Walked up to L&M after breakfast. Weather cloudy and sunny and warm. R&L spent time collecting beans from the allotment. Lunch and supper at L&M. I did go for a short cycle ride on one of their bikes. A tad uncomfortable and tremendously heavy. Spent a while in the garden photographing a bumble bee in a passion flower,
Up, showered and breakfasted, we set out on a cloudy day, which intermittently showered, that annoying rain with the wipers on intermittent wipe. Please rain hard and get it over with, please. We headed off on the D840 joining he N12 at Verneuil-sur-Avre. Turned off on the D401 and then the ever so straight D938. Suddenly the D938 veered to the right on a brand-new road Google knew nothing about. Unusual that a new road does not appear in Google maps, at least in the UK they appear very soon after they have opened. We continued the D838, D301 to Le Mans. This time for our very first time we went past the race track.
We continued through Noyant, Saumur, Thouars and stopped for lunch at an Aires on the D938. The Aires had a closed café and some loos. There was a farm nearby selling melons. On again we then skirted Niort, passed through Coulon and at last reached Arcais.
On the way a couple of events occurred. Man standing in the middle of the road doing a survey, no Day-Glo jacket. Lucky to be alive, has health and safety bypassed the French? A little while later there was another man in the middle of the road stopping us and asking us to move to the side. He was an outrider for a rather large boat that was being transported along the road.
At Arcais we booked into the campsite, the weather was looking up, sun shining. We erected the awning, phoned Mike who was on his own, Linda being out at a choir practice. He came over with a bottle of wine and we chatted. He left to be at home when Linda returned, and we then cooked our meal. Alas the rain (very very light drizzle) had started again
Awake at 6 am, quick wash and we were away before 6.30 to catch the 10.50 Chunnel crossing. The trip was uneventful with much of the road empty of traffic except for one hold up caused by a broken-down lorry on the M25, and rubber necking drivers a mile on who were looking at a van in a seemingly impossible position on the embankment above the barrier of the M25. Travelling on a weekday is always faster than the weekend. Weekend delays often caused by inexperienced drivers slowing the traffic flows down. We arrived in plenty of time and were offered an earlier crossing than our booked trip. Yes, I had already bought my Thames crossing. Did that back in March!!!
We parked at the terminal and availed ourselves of the hospitality offered by Starbucks, coffee and pastries. Last minute loo breaks and then we were back in the van to board the train. One little break as we were taken aside to have our gas cylinder inspected, seemingly to check it was turned off. Soon we were moving off and left the terminal ahead of schedule.
We headed off south using toll free roads in a route planned by Google, passing by Boulogne, Montreuil, Vron, Nouvion, Abbeville, Blangy-sur-Brestle, Rouen, Evreux, finally stopping for the night at the campsite Camping Des Berges De L’Iton in the town of Breteuil where we arrived at 16.39. We overtook a Number 9 Routemaster bus on one road, seemingly devoid of passengers and conductor.
The final 100 yards to the campsite was fun, all roads to it were closed, but we worked around and came to the site from the opposite direction, only to find a Dutch couple coming in from the original direction. The works for the night had just stopped. One of the workman who had seen us attempt access from the other side smiled, grinned and laughed at our arrival.
On checking in we were told by Madame we could camp anywhere, so preceded to a nice spot overlooking the mill pond only to be told by some towel waving Dutch that the two pitches were reserved for their friends. So, we generously moved on to another pitch, and then I laid a long cable to the nearest power point, only to be told by Madame that I could not use that point. The other nearest power point had two spare slots, but these were for the towel waving Dutch. Rescue came from another Dutch couple on our other side who offered to plug us into an adaptor they had. This put a kibosh on the planned chicken meal as not sure we could cook while the Dutch couple were also using the power. We decided draft beers were needed from the campsite bar. Later, we ate emergency rations for the night, being tuna , pasta, pesto and cheese.
After dinner, we took a walk around the town, but it was totally dead, all bars and restaurants were closed-up tight. The only people we saw were workers taking down the funfair.
R not happy about the site, saying the very few toilets had no seats. (this became a common refrain during the three weeks). The showers I thought were rather primitive as well. The washing-up kitchen was rather chipped and worn, too. The disorganisation of allocating pitches and power points was also rather a downside. The pitches though are of a reasonable size, all delimited by low hedges. As is usual now, there were quite a few static caravans here. The site is not up to the cleanliness of many British C&C Club sites, and nowhere near the best sites like Fforest Fields.
Not to worry, we are here just for the night, before we rush on for the next 5 hours on toll free roads to Arçais to meet up with Linda and Mike.
I have published my complete set of pictures from our trip to Botswana and Zambia. Any spelling mistakes, please refer to Rosemary, she sense read the diary, correcting, unbelievably, stalks to storks (it spellchecked, so must have been ok, I thought). We were away 23rd April – 7th May 2016.
The pages to view are here at Botswana and Zambia Safari.
It is now well over two months since Rosemary and I were in Namibia. I have at last processed all the pictures (& you would not believe how many I have discarded) and put a few words together. I have added maps of where we visited. I tracked our drives and walks on my mobile phone and these have been uploaded to a website. (Slight misuse of a walking, running and training programme, so ignore the statistics of how much water I should have been drinking and the calories burnt.)
There is one small gallery of the better photographs, so if you are short of time take a look of those.
So get going, and visit Namibia by clicking here.
It has been a few weeks since our holiday to Italy, and our next holiday is just around the corner. I have though managed to process and reduce the number of photographs. Well some might not agree and they are now ready to view.
We had a fabulous time with Andante, and our guides were fabulous company.
Up early before Mike and Linda arrived to claim their home back, breakfast and farewells and of we set to good old blighty. We were going to take it easy and stopped off at a campsite in the village of Le Bec-Hellouin just West of A24 a few miles South of Rouen. Pleasant enough municipal site, pretty open plan and living grass to pith the tent on. Probably will have Moules et Frites at the camp bar.
Walked down into the village, and discovered there was a monastery there, along with a church and French wedding. No it was not a monk getting married. Cooled off with a beer, rather slow service, must have caught the bar on a busy day. The village houses were not like the houses we have seen else where, very English looking in many respects. The monastery we discovered had been under the control of the diocese of Canterbury.
Back at the campsite we sipped a beer, order a bottle of wine and food. Chips and sausage for R, and Moule frites for S.
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Today we were evicted from the Eaton’s gite. They had some proper clients arriving, a couple who played musical instruments. The proper clients lived in London and Aldburgh, he played the cello for the London Philharmonic, while she played the harp wherever she could.
Car packed we paid a visit to the super market at Mauze-sur-le-Mignon, rather a rush visit because it would be closed at midday for lunch. Oh fooled again, it was Friday, all day opening. So we had a relaxed shop, buying their entire stock of 10 litre Bordeaux boxes of wine.
Back at the Eatons we had lunch and then off in the car to La Garette for a grockle. Visited a couple of shops, and Rosemary even bought something, a lace bordered pillowcase. Beer and ice cream on the river bank. Back at the Eatons, Mike had been left in charge of the dinner, and welcoming the new guests. The dinner was a vegetable and lamb tagine cooked on a BBQ tagine. A much later supper today, the tagine had got off to a slow start. The new guests came round and shared some rose, seem pretty nice people.
Time for bed and we kicked the Eatons out to sleep in another house.
Stayed in Arcais all day. First a short walk around the town, discovering the items in the second hand shop and the various pottery and local produce shops. The second hand shop had a large box marked fragile. Steve look a little peak inside and jumped back in shock when a brown object inside moved and clucked. From then on the hen inside the box clucked away until the owner came over and placed a cloth on top to reduce the light. The hen had laid an egg earlier, I had been perturbed by a dark brown egg amongst the items for sale, had thought it might be an item of bric-a-brac, but it had looked so real down to the lion stamp.
After lunch we all went for a paddle around the Marais in Mike and Linda’s boat. There were masses of dragonflies and damselflies. The Marais had some large patches of weed, which were teeming with small fish. Mike was excited this would mean a good season fishing in the future. There were ducks, but alas no Kingfishers. The trip was 3 kilometres and at one time there was some consternation amongst the crew as to whether we were in fact lost amongst the maze of canals.
After supper took a quiet walk along the tow path to a major arterial waterway. Very quiet as the last Herons flew back to roost, and then the owls were out hooting. Very peaceful and idyllic. Spotted yet more satellites amongst the stars.
Set off to Rochefort to see the reconstruction of 3 mast galleon. This is a long project and using mainly traditional techniques. The boat is now on the water, launched in the last year. It is now waiting for the masts to be made. The boat is called Hermione. The boat is a typical French English bashing project, they are building a reconstruction of the Frigate of Liberty, on which La Fayette embarked in 1780 to bring help and support to the American revolution.
The work yard was open at lunchtime, but alas all the people working there were taking the long French lunchtime. We bought some food to eat on the hoof after visiting the museum.
Back at Mike and Linda’s, we were preparing to have our evening snifters, when were invited out to a cheese and wine party by some local Scottish ex-pats. Dutifully drove over there and tasted a few glasses of wine. They were drinking some red Bordeaux in a 10-litre bag, the very same I had been eyeing up in the supermarket. Now a chance to taste the wine before committing to a large quantity.
Once back home Mikie prepared Moo Cow Soy. Thai noodles and pork. V good. Spent the evening listening to the Owl screeching away and looking at the stars with the aid of the mobile phone and Google star application. Very impressive app to help aid you in identification. Saw a satellite pass overhead, and a bright flash in the sky. I wonder if that was one of the Iridium satellite flares.
