Intrepid for 10 Minutes

5 Feb 2025

2024 A Bit of Winter Sun in Spain before Heading to Africa

As the Safari Parks and Tourism in general appears to be back on track in Africa we decided to take a short (3 week) visit to Namibia, but instead of a Landcruiser with a roof tenet we went for a rented Hilux and luxury lodges. However, as this is booked in May we decided to take a winter trip to France and possibly Spain in the Motorhome to see how it worked out.

The plan was to get down to Avignon as fast as possible to see what the weather was like on the South of France, result - awful, so we carried on to Spain

Sunshine at last (but haven't got the shorts on yet).

Just south of Barcelona

Lots of walking and beach to play on

And then on to Navajas

Warm enough for shorts now

,About 40 miles north of Valencia (25 miles from the coast)

An excellent walking area

And superb cycling tracks - except I had forgotten the

charger for the electric bike, so 2 rides ws my lot!

Forecast was good, so stayed for a week

Stopped at Chalon Sur Saone, where the weather was still good

And Auberive, which is gorgeous, a quiet little place with a Chateau built round a Chateau

OK, its getting wet and cold again, time to go home

To play with her friends

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Intrepid for 10 Minutes

Married in 1980 we had both travelled before we met. Me overland to India. Chris overland from Singapore, after working in New Zealand for 18 months and finally been given 24 hours to leave after repeated attempts to extend her visa.

We both vowed to travel again, once we were able and whilst we have recently made short trips to Peru, Sri Lanka, Nepal(Mick) and Vietnam (Chris) this has simply fuelled our desire to travel (without having to rush round in 2 weeks).

In August 2007, returning from Slovenia with our caravan, we met Jeff & Jean who were in the first Landcruiser with roof tent that we had ever come across. Over a few beers they told us about their two trips to South Africa, down either side of the continent (see Gonewandering.co.uk) and their plans to ship the Landcruiser to the point of South America and drive to Alaska.

And that was it! by the time we had left we had given ourselves 4 years to be on the Road.

In October 2007, we made a quick trip to Morocco for a last attempt to get some sun before winter. Chris wanted to be intrepid and travel round by bus and Grand Taxi, but with thughts of waiting around for hours and trouble finding accommodation, I hired a car instead.

We stayed in the Hotel Panorama in Azrou (one of the few places we could get a beer during Ramadan) where we met Dave and Sue (over a beer). They had hired a guide for a walk the following day and invited us to join them. Before starting, Dave confirmed the rules to the guide - no walking on roads and back by 4pm.

It was an enjoyable walk until, at 4pm precisely, we arrived at a road, with a sign that said 'Azrou 4k'. After the toys had been firmly thrown from the pram Dave sat on the bank and said 'It's 4 o'clock, that's a road and I have finished'. As he said it, a Grand taxi stopped just down the road to drop someone off, our guide flagged it down and the driver promised to be back in 5 minutes.

So Chris got her trip in a Grand Taxi. During the short trip Sue recounted varous experiences in long bus journeys in stifling heat where dogs had died and numerous children had thrown up, and a 6 hour trip in a Grand Taxi, wedged between 3 large ladies in stifling heat so she could hardly move and after taking a sip from her water bottle, the large woman next to her took the bottle, drained it and threw it out of the window.

When we arrived in Azrou I said 'OK, are you satisfied now that you have been Intrepid for 10 minutes'