roadside lunch | Chaos roaming the world

… velocity, direction, purpose & gear.

Today was all about keeping it up. A steady pace north-northeast. Chipping away at the last 1100 km to our final “sight”. I think we mentioned that we will round off our trip with a visit of dear friends and fellow travellers in the Netherlands. We managed to sort the details out last night as well, so the goal is set: To the camp in the Netherlands by Friday night – spend a long weekend camping with friends and then swat down the last 350km home in one go on Monday. All we need to do now is fill in the blanks in between.

Our first idea: push and rest, was less to our liking than we thought. So today, we changed tack a bit and only tackled 250km to the next campground. We are not planning on any more sightseeing in France, but try to find nice campgrounds instead to make this more than a just a drudge to get where we are going.

[and this is where I (Flo) realise that I am writing for the wrong day. So off to Nina, I do day 49 now. This is what you get for letting the Blog slip]

We left the camp ground to make our way to another rustiek kamperen later on tonight. 250km is really just half a day of travelling. Nothing of note happened before lunch when Flo found a lovely little secured place where we unpacked the chairs and dug into food. Number 3 explored a bit more; he really likes to walk around after sitting in the car for a while.

The drive after lunch wasn’t even long enough for Number 3 to fall asleep. We arrived at 3pm, set up and had coffee and tea respectively. This camp ground was on the “lawn” next to a small “castle”. It’s a really pretty sight with slightly less space and privacy we’ve had the night before. We used the extra time on the camp ground to exhale, enjoy the sight and plan a bit further. Unfortunately, the weather seems to turn for the last couple of days as more rain and thunderstorms are forecast.

[oh, and Flo did some GPS stuff and “fixed” his shoes]

Number 3 exploring the roadside lunch spot
He would come a bit when called …
… but is easily distracted
Side road off a side road off a side road somewhere in rural France
Also, very rural France: Chateau!
Mate’s dead set on helping with dinner …
it was … a bit too slow for Flo’s pace
Seems easy right? A stirr …
… a taste …
… you have a lot to learn, young padawan!

The night in the tent was nice, cosy and…not too good. Number 3 had some trouble adjusting and also some belly pain. However, since we got about 10 hours in the tent, it just had to be enough.

It was still rather cold though. Temperature had dropped to around 1 degree and with the sun not quite over the tops of the trees, it hadn’t really warmed up. So we dressed and made breakfast to enjoy a hot beverage of choice and warm porridge. 🙂

With this under our belts or rather in our stomachs, we decided to take it slow. This is a holiday after all. With yesterday’s push, we could use a breather. So Number 3 got a bit of playtime and we walked to the lovely little lake of our camp ground.

Packing up was a little rough and tumble – our system is not completely in place yet. Everything fit back in which is the main thing.

Leaving at 10.45am, Number 3 was tired again already and I was quite hungry. I’ve forgotten how it feels like to be outside so much – how hungry you get and how sore my face felt. Despite sunscreen and it only having been a day. With the baby asleep within a couple of minutes, we had a smooth drive until lunchtime, only interrupted by a short stop at a tiny boulangerie to buy baguette and, of course, pain au chocolat. Both were delicious but only one survived until our actual lunch. 😉

Around noon, Number 3 woke up so we considered lunch and bought cheese and sausage before stopping near a bit of forest and having a yummy, filling but still rather cold one. Even a hot tea couldn’t make the coldness go away completely. Cuddled up in our gear and an extra blanket, I still was glad to get back into the car. It had started to rain as well, so surely today was a good day to get some mileage under our tires….wrong. Number 3 was very unhappy in the car so we stopped again after 30 minutes. A big intermarche looked just like the place to pick up groceries and give Baby the chance to walk around a bit more. The store was ridiculously big. There was a whole aisle just filled with yoghurts.

Another long stretch to the camp ground followed. Flo had picked one from ioverlander that looked nice, just as for our first night. This one had a picturesque drive up a hill, overlooking vineyards. But it was closed when we arrived. The camping season obviously starts a little later than mid-April here.

It was still drizzling and we were getting really tired and hungry, at least in my case. The next, definitely open, camp ground was another 30min away, which wasn’t too bad. Setting up camp there took close to no time, especially since Number 3 had another little nap. Because of the rain, we used the tarp which turned out to be enormous and give us a lot of dry space to sit under and cook. Baby was prepared with rain gear and gum boots….and had a lot of fun.

Our new gas stove proved to be quite good in getting hot quickly, Flo made the most delicious and already French-inspired dinner for us including potatoes and the rest of the munster cheese from lunch.

The late afternoon and evening felt a lot like a great holiday again … my mood is very dependant on how well Number 3 is feeling, to be honest.