Kayaks, Kingfishers and kicking back

So as we head feet first into blog 26, it's with aching arms and legs I write today's entry, but more on that later!

First we must celebrate, 6months to the day that Jase and I rolled down the driveway of Hawkins Crescent, and on this big adventure. Sounds like a long time to be away from home - in some ways, when I recount how many places we've been it does feel like a long time, but in many others it feels like only yesterday. Living in the van has become part of us now, most of the little annoyances are resolved as soon as they crop up and we miss less of the "stuff" from home that we yearned for in our early weeks (not family and friends though, that will always be something we miss, although the wonders of social media has made that easier for sure). We still have a good 3 months or so of this chapter of Jexit, but thoughts are inevitably starting to think about heading back home for Christmas, and how our first walk around a well stocked Tesco or Sainsbury's is going to feel! I'm already starting to wonder the the heck I'll manage any Christmas shopping, and where exactly does that fit into the budget! We've got a list of jobs to do before chapter 2 starts in January, although many of those will be done while we are back at Loches with Tess and Nige with the use of the wonderful large workshop/garage.

So the last blog was from our lovely campsite base in Atur, and on a very rainy Thursday. The rest of the day remained much the same so after posting the blog we started planning our route north the following week, and unfortunately had news of yet another problem with the house! Sounding more drastic this one, but we got onto it straight away.

After a bit of a restless night worrying about the house (I know, what is the point?!), Friday was a much sunnier day. Jase headed out for an explore on his bike and I spent a couple of hours pottering around the van, and enjoying the sunshine. After lunch we headed poolside for some R&R in what might be the last of the summer sun. Being on a campsite, it was only right to indulge in a bit of campsite pizza making - yum!

Saturday morning and another lovely day. We'd decided to have a couple of days on the road before heading into another site slightly further south in the Dordogne before making the journey north. The plan was simple, to do a little bit of driving, and tick off some of the lovely Beau villages the area has to offer. The first of these was Saint-Leon-sur-Vezere which was truly stunning. A very small village, set alongside the Vezere river.

My book reliably tells me this area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and sure enough after a lovely wander around the village, and a short drive we found ourselves at the site of some Troglodyte caves at La Roque St Cristophe - really amazing site to see and a super spot for a bit of lunch.

The only issue we had was the slight squeeze to get up the road! Although I must say it wasn't as tight as it looked!

We then headed towards Limeuil, which is the meeting point of the Vezere and Dordogne Rivers. Again, a really beautiful place, and although we would like to have stopped, it was quite late in the day, and unfortunately parking was a bit pricey.

We did a couple of drive bys instead, and then headed for Tremolat, with a free Aire we'd spotted on Park4night. On arrival, we found a large parking area to the rear of what seemed to be a community hall or similar, next to the village recycling area. We parked up and set about finding a bit of shade as the temperature we well towards 30 again.

While sitting on the grassy bank waiting for the shadows to lengthen, a French lady came over and started to chat to Jase. It sounded fairly friendly, although I thought she was trying to say we couldn't stay. Turned out (we think) she was merely suggesting we take a walk through the village and to the river for some nicer views of the Dordogne itself. Well, that was our interpretation anyway! We duly did as suggested, and found, not only a lovely basin view of the Dordogne, but also a massive campsite - could it be this that our lovely French lady was suggesting? We'll never know I guess! We were joined later by another French camper, so feeling fairly safe we settled down to a lovely quiet night.

Next morning, and after a great sleep we headed out from Tremolat and across the stunning bridge across the basin we'd been looking at the previous evening.

Our first stop was Belves, another Beau village and this one boasting 7 bell towers. We had a lovely wander around, looking at the old buildings and views.

We didn't manage to spot them all, but we did find a lovely bakery complete with proper working bread oven which was really cool - best bread we'd had for a while!

Whilst in the bakery we picked up a couple of pastries and intended to find a spot riverside to enjoy them. We had a bit of trouble as for some reason, the Dordogne River seems to have a lack of nice laybys! Eventually, after following our noses we found a lovely car park alongside the River Ceou which from looking at the map seems to be a tributary of the Dordogne itself. The reason for stopping riverside was to try to spot and hopefully photograph a kingfisher. We'd seen a fair few on this trip, and they have increasingly become my favourite bird. However, as we'd described them as "blue bullets" this gives you a flavour for how fast they are! Anyway, we found a spot, and with our pastries and coffee in hand we settled down to wait, telling ourselves patience was all we needed. Well, we were in luck. Within a few minutes of sitting down we saw not one but two kingfishers in what looked to be a high speed pursuit! Brilliant, but not exactly going to be easy to catch on camera! Not wanting to give in too quickly, we watched for a good hour or so, trying to identify their behaviours and work out what they were up to. We'd see them every 10 minutes or so up one way, then back the other. In the end, Jase went onto the bridge to try and work out where they headed - he was in luck, initially thinking we might have spotted their burrow, I headed up to join him to be rewarded with a solo kingfisher catching my eye as he dived into the water and back into the reeds. Better than that I finally managed to grab a picture - not the best, but still you can see it's a kingfisher! I was thrilled. We spent the rest of the day hoping for an even better opportunity, but although they went past lots more times, they didn't seem to be stopping, and the incoming rain didn't help. Still, we'd achieved our goal and headed on for somewhere to stop for the night.

After a narrow, winding road we ended up at Campagnac-les-Quercy which was another free Aire at a football club, again on Park4Night. On arrival, there were no other vans, but plenty of locals about playing Boule and also what looked to be a shooting party back from their day in the forest - we'd seen quite a lot of this sort of activity throughout the day, which I was initially a bit surprised about.

Eventually, most of them headed off although the local football team had obviously been playing away that afternoon, as it got quite noisy about 10pm and didn't really let up until gone 1am!

The next morning, and more tired than hoped, we woke to a lovely clear morning and great views from the van. It may have been noisy overnight, but the area was stunning!

Our initial plan for the day was to see a couple more of the Beau villages before heading into a campsite - we were forecast sun and 30+ degrees for most of the week, so we'd picked a site with a couple of pools to make the most of it. Once we got near the villages however, we found that the river mist was obscuring all the views! We decided to get some shopping and washing done at nearby Sarlat-La-Caneda and then head straight for the site.

Both chores done at the same time (I do love a washing machine in the car park of a supermarket!), we headed to Camping Le Perpetuum which was along the banks of the River Dordogne. Playing fast and loose, we headed in right on lunchtime, fully expecting closed o'clock, but no reception was open, incredibly friendly and helpful. We wandered around and grabbed ourselves a great pitch with a stunning view of the river.

As we'd be spending a good few days here we set up camp properly with the rollout awning, groundsheet and the all important washing lines! Being riverside meant I was going to be able to keep a good eye for all sorts of birds - this was going to be a great spot! We spent the rest of the afternoon poolside enjoying the sun and 2 pools on offer. Bliss

Tuesday morning and a very misty start. Once the mist started to lift, Jase went out on his bike for a bit of an explore, and I spent a good hour watching on the river bank - success, my first glimpse was 2 speeding blue bullets heading down the river! Eventually one came back and with some help from Jen and Dan from across the way, we spotted him in the bush on the other side. I did manage to grab a picture, but being so far away it wasn't great. We also saw a lovely heron and loads of jumping fish. I've since learnt from the RSPB that this time of year is prime territory battles before winter sets in - the chase scenes must be fighting to establish who gets to live where - typically a kingfisher has about 1km of river but it can be up to 3-5km - amazing. After lunch, Jase and I spent another lovely afternoon poolside.

Wednesday morning and we'd talked about taking a canoe out - the river has been full of canoes and kayaks the whole time we've been here and it looks idyllic. Jase headed to reception and booked up for the following day. I spent a lovely hour riverside watching the kingfisher (I'd named him Keith), and getting the hang of using binoculars. I'd decided he was too fast for too many pictures, so enjoyed watching him - I was lucky enough to see him dive a couple of times and catch a fish, and then watch him speed his way down the river bank - really amazing stuff. As it was another warm one, we spent the afternoon poolside again - well, you don't know when the summer will end this time of year do you?!

Thursday morning and it was canoeing day. The weather was cloudy and cooler which was probably a blessing for being on the river all day. We'd selected the "Grand Parours" route of 22km. The canoe company picked us up from our campsite and took us to the put in at Carsac. The boss was a man of few words, and with merely instructions to head for the right at the 4th bridge for pick up and a "bon voyage", we were on our way. The Dordogne is a very wide and reasonably fast flowing river so we hoped for a nice gentle float - not least as we'd never paddled anywhere near that far before! It was lovely - as the weather wasn't so good, there were far fewer people on the river, and we barely saw another boat for the first hour or so.

We bimbled our way down, gently floating with the current, watching for wildlife. We didn't have to wait long for our first kingfisher - belting along so close to the surface and right alongside our boat - brilliant. Our next spotting was even better - sat on a perching spot and luckily he stayed just long enough for me to grab a picture - my best one yet.

The route floated us past Montfort to start with and then past our campsite where we were able to hop out for a comfort break. Jen and Dan across the way managed to snap a couple of pictures of us as we headed back on our way.

We stopped for lunch just past Cenac at a beach opposite some white cliffs - our leftover pizza lunches were just hitting the spot when Jase spotted yet another kingfisher just on the other bank. This was the best sighting yet as he dived and caught his lunch too. I got loads of pictures, with the best one below - I think I've achieved on of my lifetime goals there, and definitely feel like an obsession is starting!

Back in the boat and we paddled further down past La Roque Gageac, and then Castlenaud where we had a quick stop and stretch.

The bit we stopped at was by a very small slight rapid section which I'd not really been bothered by, until we saw a family capsize! They were helped out by a local kayaker, and we managed to collect up one of their paddles too. It did get me a bit worried (enough to put the camera away for 5), but I think theirs was a case of misplaced weight in the boat! We got through without any issue and we headed on to our final destination at Beynac.

We were a bit ahead of our 4.30 pick up but as we came through the bridge we spotted the boss man loading up canoes and managed to get a ride back to site. Thoroughly shattered, but very pleased with both the achievement of the "grand parcours" and also the photo too - a simply perfect day!

And so to today, Friday. Jase has popped out riding, and I'm writing this with some very tired shoulders! The weather is still a bit cloudy but looking brighter & tomorrow is forecast to be back to the sun and warmth. We've decided to stay an extra day to make the most of that and then hit the road on Sunday - we have a big drive to do but with lorries off the A roads, that should help us a bit. We plan to be in Rudesheim with Mum and Paul on Tuesday until Saturday, then we will head to meet with Rusty and Kay in Innsbruck for the World Road Race the following week. Fingers crossed for good weather over that side!

Hope you enjoyed this one - probably should have called it "Tales from the Riverbank" or "The Kingfisher Diaries"!

Until next time, stay safe all

J&J x