Sunday 5 October 2014

To infinity and Bayonne!

Or a little beyond Bayonne as it happens, to Urrugne in Basque country. Our new campsite
Dave took this stunning photo of a egret fishing
at the ornithological park near Le Teich 
is Larrouleta which is a deceptively big site with grass and hardstanding pitches. There's both indoor and outdoor table tennis - we played three games already this morning - plus a covered, heated swimming pool that we tried out yesterday evening. Cool water but considerably warmer than the sea! Dave is very happy that there is a tennis court too - sadly he's only got me to play against but hopefully that will be better than nothing! The surroundings are peaceful, the wifi is good, and there's even a fishing lake to walk around. What more could we need?!

Chatting with an English couple on the pitch next door got us walking directions to Socoa, about 4km away, where there was an interesting Alternative Living market on the harbour front this afternoon. On the way, we caught sight of two animals that we think resembled coypu - will confirm what they were when I've googled it. We wandered around the stalls in Socoa, listened to a fun street band, and watched some people getting their tiny catamaran ready and setting to sea. Definitely wouldn't catch me on one of those - a mini trampoline strung between two canoes!

I'm very proud of Dave as Socoa was his second market In One Day. This morning we drove to Ciboure for their weekly offering and bought some tasty (but pricey) Basque cheese and also a small version of the local specialty cake. It's kind of like a Boterkoek without the spices and has a custard layer in the centre. Pleasant enough but I'm not seeing enough of an attraction to justify it being sold Everywhere. Ciboure and it's neighbour over the river, St Jean de Luz, are both very pretty towns with interesting small shops so we're looking forward to more of an explore, maybe tomorrow.

Then on Tuesday it's off to Bayonne in search of a new jockey wheel as we noticed on arrival here that ours is cracked across the plastic part. Not exactly sure how this happened, but the crack might have started with a steep speed bump in Le Teich. A sweet French guy took a look when we arrived here and reappeared a short while later having searched online, we think, to tell us where the nearest caravan spares shop is. Only twenty-or-so miles away in Bayonne and now Dave has also discovered that there's a Buffalo Grill about a hundred yards away. Now that is a blast from the past!

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