Conquering Mount Seleve

Campsite: Still the same one in Neydens

The scenery is beautiful here and the plan today was to go for a cycle tour up Mount Seleve through the surrounding villages. Little did we know what we were in for!

It started out all innocently but then we hit the sign.... 11% gradient for the next 4km. For the record, 11% if you are cycling, is very steep. As in even-our-ebikes-were-struggling-steep.

But, we persevered and we did make it to the top! What a view of Geneva, the lake and countryside. Absolutely mindblowing.

A quick ice-cream later, we zoomed back down again and were back at the camspite ready to lounge some more :-)

Clearly we are a girls-team. Spot the bras and underwear

Pickup in Lyon (Neydens, France)

Campsite: Sites & Paysages La Colombiere

Today was the day! Anya arrived this morning in Lyon and she (as well as my cousin Lisa a bit later on) will be joining me on the road until we pick up Timm in Betlin in a weeks time.

Lyon airport does not seem to cater for vehicles higher than 2,4m and so
I had to park 2km away on the side of the road, PRAYING that no one would break in ;-)

Ani arrived, we loaded her up and off we went to our Campsite for the night located in Neydens. Only the next day did I realise HOW close Neydens is to Geneva - 15km!!

Anyways, we arrived, set up camp and then did sweet nothing except lounge around in the 34 degree heat and swim in the pool!

Home Admin

Stellplatz: Aire de Camping Car, St Georges-d'Esperance

I didn't travel far today - round about 60km as the goal was to do a bit of home admin i.e. do some washing and hopefully finally for the last bloody time never again find a recharge voucher for the Internet.

The night before I had located a Laundromat that (in theory) had easy parking close by so that it would be a simple drive there, park, do the washing. And yes, it was so!! Check out the space below with the laundry in the corner of the building :-)

The aim of the game was to not only wash our clothes but also wash the towels after beach use and give the bedlinen a wash. All worked perfectly but of course as my luck would have it, the washing machine with all the towels didn't drain at the end of the cycle so I had sopping wet towels (half way clean?) that now took forever to tumble dry.

Something that I'm really enjoying is the 17kg washing machines, no worries about overloading or having to do multiple loads. I think next time we replace our washing machine it's going to be an industrial one ;-)

Last dampness being removed from our Technical Clothing by hanging them into Felix.

Then off to find Internet. Again I had plotted two SFR Shops and was lucky in the first one! It took a bit of squeezing through narrow town roads and very skillful parking on my part but I did it!

Last stop was my my Stellplatz for the night which is 20km away from Lyon Airport ready to pick Anya up tomorrow morning!

Reorientation of Diane and the search for Internet

Just before Timm left, we decided to purchase the Truck and Campervan add-on for Diane which allows us to put in our dimensions etc and what a difference it has made (I know, I know, we are slow learners). Driving on my own has been a (relative) pleasure and only once did she try and send me down a one-way the wrong way round.

I have travelled another 80km further north direction Lyon where Anya will be joining me on Friday. Yipppieehh!!!

On the way I pulled over at shopping centres trying to find recharge vouchers for our mobile internet. No luck. It's quite astounding considering that every corner cafe in SA has vouchers available.

Stopped for lunch on the banks of the Rhone River

Picked a campsite (due to it's wi-fi availability) but noted that it also had "gastronomic delights".

Well, here they are! - Fish and Chips...

Bye Bye Timm (Viviers, France)

Well, today marks the end of our first segment. Timm is flying back to SA this afternoon for 10 days to see the kids and check in at work and will then meet me back in Berlin before we head up into Scandinavia to meet Father Christmas.

We have driven close to 8000km and only lost a side mirror (May we keep that record up). Talking of side mirror, that's what we did this morning - trying to find a dealership that can replace the lens & housing but no such luck.... Duct tape and glue will have to do in the interim!

Once I'd dropped Timm off, I hit the heavily tolled National Highway and headed inland where I found myself a spot to settle down for the evening. I was completed exhausted, my nerves still shot and frankly terrified of having to navigate, drive and do the toll roads all on my own!
But, big girl panties on, I made it!

Melina's Birthday

Wow, what a day!

It started off great with me getting my Birthday Present - a brand new Ipad Mini! How awesome was that? I think secretly Timm just doesn't want his wife knocked out cold when she falls asleep reading and the Ipad falls on her face.....

McDonalds Birthday Breakfast

Then the day just went downhill from there. TWICE, I kid you not, twice my side mirror got driven off despite my best efforts to pull over as far as I can. The french don't seem to have good judgement when it comes to width of vehicles & speed at which to pass. I was livid and to be quite honest, terrified.

Having lost my confidence Diane then proceeded to send us via narrow country lanes again. At which point I lost it and proceeded to utilise my response car driving skills - aka "Playing Chicken". You just drive down the middle of the lane, forcing the oncoming traffic to slow down (unless they want a head on collision) and when they have slowed down sufficiently you move back over and pass slowly....

By this time it was late afternoon and we pulled into the campsite, nerves shot to hell, hungry and tempers flaring.

So we got on our bikes and cycled back into the village to grab something to eat at a hotel that we had passed.

Well, we pulled in (slops, t-shirt's and dirty shorts) only to realise that we had walked into a Michelin-rated restaurant!! I think our audacity overwhelmed them because they didn't bat an eyelid and led us to a table. I do admit though I felt quite under dressed when people started arriving in smart evening wear.

To sum it up, we had an absolutely phenomenal evening (lasting a good three hours of tasting menu) only to cycle back 5km in the pitch black country side.

P.S. I am the luckiest person in the whole world to have a husband like I do :-) And I'm not saying this because he bought me an Ipad ;-)

Cruising the Coast direction Marseille

Ok, I know, this post is a bit late! Apologies

After having left Rennes-le-Chateau, we cruised down to the coast and slowly made our way direction Marseille for Timm's dropoff back to SA.

To be quite frank, the coast has not impressed me. The water is really cold (not much difference to CT), there are way too many people for my liking and generally people are a whole lot unfriendlier than in-land.

One Stellplatz was literally a huge fenced-in gravelled parking lot and that's it. No electricity points, dusty and busy but when you are going to spend your day at the beach what more do you need?

Felix got a wash though :-)

And the seafood was amazing - one of our campsite's seafood platter!!!

Renne Les Chateux

Stellplatz : Etange de Mateille

Well, we awoke at our Campsite in Quillan and set out to find Renne Les Chateax, a legendary place with a tale about a priest who found treasure under his church allowing him to rebuild it - or did he find something more that threatened the very foundation of the church and was paid handsomely not to reveal it?

Perhaps you can spot the problem, or the secret, depending on your point of view - look closely what is all wrong or all right about this picture?

It was good to make this journey...

Pause to reflect that we only have this day, enjoy it everyday as your last....

The Magdala a tribute to Mary Magdalene ...... But why?

Languedoc - place of the Cathars.... Who were they?

Enjoy your journey into these mysteries - Google awaits you and the wonder of this land and this life.

Chateau Montsegur (Quillan, France)

You Campsite: La Sapinette, Quillan
On our way into this area yesterday, we saw a sign regarding Chateau Montsegur, which looked really interesting so today was it.
Let me tell you, just wow. The Château de Montségur is a former fortress near Montségur and a site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars.  The ruins lie on top of a stone dome and it took us a good 45 minutes to hike up but the views were worth it!

Spot the Chateau at the top

Timm ready to go

Pretty Felix

Halfway Up

The Ruins

The View!

We even encountered two Knights!

The landscape in the Pyrenees is just breathtaking

Bearing in mind that we are driving in the middle of the Road, the guy who did the road markings had some serious humour!

Alpine Adventures (Gudas, France)

Campsite: Millefleurs

While it's technically not the Alps, we had some serious navigational adventure's in the Pyrenees today. More about those in my post about Meet Diane.

However aside from that, my husband turned into a Frenchman today!

And we got to see a lovely village called Saint-Lary-Soulan. This village is right in the middle of the Pyrenees and seems to be a hiking-mountain-biking-canyoning-skiing mecca as it was bustling with all kinds of folks.

From there on the plan was to head over a pass into the neighbouring villages but alas, Felix was too wide so we had to take the long way round :-(

Missing My Students

Meet Diane

Diane is our GPS. She is named after the female voice. The other option was Adam.

Diane is probably responsible for 97% of the heated conversations that take place in Felix and 100% of the navigational adventures. The move that she pulled off today trumps all other moves she has pulled so far and goes something like this:

Diane: Please turn right onto the D109

Timm and Mel: Thank god, only 4km to go after a long day

100m further, the road narrows to a single track going straight up (think alpine road)

Mel: this looks dodgy

Timm: Yip, but this is the only road

Diane: please continue 2km and turn left

The road has now become very steep, very windy and there is NO chance for any car to pass us, the only option is to continue up and pray that there is a turnaround point at the top, bearing in mind that Felix is 2.35m wide, 7,40m long and 2,80m high and close to 3,8tonnes heavy

As we ascend this pyrenean mountain, the road becomes narrower, the drop offs to the side steeper and no bloody barriers on the side whatsoever. We are now convinced that we are going wrong but the campsites GPS coordinates (and funnily enough the signs) all point to the fact that we are allegedly driving in the right direction. 

Once the peak is reached, Diane proudly announces: now turn left. The only problem? Left is a hiking trail. And yes, the campsite signs also points to the hiking trail.

How on god-mother-f*****-earth can this campsite cater for motorhome's and then lead down a hiking trail??? So over the ridge we go, now heading down the other side following Diane's direction to the closest town only to reach a dead end. With virtually no turnaround point. 

A 28-point turnaround later, we are now headed back down the mountain road we came up on, Timm has aged 20 years and I am trying to keep things together until I can have my meltdown safely back in the valley....

So back to Diane. She has two traits:

1. The more backroady route she can take you the better, regardless of your settings (fastest route, shortest route, hell- fly the route) - it all does not matter to her. If she has the option of taking you down a main road or a single track country lane, she'd much prefer the country lane

2.  If you disagree with her and override her by ignoring her recommendations, she will sulk and stops talking to you. Easy as that. 

So poor Timm is not travelling with only one female, he is actually travelling with two... And as my dad so candidly pointed out the other night: it is our own fault for having a female do the navigation.