Day 3 - Only One Clown in Town

I had a fantastic sleep despite being awoken several times during the night by a sharp dig in ribs. Apparently I was snoring.

I got up around 6.30am to the sun rising over Le Lac de Cazeau et de Sanguinet (or the lake). It was a sight to behold, particularly as there was not a soul about.

I wrote my Penguins blog on my phone in the morning tranquility.

Jackie got up an hour later & I was dispatched to the campsite shop for a baguette. We had ate our €1 baguette with our brought from home Bovril and jam.

The next chore of the day was to do a big food and booze shop . We drove out to a E.Leclerc supermarket where we bought 20 cans and 6 bottles of beer, as well as 11 litres of wine and some food.

After a homemade ham and mustard baguette AND a couple of glasses of wine back at camp, we (I) inflated our brand new Paddle board. Dressed in in just reflective sunglasses and a pair of board shorts, I looked the part as I nonchalantly carried the paddle board to the totally flat fresh water lake. The phrase ’All the gear ….’ springs to mind.

Oh what a circus! Oh what a show! the circus clown had come to town and I was the afternoon’s campsite entertainment. I tried and tried to stand up and stay up on my paddle board but I fell off time and time again. I fell off at least 30 times over 3 sessions. My arms and legs were flailing everywhere. I also managed to lose my sunglasses (again). Two attempts at paddle boarding in my life and I’ve lost a pair of sunglasses on both occasions!

Very occasionally I was able to step off the board to the side in a fairly dignified manner, but more often than not the board shot out to the side from under me and I crashed headfirst into the water. On several occasions, I ended up running backwards along my board and falling flat on my back into the lake. I also managed to reverse the trick by running forward along my board before falling in. On one of those occasions I face planted my paddle and gave myself a fat lip. I was battered and bruised.

All this said and done (and with a bit of YouTube tuition) I did improve and I actually stayed upright for nearly 2 minutes on one occasion. I plan to be an expert by the end of this first week.

The lake is very shallow which makes getting onto the board quite simple, but it means you hit the bottom when you fall off. Luckily the bottom is sandy for a fairly soft landing.

Jackie after several wines, plucked up the courage to have a go. Infuriatingly on her second attempt she tentatively paddled out and back for around 3 minutes without falling off.

She didn’t mention it more than 100 times that she was a better paddle boarder than me.

Jackie made steak and salad for our dinner. The €7 steaks were tough and a real disappointment. I have been told to reiterate that the tough steaks had nothing to do with Jackie’s cooking!

That evening I sorted out the E-Sim for Jackie’s phone. She had to get the campsite Wi-Fi for a day, which was €6 for the day and not €4 per hour as I had wrongly previously stated.

Song of the Day - Send in the Clowns by Judy Collins.Read more