France, Germany, Austria, Autumn 2008

Sept 5th to Sept 10th

The Blog awakens. Left home on Friday 5th in torrential rain & arrived at Obernai, near Strasbourg, in torrential rain. It’s perked up a lot since then & today was a sunny 26 degrees. Beautiful walks in Vosges mountains a few miles from site and many picturesque villages & towns, as per the photo.

This area of France is called Alsace, the home of Alsatian dogs, but very few are to be seen because they don’t actually come from Alsace. The locals speak a German type dialect because Alsace has yo-yoed between France & Germany, but the Germans themselves don’t understand it.

Strasbourg airport is not far, and, as the planes go overhead, we’ve waved to our travelling Euro-MP’s, the dutiful guardians of our euro billions, and I could have sworn I saw the Kinnocks waving back.

May 19th to May 28th

The maps are back in favour! We used them to plan a walk along a mountain footpath which gave us spectacular views over the dried river bed (rambla) below. The path was originally a single track dirt road but has fallen into disrepair from rain damage and undergrowth. There are several ruined dwellings dotted around the mountains which the road was evidently built to serve. It was totally quiet, apart from the birds, of which we saw crested lark, tawny owl, red-legged partridge, serrin, Sardinian warbler and a stonechat shrike, the latter being a first sighting for us.


Back on the site, Bob & Mavis, the tandem cyclists, are coming up with more amazing facts. Bob was explaining, as he knows about these things, about a chap who built a world-class racing bike out of a washing machine! I asked whether he was planning to similarly construct a tandem, for which he would, of course, need a twin-tub!

May 8th to May 18th

We visited the abandoned army artillery base again, 8 miles away. The batteries used to protect Cartagena harbour 10 miles distant, but in 1993 the base was abandoned intact. It’s sited on a beautiful headland and you can look at all the military buildings, guns, underground bunkers and shell storage areas etc. It’s got to be a health & safety free zone – but most interesting!


Although the walking locally is excellent, you need UK style Ordnance Survey maps to really explore. But the shops here don’t sell them. However, I did find a supplier on the net. A few days ago, the maps arrived, having taken 2+weeks (the service isn’t likely to challenge Amazon). They’re not bad, not quite up to OS standard, but my real gripe is that 3 out of the 7 maps are 90% sea! You can’t do without them because the campsite is actually on the join of 4 maps, 3 of which contain these vital strips of land.

April 27th to May 7th

Since the last entry we’ve been on a boat trip around Cartagena harbour. Cartagena is a large deep-water port that, as you can see, can berth the biggest ships. It is also the main base of the Spanish Mediterranean fleet so there were many warships around. Naval manoeuvres appeared to consist of a several vessels leaving the harbour mid-morning and returning by 6.00pm in time for pink gins. Any war would obviously be fought mañana.

The site here is very well run – but it comes at a price. That price is Crispello, one of the brothers that own the site. He’s the hatchet man and has been known to throw people off instantly (that’s actually not quite true, you get 10 minutes!) for misdemeanours such as feeding the feral cats, making any kind of noise during siesta time, or disagreeing with his son.

April 17th to April 26th

In Spain, a rambla is any dried up river bed. The nearest rambla is accessible a few hundred yards from the site and runs up into the hills for 6 or 7 miles, through a nature reserve. It’s actually used as a dirt road by the residents. There is an abundance of wildlife observable, anything from wild goats to eagles, and is a great place for a picnic.

The area is full of abandoned mines. The Spanish just walk away and leave things, so all the shafts and machinery are accessible. The spoil heaps are most colourful due to the different metals mined over the years. Great care is needed, however, as everything is in a state of decay, as well as the hazards of exploring unlit galleries leading into the hillsides!

More interesting characters: Bob and Mrs Bob. Their method of transport is a tandem on which they travel huge distances at high speed. I told Bob I wouldn’t have covered their trip of this morning as fast in the car. Bob really must be some athlete (he’s been in triathlon clubs) as Mrs Bob claims she doesn’t do much pedalling!

April 9th to April 16th

A quiet week with some pleasant walking. One favourite is along the coast from the campsite towards a fishing village. The picture was taken on the way. It’s not all idyllic (most of it is) as we had to run through dense smoke from bonfires of old tomato plants at one point.

We have some interesting people on site, Mr & Mrs Ken Dodd for example. Not the Ken Dodd, of course. Mrs K.D. often stops you, and in whispered and serious tones, tells you important news. The first time this happened, we thought she was going to say something like President Bush has been assassinated. What she actually said was: “Do you know, my towels have dried in less than an hour!”

Then there’s the German who always rides his bike up the hill to the loo block. On the way down, he pedals like fury and the bike zooms back along the rows of campers, scattering all before him. Any information on where to buy a bike stinger will be gratefully received.

NEW START : MARCH 2008

March 26th to April 8th

Left home Wednesday 26th March. Missed tunnel slot (i.e. the tunnel left without us) due to heavy traffic, but arrived at Chartres, as planned, some 400 miles.

Day 2, reached Pauillac, on the river Dordogne, where we stayed for three days. Saturday was glorious and we visited Rocamadour, one of the great medieval places of pilgrimage. All centres of pilgrimage had a holy relic, and the better the relic, the more pilgrims e.g. splinter of the true cross, miraculously preserved Saint etc. Rocamadour had a black wooden Madonna, fairly poor in the rankings I would have thought, and even that had disappeared to be replaced by a copy. But the town is spectacularly built into the cliff, as the photo shows.

Sunday 30th March arrived at campsite in Pyrenees, surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Slight downside was a Dutchman adjacent who spent ages setting up his mobile TV satellite dish with a high-pitched whistle direction finding device. He got his just deserts half an hour later when a storm blew up and bowled the sat dish down the campsite.

Tuesday, all fools day, arrived at our destination near Mazarron.

Odd, we said. Jane left a pair of shoes in the awning last night & there’s only one there this morning. As we were puzzling, a neighbouring camper asked if we’d heard the dog in the night. Dog? They don’t allow dogs on the site and even throw campers off for feeding the feral cats. Apparantly, this dog sneaks in from the village during the night and chews up any shoes it can find. Yes, Jane’s shoe was found nearby, duly chewed up.

Rest of the week taken up looking up old acquaintances, swimming and walking.