Muddy Marge

Caumont sur Garonne

Yesterday morning, at the aire by the grapevines, we were the only van. This morning, it was like van central, with lots of activity going on around us. As the van’s left, off for another day of adventure, there is the traditional nod or wave of goodbye.

After we departed, we travelled to a nearby town to fill our water tank. Continuing on our journey, we passed many fruit farms. Apples were in abundance everywhere, along with eating grapes, pears, kiwi fruit and walnuts. Whilst we have been out walking and cycling, we have seen many figs, peaches, almonds and walnuts ripe for the picking, which John tends to do.

Our journey today, took us back and forth, across both the river, and canal Garonne. At one point, we arrived at a town adjacent to a nuclear power plant. 

The town of Golfech was one we stumbled upon on one of our cycling trips. On that occasion we stopped at the boulangerie for some lunch. Today for old times sake, we called in again, and once again bought a fougasse, luckily there was one left. For those of you who don’t know, it is like an oval shaped pizza. Ours had a topping of cheese, peppers and pork.

As we left the town, and the main road behind, we were greeted with narrowing roads and tight turns. Approaching tonight’s stop, we found ourselves having to cross a very narrow bridge over the canal. It was a very tight right turn on a gradient, which resulted in a quick decision having to be made, Marge’s front bumper, or the rear offside tyre, the tyre won, as we caught the kerb, luckily with no lasting damage.  

We are now settled in the first spot on a lovely aire alongside the canal at Caumont sur Garonne. The nearest large town if Marmaude. We are now south east of Bordeaux.

There is a lovely breeze, but the temperature in the shade this afternoon was 28c. Autumn has begun here, with the crisp brown leaves falling from the trees and carpeting the canal. At the edges of the canal, you could  see the pond skaters skimming about in the late afternoon sunshine.

We took a cycle ride out along the tow path. The crispy leaves were crunching under our tyres.

 Cycling along, brought back many happy memories of a previous trip. Our ride took us to a bar/restaurant adjacent to the tow path. Sadly, the bar wasn’t open, as the French holiday season tends to end by the middle of September. At the rear of the establishment is a small campsite, with nine pitches. We stayed at this campsite three years ago, on our return cycle journey from Spain.

Back at the van, we luckily hadc old lagers in our fridge waiting for us.

 Whist we sat at the picnic table alongside our pitch, we enjoyed the cold beer, whilst watching pairs of rowers being put through their paces, by a very angry sounding instructor.

Today our grandson Elliot is five weeks old. We were surprised by the photograph we were sent how much he had changed, since we saw him before we set off. I'm sure we’ll see a lot more changes in him when we return from this trip.

Tomorrow, we will set off towards the west coast, continuing our journey northwards. We have now travelled over 2700 miles.