Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: Here We Are Again…

Well, it’s been exactly two months since we last shared our adventures with you, so we hope you will join us on our European adventures for the next three months.

We are camped in a lovely campsite at Bidart, just next to Biarritz. Our spot looks over the wild Atlantic. And it is wild. Wind and rain battered Molly Aswell last night and it’s been blowing a gale this morning. Fine weather for washing, as long as it doesn’t rain!

Since our last post we have enjoyed wonderful hospitality from friends and family as we travelled around the UK before setting off again to Australia to visit Holly and Emily for three weeks.

We were greeted on our return to Gatwick in March with the drama of Nine-Fingered Pat and One-Armed Dick. I’ll leave the details to your imagination, dear reader – suffice to say Chancery is now involved. This was after a very nice man from Customs and Excise put some cocaine in my bag as we waited at the baggage carousel!

Anyway, after a few days staying with Richard and Pat, we went to Scarborough, where we proceeded to go our separate ways for a week – Andy to National Student Drama Festival and Gillie to her friend Linda’s so that she could visit her relatives. That was the first time in 18 months we had been separated for more than a couple of hours. Kinda weird.

From thence we went on a whistle-stop tour of the UK making best use of our trusty Giffers’ Railcards and stayed with Chris and Maggie in Denby Dale – a welcome reunion with the quiz team and curry at the Palace Tandoori; then onto Marple for a couple of relaxing nights with Mick and Viv; in Fleet we were kindly hosted by Rob and Lynette, then Sandy and Nigel. Finally (for the moment) onto Hampton and staying with Sally and John, where we enjoyed a lovely six-hour lunch (!) with our hosts and Swedish friends and had a bit of a jam session – Andy on ukulele and Hans on guitar. We’re visiting Hans and Eva in Sweden in July, so hopefully an opportunity for more practice – we need it!

Our next stop, via an eternity in Beijing airport, was Sydney. It was great to see Holly and Emily again and we spent some lovely time with them both. One of the highlights was our two-day trip to Uluru – a birthday treat for the girls, but a surprise for Emily. It definitely doesn’t disappoint. We saw a beautiful sunrise at Uluru (Ayres Rock) and wandered through the Kata Tjuta National Park (Olgas), then went out for a sunset camel ride that was great fun and hilarious to boot! Truly bucket shop moments.

On our return to Sydney we spent 10 days house sitting for Kerry and David – whose house and dogs we had previously looked after when we were last in Sydney. It was lovely to see them all and I’m sure we’ll meet up again in the future. A sad farewell to the girls in Bondi, but heartened by the fact that we’ll see them both in the UK hopefully later this year.

There were no traumas awaiting us when we arrived at Heathrow (after another interminable wait at Beijing airport), so we spent the next few days looking for a new Molly, which we found eventually in Broadstairs, after much searching and some little concern. She’s quite a lot smaller than Molly Too (thankfully), but comfortable and clean – now. Our sojourn in Sheppey also marked Andy’s first public performance on the ukulele – at a jam session in The Heritage – the island’s first micro pub - where he was hopefully drowned out by Rhys and James on guitar and Ruth’s great singing.

We spent some time sorting Molly out and kitting her up, then set off for France last Sunday (8^th) via Dover-Calais ferry in beautiful sunshine. This stayed for our first drive and camp at a place called Etaples near Le Touquet in Normandy.

The next day was a mixture of showers and showers, so we moved on to Honfleur and spent a lovely couple of days exploring the ancient town and its environs and dodging the, er, showers. Leaving Honfleur, we discovered that Molly needed a lot of warning if we were going to ask her to go up steep hills after tight bends, so learnt quickly how to reverse down a hill with cars on one side and buildings, very close, on the other, plus cars wanting to ascend and descend the hill!

A decent drive to Rennes and some running repairs to Molly’s electrics, then a long slog down to St Jean d’Angely in the Poitou-Charente, in the rain. We found our first free camp in a lovely spot by the river, in the company of about 15 other campervans.

The next day was a bit of a trip down memory lane for us, as we set off for St Savinien and found – to our great surprise – the holiday cottages we owned there! It looks as though there’s a major refurbishment going on and the cottages looked a bit sad and unloved. Still, we saw them!

Another long slog brought us eventually to where we are now, very near Biarritz. It’s not actually raining at the moment, but it is very blustery and grey. We tried to put the washing on the line, but too much rain in the air, so sadly have given in to the lure of the tumble drier (sad face).

A word about the WC situation here in France. Without being indelicate, what is it with the French disdain for the humble loo seat?! None of the campsites and public loos have seats. Indeed some newer loos don’t even have the holes for fixing a seat to! What’s all that about?!

The next post will probably be from Portugal, where we hope it’s going to be warmer. Bye for now.

Actually, It’s been so difficult finding wifi and Gillie has been so slack writing her share of the post, that we are now in Portugal – having cut through Spain via Vitoria-Gasteiz and Salamanca. It’s Wednesday, so it must be Obidos!

Enough already.

PS Sorry about the delay, I just don’t know where the time goes (does this sound like a song??) also the wifi has been very iffy… We reached Portugal yesterday after a wettish drive through France, followed by a mountainous, beautiful drive through northern Spain and then into Portugal. On our way we stayed in Biarritz and decided it was a lovely place. The weather wasn’t too helpful while we were there, but we definitely got a feel for it and briefly became two of the ‘beautiful people’! [aren’t we always? – ed.]

The one thing that has struck us is how lush and green everything is. May is such a gorgeous month in the UK but we hadn’t realized how amazing it is in Europe. The trees are full of fresh green leaves and the wild flowers are out of this world. We’ve been driving past fields full of the reddest poppies you could imagine, just stunning! We’re camping at the moment in the middle of nowhere, in a pretty site owned, since December, by a lovely German couple. (It’s 10 euros a night and surrounded by (!) flowers). We’re actually near the ancient town of Obidos which we were going to visit today, but have decided to visit tomorrow, as a 4km bike ride seemed like too much effort on a glorious Wednesday afternoon…also did I mention the flowers?? We’re still getting used to Molly Aswell and her little ways. She’s really cute and compact, which means she’s much smaller than Molly Too, (also much easier to drive) so we have to use the space available, wisely. As well as being joined at the hip, we’re now joined at ankle and shoulder and – no I won’t go on! As the weather warms up and we head further south, we’ll have the luxury of our awning to add to our living space… so much to look forward to!! On that note it’s bye for now, next stop Lisbon.

Much love Gillie xxx