Ending Up Anywhere

We arrived for the ferry to Corsica half an hour before they were allowing anyone into the port at Nice and so we drove along the coast a little until we found a parking space. It was 50 cents for 35 minutes, perfect for us to wait until we'd no longer be turned away at the port. We were the third vehicle to drive onto the ferry, the Mega Andrea. This meant we were also the first onto the sun deck where we grabbed deckchairs right at the back of the boat and faced them away from everyone. There were far fewer deckchairs than I remember on the last crossings and therefore fewer people on the deck and I didn't feel particularly uncomfortable. One learning point is the Mega Andrea isn't as speedy as the Mega Express we've travelled on before and the journey time to Corsica's port of Bastia was 7 hours rather than the previous 5 hours 45. It was sunny throughout the whole journey but windy and bearable. We slapped on factor 50 and alternated between dozing a...

  Driving days are rarely exciting - we're not ones for stopping to sight see when we've an ultimate destination to get to. So the discovery of La Chute du Grand Baou for our pre-ferry crossing stopover was the best surprise.  While Tony was driving south through France I was researching aires that would leave us with a short drive the next morning and I had a shortlist of three. La Chute du Grad Baou was top choice because of a promised waterfall. I thought I could make out people swimming in one of the website's photos and I'm never one to turn down an opportunity for wild swimming.  We arrived in Brignoles at around 5pm and popped into Lidl to do a small shop for food and wine for that evening. Then we filled up with diesel before heading 15 minutes north to the aire. A short dirt track leads down to a small restaurant with tables outside. To the side are three huge terraced fields for motorhomes. There was one other motorhome there already, hugging the shade from th...

  It is late July 2021 and I barely posted anything to any social media about our forthcoming holiday because I couldn't let myself believe it would actually happen. I was trying to manage my own expectations and disappointment if the Covid restrictions of either France or the UK prevented our travel. When we learned travel into France from the UK was to be allowed, about two weeks before our departure, we risked booking the ferry from Nice to Corsica. We'd have preferred the Savona to Corsica route but Italy would have required us to quarantine for five days. One week before departure the shambles of a UK government, from out of nowhere, created a whole new category in its green, amber, red classification for foreign travel. France became 'amber plus.' This would mean 10 days of self isolation when we returned home. We immediately changed our return ferry crossing, bringing it forward to allow us the necessary time at home. It was annoying but not disastrous for a six-...

 

  It's been a tough year for everyone and we hadn't been able to take advantage of February or Easter school holidays. In fact I worked through the Easter break so I was even more excited at the prospect of going away in our campervan.  We were ever hopeful that we would be able to travel to France or Spain but that wasn't to be. As a back up plan we had booked a campsite in Cornwall and our holiday started with a 5am alarm. Once we had our bikes loaded and an awful lot else we were on the road by 6am. What a journey! We could check in at 1pm and we had already allowed extra travel time for bank holiday traffic. 1.35pm wasn't bad for time and soon we had set up the huge Outwell awning we hadn't used in years.  Our campsite, the Caravan and Motorhome Club site in Marazion has no facilities block so we needed the additional space of our massive awning in order to be self sufficient. The intermediate space between the van and the enclosed awning was a perfect space for...

We like campsites that are out of the ordinary and a fantastic way to find those is through the website Cool Camping. Many favourite sites we return to again and again were discovered through Cool Camping. This weekend though I was less than impressed by Cool Camping and since I'm unsatisfied with the response I've had from them I feel compelled to write this blog post. We booked the campsite Wardley Hill in Norfolk on Thursday, a day before the first night of the booking. Cool Camping immediately took full payment and instantly I received an email confirmation with directions to the site and, what I wasn't expecting, a latest check-in time of sunset which would be 6.20pm. Now, of course, I fully understand why a site would have a latest check in of sunset, but to wait until after you've booked and paid to tell you this isn't acceptable. I emailed them today to point out that it's unacceptable to impose restrictions on arrival time that weren't clearly set o...