Overland with Kids

We have had to make lots of changes to our planned itinerary to finally sort our vehicle out. We were advised that our vehicle would be ready Friday last week so left Sonzay for the long drive back to Amiens. Before we left we made sure to make the most of our stay in the Loire area. We spent one day just lazing around the campsite which was the last time we wrote. Then the rain decided to come again and challenge us in our two pop-up tents. We visited Azay-Le-Rideau and Chenconcau chateux which were very beautiful and impressive before leaving and did not get back to the campsite until quite late.

Early Friday we left and called the insurance company en-route to say we were coming, only to be told the parts they were awaiting for within France had not arrived as planned. Land Rover apparently had not made it’s normal delivery and vehicle ‘might’ be ready either Monday or Tuesday. We were devastated to say the least not to mention more chopping and changes to our plans.

We decided once we were in the vicinity of Amiens (still about 200 miles away) to head for Dieppe and Normandy for the weekend. At least the children would have beach and coastline while waiting the weekend. The insurance company put us up in a lovely hotel along the beach front and allowed us secure storage for our hire vehicle. Following a few days of very wet and restricted camping, the hotel felt like we had all died and gone to heaven - real beds, our own bath and shower etc.

We couldn’t have arrived to Dieppe at a better time as we seemed to have caught it’s festival weekend.

Our day started on Saturday with a walk around the bustling and metropolitan city market area of Dieppe which seemed to surround the awe-inspiring and historic 13th Century Saint Jacques Cathedral. This was followed by a 30-minute bumpy cruise around the port and coastline (Jessica felt sea-sick afterwards) with a real highlight for the children being allowed to take a turn each in the captain’s chair and drive the boat. Onto the main pebble beach  in Dieppe but the sea was too high and too rough for the children to allow them in. This didn’t stop either Jess or AJ throwing what seemed like half the pebbles on the beach into the sea - the bigger the pebble, the better for AJ who nearly fell over backwards a couple of times trying to pick them up and throw them in!

AJ wanted to go and see a dog show being held on the beach lawns (AJ loves,  loves, loves dogs) and got his fill of all the lovely breeds there. A couple of days later he told us it was not what he expected - as he thought the word ’show’ would mean like the circus or theatre and all the dogs would be dancing or singing. We had to laugh but his thoughts make complete sense for a 4-year old. Nonetheless, we all really enjoyed the ’show’!

Jess and AJ played in the adventure playground on a huge great big ship which they took control of, go-carts followed, a quick freshen up and then dinner. Afterwards we were greeted by live bands playing on a giant stage in the port square and had a meander around the night street marketr before bed.

A visit to Dieppe castle followed the next day with a basically very lazy afternoon and evening.

Monday we headed for Amiens to be told again our vehicle was not ready but they would start working on it the same afternoon. We decided to head for the garage regardless and it was the right move as we saw our vehicle miraculously fly past for a test drive after just being repaired. We were elated apart from the bill of 1,000 Euros!

Late afternoon we headed back to the campsite at Berny Riviere where we first started and to Vic-Sur-Aisne to rescue our caravan. As it was getting late, we pitched overnight there and in any case could not move as we still had to exchange all of our equipment over from one car to the next and then drop the hire car back. The thread on the Jockey Wheel of our caravan broke so we are unable to unhitch currently without a bottlejack and Andrew started to suffer a bad toothache. The sun started to shine though so a sign of good things to come. Children delighted to be back on familiar ground and jumped into the beach with giggles and glee fully clothed and came out like two drowned rats!

Tuesday  28th July (day 15), we headed off for Epernay to drop hire car and pay another 1,000 Euros for the damage caused (currently just an estimate) and finally made our route downward to lower France. We are relieved to have our vehicles finally back at last!

We picked up a hitchhiker en-route at a gas station about 40kms from Orleans - very nice man. After travelling until 11:30 pm at night we bedded down in a cheap hotel in Lamote Beavron, just South outside Orleans.

Weds (yesterday), we spent the day travelling from 10am - 7pm, with stop points in between, to reach Sarlat. Andrew’s tooth is very bad and he nearly passed out from the pain and the pain killers he has been taking so not in a very good way at all.

We met Lee, Helen and their 10-year old daughter Beverley (Bevhelee from Landyzone) on arrival at the campsite as we had previously planned. We had a great chat (they plan to overland to Oz next year also). Our vehicles are the same expect L, H and B have painted theirs in grey, black and white combat colours and have made a matching trailer themselves - looks really cool compared to our shiny version.

Beer, wine and cider flowed until the late hours and  then bed.

Thursday 30th July (day 18) - Today

So here we are, currently holed up in a little village called Vitrac just outside Sarlat. It is a trully beautiful area with a small river, amazing mountain scenery, canoes, swimming pool. There is nothing we want for. Andrew’s toothache is gone but he is feeling sick so resting today. En-route here we took the N20 most of the way down and there are plenty of tempting places to pull off and see.

We plan to relax now for a couple of days together with L, H and B before we head onto Clermont Ferrand and  the Pyrenees before hitting Spain. We have lost some time from our itinerary so will need to deduct this ultimately from our Morocco leg.

Off to chill now with the children.

Over and out for now! Oh - and Jess is a little behind with her diary since the Loire so we’ll chase we’ll start chasing her tail about it tomorrow to get updated.

Lots of love,

The O Team.

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Diary (Blog)