Tarragona Pt 2/Move/Catral

Monday 24th Sept: Another day in this paradise, we have made a decision to move on Wednesday or we may not move at all - hopefully the tax disc will have arrived by then but if not it can be forwarded to our next site. Great weather lots of sun and 29C so more beach walks and explorations, Linda even waggled her toes in the Mediterranean whilst Daisy ran her self ragged. 

'2 beach bums'

Tuesday 25th Sept: On the pretence of waiting for the tax disc for the Jazz we decided to have another lazy day on site just watching the world go by - lots of things need doing but they will not run away and we need to take advantage of the weather. Lots of different nationalities (mainly tuggers and euro box owners) here and all very friendly, of course Daisy still seems to be the ice breaker as they all talk to her. Some of the people with vans on the site full time are Brits and they tend to just fly out and spend as much time here as possible when they can, not bad really only €3000 for a year's site fees. We feel that whilst very idyllic here, having the freedom to move on when you want is better - variety is the spice of life and all that. Boring I know but a sunny day with 29C - tomorrow looks not too good though, hope it is at least dry to do the move preparations.

Wednesday 26th Sept: Well last full day in Cala d'Oques campsite, unfortunately the postman was not kind to us so we will delay our departure until after 1030am tomorrow and keep our fingers crossed. Seems the weather has turned a bit and we had sun, overcast, rain and strong winds during the day with 20C - cold!. Fortunately we managed to get the pack-up done before the small rain showers and all that needs doing tomorrow is car loading, trailer hook-up and move off the pitch - must remember to sell tickets. Route plan done and we plan to use the toll roads (also advised by locals), try for a one day move but if necessary stop overnight at a truck stop. It is about a 300 mile journey but we are in no rush so will see how it turns out.

Waves all day on the beach
Cala d'Oques

Windy day on the beach
Cala d'Oques

Thursday 27th Sept: Needless to say our final preparations and eventual move off the pitch was observed by most of the rest of the site and fortunately everything went perfect, however we did not get a round of applause we thought we deserved and were ready for move off by 10am so just had to wait for the postman and then we could hit the road. We used the time to settle the bill and  as expected it was quite expensive, €35.40 a night, if it had not been for the location and general site ambiance we would not have stayed so long. Unfortunately no post for us so we briefed the site staff what to do if it arrived (call us) and set off for the motorway - decided to use the toll roads so we could make good time/distance and possible get to the next site in one day. We had a good drive down the east coast of Spain skirting past Valencia, Benidorm (concrete jungle) and Alicante during a dull, sunny, rainy and 22C day, but it looked like we would not make it to the site at a decent time so stopped at a truck stop near to Elche. Due to the very reasonable site fees, nothing, we treated ourselves to some traditional Spanish grub at the service station restaurant - lovely  

Friday 28th Sept: A nice slow start to the day and we took the opportunity to fill up the beast - a quick 201 ltrs for€ 293 then set off for the Marjal Costa Blanca site on the outskirts of Catral near Murcia. Found the site easily and booked in at 9.45am, very large, new and well presented site with ALL the facilities one would need for full time on the site. Moved onto our pitch (assisted by the site staff) and set up - very easy when the pitches are fully set up for occupancy, including water/drainage/electric/TV connection and were having a coffee by 11.30am when Neil's phone rang! Yes, the tax disc had arrived at our last site, typical, so arranged for it to be couriered down to this site and we will wait for it to arrive - quote was Monday by 1.00pm so not too bad.

Our pitch Marjal campsite
Catral

Entrance to Marjal campsite
Catral

 

 

Just to fully welcome us to the site the heavens opened up and we had our first rain for weeks, and boy did it rain! Monsoon type downpour for almost an hour which result in localised flooding, a bit frightening what with the thunder and lightening but the drainage just about managed to cope - eventually. We decided to put the site orientation on hold and spend the rest of the day mooching.

 

Water levels a bit high

Just a bit of rain

 

Saturday 29th Sept: Awoke to a dry sunny start to the day but to the awful news that just a bit further south they have had massive flooding which has claim 8 lives and caused devastation  - puts our slight discomfort in to perspective. We had a walk round the sight and found out 'what was what' - really nice sight, a bit big and we would not really like to be here at peak period (crowds etc) but it has all the resort type facilities that families could ever want. The pitches are hard standing and each has its own water, drainage, electric point and TV connection point - facilities include medical centre, vets, hairdressers, supermarket, 3 pools, restaurant, Tapas, 2 bars, Gym etc etc. The site is mainly caravaners but there is  a lot of 5 ers and RV's here - we had  good chat with a Brit couple, Dennis and Flo who were in a Coachman Mirada, full timing and on site for the winter. The sun and and 25C quickly dried everything up, reassuring that the drainage worked, just in case. Linda tentatively tried the hair dressers (male stylist and he did not speak English) and was well pleased with the results.

Who's a pretty girl then

Sunday 30th Sept:  Weather seems to be back to normal with a nice sunny 27C day so we explored the local area, best done on Sundays as the shops are closed. Very nice area with lots going on, including hot air balloon rides (we passed on a trip). We took in Crevillent, Elche and the outskirts of Alicante but decided not to go south due to the flooding and road damage. A nice slow day finished off with a BBQ - classic.

Up, up and away.

Monday 1st Oct: Unfortunately last day in Marjal, we are enjoying this site and would stay longer but for our hopes of getting to Albufeira in Portugal to link up with our friends Mark, Sue and Charlotte, who are on a quick sun break before the UK weather turns. As promised the courier delivered the letter/tax disc on time and we could breath again - legal again, just in time. We manged to fit in a visit to the village, Catral, very nice, interesting, small typical Spanish village with normal Spanish style living - 'manana' being the order of the day.

Catral town square Spain

Catral Spain

Catral Church
Spain

Daisy was keeping a low profile as she was hopefully of not visiting the pet bathroom before we left, fortunately for her due to wanting an early start tomorrow the move prep took priority. We got ready for moving, less trailer coupling, completed the route plan (which for a change did not include any toll roads) and just ran out of time to give Daisy a bath - not that she needs one we just wanted to use the bathroom.

THE bathroom

Will they, won't they bath me?

Tarragona Pt 1

Monday 17th Sept: A very leisurely start to the day, do not want to tire ourselves out - plan to do some more exploring on foot, test the beach again and for work Neil needs to track down the Honda garage and book the Jazz in for its first service (what a busy day). The finding of a garage was no problem however the booking it in was a challenge - Neil = no Spanish, Garage = no English. Fortunately one of the campsite owners, Kim, came to the rescue and made all the arrangements for the Jazz to have its service in Reus (just outside Tarragona) on Wednesday morning at 9am. Unfortunately they are unable to accept the Honda Europe free service arrangement from the UK so it will have to be paid for and we will try and get it refunded later on our return to the UK. After a nice walk around the immediate local are, where we found Linda is famous, we decided to try out the camp site restaurant and had a really pleasant burger and chips and a steak and chips along with some very nice sangria and local beer. Whilst in the bar we noticed a bottle of brandy with a familiar name so had to have a photo of it. A nice sunny 28C day which helped the day go well. The first bit of mail (a DVD of photos from Colin & Margaret) caught up with us and we just need the arrival of the Jazz's tax disc, curtsy of Terry, and we will be right up to date. 

Fame at last

Good name for a Brandy

Tuesday 18th Sept: Bit of a none day really so decided to have yet another lazy /admin day with of course the beach featuring to the fore. We spent some time trying to sort out the photographs into some kind of order, so many to label, title and file but best done now whilst the memory is still functioning. With the Jazz's service on the cards for tomorrow we decided to combine a visit to Tarragona and Pont de Diable as well, silly not to as they are in the same area, so did some preparatory planning. We have been assured that the service will only take a couple of hours! The day started with sun but got a bit cloudy during the day but was a nice 27C.

Wednesday 19th Sept: Early start to the day as we planned to use the national roads (road toll aversion has set in) and get to the garage promptly for 9am, unfortunately due to the rush hour traffic we were a little late - 2 MINS! Not to worry as the garage was open but not  a sole around, thinks 'forgot Spanish time apreciation', eventually someone turned up at 9.40am and tried to communicate with us (no English speaker). Some how we got across our need to have it finished for 11.00am (as previously agreed) and that we would be waiting for it - no problems he says and off he goes to do the business.  True to his word, there was no problems and it was completed (at a cost less than the quote), the books all stamped up and we were on our way to Tarragonna by 11.00am. The festival week of Santa Tecla was taking place in Tarragona (a town famous for its human towers, normally part of the festivities) so the town was well decorated, busy and full of life - just as well as it started to rain once we began walking around the town centre, fortunately only a quick shower and it was back to sun and 27C.

Santa Tecla celebrations
Tarragona

Santa Tecla celebrations
Tarragona

Balloon people
Tarragona

Like most places we have visited, Tarragona has many Roman historic connections and buildings (those Romans got everywhere), so we had to take in the Roman Tower ( great views over the town) and the amphitheatre before ambling around the town centre area. A very nice place with lots of hostelries, some even supplying know beverages and lots of local attractions to see, the Monument als Castels being quite striking in the central reservation of the main road through the town centre. 


Tarragona Cathedral from
the Roman Tower

Tarragona amphitheatre from
the Roman Tower



They get everywhere
Tarragona

Monument als Castells
Tarragona



Just to complete the set we called in to see the Pont del Diable, another Roman aquaduct, on the outskirts of Tarragona which challenges today's civil engineers. Linda had behaved herself all day so as a special treat I agreed to take her to a Lidl in Cambrills on the way back - I know I am all heart.

Pont del Diable
Tarragona

 
We got back just in time for 'sundowners' and for Neil to find out he had had a 'numpty' moment; when instructing Terry to post the tax disc he forgot to mention that we had moved from France to Spain hence the letter was addressed to our current Spanish site address with France on the bottom - fingers crossed it gets here sometime. Linda thinks he has done it on purpose to stay here longer.

Thursday 20th Sept: An overcast start to the day with threats of rain later on meant that not much on the agenda apart from some replen shopping (Bacardi is quite cheap here). Neil needed to complete his temporary repair to the RV generator so set to, only to of course get an audience, many stating that the generator was a bigger engine that most of their motor homes. The rain came later in the day and a bit on sun here and there, quite cool and only 25C.

Friday 21st Sept: Lazy day planned so wandered about the site and beach and got to know are neighbours - all sorts of nationalities - all very friendly. A few Brits (full time, long term and short term guests) which we managed to get loads of local information from and catch up on UK news. We got talking to a young expat couple on the pitch just behind us, who were visting their caravan for the day, when asked what he did, Ian informed us that he is the PGA professional at the local (posh) golf club FANCY THAT! Anyway Ian took pity on Neil's lack of golf and offered to arrange a game on Sunday for him YIPPEEEE, Ian would be unavailable due to flying over to the States to watch the Ryder Cup. The rest of the day we veg'd out and watched the site coming and goings whilst in the 25C sun.

Saturday/Sunday 22nd/23rd Sept: A nice casual, relaxing weekend with Saturday being a bit overcast and windy - nice to see the waves crashing into the shore and relatively warm at 25C again. Sunday was of course Skype day and we got to chat to everybody and bring them up to date. The afternoon was of course the golf game at Bonmont Costa  Daurada Golf Club - very up market and the course was in excellent condition. The sunny 25C day meant that Neil had very few excuses for any bad golf and thoroughly enjoyed himself - many thanks Ian and to Monica at the course.  

Windy day on the beach

Nimes/Move/Tarragona

Sunday 9^th Sept: Settled into the site and tried out the communications chain – poor unfortunately, another ‘hotspot’ connection and with reception only available at the office/restaurant area. After much patience and persistence we got through to most of the family to find that all is well. The site is a very quiet, well laid out and ideally located municipal site with loads of large pitches so we have got a nice and comfy pitch with very few other people around. Whilst the site is not at the top of the quality list it has all the necessary requirements and is good value for money. We decided to keep some of the momentum going and planned a visit to Nimes for tomorrow, Pont du Gard on Tuesday, a rest/pack up day for Wednesday and then our move to Spain on Thursday. Neil is eager to get to the next site as it is actually on a beach beside the Med and next door to a nudist beach – oh la la. We did a small orientation drive (where the shops are) around and the good weather continues with a sunny 29C day. Did our Italy tolls figures which came to €127.30  for 501km (18 cents per km) - a bit surprising as certainly not the most expensive by far, that is still held by Slovenia. We will see how France fair soon.

Monday 10^th Sept: Onwards and upwards to Nimes (bigger place than we expected), we managed to follow Mr TomTom and safely get into a car park in Nimes and then set off in pursuit of the Amphitheatre, war memorial and the Square House – all on our list of ‘to visit’. The Amphitheatre was rather spectacular, in good condition and is an excellent example of early Roman ‘feed the Christians to the lions’ arenas. The war memorial is France’s recognition of all the children who died during WW2 and is tasteful but of course a bit sombre. A bit strange but the Square House is a splash of Roman architecture in a modern part of the city centre. The whole of Nimes was very clean, presentable and enjoyable. Good things come to an end and we had to fit in some shopping, I had promised Linda – we got the food stuff and treated ourselves to some new lightweight clothes as we over did the cool climate clothes packing. The weather continues to be mainly hot and sunny and today was no different with 29C. Spooky but we had problems finding the supermarket, found it eventually, it was called Casino and we had driven past it twice thinking it was an actual casino and not a supermarket. Unfortunately for Daisy it was shower day, very indignant being washed down in the RV shower but full of beans after it.   The old dear (Linda) deserved a night off so we tried out the site restaurant for a meal – very good with large portions and much flavour, the beer and wine were good as well.

Linda, Daisy & friend
Nimes



The Amphitheatre
Nimes

 

War Memorial
Nimes

The Square House
Nimes

Tuesday 11^th Sept: A visit to Point du Gard (tallest surviving Roman aqueduct) and a drive through some of the local towns was on the cards for today so after yet another leisurely breakfast  we headed for Romoulins for a walk round the ‘old bridge’, one good thing about our timing of visiting these places are that most of them are nearly empty due to the time of the year/schools being back so no crowds and easy parking. The Point du Gard certainly is very impressive and makes one yet again wonder how they managed to make something so majestic which is still here today, surely today’s engineers are missing something. On the way back to the site we took in a quick look at Avignon and Arles, both very nice and full of historic features. The day had been a nice dry day with plenty of sun and 29C.



Pont du Gard
aquaduct

View from Pont du Gard
aquaduct

Nimes campsite

Wednesday 12th Sept: Early start to the 'prepare to move' day meant that everything was ready to go by early afternoon, including a quick wash and clean for the Jazz - thought it best as it needs to go for its first service soon and there is a Honda garage near to our next site near Tarragona. The 'beast' checked out OK and apart from some small niggling problems is doing really well - better than us if the truth be known. Some days are harder than others but on the whole it may well have been better doing this 5 to 10 years ago and we may have found it not so exhausting at times - mind you it is still great seeing all these sights, meeting so many different people and re finding ourselves. Settled the bill in preparation for tomorrows departure, probably best that we move on as the weather today was a bit dull and cool at 23C with some spits of rain as well. Whilst we have only been in France a short time we have managed to see what we wanted to and as we hope to revisit, albiet the northern part, we encountered no surprises and the area of Languedoc Roussillon has much to offer other than the normal riveria style coastal places. 

Thursday 13th Sept: Managed to get a prompt start, as planned due to having over 300 miles to go to the next site, and pulled out of the site at 7.30am heading for the motorway (and its tolls) and a fuel station - we understand that fuel is a bit more expensive in Spain so plan to top up before leaving. Pulled in for diesel and put 217 litres in for €327.44 which is just about £1.20 a litre so not too bad. So far the 'beast' is returning the equivalent of 12.44 miles to the gallon, which is very pleasing considering the recent terrain and having the toad/trailer behind - it may even be better as we have not accounted for the diesel used for generator running. The trip down through the bottom left hand corner of France was full of loads more fantastic scenery and was very enjoyable until Linda saw the size of the Pyrenees that we had to drive over, across  and through at the border area so she was a bit quiet for a while - she really does not do mountains! We paid our last French road toll to make France €0.25 per km and qualifying them as the second most expensive road tolls (Slovenia still leading with €0.27) with the most expensive diesel so far. Into Spain and once we left the Pyrenees behind and got the Meseta mountain range well off on our right hand side Linda started to talk to me again. The countryside started to take on more of an arid/desert appearance with lots of palm, orange, olive and pomegranate bushes/trees so we started watching out for bulls. Followed the Spanish coast southwards, skirted around Barrcelona, had a 1 hour lunch stop and got to our new site, Cala d'Oques at Hospitalet del Infante (just south of Tarragona) at 3.30pm - a good, easy and nice run down. WOW  what a site (curtsy of the BPG) our pitch was next to the beach with a veiw over the Mediterranean Sea - breathtaking, we set up in brilliant sunshine and 29C then sat out watching the waves and replenishing out liquid levels - hic!

Keep trucking!

Oh Oh the Pyrenees

  










The view from our pitch.

The pitch at Cala d'Oques

Friday 14th Sept: It just had to be done - watch the sunrise, go for a dip in the Med, and then breakfast on our own bit of the beach - it was great! The sunrise was classic, the Med lovely and refreshing and Linda told me to say her breakfast was fantastic (it actually was). Must admit that it was a bit strange lying in bed and the waves lapping onto the beach during the night but as we plan for this stop to be a restful one we can always have a siesta after a few sangria's later on - when in Rome and all that. Eventually we managed to tear ourselves away from the idyllic views from our sun loungers and finish off settling into our pitch, complete our home comms/updates and look round the immediate area. We can see this place being very therapeutic and tend to just CHILL for a week or so, we can class it as our 'holiday'. Daisy needs to be on her best behaviour as she must be on the lead on the site (actually according to the sign only poodles need to be on leads) but can free run on the beach - and she does, just loves the sand but is still a bit wary of the sea/waves. Lovely sunny 34C day which helped top up the tan.      

Sunrise!

Discrimination against poodles.

Saturday 15th Sept: Repeated yesterday mornings routine, we could certainly get used to doing this every day - a high level of calm and relaxed mood seems to have hit us since arriving at Cala d-Oques so we are looking forward to our 'holiday'. We took a trip into the town/village, Hospitalet del Infante, and found some of the main requirements (meat, fish and bread) but needed to go a bit further up the coast to Miami Platja for some supermarkets - both places very nice and well within cycling/walking distance if need be. Hospitalet del Infante has a Sunday market but as it is mainly for tourist type nik-naks we will be passing on that. The good weather, sunny and 30C, just meant that we had to have a quick walk along the beach and camp area in the afternoon; the camp area has various nationalities on it and is very clean, tidy and beach like with a nice quiet atmosphere with loads of typical vegetation - the fig trees and olive trees getting some of our attention, the figs are delicious. The beach stretches right up to Hospitalet del Infante in the north and to the 'Camping Templo Del Sol' beach in the south (the narturalists beach) so we were informed and is perfectly clean and in picture book condition.

Hospitalet del Infante

Hospitalet del Infante

Daisy chilling

Sunday 16th Sept: Another day in our current paradise, so very easy to plan and complete lazy days here. We did notice yesterday that we should have invested in some wheel covers (the sun is so intense at times that the tyres take some stick), not to be defeated some plans were drawn up, some material (old awning) redeployed and Linda made 2 superb wheel covers (hand stitched) - I of course keep an eye on her, very tiring so I kept dropping off.. Boy do we look smart now. Just to show I have a bit of a heart later on I burnt some meat on the BBQ for her, mind you she did the accompanying salad. The day was a bit overcast at times but was still 29C, it did not prevent another beach walk - Daisy just loves it.

Move/Florence/Move

Monday 3^rd Sep: Well the time to leave Camp Park and Slovenia, slightly sad really as we have been very well looked after by Darja, an excellent hostess, who has a really good, quiet and clean site which is ideally placed for touring the whole area – Maribor for the oldest vine in Europe, the 3 wine producing areas, mountain ranges galore for hiking, climbing or skiing, castles to spare for visits, Lake Bled and the many other scenic areas. It must be remembered that most attractions are just a ‘day trip’ from the central region due to the size of the country. The RV and our good selves were ready to go at 9.30 am so we made our farewells to everybody (including our small furry friends) and for what seemed a long time we ‘hit the road’ for Italy. It felt a bit weird at first (touch of camp fever) but once we started rolling down the motorway and climbing some monster mountains it was back to normal, the beast did great and coped with everything thrown at it. Before leaving Slovenia we filled up the RV (fuel costs in Italy are high)  with 266ltrs of diesel, which worked out at £1.15 per litre – just as well due to Slovenia having made the top of our toll charges table, the equivalent of 27 cents (21.6p) per km of motorway travelled. We made it into Italy before spending the night in a very large service station with a truck park – cheap site fees again. We struck Venice from the itinerary as Linda does not do water and we were told that most of the place is not dog friendly. The day was a bit of a bad weather day, whilst being 23C we had rain, thunder, sun and cloudiness.

 

We said goodbye to all our friends.

 

Tuesday 4^th Sept: Not too bad of a night stop, a bit of coming and going but we both got some reasonable sleep and were ready for the final 100+ miles to Florence by 8.30 am. Unfortunately for Linda (she does not like high mountains and their bridges over massive ravines – tunnels are OK though) the final part of the journey included yet more rather large ups and downs, beautiful scenery especially coming into the Tuscany region. The beast continued to amaze and found the climbs, with the trailer and the Jazz on the back, no problem at all. The first impression on Italy’s road tolls are not too bad, we were warned that they are a bit expensive but seem to be much less than Slovenia – suppose it is relative really Slovenia higher  tolls, lower fuel costs and Italy lower tolls and higher fuel costs. We arrived safely at 11.00am after 354 trouble free miles – except for the strange noise just after leaving Prebold which turned out to be the sound on the reversing camera, not having had it on before we were not used to it and the volume must have been turn up during our cleaning – don’t you just feel foolish!  A quick setup on a not too good a looking site but we will see, no pool or WiFi – not good. A pleasant evening on the side of a hill overlooking Florence/the start of the Tuscany region. The day started off with a bit of rain but picked up later and we found the sun again in Italy during a 27C day.

At least it was hard standing.
Florence

View from the site in
Florence

 

 

Wednesday 5^th Sept: Admin/Rest day planned with a quick recce of the local area, just as well as the day started off dull and overcast. The immediate area is a bit basic/construction site ish and does not look like it will be suitable for Neil’s run so Linda has banned them on safety issues. A quick ‘look see’ of Florence did not impress us, very nice but not really outstanding – maybe a longer visit is required to appreciate the place. The normal rations shopping trip was completed but Linda was not impressed with the bread selection - hard as bricks. We finished the day with planning for tomorrow’s visit of Pisa and on a friends recommendation Lucca. Fortunately the weather improved a bit and brightened up with a bit of sun and reached 29C. Still not impressed with the site especially as they seem to have an abundance of flying ants with lethal bites, we have though met a few fellow Brits – tour guides for Contiki 18-30 tours that transit through the site – and had a good chin wag. The site is ideally located with good views, near to the motorway (too near at night for the noise) but falls a bit short of its PR.




View from the site in
Florence

Just a bit too near the road




 

Thursday 6^th Sept: Early start as the visit to Pisa is one of Linda’s long founded must/love to see the leaning tower ambitions, so excitement is high – Neil and Daisy are just going for the ride. Well, unbelievable – whilst not everybody’s cup of tea the tower and cathedral in Pisa was to quote in the younger generations words, awesome! It had been well worth the wait and we spent ages walking around and drinking in the ambiance of the place. Plenty of photo opportunities but of course the damn dog took centre stage again with all and sundry, Japanese mainly, wanting to take a photo of Daisy. Unfortunately most of the rest of Pisa was a bit disappointing and is not as attractive and looked a bit jaded and in need of some attention but at least we have managed to tick another ‘bucket’ wish. The day was starting to heat up a bit and the brilliant sunlight soon brought 32C up on the temperature gauges so we decided a quick dash to Lucca was called for. Lucca was a nice surprise for us (thanks Clair) as we had not originally planned to visit this very pleasant and  interesting town with its historical town centre having been maintained intact over the many years. Hence the quick visit was stretched a bit to allow us to see all of Lucca’s sights and have a traditional Italian pizza, al fresco style, in one of the squares, no problems as we did not have far to travel back to the site and were not in a rush to meet up with our not so friendly ants.  We did get back early enough to allow us to complete all pre-move preparations for tomorrow’s move to France and complete 3 countries in one week; at least we will soon have caught up on ourselves.

Guess who and where?

Pisa Cathedral and of
course the 'leaning'
tower.







Giglio's Theatre
Lucca

Friday 7^th Sept: A prompt start to the move due to our pre-move efforts of yesterday saw us being ‘on the road again’ at 8.30am and heading for France, we decided to stick to the motorways albeit they are a bit expensive but a lot safer and easier for the ‘beast’ and Linda’s nerves. The drive to the border was a nice ‘tootle’, following the coastline with lots of breathtaking scenery and much to Linda’s disgust some more mountains/bridges (the Apennines and southern edges of the Alps) with deep chasms at the sides. We skirted the Italian Riviera passing by La Spezia, Genova, Savona, Imperia and San Remo before crossing the border at Ventimiglia/Menton and pulling into a gigantic Aires in the Roquebrune area at about 3.45pm and after a quick 245 miles – Eagle still going well, “what hills?” Experience has taught us that you need to get in to these stops fairly early before the mass arrival of the overnight truckers, plus it gives us all a good rest period, especially after a long move on a hot sunny 31C day.

Saturday 8^th Sept: After not too bad of a stop, some Portugesse truckers decided to have a discussion group outside our bedroom window, not rowdy just disturbing, but packed up at 11.00pm so most of the night was peaceful. Set off for Nimes at 8.00am and drove down the French Riviera coastline, passing by Monte Carlo, Nice, Antibes, Cannes, St Tropez (all well outside our financial bracket) before heading across country to Aux en Provence, Salon and Arles getting into Nimes at about 2.00pm. We spent the rest of the day setting up,  getting to know the site, repairing a cracked trailer lens cover - whoops, Linda got the blame as she was guiding me and resting up after a busy 10 days - 3 countries, 3 sites, 2 overnight truck stops, 788 miles and an arm and a leg in toll charges. Another nice day weather wise, sunny and hot - 35C.

PS: Please note that whilst in the Aux en Provence we did NOT take any photographs!            

Prebold Pt 1

Saturday 25^th Aug: Well Linda managed to bring back some unwanted UK germs and is suffering slightly from a sore throat and general ‘yukkieness’, obviously the last week has taken its toll both in physically and physiologically  ways and left her rundown. It was not a hard decision therefore to decide to stay here for a further rest/recuperation period and get both of us in the right state of mind and body; we may even take in some more of the local sights but just lazy restful days for a week or so. The most taxing part of today was a quick shopping trip - Neil had of course eaten all the usual supplies so replenishment was called for. It was a very sunny day with 35C temperature – Linda still feeling the heat a bit. It was great to have Linda back but big thanks are due to Darja (the site owner) and all the other passing through campers who befriended Neil during Linda's absence – the couple from Switzerland on a BMW motorbike, Chris, Will and family from Holland, the young couple from Holland on a rest holiday and Doris and Dorothea from Austria to mention just a few – THANKS. 

Sunday 26^th Aug: WHAT! It is raining! The day started alright, a bit cool but sunny then all of a sudden - torrential rain, thunder and lightning and would you believe only 19C – freezing, Linda of course got the blame for bringing it over from UK! The weather decided that a day in the RV was called for, so out with the laptop for a catch up on some films and Casualty/Holby episodes - a real lazy day with lots of snoozes; naughty but nice.

 



A drop of rain
raised the level 

and the current flow
of the River Savinja




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 27^th Aug: The day started with much better weather, the rain had cleared the air and everything was that much fresher – so a bit of exercise was called for and we explored the local area at a nice gentle pace. There is so much beautiful countryside here that you can get complacent with the stunning views round every corner. The people here are very friendly and all say hello and try to speak a bit of English. Slovenia is at the junction of the Alps, the Mediterranean and the Pannonian plain and is a much underrated and relatively unknown country which is well worth a visit. Our walk took in the local farmers harvesting the maize crops and finishing the hop picking, it sure is good to watch other people working. Fortunately the weather made the walking a bit easier with a nice sunny day and only 25C. We did decide that before ‘camp happy’ fever sets in that we must think of moving soon.

 

Slovenian farmers humour

Slovenian crops

 

 

Tuesday 28^th Aug: We seem to be back on track now and hope to pick up the momentum to our adventures so this morning was the Roman Necropolis visit; unfortunately Daisy could not come with us on this one so she looked after the RV. A very interesting visit which really educated us about this area of Europe and its importance in the Roman/Celts history circa 2000 years ago which only became known about in 1952. As with most places visited our guide wanted to practise his English so a 30 minutes tour turned into 1 hour, he did appreciate and respond to Linda’s knowledge of antique mythology, questions and genuine eagerness to know all about the place and its origins. The day was a bit cooler at 25C so a quick generator servicing (the beast still needs looking after) by Neil was fitted in during the afternoon, courtesy of the new filters that Linda had brought back with her from the UK. A nice surprise, as Chris, Will and family returned to the site on their way back home having had a great time in Croatia – pity we will not be able to fit Croatia into the adventure, this time. We have decided to cut Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, would have been nice to see them but perhaps on the second lap, that way we can get back on track for our ambition to spend autumn and winter in much warmer climes. We are getting attached to this warm and sunny weather.    

Roman Necropolis
Sempeter

Another tourist at
Roman Necropolis
Sempeter

 

Wednesday 29^th Aug: Just had to continue the 'walking' momentum and a visit to Lake Ribnik Vrbye was call for, very nice casual amble which Daisy thoroughly enjoyed, and a pleasant trip round the lake and its carvings. We met Chris and Will and their 2 Yorkies who had the same idea of a lake visit, so a social gathering (drinkie poo's) was arranged for later on. Linda is getting back to some kind of normal and completed the walk without any 'mechanical assistance' during a sunny 25C day, so as a reward a Pizza night was promised to give her a rest from cooking. Had a very nice (late) evening with Chris, Will and family which resulted in the promised  attack on some monster pizza’s and much discussions on just about everything, in fact we think the world was definitely put to right. It was agreed that Slovenia is a great place to visit - apart from its road tolls there is little to fault it.

Lake Ribnik Vrbje

Linda with one of the
Lake Ribnik Vrbje carvings

 



Yum Yum

Thursday 30^th Aug: All good things have to be interrupted by real life and today had to be a cleaning and maintenance day, so after saying goodbyes to Chris and Will - plus just about everybody else on the site (was it something we did/say) we were left all by ourselves. Shame that we had to work as the day was a nice sunny 29C but as the 'beast' is behaving herself it did not take us too long. Still got an intermittent generator problem and slightly sticky jacks situation but currently managing to live with them and nurse her though each day/move, will have a concentrated attempt to repair them once things slow and cool down. The joys of an old classic RV, must be boring when everything works perfectly all the time - NOT! Fortunately Linda was in UK for the renewal of the RV road tax so all is well on the legal front and the beast has a nice new disc in her windscreen now ready for the 1st September. 

Friday 31^st Aug: The day started with being very overcast and then progressed to more RAIN with thunder storms - poor old Daisy she was not pleased. The near continual rain made the near empty site a bit lonesome until the mid afternoon and then some fellow Brits arrived, a very smart A class motorhome with a Smart car on a trailer with UK plates pulled onto the site – unfortunately in the pouring rain. Roy and Viv got themselves sorted on site and dried off then kindly shared a cup of tea with us – what a tonic; they have been full-timers for 4 years and apart from being very nice people they were a mind of information, advice and much needed encouragement. We just had to take the opportunity to glean as much information as possible from these more experienced fellow wanderers, so shared a bottle or two of wine with them in their Frankia motorhome. It was really heartening to hear that other people do suffer from all the drama's, mistakes and  ups and downs - we thought that we were the only ones who had 'challenges'.

Saturday 1^st Sep: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY! Only 97 years old today. Fortunately we manged to get a good Skype link and got to sing Happy Birthday to Martha, it sounded as though she was doing well and was enjoying herself rightly. She has amazed everybody and is now doing well but of course at 97 you just have to take each day as it comes. More rain so most of the day was spent on the move admin prep, sites and tolls sorted out on the laptop ready for a Monday move. We were going to move today but with the weather as it is (more rain) we have put it off until Monday, someone is having a laugh with this weather only 17C, coats were worn for the first time in ages and yes the central heating was put on - just goes to show you need to keep everything in working order as you do not know when you will need it.

A slightly raised River Savinja

Sunday 2^nd Sep: Busy, busy day as we wanted to get everything ready for the move tomorrow, completed family contact and had a final drink with Viv & Roy. Managed to get everything completed, including the loading of the car in between small showers, the weather had improved a bit and the 22C made it a bit more comfortable for the work. Another good evening with Roy and Viv, who continued to impart even more useful information to us - they really raised our spirits and knowledge base and we are very thankful to them. Unfortunately due to our departure tomorrow the night was not as long as we wished but a good nights rest was needed due to a bit of a monster drive tomorrow - 'on the road again' to Florence.