Archive for November, 2006
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
The Christmas Question
Well, we finally decided where to spend Christmas. Thanks to everyone who voted in our poll, it was fun to see your answers, but even though over half of you think we should spend Christmas on a beach, we are going for a city. Not Barcelona though — all the accomodation we looked at was either overpriced or seemed like a party location.
Instead, we decided that we had the time to make it further south to Valencia, where we will stay in the Home Deluxe Hostel. It gets excellent reviews and looks like an interesting spot. All the rooms are decorated by different artists, they only do double or twin rooms so in some ways it is more like a hotel, but we also get the benefit of having a kitchen to cook in to save money.
Our route to Valencia will be largely an inland one, as we’ve heard how busy and unpleasant the coast road can be. The trade-off is that we will have some climbing to do over the mountains but after having climbed 800 meters to our WWOOF farm we feel ready for the challenge.
From Valencia, we will cycle south towards Morocco, route yet to be determined. If you have any tips for us, please let us know! We haven’t yet got a map of Spain so our planning at this stage is fairly rough. We are also hoping to arrange another WWOOF stay, probably in the Granada area.
No Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Spain by friedel
Monday, November 27th, 2006
A Sunday Walk
Just a few pictures from a little stroll we took on Sunday through the fields around St Gineys en Coiron. There were no official paths, but we made our own way, over and under plenty of fences! A stunning ravine is about 10 minutes walk to the east. Apparently there is a way down into it, but we haven’t found that path yet. Instead we stayed at the top and listened to hunters with their barking dogs and blowing horns.
No Comments » - Posted in France by friedel
Friday, November 24th, 2006
View from the farm
A few shots from the farm where we are staying, including a beautiful view to the east. One of these mornings we will have to get up early enough to take a picture of the sunrise, which starts out with streaks of purple and pink in the sky, before changing to shades of blue and gold. Right now the sunrise starts about 7:30am so if we can just drag ourselves out of a warm bed and out into a chilly morning, it shouldn’t be too hard to get some shots of the sun coming over the mountains.
Where should we spend Christmas/New Years?
- 48% - A beach, in northern Spain
- 22% - A city, like Barcelona
- 30% - Somewhere Rural
No Comments » - Posted in France by friedel
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
Digging for gold…. erm, not really
A little glimpse of our first taste of WWOOFing, digging a trench for a septic tank pipe. Ah, the glamour! First we have to uncover the old pipe, which is blocked with roots, and then make a big enough trench to put in a new one that will last longer. It is hard work, but at least the company and the views across the hills are good! On a humourous note, someone pointed out this site to us — apparently if we keep digging we will end up just east of New Zealand. Well that’s not so bad! The other person in the picture is Kali, a fellow WWOOFer.
No Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, France by friedel
Monday, November 20th, 2006
25km Privas to St Gineys en Coiron
We made it to the top of the mountain! Surprisingly,800 meters of climbing isn’t nearly as daunting as we thought it would be. That must be the bonus of having a bicycle with gears that are designed to climb telephone poles. Thanks to our great bike builder Rob Mather for that! Even with 30kg of stuff to carry, we just put the bikes into a low gear and pedalled steadily up at about 9km an hour.
The Ardeche is as beautiful as our first glimpses yesterday led us to believe and you can see for miles from the top of the mountains. For anyone who enjoys the outdoors, this would be a fantastic holiday destination, very unspoilt.
Despite being so high up, the weather is exceptionally warm so no signs of snow yet. We are now enjoying working with our hosts Bert and Patricia,who have a holiday cottage in this gorgeous part of France, along with 2 dogs and 7 cats. We will help them with general tasks around the house and garden, including digging a few trenches for a new fence and septic tank drain.
Because it is the off season, we are staying in the holiday cottage but eating our meals with Bert, Patricia and the other WWOOFers (more about the program). On a website note, we finally got a map of our journey working!
