Belgium, the UK and Stage 1 Summary

Belgium

Day 1 – 19/7/12

The rain continued as we drove into Belgium. Our primary purpose in travelling here was to meet David & Julia, who we had met in CAR and travelled with for a couple of days. www.driveagainstmalaria.org. We got to their home just outside Antwerp in the early afternoon. We chatted, had a few beers etc for the remainder of the day.

Avril driving; 142 km; 4 hrs; N 49⁰ 52’ 55.2’’ E 004⁰ 46’ 32.1’’

Day 2 – 20/7/12

Julia prepared a big brunch and we spent most of the day chatting. We went for a drive to look at a local chateau (and have a beer) and in the evening celebrated Julia’s birthday with some of their friends at a local restaurant.

Day 3 – 21/7/12

After another delicious brunch, Dave drove us into Antwerp to have a look at the old city. There is a nice pedestrian area along the river and near the cathedral. We stopped at a well- known restaurant/bar for a beer (has lots of religious and other statues inside) – and were treated quite poorly. We heard a number of people complaining about the service - we ordered food which was not delivered. We had experienced poor service at the restaurant the night before, so it may be an Antwerp thing to be off hand with tourists.  Still, the main thing was the company and the beer was cold. Eventually we went to a Thai restaurant (run by Hong Kong folks) for a great feed and decent service.

Day 4 – 22/7/12

We drove to Bruges and spent a wonderful day with Olivier and Chantal friends from work times. We began with some snacks at their home and a visit to Olivier’s amazing scooter collection. We then drove to the centre of Bruges and were treated to the local delicacy of mussels – delicious! And the service was 1^st class. We then walked around the historic centre of Bruges and ended with a beer/pancake (you can guess who had what).

Day 5 – 23/7/12

After a sad farewell to Dave & Julia (and we will hold them to their promise to visit us in Oz) we drove to Dunkirk to get the ferry to the UK.

Belgium Summary

We enjoyed visiting friends and relaxing in Belgium.
 

UK

23/7/12
We arrived safely at Steve & Ing’s in north London.
Ray driving; 356 km; 8 hrs (including ferry crossing); N 52⁰ 36’ 54.8’’ W 000⁰ 25’ 09.0’’

 London turned on a fantastic event with the Olympics. Our son was working here when the Olympic tickets went on sale - we applied for lots and were lucky enough to get lots. Also, we bought extra tickets from the official internet site, thanks Marie.

We attended a number of sessions at the London 2012 Olympics. The Brits absolutely earned Gold for their performance. The main venue was outstanding and the individual stadiums great. The transport system has held up well with the record number of passengers – oh that Melbourne could have such service even at normal times.

The most impressive aspect was the people running the event and the Londoners everywhere. They were all super friendly and helpful. The event management was amazing, even with full airport security; we never had to wait more than a couple of minutes to get into grounds. In general this was run by the military, who always had a bit of a joke etc – unlike the airport security.

10/10 to the Brits.

 After the Olympics we took the opportunity to visit some “old” friends. Unfortunately, time did not permit us to see everyone we wanted to see. We did have a wonderful time at Kate and Jason’s wedding! The good news is that we will be back to the UK again.

We also set about preparing for the return trip to Africa. We had the vehicle serviced at Overland Cruisers, a specialist Overland and Landcruiser garage in Herefordshire. The good news was that generally the vehicle is in good nick. They confirmed that the repair done in Morocco is OK and fixed up all the little items we had let go for a few months.

We stocked up the vehicle with dry food. However, we think we will not need as many provisions on the north and east sides of Africa.

Stage One Summary

Apologies to those who have seen this before.

With our arrival in London, stage one of our African odyssey is now over.

Vital statistics include:

·         More than 51,000 km

·         30 countries. We had initially intended to try and visit every country in Africa, but this took an early hit. We decided it was too hard to get visas for Equatorial Guinea, there was nothing really to see there and apparently the authorities are not all that welcoming to Overlanders. We gave Nigeria a miss as we wanted to drive around Lake Chad. Also, there were security issues there. There was a coup in Guinea Bissau just before we were due to go there and they shut the borders.
·         We left Australia on the 14^th August 2011 and went via Singapore to RSA. We arrived in London on 23^rd July 2012.

The trip has been totally awesome. We would prefer not to pick highlights etc, but if forced to, it would be the people – the friendships, interest in our trip, helping hands and generosity have been stunning.

·         This started with our wonderful relations in Cape Town and Pretoria

·         Continued with our friends Steve & Ing in Namibia.

·         Koos & Jose were total professionals and wonderful leaders of the trip in Angola. Our fellow travelers there were tremendous and we hope to visit them when we return to RSA. Many thanks to the police and officials in Angola, who despite their reputation, proved super helpful. Giving us a visa extension in 3 hrs (and rejecting our offer of money for all the effort), the police at the Congo border who assisted us in getting our carnet stamped.

·         M. Michael the great and generous mechanic in DRC/Kinshasa. Bruno Baert, who provided us advice prior to arrival and a backstop when we had our accident and Mary at the Protestant mission, a real friend.

·         In ROC, the folks at African Safaris & Christelle at Odzala NP. Tomo Nishihara for helping with advice and directions. Thomas and the staff at NNNP –seeing the gorillas is a once in a lifetime experience.  Peter & his group were great travelling companions in NNNP. It was the 1^st time in a while we had someone other than each other to talk to – so, hopefully their ears recovered.

·         We met the wonderful/fantastic Didier in Gabon and he assisted with advice for the rest of our trip. Thanks to David and the folks at BHPB. Thanks also to the Director of the Mayumba NP who sorted out the mess and got us into the NP where we saw the leatherback turtles nesting - way up there in the wildlife highlights of the trip. Along the way, the Catholic mission in Mouila for letting us stay and the charming young students there. Also to the people who stopped what they were doing in many towns to show us the way.

·         In Cameroon the WWF folks (Mark & Bridgette) helped with fellowship and advice. Big thanks to all the people in Nth Cameroon who assisted with flat tyres, bits falling off the vehicle and repairs. Big thanks to Fr Patrick who welcomed us into his home in Batouri and Yaoundé and to Sr Susan and Sr Frieda for food, beer and fellowship.  And of course our kids who made a huge effort to come all the way from Oz for Christmas and New Year.

·         Tim and Anne and the crew at the Swedish Baptist Mission (no Swedes and no Baptists!) in CAR who looked after us royally. In CAR we met David and Julia from ‘driveagainstmalaria’, truly inspirational people. We stayed with them for a few days in Belgium.

·         Chad was one of the biggest surprises of the trip and we can thoroughly recommend a trip to Eneddi Deserti and the fantastic Zakouma NP. Many thanks to Lorna at Zakouma for guiding us to Chad and settling our fears and to Jean and the staff for looking after us whilst there. Do yourself a favor and go to Zakouma!! Big thanks to the Tunisian civil engineers who towed us into Mongo and the Catholic mission. Denis made sure we had a comfortable bed and looked after us in N’djamena and provided us with advice along the way. Many thanks.  All along the way CFAO (responsible for Toyota in most of west Africa) assisted. In N’djamena Pierre was super helpful. He looked after our vehicle whilst we went to Ennedi , the mechanics took delight in servicing the vehicle etc. They also put us in contact with folks in Niger (including the Col responsible for security).

·         In Niger it was fantastic to be welcomed by Tim & Barbie, who also provided us with contacts and advice along the way. And to the Col in the Niger army (whose details went with Rays phone issues!) who contacted us almost daily to ensure we were OK.

·         All the people of Burkina Faso, a really cheerful lot. In particular the customs official who sorted out our carnet after we were stopped at the border..

·         Our visit to Mali was constrained due to the security situation in the north. There was a military coup ~ the week after we left.

·         In Benin, the policeman we paid our one and only bribe to. What a charming fellow who also paid to have a taxi take us to our accommodation. The policeman in Cotonau who stopped directing traffic to take us to the French embassy. The Ivory Coast consulate staff who seemed to fill in the forms for us and may have had to bend some rules to get us a quick visa. 

·         In Togo, the Islamic teacher, who, through a communication mess up, took us all the way to the Ghana border (turned out he was going nowhere near there!!).

·         In Ghana the police who gave Avril bananas at the border. Thanks to Sunil, Hannah and Kate for including us in their travel plans. So nice to see friends. Great to meet some more overlanders: Luke & Shelly and Jan & Marisca.

·         In Ivory Coast, again Didier. In Yamoussoukro, Charles from the UN who went out of his way to sort out a communication mess with the Catholic mission and find us alternative accommodation

·         Liberia, many thanks to the folks at the BHPB compound in Monrovia. Great luxury for a few days and wonderful to meet such friendly people.

·         We were not long in Sierra Leone, but it was relaxing to chat in English to the volunteers camping at the beach where we stayed. It restores your faith in the future to see the younger folks out trying to help.

·         Guinea was a lot easier than we were led to believe. It has a lot of green on the Michelin map

·         In Senegal we were welcomed by Pierre, Didier’s best mate. Patrice and Picky welcomed us into their home for 3 days of relaxation.

·         In Gambia the chap from the Malik, who worked to get us some a/c accommodation for the night.  Jen & Laura from the Horse and Donkey refuge. Wow, all that heat and no fridge! Thanks for the bed.

·         The officials (once you left the south) of Mauritania. They were always helpful and did not insist on silly registration etc. General people in the street who went out of their way to show us where things were.

·         In Morocco, well it is really very similar to Europe. Thanks to Ali, who stopped to give us his business card and then repaired our vehicle.

·         Spain – well you know our thoughts!

·         France, people everywhere. Thanks to Pierre and Coco for treating us like kings/queens!  Also Nicolas for showing us Champagne.

 Of course the biggest thanks go to The Home Office who look after all the annoying paper work and administrative drudgery.
And of course to Peter M - without his efforts, most of this would have been much more difficult.

 
Route

We are reasonably happy with the route and timing we took. We seemed to have seen most of the highlights etc. We were a bit worried about the wet season as we went north and maybe rushed a bit from Ghana to Senegal.

We maybe should have left RSA/southern Africa a week or so earlier and missed all the wet season in the Congos. In hindsight, we spent way too long in southern Cameroon. It would have been better for the kids to join us in Chad rather than Cameroon (which from a tourist perspective was disappointing).  We would have had a better time with the kids and had more time further north.

It seems from the issues other travelers have had, south to north is easier from an officialdom perspective than north to south.

The big issue is the lack of reliable information – guide books are generally hopelessly out of date. Worse still are the maps: German Reise know-how paper maps, Michelin maps, other French Maps etc. All these maps are basically useless. On GPS we have T4A and Garmap (Garmin RSA affiliate), generally these have been OK. When confronted with a conflict between T4A and Garmap, we tend to believe T4A.

Bribery.

We did not start out with any plan not to pay bribes, rather to resist to a sensible point. By our standards we paid one bribe to a policeman in Benin (we were 100% in the wrong, it was late in the day and we did not want the hassle of messing around for a few hours). The experience was so nice; we would do it again – for Avril, just to gaze upon the handsome officer!

Ray had money grabbed from his hand by the police in DRC – but this does not count. We had to pay the officer who took our statements after the crash $ 20, but apparently this is standard practice. Note: all requests for a bribe start at $ 250 in DRC!

We did give the immigration police in Togo a can of coke to rush us through.

Normally we would plead ignorance, make them repeat the request e.g. we could not hear, speak French etc at which point the request normally fades. Entering Burkina Faso from Mali we sat for 3 hours refusing to pay a charge until the manager gave way - but, only because they annoyed us.

Best examples: the look on the Cameroon officer’s face when he said he needed money for food and Ray took him some bread. But even better, in Senegal, Ray was in the passenger seat talking on the phone. The police officer stopped us and came to the window and with full indignation said “ you were talking on the phone”. Ray said” yeah, but look where the steering wheel is”! Absolute devastation on the officers face. He then tried to say Avril was speeding, but somehow Ray found a 35 km/hr number on the GPS. We all knew it was wrong, but what could he say?? BTW, she was speeding!!

 Health

We were fortunate to only have one incident of “food poisoning” during our trip (from a freshly killed goat left out in the sun all day in Chad). This maybe because we were taking doxycycline for malaria for much of the trip and being an anti-biotic, a side benefit was that it killed other nasties.

The water filters held up well and we were fastidious about drinking water. We also were fortunate to be able to shower most days. We were probably less fussy about hand washing during the day, but survived anyway.

Ray did get some vertigo for a while, but hopefully this has cleared up again.

Accommodation

The nightly stops are recorded in our blog. We were probably a bit more cautious than most other overlanders who prefer to “wild camp”. Mostly we found places with facilities to shower – from a brothel (?) in Angola to luxury camping in Marrakech.  However, we did wild camp quite often and enjoyed the experience

 Personal Security:

We tried to avoid places where white tourists are targeted, but to use common sense and up to date information. Probably DRC was our worst experience.

We did not go to:

·         Nigeria; others have driven through the north of Nigeria and had no issues

·         Nth Niger. You can go to Agadez but need a full escort to go to the Air Mountains. We saw no need to see another desert town but would have loved to have seen the mountains, however we had tyre issues at this time plus the $$ of course. Next time.

·         the road out of Niger to Gao (we drove 60% of the way up it),

·         Nth Mali including Timbuktu;

·         Guinea Bissau and

·         Sth Senegal.

 Theft
We had 2 towels stolen when we left them out to dry in Angola.
Our camera was stolen by a game ranger who we had allowed to ride in the cab in CAR
A collapsible shovel and wheel brace was stolen in the market in N’Djamena
Don’t mention Spain.

So, not too much. Only the camera with the pictures of Dzanga Bai hurts. Maybe this was because we had good systems in place and were careful, or maybe because most folks are fundamentally honest.

There were a number of occasions when there was opportunity and nothing went missing and on at least one occasion, a stolen item was returned.

 

Vehicle
The vehicle has held up reasonably well. Though, we were disappointed when the rear axle housing cracked.

·         Suspension: the old man emu suspension has held up very well, particularly with the extra stress placed on them with the failure of the Firestone air bags. The Firestone airbags installed by OppositeLock at Mile End in Adelaide failed very early in the trip. We think this contributed massively to the ongoing brakes and tyre issues we have had. In Morocco we had to have some serious work done to fix cracks in the rear axle housing.

·         Tyres have been an ongoing hassle. Our original BFGoodrich 4x4, LT tyres failed after a short time in Angola. From then on we could not buy new tyres and the 2^nd hand car tyres were not really to the task (they do not have the wall strength necessary to support our heavy vehicle). The Dunlop tyres held up very well, until the steel was showing through the rubber.

·         Brakes; we have used 4 sets of rear brake pads. Maybe due to the weight, using brakes originally designed for 3 tonnes to stop 4 tonnes.

·         ARB Diff Lockers; both front and rear. Actually, we hardly used these. Maybe it is our driving technique, but even when both the front & back are locked, the power still goes to the end of least resistance and so you still get some wheel spin.

·         Diff and gear box breather extensions seemed to have worked well

·         The vehicle winch. Peter is correct, we have not used it in anger

·         Vehicle electrics: Ctek D250S battery isolator and charger. 2^nd (Optima) battery. Hella driving lights. No issues with any of these.

·         Kenwood GPS and general entertainment system, a big disappointment. It is very temperamental and often disconnects the iPod.

·         Rear parking sensors do not like the mist and wet and so give a false reading under these conditions

·         Reversing camera works well. It has suffered from a loose connection from time to time.

·         Tyredog tyre monitoring system worked well until recently. One of the sensors started to massively under read the pressure. Tyredog has said they will send a replacement & new batteries. Thanks very much. .

·         Bonnet & head light protectors and side window windshields all well worth while. They have a few chips, but have protected the lights.

·         Internal roof console is good, but we installed way too many 12 V cigarette lighter points. 2 would have been plenty.

·         Seat covers are essential but are now very dirty

·         Window tinting we should have been darker. 

·          150 litre long-range fuel tank is really not needed. The standard 90 + 90 would be plenty and we met some folks who did most of this trip with just 90 l and no jerry cans. The trick is to ask around to find the people who have fuel. Often it is not obvious. The installation of the 150 l tank may have been faulty and caused the many fuel leaks we had. The mechanics in Guinea where we had the final (we hope) leak said that the return line was pinched. This may have caused back pressure and hence the leak

·         The fridge in the front cabin is a real winner. However, it seems to work best when there are some frozen items in it. Fortunately, we have a freezer in the other fridge.

·         ARB roof rack is great

·         Custom steel tray and compartment has held up very well. It protected us in the DRC crash and when we slipped in the mud in Gabon, so that is great. However, it is probably massively heavy and has contributed to the tyre and suspension issues. The theft issue has not been as big as we imagined. We could probably cut out a few 100 kgs by reducing this aspect. The caches that hold the under tray draw were a weak point and have all failed. We did a modification on this in Morocco.

·         Honda generator has been used in anger for the accommodation (when we had earthing issues after the DRC crash) but has not been needed for the vehicle,

·         The water treatment system worked well. We needed to replace the coarse 1 ɥ filter a couple of times and the carbon/silver filter once. We also replaced the Seagull filter in London.

·          4 x underslung tool boxes, we lost one on the DRC crash. The 2 permanently wired ARB compressors in one of the tool boxes have been OK, but this may not be the best configuration. The diff lockers squirt oil into the compartment when engaged and this gives an oily environment.   

·         Trayon camping unit has overall been good. We have been fortunate that the weather has only forced us to spend time in the unit on 2 or 3 occasions. We spend most of the time outside.

Accommodation: Ctek M300 battery charger, 1,000 W inverter, marine quality circuit breaker panel, 120 amp hr deep cycle battery have worked well. The only issue was the earthing connection after the DRC crash.

The additional hold down points we installed have been successful. The unit has not moved substantially on the tray.

We have not really used the accommodation unit sound system (iPod, radio, speakers etc)

Secure compartment with safe has worked

The canvas has not held up all that well and remains very hard to pin down when it is wet

The water storage system is not user friendly at all. The inlet is way too small and hard to put a hose in. The outlet is plastic and the design means it needs to be bent every time it is used and so it fails.

The chemical toilet has yet to be commissioned!

·         Solar panels, unfortunately, we seemed to have purchased panels that need direct sunlight to perform well. We should have researched this a bit better before we started. 

France part 3

Day 12 – 6/7/12

We wandered through the region which we discovered includes some of the Dordogne Valley. Our trip took us through more wonderful scenery and villages. The villages included, Carrenac, Loubressac, Autoire, Capdenac and Cardaillac which are graded in the top 150 villages in France. We walked around Figerac, which at > 2,000 people is not considered a village. It was interesting to see all the businesses shut at 12:00, on the dot. Clearly live-style is more important than money! We also went via Chateau de Castelnau-Bretenoux, apparently the best fortified castle in southern France.

The weather was overcast, but we only had one brief and heavy down-pour in the mid- afternoon.

We camped near Rocamadour at La Roc. Low price at € 14/night. 3 stars, but on the road and a bit stark.

Ray driving; 162 km; N 44⁰ 29’ 11.9’’ E 001⁰ 39’ 16.2’’

Day 13 – 7/7/12

With ideal weather, in the morning we visited Rocamadour, which apparently gets more visitors than just about anywhere else in France. The setting is spectacular and it was a nice place for our brunch. Brunch was at 10:30, at that time only one place in town was offering food (and only breakfast, nothing more substantial) and a lot of the shops had not yet opened. We parked at the top of the bluff and walked down to the bottom village and then back up to the chateaux at the top; on our feet, not knees – according to the history books, the pilgrims did/do it on their knees – an incredible feat.

We then drove via Souillac to Salat; the Foie gras capital of the universe. Oh yeah! We had afternoon tea in a square near the town hall (yep, foie gras for one and crepes for the other).

We then drove to Beynac-et-Cazenac, another medieval village with spectacular setting on a bluff.

We camped close to Domme at Le Perptuum, 3 star (€ 21/night). The holidays had officially started, so the campground was the busiest we have found on our trip thus far.

At some point in the day we passed from the Lot region to the Dordogne. Ray reckons his blood specific gravity must be above 1.00. Given the amount of rich food and animal products he has consumed since entering France, his blood must now have a high percentage of lard.  

Avril driving; 93 km; N 44⁰ 48’ 51.9’’ E 001⁰ 13’ 10.7’’

Day 14 – 8/7/12

Another day wandering and visiting beautiful villages. We passed by Domme, La Roque gageac and Beynac et-Cazenac all of which seem to be in the top 150 villages, assuming we have read the notices correctly. We visited the exotic church at Perigueux with its almost Asiatic/eastern spires. The town itself was pretty dead as it was Sunday afternoon. Apparently Sundays remain very special for the French.  We camped near Brantome at the Camping Brantome (€ 20/night). The campground was close to the town and we walked into town and managed to see a bit of Wimbledon, before the rain. The town was massively crowded as there was a “trash and treasure” market. Looked like 100% trash – but we may have been wrong.

Ray driving; 288 km; N 44⁰ 21’ 36.3’’ E 001⁰ 39’ 46.4’’

Day 15 – 9/7/12

An early start to the day and a reasonably long drive to Cheverny in the Loire valley. Soon after starting our drive we noticed a chateau/castle in a stunning elevated position. It was not marked and we did not stop. In any other place this would have been at least a minor attraction. But, such is the wealth of history and beauty here, that it did not even rate a road sign. Very spoilt we are.

We are camped at Les Saules just outside the village. A very nice park with wonderful owners/managers.

Avril driving; 300 km; 6 hrs; N 47⁰ 28’ 36.7’’ E 001⁰ 27’ 02.1’’

Day 16 – 10/7/12

An exciting day for us. We took the bus into Blois to meet our niece who had travelled overnight from the French Alps to spend a few days with us.

After meeting Elena at the railway station we collected a hire car (we only have 2 seats in our vehicle) and drove back to the camp.

We spent the afternoon in Orleans, wandering around the older part of town and the Cathedral. We did manage to fit in a bit of eating and a couple of drinks.

Day 17 – 11/7/12

After a lazy morning of chatting with Elena and catching up with all the family news from Aus, we visited Chambord, the largest chateaux in the Loire Valley. Apparently this is a “must see” in the chateaux itinerary. It is certainly large and well-presented however the gardens have yet to be restored.

Day 18 – 12/7/12

A “Chateaux” day. We set off early and made good time to Amboise. This is a former castle and set on a dramatic setting high above the river. We then visited Leonardo Di Vinci’s (smallish) chateaux which was within walking distance of Amboise. They had an interesting exhibition of some of LDVs inventions and a magnificent garden with life-size models of some of his inventions. We then drove to Chenonceau, a big favourite with most folks. It is well presented in wonderful formal gardens and the chateau rooms were all decorated in period style and furnished appropriately.

The weather has not been so good, very overcast and occasional showers. So, it is a good time for inside tourism.

Day 19 – 13/7/12

A bad weather day – it rained all day and most of the night. Ray and Elena returned the vehicle to Blois and after a walk around the town and some breakfast they attempted to get back to the campground by bus. But, understanding the local timetable was challenging. Even the local folks had trouble, so we did not feel too bad. However, eventually we worked out that the busses were not all that frequent, so grabbed a taxi back to the campground.

Our original plan had been to walk to the nearby Cheverny chateaux, however the rain prevented outside activity. So, Ray and Elena watched some films on the computer (in the comfort of the 5-star accommodation unit!) whilst Avril did some emailing.

The campsite became water-logged and in places started to flood – around Elena’s tent and at the bottom of our stairs. So, Ray carried out some emergency drainage works and managed to get rid of the worst of the water.

Day 20 – 14/7/12

After saying good-bye to Elena and packing up wet and muddy kit, for later cleaning and drying, we headed off to La Chapelle-sur-Loire to visit Pierre and Coco, who we had met in Botswana some years ago (Nov 2008 to be exact).

It was wonderful to catch up and we spent most of the day talking, eating and drinking. Still, it was still a bit damp, so being inside was a good outcome.

Avril driving; 210 km; 4 hrs; N 47⁰ 14’ 49.7’’ E 000⁰ 12’ 39.7’’

Day 21 – 15/7/12

A lazy start to the day. We walked along the Loire River into the  nearby village and had a beer. Then we went back to Coco & Pierre’s home for a BBQ. They made a special effort for Rays birthday (the next day) with a delicious wine tart and one very large candle (no space for 58 candles!). More food & drink, chatting and then we looked at some of our photos and some of their photos (much better than ours - Ray is scheming to look for a new camera!).

Day 22 – 16/7/12

We visited the Usse chateaux - also known as the Sleeping Beauty castle. It was very attractive with nice gardens and lived up to the name. A welcome addition was all the notices/explanations being in English. In the afternoon we visited the Fontevaud Abbey. This was a real surprise, very impressive and well worth the visit.

In the evening Pierre & Coco took us to a very special restaurant for a wonderful meal – to celebrate Ray’s birthday.

Day 23 – 17/7/12

A very big thanks to Pierre & Coco who were the perfect hosts and treated us like royalty. We were very spoilt and hope to reciprocate when they visit us in Aus in 2014.

We drove to a campsite near Verzy in the heart of the Champagne producing area. We decided to take the long way round and miss driving through the center of Paris - Orleans, Troyes, then to just south of Reims. A long day, but it gave us a sense of the vast scale of French agriculture.

As we drove through Verzy, searching for a caravan park and a supermarket and looking obviously lost, we were approached by a very nice man, Nicolas. He had seen us driving about and thought he could assist. He gave us directions to the campground and the nearest supermarket. He also volunteered to show us around a vineyard and cellar - so nice. Got to love the French nation.

We camped at the municipal camping ground, Val de Vesle near the river. The land on the hills, near the village, being too valuable for grape production to waste on camping.

Ray driving; 410 km; 7 hrs; N 49⁰ 10’ 00.00’’ E 004⁰ 12’ 51.7’’

Day 24 – 18/7/12

We met Nicolas at his winery for a tour of his in-laws’ facilities (production and cellars) and an enlightening description of the district, production techniques etc. We then sat down to taste a bottle of the “good stuff”. It turned out that Nicolas was a 4x4 and Toyota buff. He has a camping Toyota, rock crawler, old Celica etc, which we looked at in his garage. He also runs tours of the local region (and has had a lot of Aussies recently). http://champagne-henriet-bazin-eng.blogspot.fr to see us and contact@oenovasion.com to contact Nicolas. We are not experts, but his champagne seemed great to us!!

We then drove into Reims to have a look at the cathedral (where almost all the kings of France were crowned) and the old town.

On Nicolas’s advice, we travelled through the Ardennes region along the Meuse River – green on the Michelin map. It was a pleasant drive with some great views across mountain villages.

We camped at Camping des Rapids de Phades near Montherme, which had a nice grassed area and clean, but old facilities. €11/night.

Avril driving; 288 km; 6 hrs; N 49⁰ 52’ 55.2’’ E 004⁰ 46’ 32.1’’

Day 25 – 19/7/12

We continued our drive along the Meuse River, through interesting and touristic villages and towns and into Belgium.

France Summary

Of course, we loved France. The scenery is stunning, the villages and towns gorgeous, the food delicious (we have both put on some serious weight!) and the people are really wonderful. They are super helpful & friendly. We can absolutely recommend France for a holiday, we will be back.

Areas for improvement: more viewing/parking areas on roads where you can stop to admire the scenery. Pick up the dog poo! It is not nice to leave it for others to step in.

France, Part 2

Day 4 – 28/6/12
We drove via the secondary roads into France and camped in Biarritz at; Camping Biarritz, which is very nice and clean.
There were a whole lot of Aussies camped there.
Avril driving; 288 km; 6 hrs; N 43⁰ 24’ 45.3’’ W 001⁰ 34’ 04.4’’

Day 5 – 29/6/12

After a lazy start to the day, we drove to Bordeaux. We managed to get onto the no toll road, which turned out to be a 4 lane highway. We did some chores in the afternoon. The most surreal part of the day: singing along to the Jamaica song in French, you know the one “my heart is down, my head is turning around, I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town” (Kurt: from your grand dad’s time).
Camped at the Village de Lac (€ 22/night, including power), on a transport route out of the city and with newish & clean facilities.
Avril driving; 203 km; 3 hrs; N 44⁰ 53’ 47.2’’ W 000⁰ 35’ 04.4’’

Day 6 – 30/6/12

Fortunately we picked the wine fete time to visit Bordeaux – by chance not by planning! The fete is spread out along the river with wine and food stands. Very similar to the Norwood street festival. The Bordeaux fete is to promote local produce, so there was not the range or diversity in eating – but what we had (foie gras sandwich, steak etc) was nice. We are not great connoisseurs of wine, so cannot comment on the quality. It seemed to be mainly a Cabernet Sauvignon – Merlot blend. Though you needed to ask to get the grape variety. From our perspective, based on what we tasted, we probably prefer the Australian drop.

At the start of the day we bought a book of vouchers (entrance is free) which allows a number of tastings. Now, it has to be said that 50% of our team did not do so well in using the vouchers, however out of pure selflessness, the other 50%, “took one for the team” and made sure that, by the end of the night, all the vouchers had been used. It can be said that the 50% who failed to achieve KPIs (under achieved) in the voucher section over achieved in the dessert section. Not sure if this compensates???

For some reason there seemed to be a lot of Kiwi’s here – both at the camp ground and at the fete. Not that we are complaining!

As per the guide book, the Tourist Information office in the city is super helpful. The public transport worked well. So with the reasonable weather, we had a great day. Probably the Norwood festival has more stands and a greater diversity. Plus, with the music (there was very little music at the fete) and general atmosphere, there is a lot more energy in Norwood. It is probably a bit more of a party.

When we got back to the camp ground, at 22:00, there were a large number of tents pitched very close to, around us and our power had been unplugged – not so friendly. The night started off poorly with some local chaps playing beach volley ball near us and screaming at each point. Ray went over and requested a bit of quiet and they stopped yelling.

Then the very large camp group arrived back at ~ 23:30. We could see any chance of a good night’s sleep going out the window. Ray went and had a bit of a chat to the security man and the response was, this is France, this is Bordeaux i.e. too bad, it is only one night, suck it up. At ~ 01:30 we thought, nah, this is enough. So, Ray went over to ask for some quiet. In hindsight, probably not the most intelligent thing to do as this was a very large group and when he got there a few of them were clearly very drunk. So a couple of the drunk ones decided that violence was probably the best way to stop any debate and got up to carry out their plan. A few of the younger chaps, obviously the more intelligent ones, thought that violence was probably not a good plan and intervened – but there was a bit of pushing.  Avril, decided that the situation demanded use of our self -protection devices (bought in RSA, but not used to this point) and set off the noise horn. So, with things looking like they may get a bit out of hand, Ray went back to the security man and asked for the police. The cops came quite quickly and the situation was diffused – the party ended and we (after the adrenalin had left our systems) went to sleep at 2am. The group then decided that 07:00 was a good time to wake and get on the road. Wonderful!

Interestingly, the French folks said they were not French, rather Roma/travellers/gypsies. We have been told a few times along the way that the theft etc is by these folks, not locals. Not sure if this is an urban myth or has some basis in fact.

Day 7– 1/7/12

After a chat to camp management (who sympathised and compensated us) we set off on the famous Medoc wine route. We knew Sunday was not the best time, but the guide book showed a number of cellars would be open. We are not sure when the guide book was written, but on this Sunday, NO cellars were open. The under achieving 50% thought that was a good  thing, as the over achiever may benefit from some time without wine – despite all the health surveys showing how good it is for you. The drive was very nice and we saw a number of storybook Chateaux’s. Still, being a bit “small town”, we thought that McLaren Vale, the Barossa and the Clare Valley can hold their own when compared to Bordeaux. Plus, it was a pity they did not have the tastings and picnic lunch platters etc you can get in Oz. They seem to be missing a trick here.

With the lack of tastings, our drive was shorter than expected, so we ended up going a bit further and camping at a typical European summer, near the beach, camp: La Palace at Soulac de Mer. After pitching camp, the neighbours (Germans) came over to say g’day and asked us over for drinks.

Ray driving; 133 km; 5 hrs; N 45⁰ 29’ 51.8’’ W 001⁰ 07’ 51.0’’

Day 8– 2/7/12

We drove through the west side of the Medoc part of the Bordeaux region. This area is probably not as picturesque as the “Medoc” route. We then drove to the Entre Deux Mers appelation (tell me you are not impressed with the knowledge! Thanks for the map, Will). We finally managed to find a winery/chateau that was open, Chateau Le France. They gave us a great personal tour and tasting. We bought  some very drinkable Clairet. We then drove to the Saint-Emilion appelation.

The perceptive reader will have noticed we are covering less distance and not doing all that much in the day. This is because we have seamlessly, without any clear decision, slipped into the European way of late nights – up to midnight and then a late start to the day. In Africa we tended to be in bed by 21:00 – 22:00 and up early.

We stayed at Camping Yello! which is apparently a chain of campgrounds. It has very good facilities and very nice staff. € 22/day including power.

Avril driving; 167 km; 4 hrs; N 44⁰ 55’ 06.3’’ W 000⁰ 08’ 32.8’’

Day 9– 3/7/12

We went for a stroll into the UNESCO World Heritage listed village of St Emilion. The weather was ideal and the walk, around 30 min each way enjoyable.
St Emilion has a couple of mildly interesting old buildings, but the town seems to exist for food and wine, which is not bad thing. After walking around town for a bit we had morning tea/coffee.  We then walked around town a bit more and had a very nice lunch in the town square. Then we walked back to the camp ground.

Day 10 – 4/7/12

There was a storm in the morning, whist we were sleeping, but the sun was shining when we left the campground. Then there were a couple of showers during the day. So, we were not sure whether this meant the 1^st serious rains since Gabon, but we supposed so. The bad news was that the canvas is wet and so it was very tough to get the press studs in place. The canvas shrinks > 35 mm, so lots of muscle is needed. Two people are needed to stretch the canvas and get it in place.

Following the recommendation of Denis (Chad), we began a tour of the Lot valley. Our route took us through Bergerac (produce shopping at the market around the Cathedral & lunch), Monbazillac (stunning views across the valley), Real (medieval town), Biron (massive Chateau complex),  Monpazier (very gorgeous) and on to Cahors. Along the road were rolling fields with wheat ready to harvest, vineyards (with farmers hard at work) and lots of corn ( just growing) and occasional forest.

The villages we stopped at were just a sample of the villages along the route. There were a number of other very nice villages that we only had time to drive through. The French seem to be very proud gardeners and the floral displays in private gardens and public areas add to the pleasing vistas.

We camped at Camping de la Riviere
Ray driving; 197 km; 7 hrs; N 44⁰ 27’ 49.5’’ E 001⁰ 26’ 31.2’’

Day 11– 5/7/12

We spent the morning and early afternoon walking around Cahors, which is set in a horseshoe bend of the Lot River. Its medieval character and wonderfully preserved buildings plus the “secret gardens” made the walk pleasurable. Oh, and of course coffee/morning tea and lunch.

We then drove along the Lot valley (green on the Michelin map). We tried to visit the caves at Cabrerets with their pre-historic paintings (25,000 years old, not as old as Oz, but still old!) but their carparks were overflowing and so it was not possible.

We then drove to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, a must-see on Denis’s list. And, he is 100% correct. The village is perched on a high bluff on the Lot river and makes a stunning spectacle. The town, mainly 13^th & 14^th century has been faithfully restored and is a nice walk along the river from our campground. We got back to the camp site just before the rain came and had to eat in the accommodation unit, one of the very few times we have needed to do this.
We are camped at Le Plage. € 17/night.
Avril driving; 75 km; N 44⁰ 28’ 13.2’’ E 001⁰ 40’ 51.3’’