Happy New Year - 2024 review

 Tuesday 31/12/24

As 2024 draws to a close we've had some time to reflect on a busy year.  

All in all we spent almost eight months at La Basse Cour in Brittany (split over the beginning and end of the year), and visited Portugal, the UK (twice), Germany and Spain.  We travelled just over 16,000km in Dassie this year and towed Orthos, our caravan for almost half of the total distance.

It's been our sixth year 'on the road' and we're still living off income from our investments, which was always the master plan.  With that objective achieved, we are now almost ready to embark on the next phase of our plan - finding a new home.  

We will leave Brittany just before Easter and head South with Orthos.  Ideally we would like to find somewhere to rent in the area we want to settle in and then use the next year or so finding a property to buy.  We want to take our time to find somewhere we can settle down for many years, so want to make sure we get to know the areas before we buy.  Having said that, we do have a habit of falling in love with a property so we'll keep open minds.

With the colder weather, Jasper is always keen to find a warm spot to curl up in.

Even Lily makes herself comfy on a lap, if on offer.

It's really bittersweet to be leaving Brittany, we've grown to love the area and feel really comfortable here - we just find the damp, stormy winters hard to manage.  

At the same time, it's exciting to be house-hunting again; we've been travelling for so long without a permanent base of our own that it will be really grounding to have a home again.  There's quite a lot of planning to still do before we can settle down but it promises to be another exciting year.

We hope you have a lovely New Year's eve and a fantastic year ahead.

Bonus video:-  We've already had some brutal winter storms and no doubt will have a few more before our time here is done.

Back in Brittany - our winter sit begins

 Friday 11/10/24

This is the sky signalling an approaching storm.

After an incredible six months of travelling, we're back in Brittany looking after Jasper & Lily for the winter.

Lovely cut flowers from the garden

Courgette flower

Toni's reward for dead-heading all the Hydrangeas in spring

We travelled around 12,500km in Dassie, most of it with Orthos in tow, and visited five countries - we've really had a lovely summer!

Now back in Brittany, and although we've already had two storms passing through, the temperature is still quite mild so we're spending a lot of time in the garden as well as wrapping up some jobs on Orthos before we take her to her storage unit in ten days time.

It is a bittersweet time here as it will be our final winter stay at La Basse Cour.  In Spring we're planning on starting our house search for the next chapter of our French adventure.  We love being in France and, although we have become very comfortable Brittany, we would still like to be somewhere a bit dryer and warmer to live more long-term.  We'll see where can find a new home.

At the end of the month, Toni will be flying to SA for a family visit so we'll spend some rare time apart.

Bonus video:-

This morning the wind was from the East so we could hear the howler monkeys at a nearby safari park.  I tried to record them and was rudely interrupted by a Typhoon fly-by.

Martres-Tolosane, France

 Thursday 19/09/24

We had planned on using the far eastern crossing from Spain into France, via Figueres, as the weather outlook over the Pyrenees was looking quite bad for driving. However, as things improved weather-wise, we decided on a more direct approach.  This would mean a saving of almost 200km and quite a few hours' driving time.  

The tunnels ranged from simple holes through the rock to much more complex routes.

This means that, rather than driving over the mountains, we were going to tunnel  through them; at least for part of the way.  As it happened, we went through dozens of smaller tunnels and one long one - the Vielha tunnel.  At 5.2km, this cut through the highest peaks making the route perfect for towing - definitely recommended.

As you can see, the tunnel saves quite a big hill climb!

We travelled from the very arid, almost desert-like Spanish side of the mountains to the very green, lush central area, still Spanish but completely different in feel; almost Alpine.  The villages perched on the mountainside and in the valleys were absolutely lovely and we would like to return to the area in future to explore some more.

 

Perfect lunch stop with a view.

After a fairly smooth day's driving we crossed over into France without any fuss and are now camped for the night on the banks of the Garonne river.  

Sleeping under the trees tonight

Just an overnight stop and tomorrow we'll head a bit more north.

Santa Cilia and Zaragoza

 Wednesday 17/09/24

la Virgen de las Montañas

The weather is starting to change in this area and we were expecting rain overnight, so we used the last sunny day yesterday to cycle to Santa Cilia, a nearby town.  Because it is quite high up against the mountains, it is the perfect point for viewing vultures but, as it is quite high up, it was a really tough cycle.

The views were amazing and we spent some time just watching the vultures quietly circling wherever the thermals took them.  

On the way down I decided to try the off-road cycle trail rather than the tar road but the track was so storm-damaged I had to abandon it and ended up dragging my bike through bushes to try and get back to the tar road again.  Toni, sensibly, had taken the safe route and was waiting for me back at the road.

Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar

Close up it was too big to get in a photo - very impressive!

Because of the anticipated rain, we decided to pack up our awning and move back to France as the forecast is better over the next few days,  however we had planned a trip to Zaragoza today so decided to delay our departure and head there for the day.  

It turned out to be a lovely trip; for some reason we were both expecting a quietish town and were quite blown away by the scale of the town and the number of visitors - it was really busy.  The basilica was well worth the visit but unfortunately photos were banned inside, it was extremely ornate and filled with people, quite a popular site for pilgrims.

We had brunch in an interesting 2D cafe, it was like being in a cartoon.

We'll head back to France tomorrow as the next four days look very wet and we don't want to risk any more of the mountain roads washing away.  

This really has been a lovely area to visit and definitely somewhere we would want to return to in future.

Calcón reservoir trail

 Sunday 15/09/12

Saturday night sundowners

The weather just keeps getting better! Even though it isn't getting much above 20°C during the day, we're having wall to wall sunshine and cool nights.  Perfect for camping, cycling and hiking so we've been making the most of it.

Although the walk up was quite tough, the views made it worth it.

The Calcón reservoir viewed from the highest point of our walk

This morning we headed off on a 15km circuit, although as we had to walk to the start point, it ended up being 18km total.  It was a stunning walk up through the local area with outstanding views.  At first glance, we could have been in South Africa, the scenery is so similar.

The water looked lovely, if it had been warmer we might have been tempted.

This has got to be the narrowest dam wall I have ever seen.

The campsite has been quite busy over the weekend, with many Spanish family groups in the wooden bungalows and more campers coming and going.  We keep thinking it may quieten down but its not showing any signs.  I think as long as the weather holds, people will keep coming.  

We are having a very good time, and loving the Spanish late summer!

Panzano trail

 Friday 13/09/24

The campsite is about a third full, mostly Dutch, German and French campers.

Yesterday we decided to cycle down the road leading past the campsite to see if we could get to the area where the road was blocked.  We had been told the road was 'coupe', or cut, which we thought sounded overly dramatic.  

We could see there had been quite a few landslips, and there was a lot of debris in the road but we were still quite shocked to see the actual damage done to the road, once we found it.

The rain in Spain falls mainly... here!

There's no way through until they fix it, that's for sure.

The driftwood in the road looks like weird aliens that perished in the flood.

The culvert or bridge under the road had obviously become blocked by floating vegetation, damming up the water which completely overwhelmed the road and, when the pressure became too great, simply swept the entire area away.  In fact, 'coupe' was a very apt description!

Lovely scenery on our walk today.

The Rio Formiga below our position.

Today the wind has finally abated so we went on a longer hike, having already done some shorter walks in the area.  It turned out to be slightly longer (3+ hours walking) and a bit more challenging than we had expected, partly due to all the storm damage still in evidence.  very beautiful, though.

The weather is set to keep improving for a few more days so we'll keep exploring.

Camping Cañones de Guara Formiga, Panzano

 Wednesday 11/09/24

Looking back towards the Pyrenees as we crossed the Guara mountains

Although we were enjoying the campsite we were in, the weather outlook for this week was a bit grey, drizzly and cold so we have headed inland and a bit south to a campsite next to the Guara National park, known for it's mountains and canyons.  

It was quite a trek to get here, the first part along the Autoroutes which alternates between stretches of wonderful new dual carriageway roads for about 30km and then the original narrow, broken roads, then back on a motorway for a while, rinse - repeat.  It will be a wonderful route to travel when completed one day but stretches of the old route are very patchy.  

When the roads were good, they were brilliant - and empty!

Climbing up the Guara

After passing Huesca, we turned off onto an even rougher road for the final 21km and after 20km of very slow towing we were flagged over by a French couple who told us the road ahead had washed away - can you believe it!  Luckily it transpired this is on the other side of the campsite so we managed to get in without any problems and have set up ourselves for a good while.  

It's warmer here, definitely sunnier and there is a lovely pool which we hope to make use of.  There are many cycling and hiking trails in the area so we will be spoilt for choice and, weather depending, are planning on making the most of our last 2 weeks of summer.

Camping Izarpe, Pamplona

 Tuesday 10/09/24

It's been pretty rainy while we've been in France so we decided to follow in B&T's footsteps and head to Spain in search of some sun.  We left on Sunday morning and camped just north of Bordeaux, planning to cross the Pyrenees through the Somport tunnel on Monday.

Enjoying an early morning walk after two days in the car.

We left the campsite early on Monday morning, hoping to miss the rush-hour  traffic around Bordeaux (we didn't) and then headed south to Pau.  As we got to the end of the toll-road, I spotted a gantry sign that, even with our limited French, we could tell was bad news.  'Accès au Somport fermé'.  We weren't sure what was going on so we stopped in a parking area and did some research.  It turns out the access road on the Spanish side of the tunnel had washed away overnight and the tunnel would be closed for some months.

Photo from https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/intemperies-la-vallee-d-aspe-inondee-la-route-coupee-entre-urdos-et-l-espagne-8293204

Some more research later (and some handy tips from B&T) we decided to head to the Atlantic and rather drive around the mountains.  The grim weather made the more winding passes available to us very unappealing.  As it was, even the route we took through the mountains had one of the tunnels closed, so we ended up travelling in the mist in any case.

Detouring over the mountains

We did, however, arrive safely in a lovely campsite and would stay longer if the weather in the area was a bit better.  We're 20 minutes from Pamplona so popped in to do some food shopping this morning and have spent the day relaxing.

The campsite is in a very quiet, very pretty part of the world

We love a terraced campsite - everyone has a view!

We plan on moving further inland tomorrow, still chasing the elusive blue skies and warmer weather.

Barge trip video 3, Kennet and Avon

 Friday 30/08/24

This is the final barge post; we were so busy on the trip that it has been good to go back over the photos and videos to remind ourselves of all we saw.

The first video is of us going through the Bruce tunnel.  I speeded up the middle part as it would take very long to watch otherwise.  The strange scraping sound you hear is actually just the speeded up sound of the bow-thrusters keeping the barge on the right track.  Toni and I were sitting on the front of the barge so it was lovely when Nathan switched off the engine as we exited, very tranquil, until the high-speed train raced past us...

The second video has some clips of the Kennet and Avon leg.  It starts with Nathan squeezing though one of the swing bridges, I tried to film the entire closing process but I was standing in the tow-path and a cyclist came along and I had to move.

This is followed by Nathan and Charmaine navigating Newbury town centre, as well as a few bird clips, including the world's dumbest duck.

Thanks for watching!

We're currently back in the Brittany house, providing holiday cover for B&T.  We're here for another week or so and are then planning a quick trip to the Pyrenees but will need to see what the weather outlook is closer to the time.  

Then, towards the end of September we'll be back here to do the winter sit.  Log fires, gardening and two gorgeous cats to look after.