Well, what a day and night we've had. We both suffered for our shellfish platter (maybe, maybe not) - in and out of the loo on a fairly frequent basis during the night. On top of that gale force winds - no, not in the van - buffeting us about all night. The rock band gave way to calming Elvis songs and finally packed up at 3:00 am. I laid in bed during my wakeful times alternately wondering how I was going to manage if the toilet tank was full and how to get blackcurrant jam off some stranger's carpet! For some reason our Helen was planning a wedding in someone else's house and jam had been dropped on the carpet. The effect of all the shellfish do you think? Weird or what!

The day has been pretty disastrous weather-wise. Aside from the wind, we've had torrential rain for the best part of the day, hailstones, falling tree branches, fortunately no fallen trees on the road but quite a few fallers and uprooted ones alongside the roads.

We managed to find the borne for the loo emptying place when we set off. I got out to check the notice about the water being turned off and Mike couldn't understand why I was having trouble getting back into the cab. I'd got hold of the door handle, got myself onto the step to get in and as I went to pull the door shut I was pulled off the step and seat by the wind pulling the door open again. He soon found out when he had to get back in the cab door as well!

We weren't worried about the water being shut off as we had plenty and we've learnt not to empty the waste tank first, we can always use that water to rinse the toilet tank and then get rid of what's left. You really wanted to know about our toilet habits didn't you - not!

We thought we'd make for Mont-de-Marsan today as I'd found what appeared to be a nice Aire there. Travelling from a traffic point of view was a doddle, there weren't many lunatics like us travelling, most being tucked up in little village car parks. The thing I didn't like was the whole day we were traveling through a forest, seeing the fallen trees! Anyway, we got there, didn't like it and moved on. Found another - only little trees, nothing big enough to squash us! Stopped for late lunch and the sun came out - for a few minutes.

Mike didn't mind driving so we decided to move on, what else is there to do? So now we are at REBENACQ, Aquitaine. N 43.156860 W 0.397300. We are just south of Pau and south-west of Oleron-Sainte-Marie.

It's a small Aire, only space for four vehicles and we took the last space and we actually have water turned on. I think we're in the foothills of the Pyrenees but I can't see because it's p*****g down with rain again. We might be able to go water skiing soon or even better white water rafting down the road.

Tomorrow, we are heading for the Somport Tunnel and into Spain. Let's hope this awful weather doesn't follow us through the tunnel.

At the moment there are a distinct lack of photos on this blog after all who, in their right minds, would want to get out of a nice cosy van.

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