We have sold our camper van today; it doesn't seem five years since we drove up to Galashiels in 2007 having taken delivery. It served us very well and we had many great trips, most of them recorded here on the Blog. The decision to sell after our last trip was mainly because we are planning a few longer-haul trips over the forthcoming winters, for shorter periods but never-the-less, the camper would be aging and little used. Hopefully we'll be able to get another camper in the future.
Meanwhile we have a cycle tour on the European Velo 1, one of the many trans-European cycle networks. We have already (unwittingly) done part of the UK Velo 1 from Lynmouth to Plymouth. This continues (by ferry!) to Roscoff in northern France and down the Atlantic coast to the Spanish border at Hendaye (adjacent to Irun in Spain where the GR11 starts). We have planned to do it in reverse, from Hendaye to Roscoff because, hopefully, the weather will be better in the south at the beginning of May and also the wind should be better placed to push us north! So our journey will be from Sandford to Poole, a ferry to Cherbourg and then trains to Paris and overnight to Hendaye with our cycles. We should arrive in Hendaye about eight thirty in the morning ready for a sleep or a days cycling towards Biarritz. We're taking our tent and will stay in B&Bs if the weather is bad.
Not sure whether we'll be able to update the Blog on route.
My next trek will be on the South Downs Way with Doug in late August doing Bed and Breakfast along the route; it's supposed to be a great walk along the Downs on ancient wayfares.
After that, in early September, I'm off to the High Pyrenees to the Enchanted Mountains for three weeks to visit some areas not covered by the GR11 trail..looking forward to that and hopefully the snow will have more or less melted by then. At the moment the National Parks in the Pyrenees are giving ice warnings to trekkers and advising crampons and ice axe for the higher passes. This is because of the late Spring snow this year and cold weather since (this warning continued until July).
Later in November we're off to Australia via Bangkok to tour the east coast from Sydney to Cairns returning by Melbourne and Malaysia, in all about five weeks so lots of things to plan before then.
