A Very straight road.

Day 9, Mardi, Bertangles to Belgium, Salles Chimay, 10^th May.

A very straight road.

My first hang over kicked in this morning when we had to try and pack the caravan away and hit the road. Moving around so fast is beginning to take its toll I think, but I am sure we will get used to it. A rather dry baguette avec jam was what I forced down for breakfast after s sleepless night due to extremely heavy rain during the night and probably a bit too much vin de rouge.

After skidding  on wet grass and filling up with petrol (1.68 euro litre, not happy) we headed for a very straight road in the direction of Belgium. Not really knowing if we were going to make it or not was quite exciting, as was having a sandwich made by Bob packed in the car for ready for lunch. The road we take is a very straight road, you can see down it for quite some distance, its an easy drive going straight ahead for about forty miles. Bob tried to wee into a cola bottle after about twenty miles...

Bob “I can’t do this, its just going to come back at me”

Me “Patti Smith did it in a helicopter”

Bob “Really?”

He tried again to no avail. I had to stop and Bob went into the caravan while massive lorries hurtled past rocking the caravan from side to side. This made me want to go too so then I had to go pee in the bottle too, then carry out the warm, yellow cola at the side of the road and throw it in the bin.

Back on the road we decided to stop and buy a dongle as the internet has been hard to find and as much as we want to keep our journey plan, to have no plan, a little research would be good and a connection with what was home once too. Buying such in item is not the easiest with limited language skills, but we managed, and should have had, from that moment, internet EVERYWHERE! When we tried it out, there was no internet ANYWHERE! We are going to take it back, this was 84 euro not well spent.

We followed the very straight road until it started bending and not being very straight anymore. Villages and county side got in the way. I was getting really tired. After about 3 hours of towing the caravan I just want to get out of Vincent and un hitch Gerald and not have to think about driving again for a good few days. I knew that Bob was keen to get into Belgium today and as he was navigator, he navigated us right over the border. The road, for about a mile before Belgium, was dotted with little old men leaning over garden fences or trimming a hedge, all looking at us as we drove past. I felt like it was France saying goodbye, au revoir.

We don’t have a map of Belgium, only the parts of it which border France so are in the French road map, kindly donated to us from Bob’s parents. Bob navigated us right to the end of Belgium as we knew it and then we were on our own. Just off the map is ‘Camping Mon Reve’, and what a dream come true. Belgium is unlike France in that there isn’t a campsite in every village and the sign posts are not very good. After two wrong turns we arrived at the site, there is a restaurant, cabins and a bar, all completely deserted, but quirky and a little ran down. The campsite manager came to meet us and let us off with paying for the car and electric when we said it was quite expensive, saving us 4.50 euro. It’s still expensive at 15 euro a night though but he has also mentioned that we can stay until 2pm tomorrow and helped us manoeuvre the caravan to the right angle, what a nice man.

I made lentil and courgette curry for tea and I drank two pots of earl grey tea, no vin de rouge for me ce soir,

Bon nuit Belgium, x.