Tuesday 26th July am – leaving Guines going South

We had a leisurely start to the day with Zygies double bed and mattress providing a great nights sleep. Both of us used the sites showers which were very clean.  I must remember next time to use the closest cubicle to the inlet pipes, if free, as it will get the hottest water when in full use.

I took The Boys for a walk around the field, next to the site, while K got some breakfast together for us all.  Its quite mazing how many people are on the site.  The site is varied with a mixture of tents, chalets, caravans and MoHo’s predominately from the Netherlands and Germany.  There was even a group of WW2 American Army trucks camped up with Belginan plates!

After we had tidied away the table and chairs I set about filling Zygie up with some fresh water from the tap nearby.  Everything we are doing at the moment is for the first time and so I used our newly purchased flat water hose.  Think I will buy an internal push on connector to go inside the water filling recess to stop water dribbling down the side of the van.  Only half filled the tank this time.

Emptied the waste waters at the disposal point and we were off.

We choose the toll road which ended up costing us €14.7 and although rather expensive was an easy 80km plus journey using the cruise control. This too was the first time I had used the Tom Tom by Northing and Easting and it seems a long winded way but so be it, atleast it got us there.

 Thievpal

Thievpal is an amazing place with the monument dominating the skyline for miles.  We parked up in the Bus Bays leaving The Boys in their new cave listnening to French radio.  Not sure whether they stayed quiet all the time but W was barking when we returned, perhaps he was bored listening to the French station.  More French lessons I think. As we walked through the monuments arch we both remarked how quiet the whole place seemed even with loads of people about.  Visitors had placed Remembrance Poppies everywhere which gave a sence caring.  K found it amazing that these people were remembering long lost family members from over 100 years ago, very thought provoking.

The Aire at Conty – our nights stop

Good old Tom Tom directed us to the towns nearby fishing lakes at first and although they were very nice it was not the the village aire. Ok time to read the directions from the book and this time we found it.  This would be our first time on an aire and we were not quite sure what we were looking for.  Thankfully I saw some MoHo tops sticking out above a hedge  and guessed we had found it.

Ok so it is rather bland but it serves our purpose well and we parked up between a large Concorde, with its Smart car and a Belgian registered Burstner.

Ok, so chairs out kettle on.  We felt we needed that. Early evening came all to soon and so off for a walk with the dogs around the lakes, which we had located earlier by mistake.  The Boys enjoyed it alot as we did.  Very quiet and with loads of Ducks, Swans and Herons to watch.  However they are not always finding it easy to settle down with lots of new smells and to them strange sounds.  They often bark at the silliest of things and are proving to be hard work at the moment.  However we will succeed with them for goodness knows what sort of life they have had and what makes them do what they.  They have come a long way since they became part of our family with still much to do it is a learning curve for all four of us.

People are funny to watch, as we are to them I suppose.  While having an evening glass or two of vino we watched a French van arrive on site squeeze in between two vans blocking the sun off to one of them.  Shortly after he drives off and reverses into a space next to us! No obviously not next to the English and after 5 minutes or less off again to park up opposite sideways!  No problem for any one really as the site is big and there were only 8 and including us on it.

Well that night we watched a movie as we still seem unable to get the Tv to work.  Well actually the Tv is fine, it is the satellite dish not talking to the Tv.  Does it matter no not really as we talk, yes talk, but also we like to watch videos.  The nights choice –