Fast Forward - Provence 2014

So where next?  Summer came & went, 'head south young man', so we dutifully did.  The plan, my plan you understand [more of that later], was to head down to southern France via the 'cheap' route, ie] autoroute toll free, read also 'it will take longer' and more 'scenic'.  The route, l had discussed this with several of our visiting motorhomers - we have a CL Site - was to head through Belgium then turn right in Luxembourg city, then on down eastern France to Gap then over the mountains following the Route de Napoleon to the Gorges du Gordon.  Good plan.

As you can see, to make the job of exploring narrow & bendy roads, we decided to take my smart car, which is attached via an 'a frame', along with us.  

Our route to Europe, we live close to the Port of Hull, was via the P & O ferries overnight service to Zeebrugge.    Often when travelling this route there are various interesting sights to gawk at, this time was no exception, there was this wonderful motor parked alongside us at customs in Zeebrugge. Only a classic gull wing mercedes! 

Every year the road connections from Zeebrugge improve, thanks to ongoing upgrades, fast dual carriageways & toll-free motorway speed you on your journey.  All pretty easy driving, little traffic, except round Brussels & no tolls.  Our overnight stop was to be at a municipal site to the south of the city of Luxembourg which was easy to locate, although we did have to wait an hour or so until the warden returned from an extended lunch break.

If was at this point that we had our first inquisitive inspection of the A frame.  This came from a German motohomer who had never seen anything like this before.  Yes he'd seen cars pulled on low trailers but, as he said, 'this is so much better, l want one!'.  We duly passed on details of suppliers in the UK.  Keen to practise his English & in no hurry to return to his 'van, he also very helpfully recommended the very useful app, Camper Contact which has details of motorhome stops, including photos & reviews [often in Dutch].

Day number 2 saw us heading into France, down A31 then branching eastwards along the E23 finally coming to an overnight halt at the almost deserted  municipal camp site at Le Val-d'Ajol, a really pretty village set in a valley surrounded by the dense forests of the Vosages region.  

This gave us an opportunity to take the smart car for a quick spin, it was great fun bouncing along the heavily-forested, winding mountain lanes. You could imagine  ancient Celts launching attacks guerilla upon unsuspecting Roman legions very easily here! 

Another long drive on day 3, the roads, well they are main roads & dual carriageways, are certainly cheaper to travel along, but, a lot of rounding of roundabouts & slowing down & breaking - so could this not be such a good idea? 

Anyway, by the time we reached Gap, the driver, my husband, had had enough:  'autoroutes are much easier to get from A - B fast'.  OK, revert to Plan 2.  We stopped at a small site to the south of Gap set amongst walnut trees & fruit trees, with views up the sides of the vertical mountain side, a little claustrophobic if l am brutally honest.  The host was as mad as a hatter too, certainly what you could possible term, 'a bit of a character'!

So, what next? What is Plan 2? Is there a Plan 2?

ok what has happened to my timing then?

Nothing like returning to a long lost blog, l ask myself, 'can l remember?', 'where did we go / stop / see?'  Normally, l complete a log of where, how & when, l'm afraid l didn't do one for this trip, but, it's amazing what you can remember by just looking at photos isn't it?

Anyway, if my memory serves me well, from the rain soaked aires de camping car at Pont d'Ouilly, we continued our journey through Normandy, stopping overnight near Mortain, then westwards heading to the Brittany coast where according to BBC weather, was going to be warm, dry & sunny!

As a youngster, l had visited Carnac & Quiberon with parents and, what with me being 'tour guide', decided that it would be an interesting re-visit to the standing stones & dolman of the area.

There is something about Brittany that is timeless, the brilliant light, the blue of the sea, the fine sandy beaches.   The ideal place for rockpooling, bird watching & eating fruits de mer!

So with the sat nav set to Carnac, that is where we went.  Deciding to spend a few days in the sun, we booked onto a site next to the beach, watched the locals prise limpets off rocks & rake for cockles, sat in the sun & tucked in to moules frites and ice cream.

The amazing megaliths, well, these were pretty much unchanged, but, and a big but too,  you can't go up to them to huge / touch / chant [?], they are fenced off, signs saying keep out & protect the wild flowers, big disappointment that.  After all those millennia of people getting up close, to now being kept at arms length, tragic, mind you, the wild flowers did look nice, probably the first time ever that they had had a chance to bloom!

Out return journey took us through the centre of rural Brittany, empty roads, forest, small villages. We broke our journey at Dinan, the aires just under the viaduct, chatted an English couple who ran a small cafe & gift shop half way up a steeply cobbled road, & who took great pleasure in telling us tales of motorhomers who, on leaving the aires, proceeded to turn left UP the steep, narrow road only to find half way up they came to a grinding halt ................ it was a regular occurrence apparently, something to do with blindly following your sat nav & forgetting common sense together good old fashioned map reading!

So, that brings to a close, the first trip in the IH.  Great fun, it does so help to be spontaneous. Everything more or less worked & the bits that needed fine turning or sorting out were added to the 'to do list'.  

Happy Days!

A 'new' motorhome & we're off

May 2014

France - Normandy

Never one to stand still for long, over the winter months & much scanning of the internet, a change in motorhome was deemed necessary, a possible downsize after seriously looking at the Shire Conversions demonstrator, Phoenix M Studio at the Harrogate Motorhome Show, then finally deciding that perhaps we would rather have a bit more space for storage in the BBQ & the other outdoor living stuff, moved onto another Yorkshire van conversion firm, IH Motorhomes, finally settling upon a 60 plate IH J500 on a mercedes base. 

So that was May, now what? Ok, all essential items transferred to new machine, tow bar fitted a quick service booked in, we were ready to go somewhere.  Ok, so we do 'spur of the moment' things, being only 30 minutes from the PO Ferries Terminal in Hull, a quick internet booking 2 hours before sailing saw us sitting waiting to board for the saturday evening  crossing with little thought to the gale warnings being given out for the North Sea.

Boy it was winding, thump-crash-splash as the Pride of Bruges cut is way through Storm Force 10 heading to Zeebrugge.  Breakfast saw only myself & a few others who were in a fit state to face the full english!

From Zeebrugge, we headed westwards hugging the coastal autoroute towards Rouen, from the hills bordering the English Channel large waves could be seen crashing onto the beaches at Boulogne.  

Our ultimate goal was Brittany, so the first night's overnighter was the aires de camping car at Heurteauville, Les Cherisiers, on the banks of the river Seine.  

Hmn, not always a good idea to set off without a full check of the on board equipment, TV not working properly then the onboard gas tank gauge showed 'empty' having been 'full' on leaving the UK.  The TV wasn't a problem but the gauge was.  

We had purchased the European adaptors, watched how to fill up your tank on youtube, but in reality we decided that after several attempts, the gauge must be faulty.  So that took up 24 hours trying to work out what was wrong or not.  The weather was rather wet too, a very wet night was spent on the municipale site at Vimoutiers parked not on the grass pitches but on the access road, a sensible decision as another UK motorhome on deciding to park on the grass pitch, sank in the saturated lawned area.  The site itself was very tidy with the warden being somewhat stressed with the thought of damaged pitches!

Moving onwards to a slightly brighter morning, we battled on towards Falaise where a lull in the weather allowed us to revisit William the Conqueror's castle, which is still undergoing heavy restoration from the WW2 D-Day battle.

The evening's night stop was on the Aires at Pont d'Ouilly,with its hedge d, hard standing pitches on the banks of the possibly rising waters of the River Orne.

Due to the weather we didn't explore the small town, but the drive from Falaise through the the Suisse Normande was rather scenic when breaks in the weather allowed the sun to shine!

So our first 3 nights were spent in Normandy, an area we had last visited back in the early 1990s & it was interesting how the French infrastructure has developed at an alarming rate in those intervening years, high speed road access with motorways & dual carriageways linking most towns in the Calvados region, by-passing the half-timbered villages.

The last few days

Week 3

South Island

Thursday to Saturday 7th - 9th February 2013

For the last few days of our Big Adventure, we more or less stayed put, enjoying the extremely warm weather & breathtaking views of the Banks Peninsula. 

We set sail for an morning's sail hoping to see some wild life, nothing about much except jolly boats setting out for the shore despatched from a large Australian cruise ship.

We ate out each evening, sampling the local sea food, pinot noir & lamb.

We explored the back roads & hidden coves on the pacific coast.

We negotiated sharp corners & steep inclines of the peninsula's country roads.

Then finally after catching up with lunch at a friend's in Christchurch we returned our motorhome back to Kia & after a last minute repacking of overweight hold luggage, boarded our flights back to the UK, this time completed the round the world flight, Christchurch, Auckland,, Los Angeles, London Heathrow then finally Leeds Bradford.

So to sum up, the trip was amazing, the people, the scenery the ease of everything.  You can go on organised tours or you can go DIY, either way this really is a trip of a lifetime.  Allow plenty of time so as the journey is enjoyable after all this is a holiday not an endurance trip.  The highlight for me was the west coast of south island, a landscape that sends tingles down the spine.

A very long way

Week 3

South Island

Lake Pukaki to Banks Peninsula

Wednesday 6th February 2013

We woke up once again to those fabulous crystal blue skies & matching blues of Lake Pukaki.  The views across the lake towards the mighty Mount Cook were awe-inspiring & boy, were we lucky in having such clear views of the snow clad mountain.

Anyway, striking camp after breakfast our route would take us through the Southern Alps & her foothills & out across the vast Canterbury Plains.

As had been the case throughout our travels, the highways were deserted, a few cars near settlements & towns & then vast emptiness.

Hamlets named after local sheep drovers, sparsely covered parched slopes, pine copses slipped past as we headed down from 'sheep country' down in 'dairy country' that is the Canterbury Plains.   Fairlie, the epicentre of dairying, was a long sprawling town of wide grass verges, cattle yards & tractors.

As we drove on wards, paddocks filled with black & white Holstein cows, grazed on the heavily irrigated pastures,  swishing their docked tails in an efforts to remove the flies.

After observing some tourists leap from a hire vehicle & then watched in amazement as they proceeded to take 'selfies' of themselves with round bales of hay, we stopped off in Geraldine at the Vintage Car & Machinery Museum.

We spent 3 hours here.  There were tractors.

There were cars.

There was a Harley Davidson hearse.

There was even a small bi-plane attached to the ceiling like a butterfly specimen.

Then there were the 2 old timers who enthused about all of the machinery, cars, tractors, screw, bolts etc
etc.

Eventually l managed to drag Husband away & we returned to our route to meet up with friends in Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, turning right off Route 1 shortly after crossing the bridge over the Rakaia River & its many 'braids'.

The plains gave way to hills, whilst the wide straight roads became twisty & narrow as we headed onto the Banks Peninsula, & thanks to it being Whaitangi Day the roads were chocked with day trippers heading back to Christchurch.  Close encounters however with hair pin bends provided some spectacular views across the parched landscape down to the inlets below.

After a long day's drive through diverse scenery we eventually pulled up into the drive at Mount Vernon Lodge, Akaroa to be warmly greeted by firends & fellow Yorkshireman & his partner who had swapped Uk dairy farming for New Zealand dairy farming & now were embarking on a new adventure.

Today's mileage = 200miles

An amazing drive

Week 3

Tuesday 5th February 2013

Arrowtown to Lake Pukaki

Sunshine, Tuesday morning the grey leaden skies returned to a glorious blue, the rain from yesterday only remembered by the large puddles.  Well, l tell a slight lie, the weather had improved by the time we rolled into our overnight stop, thus enabling us to meander through the restored mining village with a distinct Lake District feel doing a bit of window shopping, huge selection of all things wool for some reason?

Anyway, l digress;  we were the only rental unit on the site, and after much conversation with local motorhomers, we packed up & set off for the day's journey with the wild or free camping site at Lake Pukaki the end goal.

Today's scenic route took us along deep valley bottoms, over raging rapids & to the car park at a bungee jumping attraction.  Now,  those who know me, know that l have a serious problem with sheer drops; before leaving home l had thought that jumping off a bridge attached only by a large length of rubber band might cure me of the problem.  Did it hell, whilst Stephen marched across the bridge, l just about managed to leave the camper, cross the car park then, very carefully making an effort to keep breathing, managed to get into the souvenir shop, even that was traumatic as the large windows looked out towards the jumping bridge & then down in to the gorge below.  Needless to say, l kept my feet firmly planted on terra firma.

Our route continued through devastatingly wondrous, wild country.  Past vineyards, through mountain passes, true sheep country & on into Cromwell.

As we approached the town, the fields became flatter & wider with rich agricultural land, home to large dairy herds, fields irrigated by enormous irrigation units & ongoing drilling bore holes for water very much in evidence.

Fruit farms became plentiful, & the whole area was a veritable Eden of fresh fruit & dairy.  Cromwell, according to the Rough Guide, has an old town that was moved after the completion of a large dam.  Unfortunately, the historic site, [think Beamish],  was not as you might say, well signposted, in fact there were more signs directing you to fruit farms.  well, we did eventually find the place which is obviously an ongoing project but interesting never the less.

Lunch was spent in one of the en site cafes before plunging onwards towards even more jaw-dropping scenery.

Leaving the plains behind, the landscape became more & more rugged, rolling mountain, sheep stations that seemed to be slightly lacking in sheep thanks to the down turn in the market, those sheep we did spot were mainly Marino.

We drove ever deeper into McKenzie Country until on our approach to Omarama we spotted some rather dramatic-looking cliffs, the sort of colour of kaolin & morphine medicine.   After a quick study of our tourist map, a detour along back roads took us to the gate & entrance to the clay cliffs.  Attached to the gate post was an honesty box with some slightly confusing instruction regarding payment, together with a group of French Tourists struggling to make sense of what to do next.

 The outcome, they followed us along the bumpy, dirt track which seemed to go on for miles & miles taking us up to almost the foot of the cliffs.  The final ascent was a short, steep tramp to the clay cliffs themselves, from which the views across a meandering river plain was just truly awesome.

The afternoon stretched on, the open road beckoned us once again, the feeling of remoteness was every present.  We filled up at the isolated town with the intriguing name of Twizel which rhymes with Bridle, with its breathtaking views of the snow capped Mount Cook in the distance.

Finally,after a day of scenic overloads we pulled off the road to the Freedom Parking site at the alpine Lake Pukaki.  The evening's backdrop was the cobalt blue waters of the Lake backed by Mount Cook.  Absolute bliss.

By nightfall, there several other motorhomes had parked up, both local vans & rentals all of us drinking in the views, & as the sun finally set, were privileged to be able to enjoy the unspoilt night skies

today's mileage = 123 miles

in which we find rain, NZ style

Week 3

Monday 4th February 2013

Milford Sound to Arrowtown

We had booked places with Mitre Peak Cruises back in Te Anau, so Monday morning, bright & early was the day for a scenic chug down Milford Sound to gasp & be awed by the spectacular scenery of the Sound.

We were woken up with plenty of time to spare by the sound of heavy rain bouncing off the camper roof. The day's forecast was talking of a mere 15cms of rain, l was so relieved that at this point we had not chosen to kayak down the sound.  The rain was still coming down in stair rods when it was getting up time, so decided to give the quick trip to the shower block a miss.

The check in time was 15 minutes before sailing [8.55am] so, intrepid travellers that we are,  proceeded to drive the camper through puddles, or should l say, floods, past spontaneous waterfalls crashing from every ledge & gully by the bucketful.

Now, the walk from the car park to the quayside is about 10 minutes the bulk of which is undercover, so after kitting up in wet weather gear, we took the plunge [literally], & proceeded to splash towards the covered board walk.  On arrival we quickly checked in then all 15 of us were herded to the vessel by its skipper.

 Despite the truly awful weather, Milford Sound gave off an eerie atmosphere.  All swirling mists & low clouds, mighty vertical cliffs soaring into the clouds with numerous waterfalls in full flood crashing into the sea below.  Being a small vessel, the captain took us right inside several of the larger waterfalls & in close to the walls of the Sound which dripped in greenery.  Fish could be seen swimming in the shallows at the base of the rocks, whilst sat out posing for the Tourist, were large numbers of fur seals.

The cruise lasted the morning & despite the weather, was wonderful, whilst the journey back to Te Anau was equally impressive.  The dry landscape & draught-stricken rivers had become a torrent of waterfalls & wild, white water rapids.

Milford Sound is a one road in & the same route back as are many of the destinations in New Zealand, so we retraced our route back past Lake Wakatipu, through Queenstown finally pitching camp at the Arrowtown Holiday Park.

today's mileage = 184 miles