It’s that time again – getting warmer, campsites getting rather expensive and things to do back home building up into a very long list. Not to mention seeing friends and family and catching up with them all – of course!
Another great trip, though as we keep saying, nothing will ever feel quite like the Grand Tour of 2012 – but we can keep trying!
A friend once said to me, never go away without having the following trip booked, so when you are coming home, there is still something to look forward to! As someone who has generally booked flights late on, this was never an option. Now we have nothing booked, but plans in place, so that’s good enough for me.
This time we have repeated some things we did last year – going to Lac St Cricq and La Grande Motte. But we have also done new things – figured out how to do the show in Geneva using Horatio but still being with our colleagues, taken different routes, seen new places and of course had fun with The Beast.
We have seen different chateaus, stunning scenery, hair raising hairpin bends, sun, wind, more wind, storms and then more sun. There are loads of Dutch people, pigeons and magpies in every campsite, but sometimes something different like the hoopoe near Pezenas and at La Grande Motte a red squirrel. Once we saw a large hawk lying on one of those barrel shaped hay bales, with its wings spread out across the curve, sunning itself – an amazing sight, unbelievably right next to the motorway too.
B has ridden his bike more than he ever would at home. I have driven Horatio more than I normally would on a trip (!). I have not escaped work as much as I hoped – mostly due to my own inability to ignore it for more than a couple of days, coupled with the weather being less than co-operative at times. But then my work is what allows us to do what we do so I cannot complain.
The Beast now has a small dent from shipping and a scratch from we don’t know where – but it’s been used – it’s not a museum piece. B has just noted that Horatio is absolutely filthy – still carrying mud from St. Cricq as it hasn’t rained a drop since we left there!
Last night we stopped in an Aire on the top of a hill in the middle of champagne vineyards just north of Epernay. Fabulous views – we sat on our plastic chairs on the van park tarmac, ate baguette with cheese and ham, and drank wine from a wine box (champagne stashed for sharing at home). Tonight we are at the other end of the scale, in the most expensive campsite to date, near Calais, booked into their (hopefully not quite so expensive) restaurant for our last evening. There we will toast this trip, and the next one – planned for September/October – what a shame!
A final thought – is there anyone left in The Netherlands? It could be the only place in the world where the land level is rising due to decreasing weight of the population……