Why we think we're different!

I've been reading through a few travel blogs recently, for inspiration I suppose.  Inspiration for ideas on where our travels could take us next (not that we need any more options in the mix!) and inspiration for where to take the blog.  Originally we started to write this just to keep our friends and family up to speed with how our move to France for the winter season was going.  It's just sort of grown from there really, as have our travels!  It seems that we're probably going to be doing this "travelling thing" for a bit longer yet and so I've decided that I'm going to move the blog forward and try to develop a proper webpage, hence looking for inspiration.

There are myriad travel blogs out there on the world wide web, unsurprisingly - career breaks, gap years, digital nomads, and RTW trips are pretty standard for a lot of people these days.  But there was something different about all the blogs I was reading compared with our own story.  For us, there was no long drawn out decision about whether to make the break, no years spent saving, no big sell off of all our wordily possessions - we just went.  From realising in the June of last year that we fancied doing something different and discovering that we both felt the same about giving a winter season a go, we applied for chalet jobs in the July, got the job in August and left in December.  There was no time for a big saving plan, and we didn't really have any worldly possessions so a couple of carboot and eBay sessions easily sorted that out.

I suppose the fact that we were just supposed to be going to do a winter season made it all a lot easier as we didn't actually have any plans to make and we didn't really need any savings either.  Everything was sorted for us - we just turned up and were given our apartment, lift passes, insurance, food and even our travel to the Alps was covered.  Oh, and were were getting wages too!  It made an easy break for us - it cost us nothing to go and try it out, if we didn't like it we'd be home in five months and we could pretty much pick up where we left off.  We would have to have found jobs of course, and that's probably easier said than done these days, but we're both quite well qualified and experienced in what we do and anyway, we wouldn't have been picky.

From there everything just sort of… happened.  We loved the winter season so much that we arranged with our employers to return the following year and that then gave us a summer to fill with, well, whatever we wanted!  This is where a savings plan would have come in handy!  We didn't have much, and what we did have we spent on going back to the UK, MOT'ing the car ready to sell, buying a campervan and then getting back over to the continent.  We also had a weeks holiday in Holland booked, so that needed cash putting aside for too.  Anyway, we managed to spend the whole summer in Europe, floating around places - mostly France - and we've even made it as far as New Zealand, where we are now.  Okay, so we've had a little help along the way - we spent ten weeks doing Workaway, which helped us not spend money, and we're lucky enough to be able to stay with friends here in NZ so our hostel bill is not going to be so big that we'd need a mortgage.  Oh yeah, and Mr Mastercard helped out with the flights!

Even though we've scraped through the summer with practically no money, we've realised that we don't actually need to spend much to travel. I guess that travel means different things to different people and maybe if we had been somewhere very far from home (culturally I mean, because NZ is pretty much as far as you can get!) we'd have taken it more seriously.  Perhaps if we'd been in China, Peru, or Namibia we'd have spent a lot more time researching the place, finding sight seeing tours and experiences and of course safe places to stay.  As "first-timers" to this whole new game we'd have needed a plan.  Europe for us was safe and not too different from home.  We knew that we could get around by ourselves and we felt safe parking up and "wild camping" wherever we felt like it.  After we'd seen one city and visited one museum all subsequent ones more or less merged into each other to the point of us crossing off cities from our priority list.  Don't get me wrong, cities are great -  we both have a lot of fondness for Paris, for example - but we both get a much better feel from the natural aspect of a place.  We love the sea and the mountains, we want to see the birds and the marine life and to see how different the countryside is.  And that, of course, is free.  Having done things this way might seem to some like we've missed out on some of the great things Europe has to offer - we didn't go to St Tropez or Amsterdam, despite them both being more or less on our route.  We didn't go to the Mercedes Benz museum or Wilhelma Zoo despite them being in Trip Advisor's top 5 for Stuttgart.  But what we did do is gain experience, and more importantly, confidence in our ability to make it around on our own.

Whilst I really love what we're doing and want to be a "traveller" for quite a while longer, I'm keen not to be branded with one of the titles I mentioned at the beginning.  Not that there's anything wrong with being any of those things, but I've never liked feeling like a tourist, and backpacking round the world following tour guide after tour guide, ticking off the "must-do's" for each country and city seems a lot like being a sheep to me.  Following the route predetermined by everyone else.  A lot like the expected route of "go-to-uni, get-a-job, buy-a-house, settle-down, 9-5…, hate-Monday's"...

And isn't that the one thing we left to get away from…?

Planes, trains and automobiles... NZ here we come!

To be precise our journey has consisted of 36 hours, five countries, three planes, three trains and two automobiles.  Now we're finally here and … well, it's pretty spectacular!!!  Plenty more time for all that though - for now, the journey...

After having heard Robbie and Lucy talk about how the long journey wipes you out so much that it's hard to remember anything from halfway onwards, we decided that we wanted to make an ongoing account of the trip so we could record it in case of sleep-deprived memory failure!  Rather than the standard typed account of our journey we decided that a video diary would probably capture it far better and so that is what we did….

Hopefully that's given a little flavour of our epic journey across the whole globe!  

Now that we're here we're starting to get really excited about all the things the country has to offer... And as we've somehow managed to escape jetlag completely, we're able to get planning straight away!

Ciao for now...

November signing out.

The Invasion, Flatwoodstock and Goodbye Bois de Plan

As I type this entry I am sitting in Heathrow Airport sipping on a cappuccino and reminiscing on our recent adventures and indeed the final stage of our European Summer Trip.  It's safe to say we've had a fantastic time and if you read our previous posts and look at our photos, hopefully you'll understand why!

For the last two months we have made our home at Bois de Plan as part of our Workaway adventure and we couldn't have asked for anything more from our hosts Janita and Pete.  Following on from our last post we've continued to have a brilliant time - even more diverse than before, this time due to the huge influx of different faces who descended upon the place throughout August…  We were warned that August could get pretty hectic and I think that is probably a fairly accurate description!  To give an idea of how much busier it got, at one point there were over 30 people staying at the farm!  It certainly made for needing a well organised plan for sleeping arrangements plus a cooking and cleaning rota!  We met loads of really nice people, family and friends of Pete and Janita, many of whom we'll stay in touch with ourselves and hopefully get to see again at some point in the future.  This is definitely a part of travelling that we felt we'd been missing before Workaway - but that's okay because this last month has certainly made up for it!

We were also made up to be able to stay for the party which has been named "Flat Wood Stock" by Janita's daughter Jane (Bois de Plan roughly translates as 'flat wood', which might make sense of the name choice!).  The weather had changed quite dramatically in the days running up to the party with some really superb electrical storms and massive downpours - a nice change from all the hot weather but a bit of a worry for the party - but fortunately the sun came back out just in time and all was fine.  Everyone puts in loads of effort for the party with cake baking, quiches and pizza for the buffet, a big stage is made out of scaffold in front of the barn and there's a proper PA system wired up with mic's and amps for the guitars and even a screen hooked up for watching music videos in between the live music!  Everyone seemed to have a really good time and there were some good turns up on the stage.  Even Ian joined in with a very special rendition of 'Hocus Pocus' by Focus… something that I think everyone will have a memory of!  The party went on into the early hours although I missed the last couple of hours as I had eaten too much curry and pizza so went to 'lie down' to digest and ended up falling asleep!  Bit of a shame, although I was happy not to have had the extra hours worth of drinking alcohol in my system the next day - I was completely hangover free!

After the party the groups of family and friends started to wain away as everyone went back home and by the end it was back down to just me, Ian and Pete - even Janita was away at a conference so numbers were at an all-time low!  We managed to finish off the trench project by building a fence perimeter complete with a style which we were pleased with.  To finish it off Janita will be planting a selection of plants which will filter the water as it trickles down the the trench to result in a pool of drinking water for the animals.  After having worked on the pigsty conversion earlier on in our stay, we hadn't been involved in the later stages as a couple of Leon's (Pete's son) friends were carpenters and so we happily stepped aside and let the professionals continue!  There was beam reinforcement, plasterboarding and plastering galore and by the time they went home the room was really starting to look transformed.  We were a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see it finished before we left, but there's only so many hours in a day and the guys had worked really hard even just to get it to where it is now… obviously our expectations of seeing it finished just reflect our lack of knowledge on how long these sort of projects really take!

We spent our last couple of days at Bois de Plan packing for our next trip, sorting out the van, playing some more board games and wiff waff (non-competitive ping-pong!) and taking loads of pictures of the animals - we're going to miss those guys!  We had a nice last meal with Pete and Janita, who had returned from her trip the day before we left, and enjoyed our last good nights sleep before setting off for our epic journey to the other side of the world!

So having spent a wonderfully diverse four months in five different European countries in trusty old Agatha and at two amazing Workaway homes, we have learnt so much about travelling on a small budget, life in France, and how to live a green lifestyle with more wealth than money can bring, this post now officially marks the end of our Europe trip - sad that a mini-era has come to and end but mega excited for the next stage!

So, all's that is left to say now is good bye and thank you France!! (for now, anyway!)

Ciao for now, November signing out.

A few pics from some days out around the Auvergne area...  (more pics of the party etc coming soon!)

    

Workaway - our working holiday exchange

So before we begin, a quick reminder of how you can follow us on our travels - other than via our wonderful (if a little sporadic!) blog!

We're now on Twitter and you can follow us by clicking here... 

Follow @IndiaNovember12

or by searching for us (@indianovember) on Twitter .

Or you can view our full photo album which is being kept on Photobucket at THIS LINK... , or on Facebook if you're friends with us there! They are pretty much in chronological order now, most recent will be first...

Another long break in between blogs - well what can I say… we're just so busy!  We have been up to a tonne of stuff since we left Sausset les Pins (which, by the way, seems like an eternity ago!) although the full update won't be possible just yet.  Due to the fact that we've been up to so many different things and learnt so much over the past few weeks, we're in the process of putting together the blog in a different way.  The diary style has been good for us so far, but doesn't suit what we've been doing recently so a change is a-coming!  Also, there is only limited time for typing at the moment as the "invasion" is due to start tomorrow - more about that later!

Right, well I mentioned in the last post that we'd discovered Workaway and at that point we were about to embark on our first ever Workaway experience.  That was just over five weeks ago and now we're in the middle of Workaway experience number two!  To sum it up quickly all I can say is that Workaway has been one of the best things I have ever done and cannot recommend it highly enough to other travellers wanting to get the best out of their experience abroad.  Despite veering from our original plan of finding summer jobs to help save some pennies for New Zealand I think we are going to come away from these last and upcoming few months with far more wealth than simply financial ones.  We will have memories, experiences, new knowledge and skills, and friends that will be with us for the rest of our lives, long after the money we could have earned would have been spent and forgotten.  Workaway is going to be part of our life for a very long time, if not forever!

Our first Workaway was a wonderful entrance into this worldwide community so new to us.  We had such an amazing host who treated us well and made us feel at home and part of the family from the very moment we arrived.  For those of you who have seen our photos on Facebook or Photobucket you may already have an idea of what we got up to there, so we can fill you in on a few more details here.

We made our home for two weeks at Lei Chambris in a small town called Salernes in the region of Provence-Cote-d'Azur, South East France.  Our host was Pamela, a lovely lady originally from New Zealand but who had spent many years in London and then the last fifteen years in France building up her chambre d'hôte business, Lei Chambris.  Living at Lei Chambris was an extended family of three cats - Saskia, Suri and Simba; two dogs - Sam and Chloe; and four chickens.

Looking after these guys was part of our job whilst staying with Pamela, along with gardening, maintaining the pool (including checking temperature - no better way to do that than swim in it!), gardening, looking after the veg patch and helping out with changing over the accommodation when guests left.  We had a really great time and learnt a few things along the way as we were pretty much left to it and could get stuck into things the way we wanted to.  Ian liked the chickens as he wants to keep some in the future, so he made them a log pile to climb on and forage around and looked into ways to keep the rats away from the chicken house.  My favourite place was the veg patch so I spent loads of time weeding and tidying up in there, and I built a compost heap too.

As we were there for only a short space of time we couldn't really get stuck into any bigger projects - really we were just there to fill the gap for Pamela between other people arriving in the summer. We also had the place to ourselves for almost a week as Pamela had arranged to go back to the UK to visit a friend so she'd asked if we minded being left in charge.  Certainly not, particularly as she offered to pay us €150!

We ate really well at Lei Chambris and had some super meals, which were welcomed after our long stint of campervan meals (basically a rotation of tortellini and gnocchi in various tomato based sauces!).  We cooked on the barbecue quite a few times and had loads of fresh eggs - four every day from the chickens!  Also we were just in time for the veg garden to start producing some summer crops so we had lovely fresh salads with mange tout, green beans and tomatoes.  Plus wine with our evening meals!  On our two days off we took advantage of being in an area surrounded by national park and took a trip in the van to a place called the Gorge du Verdon which was simply stunning.  We hired a canoe and paddled down the gorge and then the next day we swam down using our body boards and flippers!  It was nice to have a couple of days off, although we had plenty of time off even on the days we worked - Pamela was quite insistent that we didn't work too hard (if at all!) during the heat of the day so we usually relaxed between 11.30am and 6pm.  This gave plenty of time for swimming, sunbathing, reading, having a leisurely lunch and watching the Tour de France.  We couldn't have asked for anything more whilst we were there - it truly was a superb welcome into the Workaway community! 

After two weeks the time came for us to leave as Pamela had already arranged for some other people to come for the rest of the summer.  Whilst we were still at Lei Chambris we had decided that we'd look for another Workaway straight afterwards to see us through until September so we'd e-mailed a few people and the first one that got back to us we accepted.  So this is where we are now, and we couldn't be having a better time!

Jess

Since the second week of July we've been living with Pete and Janita at Bois de Plan, a small farmholding in Saint Christophe, in the Auvergne region.  We're literally in the middle of nowhere, the nearest neighbours almost a kilometre away, and it is just wonderful!  If we thought we were having the time of our lives at Salernes, then it got raised way above the bar when we landed ourselves here!  Pete and Janita are the most friendly, welcoming and relaxed people I've ever come across and they've shown us a completely different side to life just by sharing their way of living with us.  When we arrived we didn't know how long we would want to be here, or indeed how long they would want us here, but after a week or so we realised how much we were enjoying ourselves and we told them we'd really like to stay on and they said it would be fantastic if we could stay until September!  So this is now our home until we make our way across to the other hemisphere for yet another exciting adventure!

There just been so much going on since we arrived here it would have been crazy to do a day by day account so instead I'm going to try and sum up what we've been doing, update on the projects we're involved in and try to give a general feel for the place.  To begin with I'll introduce the family.  We have the cats - Mungo, Cheya, Winnie, Willow, Vena (Vanilla), Vimal (Phillip) and Vector Vijay Vector Vroom (Vijay or V-Cat for short!).  Vanilla and Phillip are Willows kittens and when we arrived they were just four weeks olds and simply adorable.  Vijay arrived the week after us and he came from someone Pete knew who needed to get rid of some of their cats as they were about to have their first child.  Vijay was also quite young at around two months and he's also really cute - he's like our little adoptee as he was given refuge in our room (more about our accommodation later) when he arrived so that he wasn't thrown straight into the realm of the other cats straight away.  He still comes and sleeps with us at night time and keeps us company through the day, he's our little friend!  Next is Jess, the border collie cross (not sure what with!), and she is just bonkers.  She could quite literally outrun a Duracell battery and CANNOT be tired out.  She loves to play fetch and would do so all the day through.  Janita told us that once some people who were staying with them took it in turns to throw a stick or a ball for her and she kept going until they were all fed up!  She's also a real sweetie and loves cuddles with everyone too.  Then there are the donkeys, Oscar and Bibi.  They keep themselves to themselves and you can sometimes forget they're there, until they start to bray which is often at unearthly hours of the morning!  Jess likes to bark at them, which I think they just find amusing.  Next are the sheep (x7), the chickens (x5) and the ducks (x5).  They're all nameless, probably because it would be too hard to keep up with everyone!

It seems like a lot of animals, but it's really cool the way it works - they all live outdoors and they've all got jobs - the cats catch mice, Jess is guard dog (supposedly!), the chickens and ducks lay eggs, the sheep provide wool for insulating the buildings, and the donkeys… well, the donkeys are just for fun!  Actually, they help to keep the grass down in the fields, along with the sheep, so even they've got a job!  That's pretty much the approach that Pete and Janita have here at the farm - everything  has a job and everything is for a reason.  They do so many things that help to reduce their reliance on the "outside world" making them almost completely self sufficient and also really environmentally friendly!  There's way too many things to mention in this short update, but I'm definitely going to write about them at some point, if only for my own future reference for living a green life!

From the day we arrived here we've been able to get stuck into projects but have also been included in Pete and Janita's social calendar.  The very first weekend here we went to a "mountain party" for someones 60th birthday - basically it was just a party in a village hall up in the hills, but that was quite cool!  Everyone brings some sort of food and drink and there's a big buffet for everyone to help themselves to.  Loads of the people that belong to that circle of friends are musicians so there was a mini jamming session going on in-between the regular party music.  On our second weekend we went to two parties!  The first, on the Saturday night was a wedding party and pretty much the same set up at the mountain party except it was at the house of the people getting married.  On the Sunday daytime we went to the continuation of another party that had been happening somewhere else on the Saturday night.  This one had a really nice feel to it and people were just milling round, some playing guitars, others chatting and drinking (mostly coffee, it looked like it might have been a heavy night!), a game of petanque in the driveway, and a crowd of men looking after the barbecue which was getting ready to roast around 20 (yes, twenty) spatchcocked chickens to go with the rest of the food.  Pete told us that this party had been going on every year for about 25 years so was almost like a little tradition in the local area.  The parties were really good for us to go to, the only downside was that our French speaking was not really up to enough for us to hold conversation with anyone and most people here don't speak much English either!  So we were pretty much just onlookers, but we still managed to have a good time!

Ducks next to the veg patch

Dressing the stones

Preparing the mini wall

In terms of the work we're doing, it's been nicely varied.  There's a sizeable vegetable patch where Janita grows lots of nice veggies and there's also a selection of fruit trees and bushes.  As it's summer time there's plenty of weeding to do, so that's been a bit of an ongoing project of mine to help keep on top of the weeds.  Janita said it doesn't normally look this good at this time of year, so it's nice to know that my weeding is making a difference!  Ian has done some weeding too, but on more of an industrial scale!  He's been in charge of strimming the huge amount of nettles that were taking over in the one of the fields and at the back of the house.  We've also done some collecting of logs from the woods as it needs to be piled up to dry out for the winter.  That was fun because we got to drive the tractor across the field and into the woods to load the logs onto the trailer - good fun, but pretty hard work too!  Pete is a builder by trade and so is out at work during the week and on one day we got to go along and help out on one of the renovations that he is doing on a run down pigeon folly and we learnt how to put up scaffolding and how to mix a lime mortar for brick work.  That came in handy for another project we have back at the farm as they are converting one of the outhouses (an old pigsty) into a yoga studio for Janita (she is a yoga teacher).  Ian had already finished off digging out the old concrete base that had been started by a previous Workaway couple from Taiwan who left the day before we arrived.  The next thing we had to do was to build a mini wall at the front of the room to support a full width stone step which would bring the floor up to the required height for the rest of the room.  That was more mortar mixing, stone selecting and spirit-levelling!  The next stage was to build the step and that meant we had to learn how to dress the masonry with a circular saw (pretty good fun) and then back fill behind the mini wall ready to place the newly finished stone blocks on top to create the step.  Once the stones and the backfilling had been completed we managed to lay the stone in just one day which we were pretty chuffed with.  When Pete got back at the end of the day he said it was just how he wanted it! Yey!  Next is the concrete floor, which we're doing this afternoon.

Ian has another ongoing project of sorting out the trench where all the waste water flows into.  He's dug it out to create a sort of pooling system and then he's going to select a bunch of plants to put in there to filter the water as it flows out, creating a pool of clean water at the end that the animals can drink from.  That's work in progress so we'll keep you updated on that one!  We've also been doing loads of cooking in the evenings which has been a good learning experience for us as Janita is vegetarian and we've been having a vegetarian diet since we arrived.  That's gone down really well for us and even Ian isn't really missing meat all that much!  It's interesting for me to notice how lazy cooking with meat can make you - it's so easy to make a meal out of practically the same veg/pasta/rice/potato base and just chuck a different meat in to get the 'variety', but with vegetarian meals, unless you get adventurous, that would more or less mean ratatouille everyday which wouldn't be so great.  So it means that you have to be more inventive with cooking and that can only be a good thing!  We've had some fantastic meals and Janita is a great cook too so we're certainly not going short in the food department!

Pete, Janita and Ian on a daytrip to Chateau Montgilbert

In our spare time, which is mostly in the evenings, we tend to spend our time with Pete and Janita after we've all eaten dinner together.  They've introduced us to strategy board games and we're hooked!  We have played a game literally every night that we've been in the house since we got here!  They've got stacks of different games and they're all brilliant!  We'll definitely be getting some for playing in the winter - better than re-watching the entire set of Scrubs DVD's again!  We also spent a nice afternoon in the garden with Pete's guitars (and mine!) playing a little bit of music - Pete's a musician and even has a CD on iTunes!  We also have comfortable starts in the morning, long lunches and a generally slower paced day so we're never particularly stressed!  It's still pretty tiring though, but that's mostly because we're up until gone midnight every night playing games!  After that we get to crash out in our own little outhouse, another old pigsty already converted.  It's really basic, but we've got electricity and we actually don't spend much time in there anyway so it doesn't matter.

So we're generally just having a really fantastic time and hopefully this little update will have given a flavour for what we're up to and what it's like here.  Things are about to get a lot more hectic here though, as from tomorrow, because 'the invasion' is about to start… Basically there are hoards of people who all come to visit over the summer and Janita said there have been up to 20 people all here at once!  There will also be a party at the end of August which a load of people come to, so that's another thing to look forward to!

Okay, that will do for now… we'll definitely get another update in during August before we go to NZ, so hopefully you'll read us again soon!

Ciao for now!


November signing out

Looong update, much overdue!

Okay, so here's the rest of our Germany trip and onwards, as promised!

Apologies for some of the shorthand style, much was done retrospectively and scribbled onto scraps of paper - true arty writer stylee!!

Germany, Holland & France.

May

Saturday 19th - Left lay-by at Fuβbach and drove to Schömberg.  Had beers in an awful bar with terrible techno music pumping out of the stereo.  Looked for things to do on the local notice board - naturally the Tourist Information office is closed on a Saturday afternoon.  There was a leaflet advertising good walking routes, which we had also seen on the generic Black Forest tourist leaflet.  Found a foresty car park and stayed the night.  Saw some mice playing on a tree stump!  Went back to the town and had beers in a nicer hotel and used their Wifi.

Sunday 20th - Moved the van to the car parking near the park and went on a "20km" hike through meadows and forest.  Got a bit lost at one point and had to navigate across a stream and nettle field!  Lots of buzzards, kites and mice.  Walked for about 5hours, which made us think it was a little more than 20km!  

Got back and had huge portion on frites with mayo and ketchup with beers, in the nice hotel.  Had ice cream for "pudding" from the Crazy Golf man.  Moved across the road with the van to a big gravel car park and settled down for the evening.  Made dinner (noodles, Singapore style!), played chess and looked at the birds through the bin's.  Got scared by something at dusk (probably just something falling from a tree onto the van, but we thought we we're being attacked!) so moved the van closer to the road.  Chickens.

Monday 21st - Went to visit Stuttgart - really hot weather.  Really difficult roads to navigate around the city and this isn't helped by the fact that we need to search out open-air car parks for Agatha as all the multi storeys are height restricted and she doesn't fit under the barrier.  Street parking anywhere near the centre was ridiculously expensive and limited to only 1 hour in places.  Didn't think that much of Stuttgart, we did the Tourist Trail following a map of historical and other points of interest but there wasn't really much of distinction.  We did have an amazing lunch from the Kebab shop though!  Left Stuttgart and headed North, en route for Holland.  Stayed in a motorway service station overnight.

Tuesday 22nd - Left the service station fairly handy in the morning, and went to a campsite in Datteln, again found on the ACSI Euro Campings app.  The weather was absolutely scorching and we were nearly melting in the van.  The campsite was nice and we got to camp by the little pond and home made beach.  Bit annoyed when we went for showers as there was a 50¢ charge for shower and the hot water was on a four minute timer!!  In the evening we sought refuge from the heat in the shaded outdoor area at the bar, had a beer and played chess.  Back to the van for dinner when it had cooled down enough.  Slept with the van door open at night as it was just so hot!  Noisy frogs from the pond!

Wednesday 23rd - Left the campsite at Dutteln.  Had been looking forward to a nice leisurely departure around midday before moseying further north towards Groningen where we are going to visit Xavi and his family.  However, there was confusion with the dates and we were expected there today! So, had to rush to get ready to leave before 10am and razzed up to Groningen.  When we got there Karen had prepared a lovely lunch for us and we enjoyed this in the garden with a beer.  In the evening we went to the local leisure complex to watch Xavi's son Ian play in a football tournament.  We were invited to stay over so that we could visit Groningen tomorrow.  Nice comfy bed!! Zzzzzz….

Thursday 24th - We'd borrowed some bikes from Xavi's neighbour yesterday to go to the football tournament so we kept hold of them today to get to Groningen.  Had a nice walk around the centre of the city and cycled over to a huge park at the south side of the city where Karen had recommended a Chinese All You Can Eat Buffet.  We certainly made the most of that!  Felt so full afterwards that we had to lie down in the park to recover!  Couldn't face getting back on the bikes for about an hour, but when we did we cycled back to the leisure complex where there was a swimming lake and a mini home made beach.  We lazed there for the rest of the afternoon/early evening before going back to Xavi's.  When we got back we found that Karen had made us all a HUGE pasta dinner - huge struggle to force it down which was a shame as it was lovely.  Stayed over again so we could set off straight away for Makkum in the morning.

Friday 25th to Friday 1st - the standard Elfstdentocht week in Holland!  Did the ride on the Monday (Ian and I had hired a tandem, which seemed like such less a good idea at the end than it had at the beginning!!  But we did it, and that is good).  Nice weather for the first had of the week, then a bit grey and some rain but the weather was good for the ride, and that is the main thing.  The villa was beautiful and we spent a lot of time outside on the decking overlooking the water canals.  we all basically just chilled out for the week and played lots of Scrabble on mum's iPad!  A lovely week, all in all.

June

Friday 1st - Left Makkum, Had lunch in a little harbour town, then went to Appeldoorn for dinner in the evening as Mum & Dad were staying in a hotel there so we ate with them.  Found a little Greek style place and had shish kebab with potatoes.  Went to the hotel to play Scrabble.  Stayed in Appeldoorn in a roadside camp.

Saturday 2nd - Left Appeldoorn and headed south west, for want of a better direction!  Stopped in a service station for some breakfast and to use the wifi.  Applied for a bunch of summer jobs advertised online.  Decided that Holland would be difficult to find jobs as we don't speak Dutch and most Dutch people speak English so we couldn't even take advantage of our language skills.  Decided to head for France to see if we could have any luck in the agricultural work sector.  Drove towards Metz and stopped in a Service Station overnight.

Sunday 3rd - Waited around Metz as we needed camping gas and we'd found two camping stores that would open tomorrow.  Had a Maccy's tea near Nancy as we couldn't cook in the van and also needed to use McWifi.  Wifi was a bit rubbish and frustratingly dropped out every minute or so.  Managed to apply for a couple more jobs and also signed up with "easy au pair" website.  Found a layby for overnight camp.

Monday 4th - Bought gas at a garden centre and had a look at the cute hamsters and guineas pigs.  Went to the Maccy's next door but bad Wifi again.  Looked at farming areas and decided to go "on location" to speak to farmers directly.  Plotted Sat Nav for Limoges as this is a fairly central location and gave us options for which side of the country to go for.  Stopped at Troyes on the way past as the gas we'd bought turned out to be the wrong kind of canister.  Managed to find a DIY store just out of town and bought one there.  Troyes was a nice town full of history and if we'd had more time we'd have spent longer there, a day or two, exploring the place.  Kept driving towards Limoges and found a quiet lay-by on a forest road for camping.

Tuesday 5th - Continued with planned route and saw the scenery begin to change as we got further south.  Less wheat growing in the fields and more vineyards.  Happened to pass by a sign for Sancerre and decided to 'drop by' for a nosey.  Found an employment office and went to to enquire about harvesting jobs.  Had a full conversation (in French!) with the girl there and she sent off our CV's for an agency she knew who often looked for workers.  She said we'd need to wait a couple of days to hear back so we found a place to park up on the roadside overlooking the vineyards and surrounding countryside.  We spent time wandering around the town and had a glass of wine (Sancerre, of course!) in Hotel des Remparts.

 Wednesday 6th - Sancerre again.  Enjoyed some lovely sunshine and some panoramic views whilst learning French on a park bench.  After having enjoyed the books we'd read during the first part of our trip, we had downloaded a load of iBooks so started to read them (Dracula) in the van.  A thunderstorm and huge downpour arrived and we watching the rain bouncing down from the van windows - fab!  Although, found a new leak in Agatha.  In the evening we had wine in Le Bouchon and also the Panoramic Hotel.  Stayed in the same road camp.

Thursday 7th - Still no email or phone call from agency so decided that we'd give it until the end of the day before setting off again.  We left Sancerre at around 4pm and decided that it would be good to head for the South, to increase chances of finding fruit picking work.  Travelled for the rest of the evening and stopped over in an Aire du Camping near Clermond Ferrand.

Friday 8th - Kept driving South, drove for most of the day.  Went through Milau with the huge suspension bridge, and then through Montpellier (at sometime rush hour!).  The scenery has now changed dramatically and is starting to look very Mediterranean-like.  Weather to match too!

We drove as far as the Camargue where we started to see roadside fruit 'vendeurs' so we stopped at a couple to ask about work opportunities with the harvests.  Left our phone number with one lady who had a friend with a farm, so at least we know the answer is not a straight out "No".  Still have hope!  Went to a little village called Eygaliers (or Eguieres, can't remember which!) and found a little lay-by on a quiet B-road and stopped there for the night.  Very breezy indeed, but this was nice to keep us and the van cool.  Think we've met with the Mistral wind!

Saturday 9th - Had a walk into the village and bought some delicious cherries from a little old lady at a market stall.  Set off driving again and drove all around the local vineyards and farms (plentiful) to speak to the farmers (non-existent).  We bumped into an Aussie lady who said that work is really hard to find due to all the immigrant workers.  Found a nearby Maccy's and Skyped with Rob & Luce.  They go to New Zealand tomorrow :( .  We'd also found the "Relais" restaurant earlier in the day with a section in the car park for truckers to stop over, and the wifi reached all the way so we Skyped again in the evening to show R & L the van.  Stayed the night in the carpark.

Sunday 10th - R & L leave for NZ tonight.  Went to Avignon centre during the day for a bit of sightseeing in the rain.  Looked for job agencies to visit tomorrow.  Didn't really think much of Avignon this time - except for the obvious tourist attractions - Palais du Pape and the unfinished Bridge etc., the place is just a little bit shabby, especially as we walked around the outskirts of the town and saw the 'real' Avignon!  Drove round for ages trying to find somewhere to camp and eventually found a nice little layby right next to a vineyard - shame the grapes aren't ready yet!

Monday 11th - Back to Avignon to try our luck with the Employment Agencies.  Unfortunately they were less accommodating of my poor French than the girl in Sancerre and made little effort to help us along.  Turned out that most of the agencies were for factory work anyway.  Went to the Pole Emploi and got the contact details of a few farmers nearby who were looking for workers.  Went to one of them in Cabannes and spoke to farmers wife and mother (very friendly!).  They had no work as their fruit had come to end of the season, but she recommended that we visit another farmer just the other side of the village.  We went to visit M.Gendre and had a good chat with him, his father and mother (as far as my French would allow, anyway!).  They also had no jobs at the moment as cherry season has ended.  He gave us his phone number for when the apple and pear season starts in mid July.  That seems an awful long way away!  We hadn't had a proper camp stop (i.e. wash!) since Makkum so decided to find one nearby.  We were in St Remy and the Sat Nav took us to Camping du Mas de Nicolas.  We couldn't have wished for a better campsite - pool, sauna, jacuzzi, wifi, little bar - and a complimentary bottle of wine!  Had the best shower ever and watched England V France in the evening.

Tuesday 12th - Campsite was so good (and fairly reasonable price so decided to stay another day.  Just spent the whole day relaxing by the pool, in the sauna and jacuzzi and using the wifi for more job hunting.  Watched Russia V Poland in the evening.

Wednesday 13th - Left at midday and walked into St Remy to see the markets.  Very busy and quite touristy.  The food markets were amazing though - very tempting and not a good idea to go before lunch!  Drove to a place called Fontvieille for "Aire du Camping".  Walked around the town and up to see the windmill made famous by the French writer Alphonse Daudet.  Played a bit of petanque before having dinner.  The weather is still red hot and it's quite dusty and arid here so can be unbearable if the breeze drops at all (which it tends to do from time to time).

Thursday 14th - Left Fontvieille and went further south to Martigues, a small harbour/port near the Med coast.  Not much to do or see there past one afternoons worth of wandering so carried on down the coast to Carro beach.  Went for a walk by the beach and found a lay-by just out of the town for camping (Stationnement Regelemente dans la ville).

Friday 15th - Back into the town in the morning and walked around the harbour and sea front.  Looked for a local shop to buy groceries and found that it was up a hill in the next village "Couronne".  Walked up to find that it was closed until 3pm (how are we still not remembering this??).  Went to look at the Camping Municipale (very expensive for an arid sand box, considering CM's are meant to be cheaper), then back to down to La Plage Verdon for sunbathing and body boarding (Ian).  Left at 6ish for tea and then walked back down to watch the England Vs Sweden in the evening.  Camped roadside on the seafront rocks.

Saturday 16th - Went in search of McWifi but no reply yet from Rob & Luce.  Bought a few bits from Lidl, including… SAUSAGES!  Also had a voicemail from someone replying to my au pair profile, they are looking for someone to start immediately in the Alps.  I texted back to say I was interested and would like more info on email.  Went to the beach near the harbour where a surfing expo was on.  Spent the day sunbathing and bodyboarding (Ian).  Went for a walk along the beach and through the town after dinner.  Saw a nice sunset and cased out the local restaurants (very expensive).  Roadside camped at the west side of town by a little beach we'll try tomorrow.

Sunday 17th - Spent most of today in the van at our new spot as we'd had two days of full on sun exposure and the sun was blazing again today.  In the morning we walked up to Couronne to find a cash machine.  Had sausage butties when we got back.  Not much else to report!

Monday 18th - Went back to Chateauneuf de Martigues for McWifi and McFlurry.  Had an email from Lyndsey in the Alps looking for an au pair.  Sent off my CV and requested info on the package etc.  Sounds interesting!  On the way back we decided to try a new village - Sausset Les Pins - a bit further along the coast.  We'd been over the weekend but it was so busy that we'd put it off till a weekday.  It seems nice, will explore properly tomorrow.  Had a beer in a cafe and checked Wifi again.  Another email explaining package - big discussion about what to do next… aagh!  Decisions to be made… Parked up a bit out of town along a promenade.  Lovely sea views and sight of Marseille.  LOTS of joggers… Madness in this heat.  Police Municipale drove by and had a nosey at us - hope we don't get woken in the night…

Tuesday 19th - The Police must not mind us being here as we didn't get asked to move during the night.  Went back down to the same cafe as we knew we could get WIfi and also charge the laptop.  Signed up with the Workaway website and looked at NZ flights.  Sent some messages for Workaway placements nearby to us.  We've decided to explore this avenue as it means we'll be able to do something together rather than potentially have to be separated whilst one or the other searches for work (as the au pair situation would require) and whilst we won't be earning money it means we won't be spending money - which is almost as financially valuable!  In the evening we checked Wifi again and had a reply from one of our Workaway messages, a lady a little North East from here who needs help at her Chambre d'hôte for the next week or so.  Replied saying we'd be very interested to Workaway with her and asked for a bit more info.  We didn't go to the beach at all today, to give our skin a bit of a rest.  In the evening Ian went down to the Miramar to watch the footy.  Camped in the same roadside spot.

Wednesday 20th - Moved the van closer to the beach (literally on the beach front) and went to the Miramar for Coke and ice cream sundae.  Also, booked our flights for New Zealand!!!  September 4th to December 5th.  Literally can't wait.  Just need for Rob and Lucy to get their internet sorted out so we Skype and tell them the news!!  Also had a reply from Pamela at Workaway and we have our very first placement with her, starting on Monday!  We'll be able to stay with her till July 10th, which is great.  Also, some of the time we're there she is going back to the UK so will be paying us (not normal for Workaway, it's volunteering) as it's more responsibility.  Also had an email from Lindsey (au pair) saying they'd found someone who could stay with them for a longer period of time - so, all fitting into place!  Parked up at the opposite end of town on a nice headland parking spot.

Thursday 21st - Went to the main beach stretch and spent the day there.  Ian bodyboarded, I paddled.  The water was lovely, once you were brave enough to submerge!  Got a bit lost looking for a boulangerie and ended up finding one 100 metres from where we started!  Found out at tea time that the gas must've leaked as the canister was empty.  No spare and too late to go finding a camping store  Decided to go to one of the harbour restaurants as they looked nice and were quite reasonably priced.  Ian had Moules Marinieres and I had a seafood spaghetti with humongous crevettes and delicious scallops (mussels too, but Ian had them).  A music festival was on in the village and the harbour but we didn't stay.

Friday 22nd - Drove to Cabries to buy gas from Decathlon - enormous retail park!  Also went to Maccy's for about 4 hours - booked our connecting flights from Geneva to Heathrow.  Back to van at 6ish so chilled out in the van and ate tea.  Walked to use Miramar Wifi in the evening.

Saturday 23rd - All day at the beach - very hot (35C) but windy, the sea was COLD!  Walked into the next town, Carry Le Rouet, in the evening before tea.  A bit bigger and posher than Sausset les Pins.  Came back for tea then down to Miramar to arrange Skyping with R&L tomorrow.  Watched the second half of Spain Vs France.

Sunday 24th - Early start to get down to Miramar to Skype with R&L to tell them about NZ flights! Totally psyched!  It was our last day in Sausset les Pins and our last day on the coast so stayed down at the beach, although it was a little cloudy and much cooler than it has been.  Had a good little swim in the sea though.

We're now onto another exciting part of our adventure, which will be updated over the next week.  We've got Wifi and electricity for charging the laptop so there's no excuse!  Except maybe the lure of the pool... :)

Ciao for now!


PS.  Full photo album is being kept on Photobucket at THIS LINK... , or on Facebook if you're friends with us there!  They're all a bit higgledy-piggledy at the moment as they've been getting uploaded at different times (phone & camera) but I'll try to sort them out and when I do they'll be in chronological order, most recent will be first...

November signing out.