Looking back at the blog site I was surprised to see that the last post was back in May and now we are in the last few days of September – where does the time go? The summer period has been a mixture of familiar local activities and new discoveries. We’ve enjoyed having visitors at various points over the summer, showing them this area and discovering new places ourselves.
We’ve also been able to get away to some events with the van including a trip to Belgium for the Grand Prix at Spa in July and last week at Angouleme for another visit to the Circuit des Remparts – classic vehicle racing around the ramparts of the old town. This was our third visit with UK friends Steve and Yvonne and we have the arrangements well planned now, including lunch at a beautiful restaurant in the town, housed in a former ironmonger’s store with an Eiffel-type iron structure and glass atrium. Race day which was forecast to be wet all day, turned out to be dry with exciting racing, no doubt to the relief of the organisers.
Joe has been on the lookout for a second-hand boat he can use on the river, an upgrade to his small inflatable and something capable of transporting 4 or 5 people if we have visitors. His preferred style was a traditional aluminium fishing boat and he found one online not too far away. It’s an honest traditional boat with the patina (for that read ‘flaking paint’) that Joe likes. We’ve been exploring along the river Lot to find suitable boat ramp locations for launching the boat and which allow a suitable stretch of navigable river without negotiating the huge locks that would overwhelm a small boat. We had also hoped to perhaps find a riverside restaurant or café – very few and far between. However we were delighted to find a ramp with good access and a quai-side restaurant with an excellent menu. So we’ve enjoyed that stretch of the river a couple of times and will be scouting other areas soon.
In our last post I mentioned that we had signed up for a second Jeep Raid in Morocco in October. We figured that as the Jeep was already set up for it and we had all the kit, we might as well do another trip while we can and the route will also be a different one heading further east to the large sand dunes of Morocco. Despite having a fully functioning Jeep when we returned from Morocco, Joe put himself under some pressure to get it ready for this trip. The gearbox, always delicate on Jeeps apparently, had a tendency to jump out of gear or crunch in certain gears. Fellow travellers on the rally also noted that the Jeep ‘smoked blue’, i.e. was burning oil. Joe took umbrage at this as his Jeep was the only one not to suffer mechanical problems, but it was something to be sorted. Another Jeep owner on the trip had told Joe about a specialist Jeep restorer in the Lozère who had done a good job of rebuilding his gearbox, so Joe decided to get his done. Joe could have done the work to solve the smoking problem himself but decided to get the same garage to do that work at the same time as the gearbox. So in May we trailered the engine and gearbox to the Lozère, about 5 hours from us, for the work to start in June. On checking in on progress in late June we learned that the start of work was behind schedule due to other work and a family bereavement. Work finally started in mid-July with assurances the engine would be ready to collect by the end of August and with the pressure then on Joe to reinstall the engine, test and get some miles in. So a 10 hour round trip again to collect the engine on 31st August (phew!) and so far Joe is very pleased with the work but the real test will be in Morocco. We trailered the Jeep to Perpignan this week for loading on the transporter and will be flying to Agadir on 6th October. We’ll post about our adventure when we’re back.
We took advantage of our journey to the Pyrénées -Orientales region to do a trip I’ve had on the list for a few years since we started our campervan travels – Le Train Jaune, the yellow tourist train that takes you through the Pyrenees. Whenever we’ve been near the area previously, the line has either been closed for annual maintenance or weather has not been good. With weather looking OK and with three days left before the annual maintenance closure, we booked tickets and stayed overnight just outside the village of Villefranche de Conflent. The morning temperature was about 3C but the sun was shining and some hardy souls even braved the open coaches to enjoy the scenery. We stayed warm inside and enjoyed the beautiful views and changing landscape, passing through the highest SNCF (French railway) station at 1592.78 metres to the final stop at Latour-Carol. This region on a huge high plateau houses the National Centre for Altitude Training for research and performance improvement for world class athletes. Unfortunately there was nothing athletic about our return to the train after a very generous lunch at the station bistro. And so summer comes to an end, although we will hopefully enjoy some warmish temperatures in Morocco.
Sadly, a cloud was cast over the end of summer for us with the loss of my Dad, who passed away peacefully aged 87 in Devon. He always liked to hear about our travels when we spoke and usually followed the blog. Sweet dreams Dad.