Monday 17th November 2008

Well, the campsite in Masevaux that we had just got to when we left our last blog, we ended up staying at for 15 nights as it was so cheap and a nice campsite. We spent a good few nights in the bar with the Scottish owners, Jenny and Andy, as we have missed chatting to people and it made a nice change. They have a dog called Kylie! (Apparently named after Kylie Minogue cos of her rear). We experienced the local schnapps too - there's two kinds - the legitimate kind that's distilled in the town and the moonshine kind that distilled up in the hills!! By hec, that warmed us up (we tried the latter). Very nice though, well, Kylie thought so. I don't know if they thought we needed feeding up but we got sent home with a lot of free food! The French equivalent of the German sauerkraut is choucroute and is similar but the cabbage is cooked in reisling wine instead of vinegar and fried up in goose fat. One night we were sent home with enough to feed two people for a week (a tupperwear the size of a washing up bowl full) and Jenny said she'd popped some leftover meat in there too - there was a whole ham cut into 5 massive steaks! So we gorged on that for a couple of nights which made a nice change to our tomato soup rations! He he, only joking, we are eating quite well. Found out a lot about the area by chatting to the owners as well and they lent us books with loads of old photos in which were interesting to look at - apparently the whole region of Alsace has changed hands from French to German and back lots of times which is why a lot of the place names have a German sound to them and there is even an Alsacienne language which is like half French and half German - heard a few of the locals speak it and it sounds very strange! And they had English books - what a godsend - apparently some of their English regulars bring boxes of books that they've read every year and Jenny and Andy read them and then put them out for guests - Kylie was very excited having missed reading books and got through 4 in the two weeks we were there.We had a few walks and a few bikerides along the valley. One day we biked around 7 miles up the valley to this lake, then from the road we spotted a waterfall and hut up the mountain and went from 'that'll be nice to explore another day' to 'let's ditch the bikes and try and get to it'. We didn't have a map or compass or anything but tried to get our bearings from the road and headed up into the hills. Well, we didn't find the waterfall or the hut but we did find a 'refuge' higher up in the hills which was like a little hostel type place in a little clearing. So we just had our pack-up there and admitted defeat! We ended up climbing about 200m more than we needed to and ended up on completely the wrong hill, but it was a good climb anyway, and we managed to find the bikes again even though we took a different route down. The hut that we had spotted and were trying to find is one of several in the area. They are built high up in the hills, all of wood, and you can't get to them by any kind of vehicle only by walking. They are intended for walkers, you can sleep in them, light a fire, cook etc., and they look really nice.No luck again with the tyres - well, they did do them near the place we were staying but they only came in pairs at the cost or 300+ euros, although we've only got less than 300 miles to get back to St Johann now so at this rate we'll get back there before finding one!Friday just gone (14th) we were invited to a party on the campsite - every year the owners throw a party for the municipal workers (like the council workers) as they do a lot of favours and work for the campsite. It started at 4ish when they start to finish work and was just a few nibbles and free bar but nice to get invited! We were introduced to the mayor too! Who didn't speak English but thankfully we recognised enough French to have a short conversation before getting back to the punch! The punch was lovely - fresh raspberries soaked for two days in whisky (1.5 bottles of) and raspberry liqueur and then topped with champagne - mm mm. Got sent home with more leftover food - a local 'cake' that has ham and walnuts in it - surprisingly nice! Again, enough to feed the two of us for a week though. So Saturday, surprisingly free of hangovers, we packed up and left because if we didn't make a move we'd probably still be there at xmas. We crossed the border back into Germany but only just and came to the outskirts of Bad Bellingen. Another campsite that's like a ghost-town as it's out of season and most things have shut down, but it's nice and peaceful and the facilities are nice. Also we can see the Rhine from our van at the bottom of the hill and France on the other side, and just over the road are some stables and horses, and we keep getting visited by the site cat who is very fussy, so it has done for a couple of nights! We're on the move again this morning heading along the southern border now and working our way along. Hopefully we'll get online again before too long so you don't have nearly a month's worth of blogs to read all at once! Thanks for all your messages that you keep posting - they keep us smiling (starting to feel a touch homesick just lately…), and hope you're all good. Catch you soon, love Andy & Ky xxx ;)