The Dutch
It seems I’m on another Dutch campsite. Well the owners are French... a lovely wizened old crone and what I assume is her granddaughter, but everyone else is Dutch or German. You can tell because they always say ‘good morning’ even if you say ‘bonjour’. That and their number plates of course. I don’t have anything against the Dutch, on the contrary they make me laugh, the way they all like to “schpeak like Sean Connery”.
The leisure battery did me proud! Over 24 hours of heavy use; using the laptop for several hours, the fridge all day and night, the lights on till the early hours and recharging my disgraced sat nav phone while I was driving yesterday.
The camping guide
I’ve been thinking it’s time to find somewhere beautiful and remote where I can setup camp for a few days and get some work done. Walking in the morning and working in the afternoon is what I would like. The ACSI camping guide DVD that has let me down badly twice before did it again today. I already had to re-install it twice after it developed a fault. The third install this morning seemed to be working better. When it works it is a valuable aid (it has details on over 9000 campsites throughout Europe). It has details of a campsite not far from here, way up in the hills. It looked ideal.
I packed up and set off. My large scale map of France doesn’t cut it on the narrow country roads. In fact many quite sizeable villages don’t appear at all. No problem, the square in the centre of town has a large map which I committed to memory. The clearly marked D40 road highlighted in blue on the map in reality rapidly descended into a maze of narrow country lanes none of which were signposted. Neither was the road painted blue! I did however remember the villages I needed to pass through and these were clearly visible from the many peaks. The maze of roads was completely 3 dimensional! The road you are on is either going up or down, as are the roads leading off from it. A level road was nowhere to be seen. The road was so steep in many places I couldn’t get out of first gear... excellent Landrover territory!
Just when you think you’ve seen the best, nature throws you another ball that hits you squarely on the bonce! The scenery here is just stupendous.
Eventually I reached the final village but nowhere was there a campsite sign. I spied a lady tending her garden and said, “Bonjour madam, pardon me but I am looking for the campsite”, “there is no campsite around here I’m afraid, but you can camp anywhere you like” she replied, “really? Is it possible (meaning is it allowed?)”, the French seem far more relaxed about what you can and can’t do in places like these. “Yes” she said.. “right there is a nice spot. There are no showers but hey”. “I have a shower with me” I said pointing to my water tank. I told her about my rubbish DVD ROM that lied to me about the campsite but she didn’t seem interested. “There is another campsite nearer town” she said. “I know the one” I said, “I schtayed there last night!”.
The impressive thing about this conversation was that it was entirely in French. I don’t think she even realised I was English. I felt very pleased and promised myself an extra helping of sausage when I got back to town. Just as I was turning the car around not 100 yards from where we were talking, I saw spot she mentioned. The picture is the view from that spot. I was very tempted just to stop there at that point. The only reason I didn’t was because it was quite exposed and if the winds returned during the night, it would be very difficult to carry on with a mangled aluminium structure stuck to my roof. I might go back tomorrow if I stop being scared!
So I decided to go back to the same campsite as last night, cook some food, update the blog, then head into town for the evening. Its 3 miles into town and no-one knows of a country path – you have to walk along the road! I don’t mind driving... its Saturday and I quite fancy finding a lively spot, but I don’t really want to be driving back late then having to set up camp in the dark. Then I had a brainwave. I packed my tent in case anything happened to the camper. I’ll put the tent up and sleep in there so I can leave the car in a driving configuration to get into town. The tent takes about 15 – 20 minutes to put up (not the simplest) whereas the camper can be popped up in about 5. I just don’t fancy doing it in the dark, especially if it’s windy or raining as it involves a lot of clambering around on the back of the vehicle. Also by having a permanent presence there means no-one can nick my nice sheltered spot.
The toilets
Oh and I discovered why in all the toilets in the bars and cafes there is no light switch and you end up peeing in the dark! When you lock the door, the light comes on!! If you can see to lock the door of course. I’ve just been wedging the door open up till now.
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