Four go on an adventure

Today we arrived at the motorhome dealer at 9am on the button to have a small but important issue rectified. The dealership is just outside of Otero de Herrero and when we dropped the vehicle the weather was a tiny bit chilly but very sunny. We walked into the village to put off some time and snapped a few photos for you. This is the church. I suppose you were already surmising that by the shape of the building and the bell tower is a bit of a give away but nonetheless I thought I would make sure. Churches are amazingly large and elaborate in these small villages. This house was pretty interesting with some kind of barometer on the wall. At the top of that rectangle in the middle there is a little black pointer and it is pointing at a big sunshine in the bottom right. It was indeed exceptionally sunny at the time. In the top left there are pictures of a cloud and a snowflake but since it was super sunny I have no idea if the thing points to them when the weather is inclement. If any of...

We have had to make an unscheduled trip to the motorhome dealer to have a slight problem repaired under warranty. That's a bit of an issue when the dealer is some 400 km away (that's about 250 miles for those of you still in old money!) and another 400 km back again. So here we are back at Otero de Herrero or rather nearby in Vegas. That's not Las Vegas but Vegas de Matut. It is a bloody long way from Vegas USA both in physical distance and in appearance. It is a quaint little village but has the best bread EVER! The bread we bought for lunch was absolutely incredible. What made it so special I hear you ask? Well I can only say it was the breadiest of breads. Very bready if you know what I mean. I don't really know how to describe bread. What makes one loaf breadier than another? Search me but it was really bready. I should have taken a picture but we have eaten it now. Mountie Jack was really keen that you should see him in his new seat on the dashboard. It makes him f...

  On the Road Again It is with much excitement and the greatest of pleasure that I can report that the our adventure has recommenced. After what will only be described henceforth as "The incident" when the Kayak met its untimely demise we have managed to put that behind us and have managed to replace the Kayak. We now have the Horon pronounced "Or" as in or and "on" as in on. Pretty simple really. It is a real beauty. Way, way better than the old Kayak. The design is pretty much the same except that instead of single beds we have an island bed in the back. The vehicle is fitted with a 170 hp, 2 litre Ford engine. To give that some perspective imagine all of the horses in the grand national race pulling in the same direction. That's a lots of power, now mutiply that by four then add another ten horses just for good measure. That's 170 horse power. It's a lot of horse and our Horon, I am delighted to say glides along smoothly. The absolute icing ...

 Bridge over the River Loire Although we had decided to stay three nights at the previous camp, we somewhat spontaneously decided to move yesterday. We quickly packed up shop, stablised our movables and untied the Kayak from her moorings. We were travelling again.  North, north, ever northwards in the gerneral direction of Paris. Sheila had identified a spot in Saran on the outskirts of Orleans and I had identified a possible place a few kilometres south of that. When we passed the place I had found it looked much, much nicer than the photos but we decided to keep on to the other place. As a policeman in Kuala Lumpur (for policeman actually substitute extortionist) once told me, "you make very big mistake" as he persuaded me to part with a sum of money from my wallet. The second place was nothing like the photos either but in the other way. It was rammed full anyway with only one partially suitable space left. The Kayak was sailing again and we ended up backtracking a little ...

 After the rains Yesterday as was forecast it rained and it better rained. We were feeling rather thankful that we had chosen the Kayak model of motorhome for we felt that we might be in need of it's kayaking abilities if the rain persisted much more. We knew that we had our 5km to cover again today and the forecast was that the rain would cease at 11am. I had work appointments up till 11 am so we felt good that we'd be able to do the walk after that. 11am and guess what? The rain had indeed stopped and although it was far from bright and more than a tad chilly we set off to get our Ks in. The river alongside the Kayak had swollen. You might remember this picture yesterday? Well here is the same shot taken today after 24 hours of incessant rain. You will be pleased to know that we completed our 5km in dry conditions, well a smidgeon damp underfoot, but above gorund all stayed dry. That's day 2 completed and only 29 to go! Mountie Jack (remember him?) has been nipping my ear...

 A K A Day 2024 May has arrived and sees us take on our annual challenge in memory of Robert Rowan who was tragically taken from our midst at a very young age due to a heart condition. The challenge is to walk, run, bike or whichever way you please move yourself for 1 km or more a day during the month of May. We have again opted for the 5K a day challenge. This is our fourth year but the first in a climate where it might rain on us! It is not a sponsored event, we simply pay to take part and the money raised is being used to screen young people for heart conditions they never knew existed.  Our first two years were done in Peru, last year saw us start in Colombia  and finish in Peru and this year we hope to do 5K in four different countries. Watch this space. Today the weather forecast in Vierzon, central France is for a Yellow storm warning and rain all day until midnight. After breakfast it was fair so we decided to set off in the hope of getting our 5K done before we ...

 Buy one get one free A second post in one day, qué pasa? After work today we managed a short walk around the town. We got our tokens and so managed to replenish the water supplies and empty our waste.  We bought a spare token just in case we ever come across another machine like that one. It's odds on that we will have that token now for ever but if we ever do need it I will have a very smug look on my face. I will be smugness personified. I will be smugger than a smug person who has just graduated form the University of Smugness. It has been a bit entertaining today watching other motorhomers looking at the machine in various states of bewilderment. We found a couple of semi-interesting buildings. Firstly the Sereilhac Post Office and Telegraph building. It looks like it is original. You will probably be best to click on the image and zoom in a bit to get a better look. It is quite a nice building. No village or town in France is complete without it's old church. They certai...