Friday, September 11, 2015

A Close Shave On The Way To San Tropez.

I took the dogs for a walk before we left lovely Castellane ... you can see the motorhome Aire on the right of the pic ... they really do put them in superb locations!

We set up the Tom Tom to head for San Tropez avoiding toll roads as per usual.  Straight away it took us on a road that had a 19 ton limit and a length limit of 8.0 metres.  We are 7.4 metres so although a bit tight on the length I thought it shouldn't be a problem........WRONG!

The road started off nicely with good visibility and a few passing places ...

It then got very narrow with really tight hairpins that we just about got round ... 

At least there were barriers on this part of the road!  We also had to watch the overhanging rocks which in some places were very low ...

We passed a couple of cars, which was fine as they backed up to the closest passing spot.  I said to Elaine we will be fine as long as we don't meet something large ... we couldn't turn around as it was just to narrow.

By now the crash barriers had mostly gone so the only way was down!! 

Then disaster!  We met an Italian motorhome!  I backed up about 50 metres where the road was slightly wider, but it was still incredibly narrow.  His passenger got out to direct him but he drove off the side of the tarmac and his van keeled right over ... another couple of inches and he was a goner.  He managed to correct his van and I inched forward.  The worst case scenario for us was that I would scratch the van on the rocks or the side of his van,.  Elaine couldn't get out as neither doors could be opened!  It took us about ten minutes to slowly inch past him!  Unfortunately we didn't get any pics as I was concentrating on getting past him and Elaine, who is the calmest co pilot ever, was too busy 'crapping it'! 

After that the road straightened out and we had no further problems.  When we got to the end of that section of road we took a pic of the signage ... I think they would be safer by putting a width limit on it ...

The rest of the journey was uneventful and we reached our destination of a caravan park just outside San Tropez.  We came here last year and it was pretty quiet.  Last year we managed to get a spot right on the beach but this time the place is rammed and we just took a spot with some shade.  We are still only 50 metres from the beach, so no biggie. 

Can you guess which way the sun is?!  We find it so funny watching people rotating their chairs so they are constantly in full sun!  We love the beach to walk on and play with the dogs but to sit there all day would bore us s**tless.  Plus, of course, we have lived in Australia which has the best beaches in the world so  the novelty of  lying in the sun all day has long worn off ...

You can see how close you can camp to the water ...

We walked along the beach to a much quieter spot and chilled for a while under the shade of some rocks ...

Bombo was in his element ..

He loves the beach so much ...

He will never go in too far though ...

He is one happy doggie ...

The rest of the day we relaxed and read in the shade ...

We both felt a bit strange hitting the coast.  It is always nice to see the sea but with that (especially somewhere like San Tropez) come the crowds.  We will stay here for three nights then will probably head back inland a bit or try and find somewhere along the coast that is a bit quieter.

It is a totally different crowd in the site.  They bring absolutely everything with them as they are staying here for weeks rather than travelling around.  I walked around the site last night, the Dutch were the ones that caught my eye.  They bring the whole house with them and set it up outside their caravans or motorhomes ... they have the table lamps, ornaments and plants set up plus fully lit up awnings in all shades of colours.  They also seem to entertain other cloggers and shout a lot!  Just saying!

I went back to out motorhome and read a book by the light of my head torch!

Can't really complain though, it's not a bad life!

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