I’ve finished my book, the children have swum, paddle boarded and fished, and we’ve spent a short time packing some of the pitch up so that if it rains over night we can get down the road. It’s been a perfectly chilled day in the sunshine.
This evening we’ve been for dinner in the restaurant on the campsite for moules. We have toasted absent friends and reminisced about holidays gone past… we have had some brilliant times on this site over the years, and this year is no exception! 🥰
Penny was the first up this morning and headed over to use her French and order the bread etc. The air leak in the bed was fixed with some well placed gafa tape and it wasn’t raining. Before we went to bed last night, we looked at numerous reports which varied from wall to wall sunshine to “perhaps you should consider an ark”. It was a little overcast but perfect for our coffees.
We were slow to start and there were a few clouds threatening to rain, made a picnic and got the bikes ready for a bit of a stretch of the legs. The tide was heading out and we thought that we would head towards decathlon to see what was on offer and see where that led us. Before long we found ourselves on the way to the Gois, a causeway connecting the island to the mainland… which until fairly recently was the only access to this island. We’ve cycled down there a few times, but this time felt easier with older children with longer legs. The path goes along through the salt flats and then past some reservoirs before it turns and goes alongside a stream where we saw a big fat vole (im not convinced it wasn’t an otter or a beaver… it had that sort of face!) on the path eating blackberries before plopping back into the river.
We arrived and the tide was still in and hordes of families were picnicking ready for the drop and the moment to walk out and pick the cockles around and about. A quick photo and we turned around and headed back to the oyster shop.
When we arrived the children has ham and tomato baguettes and a pick at the fish whilst Stew and I had oysters, prawns and a little glass of wine. Just in a shed on the side of the road. Was so delicious and just what we needed to get us back to decathlon and some shops for a nose around.
Once we had bought “Le Gin” – I kid you not, we loaded the bikes up and headed back towards the town…. Pestered by out of control “Saga Louts” on electric bikes, out of control and unpredictably weaving around until their batteries run out! The tell tale hum as they zoom up behind you before cutting you up or veering into hedges, is so unnerving!
Back at the camp we all needed a rest… 20 miles of cycling had taken its toll… but the tide was on its way in and the children were itching to get into the sea.
Its about 30 meters to the beach and so we took a couple of paddle boards down, and just had a play around. We also had a bit of a swim… it was calm and warm today, much more favourable now the wind had dropped.
The children fancied pizza for dinner rather than the planned Meal out we had in mind for this evening, so they collected the order after their shower. Stew and I had a BBQ and sat in the sun with Le Gin and bed has been calling to everyone…. Tired legs but happy faces.
The first thing to say is that bravely Stew and I changed our bed arrangement before we came away and bought a new self inflating mattress…. and with all the kerfuffle, it was untested until last night. The flipping thing has got a slow puncture. I read the reviews online, and one of them said that they considered sleeping on it at home… well I can’t share the sentiment!! I woke up through the night a couple of time with more of my bottom in contact with the bed than I was happy with.
When we did wake up properly, the heaven’s had opened. It was ok though as we knew it was coming and had put in place all the precautions. I woke up to stew clambering on top of me… to look out the side of the tent to check his shelter arrangements!
The slow start to the day was welcome, as the children slept in well, and I got to test my new waterproof coat when I went to get the bread and croissants. We’ve got a new kitchen arrangement and its brilliant but it does take up a-lot more space… but in-spite of heavy rain and thunder this morning, everything was dry. A couple of coffees and pastries later (and a lot of jam!) we it was starting to dry up.
By late morning the sun had his hat back on and so we got dressed and ready for a ride into the town. We headed straight out the campsite onto the causeway, past the salt flats and into Noirmoutier town.
In the town the first stop was the camping shop, where the kids bought a volley ball and then we headed on to the jewellery shop… the kind of shop where you pick the beads and make your own. Penny and I passed a happy hour getting bits to make our own earrings. We decided that it was probably time to feed Fraser again, and bought a couple of baguettes before heading to buy some oyster. As i cycled behind Fraser who roughly needs to eat every 15 mins due to excessive growing, I realised that the drink bottle holder might double as a snack store and fit a baguette in as between he and Penny, they ate a whole baguette before we got to the next stop.
We weren’t in luck at the first place but headed around the corner and scooped up a dozen oysters… at about 30p each over here they are too good to leave!
We headed back to camp and were battered by the wind (although still sunny) as the tide came in. Back at the camp an hour with books before heading to the beach with the paddle boards. Again the wind was against us but the sea was fun.
An early evening glass of wine any oysters followed by a bbq was all that rounded off our first full day of holiday…. with one torch lit game of petanque before a moonlit swim.
It looks like the weather may be against us again tomorrow morning but some chilled time is very much required!
I wish we knew what the music Brittney ferries play to wake you up in the morning! I’m sure it wouldn’t be the same at 0442hrs for a swimming wake up but the boys really love waking up to it.
We got some breakfast in the cafe and stew was convinced we were still outside the harbour… so we took our time… and there was barely anyone left… and the I realised that we were in fact docked and in fact by the time we got back to the garage there were only a handful of cars on our level! Oops!
The new engine set up took a bit of getting used to and certainly wasn’t as powerful on the hills but good old Kev has a plan for that. We made it over the Nantes bridge with ease (one of my best bridges! Massively high and industrial.)
We headed along the road and saw an open supermarket for an Emergancy beer stop! It’s a public holiday here so shops are closed, so it was a result! The rest of the journey was very smooth and we arrived at the site and set up in the sunshine.
A trip to the beach for some bat and ball, a swim in the sea and Fraser found a star fish!
After showers Fraser had a test of fishing…. Now I’m sitting with a glass of wine, with a bbq on the go and looking forward to a good sleep and a lazy day tomorrow as a storm passes through.
It’s fair to say the journey to the journey hasn’t been a smooth one.
A couple of weeks ago we took freckle for a spin and she wasn’t running well at all… we alwayS use kev at SGS air cooled for all freckles needs… so we were straight on the phone.
The news wasn’t good… the engine had an injection system and the control panel had some broken diodes (me neither!!!!) which meant we had to convert freckle to having carburettors. I heard expensive, And stew heard big job! We also needed a new exhaust and parts for these old vans are hard to come by. Thankfully kev managed to find the parts and with a handful of days to spare he worked really long days to get us running. Except freckle had other ideas. We collected her and some of the issues remained! After some more road testing and frantic calls go Kev, on Monday freckle returned to the garage to get a new distributor fitted. Once again a lot of crossing of fingers and contingency planning meant we didn’t have to use stews great idea of hiring a transit van and sleeping in the back! I’m not a snob but I do prefer windows in a heat wave!
We only had a few days in hand to have a few test drives, with busy work schedules, stew having some of the busiest days at work following drought conditions time was running out!
By Sunday lunch time freckle was packed and we were actually ahead of schedule…. Aside from there being no running water in the house we were looking good. We thought a quick test drive, tyre check and the trip to the spa for a shower etc and some food before a leisurely drive to the port would be nice. After the stress of the week before it was very much needed.
However… that would be boring!
As we went up Athelstan hill, fully loaded, we went down into first gear and the most horrendous sound happened. It sounded like something fell off the van.
I jumped out and stew sat still… and our first words were “game over”. We weren’t sure what had happened but it sounded terminal. As I was on my hands and knees on the pavement I felt totally defeated! We managed to reverse back down the hill and pushed the van around into the close at the bottom (where another van was also broken down!) and started to make a plan.
Stew got under the van and between pictures being sent to kev and my dad (who had walked down to help) we identified that the drive shaft had become disconnected because 2 of the bolts had sheared off and the others had rattled lose. Fraser was busily ferrying bikes up the hill to mums, I was on the phone to the ferry company working out our options and dad was trying to convince me that it was a good idea for him to be under the van a few weeks after some hefty surgery! We thought last week was stressful… what did we know!!
The RAC had a 4.5 hour wait so we had a back up plan to recover freckle… and meanwhile amazingly kindly mum and dad had had a chat about lending us their van so we could still go away, moving back their holiday and mum was planning how to empty it!
Once the roadside team had removed one bolt I was off… whilst the roadside team used a drill, and hacksaw to remove the sheared and bent screws. I tried a number of shops and by this point it was 3:45 (on a Sunday) and I realised we were running out of options.
At this point the Jones family drove past and more kindness and help followed with Steve collecting ramps and jacks and coming back and helping get the plan to remove the drive shaft. I’d gone back to get my car as I’d realised that we were at least 2 bolts down and we would need some of there was any chance. I’m a very optimistic person and at this point there was in my opinion zero chance of getting freckle running.
Next, the team increased as my brother was making plans to remove the bolts from his van to put into ours… I passed Kwikfit and thought I’d nothing to loose. Again they were amazing and immediately sprung to action. 3 guys were searching tool kits for bolts and even gave me some gunge to keep the bolts in as well as 12 new bolts in exchange for a promise of some beer on our return!
Back to the roadside… stew was ready to start putting it back in… the new bolts fitted and as the last bolt was being tightened… the RAC man arrived! We were all nervous when we restarted the engine… IT WORKED!!!
4 hours behind schedule and we were back on, up Athelstan again this time successfully and back to get the bikes!
Quick showers and a bite to eat in Wagamama’s and we made the ferry with minutes to spare.
I still can’t believe we made it, I’m so grateful to all who helped and hero status to stew for getting it done! I’m also grateful that the ferry was running an hour late which meant we had more time before we had go abort! Never has a man deserved his pint of 1664 on the back of the ferry more than stew.
On the back of the ferry we sailed off… and as we got to spice island all our parents were sat having a drink waiting to see us off. It was hilarious as I think dad was auditioning for a job as a lighthouse keeper… I’m sure there can’t be a brighter torch on the market!! There was lots of shouting and waving as we passed! I’m surprised that the Captin didn’t change course.
A quick pint and we were off to bed… surprised to be on our way for another adventure! It wouldn’t be our holiday if there wasn’t a teeny bit of drama!
After some heavy rain in the night we woke up to sunshine and blue sky’s.
Stew and I went to the shops to get some essentials…. mainly pastries!
After breakfast we could see our new pitch was available… so after a couple of trips to reception… queueing up each time we got the keys to our “vip” pitch! Our own toilet and shower, heater, hair dryer, washing up sink, fridge and even a mini dishwasher in a shed on the pitch!
After the set up we made a picnic and headed to the beach for a play in the waves!
The kids were in and out for hours… penny lost her goggles and we even managed to find them in the sea!
We got back and showered (in our own shower!!!) and chilled for an hour in the sunshine…. and then the clouds appeared!!
We had just put the bbq on and stews rain-dar told him to put the shelter up outside the van. with immense timing the heavens opened just as the last peg went in!
The rain was incredible and caused our pitch to flood… The pitch next door also was under water… the deepest parts were knee deep.
Once we had moved all we could to higher ground, stew resumed cooking in the biblical rain… and I opened a bottle of Cremant…. much to the amusement of the other campers… which somewhat lifted spirits, and the next door campers opened beer. All we could do was wait for the water to subside… eat our bbq and then hope that Frasers tent which was in 3 inches of water wasn’t too wet!
Incredibly nothing was damaged and Frasers tent was bone dry!!
The kids went off to sleep and we read our books in slightly damp chairs!!
Overnight the U.K. government as expected announced quarantine measures for People returning from France. Not in any way unexpected.
We knew the risk when we came, so we just needed to manage the it.
Yesterday we spent some time exploring the options as it was absolutely on the cards. We weren’t able to get back from France before Saturday on any crossings we could get to. The speed of freckle means we can’t zoom up a motorway in the way a car could! We did move our ferry back in time to allow 14 days of quarantine before returning to school.
We also changed the reservation for the next campsite where we knew we could use an alternative site giving up the option of a pitch with private washing/toilet/kitchen facilities.
With these changes we feel we can keep us all as safe from the virus as possible.
We packed up the pitch with 2 very grumpy children from learning their mates weren’t joining us, and headed to the lake for a paddle board.
On the journey down we considered the option of coming back from Spain… the journey being significantly shorter in the van. The quarantine starts when you leave the country so it means we get to do the drive back from Plymouth during our quarantine too.
We arrived at vieux port around 4ish… got settled on our pitch and bbq’d for dinner.
The one thing the kids were adamant about doing was the toro piscine! We were a little nervous about our ability to distance at it… stew and I worked out if we went for a back row seat in the open air that the risk was manageable… everyone wore masks and no one was within a couple of meters! Pleanty of hand sanitiser and we were sorted!
The storm last night was powerful and strong. The rain was torrential and the poor people across the road from us were out at 2am putting a tarpaulin up.
We have not really done much today except some chores and chilled… read our books and the kids hired a skate board for a few hours. A break in the weather meant we could have an hour in the pool…. and we came back and all watched a documentary on how to do Rubik’s cubes really fast!!
A So-roast coffee in the sunshine with my book whilst the others surfaces was a cracking start to a great day.
The children went to the shop and spoke French to order breakfast… they are really challenging themselves which I never thought I’d see.
We headed to the lake which is about 500m from our camp. It was blissful…. the children trying to catch fish with their hands and handstand competitions.
Back from the lake we decided to have a late lunch… all our favourite things… oysters, cheese, prawns etc, some wine and the children trying new things and generally being funny!
A few hours of chilling before the pool for some water park action and a late paddle board. I feel like finally I’ve found my confidence on the paddle board and could keep up with the rest of them…. a thunder shower was threatening so a quick exit from the lake was in order.
Simple dinner for the kids and some picky bits for stew and I round off a perfect holiday day.
frecklesfun 