ann and andy lawrenson

Well, we’ve now been away five weeks and the sun continues to shine! Drove down from Rosas yesterday, (relatively uneventful apart from getting lost as soon as we left the campsite and going the wrong way round a roundabout just before we arrived at the campsite). We are using the motorway now we are in Spain as they are much cheaper than the French ones and making towing less of an adrenalin-fuelled activity. The new campsite is great, with a massive pool  a great beach, and all the facilities one could ask for. It’s absolutely massive but very quiet which is just how I like it. We both seem to have pretty well shut down the brain cells at present and aren’t doing very much exciting at all. I’m going to start working on my Spanish again from today, but I don’t think there’s any chance that we’ll ever understand it properly.

Missing work more than I thought I would, and by no means certain I’m cut out for lazing around all day, but I’m happy to keep trying for another few weeks. We intend to be here for about a week before moving on to Valencia, and should be settled somewhere by mid-October.

Keep the comments coming. We will try and do something interesting soon!

Andy    

Twenty two years ago we were on a family activity holiday in Wales. I was balanced on three ropes trying desperately hard to cross a river without falling in. I yelled at the instructor Spike and to anyone else within ten miles, ‘I WISH I WAS IN SPAIN SUNBATHING ON A BEACH!!!’

I am now…….at last!!!!

What else? We decided to go out for a nice dinner last night. We ordered our food and then the waiter put Barcelona V Ajax on the big screen behind me. So we watched the game. Quite good it was too. What a star Messi is!!

Our campsite is right on the beach. There are lots of rules though. Amazingly, we all have to keep very quite between 3 and 4pm so that everyone can have their siesta!

Nos llegamos en Espana y restamos a Roses en Catalania.

Roses es cerca la playa y nagamos en el mar.

Es caldo y muy bien.

Hoy es llueve.

Es correcto Margarita?

We arrive in Spain and stay in Roses in Catalania.

Roses is near the beach and we are swimming in the sea.

It is warm and very good.

Today it is raining.

Hi All, we have wifi again at last! Trying to find anywhere to connect up drove us both potty. We seemed to spend half our time trying to find somewhere we could communicate from and it never seemed to work properly. We had a lovely time at Trebes near Carcassone, on the Canal du Midi. Don’t you just love the French though? Twenty-nine degrees, a full campsite, so what do they do? Close the bar and restaurant for the winter and shut the swimming pool for two weeks for maintenance!

Many of you will have heard Ann complain that the last time we were in France we had a ‘difficult’ day canoeing when we ran out of water. She’s now moaning because we went for a gentle bike-ride along the Canal du Midi and at the furthest point from home the heavens opened and she ended up doing one of the best imitations of a drowned rat I’ve seen for a long time. Steve (who knows these things) tells me that the Canal is a world heritage site and that they are very worried because the trees all along the banks have some American-imported fungus and are dying in their hundreds. There were certainly a lot of gaps and newly felled bits. Carcassone was brilliant.  We had lunch there with Tom and Sam and went back a couple of days later to have a proper look  around. 

We finally took the plunge and drove down into Spain a couple of days ago. The trip down was fine although very windy at times. We chose the day the Catalans were having their independence protest to travel, and there were people waving flags everywhere. ‘The Beast’ continues to cope with everything asked of it. Mike Stafford at MJS did a really good job of putting it in good fettle before we left, and the money we spent on it is well worthwhile.  We’re now at a very well-appointed campsite at Roses (which grows on you). The town itself is very touristy but clean with a lot of good restaurants and a great beach. We went to a nice little town called St Pere el Pescador for a swim and a laze on the beach today. Ann is rather more partial to sand than I am! Jelly-fish season is just starting and we both got stung, Me in the armpit and Ann somewhere much more painful. We will probably be here for a week before moving on to Tarragona. Hopefully we can follow the sun South and end up somewhere near Jalon at the end of the month. Have written a couple of poems which I’d like to post, but need to work out how to copy them into the blog.

All the best. Andy.

Next week we move into Spain.

France has been great fun. We have been canoeing on the Dordogne, cycling on the canal du Midi, Wine tasting in Bergerac and visiting the medieval city of Carcassone. The campsites have been interesting.

The first rule of camping in France is  Keep your pockets stuffed with loo paper! Andy has written  a poem about it which we will post later!

The second rule is just expect everything to be closed for a long lunch and probably the evening too.

Had a really great day with Tom Sam and Isobelle. Not sure that Tom does culture in large doses!

Happy 30th to Nicky. We’ve been wondering where the years have gone.

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.