Unusually we had the Kingswood Firework party this year on the actual fifth of November. But, as is usual, we had a magnificent bonfire & fireworks & BBQ. No guy to burn this year, despite plenty of candidate effigies, such as a lettuce, a Liz or a Boris. The weather was a little damp, although the rain did hold out to the end of the firework display. Those finishing off the burgers, bangers, beer and wine did have to shelter under the canopies when there was a short torrential downpour.
For a few, the evening ended in a Kingswood house where a considerable volume of whisky etc was consumed, amidst much camaraderie.
Rosemary and I set out in Morrison the Campervan for what has become an annual event, Steve’s birthday in Southwold. We set off in the van on the 21st heading for Norwich to stay at Ann & Lizzie’s. We have not visited Unthank Road for lobger than a year, visiting in August 2021 after we had a summer break in West Runton. It was good to see Ann, Liz and Bob and catch up on what last year had brought us.
The next day (23rd) we headed on to Southwold and the Southwold Camping and Caravan campsite. There have been changes since we last visited – a new shower block, and more hard standing areas with electric hook-ups. The new electric hook-ups and shower block were not yet up and running. We assume they will be ready for 2023 There are a couple of problems with the site. When we use the site, we need hard standing, the site can become very waterlogged in October. So, for us it is best to book early and bag a hard standing area. The other major problem now, is the price, The price of off-season hardstanding with electric hook-up is £40 for 2023, and they also want to charge you an extra £8.50 for an awning. The campsite is becoming awfully expensive, unfortunately it is the most convenient campsite in town, with easy walking to Blackshore, Southwold and Walberswick.
We set up the van and headed down to the Sail Loft for lunch. It was wet as you can see from the photographs. We had booked lunch at the but it was not necessary as the restaurant was not very busy for Sunday lunch. We consumed a couple of Espresso Martinis which were on offer.
After lunch, the rain went away, and incy wincy spider came out to play. We took a walk along the harbour pier and then down Blackshore to see if anything had changed.
Birthday
The sun broke through for my Birthday. The weather though looked stormy with interesting clouds and a choppy sea. It did make for some interesting experiments in photography with my new phone, a Pixel 7 Pro. The handheld pictures of a rough sea using the silky shot setting, no need for tripod or ND filters, and the fast speed action shots of the waves breaking. Then there is the optical zoom for reasonable quality pictures of birds. Yes, the true digital camera can still take better pictures in demanding circumstances, but a phone camera is always with you. If you don’t have your camera with you and ready, then you lose that shot.
We walked along the sand dunes to Southwold, ending up at the Swan Hotel for lunch. The restaurant was not terribly busy, then it was a Monday lunchtime. We ate very well, and then walked back to the campsite. On the way visited the Harbour Quay and watched the sun set over Blythburgh.
Nature Walk
Today we visited Walberswick, this is across the river Blyth, a short walk from the campsite. Head towards the Coastal Voyager quay and wait for the rowing boat to come across the river. Unfortunately, in this cashless society they don’t take online payments and we didn’t have any cash. We promised to pay on return and were taken across the river. Our first stop was one of the tea shops for a coffee and a small amount of cash.
We then headed south on the sand dunes looking for birds in the reed area along the river Dunwich. They stayed away. We walked back for lunch to the Bell Inn where it was warm enough for us to sit outside. We did spot a camp site on the other side of the river, which may be a possibility, but I can’t find any information about it on the web, and will the ferry be operating every day?
We headed back across the river, paying both the outward and the return fare. I did use my new Canon camera to take some pictures of Herring Gulls and Geese. I needed some practice at getting the camera to behave and to focus on the object. Out in the reeds it had insisted on focusing on reeds and not birds or insects. I have some learning too do.
This evening I tried my phone camera for night shots. I was quite pleased with some of the results.
Pumpkin Walk
The weather has been good to us this year. Today was another bright and sunny day, so we headed out across the marshes to Pumpkin Hell. It is a cafe/restaurant called Old Hall. Definitely a tourist trap, bring on the children, adventure playground, a Maize Maze, and of course at this time of year, the American import of Halloween and pumpkins. I know some of my followers who would steer a million miles from this place, but it is a pleasant walk, and you can get a good coffee and a reasonable quick lunch. Also on the plus side, we noticed one of the waiters boot out a group of visitors who had a misbehaving dog.
Along the way there was a herd of bullocks who were grazing on the path, as we approached, they soon lost their nerve and headed off. There were flocks of starlings flying around. I did grab a practice photo, not sure why, we can have thousands of starlings at home.
We arrived at Old Hall, ate lunch, and headed back on an inland track to take us to Southwold, and then back along the sand dunes to home.
Night Time Photography
I decided to take the phone out for some more Astro photography. On one setting it allows you to take a photograph for over 5 minutes. It is advisable to keep the phone rock steady during this period. No tripod, so I held it against a suitable post for the time. The two pictures of Blackshore are in the gallery above. The first facing west towards boat yards, and the second facing east towards the RNLI and Europe. I do need a tripod and a holder for the phone, then I could select a better place to photograph. I was quite pleased with these, better than the night before.
One other output of the phone camera is a 1 second video condensing the 5 minutes down to a second video. I love it.
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Back Home
We left the next morning, on yet another glorious October day.
We packed away, and left the site at 8.30, heading back to the toll road. After a little over an hour, we were down to 180miles of range, so opted to fill up at a service station. This was a Total and had a cheap price (a little over 160) compared with the other services stations which were over 30 cents per litre more expensive. We took the opportunity to have breakfast, which was a disaster. Most of the small service station was closed, and there were two women dealing with a huge queue. They were making coffee as well as serving the prewrapped goodies. I could see we would be here a long time. We left.
We stopped at the next service station, and gave that a miss, it was a construction site. In a hissy fit I said f*** French service stations and continued the drive to Calais, hoping for a snack and duty-free stop there to take advantage of Boris Johnson’s “world beating” duty free allowances.
At least Euro Tunnel check-in was great, we chose a human operated one, explained we were traveling home several days earlier than our booking. He booked us in on the next available crossing and charged us an extra 49 Euro to travel. We had been expecting to pay a whole single fee.
Passport control took us in total another 20 minutes, it was a bit clagged on the French and UK booths. Then straight onto the train with no parking, and the train left in 5 minutes. So, we missed the duty free, and still had not eaten. While we crossed to the UK, we managed to have a snack in the van of cheese biscuits and some rillette. It was then time for a loo break, had to pass through 6 carriages to find the loos. I think they are at the back and front of the train. It was quite an epic trek. The doors between the carriages are very stiff, and not all of them worked, so you had to cross from side to side of the carriage. This did not appear to be safe in an emergency exit of the train.
Arrived in London, and we were straight onto the road home. That is the way to travel. What was not, were the hold-ups at the Thames crossing.
We packed up the van and left Camping de la Brise at 10.38. I was planning on an overnight stop and hoped to reach Chalons-en Champagne for the night. Google appears to think I would be driving at the maximum speed and did not know about road works speed limits. I wanted to drive at a more sedate 70mph, and I wanted a couple of breaks on the way for lunch and loo. These added a considerable amount of time to the trip. We were forced to change destination and stopped off at a campsite called Camping de la Croix d’Arles, close to the town of Saints-Geosmes and around 9km from the main road.
It was quite a big campsite, it cost us a little over 17 euro for the night, including electricity. It was being used by quite a few vans as a stopover. The pitches were all enclosed in hedges, and there were quite a number of mature trees on the site. The site had a restaurant and bar, so we were tempted to eat there but instead opted for eating another French tomato with cucumber and goats cheese, a type of Greek salad.
When we arrived at the site there were many men dressed in some fancy uniform, in England I would have thought there were Morris Dancers. They were all downing demi litres of beer in the bar. After night fall, the local town had a loud firework display, I know not what for.
When we come to France again, and driving this way, then we will put this site on our list to stop at for a few days. I must discover what there is in the area. I think it could be wine and lakes.
Today was our last day in the Camargue, we were due to drive west to Gruissan to meet with John and Carol for her birthday. Today we walked into Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to do some final shopping, birthday gifts for Carol, and of course certain local ingredients for ourselves. We also bought some large French tomatoes to use later. One we added to our left-over Aubergine stew to build it out a bit.
We found a nice bar for a drink and sit down. Despite it being long past lunch time, the restaurants bars were still serving food and did not look inviting for casual drinkers. We chanced upon a very relaxing bar, not crowded with comfortable seats. A drinker’s bar, not a food bar. Thank heaven. The bar was called Bar Des Poetes, and had wall paintings and short verses French poems.
A started off with a Europ beer. I then asked the owner if they had Camargue beer. The jist of the reply was, the beer was too expensive, and with his markup nobody would buy it. The menu board listed Pastis Bleu. R attempted to ascertain what it was, explaining she liked Ricard. The owner regretted it was not made from Ricard, but another pastis. R had to try it cos “it’s such a lovely colour”.
We got talking to some Canadians who were sitting nearby, they seemed to come to the Camargue quite regularly. We also discovered we’d all been to Figueres, whereas we’d been surprised by the Dali museum there, that’s why they had gone there. They had completely missed the typewriter museum. Amazing. That museum was the reason we went there.
After the bar, we stopped at the shops to purchase the rice, some provisions (tomatoes, and also two bottles of Camargue beer) before walking home, but we soon heard news that made us cut our holiday short and head for home.
In the afternoon I went for a swim in the sea. It was quite calm now, with the wind coming in from the shore. While preparing supper I drank the two bottles of Camargue beer, one blonde, the other brown. They were fine, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy them.
Today we loafed around the campsite until midday and walked to the town along the beach. We saw that an Aires De Camping had been changed into a normal carpark. Whether it had been moved, or closed completely, I am not sure. Last time we walked this route you could see those in their motorhomes eating lunch in the narrow gap between each home.
We were aiming to catch a boat to view the Le Petit Rhone river and see the Camargue from the water. We had booked the trip online for 30 Euro. We arrived early and sat on some seats basking in the sun awaiting the boat. There was more than one company operating, the first boat left at 14.00, then our boat came in and moored, and we boarded and left at 14.30. Rosemary was the only one to show her ticket on her phone, while everyone else presented their paper tickets. We are modern technologists.
We sat in the sun on the top deck, and were soon motoring out of the harbour, then travelled east along the coast to the mouth of Le Petit Rhone. It is apparently quite shallow at this spot and also choppy.
On view were egrets and herons. We were looking for kingfishers, but none were to be seen. On land there were the Camargue horses and of course the Bulls. There was one place where a tourist show was put on, a handler on shore wearing traditional Camargue dress, herded down some horses and bulls. There were some cute bull calves on show.
Further up the river there were horses and bulls grazing in the fields. We also saw fishing nets used to drag fish from the waters. The fields between the twists in the river were grazed by cattle or fields of Camargue rice.
Our trip up the river ended at a free chain ferry allowing the D85 to cross the river. Here we turned around and headed back to base.
After the trip we had a glass of beer in a nearby bar.
There was plenty of wind early in the morning, and a little rain fell. I walked to the camp shop and bought some bread and chocolate croissants. I left it late, so the choice was limited. The bread was already past its sell by minute.
As the day progressed, the wind became stronger, the guy ropes became unpegged from the ground. Lots of remedial attention had to be made to the pegs holding the guy ropes. The ground was soft sand on the windward side. I eventually tied the ropes from each canopy leg to individual pegs drilled deep below the ground. The awning was also showing a tendency to collapse under the wind, so checked the air pressure of the supports, well below the minimum. Pumped these up to max, problem cured.
Late afternoon cooked the ratatouille for the evening meal, then went for a walk on the beach. The waves had reached both restaurants, and all sun beds had been moved to higher ground. Walking was painful with the stinging sand abrading the legs. A dinner plate sized jellyfish was on the beach, some helpful person attempted to save it by moving it to the sea. It left on the next wave, dead or alive, probably the former.
Back at the campsite, the latest influx of new vans arrived. One opposite us suddenly decided to turn around. Maybe because we were sitting in the awning looking out at them. This German couple had a dog, small rough collie job. It just lay beside the van, no lead and just minded itself quietly. There was also another German couple with two dogs who just laid around all day on their dog beds absolutely quiet and well behaved. Is this a German trait in good dog ownership? If so, it is excellent.
One van came into our area, and then nearly took a tree out as they decided the pitch was not for them. They spent quite a while with their RV against the side of the tree as they fruitlessly tried to extract themselves.
Drinks while these entertainments were going on, were enlivened by the sparrows coming around for food. We had well over 20 in the vicinity. I do hope they like the Indian spiced rice sticks.
After supper, in the dark, we could see a major lightning storm inland. This went on and on for an exceptionally long time. We were in clear air with amazing views of the stars. The wind dropped, and there was no sound from the awning shifting in the wind.
Today was meant to be cloudy, and windy as a front was coming in. No rain predicted until tomorrow. This proved partly true, though cloudy, there was still plenty of sun. Yes, it was a bit windier.
We ambled into town, stopped at a bar for a quick beer and looked around the shops. Rosemary is thinking of buying Camargue rice, but never getting to buying it, hoping for a cheaper price elsewhere. I chose a restaurant for lunch, Ambiance Tapas. A very small tapas restaurant with seats outside the front, inside, and in the back garden. The cooking all took place in the minute kitchen in the inside restaurant.
We chose from the plates of mixed tapas on the menu, saving us having to decide finer details. While we were deciding, we each had a Ricard (in nice glasses) as an aperitif. I chose the Ambiance Mer, and Rosemary the Ambiance Mixte. Rosemary as a hater for aubergines had a dish of aubergine with honey. It was delicious, she even liked it and wanted to make her own. I’m still waiting.
We wandered back to the campsite, picking up some beers and food on the way home.
I investigated the beach and went for a swim in the sea. It was getting quite rough, so I enjoyed diving through the waves and body surfing back.
The mozzies are still biting, so Rosemary is covered in swellings from the bites. I suggested she take an antihistamine in addition to spraying us and the van in Skin So Soft. I am not suffering quite so badly but am definitely itchy and scratchy.
The wind rose in the evening, so we disconnected the awning from the van, and placed guy ropes in position. The predicted rain during the night never came.
A day with differing sunshine. Started off with sunshine, but all the sky to the west was obscured by a solid bank of cloud. This cloud edged slowly nearer and over us.
We started the day with breakfast, some bread and pain aux raisins from the campsite shop. Pain aux raisins, not up to par, not enough gooey syrup and sultanas.
We walked over to see the Flamingos and other birds in the marsh. Managed to grab a picture of a spider eating a dragon fly. Some good shots of small egrets catching, losing, and recapturing fish. I see from the photographs they spear the fish with their beak. They then have to release the fish to get it into their beak. While doing this manoeuvre they can easily lose the fish and have to chase after it to recapture.
Back to the tent for lunch, the sun was now out, and it was getting warm. I went out for another walk on my own, a couple of hours and 8km. Saw some Flamingos who took flight as I approached. Some nice shots of flying Flamingos. Amazing how black their wings look when the birds are in flight.
Back at tent at 5:00 for evening drinks followed by supper.
Packed away in the dry and left Moustiers-Sainte-Marie for the Camargue. We headed west to the A51 motorway but stopped at Manosque for some shopping. It was a Sunday, so the supermarket was only open to 12.30. The butchers, fishmongers and cheese counters were not open. There was a limited selection of fresh flesh, so opted for some Tuna. The vegetable and fruit area of the supermarket was a disaster. Old, wrinkled peppers, grotty small selection of vegetables. French supermarkets have lost the plot. We complain about UK supermarkets only serving the best vegetables, and why don’t they serve ‘off’ vegetables. Well go to France, the only fruit and vegetables sold in the supermarkets are off, and the selection is so poor in comparison to the UK.
Anyway a few beers and bottles of wine, and some bread, and we were on our way. Quick stop for some diesel at 1.72. I see some fuel stations sell add blue at the pumps. Not seen that in the UK.
Headed to the A51, stopped at a service-come-fuel station for the loo, and our packed lunch bought at the supermarket. Off again, and then on to Arles where we headed south to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and the campsite Camping de la Brise. Google informed us that it was four years since we had last visited here. We booked in for 6 nights. This site has now joined the ACSI group of campsites. We pitched on a large plot near to where we had previously pitched. It was hot, the dragonflies were flying as well as the less welcome mosquitoes.
A couple of beers later we were ready to eat our fried tuna and potato and bean accompaniment. The sparrows around us, were only too willing to eat any crumbs around us.
Our electricity supply did not work, so some deft use of the Leatherman had the powerbox open, and the trip switch reset. (16amp)
All settled now after dinner, sealed in our campervan away from the biting mosquitoes outside. The dragonflies were very active before sunset, flying erratic courses in their pursuit of the mozzies. Just wish there were more hungry dragonflies around.
