Face down in the sand.

Day 24, Wednesday, Monster, 25^th May.

Face down in the sand.

Yesterday was pointless. We set off late at 3pm to travel to our next destination, we were no longer sure about Venlo and the tomatos after hearing about the asperges farm so we headed north west, towards Amsterdam, to Gouda. After a massive wrong turn detour we arrived in Gouda in the early evening. Gouda looked like a mini Amsterdam, pretty and alive. However, all of the campsites were either full or closed. As it got dark a man at a petrol station told us to follow him and he would guide us to another site. As we left him into the pitch black at some  traffic lights, the day began to get  worse. We couldn’t locate the campsite he told us of and we ended up on the skinniest path, parallel between two canals. This was the point at which I realised that my headlights were not working. Terrified I was going to drive into the water I ended up in tears as the path was never ending and there was nowhere to turn around. Finally, after what felt like hours we were out of the dark canal maze and we hit the road, a busy road. I decided to stop as it was nearly midnight, there are o campsites and I couldn’t see. We stopped in the layby overnight, crumpled up, freezing and scared. At 4.30am it started to get light. We decided to have a nice cup of tea and head for the coast. Bob’s dreadful mood and snappy behaviour inspired me to aim for Monster. I had no idea what was there, and didn’t care. Monster is where we were going. We, well, I, immediately found a campsite in Monster sandwiched between the ocean and a windmill. It being only 6.30am we had a two and a half hour wait for the site to open. Having quite a lot of time to think whilst I cleaned rubbish from the car and having my second wee in a bottle, I realised that the budget was not going very well. Crap. What can we do? I remembered about an email mother had sent me about a campsite in France where you work for a few days a week and camp for free. The campsite is in Bilowitz, damn, its on the border with Spain. I decided to call mother. Thinking she was an earlier riser that she is I woke her up at 6.30am. Kindly, and very motherly, she checked the internet for adverts similar jobs and said she would text me with the results. About a minuet later my phone beeped with a message of work on a campsite. I called the campsite which resulted in us needing to make a U-Turn back to France to the Loire Valley for free camping and electric in return for a few hours work a day. Brilliant. We can buy some time in France before our grape picking work in September, Yippeee!

We felt like crap, it was 7.30 am after no sleep and we looked like hell. I decided that I couldn’t drive today so we are staying one night in Monster then are going to get an early start to the day on the road. Who knows, maybe we will be back in France tomorrow?

After showers, ah, never needed one more, even though the timer on the shower lets you wash for a mere 5 minutes, so it was quite a rushed affair, it was good. Monster, we discover is a beach mostly, then a cycle path, then a town. The town is okay, and the beach is nice, vast and people are surfing. The campsite is cool, although full of rules and quite busy. There a wooded beach huts you can hire, many caravans and some campers, and a surf shack on site.

We cycled into Monster, past streets on green houses, all growing flowers and tomatoes. There seem to be more houses for produce than there are for people. I bought a pizza for much needed energy and a tiny pair of clogs for the caravan. We then visited the beach and played Frisbee and I fell asleep face down in the sand.

Starving after some time we headed back to the caravan and Bob made spaghetti and we played dominoes and drank wine from a carton.

I feel a bit sad that we have to return to France so swiftly, but we seem to have no choice at this point as the money just isn’t stretching as far as I had expected, or wanted it to.  The campsites are as expensive as paying rent on a flat in Manchester and our week in Someren Heide was not free. The travellers dream was woken when we realised that when Wilma said “The camping is free”, she meant that there was space to camp and we were landed with a bill for 110 euro in departure, woops.

There is an upside to returning to France other than loving it and free camping though. The wine cellar needs re-stocking, and what better place to do it than the Loire Valley?

Very goodnight, x.

We made it to America!

Day 22, Monday, America!, 23^rd May.

We made it to America!

We made it to America today, America, Holland that is. America a small and closed on Mondays. Damn. 

 

 

Disappointed we followed the signs to a local attraction called  Toverland, we found out that it was a theme park with rides and looked quite cool, but at 22 euro admission and 6 euro parking we left and ended up in Germany. 

The town we found, which we have no idea what it was called or where it was, was tacky, neither of us liked it but I did spot the spaghetti ice cream, something I have wanted now for about two years  since a friend told me about it, but at 6 euro, I had to remain wanting. We didn’t want to stay in the tacky town, so we headed back over the border. 

Back in Holland we found another quaint town, it looked very wealthy, but not very interesting. We bought some bread and some interesting chocolate called ‘Sinas Snippers’ looked around a bit, had a  drink in a bar where a group of old men playing cards pointed and laughed at my trousers, then we made our way back to the caravan.

Not one the most interesting days.

Bob has eaten five more of the twenty frikkedellen and made curry dogs with some left over curry while we researched European festivals.

Tomorrow we must definitely move on. Definitly.

Goodnight,x.

Dutch Pancake Country

Day 20, Saturday, Someren, 21^st May.

The gas bottle ran out this morning and we don’t know where to get a new one. The early morning I had hoped for turned into another late morning. It is so easy to sleep here, no other campers and the birds rise later than they do in France.

Yesterday was a lazy one around the caravan, tidying and soaking then boiling chickpeas for hours on end. Martein had come to the caravan to show Bob a bike while I was napping, which he offered to sell him for 25 euro. The bike is old and has been sitting in one of Wilma and Matien’s barns for four years, a nice bike although a bit on the rusty side. I woke to a hot air balloon skimming the grass outside the caravan. It was too late to take a photograph once I had realised that I was not dreaming. What a sight, and what a sound.

This morning the bike looked and sounded older than it had the night before, rustier and clicking. We decided to go and look at the chocolate beauty in the bike shop again. On arrival we were told that the bike could not be fixed, we looked at it and Bob decided to take it out for a test ride anyway as we couldn’t understand what the problem with it was. He wobbled down the street and back as to break you had to peddle backwards which felt a little odd. As he said the bike was fine, Bob did a deal with the guy in the shop and bought the bike for 25 euro and got a new gear cable thrown in, Bargain! Now the proud owners of four bikes, we took two of the bikes out for a ride. I was happy to back on my bike, although now on the chocolate beauty Bob can cycle even faster. Holland, being as flat as a pancake is brilliant to cycle around. The cycle lanes are away from the road and well kept and pootling along is a pleasure. We cycled into Maheeze woods and stopped by a large pond to enjoy a bottle of wine and heard some very odd sounding nature, saw a frog, had a laugh and had a widdle in the woods.

 

 

 It was a hot day today and Martein said that he wanted to heavens to rain when I found him watering flowers back at the campsite. Last night he showed us a barn full of caravans, a trailer for the horses to pull that he had made and painted with tar and some wood that he is going to make a gazebo from, he never stops. He told us that he sleeps for about 3 hours a night.

We need to move on soon, although staying in one place for a week has felt super. But we need to work and get to Berlin for July and see more of this dutch pancake country.

I made a curry last night and am hoping there is enough gas in one of our bottles to heat it up and make some cous cous for tea. It smells like a good one and should do too having been three days n the making. We didn’t get chance to eat the curry as Wilma and Martein lit a fire for us and we joined them drinking wine and beer while sat around the glowing wood. We looked at the stars, talked about various matters and Bob played Losing My Religion for Martein, one of his favourites. They told us about the woman who owns the Asperges farm where we looked for work. They told us that we were lucky that she never called as she has been in prison for mis-treating workers a few years ago. She never pays them properly, takes their passports and doesn’t let them even go to the shops. Lucky was probably the wrong word.

The night grew into morning, and I grew tired. A Saturday evening well spent with a full tummy of wine, not curry. Oh well, it should taste even better tomorrow, goodnight, x.

A dead bird in the awning.

Day 18, Thursday, Someren, 19^th May.

A dead bird in the awning.

There was a dead bird in the awning this morning. Mousy on e of the 9 cats had left it as a present for us. Dank u Mousy. As bad things come in 3’s, I then fell through one of my 4 deckchairs during breakfast and was then scared by a large caterpillar in the sink. All that nonsense over we decided to hunt for windmills, we had already seen some at the sides of the road, but we wanted to be close up, or even inside. But first, Bob had a bike issue which needed sorting. In Holland most people ride bikes so there must be bike shops everywhere, and there can’t be a better place to sort a bike issue. We needed cheap, so off to Someren centre we went. In the second shop we found the one. Second hand, or 2 hands as they say here it still looked expensive. With a chocolate brown frame, dynamo and Dutch stability we were surprised to find out that the guy in the shop would do it up for Bob for just 55 euro and that we could pick it up on Saturday. Perfect.

Finding windmills and stopping off in cafe’s for frites and beer was fun. It was a still and warm day so perfekt for strolling around and exploring. We found out that one of the windmills would be working on Saturday so are going to take a cycle there, Bob on new wheels then. We found a windmill which you can walk right up to, they are such pretty things, its weird to think that they were purpose built for working really, why can’t all factories look so nice?

We had a bbq in the evening, Bob bought 20 frikkerdellan sausages for 1.99 euro and I made garlic potato’s and pepper kebabs. We also enjoyed Appleflap which I had bought at the stall earlier in the day, I was secretly hoping that Bob wouldn’t like his then I could have two, but before I could look needy it was gobbled.

I spent some more time chatting with Wilma about horses and cats and hot air balloon festivals and old trucks. She is interesting and easy to be around. Evening around the caravan are becoming quite similar now and relaxed so it was nice to be around someone else and hear about other lives. We chatted until the cold air replaced the warm then I went back and played cards and dominoes with bob and we looked at the map.

I hope that Mousy doesn’t bring us another present tonight, for the birds sake more than mine,

Goodnight, x. 

A travellers dream, Wilma and Martein.

Day 16, Tuesday, Someren-Heide, 17^th May.

A travellers dream, Wilma and Martein.

My hair is amazing. After an amazing shower that cost 50 cents and using my new amazing hair conditioner, I feel amazing.

This morning we were unsure whether to move on orlook for work, a man Bob met in the toilets had told us about the asperges farm, so we asked the cleaning lady on the campsite if she knew of any farms, she asked another man who I believe was the gardener, who told me that the largest Asperges farm was just around the corner and that there was a campsite right next to it. We packed up faster than ever before, excited about the prospect of work and more excited about such a short journey to get to it. He was right, his directions perfect. At the farm we were told that there would be work once the sun came out but we needed to obtain a sophie (?) number to work in the Netherlands. Okay, this was promising, so we drove the whole 20 meters to the camsite. Martein met us at the gate and said he would get ‘the wife’. Wilma came out just seconds later and told us that the camping was free! A travellers dream, a dream which was cut short when Wilma told us that the mayor of Someren has banned people who live in caravans from working and that if we had jobs, we couldn’t camp. As we didn’t have jobs and a free campsite is nearly as good as having a job, and after promising Wilma that we wouldn’t get jobs or she would be fined 5000 euro, she led us through the gate onto her pristine campsite. I was expecting to be getting the porte pottie out on a free campsite, but no, there is electric which you pay for what you have used when you leave, water points, free hot showers, toilets, an incredible looking bar, atmospheric with a duke box, native American memorabilia, fake bears heads and cow skins hung all over the walls, this was brilliant!

Wilma made us milky coffee and we chatted about their place and where we had been and were going and discussed the state of the roads in Belgium. Wilma thinks we will lose the caravan in a pot hole when we reach Poland as apparently the roads are even worse there. Wilma and Martein were the most welcoming people ever, they have 2 horses, 2 dogs and 9 cats, one of which is pregnant. They told us they sometimes have parties in the bar, and sometimes they just sit and people come, the duke box has ‘lost its memory’ so doesn’t work but I love that they still have it as a piece of furniture.

I think we are the only ones here, there are 2 other caravans without tenants and many more in storage in one of the barns. The area is beautiful, there are hundreds of cyclists, two of which are soon to be Bob and me and just miles of asperges and strawberries and wholesomeness.

What an amazing day, its amazing how amazing conditioner and an amazing couple can make al the difference,

Goodnight Someren-Heide, je taime tout, x.

Bob Holland is in holland!

Day 15, Monday, Someren, 16^th May.

Bob Holland is in Holland.

Francis wasn’t around this morning while we were packing away. We had one mouthful of sultana bran with gone off soya milk for breakfast and discovered that the back legs of the caravan are slightly skew whiff. We realised a while ago that we are going to need to do some work on our home. The day before we left England we discovered some rotting wood to the front right hand side, the shower room needs to be re-sealed and now its the back legs. We need to seal the shower room to stop further rot as some campsites charge 1 euro for a shower, it may not seem like much, but could be 14 euro a week just to shower! 14 euro to us is quite a good food shop or, in France, 16 bottles of wine! We also need to think about getting the European gas bottles filled as our English on has been going strong for 2 weeks now, but new to the caravanning way of life we are unsure of how much longer it will last, and don’t want to be caught short in the oven one evening, or worse, in the shower one morning.

We are heading to Venlo still, it was raining all morning and I didn’t want to think about repairs we couldn’t afford. So off to try and work on the tomato’s it is. We hit the road, my 3 hour rule is in place again today, even though so far, it has been broken, probably every time we have moved. After just one hour Bob wanted to stop. He wanted an easy day. Okay. We found a campsite with a frog as a logo, thankfully it was too expensive, so we moved on, found another campsite in some woods, the sun shone through the trees in such a way that the bark appeared purple, this would have been a great place to camp. The reception feels strange, it smells like school dinners and there appeared to be a class being taught, were we in a school? They told us that caravans were not allowed on site, although really wanting to camp in the woods, the caravan ban true or not, it was probably best not to camp near 40 8 year olds and we moved on.

Suddenly we were in Holland. Bob Holland is in Holland I sang as we crossed the border and continue onto the flat and well kept roads, with signs, many signs, signs for everything. So we were in Holland, unexpected, but good. We found a campsite in Someren, a farming town. It is very clean, there are many caravans with double awning here which all look exactly the same and a riding school. And many flies. Without even taking the legs down on the caravan we headed for the supermarket. Jumbo we found nestled in the town centre, small and sweet with hundreds of cyclists. We needed to stock up on butter, soya milk and Bob was still gagging for a bbq, so chicken. I also managed to buy hair conditioner in a pharmacy close by, so I can now have nice hair again instead of the bail of hay which has been propped on my head for the last week. Jumbo is no Aldi, its like the equivalent of Boothes in the UK, so just the essential were bought. Bob’s chicken, butter, soya milk, a huge block of Gouda (its just east of here) and some salad. The campsite was still when we returned to our dumped caravan. Legs, wonky or not barely wound down and Bob had the bbq lit! While he bbq’d happily in the rain I spoke to Nigel on the phone. I had rice salad for tea and Bob had the same with the addition of chicken. I spent the evening typing outside in the chilly but now dry weather as the sun went down as Bob set up the recording studio again. The recording didn’t seem to go well and after about an hour I found him rather drunk playing game boy. He then ate 4 rounds of gouda on toast and is now asleep with flies buzzing around his slumbering body.

We heard there could be some work on an Aserges (Asparagus) farm as it is the right season so we are going to investigate tomorrow as Venlo and the tomato’s seem now to be in the wrong direction.

Goodnight Holland, goodbye haystack hair, x.