Our gite in France
Dandy and Dynamo’s ’09 trip
Saturday 25th July
It was the last day of our two week idyll in the Gite dans le Jardin near the River Lot in South West France. A session of frenzied packing up, cleaning of the gite and hoovering of the pool took place by all seven of us and we smugly agreed that it was cleaner than when we had arrived. Steve (the owner)was summoned and we bade a tearful farewell with man hugs all round etc.
Happy families!
We headed for Toulouse airport to deposit ma famille and bid them a fond farewell en route to Edinburgh, then took my brother to the Marriott hotel for his overnight stay before he flew back to Texas in the morning. Had a coffee with him then took some pictures of him doing acrobatics on the TDM on top of the trailer.
My mental brother
We were headed for a salubrious Etap hotel in Pau for an overnight stay before we ventured into Spain for our Bongo adventures. It took us twice as long to get there as we had planned for as Thomas (the sat nav) was being a stupid b*****d as usual and took us along every back road he could find. As 8pm came we were dangerously low on fuel and pulled into a Supermarche filling station but the booth was closing and we had to get in the lane for automated paying. This meant that I had to reverse the Bongo and trailer and being a women couldn’t really manage this very well so much shouting of ‘hard right’ and ‘straighten up’ was uttered by Dandy. In the end we gave up trying for fuel as I had by then pulled into a bay that only dispensed diesel to trucks when the station was manned so we drove off to look for another one. Monsieur Leclerc, along our route, provided us with another opportunity of an unmanned filling station (lazy b****rds according to Dandy). This time none of our debit or credit cards would work, more ranting, we were seriously low in diesel now so Dandy approached a French chap who was having no problem with his card and he kindly offered the use of his card and we paid him cash, I was really bothered in case he thought it was a scam we were operating but no he was happy to help two Scottish numpties. This was the start of a series of people who showed kindness and compassion to us over the next two weeks when things started to go wrong.
When we finally arrived at our Etap on an industrial estate we were quite glad we hadn’t arrived sooner – think Prisoner Cell Block H, the smell of stale smoke in the bedroom was quite vile. So as darkness fell there we were holed up in our room drinking warm G + T’s and having Doritos and slices of Camembert for dinner as that was all we could find in the Bongo (the crackers didn’t turn up ‘til the next day).
Settled down for the night but couldn’t seem to get the AC to work properly and it was very hot, and as with the filling station the hotel was unmanned until the morning so no help could be sought. Dandy slept not badly but I was awake a lot (trying to digest my large meal probably!). Apparently they guarantee a 'good night's sleep' but I don't know how you prove you didn't have one!
Sunday 26th July
Woke quite sharply to the sound of bedroom doors being slammed, Dandy had something to say about that……. Showered and had breakfast, great people watching in the breakfast room, Dandy reckoned most were on route to Lourdes to get their various issues and isms miraculously cured. Lidl shopping bags also seemed to be the de rigeur luggage of the clientele in our Etap. Dandy, in his best French, spoke to the receptionist/cleaner/breakfast supervisor woman to let her know about the dodgy AC in our room and she told him that he’d been turning the dial the wrong way, it should have been up and not down, (calls himself an engineer too).
Off we set for Spain over the Pyrenees, nice route but not as spectacular as we’d hoped, much of what could have been amazing was a very long tunnel, we regretted not taking an alternative route further East which would have taken us up over the mountains rather than through them.
We were both totally shocked by what met us on the other side, after two weeks of lushness, sunflower fields, orchards groaning with peaches, apples and apricots and vineyards as far as the eye could see to be suddenly met with an arid, barren, not very pretty landscape. Our first thoughts were to turn around and head straight back to France.
The weather had become fiercely hot (high 30’s) as we headed for Jaca, the town had been highly recommended by several people, we don’t really know why, nothing about it tempted us to stop but we really didn’t give it a chance. It was a busy, bustling touristy town and we were looking for peace and tranquillity so we kept going. We had noticed a large blue area on the map which we took to be a lake so we decided to head for that on the basis there would probably be campsites along it's side.
It turned out to be a rather amazing reservoir (embalse) with the most beautiful colour of water due to the calcium running into it from the surrounding limestone, lunar landscape. We pulled into a rather run down, dilapidated campsite about 3pm and decided we’d at least have a cold drink. The British Moto GP was on the TV in the bar so that did it for Dandy, we were staying for the night and the cold beers were poured into frozen beer glasses - wonderful! Meanwhile the temperature inside the Bongo had reached 51.5 degrees!
The Yesa embalse
First impressions were very wrong and it turned out to be a lovely quiet and friendly site with great food. Just as well…………………..
Our pitch at Camping Villa de Tiernas
Monday 27th July
The following day we were up and about, had breakfast, pottered about, looked at maps etc. Boiled the kettle for a cup of tea and sat down outside the Bongo.
The wind had got up a bit, for which we were very grateful as it was still extremely hot. Suddenly, a freak gust of wind caught the awning side and knocked our portable kitchen over on top of where I was sitting. I put my left hand out to protect myself and remember a searing pain on my wrist. I scrambled out of the way to find a large area of my skin; around 2.5 inches wide all the way around sloughing off like a snake shedding its skin and the pain, wow! I’d caught the remnants of the newly boiled kettle water. I was screaming with pain by this time so Dandy marched me over to the cold tap and made me hold it under the water, which was absolute agony. I knew just by looking at it that I would have to get immediate medical attention but we didn’t know where to get help. The Bongo would take around 30 minutes to be made drivable and there was no way I could go on the motorbike. Two Spanish girls walked past at this point and Dandy shouted to them to help us, they ran to the bar and the cook came out with a burn spray took one look at the wound and thought twice about administering it. The quick thinking girls, who had just arrived on the site and were deciding whether they would stay the night, said they would drive us to the nearest medical centre in their car.
With some hasty instructions from the site staff we headed off in their car to Sanguesa, about 15 miles away along a very winding road. The pain and the heat of the sun on my wrist had become unbearable. We got to the town, they asked for directions to the Centro de Salud and I was treated straight away in the medical centre and the girls were really helpful and translated for us.
What less than half a cup of off boil water can do.................
They took us back and I was treated like some local celebrity by all and sundry, we thanked the girls profusely for their help and I popped some more pain killers.
I was to receive medical attention every second day initially (this was upped to every day very soon) and have the wound dressed with antibiotic cream and bandages, unfortunately the centre I attended first was not in the region for where we were staying and I would have to go to a different town further away in the opposite direction. The campsite manager, Bernardo, offered to take us in his car the next time as it would have cost us 30 euros by taxi.
I slept on the floor of the Bongo that night as there was no way I could climb up into the roof, I did manage to sleep a bit, strangely enough, but I think I was still in shock.
Tuesday 28th July
Headed for the medical centre at lunchtime at Berdun in Bernardo’s old Nissan. The town turned out to be one we had passed on Sunday, perched high up on an imposing hill overlooking a huge alluvial plain and in the distance you could see the reservoir, what a vista. It was a very old town with narrow little streets, we found the Centro de Salud and we were taken straight away. My wound was cleaned and dressed by a really nice nurse and appointments made for further attention. The good news was that it was very clean but I had damaged a large area of skin. Dandy looked quite ill when it was being tended too! Poor soul.
Back at the campsite, once I’d done the minor celebrity bit with all the locals and visitors, who were all very concerned about me, we decided to take a late afternoon stroll down to the water. We were watching all the comings and goings in boats and spoke to a guy who we’d met in the bar previously who was messing about with his boat engine which wasn’t working too well. He got it going and asked if Dandy and I would like to go out in it for a spin. Of course we said yes and off we went, it was great fun and really cooling but I had to try and keep my arm out of the sun. The heat had melted the cream on my arm and this yellow ooze was dripping off my hand onto Captain Birdseye’s boat. I surreptitiously mopped the floor of his boat up with an oily rag. The fault in the engine kept reoccurring at full throttle so Dandy was in his element trying to diagnose the problem in his best Spanish.
At one point his dog, who was leashed to the back of the boat, decided to launch itself into the water while still tied up. We both shouted out to Miguel to stop the boat and he did this quickly. We were sure the dog’s neck would be broken or it would have got itself entangled in the engine, but no, the daft mutt was fine! Back to the shore and we met his wife and kids bobbing about in the water having fun, they were a really lovely family.
We had dinner at the restaurant and an English couple, Mr & Mrs T. Watt, who had pitched up near to us were having an ‘I’m better and more travelled than you ' conversation with a Dutch couple who had had the misfortune to sit near them (mind you they weren't much better). It was hysterical, it started with travels in Europe, then Africa, then strangely the conversation turned to all things Scottish and Mr T. Watt decided to share with them the recipe for haggis which apparently contains, wait for it – minced beef and rice, although Mrs T. Watt thought it might be wheat. Dandy was shouting ’oatmeal’ at them but they either didn’t hear or chose to ignore this helpful piece of advice. I knew things had got out of hand when Dandy started breaking up words to insert profanities – for example fascifu**ingnating and the like. It was time to go to bed. I spent a second night on the Bongo floor but didn’t sleep well despite the alcohol consumed at dinner.
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