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Published: November 7th 2006
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mushroom cloud
this is what grew into a black storm cloud which brought thunder, lightning with gale force winds. On Tuesday the 25th, we headed for Blois, south of Paris, in the middle of France... and into the heatwave. It was a fairly pleasant drive, and we passed through lots of charming little villages on the way. What was impressive besides the landscape, was the incredibly straight roads that went on forever, into the horizon.
Blois is a beautiful town, in the Loire castle district, and the city was spectacular to look at from the distance -- a castle on a hill. We headed for the camping grounds a few km outside the city, and Marion (yep it was her fault 😱 chose a beautiful romantic spot away from the crowd, by the river, with no bushes or shelter...
The next day was so incredibly hot we couldn't bring ourselves to do anything, but laze around in the camp... We tried to ride a bit believing that the wind would cool us off, but it was like riding in a hairdryer -- the 'breeze' was hot! So we gave up and went back to the camp. We asked around about the weather forecast, and heard it was just going to stay hot.
In the afternoon, we decided
Zak with 4 lovely Belegian gals
taking shelter from the storm, we partied all night. Anneleen Moonen, please get in touch! to try something. Zak said to close our eyes and visualize rain, and pray for rain, and see if we couldn't change the weather. He said it always seemed to work... he said visualize not just a few drops, but a storm. By 8.30, it was still hot, and we felt guilty for not at least trying to pay our dues as tourists, and headed for Blois, to visit the castle.
We managed to get to the hill top and catch a few minutes of a classical music concert in a church. Then we went on a short stroll and noticed this strange cloud in the sky, like a mushroom, with scales...
We went on to visit the castle grounds on the hilltop to catch the city lights, not actually going in, as it was closing time, and it was soon getting dark. Next thing you know, there was this huge black ominous cloud, and thunder and lightning. The mushroom cloud we saw had grown into something monstrous in 30 minutes. We decided to head home for the camp site.
On the way out of town we had to cross the main bridge, and we were gusted
with gale-force winds and pelted with icy rain, so hard that we couldn't drive. Our faces were hurting from the near-hail even when we were standing still! We had been dressed for the heat, and now it was freezing cold. We took shelter in a doorway for 30 min and then decided to head home to the camp, inching our way at 20kph, for the 4km journey.
When we got to the camp, we found our tent partially collapsed and flooded. Marion went in to sort things out, salvage what we could and get the water out of the tent, while Zak tried to peg the tent down by making new holes in the fly sheet. Thunder and lighting was striking closer and closer, and we were hit with bursts of gale force winds which must have been almost 200kph. As the sudden blasts of wind became more frequent, the tent started turning into a parachute. Marion was inside clinging to the poles and screaming, afraid for her life.
Zak who was outside, started praying. He was sure that God was now going to strike him down for all the bad things he'd ever done, like praying for
rain... 😱 Having been in war zones with bullets whizzing past his head, he didn't even think it was as scary as being in this freak storm -- there is no escape from nature.
Zak started the engine and turned on the lights -- to keep the engine from flooding and so we could see better -- and joined Marion in the tent, contemplating the next move... praying again, apologizing for asking for rain :-p A few minutes later... we noticed the tent getting brighter and brighter. Zak climbed out to find a van, rocking to the wind, and a park warden advising us to take shelter at the camp center. He had already done his rounds looking for any campers in trouble, and doubled back when he saw some lights by the riverside - we had been found, thanks to Red Baroness' sturdy beam. The warden explained that trees had been falling, knocked down by the storm, and we weren't safe where we were. Really? No kidding! :-) We threw a few things in the van and Marion went off in it, while Zak tried to peg down whatever he could, and remove anything valuable or vital... finally driving off to meet Marion at the shelter.
Well, the shelter turned out to be hosting a staff party, and we were given some food by the festive personnel. We were also joined by 4 Belgian girls, among others, who had also been rescued... we ended up partying hard all night, with these really fun-loving beauties!
Lessons Learned: ... guess we can't skimp on buying a modern tent either. We had been traveling with an ultra-light summer tent, old styled with 2 poles... probably ideal for the garden, but turns into a parachute in strong winds, rips apart, etc... much better to get a new-styled tent bell with a curved shape, one that can stand up to strong winds...
The next day we spent drying out our stuff, moving it in and out of the alternating sun and rain, dismantling the camp site, and doing a short trip to Chambourd, the biggest castle in the Loire district.
We had dinner together with the Belgian girls, and spent the night in the shelter again.
On the morning of 28/July, the 3rd day, we were finally dried out, ready to leave, and decided that we'd had enough. We were home sick. Zak, who hadn't had any proper rest, was now feeling the effects of CTS, plus tennis elbow and golf elbow...
We headed north, hoping to make it to Germany...
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