We are in a lovely quiet campsite outside Bergerac but there is no Wifi connexion for 10km.
We had a wonderful day canoeing down the Dordogne for 14km yesterday. It was calm, beautiful and easy.
Moving on to Cahors tomorrow.
We are in a lovely quiet campsite outside Bergerac but there is no Wifi connexion for 10km.
We had a wonderful day canoeing down the Dordogne for 14km yesterday. It was calm, beautiful and easy.
Moving on to Cahors tomorrow.
We had a lovely evening at Alain and Caths. The champagne and wine flowed. the conversation was a good mixture of French and English and the company was perfect. I can’t believe it is ten years since we first met through our Comenius Project.
We are looking forward to entertaining them in our luxurious caravan tonight!
Thought I’d just add my two pence worth to the blog. The first ten days have been very much more stressful than we thought they’d be, and I think we are both concerned that we’ve made a mistake buying such a big van. It’s an absolute pig to manouevre in confined spaces and quite a complex piece of kit which we haven’t really got to grips with yet. There are problems with the water pump, the mechanical mover seems to only work every second day, and we seem to be lurching from one problem to another! If someone hasn’t already used the title I think I might call my new book “A Comedy of Errors”. Having said that, it is very comfortable once it is parked up.
We are currently on a fairly primitive campsite in the Vendee, and fell asleep last night to the gentle sound of falling acorns bonging on top of the van and the subtle waft of fresh manure in the nostrils!
The “big red beast” is proving a much wiser purchase than the van. It tows really well and feels very stable, although the gentle glugging sound it makes as it swallows vast amounts of diesel is a bit disturbing.
All in all the trip is proving ‘interesting’. I think we are both struggling to come to terms with being entirely itinerant. It somehow makes one feel less relevant, as if one’s role is no longer defined. Yesterdays near disaster also made one feel a bit out on a limb, and one becomes so keen not to make mistakes that it knocks the confidence a bit.
Love to all,
Andy
Our first week was up and down like an emotional rollercoaster with higlights and disasters. We had a minor accident with a gatepost which turned into a nightmare to repair and a blessing in disguise because we had to stay put and rest.
On Tuesday we visited The Walrus (aka Paul) at his mill. It was a long drive over to Lalleu but well worth it. The mill is very remote and still needs work. Walrus has loads of problems but he has a good bolt hole to escape to. A great visit and photos to follow.
We are now in The Vendee on a small farm campsite outside Les Sables. Getting onto the pitch proved to be another nightmare. The ground was so rough and the turning space so small that the whole caravan and car nearly tipped over with Andy in it.
What else can go wrong? Camping in France is proving to be more challenging and stressful than our adventure Africa!
Tonight we ‘re meeting up with Alain and Cath. Looking forward to that.
Day 1 was perfect. Easy crossing. Lovely campsite. Swim and good company. We met a French couple. He is a professional guitarist and played fro us in the evening.
Day 2
Disaster! We hit a gatepost as we were leaving the campsite and took a whole window out of the caravan! We are now stranded in the middle of nowhere. It is a public holiday in France so no chance of any repairs today.
Still, weather is good, we have food and wine, We will survive but some plans are having to change.
Day 1 was perfect. Calm crossing. Easy to find campsite. We met a French professiousician who played hie guitar for us whle we chatted over wine and coffee.
The flat is almost empty, the caravan is almost full. We hope the Terrano is tough enough to pull everything.
We have said goodbye to loads of people but of course, we’ll keep in touch. We hope we will have lots of visitors when we get to Spain.
Many thanks to Margarita for teaching us Spanish. I will be letting Andy do most of the talking! He is brilliant at both Spanish and French.
Only 10 days to go…….