Day 87 – 30th July – Thursday

I woke about 5:30am and was too cold to get back to sleep. The sun was about to come up, so I got my camera gear together and spent a couple of hours wading around in the river shooting damselflies and frogs. I wandered into town to get fresh bread and on the way back over the bridge, spotted a heron fishing downstream looking stunning in the first morning rays. So I left the bread and my flip-flops on the riverbank and waded in… I stalked that bloody bird for about half a mile up the river before he flew off leaving me with nothing but soggy jeans and a long barefoot walk on pebbles back to my flip-flops.
We got going again after a couple more hours of me trying desperately to get a shot of the blue/green damselfly with its wings open (unsuccessfully I might add). We headed for the Verdon Gorge which Erik had told us was Europe’s answer to the Grand Canyon and not to be missed; how right he was. The valley was breathtaking. We stopped for lunch in the bottom of the valley and swam again in the river before heading out of Provence on the eastern side towards the Alps. We found a very cheap campsite on the same river at the foot of the mountains and parked just passed a 1975, canary yellow, bay camper – the only one we had seen for weeks. Ant disappeared to do some washing and I started preparing dinner. I then noticed an oldish man dressed as Jesus approaching the van – slightly panic-stricken I pretended not to see him thinking he was going to start preaching at me. Hoping that he would walk past, I waited inside the van, but he had stopped outside the door and coughed loudly. I knew I had to be polite… I bent my head down to look out towards him and wished I had videoed the event, because Ant would have loved it…
I saw an oldish, round man with white beard, wearing a cream cotton bib with doily-like edging and plenty of beads, a long maroon decorated skirt, leather sandals and one of those small round Jewish hats. He was carrying a white bible and wooden walking stick and standing feet from the river bed. I nervously smiled at him and he lifted his hand and gave me the internationally recognised V-dubbers hand sign!!
He turned out to be the wonderful and very hospitable MacLouf; the owner of the canary yellow combi. He had a look around the van and marvelled at how clean and tidy it was, he said we must go over to see his when he returned and he disappeared off into the woods with his bible.
He took us over to his van a little later and we drank strong lemon liquor and listened as he told us about his van, his family, his religion and the current Jewish fast… he couldn’t eat or drink anything until the next morning.

Day 86 – 29th July – Wednesday

Got going fairly early and headed inland for Provence. We skirted round Marseille on the coast and arrived in the small town of Vinon-Sur-Verdon mid afternoon and parked up along the banks of the river. The water was crystal clear, wide and mostly not very deep. We could see trout swimming about in the depths and a sign that read – only take 5 trout per day please!
We wandered into town for supplies and had a swim in the waterfall area before cooking and sleeping. The temperature was 34 degrees at 7:30pm, but the nights get much much colder here in the highlands.

Day 85 – 28th July – Tuesday

Back on the road, round the coast to the Carmargue region. Beautiful fishing territory, open marshes and lots of canals.
We are currently camped on a farm alongside a canal / river. It’s very hot, but it has given Ant a chance to check the tappets again (we have covered 4,000 miles already!!!) and have another look at the fridge which is now not even working on hook up either. It’s become just a very expensive cupboard now. We bought a 12v plug-in coolbox on Sunday to try and ease the situation, but we don’t think the solar panels generate enough power to support it properly, especially as the split relay is broken and so not charging the leisure battery when we drive. I have gotten used to warm red wine, but arrgh…. how I long for cold milk on my cereal, and hard cheese in my rolls instead of the warm, oily, spreadable mess we have been suffering the last two weeks. Still, just bought a bottle of chilled, home-brewed, white wine from the farm owner for €2 (need something to toast Jakki’s birthday with!), so I’m sure things will seem better in a wee while.

Day 84 – 27th July – Monday

We headed north along the coast towards Sete and drove along a thin stretch of land with the sea on one side and a lake on the other and decided to stop – along with literally hundreds of other mobile homes; they stretched as far as the eye could see down the beach. Unfortunately, the road didn’t quieten down at night, so sleep was a little patchy.

Day 83 – 26th July – Sunday

Very sad to leave the campsite, a very surreal, but fantastic few days (and I was leaving with a hangover – not good).
We left around lunchtime and stopped at a flea market in the morning to peruse a load of French garage clear outs which was interesting to say the least. We headed for Gruisson on the coast where Frank and Sarah (a London couple we met at the Airstream park) had advised is a good place to go to sample the seafood on a quiet stretch of beach. When we got there we are guessing they didn’t go on a Sunday… the place was rammed. Mobile homes, cars, bikes and people everywhere. We continued to Gruisson-Plage where alledgedly some of Betty Blue was filmed, and found the seafood place right at the end of the beach. Unfortunately they only had oysters left which neither of us fancied, so I got some much needed sleep and woke just before sunset in time for dinner.