We really enjoyed our time at locations along various rivers last year and being able to kayak, paddle board and go on boat trips. As part of our planning for this year we looked into getting our own boats – inflatables – that we could transport in the trailer whilst in transit and in the… Continue reading Lakes and new toys
Limousin and Limousines
The landscape in this region is very different to the areas we visited last year. No hilltop villages, indeed very few hills, and villages are few and far between. There is gentle rolling countryside with huge fields of wheat, maize and, occasionally, sunflowers as well as Limousin cattle. It’s definitely a very untouristy region –… Continue reading Limousin and Limousines
Exploring Central France
We’ve moved on from Normandy to a much more central region of France to stay at the house of Joe’s friend, Ron, who has very kindly allowed us to use his house as a base during our travels in France. The house is in a small hamlet in the Haute-Vienne department, now part of the… Continue reading Exploring Central France
Visiting the Normandy landing sites
Bayeux is ideally situated as a base to visit the five British, American and Canadian D-Day beach landing sites – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno. The terrain is fairly flat as well so it has been possible to cover ground on bicycle as well as on the motorbike. We cycled from camp through beautiful… Continue reading Visiting the Normandy landing sites
How an interest in Normandy WWII history started
Rat Patrol, an American TV series, which aired on our b&w tv screen from 1966 grabbed my attention. Set in WWII it featured US Army jeeps in North Africa racing across the desert from dune to dune. I wanted one. The Exchange & Mart, a pre-internet second-hand car (and other goods) paper, came out on… Continue reading How an interest in Normandy WWII history started
Exploring Bayeux
We don’t have any fixed itinerary for this trip, although we have a couple of campsites booked in places we want to visit or revisit, but we decided we’d like to spend a few days in Normandy before heading to more central parts of France. It’s a region that Joe has visited quite a few… Continue reading Exploring Bayeux
Setting off on our Europe adventure
Last year’s adventures gave us the taste for camper van life and travels so we looked at how we could do more of that, mindful still of the Covid situation and now needing to think about post Brexit limitations, i.e. being restricted to spending only 90 days out of 180 days in the Schengen Area… Continue reading Setting off on our Europe adventure
A boat trip rescheduled
After walking to Woolacombe again we took the bus back to camp, travelling via the small village of Mortehoe, a popular starting point for some of the coastal path walks. We marvelled at the young bus driver’s calm and nerve as he took the bus through small roads with only a few centimetres gap on… Continue reading A boat trip rescheduled
A visitor joins us
It’s been a busy and very enjoyable couple of days as Joe’s long-standing motorcycling friend, Andy, joined us at the campsite for a few days and very kindly brought the sunshine with him. On the first full day of his visit we walked to Ilfracombe along the old railway route to do a boat trip… Continue reading A visitor joins us
Westward Ho! and beyond
While we’re in North Devon we took the opportunity to catch up with Claire’s Dad and half-sister Caeli in Westward Ho! The exclamation mark in the village’s name always seems to give an air of energy and excitement, of exploration and places further afield. The village is in fact the only place in the British… Continue reading Westward Ho! and beyond