Peelies travels

We moved a little inland to try to get out of the coastal exposure and picked our way carefully through the lanes near Crackington. This one is amazingly flat. Others have gradients to 33%. It's a Land Rover so no worries. This site is nice and simple; they even allow small campfires. There's two toilets and a washroom with a shower. Hot water is supplied from a gas boiler hung on the side. This is about the only time that one end of the field could be seen from the other. The north Cornish coast was getting its share of 100% humidity literally falling out of the sky.  The owners had two young children, live in a touring caravan tucked away out of sight, use the toliet block as the family bathroom and home-school the kids. Then in the winter they wander to Morocco and other places. The were very interested to hear about our travels on the European mainland. The sky cleared for a few hours and we walked down to Crackington Haven and watched them lift the surf li...

Cornwall in late summer sounds great, so we went. The trip began on Sunday 8th September with a visit to old friends Mark and Jan, near Cheltenham. We covered a lot of ground in a 90 minute catch-up and it was great to see them. Then it was on to an overnight stop at Taunton, picked from park4night. This was a cider farm at Monkton Heathfield where caravans and motorhomes are dotted around an orchard inhabited by a multitude of peacocks. Using the experience of the Corsica trip we modified the accommodation to handle a double burner cooker fed with gas from a 907 cylinder. This has improved cooking no-end and will certainly be the way forward in anything other than heatwave conditions (Dawn is only bending down to be in the phtoto. There's plenty of headroom really).  By the time we arrived at Bideford, the weather had turned wet. Lunch was taken inside the Landy, this time with little headroom. Then we headed to the coast at Hartland. The lighthouse...

France Passion provided a super end to the trip in Champagne country, as we picked a small producer and spent a lovely evening and night in front of the farm. The France Passion book shows the location of the hosts and it's just a case of relating this to a more detailed map and perhaps more importantly, the reviews left by other visitors. In this case, the reviews mentioned a great spot and nice hosts at a small champagne producer, Champagne Lysiane Moncourant at Villevenard to the south of Epernay. It's just off the main road running north from Sézanne to Epernay. We turned up a hill and drove across the front of a big house, stopping in a turning space at the end of the road near farm implements and next to a nice lawned area. This was the overnight pitch. Room for one and that was us. It's a good job that our rudimentary French was as polished as it could be after almost six weeks, as the host spoke almost no English. We soon established that we had access to a...

One of the main reasons the campsite at Ligny had been chosen was because of the proximity of the river for paddling. What a great relief it was to have the cool water available during another record-breaking heatwave in France. It is such a contrast to the mountain waters of Corsica which were warmer, probably due to the huge rocks that absorb so much heat and then release it into the water. It seemed ironic that fast-flowing water there was significantly warmer than the slow, shallow waters of the Serein here. It was just as well that the water was cool, look who came to stay. The heat was correctly forecasted and Thursday's maximum was over 42 degrees measured with two different thermometers and the Landy interior temperature reached 48C, No wonder that the solar panel was working overtime to maintain the battery charge for the fridge. Two little grandsons therefore had to acclimatise very quickly and it was hard to increase their fluids intak...

Moving north to Saône-et-Loire, we spent a night at a 'Cool Camping' featured site, Camping Terre Ferme, at Le Petit Condal . This is a beautiful rustic site, developed and run by a Dutch couple, as many are across wider "Europe". (Charge Emplacement x1 Personnes x2  = €17) Here one can chill in the rural surroundings with hens pecking around and there's a constructed pond in which to swim or boat, although the latter isn't exactly challenging. It was a one night reconnaissance for Charlie who would visit a week or so later. The site passed with flying colours in spite of an evening music feature, which didn't begin until 21:30 and finished at 23:30. This was the local brass band giving a regular performance. The timing wqas a little curious considering the number of young kids staying! We continued our leisurely journey north, roughly following the Rhône river and driving mainly on D-roads, so it was scenic, sedate and with...