Week 10 - Campervan Adventures

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Day 63 23^rdOctober Arles – Cannes

Today has been a very dramatic. At around 4am this morning I was woken with a fright. Its hard to say what happened, but I heard Stan unlock, and thought I saw a man trying to get into the passenger side door, the side I sleep at. It may have been the wind opening the door due to me not shutting it fully and it being a very windy night, which meant the van was not locked properly and the passenger chair with the curtain over it looking like a man, but it was dead scary whatever happened, I woke Steve with ear piecing screams, yelling at the man to get away, Steve thought I was having one of my crazy nightmares when I wake up screaming but I told him there was a man, he then grabbed me and pushed me out the way, and yelled that he had a knife, too bad if the man trying to get in had a gun. He got up and locked the van but I was too scared for him to go outside. I was also to scared to go back to sleep, it had been raining and there was rain dropping from a tree onto the roof of the van and I thought it was the robber, rapist, murderer trying to get in. As neither of us could get back to sleep we decided to drive on but we were both still tired so after an hour or so of driving we pulled up at another service station and had a sleep I was still a little afraid but felt safer at a different place. After the sleep we were both feeling much better, we had breakfast and hit the road, heading for Cannes, it was a much longer drive than expected but we were off the motorway now (after paying our toll charge of €25) and enjoying the scenic mountain roads. Just before we arrived at Cannes we pulled up in a layby had a little afternoon tea and got into our best travelling clothes, for Steve this was a polo shirt and chinos something he has not worn in 10 weeks. We were feeling good about ourselves and looking the part. We wandered around Cannes which really wasn’t all that it’s made out to be, it has a nice harbour area with some big boats, and lots of shops that are overpriced due to them being designer names. There restaurants also seemed overpriced we saw a 2 star Michelin restaurants that had a set menu for €250 per person, I wouldn’t eat there as I did not know what was on the menu. After our afternoon/evening walk around Cannes we headed to look for a sleep spot, in the direction of Nice. This is when the next drama happened, as we were driving between Cannes and Nice we saw a lot of campervans parked up on a beach on the side of the road that run alongside the one we were on, and we thought this would be a great spot to stop. However we could not work out how to get on that road as there was a railway line between us, it should be very simple but it was not. We found a bridge to go under, however Stan seemed to high so we decided not to go under that and drove down the road to see if we could find another place to turn, no such luck drove up the road again but could not find a turning point so Steve decided that we would have to go under the bridge, Stan was fitting under fine, I got out and checked, then there was scarping noises, Stan was too big, lucky we were not stuck though Steve reversed out and there seems to be no damage to Stan. We still were no clearer on how to get to the road and Steve was getting annoyed, we then realised we had to cross over a bridge and turn, seemed so simple when we take a minute out and think. We made it to the beach, the beach had a big sign saying no camping, but we did not care there where at least 20 other campers there so we stayed. Both feeling exhausted from the days dramas we are happy to get into bed, let’s hope tomorrow is a drama free day.

Day 64 24^th October Nice – Monaco

This morning we woke to a drizzly and wet morning, as we got into bed last night there had been an electrical storm. Steve also got me worried that we had parked on the beach in low tide and when we woke up we would be in water, lucky this did not happen. We got up early to hit Nice to try and get a good parking spot, this did not happen, we ended up driving through Nice with its many road works, and parking on the outside of Nice in a place that we were not even sure campervans could park. But we chanced it and after exploring the city we let out a big sigh of relief due to Stan still being where we left him with no parking fine. The old town in Nice is beautiful we wandered around the little streets and markets and had a lovely time, the issue with the parking had done us a favour as by the time we were exploring the sun had come out, we walked around the market, which had lovely fruit and veg on display along with flowers and nick knacks, all nice to look at with a nice price tag. I was very excited while walking that we come across an Ice cream shop that I had read about in my travel guide, as it is no normal ice cream shop it’s called Fenocchi and it has over 50 flavours of ice cream, these are no normal flavours there was black olive, beer, tomato-basil, avocado, rosemary, lavender and many more crazy flavours. Steve asked to try the beer ice cream and said that it really did taste of beer, but we were rather boring with our selections and I went for Pineapple and Steve had tuti fruti. After exploring Nice we headed for the principality of Monaco, we thought we would have real trouble parking Stan here but my smart husband decided rather than parking in the main area we would drive through it and park on the outside, and we were able to get a parking spot no problem doing this, we even had a choice of spots. Much like Cannes it’s a nice place but people just seem to go there to pretend that they are rich, we walked around, checked out the casino and walked on the formula one track, along with walking down the water front and checking out some more big boats. We were so tempted to treat ourselves to a nice meal, but instead we stopped at the supermarket and brought ourselves some smoked salmon and the plan was to make a nice smoked salmon pasta for dinner. I say it was a plan as on the way out I got us lost we should have been heading to Italy but I took us up some very small mountain roads that went to nowhere, I then took us up another small mountain road, a little out of our way. After getting up and over the mountain we found a nice sleep spot, just south of Sospel, but it was too late and neither of us wanted to cook as we were both rather peed that I had got us lost. For dinner we had a bowl of cereal. So tomorrow night we will have a nice treat after our boring drive day that we have planned.

Day 65 25^th October Sospel – L’Alpe d Huez via Briancon and Italy

As planned today was a driving day, we drove about 250k up and over a lot of mountains, the views were lovely but it was too cold to get out and enjoy it. To try and gage how cold it was picture the glaciers with snow on them next to the roads we were driving on. As part of our journey the road took us in to Italy which was exciting, there was as large tunnel and on one side was France and on the other side was Italy. On the Italy side there were police doing checks, and they stopped us. I am unsure what they were checking, the policeman that stop us had very limited English and asked to see driving papers and vehicle papers which we gave him. he then came back and asked to see ‘the girls’ passport. He was talking about me, we showed him my passport (even though he had also been given my driving papers) and that was it we were allowed on our way. While in Italy we stopped at a bakery to get some bread for lunch and then we drove out of Italy just as fast as we entered. Our next stop was Briancon, a place that Steve wanted to visit as he had been skiing there as a child. To my surprise he remembered and found the apartment he stayed at. The city was lovely, its a bit on a hill and you walk up around windy streets that had lots of nice restaurants and boutiques. On top of the hill is an old castle that you get amazing views of the city from. After enjoying the views we headed back down to Stan and hit the road to L’Alpe d Huez. Tonight we are sleeping in a car park at the bottom and tomorrow Steve is going to ride up and I may attempt to ride up. We have had a yummy meal of Smoked Salmon for dinner in preparation for the ride and now I just have to prepare my mind.

Day 66 26^th October L’Alpe d Huez

Today I did one of the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I cycled up L’Alpe d Huez. For people who don’t know what this is, it’s a 14k mountain with 21 hair pins. It a mountain climb that they use on the Tour de France. This tour is not for anyone it’s a tour for the elite. I’m not calling myself an elite sports person but I am pretty pleased with my achievement today, even if it did take me 3 hours and 9minutes to cycle it. I did it when I did not think I would be able to. I had all these plans in my head, such as riding for two hours then turning back around, going to hair pin number 14 and then riding back around, there was no reasoning to this just what I thought I would do. My first 2 hours of cycling where the best for me as I knew Steve was behind me, as he gave me an hour head start and I wanted to get as far in front a possible, and I think my achievement till he passed me was good but after he passed me I really started to struggle, I had 7 hair pins to go, but these where the 7 I found the hardest, he also said they were the most difficult, each time I passed one I would tell myself I was that much closer to the finish but it was difficult my legs did not have much more give in them, when I got to the home straight I tried to sprint to the end but still there was not much give. However there was a tremendous feeling of achievement. All I wanted to do was lay down as my back was killing me, so I did flat on the road. This felt so nice. Steve completed the ride in just under 2 hours. We treated ourselves to a nice drink at the top and then began the ride down, this should have been the best part of the ride the down, but sadly I had a fall, I did not say before but the road is open to cars, (which makes it harder to ride as you have to keep to the sides) and as I was going down just about to go around hair pin 14 and a motorbike was coming up on the wrong side of the road so I moved out his way, slowing down to go around the hair pin and as I got around the corner my tyre went into the gutter and off I came. I landed on my left knee and elbow, Steve had gone down in front of me, so I had to be brave and just get back, my knee was hurting but I knew not to look at it till I got to Stan, I just had to keep riding, which I did. when I got to Stan I looked down and saw my new cycling pants had a whole in them, this made me more upset than the fall, I then saw my elbow was bleeding and my new cycling top and my other long sleeve top also had a whole in it. I had grazed my knee and elbow good and proper. The rest of the day was spent with me feeling sad and sorry for myself. It meant Steve also had to cook dinner and has been a good nurse all evening looking after me. Tonight we sleep in a layby between the towns of Montalieu and Lagnieu.

Day 67 27^th October Bourge-en-Bresses – Peronne

Today has been a long and boring driving day, I am feeling very sorry for myself due to my injuries, today I cannot move my arm due the pain I get in my elbow and I am very grumpy. I feel sorry for Steve but he is being very good looking after me. We have a long driving day today as we have a ferry to catch tomorrow from Calais to Dover as we are going back to England/Wale for Steve’s brother’s wedding. The only good thing about having a long driving day today is that the weather is really ‘dog shit’ its raining and cold and at times very windy, think the weather is trying to prepare us for the UK weather.

Day 68 28^th October Peronne – Calaris – London

Well the weather did not improve over night, it was super windy and we both slept very badly due to being parked under a tree and small branches dropping on Stan all night. Due to this we were awake early and made our way to Calais ferry port early. When we got to the ferry port we had good news and bad new The bad news due to the weather our ferry had been cancelled. The good news we had been upgraded to the channel tunnel and we were able to get on the tunnel earlier than our ferry would have been. The tunnel crossing went well and we were back in the UK by 1130. My elbow had very little movement and when I did move it, it caused me lot of pain it was also very bruised. We decided that we should go to a hospital/walk in clinic and get it checked out, we went to the walk in centre at Folkestone. After waiting, being seen, having x-rays due to ?fracture, a fire alarm and an evacuation and being seen again, four and a half hours later I left being told that it was badly bruised and they dressed it for me. It was still painful but reassuring to know nothing serious was wrong. So we then hit the M25 at peak hour, however it was not too bad. We had planned to spend the night at our friend Owen’s house. It was nice to be in a house and we enjoyed watching TV and finding out about the largest storm that had hit England in years, this may explain the wind and the reason why the ferry was cancelled.

Day 69 29^th October 2013 London – Brecon (South Wales)

After a lazy morning at Owen’s we hit the road to Brecon, to Steve’s parents place, the place we are going to call home while in the UK. The journey from London to Brecon would normally take about 3 hours but today, due to road closures in London from the Storm on Sunday it took us 5 and a half hours. All the way the weather was wet and windy, Steve planned to go for a run when we arrived in Brecon, but neither of us wanted to do anything, we spent the afternoon and evening lazing around watching the TV and enjoying the luxuries of a house. I can already see its going to be hard to leave.

***footnote: entry only just added to blog due to laziness

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Nearly up to date now. I promise I'll pay for the skis! It won't be long before we meet in Austria. Mark