# Travel Email from 2004 - summer is here!



## 88870 (May 10, 2005)

Hello all.

Now the warmer weather is arriving I am getting seriously itchy feet again. We have not left the country since 2004 so we aim to do something about that this year! 

Anyway, I was clearing out my outlook when I found an email I sent to update everyone on our travels towards the end of 2004 - and I've not sent one since as I've been slacking. I thought I'd post it here for fun - although much of it may not be of interest to you as it is really aimed at friends and family.

When I write part II - two years on, I'll tailor it a little better. :lol:

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Hi Friends, Romans, slackers, workaholics, parents, surfers and general all round good people.

We thought that it was about time that we wrote and updated you all on what we have been up to since we got EGOR DA VAN in July.










Some of you will already know bits, others will know it all coz you're nosy! But bear with us for the sake of those who haven't a clue! Bless!

July and August 04

Saw the van in July, collected it in August. Spent days .. cough … weeks loading it up, unloading it, unloading it some more, emptying a few more cupboards, unloading some more and finally it would move .. they give weight limits for a reason you know. Sorry the shed is still full Mam&Dad, don't have a car boot, we will empty it at crimbo!!

September

We started out intending to have a small tour round Devon and Cornwall for maybe 3 or 4 weeks. Unfortunately, pictures are in short supply of this time as we crashed on the first night - 6 Sept - (we had only been in Devon an hour or so) - ooops!

Actually, when we say that we crashed, we mean that a little old lady driving her husband's mobility car came over to our side of the road and ran her rear end down our skirt. She then blamed us ….. naturally! If you look at the picture, you can see us parked on the side of the road in the distance and the cars/vans on her side of the road that she was overtaking when she was on our side of the road. It could have been much worse - she missed the gas bottles by a couple of inches.










(Snippet from Leigh 8O ) The funniest thing (not at the time but its quite amusing now) happened after the crash. When we parked the van, we were parked on a slight slope. After speaking to the old lady, her passengers, several coppers, the odd passer by, a couple of residents and any stray animals in the vicinity, we then went back to the van intent on finding somewhere to park up and sleep for the night. Unfortunately, whilst climbing in to the van - via the driver's seat as the caravan door was wedged shut on bent hinges from the crash - Phil somehow managed to kneel on the handbrake.

No dramas you'd think, but unfortunately he had his butt on the steering wheel at the time.

The passenger door was still locked as I was waiting for him to open it so you can imagine my surprise when the van started rolling off down the hill. There I was running down the middle of the road (as the van is a left hand drive) trying to keep pace with him in full view of the traffic cops. Phil didn't realise that the van was rolling even though my head was bobbing up and down outside the passenger window. It wasn't until he passed a shocked pedestrian on path who had walked past the van shortly before that he realised his rear end was driving the van. My flip-flops took a bashing that night, I can tell you.

Anyway, that pretty much put paid to our Devon/Cornwall visit. We kind of lost heart at that point and even more so when we took a wrong turn the next day and ended up in Ilfracoombe town centre …. not great in a 7 metre van in narrow streets in rush hour. After visiting the insurance approved repair centre (its only 50 miles away, honest! - NOT!) we found out that the replacement parts for the van had to be ordered from Italy and would take weeks. We did manage a quick turn to Newquay - it would have been rude not to, but even that didn't make up for the damage.

(Another snippet from Leigh) During this period, we also managed to pull up to what we thought was a camp area down a long thin track. Phil was merrily talking away on his phone whilst I got out to speak to the campers. He didn't notice my panic stricken look and thin sheen of sweat on my forehead as I was greeted by a 17 stone Irish traveller woman - we had arrived at the local gypsy site! I made a sharp exit back to the van and beckoned for him to drive away swiftly before the kids nicked the wheels from under us and vanished - so intent was he on his call that he just sat there for another few minutes. My arse was tense I tell you!

_(NB: The above does sound a little racial stereotypical reading it back, and we have since met many travellers - lovely people some of them, salt of the earth. Unfortunately, there is also the element - as in any society - who would have the coat off your back before you've said hello - and I can honestly say that I was kacking it when we pulled up to the site in error!!)_

The weather was getting crapper and crapper due to the fact that it was …. well, always crap at that time of year. So we headed home to Peterborough.

October & November to date

At this point we were kind of bored of waiting to be fixed and the original estimated time span was getting longer and longer so we thought sod this, we may as well be warm and waiting and jumped on the Chunnel on 15 October for a quick run to the sun. We are due to come back on 20 December, so all donations of long johns, scarves and Ready Brek will be gratefully received. We would recommend the Chunnel to anyone, it's a blink and you miss it way of crossing the channel, and its seasickness free - not good for claustrophobics though.

The first experience of driving in France was a little traumatic. We made it to a free camp spot on Calais seafront, more by luck than judgement. Anyone who knows us knows that Phil always drives in straight lines and doesn't like turning off roads. He also likes enough G force to iron out his wrinkles. (He once drove from Scotland to London because he forgot to turn off to Peterborough!) This makes navigating interesting.

L Do a right there.
P Where?
L Here.
P Where, there?
L Yes, that turning that is rapidly fading in the rear view mirror. Don't worry we'll turn round.
P Where?
L There, reverse in
L Err, you'll need to slow first
L Don't worry we'll get the next one

…… 5km and numerous turning opportunities later …..

L Ahh, a roundabout, go right round and back the way we came.
P This exit?
L No
P This exit?
L No
P This exit?
L No, the next one
P Oops, round again.
L I have absolutely no idea where we are now
P But you're navigating
L And you are allegedly driving.

…. Grumpy silence ensues!

We left Calais the next day coz it was cold and swiftly headed south, not stopping except to sleep till we got to Jo and Tim's - friends who moved to France for the Good Life. (Hi Jo, Hi Tim) And flipping heck, did they move to France. We are not talking city, suburbs or even off the beaten track here, we are talking rural. They have goats, Sasha and Gruffy aka Des aka Paul Daniels who really does not like being photographed (see rude gesture in photo), chickens, ducks, geese, dogs and cats. Oh, and hornets … fab. The house is idyllic, down some narrow French country back lanes to get there (van width country lanes). But I am pleased to report to all that know them, they are both really healthy, loving the life and Jo even speaks French … yes you do Jo!










Life is so relaxed there that Phil even found time to wash the van.










We spent 4 days at Jo and Tim's then headed off in search of that elusive sun again.

Next stop Leucate, SE France for 10 days. What can we say about Leucate. FAB, FAB, HOT, BEACH, MORE FAB.

We parked at the Leucate Plage Aire which was free and right on the beach. And when we say on the beach we mean … out of the van and onto the sand. See the view from our window at sunup - err, well 8am ish. We had to get up for the bread van delivery so it wasn't a sight we saw every day!

(Photo missing - will try and locate it!)

There we met Rosi and Mani the Germans! We got on really well and promptly set up the German/English camp. Perfect sun spot! In the photo, we are the left van, they are on the right with the dog kennel, err trailer.










Rosi spoke good English, which was great as our German consists of a couple of numbers, introducing ourselves, and 'please put the toilet paper in the bin' (thanks for that one Andy - we did try it and Rosi looked suitably gob smacked - although I think I may have sounded kind of Gestapo-ish). Mani spoke better Greek than English but he did mime everything extremely well - he was the speedo king as you can see by the photo. He had the legs of a supermodel and danced like John Travolta … I kid you not. They both won disco titles in their teens and twenties!










They were travelling with Broncho, their Alsatian and Rico the parrot. It was very entertaining watching a parrot tell a dog what to do and a dog obeying. It was Rosi's 50th birthday whilst we were there and we had a champagne breakfast (AT 8AM so ya boo sucks to those of you who say I can't function before 10am - actually, the Champers was the breakfast <grin>), a fab dinner (even Phil ate the German food - shocking I know) and some impromptu dancing lessons that night after we were slightly tipsy. See below for Rosi and Mani showing us how its done.










We launched the kayaks from the beach a couple of times and even got the body boards wet. The first time I launched Phil - literally, through the air - he went one way, the kayak went the other. Unfortunately there were waves and I was in rolled up jeans. I was soaked to the waist as the waves kept throwing him back to the beach but we persevered and he was in - I however was not!

The next time the waves were gone, it was hot and we went for a relaxing paddle - you'd have liked this Sharon! No effort just paddle out, lie down and float - twas great - true Med. Here's a photo of an easy launch, with Broncho in tow. I look a little like a Russian shot putter here, I think it's the angle … or the rash vest, or a combination of both, honest.










Here is our own deserted beach










Funny enough, we learnt a little about European hygiene whilst at Leucate. There was a German Family - Mam, Dad and adult Son - there who went swimming the sea everyday for a wash. Shampoo, loofah, the works. It was a little strange looking out admiring the view whilst eating your tea and spotting a grown man strip naked and stride into the sea for a quick scrub up. Even weirder watching him get into all the nooks and crannies …. ARMPITS and EARS I meant for those of you with sewers for brains. The nudist beach - actually, nudist village I should say - was a km up the coast, past the kite surfers - so it wasn't as if everyone was doing it there. In the UK he would have been arrested for indecent exposure methinks, mind you the sea was cold so there wasn't a lot to expose really and our binoculars only go a certain distance .. he he.

After leaving Leucate, we again headed south - to Spain. This time we were determined to find somewhere that was going to be hot till Crimbo so it was south, south, and south with one or two stops on the way. We had a bit of a language issue, as we kept talking French to the Spanish and it must be said, the Spanish can't make baguettes like the French which is highly disappointing. We could have played cricket with the baguette we bought on Tuesday. Apart from this, Spain has been good. On the way down we found a lorry heading for Murcia - or at least it said Murcia in big letters on the back - and followed it for a couple of hundred klicks …. Thank God it was actually heading for Murcia, which is near where we were heading for, as we would have been gutted to end up in Madrid. This is probably not the best form of navigation but it did save us from being hit head on by the dodgy Spanish drivers overtaking perilously coming the other way!

Currently we are near a place called La Manga where we plan to stay until its time to go home. It is actually a town on a lagoon (Mar Menor) which is fed by the Med. It has been hot here - twas 39 degrees in the hammock during the week - and we are looking amazingly healthy. Not that we are healthy … we just look it … he he. However, we are being really crap with the camera and keep forgetting to take it out with us for pictures so we took these two (forcibly posed) just to prove that we are still in one piece.



















As you can see, Phil looks like Morph the plasticine man and I am looking rather pink … I had spend all day laying in the hammock and I think I cooked myself - this is why I have a long sleeved top on - it wasn't actually cold, I just couldn't face any more sun. In fact, it looks nothing like me, promise to do better next time.

NB… please take note of the fact that I am wearing a skirt. It doesn't happen often, in fact this may be the only photo in existence of me in a legs out skirt. For those of you who have take the pee out of me for years … I did it, I survived … and the next scheduled appearance of the legs in England is sometime around 2009.










and Phil insisted that I took this picture to show everyone that he likes to fondle his nipples in the evening …err no .. to show everyone that he has a brown belly … … who's the daddy!

We have only had one crap day of weather since we got here and the lightning show kind of made up for that. It looks fab over the hills in the distance. It was a shock to the system though and we had to wrap up a bit for the first time in weeks. It's a distant memory now though (actually it was friday) as the heat today (Saturday) was unreal. Typically though, I had done the washing just before it rained - I wondered why the washing machine was not in use - now I know, if its free, its going to rain.

We cycled to La Manga today to see about hiring some quad bikes for a few days - just so that we can go further afield as it is hassle taking the van to visit places. 75 EURO for 5 HOURS!! We nearly fell out of the shop! Extortionate.. (50 quid) couldn't believe it. You can hire a car for a week for just a little more. We are going to hunt for a scooter instead. Phil would love a Ducati but he's just going to have to put up with a vespa!

Tis now Monday ….. we have not made it to the internet café yet to send this email as we have been chilling - excessively! We'll try to get there tomorrow, promise.

Gave up on the scooter hunt, there are none unless you wish to buy one so we are now the proud hirers of a wee blue rocket - a super speedy ford fiesta. Phil not only looks like a native, he now drives like one too. When we parked up today he didn't realise that there was a kerb between us and the parking places. We hit it at about 30 odd miles an hour and got some air time … weeeeeeeee.

We bought a fan heater today. This may seem odd when we are in Spain and its hot but once the sun goes down, its definitely hibernation time 12-16 degrees in the van. The weather forecast on Sky keeps saying that its about 16-18 degrees in this area during the day. This is complete ****e as we have been sunning ourselves all week and the thermometer hasn't been below about 25 degrees, usually much higher. Apparently we there is a separate microclimate in La Manga that accounts for this.

Oops, just realised that 16 degrees would seem warm to you lot, your weather forecast for tomorrow gives 6 degrees, we are deeply sorry for starting this train of thought and rubbing it in! Did I see minus 1 for the night time? <Snigger>

Take care all, stay warm.

Love Leigh and Phil

xxxxx :0)


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## 88781 (May 9, 2005)

Great travelogue you guys,  itchy feet already.....how's the no smoking going?  

M&D


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## 88870 (May 10, 2005)

Hi M&D ... its going ... and thats about all I can say about it! 

I am bouncing off the walls today. If I sit down for longer than a couple of minutes I want a ciggie  

Think smoke free thoughts, think smoke free thoughts .. breathe in .. breathe out ....


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## xgx (Oct 14, 2005)

> Think smoke free thoughts, think smoke free thoughts .. breathe in .. breathe out ....


Keep it up ... you'll miss the coffin


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