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Hurrah it's dry!
Actually it's really nice, a balmy day following a dry night so we got up,
pack up and er...... left for Nice. It's quite a long drive and although we
passed through some interesting regions (like the edge of the Camargue which
is a wetlands area notorious for the amount of diverse birdlife it has) but
the journey drew to a close near the coast and as we got off the A8 motorway
the roads got norrow, the traffic got more aggressive and the feel of the
place felt somehow....... claustraphobic - we must have been out in the
sticks and in small towns too long. Maybe it's why Montpellier felt so bad?
Found the campsite with no problem at all despite it being quite a way up a
valley away from the action (thats a good thing though). We got checked in ok
and found our pitch, when we came to pitch the tent though the ground was
like iron, pushing tent pegs in (ok, hammering them with the rubber mallet!)
was almost impossible and a mixture of compacted ground and buried stones so
we don't have all the guys out, just the neccessary ones - not that we are
expecting bad weather here! :-) On our way into the site we encountered a
Dutchman in need of help, he'd got a flat tyre on his bike and no one at
reception could (or at least was admitting that they could) help. We lent him
our repair kit and pump and left him to it, he came back a little later (on
his bike) to return the stuff and told us that they only decided today that
they should buy a couple of cheap mountain bikes as it was cheaper then
hiring them for a couple of weeks - at €20 per day hire it certainly is!
Anyone who's camped knows that freezer blocks are a real neccessity if you
are to keep any of food that is usually kept in a fridge in any sort of
reasonable condition for a day or so...... most sites offer a freezer to
re-freeze the blocks in and sometimes it's free but more often than not you
pay between €0.20 and €0.50 per block per freeze........ on this site there
is no facility to re-freeze blocks, well, thats not strictly true, there is a
freezer BUT they want you to buy new blocks from them everytime they
melt..... for €2 per block. On finding that out and having a confusing
conversation with the woman in the shop we were both very p****d off with the
site! That kind of behaviour is pathetic. Then to cap that off when we got
back this evening there was no electricity on in the toilet blocks - thank
god for headtorches! Boy are they going to get a doing tomorrow - and seeing
as how we seem to have a bit of time on our hands I'm going to email the
guide book that recommended them as well. It'll make me feel better..... :-)
I expect we'll be moving on from here quite quickly but you never know.
We went to the pub tonight and Claire used her talent for picking out the
oddest bar in town. To be fair the food was good and the staff and clientele
were entertaining but it was obviously a magnet for every oddball in the area
- including the bar staff and the owner.
TTFN
Ian and Claire
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