30^th October 2012

‘Movin, movin,movin’!

Well, here we are we have just crossed the fantastic Pyrenees into Spain. It has been a very long drive but through some of the most diverse and picturesque countryside.  Sparkling turquoise blue rivers rushing down magnificent mountainsides. Driving over the mountains and then out into the Desert of the Sierra de Guarra. Flat desert lands rimmed by huge mountains wow! And we have only just left France.  Really the last few days has been such a surprise.

 

 

                          The night boat to Hoek Van Holland

 

We left South Harrow about 10 days ago where a lot of friends and neighbours turned out to see us off.  It was really lovely and we so appreciated such a send off.  We had a lovely time visiting our dear friends Pete and Stella Parnell in Essex then onto take the night boat to Holland where we spent a couple of days visiting our Dutch friends Susan and Arnold with Eric, Anneke, Sylvia and Theo who are old friends that we met when we last travelled overland all those years ago in Asia.

We then set off across France, drizzle fog and driving rain were a feature of the first three days. Then it turned cold!  If truth be told I feel that we had seriously underestimated what was involved in this leg of the journey. It is about 2000Km and that is not including the Paris Ring Road, we spent several days on that until eventually we just jumped off (escaping with only minor injuries). The Perifique interieur is the most bizarre and alarming experience. I have heard of people dying of old age because they were unable to get off!  I now know where the inspiration for the Magic Roundabout must have come from. We barely survived the experience. We had several interesting nights, one parked on a main road on an industrial estate outside Paris, actually I had a great nights sleep,though I dont think the boss did.  The next night was in a municipal campsite which was so basic it was no more than a car park with a barrier. Here we already started practicing surviving in difficult conditions. Using our portable shower in cold harsh winds and pouring rain was not a success.

                The truly magnificent  Millau Bridge

We had a further desperately cold night during which we found thick hard frost on the inside of the windows in the morning. We also discovered there is a fairly serious problem with our reserve battery not holding a charge. As luck would have it I received an email that very day from Rich Clafton who is our Iveco Guru who just casually mentioned that there is a specialist overland company in Gibralta if we have any problems we should contact them.  Well we did have a problem, so we did contact them, and Kevin from Tugs4x4.com was very helpful and we will be calling on him very soon.

Well that’s about it for now  we will drive to Granada tomorrow to meet our friends Bob, Arul and Saul who are on holiday there.

I forgot to mention amid all the tales of woe that I am writing from a really nice campsite, we are the only people here the weather is nearly perfect the showers are hot and the lady in charge is very nice, abit scary but very nice.  I am reminded of Alan Mellville's song  ‘Hello Mudder,Hello Farder".  Now it has stopped raining we are starting to have some fun!

 

Cheers all

 Love from Ping and Noel