Luckily the electricity stayed on all night. The first van starts and chugs off just after 06:00 then the 'Hannibal Raiders' camp wakes up with tannoy and music. We loiter until nearly 11:00 then set off on the D900 towards Gap. The road winds through gorges of grey rock speckled with broom, and alongside the Ubaye river. In places there are large rock falls and on one face a large pinnacle has cleaved away from the hillside. The river is pale blue with occ...

Lovely birdsong from 05:30 and sunny from the start. Grete says there is a market in town so they go for a look and return with a few things before we set off towards France. It starts as a gentle ride along the valley with wooded mountains around us but it's deceptive and we are climbing all the time. Soon we are in the mountains proper, with milky meltwater streams tumbling over rocky riverbeds. There are flower meadows, green pastures and alpine chalets. W...

We're up fairly early this morning, after two days stationary lots of things need putting away properly and it all takes time. As there is a tap on the pitch we plan to fill with water here then drop the waste at the point by the exit, but despite a box of adapters, this site has taps with parallel-world threads so it gets done by filling the jerry 5 or 6 times and pumping it in. We finally check out just before 11:00, not certain of tonight's stop but with a F...

As promised 'Wheelchair Repair Man' arrives and meets Ali in reception at 09:15. We had already removed both castors from the buggy, the other one had its inner tube bulging through the tread. Probably aided by the high altitude a few days back. Cedric says Monday but Ali pulls faces and says we leave tomorrow. He says he'll see what can be done and takes them away with instructions to ring him in 15 minutes. Ali rings and Cedric says 'Le pneu, iss good! Je ...

Warm enough to have the skylight open a bit in the night so we wake to the sound of birds in the trees above. The young vines look different this morning with the sun behind us and as it rises there is the promise of a fine day ahead. We are the first of the four vans to leave [a French one came in late last night] and the trip to the seaside starts well with uncluttered dual carriageway. Approaching Port de Bouc we see more Carmargue horses and then a lake wi...