Hitting the surf

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 lifeguard cabin onto a low loader to take it away for the winter. The walk back along the cliffs in sunshine showed the coast again in all its beauty
.

Heading to Polzeath, with (borrowed) wetsuits and boots and gloves (because we are old and feel the cold), we chose the site with a view. Wow, what a pitch. The weather was beautiful, the cheapest (😱) turn-up pitches were vacant and we were stocked with Crackington cider.

We felt cool. There were plenty VW T5s and 6s but no-one else in a Land Rover 110 with an elevating roof. "Pop-Top" doesn't do it justice! We got the wetsuits out, the music on and started to mix with the surroundings. It was bliss after the wet of the first few days.

Eventually the moment came. We would have to get the wetsuits on and then walk down to the beach and try not to look like a couple of "oldies". Getting the 'suits on is a job only for the experienced. No-one was watching the ordeal thankfully and eventually we were off, skipping across the grass with our bodyboards and only slowing down when we hit the gravel. Ouch!

It was great! The surf was up and powerful enough to pick-up the boards and we had some great rides down the front of the waves. It really is a great sensation when you are moving quickly enough and the wave is powerful enough to pick you up, not leave you behind, and you really do fall down the front and are powered on and on. There were so many people there that steering was important as you were washed onto the beach. Brilliant!

We had two or three sessions over a couple of days. The water was warm and we didn't need the gloves or boots. Plenty in the water were older than us. What a great place. It's no wonder that @MarkandJan still come here every year.

We moved on down the coast and went to Bedruthan Steps, between Padstow and Newquay. The timing was perfect as the tide was well out and the steps and beaches were accessible. There are many warnings about getting cut-off and it is clear that the beach nearer the steps is lower than other parts. So the tide is already "in" whilst further parts of the beaches are still exposed.

The steps down are very steep. In September it was busy. Goodness knows what the summer is like.

We walked north across all the accessible sand and then were attracted by a cliff scramble that we could just pick out that would allow for a nice circular walk back along the top. So we did what some would do and many would not. Scrambled up, didn't look back and got to the top. Phew!

This is tempting project, especially as a guy next door said it was for sale. Well everything is 'for sale' of course. It would be a fantastic "restoration" although in this case, less would be most definitely more.

Late summer in Cornwall

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 is in a stunning location, only accessible on a farm road (£2 toll) and a very short walk. To get to the farm road though, one has to navigate the Devon lanes and this is hard as they are narrow, deep and steep.

Plus all sorts of traffic came towards us,  all centred on construction activity at the lighthouse. Apparently the massive refurbishment going on there (£Millions) is due to the recent purchase by a member of the Sachi family. Who it is we don't know exactly but lots of money is being spent.

We camped at a site with the biggest fields and the most space you have ever seen, at Stoke Barton. There's a link here. The views are fantastic and the coastline is stupendous.

Dinners are getting more ambitious too...

Stoke Barton Farm is owned by Hartland Abbey (or at least they share a landlord) and filming of Mallory Towers was just starting at the abbey. The entire film crew were about to establish their forward base at our campsite and overnight, massive lorries negotiated the Devon lanes, into the campsite. There, all the equipment was decanted into smaller vehicles and taken to the abbey, whilst make-up and actor rest areas were created in some other big trucks.

Meanwhile the beautiful weather gave way to a heavy sea fret and everything turned drippy wet and the wind got up. This has taught us to park facing the wind, as to do otherwise means that the "bedroom" tent fabric flaps around and keeps you awake.

Back through Champagne country

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 toilet and washbasin and we were asked if we wanted to sample the champagne.

We arranged to go and say hello a little later and got the kettle on and enjoyed what would be our last late afternoon in the sun. The weather was about to break and now we were approaching the "the North" it would be unlikely a quick route back to sun and heat.

Later our host picked us up and led us to the patio area, giving us a champagne brochure to study. We had already said that we weren't experts and wouldn't want to buy more than a bottle or two but she was perfectly happy with this. She suggested that we try the "normal stuff" and produced a bottle from ice. We drank with her and later her husband, talking about producing champagne, France, England and life generally. It was a lovely evening and there was absolutely no pressure to buy, although two bottles seemed the correct amount and was all we had room for anyway.

Overnight the lightening started and we could see some flashes from our elevated position. Later the rain came and was heavy enough to give the roof a good test. We are still not totally confident in wind and rain as we haven't experienced enough challenging weather with the new set-up but there were no problems and inside all was dry the next morning.

It was a damp start and in a very small space care is needed to ensure that wet stuff stays in the right place and nothing gets too damp. We headed for the Channel Tunnel as we had made a booking a few days earlier. The final night would be somewhere near Boulogne but with no campsite booked we took pot luck at the sites on the coast and stayed at Les Ajoncs at Audresselles. This is a Camping Municipal, catering for a huge turnover of visitors with barrier entry and exit. We were unable to pitch at the top with a view, due to the gale that was blowing and instead were in a small tent field away from the rest. Most people were in bigger camper vans and touring caravans with many arranged as permanent pitches for the summer.

A young guy pitched a tent near us. Really close. It was a bit weird as the field was quite big. He looked as though he'd just jumped on the bike somewhere down the road but said he was on a trip from Normandy to Amsterdam. It was all a bit strange.

Moules Frites seemed to be the ideal meal for the last night and we walked from the windy clifftop campsite into town and searched for a restaurant that had a free table. Dinner was very nice.

One of the best bits of "The Tunnel" is that they will let you onto an earlier train if there is space. So the process is very quick and the next morning we were up, off, under and onto the M20 in just a few hours.

The route to the M1 uses the Dartford Crossing and as on the outward trip, we made a mental note to pay the charge when we got home. However, in the pile of post waiting for us was an aggressive penalty notice from Dart Charge which claimed that we hadn't paid the fee for the outward trip six weeks earlier. As we hadn't taken advantage of the discount for early payment, we would need to fork out £73. This had already been increased to £105 as twenty eight days had elapsed since the notice had been issued.

It would have been useful if they had sent the notice to the email address I'd used to make payment as well as to the registered address for the vehicle.

We had paid of course, on the day we used it and had the on-line receipt to prove this, so I made what I assumed would be a simple telephone call to sort things out. Matters got complicated as I was told that I had received a generic penalty notice and in fact my misdemeanour was that I had paid the incorrect amount, £2.50 instead of £3.00. The penalty was to recover the 50 pence. Hmmm.

At the time of that call I hadn't checked their website and assumed that somehow we were classed as C when in fact we should be B. This would mean that they had picked up the Land Rover as a van rather than a station wagon (with windows and seats) or even a small camper. I was told that I would need to make a representation on-line and submit evidence that would include my vehicle's V5. So I did this and was told that they had fifty six days to reply. This was far longer than I had been given to pay the reduced fee!

Then I checked the website as I still needed to pay the charge for the return and had already decided not to argue and pay £3.00. However the Dart Charge website asks for the registration number and then pulls the correct class from the DVLA record and in our case it was correctly shown as Class B, £2.50. So why had I been sent the notice on the outgoing crossing if their system requested Class B?

Another phone call to Dart Charge was followed by several more. Each time I spoke to a call handler I was given a different story. Some said it was a mistake and another refused to do anything "as you have already made a representation".

It was very frustrating and impossible to understand what had gone wrong. I had gone on line, declared I'd used the crossing, stated my vehicle reg and paid the fee requested. Later, their system must have checked the cameras to identify the vehicles that had actually crossed, checked these against the online payments and presumably filtered out those who hadn't paid as well as others who's vehicle photo didn't match that that they expected (from the ANPR system).

I presume that they didn't believe that the vehicle identified in their photo, matched the registration. It must have been assumed that I was driving a different one with cloned plates. They didn't say this. They wouldn't talk about it. I just had to wait.

After several weeks I received an apology and "no further action will be taken". There was no explanation except that they had "made an error". I had no more energy left with which to complain.

Phew what a scorcher!

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 intake even though they clearly felt the heat. 

The river came to the rescue several times and building little dams is really good fun. The river is teeming with fish. There are hundreds and hundreds, ranging from tiny ones less than a centimetre long to some that looked like small trout. The feel of swimming through weeds takes some getting used to but it was worth it for the sheer joy of totally cooling off.

As the daytime temperature increased, the evening temperature held-up and so by mid-week it was still 28C well after dark. This is unusual on a countryside campsite, probably less so in a city. By Thursday, the day when records would be broken in the UK and various other European countries, not only was it  >40C but there was a significant breeze. At these temperatures each time it blew it was as if an oven door was opened. Phew!

There was a little time for sightseeing during this week although doing anything energetic was difficult. In Auxerre we looked in the huge cathedral and it was fantastic to hear the organ being played, although it wasn't conventional organ music but then it isn't a conventional organ.

I used Shazam in an attempt to identify what was playing. Normally in situations such as this it wouldn't work but rather surprisingly, I got a "match" back and it was this (clicky)...

I'm still not sure if it is what the organist was playing but I doubt it was The Physics House Band. They are an English group sitting in a highly specialised musical corner "creating avant-garde compositions that capture everything from jazz to prog to psych to doom metal". It's not too bad.

Moving north

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 occasional surprises. Coffee stops are usually taken on a side road and it is an interesting gamble to just turn down one and see what opportunity turns-up.

This morning we took a right, drove into a little village, past the school and ended-up right next to the river and some spectacular houses. Typically there are no signs, they aren't tourist spots and just seem to be 'normal'.

There are warning signs about the strength of the river and not to venture into it. With it flowing in typical Rhône style no-one in their right mind would do so. However a small information board had some old ("Victorian") photos showing that in those times it was a main thoroughfare, although then not affected by upstream barrages which do swiftly change the water level.

Arriving in the north of Burgundy, we established ourselves for what would be a week, at the municipal campsite at Ligny-le-Châtel, next door to the town of Chablis and close to Auxèrre. This is in the Yonne department and as we would soon discover, in a heatwave, the Yonne is known to be a hotspot.

First stop on Sunday morning was a large market at Chablis. This is mainly produce but with some crafts too. There's plenty of opportunity to sample the processed foods, such as cheeses, olive oil and meats plus in-season fruit and veg such as cherries, apricots, melons, nectarines and so on.

At the first cheese counter, we hovered enough for the seller to call us in closer and in a flash he had shaved a couple of samples of Tomme and offered them. The conversation in French was something like,

"That's nice"

and we were offered another to taste

"yes that's even better"

"Do you want some?"

"Yes we will"

"How much - like this?"

"No, a bit less"

So a small portion was cut and wrapped and popped onto the scales.

"€15"

"How much? No sorry that's too expensive"

"This is the price"

"Yes but what are you charging per kilo?, where's the label?"

A previously unseen label was then provided and at €60 /Kg it was too expensive (at least x3) as it was normal cheese from the Pyrénées. So we refused and he was cross and we were cross with him and with ourselves, as we should have checked but didn't and 'he saw us coming'. Anyway our French is good enough to be as polite as possible but not good enough to understand what he was saying to us when we said no and we moved on...

We were much more comfortable buying fruit and veg and we did so willingly as the cherry samples were perfect, as were the apricots and cantaloupe melons and the olives and so the bag got full.

Next we went to another local village, Joulges, where it was the monthly local area Vide Grenier which literally translates as 'empty attic' and is a table sale. This was the biggest we have ever seen and what was nice about it is that the tables were set-up along the side of the roads in a small village, in front of all the  houses. Cars are banned and Joulges was one big pedestrian zone for the day.

What made this different to the UK weekly Sunday 'car boots' is that there appears to be a just a few over the summer, hosted in turn by each village in the area. There's a huge range of goods on sale and in true French style, simple food is provided, cooked by volunteers and served in a central village location and it was amazingly well supported. The local sapeurs-pompiers were in charge of the bbq and tables were set-up up under big gazebos to facilitate a huge number of people, all sitting down to eat. Yes that was a big difference, in France it's normal to sit down with a knife and fork whereas in the UK it seems to be normal to walk around eating with fingers.

So to the campsite at Ligny. This is a municipal site (click) , so it is owned and operated by the town, with a Guardian appointed to run it. The man in charge here is Nicolas and he is on the job 24/7 from April to September, living in a small cabin house at the entrance. He is totally dedicated to his work and as a result the site is marvellous. It costs €10 per night for the two of us, there's a small terrace bar run by Nicolas too (to boost his income) and a lovely little river, Le Serein running alongside.

We settled down here in order to meet Charlie and family but for the first night we shared some cherries with a couple of kids from the next camper van and chatted with 'bikers from Holland.

People travel around in all sorts of vehicles and in their case it was a couple of retro-bikes and a bike trailer. I think these are Yamaha, a Blackstar and a Whitestar but I can't find any details. I do know that they are 1,600cc and 1,100cc respectively and turn heads as they blast into life!