Hello .... We are back!!

Hello friends, sorry that it's been so long but the Wifi signals have been so poor that the photographs could not be downloaded to tell the story of our Autumn sojourn.
But we are back, with a rapid breakdown of the last four weeks, which have taken us from Kerver in Brittany, southeast towards the Loire, then on to Albi, bypassed Carcasonne ( went there two years ago ) and headed for the Canal du Midi and a village called Homps. Time for the sea, sun and sand, so St. Pierre on the Mediterranean, with distant views of the Pyrenees, was our next resting place. Then eastwards along the coast to Cap d'Agde, Palavas Les Flots and possibly the Camargue.
However, heavy rain, due to last several days, put a dampener on that. Oh sorry, poor pun. Just realised.
We decided to head north west, based on weather reports, in the direction of Bordeaux and the Gironde. On the way, we spent a night up a mountain, overlooking Lake Pareloup.We then enjoyed the delights of the Gorge du Lot and the Valley of the Dordogne before spending a night amongst the trees at Azerat. Eventually we came to a small river port between Blaye and Royan, called Mortagna sur Gironde, where we awaited the sun.It was not to be, so now we are in Nantes on a luxurious city campsite and tomorrow we are going sight seeing ..... possibly in the rain but certainly on a tram!!
As you can see,if you have followed us on a map,we have certainly explored central and western France, especially the roads which have taken us off the main tourist routes and motorways.
The warm sunshine has failed to appear for any length of time and Autumn is well and truly in the air.
We have used sites rather be than Aires so that we can have electricity to power our small heater and make hot meals in the Remoska. No BBQs for us. Outdoor living will have to wait until next year!!
The colours of autumn are all around us: maples have turned gold and orange, the white flowers of the Russian vine are clinging to the walls and out buildings of farms and the red and claret of Virginia creeper hangs from the gable ends of cottages. Recently ploughed fields are terra cotta brown and the bright green shoots of winter wheat add to the artist's pallet.
So here is a picture gallery of most of our trip,with the odd caption so that you know where we are.

The Cabin of the Red Fish,where we had snacks by the beach.

Got to have a sunset and this was a beauty.
                                     
                             

The amazing Rose City of Albi.

Better light shows the pink brickwork

The narrow Medieval streets, where I found an Apple Store for a new charger cable

The beach ravaged by Hurricane Henry, on the Atlantic Coast

Then later in the holiday, the Mediterranean , at St. Pierre, which was covered with logs and tree trunks as far as the eye could see.

Here we have Homps, on the Canal du Midi

On the day we arrived ther was a car boot sale taking place on the tow path by the marina

And here is Sue enjoying herself, routing amongst other people's cast offs, looking for a bargain

Look what she found for us, a couple of bike helmets!!

Later we went on a boat trip down the Canal du Midi, which winds  under tree lined towpaths that turn the environment green

A mirror image of a small aqueduct

Having left the warmth of the South, we found ourselves at Lake Pareloup with this view from the Aire where we stopped, not realising that we were almost 1000 metres high , so we're very cold in the night!!

A tree that had been given a woolly jumper.

A tree wearing it's woolly jumper in St. Gyldas de Rhuys, Kerver.

 

Sue in cycling mode on one of the many safe velo routes, on the way to the supermarket. 

         

A street market with fresh produce, cheeses, spices,wine and bread.

It's been a scorcher

Hello from us, sweltering in very un September weather. We really had to slap the sunscreen on today before we set off for a bike ride to St. Gildas along the coast.Plenty to see en route, with sandy coves, sail boats, beautiful houses, camper vans tucked into laybys, cyclists looking a tad more professional than us and a run down beach bar with very tasty food for a lunch stop!! And all this along a litter free, narrow lane next to the tourquoise blue of the Atlantic. This is a truely idyllic part of Brittany and only a short journey from Calais. The locals say that it has it's own micro climate.
Wifi is weak but we will try and download some pics later.

Calais to Kerver via Lisieux

As we departed Calais, we had a brief glimpse of the migrant problem, as these desperate people endeavoured to seek on opportunity to board a slow moving lorry on the approach roads to the port. The newly erected fences, topped with razor wire, glinted in the morning sun but failed to halt the individuals who managed to scale them, risking torn skin in an attempt to conceal themselves inside a waggon.
The stacked lorries were backed up for miles as we drove rapidly passed them  towards the A16 with the worrying prospect of three,very high bridges which we have to cross, getting ever closer!!Older age is doing nothing to improve my fear of heights so I baled out and asked Sat Nav Sue to take us off at J29 and select an alternative route to Abbeville.
We continued westwards for about 200 miles until we came to a small, attractive village in the countryside close to Lisieux, where we spent the night in the company of other Motorhomers.
We rose early to the sound of church bells, cockerels and children going to school, so having breakfasted, we set off towards Brittany and our final destination of Kerver, by the sea!!
The route was beautiful and the roads were uncongested, so we were able to take in the sites of newly ploughed fields, ripening sweet corn, wide rivers and forests beginning to take on the shades of Autumn.
Such joy to discover that the site was as beautiful as we remembered and to find that friends made last year were there to welcome us back.

 Joel in his scuba gear

                                 

Tonight's sunset

Veronique relaxing in the sunshine

French Tarts Abroad

Well here we are at Dover once again, with the obligatory photo of our tin tent. It's been a different one each time!!

Billie Burstner has given us a comfortable trip down from Stoke, plenty of miles per gallon and frequent coffee stops.

Look what happened as soon as we parked up, yes it wasn't long before the first bottle of  holiday wine was opened.

Early start in the morning so off to bed once our evening meal has sunk to our boots. There are several vans parked either side of us so safe and snug as the mist blows off the sea. No glorious sunset tonight. We can't even see the castle on the cliff top.

Quick update

Well the garage kept their promise and the van is back on the drive, with a new clutch and a  fully functioning water system which isn't contaminated with diesel.

Lockers are full of clothes, cupboards bulge with dry goods, the fridge resembles an advert for healthy living, beds are made and the garage has all the comforts for an outdoor lifestyle. That's a BBQ, somewhere to sit and read the Kindle and a place to rest the well filled glass of wine. 

In other words we are ready to go!!

Oh no loo rolls ......!!

Disaster Strikes !! Twice !!!!!!

Well here we are with only two weeks before our Autumn trip to France and there is no motorhome parked on the drive. Disaster has struck twice, before we have even had an opportunity to use Billy and all his amenities.
The first horror story occurred the very first day that we drove her home from the showroom.
Dealers are rarely generous and throw in a tank of fuel, so with fumes keeping us going, ,we drove to the nearest garage, where the forecourt attendant promptly put £40 of diesel straight into the fresh water tank.
Shock, horror and tears ! Fortunately the water had been drained down and the pump was not on, so the damage has been contained within the tank, submersible pump, and entry pipe. Almost fifteen hundred pounds worth of damage but a claim was made and settled. Result you might think but getting the spare parts, before we go away, may not happen, because the factory in Germany closes for a fortnight in August.
If they don't arrive, we will still go ahead with the holiday and do the watery things manually .... Like in the good old days.
Because we felt that we needed to see how we were going to cope with travelling like this, we went on a break to the Peak District. Up hill, down dale and disaster number two. The clutch began slipping quite badly. Oh no, not another problem?
A phone call to the dealer, Brownhills, and this week we took the van back, where it was assessed and initially we were told that nothing was wrong. But it's very flat around Newark I said, you won't be using the gears as you would in hilly countryside, so can I go out with the driver. It wasn't long before the acceleration was loud and there was no forward propulsion as he moved through the gears.
Thank goodness for a warranty. A new clutch has been ordered and the work is being done this week.

This is the water filler, on the side of the van, complete with picture and the word "wasser"

Sat by the van, having arrived at the site in the Peak District, and feeling a bit glum!!

Small but perfectly formed.

The travel van, when we saw her for the first time at Brownhills.

 Strong, retractable step and doorway into the dinette. Fly screen attached to the door to keep the mossies out!!

Fixed single beds with real mattresses 

 and short, but proper stairway.

A three burner hob and nice deep sink. There is even a 

built in windbreak to shield the flames because it's by the door.

Here we 

 the television seats and below, the dining

 room. Lots of light.

There is a further

 comfy seat so that we have space to entertain

Great shower room and a flushing toile

This is the garage which  runs the width of the van. So much storage space.

Won't be long before we are " on the road again "

Welcome Billy Burstner.

When you've made a mistake, 'fess up and do something about it.
So we did, and it's bye bye Smiler and hello Billy Burstner.
As panel vans go, Smiler served us well. Morocco, France and overland to Greece all in 11 months, but she was too small for us Senior ladies who like our comfort.
Making a bed morning and night, can you imagine the mayhem after too much vino!! Constantly  squeezing past one another, or being shouted at to sit down or go outside, so a job could be completed. A shower that was never used because the space was so small that the cold, wet shower curtain stuck to your skin. A huge sliding door that woke the world every time it was closed and a constant stoop so as not to clatter ones head when moving around the cab.
But ........ Smiler was cheaper to run than Delfin, more mpg and lower costs on the ferries, easier to park and she drove like a car, but we began to miss the extra inches that you get in a motorhome because it's more of a box on wheels, whereas a panel van is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top.
What to do? Find something longer than Smiler but shorter and lighter than Delfin. But if we limit ourselves to six and a half metres, what chance have we got of getting fixed single beds again?
Let the search begin.
Hours were spent scouring dealers websites, finding out which layouts were available, in which makes and models. We checked out weights and payloads, rear lounges and dinettes, storage, transverse beds and and even considered buying from abroad, when out of the blue, came the Burstner Travel Van t620.
It's a mini Delfin, everything we wanted in 6.50 metres. Ok so she's 2008 but there's only 15,000 miles on the clock, in mint condition and it has a garage!! For the uninitiated, that's a huge storage space that runs the width of the van, beneath the beds. It was love at first sight and even better, it was for sale at Brownhills, which is our favourite local dealer. Guess what, they were even prepared to keep her until we returned from Greece, because we were due to go the day after we found her.
Having done the exchange earlier this month,the van is on the drive and being made ready for our autumn trip to France in a little over four weeks. But we are off for a shake down jaunt to Buxton in the Peak District, with hook up, and then Malvern Show to use her just on leisure batteries and solar panel. Huh that's a laugh, as rainwater runs down the kitchen window and the skies are grey!
Finally, here are the three girls
Delfin took us to Scotland , then Morocco, also, France, Spain and Portugal, Italy and Greece.

 Then came Smiler. You can see how much smaller a panel van conversion is, compared with a coach built motorhome, which is why we thought that this was the future for us. Despite her drawbacks we still managed to put 11,450 miles on the clock in fifteen months!! We had plenty of adventures in her. Remember that frightening mountain pass in Morocco, when we were so high, that we shared the sky with planes!!

 Meet Billie Burstner, female Billie, she's perfect for us. For a start she's lighter and shorter than Delfin, so when I hit 70 ( aghh ) I won't have to go through medicals and a mountain of paperwork to carry on driving.Despite being older, there are fewer miles on the clock,than Smiler had when we sold her!!

 Here they are, side by side on swap over day. The MH is taller, a few inches wider and  sixty centimetres longer, but the benefits for our comfort are huge.

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In the next post, I'll take you inside for a look around

Last Day At Katelios

So after five weeks living on the beach, the ferry from Patras is looming large on the horizon.
We will set off for Poros in the morning, stock up on a few supplies and catch the evening ferry to Kilini, where we will sleep on the dockside before setting off for Patras and the voyage northwards up the Adriatic to Ancona.
Our last day has seen us enjoy a boat ride along the coast with Terry. The colours of the water have to be seen to be believed and you an see right down to the sea bed with ease. My highlight was being given the wheel and encouraged to open the throttle!!Anna back in the harbour and secured to to her mooring.

You will have seen Lola being held by Nicos in a previous blog. She calls each morning for a drink and a cuddle.

Adonis paid us a special visit and we were able to see him so clearly.

 Cannas are really coming into their own now and this barrel-full are at the side of us,as we sit having morning coffee at Kat Tav, one of our many wifi stops.

The jetty. It has been in ruins for months but as the busy tourist season approaches the local Greeks have still not repaired it!!  Roger and Melvyn to the rescue!! They fixed it with timber and breeze blocks so that the water taxi from Scala can dock. 

 Tonight we will share a farewell meal with Dave and Ellen as a Thankyou for letting us use their  washing machine and the many times that Dave has driven to and fro with our toilet cassette

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So all that remains is to buy a few momentous and have a farewell meal with Dave and Ellen tonight. Me thinks that there could be plenty of the wine on the table too!

The Back Road

Katelios, rather than being a thriving metropolis, is a sleepy, three road village, and today we would like to take you down the back road. As some of our pals are gardeners, then here are the colours of summer on Kephalonia.

 Oleanders grow like weeds

Rubber plants are putting on new growth

Wonderful shape to these pines.

Boats that were parked on the road three years ago are still there,although Makis says that this year they will be in the water.

An ancient fridge tucked beneath Palm leaves.

Charcoal waiting to be used in an oven.

Hibiscus are glorious and the figs are ripening!!

Old,dilapidated shacks remain on land now worth thousands of euros and ready for development.

 The glorious vibrant colours of Bougainville are just beginning to dazzle after a late Spring.

Plumbago , a small, delicate plant grows nearby.

The amazing Angels Trumpets are almost at the end of their season.

All roads eventually lead to a taverna and here is Sue studying the menu at Katelios Grill.

The result a tasty souvlaki and a gyros, washed down with half of Mythos.