Southwold for my Birthday

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We headed off to Southwold on the eve of my birthday. The drive to Southwold is quite a long way, more than three hours. Google had us doing a shortcut on country lanes from the A14 to the A12. Disaster stuck behind a large sugarbeet lorry on its way back from Bury.

Arrived at the site, we had not booked as there was plenty of space on the website. We checked in, and there was the response, “sorry no space”. But the field was empty, though looking again we could seek the lakes across the grass. After some consultation, it was decided we could use a hard standing area for the two nights. If we had been staying longer, we would have been out of luck. As it was, the campsite staff were going to have to cancel many of the weekenders.

We parked and quickly headed over to the Harbour Inn for lunch, a light lunch because we were going to have supper later. Despite the sun being out, it was a tad chilly sitting outside, in the shade behind the pub. Would have been better at the front. Anyway, we ate inside.

A walk along the footpath across the fields, over the golf course to Southwold, was somewhat fraught. The far end of the field was flooded, and there was no way through without wading in water. We backtracked and walked along the road, then across the golf course. Arriving in Southwold we seemed to attract people who started to explain where the museums were.

We looked through several shops, even visited FatFace, but ended up not buying anything, other than some chocolate twists for breakfast. Walked back to the campervan along the coast road. We set up for the night. Then we dressed for dinner and headed out to the Sail Loft. The card behind the bar asked if we had booked, we said no, so he, looking at all the empty tables, said fully booked, in half an hour a huge crowd of people were arriving. Damn, what were we going to go, asked him if there was any way we could eat. He relented, only joking. I swore at him calling him a Ba****d. (He laughed!)

We sat down, me with a Ghost Ship and R with a G&T and we ordered out supper. Here we had a large meal, starter and main. R did not do justice to her mushroom risotto. I did struggle with my two-course meal but was not vanquished.

Back to the campsite for an early night.

Next day was my Birthday, opened my cards, ate our very nice Co-op chocolate twists and headed into Southwold. Today it was due to rain, so jackets were required. First on the day’s events was a tour of the Adnams Distillery. When we had booked we were the only two on the tour, today the tour appeared to be full.

Having some time to spare, R pounced upon a market stall and bought a couple of tops, I don’t know who was more surprised, me or her.

We were shown a film, then taken to the distillery. Immediately before entering the distillery, there is a room with several small stills where the distiller experiments with recipes and they also hold their gin making taster courses. There was one in progress when we arrived.

The reflux stills were shown to us and explained. In these, they make the Vodka required for the Gin making process. Apparently they make three Vodkas, one using barley grown and harvested only a few miles away. Their Vodka is not filtered and retains some of the flavours from the malt. This was especially noticeable with the Vodka made from rye. Apparently Adnams has twice won the best Vodka in the world prize, beating the Russians and Poles. There were two more stills to be seen, one still a more traditional whisky type one.

Down now into the stores, where we see the barrels. Their whisky is stored in fresh French oak barrels, so not flavoured from bourbon or sherry. They decided not to compete with Scotch whisky. Now the important bit, the tasting. We started with the different Vodkas, and then the gins. Different gins based upon the different Vodkas, plus some extra botanical differences. Each Gin was tasted neat, and then with tonic. Finally, there were whiskies to be tasted. As the tasting progressed, the conversation turned from almost silent, to chatter and then loud conversation.

Finally over, we headed to the Adnams outlet shop to buy some Vodka and Gin. Now it was into the Swan for the birthday lunch. We were seated in the Stillroom restaurant and ordered our drinks. I ordered a Hopped Negroni, and R a fizzy Rose. My Negroni came with a thin biscuit topped with Marmalade. The full ingredients were Adnams Copper House Gin, Campari, Adnams Port, Cherry, Beetroot, Adnams Dry Hopped Lager & Adnams Broadside Marmalade. Not like a normal Negroni, not bitter, sweeter.

Starters arrived. I ate Local Seared Pigeon Breast, Butternut Squash Parfait and Pickled Girolles. Very nice, though the breast was a little overcooked. R ate a Heritage Beetroot, apple and candied hazelnut salad.

A bottle of Viognier accompanied the starter and mains.

The main course arrived, Seared Halibut, scorched gem lettuce, blue meat radish, chilli, soy gel and mussel broth for S. Very good. R launched into her Suffolk roast pork tenderloin, breaded cheek, orzotto, parsley root puree, charred leek and truffle. While in Suffolk, the Suffolk pig is a must. So much free-range pork in Suffolk these days.

The rain was starting, and Rosemary seeing the market stalls closing, suddenly jumped up, rushed out and bought another top. The alcohol must have been loosening her inhibitions.

We finished with a double espresso and a one Apple & Wild Wave. As we were leaving the doorman suggested we have a drink in the bar, it was hammering it down outside. So another drink. Later we headed on out and back to the campervan for a relatively early night.

In the morning we packed up and headed off. I thought I would drop in on the G…s, friends of my parents from years back. So we headed over to East Green, and as we arrived a vehicle was leaving driven by Robert. Introduced myself and we had a short chat, he was off and could not stay around, but gave us directions to where Tony and Jeanette now lived. Not far away, so we visited them. They were very surprised to see R and me at their door. We chatted with them for over an hour. In their 90s and still very sharp.

It was then back home for us. The next day washed and cleaned the van before putting it away for the next few months.

Camping and Motorhome Show

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Checking my phone in bed, I see google reckons I am interested in camping and motorhomes, so Google is telling me this is the first day of the Camping, Caravan and Motorhome Show at the NEC. Quick decision, we decide to go. Good idea to see what is changing in this area.

The entry we walked into was the end with the camper vans. There were several companies who did conversions, mainly VW, but also Fords and other makes. Most of the conversions were similar to ours but different in small to large ways. There were oddities in many conversions, some blocking half of the sliding door entry with cabinets. Many cabinets were thinner than ours to get in a wider bed or leave a little more space around the bed, or even leaving horrendous metal tracking on the floor so the rear seat could move. So yes, we came away from there pretty pleased with our van’s conversion. R informed our convertor, CJ Vans.

I was interested in the electrics area and always wondered why with our conversion, we ended up with a lead-acid battery and not a lithium one. A lithium battery is long-lasting, lighter and you can discharge it down to less than 10%, making it far more powerful than the equivalent lead battery. You can also take more power out of it, and run an Inverter, running electric Induction hobs of over a kilowatt-hour. Using solar cells, a lithium battery and an Inverter you can go off-grid camping. Ha, the reason why is the cost. The battery is more than a thousand pounds, and when I had our van converted it was probably a whole lot more than that.

While we are on things to change, I still would like an external gas connector for a BBQ in the fender of the van. Saw one at Download a couple of years ago, and there seem to be people doing it on campers. I suppose using a gas BBQ will use up the gas, our small tank is still going strong after 3 years, more than 160 days of camping.

We took a look around the large vans, enquired about road permits for Switzerland, had a coffee at the Camping and Caravan Club. Decided not to buy the ACSI membership from the ACSI stand, it seemed a lot more expensive than getting it through the CCC.

We checked out the Eriba stand, the little vans are quite cute, though Eriba seems to be doing bigger vans these days. On another stand, there was a life-size Lego caravan. At first glance, I did not notice it was Lego, just thought one window was a rather odd plastic.

R and I studied the different awnings on show. We are not too happy with the ‘Shed’, rather large and difficult to get back into its bag, takes up a lot of space in the van when not being used. We might have been better off with one of the roll-out awnings, the trouble is we have a track in the place where we would have to attach the roll-out awning. Also looked at how similar awnings to the ‘Shed’ attach to campervans, took photos of the way the connecting tunnel connects to the van. Have I been doing that wrong? Not sure! Came away with a Thule catalogue as well as some lithium battery ones.

A walk around Green Park, Reading

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A tour to Reading with the Cambridge Society on a rather wet and unpromising day. We met near to Green Park, parking in the CostCo a short walk from the wind turbine. We then spent the next hour standing in the rain, listening to a talk about Wind Turbines. Interesting to hear the turbine paid for itself in 7 years and has a life span of at least 25 years. The most carbon polluting part of the turbine was the concrete foundation, which could be reused by a replacement turbine. When the wind speed gets up to 70mph, the blades are feathered and its stops generating. If left operating at higher wind speeds, the blades would bend back and start to impact the column as they rotated..

We then went for a walk around Green Park, and the local new housing. Green Park has some footpaths totally shielded away from the office buildings. So you are walking down a muddy tree and bush lined path, and through the leaves, you could see the high tech buildings. A lovely pond centres the park. All the buildings housed Tech companies, Cisco, Symantec, Huawei, Veritas to name a few.

After the walk, we headed by car for lunch at Cunning Man. Not far away, but seemingly miles by road. Very busy pub serving lunches. Not sure now what I ate, but it was fine.

Back Home

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On Monday, we said goodbye to Camping des Playes and headed to Camping Champ d’ete in Pont-de-Vaux, a short distance off the Autoroute du Soleil. A large flat campsite near to the town. There is a small river which joins the nearby Saone. I say a small river, it was big enough to have boats and a marina in the village. It looks like it is easy to walk into the town, and the river must have some good walks along the banks. Alas, the weather was wet and not conducive to walking. The campsite was also about to close for the winter. I shall put this down as a possible place to stay in the future.

The Tuesday we headed off back to Chalons-en Champagne to stop in the same place as when we came out. Not sitting outside for supper this time, instead, there was rain and more rain. The grape pickers had all left as well. We did stop off at the large Carrefour.

Wednesday was an uneventful drive back to Calais and a trip across in the Euro Tunnel. We caught an earlier train and managed to miss most of the holdups crossing the Thames.

Six-Fours-les-Plages

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We had had good weather in Provence, and now it was soon time to make our way home. We decided on a couple of stops on the journey back. This meant we had a couple of days spare. The weather was wet to the North, so we decided to head to the South. We had visited Six-Four-les-Plages a couple of years ago, and there was an open ACSI campsite, Camping des Playes. We headed on down, stopping at a Carrefour Market in La Brillanne for some essentials and dinner.

We arrived at the campsite. nobody around so selected a spot and set up home. The campsite is on the uphill edge side of the town. The site is very hilly, though the individual pitches were all level. There were not many, as most of the site is now small holiday pre-fab homes. They really are everywhere now. There is no way you could get into this place on spec in the season, and I count ourselves lucky there was space. Anyway, we checked in when the receptionist arrived. We didn’t go anywhere today, just chilled out, drank wine and cooked supper.

The next day, Sunday, we were awoken by shooting above us. Yes, the hunters were up before dawn. Today we would go out for Sunday lunch. We headed down the hill to the beach. There is a lovely walk along the beach. Swimmers and surfers on the sea, bars along the road. We walked along the beach examining the menus and stopped at one place, L’Eden bar/Bistro/Millesim for a pastis. The bar was split into several separate areas, a rougher bar, restaurant and night club. Marked it as a possibility for lunch.

We continued into the main area where there was a market in progress. we have been here before, so were acquainted with the fish stores with their whole Tuna fish being caved up to order. We did purchase some bread and started looking for somewhere to eat, the restaurants were beginning to fill up. Headed back to L’Eden, seemed reasonably empty, but of course, as we were not booked, placed inside the restaurant and not on the terrace. The restaurant soon filled up.

We had an excellent meal there, and I had a Negroni.

Walked slowly back to the campsite for the evening.

Les Mourres and Forcauquier

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Our last day had a little less Geology, with more emphasis on the historical and sightseeing. The geology was Les Mourres, a barren area with rock pinnacles rising up. This all started 25 million years ago. The pinnacles were islands of water plants and primitive seaweeds which became embedded in the limestone deposits as deposits were laid down. Over time the limestone was eroded leaving the harder rock to survive, hence the grotesque shapes.

Next, some sightseeing in Forclquier where we wandered through the narrow streets, bought some pastis and then made our way up to the Citadelle. Here we had a picnic lunch and then walked back down for a beer in a bar. The final stop was to the Salagon Museum and Gardens. The Gardens have areas dedicated to Provence agriculture, so there were many lavender varieties. There were also planted areas of medicinal herbs, and finally a world area planted out by continent and country of origin.

There was an issue with their guide which ran from a Samsung galaxy phone. The idea was good, it knew where you were and tried to show you what there was to see. In practice, most of the devices didn’t work for long. We could have been there longer, so much to see. We didn’t get to look into the church.

Back at the Cruis was our final meal. A continuous supply of pizza from the wood-fired pizza oven. The pizza oven was indoors and had been used for most of the cooking throughout the week. The pizzas were good, probably was one of the best meals we had during the week. Seems two of the chaps on our trip have built outdoor bread ovens. Much discussion as to design.

Verdon and Vultures

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A small group of able-bodied strong males and females headed off down the mountain in Wiz’s 4×4 to try to rescue the stricken vehicle. They took a huge jack and rope. The rest of us stayed on the refuge for breakfast, and then walked back down to the one van at the barrier. Here some geology took place. Examining the map of the Geology of the area and trying to see it in the rocks. Only started to work when it was figured out exactly where we were standing.

Afterwards, some of us went down in the van, while the rest walked down to the D17. The stricken van had been rescued. The advice of the Anglo Saxons had been ignored, which was just to tow it out of the hole. Instead, fruitless work with rocks and jacks was performed. This would apparently have gone on for some time. Luckily some French foresters came along, they looked at the problem and advised towing the van out. This was done with no issues.

There was an ancient Roman wall near the junction, some bits were quite stable, other bits totally trashed. While the walkers came down, the guides asked a few to go mushroom hunting for supper. As I arrived down I heard the guide throwing most of the fungus out with cries of Toxic, Toxic.

We headed to the Otherside of the Verdon Gorge to Rougon. This windy road had a lovely stopping place where we could view, Belvedere de Trescaire bas. The cliffs were vertical and we were told this is the highest verticle drop in France. The French guide had climbed it with her father when she was five. The vultures were flying and I photographed some fabulous pictures of them. You could see their nests on the other side of the canyon. Oh, there was a sole climber, on the other side.

We continued down the gorge and at Col d’Ayen stopped. Here took a photo of a mating butterfly and other insects.

At Chapelle Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, we duly admired the star hanging between two rock outcrops.

Soon we were back at Cruis, where the rest of the group were dropped off, and we were left at our campervan for a well-earned shower and clean up. Soon we were back at Wiz’s for supper and wine.

Verdon and Mont Chiran

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Today we packed some extra clothes and sleep sheets. We were going to be staying out tonight. We were headed to a mountain lodge on top of Mount Chiran. There was a small observatory there where we would be able to observe the stars. The timing was such that the moon would be fairly new. Apparently we should have been there the previous day. Luckily there had been an error in the booking. The previous evening it had been cloudy, and the group who had booked the lodge that night had seen nothing, being covered in cloud. Well, there had been storms during the night. We had seen them and heard them. The new day was bright.

We headed to the Verdon George, stopping near to Blieux to examine some rocks. A short distance nearby was some Marne Bleu and Gres d’Arnot in Barreme flysch sequence. We continued driving East along the D21 and D4085 with views towards Lac de Castillon. In Castellane we turned back West and drove along the Verdon river and D952 stopping for lunch at a Le Mur D’Abeilles. We all had a jolly meal. The views of the gorge from here are fantastic. Several vultures were spotted. None close enough for a decent photograph.

After lunch, we headed to Mont Chiran. The drive was along the D17 road which soon became a dirt track. Somewhere along the D17, we turned off onto a smaller dirt track. Here only one vehicle would proceed, the track was too narrow for the larger van. We headed on up to be dropped near to the top vehicle access point. Van went back to pick up the others. Little known to us the other van was now stuck. the ground had collapsed under its rear wheels. A problem to be solved in the morning.

There was now a trek up the final track to the refuge which was at 1905 meters. The refuge was basic. Two bunk beds per room. There were a shower and toilet to all the rooms to share. They were not operational, no water. There was some basic lighting. The actual loo was a sawdust type loo with a view, perched on the edge of the mountain.

The refuge guardian prepared supper for us. A basic three-course meal, with huge gaps between each course.

The views from the top were gobsmacking, especially as the sun went down. In some of the pictures looking East you can see the shadow of the Earth which gives you the red and blue curved lighting effect.

After supper, some of us went to the observatory where we viewed the moon and various planets. Jupiter & Saturn were visible.

The Pelvoux Massif and Variscan sheeted dyke complex

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Left our campervan at 9.00 and walked up to the road to await the vans. Today we were heading North to the Ecrins National Park. We even took the peage today. Our guides had previously staged clear of it. Stopped at the final peage for a loo break. Then another drive into the mountains.

First, we stopped near to Pouillardencq on the D57 where we photographed the distant mountains. Back in the van for a few miles.

We stopped along the D985A near to Saint-Firmin and donned our Gillet Jaunes to view exposed outcrops of rock. One French driver asked us what the demonstration was about! We were able to see dykes. I think it’s amazing to think this area was under the sea, R not so amazed. These Dolerites were fine-grained and made up of hundreds of sheets with thicknesses from 50cm to two meters. Doleritic rocks of this grain size are constructed from numerous small dykes in the Oceanic crust.

We moved off to a river for lunch and then examined the metamorphosed granites. I built a rock pile, which was knocked down by Donny, our geology expert. It was built on one of his prized exhibits, an Augen Gneiss. Augen, from the German meaning eyes, is a coarse-grained gneiss resulting from metamorphism of granite, which contains characteristic elliptic or lenticular shear-bound feldspar porphyroblasts, normally microcline, within the layering of the quartz, biotite and magnetite bands.

We revisited the road stopping place once more for some more viewing. Managed to spot a small wasps nest.

It was back to Wiz for supper where we had a Pastis tasting evening. As the evening came to an end, a storm approached. Lovely displays of lightning and thunder. We were back in the van before the rain came, though we were met by the rain on the trip back from the loo.

Digne Les Bain and the Esclangon

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Left the campsite on foot at 7.40, and were picked up on the main road at the top of Mallefougasse. Our first stop of the day was just outside Digne to see some ammonite fossils. These were right beside the road in a layer of Jurassic mudrocks. You could see several layers, only one layer has these large ammonite fossils. The Rosso Ammonitico Veronese Formation was spectacular.

From here we drove up a spectacular valley with windy roads, steep valley sides. We were aiming to get to the start of the walk up to the abandoned village of Esclangon and beyond, to a view of the “Velodrome”. A few miles before we reached the point, there was a roadblock. Road workers were working on stabilising the cliffs. A discussion was held, and the road was going to be opened during their lunch break. Luckily this was not an issue, as we were also due to stop at the modern village of Esclangon, a couple of miles back.

Here we parked and walked to see some rock outcrops in the nearby woods. In the area, we found some special rock called Carngeules. These are originally are evaporites, which are very weak rocks, and are often exploited by thrusts. Also in the distance, we saw a row of pinnacles.

Back in the vans we were now able to head through the roadblock and stop at the bottom of the walk up to Esclangon. Before we started the walk up, we headed along the road to look at the formidable cliffs. Here we were at the base of the Tertiary, and some Jurassic limestone.

It was now a walk-up, first to the old village where we ate out packed lunch. There was a church here and a closed art exhibition. Also nearby was the original open washing area. We continued the walk up to a pinnacle where there is the viewpoint for the Velodrome. The viewpoint has a spectacular view of the valley and rock outcrops. The view shows an entire sedimentary sequence which is deformed by a very large recumbent syncline and is cut by a major thrust. Apparently it is one of the best exposed, easily accessible and largest tectonic folds to be seen anywhere in the world.

Now it was time to amble back down the path, and back into the vans. It was late enough for the road workers to have finished work and the road was open. Back at Les Mees, one van stayed there for drinks, while others headed back. We headed back as we had to move and I wanted to do it in the daylight.

At our campsite, we packed up, I showered. We were given some of our camping fees back. The French guides then escorted us to our new spot nearer to Cruis. We would be camping in the garden of a gite Mas des Grailles. This was owned by A french man and his English wife who was the translator for the group. The visitor part of the gite was not in use, so we could use the loos and shower. We were also plugged into their electricity.

The journey to supper and back was now a lot quicker, though still had to be done by van. Three course supper based around pasta and an aubergine accompaniment, and lots of wine.

Back at the gite we duly met the dog (a ridgeback) and the cat (black). These had a totally free range. It was disconcerting walking to the loo, you passed the dog in its bed. It totally ignored you.