Well what an awesome place 👏 . It’s been just the job. Beautiful riverside location, friendly staff, clean, well loved, pool, perfect amenities, ping pong, close enough to town to ride to and home after dinner and our penultimate evening……Moules-Frites night. Complete with entertainment en Francais 👍.
Camping le Beau Rivage. It was a bit of a spur of the moment thought but what a great idea – revisiting L’Ardeche – staying put for a good few days.
So after arriving, having the camp admired by the Belgian pros (who’ve invited us to watch the game tomorrow with them!), and enjoying Andy’s bbq prowess, we’ve settled into a bit of a routine.
I’ve generally spent the mornings and some whole days on the b@**&y d whilst Andy has watched random documentaries or ridden his bicycle in the heat. Brave boy! Still, I think it’s been worthwhile as I sent what I hope is a pretty much final draft to a proof reader yesterday 😁👏🍷.
It took a while though to upload the mega mega project file on the campsite WiFi but it made it and I’m ignoring the d for a couple of weeks until I get the feedback from the proof reader and the re drafted conclusion chapter I’ve sent to my supervisors….again…!
But hoorah! That means we get to enjoy the last days of our hols…properly 😁😎🚣♀️🏊♀️🚴♀️🍷🥐💤😍. Happy girl 😆 !
So today….We. SET AN ALARM….oh my goodness. What a shock?! Oh yes. Before 8am as well. We had to get bread, make lunch and do chores before our paddling adventure!
We were collected from the campsite and delivered to the bateau hire shop. We paid our money and we’re given our buoyancy aids and tub. After pretty brief instruction, I signed the disclaimer and we were taken to the drop off point. The bath tubs were presented and paddles handed out and hasta la vista baby….we were off…..eek!
Just as I was about to jump in the back of the boat, the shuttle man said “non, non” pointing at Andy. Hmm methinks….less control but better weight distribution. Tricky! (Well for the control freak in me at least!). So off we go.
It seemed to be reasonably successful in terms of progressing forward ish down the river. There were several occasions when it was just me paddling in the front….as some of the pictures show! The boat seemed to go relatively straight then. Maybe I have some autopilot auto correct thing from a few previous paddling miles? At other times though, we would zig zag a bit and I couldn’t work out why strokes i were putting in were so ineffective. For the most part I put it down to the bath tub design of the boat we were in. Then Andy fessed up to getting a bit confused with his left and right more than once. Aaah! That would explain the random break-outs and why some of the paddle was such hard work. I was fighting Andy, as well as the boat being like a tub.
It was a pretty lovely little trip. Most relaxed and of limited effort. We had to have a few stops to admire the scenery and make sure we didn’t get to the shuttle pick up too early. Perhaps slightly more effort from me than Mr T, but that’s to be expected apparently as he had been dragging me round on my bike!!
Still smiling having not fallen out or fallen out!
We were rewarded when we returned to the campsite with the mouses-frites fun. Delicious. A glass of local Chardonnay, a massive vat of mussels, chips and home-made garlic mayo. Followed by a strawberry tart. Oh and then the dancing, but i will leave Andy to describe that as he had the best view.
Brilliant day – the kind holidaysare all about.🥐😎🏊♀️🚣♀️🍷👍
Meanderings in Merfyn 