28th September
You know its the small things that you miss when you travel. Right across China, Mongolia and Russia it was either crap into a hole and throw the toilet paper in it or crap into a toilet and throw the toilet paper in a bin beside it. When we landed at Helsinki for our connecting flight to Paris, it was like the good old days of everything into the toilet. Ah, bliss!!!!!

Week 1
The first week in France/Paris was a hectic one. The first night we chose a hotel close to one of the immigration offices as we had a few questions regarding our visa that we wanted clarified. It turns out we had to do nothing with our visa at all so we were in-and-out in about 5 minutes. Sweet, now to get on with finding a van.

The process of finding a van was a lot harder than we anticipated. We quickly learnt that emails are not extensively used by the French as they are in Australia and other western cultures. Therefore all the emails we were sending off to people who had their cars advertised on websites were not replying to us. It could have had something to do with the translation we were receiving from Google Translate but I guess we'll never know for sure. So emails weren't working and we have no idea on how to speak any French so calling people on the phone was out of the question. After a couple of days of trying we finally got a reply on one of the emails. The car was about 200k's outside of Paris so we hired a car for 2 days and set off. Navigating out of Paris took us a while, let's say about an hour and a half with the aid/no aid of a 'Navman'. The 'Navman' thought it was a good idea to drive straight through a pedestrian only section of Paris. Unfortunately we did not notice what we were doing until it was to late and decided to just keep going until we got to the other road at the other end of the pedestrian section (full of pedestrians). Unfortunately this end was blocked off by road blocks (if only the other end was) so we had to proceed with a 5 point turn to drive back through the pedestrian only section to get back to a road we should actually be driving on. We drove until it got dark and then found a B&B not to far from where we had to be. The owners were an English couple so language wasn't an issue, thankfully.

The next morning we checked our emails and the vendor had emailed letting us know that the car had sold the night before. f*** it!!! We'd just spent $300 on car hire for absolutely no reason at all. We left the B&B annoyed but not broken and decided to just slowly make our way back to Paris over the next day and a half. We stopped at a placed called ??? which, is where our next B&B was but we got there early so we had a look around the town for a while. We ended up at this small little historical museum that showcased all the different 'trades', for a better word, of the area. It was quite interesting, the guy didn't speak a word of English but when his daughter/friend turned up who did, we found out that we were the first ever Australians to walk through his Museum. He made us feel so welcome providing us coke and biscuits for afternoon tea. It was quite humbling really. That night at the B&B and had a lovely evening with the host and her partner. Turns out we were the first Aussies to have stayed there as well so there were plenty of questions. Lot's of 'first' for us this day. The next day we headed back into Paris navigating our way directly through the centre while ignoring some of the Navman's recommended routes- priceless - before dropping the hire car off and heading to the next hostel to connect back onto the internet and continue the search for our car.

One of the afternoons/evenings we met up with Jorge Pautasso, one of the Brenden's work colleagues from Newcastle. He and his lovely wife Ana were in Paris at the same time so we decided to have dinner. We had a beautiful meal and a couple of nice bottles of red to go with it. It was a great evening and a great way to disconnect from the stress of finding a car. It turns our Brenden and Jorge have had dinner in Newcastle, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Manila and now Paris. South America is now next on the list.

By Friday and after changing hostels a couple times again we finally got the s***s with it all and ended up signing up to workaway.info. It's a website where you can go and stay with a family and they provide food and board and you work about 5 hours a day in return. By that afternoon we'd managed to organise a 'workaway' in the south of France at a place called Puivert, about 1.5 hours south of Toulouse. We booked an overnight train to Carcassonne and we were there by Sunday morning. Dare we say it but we were so glad to get out of Paris by this stage. It was costing us a fortune and the stress of constantly moving hostels and finding a car being an absolute pain in the ass had got the better of us. In the week that we were there we did do some sight seeing including of course the Eiffel Tower, Museum D'Orsay where we say the self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh and the Sacre Coeur. All were great things to see but honestly our heads were not in the right head space to enjoy them. So goodbye Paris for now, we promise to return as better tourists next time.

Week 2-3
The 'workaway' turned out to be fantastic. The name of the property was called 'Green Horizons' and is owned by an English family, Peter, Ruth, David, Katie and Katie's boyfriend Robbie. It is a combination of a B&B, a self-contained studio which is letted out plus a 'glamping' section that is used during the summer. Their aim is to be as self sustaining as possible so whilst we were there we constructed some raised garden beds, a covered area for the 'glamping' area, designed an aquaponics system for them to construct after winter plus numerous days of cleaning, sweeping and general household chores. It turned out that Katie and Robbie were travelling around in France in a van when we arrived so we spent about an hour on the phone with them getting priceless tips for when we would eventually head off.

So we weren't the only guests staying at Green Horizons. There was Annabel, an 18 year old girl from Germany, and another 2 guys from Wales, Arthur and Jade. We all got along really well and the middle weekend we all travelled to the coast and spent a day at Collioure and then the Saturday night at Perpignan. It was a great weekend but on the Sunday we said fare-thee-well to Arthur and Jade as they were heading up to Bordeaux to continue their holiday. The following week an American lady named Mandy joined us at Green Horizons who turned out to be great company as well.

The Friday night before we went away for the weekend, we did manage to get to Toulouse and have a look at a van that we'd been eyeing off for a while. The owners spoke good enough English that we could communicate fairly easily and after test driving it we agreed to buy it. The owners had to get a roadworthy on the car before they could sell it so we agreed to pick it up the following week. So the following Friday we headed back to Toulouse, exchanged the money and then headed back to Green Horizons.

Introducing Hugo
Born in France in the year 1992, his blood lines trace back to a Renault Traffic T1100. Despite his age, he's not well travelled with only 125,001 kilometres racked up on his 2.1 litre diesel engine. His physical appearance makes you consider otherwise. He's got a few scars to show for his 22 years especially down his right side. His right hip (sliding door) has been replaced and the mobility of his right arm is not at 100%. Despite his rough exterior, he is what you would call 'warm and fuzzy' on the inside. His thick insulated skin keeps the hard external elements out and keeps his 'insides' approximately 10 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.

His ambition in life is admirable with virtually nothing stopping from going forward. He enjoys taking life 'in the slow lane' as his cruising speed is approximately 80km/hr. However in times of desperate need he is able reach a maximum speed of 95km/hr. Although by the time he has reached 95km/hr, the time of desperate need has usually passed. He is a 'light drinker' consuming approximately 1 litre of diesel per 12.5 km's. Despite this more healthy outlook on life, he does enjoy a good smoke in the morning until he's warmed up. His appearance is what you would call small however he does carry much more than his peers (remember ladies it's not the size that counts). With a 3-way fridge, sink, double bed, 2 hob stove, leisure battery, an outdoor shower and plenty of storage up top and down the bottom, he's punches well above his weight category.

His natural born enemies consist of hills greater than 5% gradient, stopping abruptly and rough pebbled roads seem to shake him up considerably. He does however enjoy cramped spaces with no sign of claustrophobia in big cities and also windy roads with beautiful scenery make him happy.

A recent trip to the surgery cleared his airways (air filter), digestive system (fuel filter), removed the squeaking from his ankles (brakes) and also a blood transfusion (oil and filter) improved his general well being considerably. Also the general words of encouragement, "Good work Hugo, Top Job Buddy", he receives from his new owners keep his confidence up and his moral high. His previous guardians saw his worth at only 2900 Euros (approx $4350 AUD).

He's looking forward to getting his toes wet in the sand, his skin in the sun and the fresh air through his respiratory system over the next 10 months right across Europe, the UK and the top of Africa.

Week 4
This week we spent working on the car in our spare time plus continuing to work for Ruth and Peter over the course of the week. We couldn't have done anything on the car without the help of Ruth, Peter and David. They lent us the use of all their tools, David spent many hours helping us with some of the wiring in the car and Ruth & Peter helped us with all the French Bureaucracy of buying a car. Over the course of the week we managed to cut and hang doors for all the above storage cupboards, rearrange the top storage cupboard with some additional shelves for our clothes, create an outdoor shower frame that hangs over the back 2 doors when they're open, fix the handbrake and change the oil and filter. Plus also purchase 90% of everything we were going to need over the course of the next year including plates, cutlery, bedding, cooking utensils, curtains just to name a few. By this time there was another guest at Green Horizons, an Aussie girl named Maddie who was from Melbourne. She turned out to be lovely and we think we may have convinced her to purchase a van and do it for herself.

Weeks 5 & 6
After transferring all the paperwork into our names, we finally headed off on a 'practice' trip to iron out the bugs in the van before returning to Green Horizons to pick up our registration documents and some other documents that were in the mail. Our first stop wasn't too far away actually, a place called Lake Montbel. Actually we tell a lie, our first stop was a winery at Coiza where we filled up our 5 litre plastic container with Merlot for 7 Euros (about $10.50) - delicious!!! We spent a total of 3 nights at the lake, which included Jodi's birthday. We had some beautiful sunsets whilst we there. We also managed to do a tour of Montsègur Castle one day and just basically chill and enjoy time to ourselves.

From the lake we headed west to a place called Roquefort on the advice of a German couple we met the day before. The highlight of this place was suppose to be a cascade that comes down over some rocks and moss. We walked up past a some rocks with moss and continued up hill looking for a cascade. It was a little while until we realised that the first part that we had passed was indeed the cascade we were looking for but unfortunately it was dry when we were there but the rocks with moss were still nice… From here we travelled up the hills to a place called Lake Mondèly. The scenery along the road was beautiful and the lake itself is quite nice as well.

After one night at the lake we drove a short distance to Le Mas-d Azil Cave. This place is really cool, it's a massive cave that you drive through and then park your car and walk back through. There's a tour you can do that takes you deep into the cave and you can see all types of prehistoric bones and s***. Literally, there is a room that the floor is all just bat s***. The tour guide only spoke in French so we didn't understand a word she said but we think we go the gist of it. That afternoon we spent a couple of hours walking on some treks around the cave area before spending the night in the carpark.

From the cave we headed North to a place called Samatan. There wasn't a lot here but we'd decided to use it as a stepping stone into Toulouse the next day. We stayed at an Aire that night, our first one. We looked so out of place here in amongst all these massive motorhomes with satellites and toilets and all this really cool stuff. The following morning, to our surprises and delight, there was the local markets in Samatan so we stocked up on this awesome fresh produce for basically nothing. You don't realise how expensive fruit and vege's are in Australia until you come to a place like Europe. We then jumped back in the car and headed towards Toulouse. There is a camping store in Toulouse that we wanted to try and get a new switch-charge relay for Hugo as the one that was in it wasn't working and we didn't have any power going to the leisure battery. When we arrived we found out it was closed that day. f*** it!!! So we had lunch on the side of the road and then went and found a car wash and gave Hugo a wash. He came up really nice after that, don't think he'd been washed for a while. After that we went and found a laundromat at Cugnaux to do our washing. Whilst we were waiting for our washing to finish we went for a walk to check out the town. In the process we came across this woman with a couple of kids who had a flat tyre. Brenden was kind enough to change it for her and in return she let us follow her back to her place to fill up our water bottles, about 40 litres, as we were bone dry. Then as we were leaving her brother ran out to say thank you one more time and handed us two cans of coke..score! By the time all this was finished it was dark and we ended up staying at a campground not too far away. It cost us $15 Euros for the night but it was worth it. It was the first shower we'd had since the second day at the Lake….

The following day we went back to the camping car store at Toulouse only to find that the switch-charge relay was in the order of $120 Euros. WTF!!! You can get these things for $15 on the internet. So we bailed on that and decided to get a wheel alignment done instead as Brenden was getting sick of looking at the steering wheel at 90 degrees to what it should have been. By now we were both sick of driving around the city so we headed to a place called Bassi de St Ferreol where we camped the night.

The next day we drove through Sassic, a small picturesque village on the side of a river, where we took some photos. We then made our way to Carcassonne and went and explored the medieval walled city that sits on a hill overlooking the rest of the city. It's really cool and we'd never seen anything like it before. After a few hours here we headed North and spent the night at Limousis.

The next day we visited 2 caves, both amazing. Their names were Grotte de Limousis and Gouffre géant de Cabrespine and they're full of crystals, stalagmites and other interesting things. One cave is shaped like a massive sphere is over 200 metres high. It's impossible to capture this with a camera. The other cave is a series of smaller rooms each joining each other to create a cave this is about 300 metres in length. Each room has different features. A highlight of the tour through this cave was the tour guide. We were lucky enough to be the only two on this guided trip and were humoured the whole time by the sound effects that the tour guide used as descriptions instead of words. He reminded us of Carl Barron. Seeing caves like this was a first for us and we totally recommend this to anyone visiting the area. That night we drove to Lac de Jouarres and stayed the night.

The following day we drove to the coast. We were ready for some coastal views and were looking forward to catching the last of the beautiful Autumn weather we'd had for the entire time we'd been in France. We reached the coast at Port-la-Nouvelle, a small industrial town that had a lovely beach that had no one on it. From here we hugged the coast down to Leucate where we stayed the night. We ended up having to pay for an 'Aire' that night as they had all these 'No Camping-car' signs posted every where through town. They must have a real issue during the summer months. We did nearly get blown away that night in the van though, it must have been gusting at over 100k's an hour.

The next morning we rose early and watched the sunrise up over the Mediterranean, another first for both of us. We continued further south along the coast then turned inland just before Perpignan before we finally ended up at just west of Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet at a rest stop for the night. Along the way we trekked up the side of a hill to a church called St Catherine. The views from here were amazing over the wine country. We also drove up the hill through the Pyrenees Orientals where again the vineyard scattered valleys were amazing. This part of France is really so beautiful. We understand why so many Brits retire here.

The next day we headed back to Green Horizons to fix everything that we'd managed to find. It turns out the switch-charge relay in the car wasn't working properly so the leisure battery was flat. Actually everything was flat, the phone, the laptop, the iPad, the camera and the GoPro. Throughout the trip we'd been charging at McDonalds whilst using their free wifi. Brenden had also showered once during the nearly 2 weeks so he was really starting to smell. We were really glad to finally get back to GH's and some sort of hygienic way of living.

Week 7
So the original idea was to only stay at GH's for a night or 2, fix what we needed to do, wash what we needed to do and then finally get going for real. So a night or 2 actually turned into 6 and we didn't leave to the following Saturday. The main issue was the replacement switch-charge relay didn't arrive until the Thursday and then it took Brenden and David all day Friday to re-wire everything. We did make some other alterations to the van also so it wasn't like we were sitting around doing nothing. We must however thank Ruth, Peter, David, Katie and Robbie for all their help in getting us going. We definitely couldn't have done it without them and we're so grateful for everything they did for us.

Saturday 15th November
This was it, the true set off date. It had taken nearly 3 months from leaving the Philippines to reach this point. It was a little bit later than what we had planned and it had not been without it's struggles but we were finally heading off. We farewelled Green Horizons in the morning and headed towards Perpignan. The idea was to buy a chemical toilet at one of the camping-car stores there before heading south into Spain. Unfortunately for us they didn't have the one we needed and it was going to be 3 weeks before they could get one delivered. Oh well, looks like it's public toilets for the rest of the year. On the way we picked up a stray dog that was walking dangerously the wrong way down the road. He had a collar with a phone number on it so we gave them a call hoping they could speak English and we could return the dog. What a surprise, they didn't! So we drove about a kilometre down the road to a hotel that managed to decipher our hand gestures and gave the owner a call who quickly arrived to pick up the dog. Our first good deed of the trip. That first night we spent at a dodgy Aire in St Andre, we probably should have gone for something a little more iconic but we were just really glad to be on the road.

Sunday 16th November
On the advice from David we decided to head into Spain and drive along the N-260. A lot of people that come up from Spain into France drive this road and they all believe it to be one of the best roads in Europe. So on this advice we headed in this direction. So from St Andre we took the D618 and turned onto the N115 and headed into the mountains towards the border. Again the scenery in this part of the world keeps amazing us. We had lunch at a place called Prats de-Mollo-la-Preste, the last town before the Spanish Border. After lunch we drove up the last hill and we crossed the border at about 3pm and headed towards the N-260.

Speedometer: 126676 km's

To be continued……..