trying to ascend to the headland ( the ascending appearing less arduous than the descent and subsequent ascent back from the beach which nearly did for both of us). There was also a fair sprinkling of brits here, mostly on the way home like us, and one couple in particular were very chatty and were also heading towards BIARRITZ like us but were thinking of moving past quite quickly. When I pointed out the Aire in the town centre and extolled the charms of BIARRITZ as recalled from 40 years ago, they decided to stop off there too, so we caught up with Jeremy and Judith ( and Jessie the Jack Russell) on Friday at the Aire which was excellent and very full. It has space for 40 vans, charges 10€ a night and has electic hook-ups if you're lucky. Jeremy, being a gentleman, was keeping an eye out for us and guarding a spare electric point with his life. They had also parked next to the only other GB van in the park and so we were introduced to Barry and Ros and an extraordinarily pleasant weekend ensued. We walked into town on Friday afternoon,which is quite a hike but pleasant along the promenades- the Aire is also only 5 minutes from an actual beach, home to the surfing community and again lovely landscaped walks to meander along. The town is still delightful and very classy. Very busy, stunning views and a beautifully kept town. It reeks of money and there's few trashy shops. On Saturday we all caught the bus to the other end of town and basically walked back in the sunshine. We separated for lunch as the Gf and I had opted for the arm-and-a-leg option rather than the snack option as we were now on the run home and wanted to end on a high. Arm-and-a-leg it was but we got some change and had a great meal. Caught up with the others for drinks etc and had a very pleasant evening.

Culture note...(1) an altercation with mad french woman who accused the Gf of reporting them to the police who came round each morning & evening collecting the 10€. God knows what it was about, we never did find out. (2) The Aire filled up and a german parked his huge Hymer right over the toilet/waste emptying points for the night. As we set off at 9am I needed to park there to use the facilities so I knocked on his window as he was eating breakfast to indicate that he should move. He was not amused but as I indicated that I would empty the contents of our toilet under his van and hope it found the drain he realised the sense of moving but with extreme bad grace and much muttering.

An uneventful and rather boring run up past BORDEAUX to SAINTES where the expected Aire had been relocated from in front of the Abbey to outside the Camping Municipal (not yet open for the season) and required more back street driving to find it. Quite pleasant however ,next to the river and pleasant stroll into town for a sundowner.

On Monday, a fairly pleasant drive to 12 miles south of LeMans at La SUZE sur SARTHE where there was jolly nice Aire on the riverbank in the centre of a very pleasant small town. The centre of town was a Y shaped junction with no road markings. we had a prime position outside the bar watching going-home time. It was the Gf who sussed out the rule of priority....the car approaching fastest has the right of way. Unless you were turning right, every vehicle had to cross the path of two others - it was wonderful spectator sport and the bar did good business with maniacs flying around 6 feet from where we were sitting.

Tuesday was a long day to CALAIS. We decided for Calais and the noisy Aire across from the ferry terminal as our favourite restaurant, the Cote d'Argent would be open rather than Le Touquet which is a very long walk back into the town for dinner at La Petite Charlotte, another favourite. Big mistake to use the toll road from LaSUZE as 200kms cost 45€ so the last 200km after ROUEN was on the pretty (but slow) route....made even slower than by being behind two 'convoi exceptionel's until St.OMER. However, did run past a Carrefour and the opportunity to fill with fuel before the UK ( having checked with Julian on the price of diesel -£1.22 uk/ 1.13€ france) and some other liquid necessities. Had a superb meal at the Cote d'Argent even if the GF did argue with the chef when he came round, called him a liar and he had to go a fetch the very small pan he used to sautee the potato gallette which she maintained must have been deep fried. France 1-England 0.We had the Michelin Celebration Menu....don't ask. So a terrific end to a great trip, lots of sights, lots of new friends and a fair few places we shall return to to explore in greater depth. 4092 miles and we have circumnavigated the Iberian Peninsular. Next year, inland. we still haven't done Toledo, Segovia, Merida, Zaragossa, Salamanca,Pamplona, Aranjuaz or Madrid and there's all of Portugal not on the coast........we could be here for years !
Back home......water pump finally packs up, Tracker transponder needs replacing at £250 as it's just out of warranty, no hot water at home-fault on boiler system, car battery flat, won't start.........we're off to sunny Spain...................

Water water everywhere

2010-04-14T10:59:00.001-07:00

April 14th.

We pulled into a supermarket to restock the essentials and as usual, before we could go shopping, the Gf had to go to the loo......it's a Pavlovian thing. When she emerged, I realised that the water pump was still working away, which it sometimes does after a journey involving steep hills etc which seems to create an airlock somewhere, and you need to run a tap for some time to pull the water through again. However, this time no water was comng out of the taps but the pump was still running. To edit the events, the Gf went shopping and I investigated the problem. The pump is housed under the wardrobe and whilst accessible, it is not the best place to work....and involved removing crash helmets, emergency lighting,scarves,hats,glove,umbrellas and other assorted clothing that is dumped in there. My first mistake was not removing the entire pump to begin with, which involves 4 screws, 2 pipes and disconnecting 2 wires. So when I removed 2 bolts and the motor housing came apart, various springs holding the carbon brushes flew out and I was getting hot and sweaty......and Julian rang to see if I wanted to go Spa in May....great timing again...
I now decided to remove the whole pump as getting the brushes back on the commutator shaft (?) was impossible in situ. It proved almost impossible out situ as well until I dismantled a bit more of the housing and found I could wedge 2 slices of matchstick to hold the brushes against the springs whilst I lowered it down over the shaft and reassemble. This took up an hour and I was now back at square one...the Gf had gone and sat up front well out of the way with a sandwich. So we drove on to our next stop, CANDAS, where I dismantled the pump, found it to be working OK, reinstalled it, and still didn't have any water at the taps. Eventually, on Wed morning, I found the manual for the pump, with diagrams, took it apart completely, down its absolute basics whist the GF held the screws and watched which bits went where, cleaned everything and put it back together again. AND LO WE HAVE WATER. Perseverance is the name of the game out here. And Candas is delightful, this campsite, Perlora may be the best site we have ever stopped at as we are perched at the cliff edge with a beautiful view and the sound of the waves on the rocks 20 feet below to send us off to sleep...smelling sweetly now that the water is pumping..(poetic licence as the showers here and all facilities would not disgrace your own home,the views are magnificent and the town is a 10 min walk along the very nice prom. which makes it our No.1 site of all time)
A great place to end our journey.....we shall be going to San Sebastian on Thursday, Biarritz for Friday & Saturday then through France to Le Touquet for Tues.night prior to taking the Shuttle on Wed morning......I may keep you informed.....

PORTO,PORT & THE DOURO

2010-04-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

12th.April

Cutting short the stopover at LISBOA,didn't like the site either,so off to PORTO.
A strange drive on the pretty route avoiding expensive tolls. The state of the road was awful which is why you're supposed to go on the Toll road. Reasonably scenic but a curious road that for 60 miles was lined with small,medium and large businesses all selling very heavy mechanised machinery from earth moving equipment,tractors,trailers through cranes to trucks of every shape and size, new and used. To make it more bizarre,these were interspersed with huge stone emporiums selling anything from gravel to massive blocks that would be useful if one wanted to build a pyramid or something.
We had chosen to stop at a site just south of PORTO in a town called MADALENA. The site was one run by Orbitur who do not have a great reputation and this site was no exception to their poor rating. Could have been good but was very rundown and things didn't work. But it was fairly cheap at 13€ a night and very handy for the bus into PORTO from outside the gate every 30 mins. The bus ride was an event in itself and the thrill factor of a large bus hurtling through back streets with minimal clearance, parked cars and pedestrians with a death wish was far worth more than the 1.40€ that it cost.
PORTO is an ace city and everything that LISBOA was not. Extremely photogenic, easy to negotiate and full of interesting things to see and do. We purchased the 48hr-hop-on-hop-off-bus-tour-ticket including 6 bridges river cruise for 19€ each and which were very good value as we hopped on and off for 2 days all over the city. Had an excellent lunch on the quayside of the Douro opposite the Port warehouses which occupy the south bank at a restaurant quaintly named Chez Lapin. The quaysides on both sides of the river are very picturesque and are full of bars and restaurants and are very easy for walking about. After our cruise deposited us on the south side we decided to 'do' a port house as many were offering tours. Spoilt for choice we chose Taylors as I suspect that I have contributed a fair amount to their profits over the years (and the GF decided that she had been ripped off in JEREZ at the Tio Pepe tour, and they own Croft who were also in the frame for a visit, and we couldn't find the door for Offley until we were passing on the way down). The downside of this choice was that Taylors were right at the top of a very steep cliffside into which all the port shippers have carved their warehouses and whilst it was great view it was a hell of a climb. The upside of the choice however was that we had chosen the only shipper not to charge for their tour with 2 glasses of port for tasters as well. Having done Harveys in Madeira & Gonzalez Byass in Jerez, the tour held few surprises and as I suspected, whilst containing thousands of litres of maturing port it amounts to only a small part of their stock and is really only retained for touristic and promotional value. Since they no longer bring the wine down the Douro by boat (these are now only kept for for show along the river) and it is shipped by road tanker, it is no surprise that the exceedingly narrow and vertically steep streets of PORTO are not a favoured destination for the bulk of their production. But the tour was interesting and the whole thing in PORTO has been done with class. So we had a jolly good 2 days, taking the hop-on out to the coastal beaches and walking a good part of the way back in the sunshine along the river, having lunch on the way and a tour of the cathedral(disappointing) and the Bolsa Palaccio (very luxurious/oppulent chamber of commerce for the port trade in which I managed to blag a wine tasting as well).Shall return to PORTO as I never did get to ride on a tram or the metro and will lokk forward to next time.
On Sunday we drove up the DOURO VALLEY as far as PES DA REGUA before turning inland to stop over at VILA REAL. The drive up the valley is SPECTACULAR (if not a bit hair-raising in places.....the TomTom took an awful lot of bitty programming to come up with a route which involved only one road,the N108, to which it seemed to taken exception. However since we travelled some 100kms along the N108 only losing our way twice, the TomTom's hissy fit was largely ignored. Shall explore the upper reaches at a later date. We only saw one other motorhome all day and the area is definitely not on the tourist route except for those who explore it by cruise ship. VILA REAL was v.pleasant and we had a lovely walk along the river from the small campsite, stopping for a drink on the way back for which we were charged a mere 2€ for a large beer and an iced tea.
On Monday, a very scenic drive to SANTIAGO dA COMPOSTELLA. Had intended staying 2 days but a) the campsite wanted 24.60€ a night and b) the place is awful. The worst church we've ever been in. GROSS.
Monday. Great drive along the north coast of Spain, stopping off at a great little campsite in a place called PERLORA near GIJON, with a pitch on the cliffside and stunning views. Another GB van turned up who had been at Santiago last night and who agreed with the above, having only spent the morning looking around before heading for the hills.
PROBLEM. Discovered that the water pump has packed up so we have no water on tap.

Lunch with Austin Healey

2010-04-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Plan A was to have sunday lunch at Antonio's on Porta da Mos which may be my favourite beach in the world and we thought there would be no problem after checking on thursday that we did not have to book, only to arrive before 1pm to ensure that we could get a table on the terrace. They probably forgot that it was Easter Sunday. So when we arrived at 12.30 the place was only half full, the other half had reserved cards on the tables and they laughed when I optimistically suggested that they find us a table for two. After a minor hissy fit in the car park about not riding round Lagos looking for a nice restaurant over which I draw a veil, we headed back to Luz and the Paraiso Bar on the beach which we had frequented a few times and as luck would have it we managed to squeeze onto a table on the terrace. Next to Austin Healey. As I clocked him I received a sharp kick on the shins as the Gf hissed "No!". All I was going to say was that he was robbed on Strictly Come Dancing and could he show me how to tie a scarf like that, but I never got the chance. So technically speaking, he doesn't know that we had lunch on sunday, despite being given every opportunity to acknowledge our existence.....I managed the odd eyebrow waggle and nod of the head when I thought the Gf wasn't looking but mostly she caught me and he ignored me.
And I have to sat that he was very wrapped up with his wife and delightful twin daughters even if he can't sit still for two minutes. So, Austin, if your PR people are doing their job and trawling the net for references to AH, rugby star and dancing icon, we could have shared a bottle of Vinho Verde and whiled away a wonderful afternoon in the Algarve sun and I could have given you a few tips.........

Off at the crack of 9.30 on Monday, heading for home. Goodbyes to neighbours etc and stock up at the Ecomarche on the way to Sagres. Took the pretty route to PORTO COVO, the last few miles over what was once a road but has been sadly neglected of late. Lovely drive most of the way and PORTO COVO a delightful fishing village without an 'All day Breakfast' sign anywhere or anything at at all in english for that matter. Following notes I had made from various conversations we found the wild camping place on the edge of the village and the location was quoite stunning, overlooking two small sandy coves with rocks and cliffs just like you see in brochures about deserted,unspoilt beaches with crashing surf. Walked into village and had a drink and a cake, and it was full of Portuguese families on holiday then walked back and had a beach to ourselves for the afternoon. By the evening there were a dozen motorhomes parked up and a french caravan which everybody else ignored and tut-tutted about as it gets us a bad name and draws the attention of the police to the unwritten toleration of illegal wild camping. However we had an undisturbed night, after a brilliant sunset......apart from the noise of crashing surf ha ha. Awoke to another lovely day and a great breakfast watching the fishing boats bobbing about on a clear blue sea..................
Hit the road for LISBOA (LISBON), a rather mundane drive but some nice countryside, esp. the wild flowers, and a very long spell through cork forests. Over the 25th.April Toll Bridge across the Tagus and missed the turning for the campsite by 100 yards too soon. This then required a fraught 15 minutes round the backstreets and some complicated cloverleafs before we got back on track........the campsite is almost city centre, like the Bois de BOulogne in Paris and is a municipal site but probably a bit better than I was expecting,and was 19€ a night (less 10% for an ACSI card). Very security minded with cards for pedestrians to go in and out but close to the bus for direct access to city centre about 30mins. Into city for the afternoon, easy trip, and had a good mooch about but enormous difficulty locating the central tourist info office with few street signs to help as one would expect in a capital city. First impressions were not good as we started in areas that did not do the city justice and were distinctly rundown,faded and in desperate need of TLC. The overall impresssion improved over the 2 days as we found more places to visit, and some were excellent. Loved the old electric trams, which we used a lot to ride around on.....and they pack them worse than the Tokyo subway as they are only supposed to hold about 50 people each but it seems to be a matter of honour not to leave anyone at a tramstop and the local youth hang on the back and the running boards. All journeys on trams(old and modern), metro and buses cost 1.40€ but we bought day tickets for 3.70€ which were excellent value as we were able to just hop on and hop off as interesting places loomed up. I don't suppose we saw more than a small percentage of the the city in the time but we were fairly weary and I soon get City-overload. However, I could return as I liked it in the end even if it is a bit down-at-heel, like a dowager duchess fallen on hard times but trying to keep up appearances. It has a great heritage and is quite rightly proud of its seafaring history (even if they did introduce firearms to Japan) and it is unique, I think, in that a) there is not a bicycle to be seen, because it is so hilly and b) there was hardly any International logos/brand name shops in what we thought were the smart shopping parts............and I stopped to window-shop at a wine shop that was stocked with vintage ports at prices from 50€ to 1600€...I wish.
Met BoB and Joanne with another Autotrail parked nearby and passed a very pleasant time swapping experiences.
However, we decided that we had had enough of LISBOA and are off to PORTO one day early....

Beaches,alarms and a Folar

2010-04-03T05:44:00.001-07:00

Good Friday.

Had to retreat indoors as it is far too hot to sit out in the sun this afternoon, without a cloud to be seen. Apart from rain on Tuesday, it has been a very warm week although there was a coolish wind from the east which could be chilly out of the sun.
Whilst meandering and exploring the roads yet to appear on the 'Rough Guide award winning map of the Algarve' (and trying to find roads that appear on said map but fail to materialise at ground level) we discovered a very lovely beach on the outskirts of LAGOS called Porto da Mos which seems to a closely guarded local secret. Totally unspoilt with just the ubiquitous bar/restaurant overlooking it and stunning scenery,high golden cliffs with huge golden beach and rolling surf and light blue sea. It was so good we went back and spent most of the day there on Thursday and are going for Lunch on Sunday before we leave.
Porto da Mos is being developed on both side of a valley that sweep down to the sea and if we had to have an apartment on the Algarve (which thankfully we don't) this is where we both agreed we would come. By contrast, we had a ride to the Atlantic West coast where we found a breathtaking stretch of coastline near the village of CARRAPATEIRA, south of ALJEZUR. The name had cropped up several times in conversation and the reality did not disappoint. You can see miles of rugged cliffs and crashing surf with minimal habitation and no developement. The wild campers were out in force along the cliff tops and on the day we went the sea was fairly mild but still sent huge waves crashing into the cliffs and the beach was sensational. The village of CARRAPATEIRA is about half a mile back from the sea, for probably very good reasons, and has more surf shops than bars (4 to 2 at a quick count) and the chance of getting a sandwich with a drink narrowed the choice of bars to one. The village showed no signs of developement as we are now 30 miles north of the Algarve enclave and it is only 'fashionable' with surf dudes, wildcampers,walkers etc. of whom many were in evidence. Trusting the 'RG award winning map'(scale 1cm:1km), we took the pretty route home on the scooter and had to endure the un-noted 15 kms of dirt track that the RG has decided qualifies for the title 'road'. On inspection back at camp, the Michelin Road Atlas (scale 1cm:4km) designates this track as an 'unsurfaced road or track' so I know who I'll be voting for when the awards are next due for distribution and where the bill for new scooter suspension will be heading.
The other bit of fun this week involved the involuntary setting off of the van alarm. This happened 3 times in succession until I discovered that the alarm seemed to have armed itself without any assistance from us and I was only cancelling the alarm when depressing the button and not fully disarming it (in my defence, as I did not know it had been armed and the keys were hanging on the hook, I had no reason to suspect it had been armed). This of course required 3 phone calls to Phantom as the alarm alerts the tracking device and they like you to phone in if you set it off in error so that they don't have to waste time contacting you......of course in this instance they were on the ball and our calls crossed several times ! However, in conversation with the control centre, when they called up our tracker on their computer thay discovered that they could not read our postion as the GPS sender was sending meaningless data and is now probably faulty. It may just be that we are parked in a bad signal zone and that it will self-correct as soon as we move but on the other hand it may not. If it is a faulty unit this means that they cannot track the van should it be stolen although they assured me that they have a back-up system which will 'track the van but not with as much accuracy as we normally expect'.
Obviously the unit is still communicating with them but we shall have to wait until next week to see how serious the position is.......I don't know how it will affect the insurance policy,for which a tracking device was a requirement......and the reversing camera is now permanently upside down and steadfastly refuses to right itself.

Cultural Note : On the way back from Porto da Mos on Thursday we stopped off at Intermarche for essential supplies ie potatoes,white wine and more Tawny port to which I have taken a liking and it disappearing rapidly once opened ( at 4.80€ a bottle I have started using it to clean my teeth). As Easter was rapidly approaching, the Algarve is now full of the 10 million brits leaving the snow covered homeland for warmer climes and their first port of call was the local hypermarket, so it was just like Tesco's the day before Good Friday in Martlesham. In celebration of Easter we bought what looked like a very large hot-cross bun called a Folar de Pacoa and is traditional fare at easter.
As usual, only 3 of the 12 checkouts were open (normal for Spain and Portugal) so the queues were horrendous and we chose the one with the brits whose credit card wouldn't be accepted.....and when we arrived at the checkout 2 days later the harrassed and unsmiling young lady grabbed the bottle of white wine in one hand,the bottle of port in the other, scanned them and then banged them together as she put them down. Have you ever seen the mess a full bottle of port makes when the bottom gets knocked off ? It went everywhere then found a gap and poured down onto the floor. And despite her impassioned calls on the tannoy and the phone, Pedro who had the mop and bucket had apparently gone walkabouts. I nipped back smartly and got another bottle and The GF had the other 2 items scanned so that we paid and exited before the crowd got ugly believing me to be the cause of the accident. As we left, the port was everywhere over the checkout, rendering it unusable and the queue was enormous. They're probably still there now.
But the punch line to the story is the traditional Folar. I swear this is true and we have photos to prove it. The Gf couldn't wait till Easter so opened the wrapping after dinner and went to cut a slice only to encounter something very hard in the middle. We broke it open to discover a hard boiled egg, complete with shell sitting looking at us.
the knife had cracked the shell and the egg was a nasty shade of black & green and even the Gf couldn't face the thought of eating it. We'll bring one home if anybody fancies one...............

Mind your Peas and Q's

2010-03-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

For the benefit of others who might be one flipper short of a wet suit, the initials Gf refer to the Good Fairy, aka 'my wife' and not, as Julian has apparently been under the impression, my Girlfriend.
Apositely, she wishes me to relate what she considers a faux pas on my part which have I have neglected to share with the wider audience.
Shopping is best done by her giving me a list and I go down to the flavour-of-the-month supermarket on the scooter as I can carry far more without her 65 kilos on the pillion. This causes occasional problems as I am expected to use my iniative when confronted with Johnny Foreigner's idea of Tesco's,packaging,labelling and obscene parts of an animal apparently being offered for sale. (And I would like to point out that it was not my idea to buy Pig's Cheek, even if it was cheap and didn't taste too bad in the end). Anyway, we are currently buying fresh fruit and veg. at a lorry parked daily outside the Lagos Municipal Cemetary, where everybody stops doing anything whenever a cortege passes as a mark of respect. There are no prices on display, and you wander about rummaging through crates with your own plastic bags then take whatever you want to a rickety old weighing machine where without even looking at you your produce is weighed and a figure written in an old notebook. This is then totalled and you are shown what you owe. ( not a calculator in sight). Now this may sound highly suspicious but we were directed here by local word of mouth and I have to say that 5kg Oranges, 2kg Bananas and assorted carrots,apples,runner beans and cougettes for 4€ sounds pretty good value to me. However, the point of this ramble is that when I returned on Friday with my rucksack of goodies I duly handed them over to the Gf for storage. After A few minutes, I was called back to explain why I had purchased 4 small cucumbers and where were the cougettes. They are very small cucumbers but are they are definitely cucumbers, I have to admit, as we are now existing on cucumber salads for the forseeable future.....any recipes on a postcard to
The Municipal Cemetary, Lagos, plot 916.

Sun,Sex(?) & Sangria

2010-03-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

At last we have discovered the Algarve that everybody waxes lyrical about. And the Gf has discovered jugs of Sangria (a nice little drink for the ladies). The weather has steadily improved, breakfast is taken on the patio and we have ridden further afield on the scooter, exploring the back roads down to small coves where ther is little or no developement and have been rewarded with stunning views and beaches. We had lunch on Sunday at a beach bar in a small cove called Zavial Beach (Praia do Zavial) with a view to die for and spent the afternoon just watching the surf roll in. The restaurant was solidly built with a terrace above the beach and ideal for family sunday lunches as the kids were sent off to play on the sand if they looked like getting fractious whislt the adults got on with eating and drinking. The food was delicious -fresh fish and meat grilled on a barbecue with salad and washed down with vinho verde-the Gf had the usual 5 sardines, so large she only managed 4, and I had a monkfish,prawn and chorizo kebab that was one of the best things I've ever eaten.
Monday, being an even better day, we rode the 25kms to SAGRES and onto CAPE St.VINCENT which you will recall is the most southwesterly point of Europe and a point that all shipping heading up or across the Atlantic must pass, and where Henry the Navigator,a much decorated patron of Portuguese sea exploration, established his School of Navigation c.1450 (No records exist of its actual location). It's just like CAPE WRATH but with sun and surfers. Very dramatic, well worth the detour and we spent a very agreable time wandering the cliffs. From pictures seen, it is even more dramatic in a storm when waves regularly top the enormous cliffs but getting there on a scooter in those conditions might be somewhat fraught. The pretty road back was not so much a road as a dirt track for a great deal of its length - note : white roads on the map may not be surfaced.

We have nice neighbours on the site, all who have have been here before - John & Kath stay here from October to May every year and are a fund of information, and Henri and wife (Dutch) on the other side of us are most friendly and chatty.

Sat.27th

Had a great ride inland up to a reservoir in the hills with excellent views and lovely walks around in perfect silence except for the birds. Lovely scenery and the country roads almost deserted. Then rode down to the coast (through what appeared to be a private golf resort being remade) and found the beaches to the east of LAGOS where we spent a very pleasant few hours......the beaches here are either small hidden coves or 10 mile stretches and always a very acceptable beach bar which is open (unlike in France where it would only be open in July and August.) Even at the reservoir there was a restaurant by the carpark, run by a Dutchman where I had a a huge slice of his homemade apple pie and icecream to die for. Also dotted about the reservoir were at least 8 motorhomes parked off the road in clearings and obviously wildcamping.....apparently reservoirs are well known wildcamping spots which are seldom troubled.

Have also visited another well known Algarve must-see spot to the west of LAGOS called Ponta da Piedade, a series of caves hollowed out by the sea. They can be visited by boat but it was his day off so we just walked down the cliff as far as possible for photos. Quite dramatic

Still cannot accept the level to which the Algarve has been colonised by the British, Germans and Dutch. There is an english language radio station (kiss fm), at least 2 english newspapers which are real eye-openers and all you hear in the supermarkets is english and german. I find it quite depressing for some reason.

2010-03-21T02:56:00.000-07:00

Sat.20th.March

Upsticks bright and early on Tuesday for the relatively short 70kms along the Algarve to LAGOS ( pronounced Lagosh) and not to be confused with somewhere in darkest Africa, Nigeria I think.. The plan was to follow the pretty route along the N125 which ran from door to door so speak and has been called the most dangerous road in Europe ( or was that the N340 in Spain which we travelled so much ?)......they all merge into a red mist of buttock clenching moments. Anyway, we were going to detour into ALBUFEIRA for lunch as we thought we ought to look at the self-styled capital of the Algarve as we were in the vicinity.The first pangs of doubt arose as we circumnavigated FARO and bore left with the N125 rather than bearing right onto the A22 motorway which was being heavily touted as THE only way to get to LAGOS. After a mere 100 yards the road surface began to resemble a washboard (younger readers should refer to their mothers for an explanation of this allusion). And it wasn't pretty. And it had a lot of roundabouts. And potholes. But we got to ALBUFEIRA at lunchtime and tried to find our way down to the beachfront or locate a good parking area for motorhomes near the football ground apparently. The Satnav couldn't cope with new roads built this month into yet another holiday complex and I couldn't cope with the narrow hilly oneway streets full of parked cars.....we could see the beach (and it did look nice) but getting there was proving difficult in a motorhome. The Gf tends to get disheartened in these circumstances and the only possible larger carpark we found had a sign, reserving the spaces for local buses, after we had turned into it. I am sure that a bit more perseverance would have found us on 'the Strip',fabled
downtown central but the tackiness of the whole place had left me without the will to live. Its very clean,tidy etc with great views of the Atlantic but I think it's Legoland-meets-Scarborough-sur-Mer.
OK.....we have never been to the Algarve before (and now I know why) and I had not appeciated just how English it is. At least until here, signs outside shops,bars or restaurants were in Portugese with maybe a translation. Here, they are unashamedly in English only. Bars are called The Plough,Pig's Head or The Bull, restaurants offer the All Day English Breakfast and Bars advertise Happy Hours whilst showing all the premier league matches on Sky with a promise for the ladies of wall-to-wall episodes of the current Soaps.
OK...so I'm being snobby but I just find it horrendous and couldn't shake the dust of Albufeira from us quickly enough and head westward on the A22 motorway, having had enough of the N125 as well.
Arrived at our new watering hole around midday without further incident, 3kms west of LAGOS, next to a village called ESPICHE and a walk away from LUZ, which I now discover is famous (or infamous) as the village from which Madeline McCann was abducted. I am on alert as bing an orphan I feel particularly vulnerable.
Booking in was no problem, assisited by the ample charms on display of the comely Portuguese receptionist ( the Gf sniffily declared them to be surgically enhanced, but what do I know?) but the first pitch allocated was a) already in shade from a wall and tall firs and b) difficult to access so we had a scout round and found a perfect pitch, 916, which was very large, had a bit of a terrace and uninterrupted sun from east to west. Apparently had only just been vacated by an enormous RV so was just the job and was not subject to another booking so here we are and THE SUN LOUNGE IS UP AGAIN.
TURISCAMPO is a very nice site, terraced,good pitches,good facilities, lovely swimming pool and decent bar with restaurant serving daily all-you-can-eat-buffet for 6.90€ with bigger version on sat/sun for 9.90€. Also well stocked shop. LUZ is a bit of a hike, esp. on the way back which is more uphill, but the large village is quite charming with stunning horseshoe shaped beach and cliffs. But it is very,very,colonised by the brits and very developed. The local supermarkets know the trade they are catering for and the selection is very british and expensive (There was a very large display cabinet full of vintage ports at 90€ +). We had a nice sundowner at a beachside restaurant, great for watching the surf and the sunset and I can see the attraction.
So far we have explored LAGOS (that's Lagooosh,otherwise we are in Nigeria which might be confusing)which is a pleasant watering hole, Bournemouth-sur-mer and all of the above apply, great beaches and great looking beach restaurants. Full of brits en vacance and oiking round the narrow streets which are full of restaurants. Good local museum and the golden chapel of Santo Antonio wherein lies the tomb of Irishman Hugo Beaty who led the Portuguese army against the Spanish. Found 2 very large supermarkets, the native Pingo Doce and an Intermarche, both much more reasonably priced (Wine at 2€ and less) but both still catering for the anglo-european trade.
Cultural Note (1): All the supermarkets have a good supply of Port but the most popular variety appears to be Tawny, with many different brands from around 6€ upwards. This is not a version I am familiar with but rest assured tasting notes will be supplied soon.
The Port brands range from the unknown to the usual suspects and I noticed a bottle of Dows Midnight at 5.99€ which I think retails in the UK around the £8-£10 mark. LBV port is much less in evidence, White ports are very common and I shall re-aquaint myself with some in the interests of research, as I foolishly only bought one bottle of spanish brandy before we left......
Cultural Note (2) : I had assumed a smattering of Spanish would suffice for Portugal. Wrong. Apparently the language ratings are Portuguese,English,French and Spanish as a last resort and that spanish spoken by a non-spaniard is more or less unintelligible to the average Portuguese. As I have discovered. Habla Inglese ? receives a blank stare as it should be Fa-la Ingleesh (there are an awful lot of eesh/oosh/osh sounds in Portugal).

We have explored some way along the coast, notably to BURGAU and a rather fine tucked away beach called BOCA DA RIO which had 20 or so motorhomes wildcamping a stones throw from the crashing surf. Again this appears to be tolerated in the winter but there are tales of police fining people for camping if they so much as put a table or chair outside the van. Many people on the campsite have indulged in wildcamping occasionally and I have seen another copy of the Motorhometrails book which is supposedly still in print form Vicarious Books and is being updated this year by James Gamgee..see www.motorhometrails.com
The main problem with wildcamping here is the problem of water,waste and toilet emptying
and you can spot the wildcampers coming into a campsite for 1 or 2 days to refill and empty everything. The real diehards fill up with water from drinking fountains or buy bottled at Lidl and carry iron hooks to lift sewer manholes to empty toilet cassettes.But everybody knows bars or restaurants where these things can be done after chatting up the owners and where public standpipes can be found. We've picked a couple of sites from the book and shall certainly aim to wildcamp for a few nights after here.

The wifi here is charged (1€ hour) but there is only a really good signal in the internet room but LAGOS has a public hotspot in the main square so we might use that instead

Well done England but beaten by the better team.

Goodbye to Spain, Hello Portugal

2010-03-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

Monday 15th.March

A very pleasant evening at the restaurant followed by tearful farewells on Friday morning as the wind whipped sand into the eyes of everyone watching us depart at 9.30 on the dot .....No, I jest,as it was a beautiful morning, the best we had had in 30 days. As we settled the bill at Reception for electricity (24€) we booked again for next year with a
60€ deposit and although the pitch we had been staying on and thought highly of this year (318) turned out to already booked from Dec-April 2011, we secured 177 which has been manicured with plastic honeycomb blocks to avoid sinking in the mud should next year be the third consecutive worst winter in living memory as the Gf confidently predicts. She is such a pessimist and says she will not give Spain another chance if she is right. I might be lonely in 2012.
Anyway the sky was blue all day and the sun beat down all the (uneventful) way to OLHAO in Portugal. On the way we passed the 2000 mile point for this trip and 25000 mile point for this motorhome in 2 1/2 years or exactly 10000 miles a year. The 180 miles to OLHAO was not remarkable for scenery and we sailed across the border at 2pm. Camping OLHAO was easy to locate and is a rather strange place. Lots of chalets and a large site with many smallish pitches under trees with lots of caravans permanently inserted and covered with tarpaulins. The wide roads however are nose to tail with motorhomes, cables everywhere and many looking as though they have been there all winter. It was just a question of finding a free bit of tarmac, parking and locating an electric point somewhere. We finally settled on a piece of sandy gravel at the bottom end ( conveniently close to the local railway line to FARO for irritating background noise) already occupied by 3 vans parked parallel to each other (sewdish,french & dutch). There was just room to park across them without restricting their exits too much but definitely close enough to be irritatingly obvious as they all sat in their sunloungers and watched the view disappear as we manoeuvred in front of them.........Hey..they usually do it to me - remember Lake Maggiore with the lake view obscured by a german van with malice aforethought when we were the only 2 vans on the campsite ! Anyway I had to be sure of getting a clear satellite signal for the Rugby and the Bahrain F1 and this was a very good spot.
The Campsite is large and very busy but mainly German,French and Dutch outfits with a lot less UK vans than we have usually encountered. The europeans love this kind of free-for-all site whereas the brits do like individual pitches with hedges that they can immediately surround with a windbreak whether there's wind or not. They have to use the roads here as most units have no chance of getting onto the shaded pitches but whether this is just a winter thing I don't know as we are all parked across obviously marked car bays which may well be needed in the summer when the tents and caravans fill the pitches and the chalets are all in use.
On Saturday, we walked the mile or so the town Of OLHAO which proved interestingly quaint but unremarkable. On the way we passed the fishing port and a carpark with about 60 motorhomes parked in front of the police station under a restriction sign indicating bo caravans or campervans. Again mainly German and french but 3 Uk plates who I chatted to for info. There are no official overnight parking sites for motorhomes (unlike France & Germany) but there are many places where it is tolerated-this being one-and you have to find out where they are by trial and error. I was shown a dog-eared copy of a 2005 publication (now out of print) called Motorhometrails-Portugal which listed about 70 of them with very detailed descriptions of how to find them in very isloated places on the Atlantic coast with spectacular locations and apparently well used by the wild-camping fraternity. I took some notes and GPS and we may well try to find a place called Porto Covo. OLHAO had avery nice market with loads of fruit and veg, and indoor fish market with fresh fish from the local boats in front of it. Back for the rugby which again disappointed with an England-Scotland draw that was dire.
MOTHERS DAY.... Julian and Justin, unable to be with their mother today, did the decent thing and took her out for lunch. Or I did on their behalf, and this may be the first they know of it......so lads, she thoroughly enjoyed a splendid lunch of sizzling fresh prawns fried in lashings of butter and garlic followed by a local delicacy called Cataplana da Peixa which was very similar to a Bouillabaisse and served in a big bubbling covered pot, washed down with an excellent local Chardonnay,sitting in the sunshine on the quayside, and it has only cost you 30€ each. And she says thank you very much - as do I.
On Monday by bus and train to FARO, only 12 mins by train (2.10€ each return).A nice place, very pretty round the old town and harbour, and a jolly interesting lunch in a small square with a huge barbecue trough against a wall and where you picked your fish from the boxes on offer.....obviously fresh that morning, GF had 5 large sardines and I had Dourade. Other unrecognisable choices available and whole octopus which was v.popular and looked horrendous after being chucked on the barbie. This was all served with a large salad, small steamed potatoes in their skins, a dish of olives and pickles, puddings and coffee for 25€ all in. My Dourade was superb as were the sardines and a jolly good experience.

We're leaving 'sunny Spain'.................

2010-03-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

Thurday 11th.March

Just when you think the weather couldn't get any worse we had another horrendous spell that lasted till Tuesday. Spanish Tv should snow chaos in Burgos,Madrid and Valencia with snow as far south as Jaen, near where we stopped on the way down here. The border at Jonquera was closed through snow which we had crossed in sunshine 2 months ago. Monday night saw an especially nasty bout of rain and high winds spring up as we joined Nick & Barbera and Bob & Sue for a meal after the usual monday night buffet had been cancelled under suspicious circumstances-the bingo session cum salsa lessons appear to have run their day and the management is looking for new ways to entertain us.
Tuesday and Wednesday dawned bright and cheerful however and the birds have started singing in the mornings and the cicadas cicade ( or whatever they do ) at night. Had a very pleasant day exploring Barossa again and ran into our recently arrived neighbours, John and Allison, who are very serious tandem riders and clock up 2-3000 miles a year the hard way. They are good company and have arrived via Turiscampo in Portugal where we are off to on Friday so much up-to-date information was forthcoming over tea and cakes.
The wednesday night quiz saw us relegated to 4th, with a new quiz master, and our winning partners, Dave & Kath, of 3 weeks ago. We were lying 2nd at the halfway stage but dropped off badly, not knowing that it was Malaga that was opening a third airport terminal and that Billy Connolly was the comedian in The Last Samurai (i chose to answer Timothy Spall who was in it but obviously not comedic enough.This grated somewhat as of course we visted the temples where it was filmed in Japan last year). However, we did know that the link between a seven times F1 champion and the Spanish prime minister was that their names translate into "Cobbler".( I'll send the answer on a postcard to those who can't work it out). Our score of 36/50 shows the increased level of hardness, and the winners only scored 39 1/2 and happened to be our new neighbours, John & Allison.(second and third were on 37 and a tie-break). So in 5 quizzes we came 1,2,3,and 4th twice out of 15-20 teams which I am quite smug about and can be as this is my blog.
In view of a dodgy forecast of rain on Thursday a management decision was made to move off the pitch early on thurs.morning before the drying effect of the last 2 days could be reversed and spend the night on the road by the restaurant. This also allowed us plenty of time to wash the gripmats,ramps and groundsheets at the carwash prior allowing us to leave early on Friday. This proved to be a very good move as we were able to extricate ourselves with very little fuss ( and no swearing) from the quite deep ruts we had sunk into and all the equipment was caked in sand and mud that needed a fair bit of attention. And it did rain on THursday afternoon so we are ahead of the game. Meeting all at the restaurant tonight for farewell drinks and off to OLHAO, Portugal tomorrow.
I apologise if anyone tried to log on a few days ago and had problems with virus alerts. I downloaded a site-traffic counter from Google who provide the blog service and it appears to have contained a trojan. After an email from Julian, I managed to remove the gadget with some difficulty and it now seems OK. I thought Google would have verified these add-ons it recommended.

F1 Predictathon update

2010-03-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

I'm still new at this . In order to link to the F1 predictathon, you will need a username and password which can be obtained (for free) by emailing subject …”No really, Schumacher is too old for this” to F1predictions@hotmail.com .whereupon you will be able to predict the outcome of F1 races and read my son's erudite and amusing critiques of the F1 circus, complete with misspellings and occasional grammatical errors as he believes Spellchecker to be the spawn of satan and an impediment to the creative flow (unlike his father and brother who don't need it anyway). Even if you only have a passing interest in F1 give it a go

Rain,Wine & Quizzes

2010-03-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

Fri.5th March

The Gf was very poorly in the end and had to spend the day in bed being sick after consuming a glass of wine from a bottle she had opened 10 days previously.....that's the only explanation as we both had eaten the identical food. And anyway, who keeps a bottle of wine for 10 days? She felt better by saturday but a bit fragile so we all trooped off to Medina Sidonia for sightseeing and a spot of tapas for lunch (except the Gf who refused to touch anything).Pates's back is still giving him agony and affecting his driving as he now tends to drift to the right and fall off the road....if you've driven on spanish side roads yuo'll know what I mean.....and on dual carriageways he hits the rumblestrip with unnerving monotony, even when being tailed by police cars who have definitely got him on their radar.
Anyway back in time for Italy beating Scotland and England giving another dire performance against Ireland and dinner at the camp restaurant which was v.pleasant. Sunday was a long day of leisure as we had a table booked for lunch at 3pm at La Patrie in La Muela about 10 miles inland on a hillside overlooking the coast with stunning views.This place was highly recommended, only opens Sat/Sun and is run by a danish couple...fusion cooking denmark meets andalucia.. the format is a running buffet (16€ a head) with lots of dishes that you just return to as many times as you wish until you are satiated. It was extraordinarily good, the roast beef was to die for,and we discovered an extraordinarily drinkable wine from Cadiz called Regantio at 9€ a bottle which I shall search for in bulk before I leave.
Monday was Andalucia Day and we went to Arcos which is a charming hilltop white town with very narrow,steep streets and not pedestrianised. You could tell the local cars by the old scrapes down the sides and tourist cars by the new ones. Whoever has the local concession for wing mirrors must be worth a fortune.Very pleasant 3 course lunch for a mere 6€ in a pleasant courtyard and cross country drive back with Pates running off the road every so often ( I shall monitor the comments box very carefully ). As it was their last night we ate in the camp restaurant and then retired to their chalet to finish off the contents of his temporary wine cellar. The weather since they arrived has not been too bad but they took it with them when they departed 8am Tuesday morning as it then rained for 48 hours with very high winds.Local TV is full of pictures of floods and devastation in Southern Spain and it is a real problem for the local population but everywhere is the same. Portugal is no better and the south of france just as bad.
Quiz night on Wednesday.......came 3rd. (12€) 44/50. Would have been 2nd if I had not been shouted down over the first national park (peak district) by the Gf who was convinced it was snowdonia.However, over 4 weeks we have been 1,2,3,& 4th out of about 20 teams so feel quite smug. Thursday was a good day so we rode to Fuente del Gallo and walked along the beach and Friday started well so we rode off to discover the beaches at La Barrossa which turned out to be quite magnificent. There appeared to be a storm brewing out at sea so we didn't linger after our picnic but we shall return soon to explore the area more fully. People around us are getting anal about the weather with hourly forecasts being bandied about but it all depends on which website you read. It must settle down and when the sun is out it is very,very warm.
Number 2 son has added a link gadget to the site and I trust you will all visit his worthy blog and Julian's F1 predict-a-thon which is very amusing.

The Pates in Spain fall mainly down after too much Rioja

2010-02-26T04:02:00.000-08:00

FRI. 26th.Feb

The Pates arrived on Sunday afternoon, bringing some much needed sunshine with them which enabled us to sit outside and attempt to consume the contents of my cellar-which I had of course restocked in anticipation. For someone who professes to dislike rioja, sir bruce manages to force an extraordinary amount down his throat and had 12 bottles in his shopping trolley on monday morning as we accompanied them to the local Mercadona supermarket and showed them the delights of Conil. And for someone who doesn't drink brandy, his introduction to the 7€-a-litre spanish variety has produced another devotee-and even Briony has taken to drinking it in her coffee.
After shopping we headed down to the beach and walked a way although sir bruce is in severe pain having put his back out and trapped a nerve or something and is creaking along in agony like an old man and wincing and sighing every other step. Ought to pull himself together. We all went to the monday night Buffet (8€) and bingo/salsa lesson evening but failed to either win a line or a house or learn how to dance the Meringue. Pates claimed his back was hurting but I suspect a case of two left feet....have you ever seen him dance? Terrifying.
On tuesday we took them to Cape Trafalgar for my impression of Nelson (much appreciated) and then Vejer, a white Andalucian hill town with much Moorish influence where we had lunch at the Moroccan restaurant. A very pleasant meal, somewhat marred a) when Briony managed to bush past a newly painted white wall and cover herself in paint and b) we emerged to discover a parking ticket on their hire car which sir bruce had parked outside the front door in a loading bay.
It is still a mystery where the paint came from and the hotel was not initially very helpful about helping clean her up. They did suggest that we go down to the police station and plead stupidity about the ticket which was for 90€ as they had cancelled a similar ticket for a client the previous day (of course, if pates had parked where the Gf suggested this would not have happened as she pointed out, several times.) The policeman on the desk turned out to be less than sympathetic to stupidity, obviously having used up his quota for the week the day before but did offer a 30% reduction for immediate payment. So that was an expensive lunch. Vejer continues to delight but the stupendous views were somewhat marred by what appeared to be hundreds of miles of flooded fields. A trip to Bolonia on Wednesday to see the roman remains of Baleo. Included a very interesting museum with excellent english translations and free to EU citizens. Glad to see the euro-gravytrain is diverting some of its slush funds to worthy cultural causes. Stunning beach to hand, where we had a picnic lunch, where the romans had fish salting factories for when they caught the tuna migrating through the straits of Gibralter back to their spawning grounds in the Med. Baleo was v.important place 206BC-6AD and remains are v.good.
The police have sir bruce on their computers as it could not be a coincidence that we were pulled over by the ever-present 2 man shakedown squad. This time however, the stupid ploy worked-either that or the very unnerving sight of pates in his shorts trying to extricate himself from a VW Golf without hurting his back any more than necessary. After much "Inglese..no habla espanol" they gave up and waved us off but I think we're marked.
With the pates on the team for the Wednesday quiz night we came joint first but yet again lost out in the tie-break.........How many millionaires were on the Titanic?......answers on a postcard. But we did win
20€ which went some way towards the bar bill....I wish I'd never introduced him to Spanish brandy. On Thursdayit rained nearly all day and on Friday we were supposed to go to Arcos for more cultural learning but the Gf has picked up a stomach bug and is laid low and taken to her bed with the sick-bowl (we travel with all amenties equipped for most emergencies these days.) Hopefully it will soon pass. We were supposed to be doing dinner tonight before the Wales-France game but that is now cancelled-the dinner,not the game. More news anon.

We are the champions.......

2010-02-20T01:50:00.000-08:00

SAT 20th Feb

The free wifi connection is very iffy and the best time to connect appears to be 3am as I discovered whislst enjoying a brief respite from the wind sa I watched the sun-lounge attempting to detach itself from the van. My problems with the wifi were not helped for the first 3 days when I tried ineffectually to enter the password YOGI as written down by the lovely senorita in reception. After I rechecked it with her we discovered that the way the spanish write their numbers had fooled me into thinking that 4061 was YOGI.....gosh how we all laughed ! So having entered the correct password of 4061 the signal is still iffy and drops in and out at random as too many people with nothing to do in the rain are skyping, downloading films and watching football on line....except at 3 am as I discovered.
The sun-lounge was eventually dismantled on Tuesday, whereupon sod's law ensured that the wind dropped, the rain stopped and the sun came out. However it will not be going back up until there at least a week of good weather forecast.......which is nowhere in view yet. I understand it's all the fault of the Jet stream which is sitting over the north african coast instead of lurking up round Greenland where it is supposed to be.
Success at the quiz night where we won first prize of 44€ this week with a highly creditable 44/50 if I do say so myself...and if certain people had heeded my contention that Sable in Heraldry is black and not purple it would have been 45/50 (the Gf did get the question on Meatloaf correct however so I musn't be too harsh).
Most of our winnings disappeared the next day when the cost of sending two books to Marcus in Japan cost 17.30€ which was 3 times what the books cost.

Anyway, we have now had 2 days of sunshine, the Pates arrive on Sunday which will ensure that the rain returns for the duration of their stay, and I'm off to Jerez with the boys to watch the last day of F1 testing whilst the Gf goes shopping so that Dave & Briony have milk & bread to greet them in their chalet.

Settling in

2010-02-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

Monday 15th Feb...........

Moved on to pitch on Friday and more or less got sorted before walking into town for essentials - the Gf had run out of white wine and I was back to drinking Cruz Campo beer which is a mistake unless playing the 'any port in a storm' card. Unfortunately the local supermarket ( Mercadona) seemed to stock only Cruz Campo in bulk ( It is brewed round here ) so I was forced into buying individual cans of various types for tasters, including one at a perky 7.2% which I will report back on. We spent a lot of time on Saturday morning trying to get the van levelled as it had indeed sunk a few inches to the left and needed remedial work as the rain running off the roof for most of Friday was flooding onto the 'eventual' sun lounging area and the waste tank wasn't draining well, being on the right hand side.We also erected the sun-lounge awning with the usual shouting, swearing and skinned knuckles so we now had a nice dry sun-lounge to sit in.. another foray into town found my beer of choice in the other nearby supermarket (Maxi Dia%) which is Estrella Damm and at 5.4% much like Stella Artois, although I have to say that the 7.2% Voll Damm Doble Malt was very tasty but pricey at 0.47€ against 0.30€ for Estrella and about 0.20€ for Cruz. Watched the rugby and very good games Wales-Scot and France-Ire. How Scotland managed to lose is a mystery and one has to feel for Andy Robinson. France continue to entertain and look the team to beat. I gave up watching England on Sunday as I had better things to do with my life like emptying waste tanks and toilet cassettes which was far more entertaining, served a purpose, was appreciated and was full of honest endeavour which is more than can be said for the travesty in Rome.
The weather was fine so we ventured downtown on the scooter and had a nice long walk along the beach in the sunshine. Conil was looking quite spruce and tidy despite the problems of the recession in this part of Spain so I hope they are managing to ride it out without too many setbacks as tourism is the main industry in these parts.
The fairly reasonable weather however took a violent turn for the worse on Sunday night and we had one of the worst-if not the worst-nights ever spent in the van. We've had gales in the Hebrides, Blizzards in France and mistrals & floods in Provence, but Sunday night was something else. How the sun-lounge is still up I do not know as the wind was horrendous and it's not designed for winter weather-( the clue is in the name sun-lounge)-and consequently we no longer have a nice dry area to sit in.
Monday was much of the same and rained most of the day. The forecast is still bad for the next week and the sun lounge may well be dismantled if there is a window of opportunity in the weather as it continues to cause concern and several awnings have been reported last seen heading towards Portugal.

2010-02-12T05:06:00.001-08:00

Feb 11th.

Still smarting from failing to win the quiz outright (and 43€) by just one question and coming 3rd out of 3 in the tie break.
.. .the good news..........
Arose to brilliant sunshine and by midday the Gf had even taken a few layers of fleeces off and was complaining about the heat. Spent the morning wandering the site looking for a good pitch that was a) not waterlogged b) on the right side for the sun and c) not under too many trees to block the satellite. This involved walking up and down, finding a pitch,kicking earth, estimating satellite alignments, walking back to reception to find that that pitch was reserved for someone due to arive at some unspecified date in the future but who had left a cash deposit last year for a 3 month stay and would be arriving soon, and walking back to start the process again. This was quite entertaining as we were accosted by by a lot a people who we had met last year and who all recounted their experiences in getting down to spain this year. It transpires that it was a complete lottery as to whether you had a nightmare of bad weather through France or not in January, and even a few days made a great difference. Some people sailed over the Pyrenees without a glimpse of snow whilst others were turned back by the french police for not having snow chains. Everybody had a story to tell and the morning passed in a blur. The good weather was drying the pitches very rapidly but the underlying weeks of rain......spain has had its worst winter for 40 years just like last year (?)......has left most pitches so soft that 4 tons of motorhome will sink into very deep ruts. Eventually we were approached by a very nice german couple who saw us looking around and explained that they were leaving tomorrow and that they had themselves put gravel and shingle under their van to make a hard standing which we could see had been very effective. Back to reception to find that this pitch was not subject to any advance booking so we will now be moving onto it in the morning.
The bad news.....
The 15 day forecast predicts rain, gales & thunderstorms without a break....................................bugger

You've got to laugh........

2010-02-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

Feb 10th.........Conil de la Frontera

As last posted, we left Benecasim in relatively good weather, heading south via central Spain as opposed to the coastal route and tolls. The first problem happened a mile outside Benecasim when I pulled into the local garage for fuel and promptly began to fill the tank with petrol. A guardian angel made me look at the pump and think 'diesel isn't €1.14 a litre, oh **** this is petrol'. The tank was half full with 40 litres of diesel and I had now put in 4 litres of petrol. Decision. Call for assistance and drain the tank or go for broke and fill with diesel and pray I get away with it. We were in the middle of nowhere and the thought of waiting there for help was not attractive so I put another 50 litres of diesel in, paid the bill to a very smirking assistant and prayed. I had intended using the local roads for the days drive but decided it would be better to break down on a motorway if recovery was going to be required. The next 100 miles was passed in total silence as we listened to every noise from the engine. Tension relaxed at coffee break and another 30 litres of diesel was added to the tank. The road was toll free,dual carriageway,newly upgraded and totally featureless with long uphill stretches and into a violent headwind. The van computer system showed a fuel consumption that beggared belief and only served to heighten the suspicion I had buggered the engine.......the engine , however, never missed a beat. Arrived at Santa Elena via the spectacular 'gorge over which they throw dogs' which separates Andalucia from the rest of Spain and our chosen campsite for the weekend. A strange place. A village high above the gorge that time forgot. A new viaduct is being built and the village is either a)making a lot of money out of local labour being hired in the construction or b)being killed off by the construction work. Hard to tell but lots of very new houses had huge mobile cement mixing lorries parked outside. Large campsite but we were one of only three people there. Allocated pitch NO.100 at reception and the electrics were all controlled from there via a large control panel so no arguement. Pitch 100 was under the trees with great view over the rolling olive groves but no chance of the sat.dish locking onto anything. Normally this would not be a problem for a few days but with the opening wwekend of the 6 nations ahead it was critical. Pitch 71 offered looked a far better bet and after going in frontwards, backwards, sideways and eventually sideways the other way, the dish locked on to astra2 and we were in business. Walked back the 1/2 mile to reception ( this is a national park we're in) to explain we had moved..no problem.. flick the switch and electricity to pitch 71. Unforunately he forgot to update the records and so when the night staff came on at 10pm. he checked the records and turned off the electricity to pitch 71 in the middle of a video (being efficient) and I had to walk the 1/2 mile back to reception to explain the position. My, how we all laughed.
In the interests of cross border fraternisation, I had explored the village as the Gf prepared dinner and surprisingy found myself in a bar. Only populated by men, the silence as I walked in was deafening, but I can order a beer in 15 languages now and I'm working on the rest. The only problem was that the fruit machine played that theme from The Good the Bad and the Ugly and I kept expecting Clint Eastwood to walk in. Actually it was so funny that I took the Gf in for coffee on sat. morning to prove I hadn't made it up....
On saturday we watched the worst game of rugby ever...Italy v Ireland.. followed by a great England v Wales and then a v.good France v Scotland on sunday.Site filled up with a Dutch rally. Had jolly good walk through olive groves. Weather warmish. Nights still cold

Monday 8th Feb....

To CoRDOBA. A return visit to a city that impressed last year. The Mezquita is a fascinating monument that deserves more than one exploration. This time we stayed in a fairly poor but expensive municipal campsite right in the town within easy reach of eveything by foot or bus (€1) as opposed to the cheaper campsites outside but requiring mucho euro fares. Spent monday afternoon at the Mezquita and the old town and then on Tuesday (after local reccommendation from the campsite )drove the van out to MEDINA ALZAHAR to see the ruins,excavations and reconstructions of the city that was once as powerful as a Rome, Byzantium or Mecca. An extraordinary place that was well worth a visit ( and free to enter).

Wed 10th...

To CONIL DE LA fRONTERA. Rained all day. Arrived Conil 2pm. Campsite waterlogged.Been raining like a rehearsal for the great flood.Portugal even worse. Paid for a month €265 but refused to attempt access to any pitch such was the state. Eventually parked in road outside restaurant and hooked up to a spare pitch. Found Nick and Barbera and heard full harrowing details of blown turbo experience in Narbonne. AA totally useless. We are insured with same company.....note-check options next renewal.
note....new turbo £1000 !!!
Quiz night.....came joint 2nd with 2 other tables on 38 & 1/2 points. Winners had 39 points In tie-break we came last so relegated to 4th!and no prize.! Question..... how many years did the 12 great train robbers get in total.? Answers on a postcard to...

Gas,buses and sun

2010-02-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

FEb 3rd.................

We have at last exhausted the charms of Benecasim and will be moving on. In the end, it has turned out to be a reasonably pleasant place....the site itself is top notch....and we have visted Castellone again by bus to see the wondrous Monday market which was the largest sale of cheap, nasty clothes I have ever seen - no rural charm of a Provencal market here. Had our first Ever problem with local public transport and had to wait 1 + 1/2 hours for the bus back which then dropped us a mile from the campsite having appeared to make an arbitrary decision not to go the publicised route but detour off to see his girlfriend for lunch. Subsequent enquires confirmed the total optimism of the timetable and the lottery of the routing. We made 4 trips, to and from the same start and finish and went 4 different ways despite having a map of the route from the Tourist Info. We also paid 3 different prices for the same journey.
The weather is sunny and warm in the sunshine but chilly in the shade and cold at night. This led to the second gas scare when we tried to ignite the gas heating and discovered very low pressure just like last year when the regulator failed. Without boring everyone, the fault was eventually traced to the use of Butane which is crap when the temp. drops below +4. We have a Spanish butane bottle and after talking to everyone around us I have now changed this for a propane one which has solved the problem - fortunately they sell gas on the site and were quite happy to swap butane for propane which is not usual. We bought the butane in Andalucia where the temp is never near 4 degrees and so they only sell butane which is slightly more efficent. Good job I didn't listen to Gaslow who I phoned and who suggested changing the regulator-again. For those readers who buy gas, a new 7kg propane cost £11.50, unlike Calor Gas in the UK at about £18.
We have had a trip to the hills behind Benecasim which were settled by Carmelite monks and seen magnificent views for hundreds of miles along the coast and remains of 12th.C monasteries ; the nearby town of Grau, port of Castellone, well worth an hour or two of one's time, very nicely done; and the next resort along the coast, Orepesa, which we discovered via 'the coast road' , a very closely kept local secret. The road did indeed more or less follow the coast, but also was near vertical in places. The scooter did stirling work to get us there. A very neat and tidy place with lovely beach and views, but deserted at this time of the year.
So we shall pack up on Thursday, stock up with the 1.75€ Rioja and head inland and south to La Carolina,
between Valdepenas and Jaen, in a national park, where we trust the air will be a bit warmer.

First long stopover.........

2010-01-30T04:13:00.000-08:00

Jan 23 onwards......Benecasim

Left Vilanova on saturday morning and took the pretty route, mainly on the N340 but occasionally on the very new A7, which confused the Tomtom when it occasionally petered out in the midlle of nowhere. The Tomtom knew it was there, the signs said it was there and we could see that it was there; unfortunately someone kept barricading sections off which resulted in navigating by the sun to relocate a road going in roughly the right direction. The trip was otherwise uneventful except for 1)the 44-ton lorry on our carriageway but pointing towards us, having demolished the central reservation for 100 yards and apparently having most of its tyres replaced 2) the 44 ton lorry who overtook us at 60mph on a single carriagway and caused an oncoming car to take to the mercifully provided emergency strip at the side of the road. Even though I stood on the brakes to give him as much room as possible to pull in, the lorry remained steadfastly in the opposite lane and must have caused at least one driver to require a new set of clean underwear and 3) the sudden appearance of a police road block in the middle of nowhere. The old fake-police shakedown being the stuff of legends in the travelling community, I briefly considered the option of a handbrake turn followed by smoking rubber on the tarmac as we headed back the way we had just come but reality kicked in and we stopped dutifully with all doors locked and finger hovering on the tracker panic alarm button. I was reassured by the fact that we were actually in a queue of traffic and not alone otherwise I might not have been so sanguine. We were, however, waved through with the peremptory jerking of several sub-machine guns and waving of pistols and my quick glance to the right showed what appeared to be the imminent summary execution of various suspects lying on the ground with their hands cuffed behind them. I wanted to remonstrate with the officers but the GF thought it best if I shut-up and got the hell out of there. So I did.

So we arrived at Bonterra Park in Benecasim. We are only here because when we first talked about wintering in Spain, everybody mentioned this place at least once so the GF insisted that we had a look......we had attempted to stop here for a couple of nights last year on the way back but it was a) full for the next 3 months and b) only taking bookings for a week or more by march. It is large, extremely efficiently run, clean and tidy,excellent facilities, completely impersonal and packed with Brits who have been coming for the last 30 years and stay for up to 6 months. A new arrival is like a magnet to them. Their pitches have little pots of flowers, signs with their names on,and worst of all, little extra tents like garden sheds that they keep the sunloungers and BBQ in.
The satellite dishes are enormous and the collective sound of the theme tunes to Corrie and Enders is like the muezzin calling the faithfull to prayer!

Anyway, the weather is unseasonably chilly although after an overcast couple of days the sun is now shining and the sky is blue again. Overnight temperatures can drop severely.

You may have gathered that I don't particularly like this place. There is nothing nearby to vist that I can discover and if the weather is not condusive to shorts,sunloungers and a cold beer in the hand then we ought to be somewhere else that is. I don't know if we will see out the fortnight here ( thank god we were a week late starting and did'nt have to stay for 3 weeks) . Nick & Barbera are back on the road with a new turbo fitted and will have sailed passed on the way to Conil. We may join them sooner rather than later.

Friday 29th..... Sun is shining, shorts are out with sticks of celery, sandals with brown woollen socks (except yous truly). By bus to Castellono .. 5.40€ return for both us, 30 minute journey....where we admired pleasant town and had nice lunch , 3 courses, 1/2 litre wine, water, coffee for 20€ most reasonable. Flamenco sat.night in the restaurant. Have discovered some very drinkable Rioja at 1.75€

If it can go wrong............

2010-01-24T05:05:00.000-08:00

Murphy's law kicked in as soon as we left home on Saturday.
(1) As we arrived at the Caravan Club site at Folkestone and reversed onto the pitch I discovered that the reversing camera had decided to show the images upside down.Not a disaster but somewhat inconvenient and involving a fruitless half hour checking all the visible connections.The screen is also a TV/DVD monitor but we seldom use it as such, preferring the larger TV for viewing but on checking with a DVD, found that this was also playing upside down. A 'factory reset' had no tangible effect and since nothing has been touched since our last trip there was no reason for this aberration. The only other connection is behind the screen and involves removal of the flip-down console so I decided to live with the upside image until safely esconced on a site in Spain with time on my hands.
(2) So then having settled ourselves down I turned the Tv on and pressed the switch for the satellite receiver box only to discover that this had no effect whatsoever and the box (which is in the wardrobe) steadfastly refused to switch on. o I did all the usual things and eventually jiggled all the wires and it burst into life....then burst out of life...and into life etc etc. There appears to to be a loose connection at the switch which is only reachable by removing a large section of trunking at the rear of the wardrobe.....so another job for a slow day. Meantime a piece of gaffer tape has secured the wires in a fixed position that so far keep the connection live so that the Good Fairy can listen to Radio 4 non-stop.
(3) The CC site emptied by 9am as 20 odd motorhomes appeared to head for the ports. We were booked on the 11.20am Shuttle and arrived at the Terminal at 9.45 and as hoped were immediatley loaded onto the 10.20 train along with a string of motorhomes, 2 cars and not a lorry in site. As we exited the shuttle at Calais 30 mins later the Tomtom satnav refused to boot-up. This turned out to be self-inflicted by me as I had omitted to clear the route when turning it off on arrival at Folkestone. For some reason this has the effect of draining the battery even though it is switched off and it can require a reset with a paper clip in a very inaccesssible place to get it going again.......and since I am now barreling down a french motorway this operation was not feasible.Fortunately. I know where we are going having been here so often so it was not a major problem...just a niggle in case it turned out to be something more serious.

So by now I was getting paranoid about things not working which had been fine before we started but there was more to come.....

The Tomtom turned out to be only sulking and when we stopped for lunch and I poked the paperclip into the correct orifice all was well.

(4) First night stop was an Aire (free overnight parking spots for Motorhomes) at Broglie
Despite being described in 3 Guides with 3 different GPS cordinates it was simple to locate thanks to the good signing by the town council and was not in the river (Camperstop Europe), or in the back garden of the post office (guide officiel des Aires). A very nice purpose built Aire with marked bays, gated and close to town. We were the only occupants but its location and nearness of habitation was reassuring. NIce town, pleasant walk along river and then settled down for evening. Very cold outside so gas fired heating on till bedtime. Up at 8am to make tea and turn heating on.......no gas.
This was a new full cylinder, no way it could be empty unless it had a leak or the temperature was down to -20. This was worrying, so dressed and outside in dark to investigate with torch. Temp just above freezing so that was not the problem. The 2 bottles in the locker ( 1 UK calor and 1 Spanish cepsa) are connected to a changeover valve with a gauge...which was showing empty! Tried switching to the spanish bottle but that showed empty even though it had not previously been switched on. Disconnected calor bottle and found it certainly was not empty. Problem had to be the changeover valve so disconnected that and reconnected calor gas to regulator directly. This solved the problem and we had gas again but why the changeover was blocking the gas flow I do not know......

So we left Broglie nice and warm and worrying about what was going to fail next. Long drive including a spell of 225 miles through fog with very bad visibility and evidence of recent snow but made such good progress that we passed our intended stop at Saintes at 14.30 and kept on for another 100kms to a town called Cavignac, deep in the Bordeaux vines of the Cote de Blaye. Functional Aire in the main car park, centre of town and market place. Quick stroll located a bottle of the local brew for a mere 3€ which washed dinner down a treat.

From Cavignac to south of Perpignan and as this is considered Bandit Country by the motorhoming community we headed for a campsite at Elne. Aires are considered risky around this corner of France but campsites are generally closed this time of year. This one was opening all year for the first time this year and was of unknown quality. Turned out to be a building site probably under new management with major rennovation under way. Facilities were virtually non-existent now but will be good next year. However they charged me 15€ for the night and as we left the next morning saw a large sign saying 'Camping Cars Special Rate 11€' so seen off there then.

So far all the route has been mainly motorway for speed and convenience but this is expensive.....142€ in tolls....so the next leg into Spain was on the local roads and a very pleasant one to. Managed to avoid the worst of Barcelona and finished on a very pretty (if winding) coast road to Camping Vilanova at Vilanova i la Geltru where we are stopping for 3 nights. Had a trip into Barcelona by bus and train, about an hour away, and did the tourist thing on the ubiquitous Tourist Bus. Very impressed by the Sagrada Familia, the cathedral still being built after 130 years and still a building site inside.

Bad news of our friends Nick and Barbera who we expecting to meet up with on Thursday when we received a text to say that they were in a fiat garage at Narbonne with a blown turbo. Had to move into a hotel and will not be mobile for 6-7 days. Nothing we can do to help so will see them in a few weeks at Conil.

Best laid plans

2010-01-14T03:22:00.000-08:00

To avoid more confusion amongst our avid readership, we have delayed our departure till Sunday17th, just a week late, as trying to get loaded up in this weather has been unpleasant & difficult, to say the least, and coupled with the dire warnings for the weather in central france mid-week, discretion has been the watchword. So we shall now leave on saturday morning and stop the night at Folkestone before crossing on sunday.
Our friends Nick & Barbera were also due to leave on Wednesday but they have delayed until monday for the same reasons and are now travelling down with another couple we met last year, Bob & Sue, who also are victims of altered arrangements and looking for safety in numbers. They have a caravan however and can only stop at campsites which are mighty thin on the ground at this time of the year in france, so they are all going on the eastern route down to Lyon and Orange then west, which is where we had such an exciting time last year. We are heading down the west coast, Lemans, Tours, Bordeaux then Perpignan and Barcelona. If everything goes to plan we shall all meet at Barcelona for a couple of nights and then meet up again in February when we eventually arrive at Conil de la Frontera for a month. So that's Plan G. Who knows, there may yet be a Plan H,I,J,K..............

Picasa Web Albums - Paul - Drop Box

2010-01-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Picasa Web Albums - Paul - Drop Box
Some pics of Martlesham in the snow

Year of the snow leopard ?

2010-01-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

The route has been finalised for the nth. time and is still subject to the ever changing/worsening weather forecasts which do not bode well.......but heigh-ho we're off to sunny spain, viva espagne...hopefully. The van will be picked up on Wednesday after a trip to the blacksmith for new shoes on the front and hooked up to get some warmth into it's rather chilly interior before we start loading up on Thursday............my pre-flight checklist indicates a separate trailer will be required for the ever increasing collection of electronic gizmos and their attendant chargers.

Friday....... starting date cancelled as massive snow storms forecast for central France & most of Europe with snow down to the Riviera. This is due to move eastward and hopefully we will be clear by mid-week so have changed booking to Wednesday but that is still flexible. The problem is really that I can't load the van and do all the little tweaky things that men do before starting out on a very long trip as it keeps snowing and is very cold......14.20 and it's started snowing again. I never knew it would be so hard to leave England.

Year of the Tiger

2010-01-03T02:01:00.000-08:00

Well here we go..........moving into the 21st.Century and abandoning 6 years of handwritten journals,charting our adventures in a motorhome, in favour of the electronic blog. This has been done, kicking and screaming, at the behest of No.1 son Julian who has created this site so that he can keep track of us for some strange reason...which is a bit rich coming from someone who could never remember to call us on Sunday evenings. But I am being uncharitable and shall try to get to grips with this stuff so that you may be entertained with travellers tales from beneath a burning sun whilst you shiver and attempt to keep warm and dry in a British winter.

We hope to be off on january 10th, snow ploughs on the M25 and a lack of ice on the eurotunnel tracks permitting.
The route down to Spain is still in the planning stage due to adverse weather forecasts but I am still favouring the westerly route ( Rouen,Limoges,Bordeaux) as opposed to last years highly expensive toll route (Reims,Lyon,Orange) which nearly did for us before we had started. If the weather forcasts are favourable we shall test the widely held belief that the spanish keep the roads clear and cross the Pyrenees (don't tell Felicity) or if it is not favourable head from Bordeaux to Narbonne /Perpignan. Since we are intending to spend a few days near Barcelona this is probably the most sensible route to take but when did sensible have anything to do with adventure.
Our friends from last year, Nick & Barbera have had to postpone their original starting date until the 15th but we may well hang around Barcelona till they arrive so that we can say hello and ooh thats a nice bottle of wine. They are heading straight down to Conil de la Frontera but we are going to then stop near Valencia for 3 weeks first as the Good Fairy wants to experience the delights of Bencasim.......could be hell on earth but what do I know?
I shall now try and post this rambling to check that all is working and will update before we leave...........
to be continued......

Welcome to my World.

2009-11-08T12:54:00.001-08:00

This is all very exciting isn't it !