Briare to Cosne sur Loire

It's Sunday and we've got a lovely day to start biking. The route we're taking is the euro velo 6 ,which goes from Nantes on the Atlantic and finishes at the black sea with the Danube. We'd done the first stage a few years ago along the Loire, and now we wanted to see how far we could get on this stage, from Briare to Basel in Switzerland . This town is well known for the amazing aqueduct that carries traffic over the Loire valley.Designed by Eiffel.

 

  The next cheeky shot Christine took is me having a nervous pee as we are about to cycle past one of the 95 nuclear power stations France has. I think what I'll remember most of the 1st day though are these BLOODY MOSSIES

Loing valley

We've been getting showers for the last few days but it's going to be fine this Sunday when we begin biking.

  I gave the lock keeper a hand to let some working barges through here in Capoy. They fascinate me! Each had 260 tonnes of wheat on (26 trucks ) and were only handled by one man. The lock was 150 mm 's wider than the barge and a couple of Meters longer. Poetry  in motion ! 

  The roundabout art was in Montargis, a town famous for its beautiful bridges and if you've ever wondered where baby renaults come from, here's one being born . The mother though was actually a 'MAN'

French food

Ok ,so I'm a grazer,but we just love the patisseries with all their tempting goodies.

   The bag of figs, the fresh peaches and maybe the pickled onions weren't such a good idea, BUT! Never again will I cook baked beans as well !

   That night was worst than being in the trenches. Our cosy camper became a fair dinkum Dutch oven. 

 

   We followed the Marne valley towards Paris. This is the Champagne region and the machinery they were using fascinated me. Never been a champagne fan though. If you can't buy it for under 2 euros it's not worth drinking! 

  The camping grounds are very good , about 12 euros including wifi. 

  It's getting busier as we near Paris so we're going down the Loing valley instead . Just love the quiet back roads with flowers on their houses and shops. 

  Tomorrow we will do some biking along the Loing canal. Toughen our bums for the big ride!

The Somme

Just south of Bapaume we stopped at the NZ monument at Longueval. We were here 2 years ago with Ash and Lee and I thought this would be a good chance to apologize to the farmer for Ash  tickling his potatoes. Joking, they were too small! We slept the night here, a very moving place and the site where NZ had its first battle in France . The Somme. 

    The cemetery nearby has over a 1000 kiwis but unidentified . The unknown soldier in Wellington came from this spot. 

   You've probably guessed that WW1 is a bit of a hobby horse of ours. 

 Oh , the new mattress was tres bien,  but since we were half cut when we went to bed it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Welcome to France!

God I thought it was going to be warmer over here ! We drove a short distance to Graveline to stay the night in the aire de service there and to top up with cheap gas. Quite a bit cheaper than England!

   This was our first night in the van that Andy has loaned us and which we had decked out as a sleeper. It's very cosy and we slept well but when we woke the air mattress had gone down on us!

  ( pause while my depraved mates make comment ) no it wasn't French Ash.

 We laughed ourselves silly and swore to replace it tomorrow. 

   Today we headed slowly south through the little villages of northern France, pretty as a picture with their flowers and their decorated roundabouts. Stopped at a  vide grenier, ( town garage sale) and bought a few things for the van

  Tonight we are in a hotel in Bethune. The salsa dancing is in the town square and the belfry behind them was the only building left standing in the city after being flattened by the Germans in WW1

 The other photo is a hotel clothed dryer!

   

Heading south

I'm not usually a motorway person, but to make serious progress there is no choice . We got caught in a traffic jam about Liverpool so took advantage of it by visiting nearby Tatton park. We love these huge english manors and being national trust members gets us in for free. Spent the rest of the day there and stayed in a nearby travel lodge that night.

   This was no coincidence as I really wanted to see the newly restored Anderton lift. This ingenious lift took boats from the river weaver, 25 meters up to the Trent and Mersey canal. 

   As they had wifi on I thought sister Raewyn might like to be woken to watch a boat descend on it.

    She was thrilled!! 

  What wasn't so good was being in a traffic jam on the M6 the next day for 2 HOURS ! 

Leaving Scotland

Our last night in Scotland was here at Dysart again . Dennis's camper was a little cracker and we were very lucky to have it up here. The plan was to share it with him in France while we did our biking trip but , he had to go back into hospital for observation so he hopes to join us down there.

   Tuesday morning we had a pleasant surprise when John Gray dropped in to see us. He's hardly changed a bit since he first toured NZ with Dennis all those years ago.

   If it looks like a tight fit getting the van out of Denny's, it was ! Had to rub Vaseline on it !

  Another bit of useless information, this is the actual site where the famous Adam Smith lived when he wrote 'The Wealth of Nations'. "Oh,,,of course"I hear you say.

TRACTORS

This steam festival is bloke heaven! Over 100 steam trucks, tractors, rollers ,and then another 100 vintage tractors, another 100 or so vintage cars, all working and strutting their stuff!  All this in the castle grounds of beautiful castle Fraser . Raymond and Mary were playing in the pipe band which altogether made for a wonderful day.

  When Raymond learns to beat his drum in time they'll be perfect !

Aberdeenshire

From Blairgowrie we took the high road through Braemar, then east towards Aberdeen. We camped the night in Echt beside the village soccer field . This far north it never really gets dark and by 3 am it was broad daylight again. I must fix the ceiling blinds or we're never going to sleep. The next morning , Friday, we carried on to Raymond and Mary's. They'd come to NZ with Dennis earlier this year and it was great to see them again.

     Saturday morning in a fit of madness we decided to climb a nearby mountain ,

Mither Tap. It was a fantastic view and well worth the effort

  After lunch we headed up to a small music festival in a little place called Keith. Some great music but what made it unique was the acts were playing in various shops. Irish music in the grocer store, barbers shops music in the furniture shop, jazz in a pub, you get the idea! 

    Dennis and Sophie are due up here tonight and tomorrow we're off to see Raymond ( Rimon) and Mary play in their pipe band

Ardblair

Christine's cousin Jenny, is married to the Laird of Blairgowrie , Laurence Blair- Oliphant and they live in Ardblair castle. 

  We stayed in the Lady Nairne room in her bed with her piano for company. She was famous for writing many of Scotland's iconic tunes including 100 piper's, Charlie is my darling and many others. 

   The mattress was horse hair with a high ridge down the middle. Perhaps it was to keep you on your side of the bed? Middle ages birth control ?

Kirkaldy

Oh. My. God!  It's freezing. We're sleeping up in Denny's flat and our morning walk was along the beach to Dysart.  This was once a busy coal port and that's the old lock in the photo foreground,  which kept the sailing ships at a constant level for loading. Monday night Was Sophie's birthday and Dave and Katrina came around for drinks . Dave Vernon was the piper ,come accordionist ,come card sharp that toured with Dennis a few times, more famous for the amount of NZ pies he could eat! 

    Tomorrow we will take Dennis' camper   for a few days to iron out any problems

Christine's ancestor hunt

Ok so you picked up the mistake! Saturday was the 8th !  We stayed last night in a lovely old hotel on the Esk river.

    Used mostly by hunters and fishermen there was wild game on the menu with little warnings about watching for buckshot and bones. 

   This morning Christine went searching in the Canonbie cemetery for her Rea ancestors. We were here 3 years ago and had found the cottage where her great great great grandfather was born .

  We wanted to see it again and meet the current owner, Dr Christopher Rae. 

Scotland

Saturday 9th. We picked up the van Andy has loaned us, and after we had watched the All Blacks beat France (whew ) we headed up to Scotland. We left at 10.30 and by 4.30 we were just over the Scottish border near Langholm.

    We've never driven so far on a motorway before!

Real tennis

Real tennis was the original tennis game and was played on an indoor court with lots of strange rules. Holyport has one of the very few left. $600 subs plus a court fee each game, only one court so it's a long wait for a game. Makes Katikati look cheap guys!

Bikes !

Next door to Andy's was a heap of bikes waiting for the garbage truck so we managed to salvage parts off them to make one really good bike for Christine. I still had one over there so we rode alongside the Thames into Maidenhead for a 'test drive '