Ivy’s Maiden Voyage

April - Juli 2024
  • Bliss Ventures
In our self converted camper-van named Ivy, Bliss (the world’s most amazing Siberian husky) is travelling full time with her Mum and Dad (Vikki & Darren) in search of adventure, happiness and the best dog food.. Baca selengkapnya
  • Bliss Ventures

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Kategori
Keliling dunia, Wisatawan, Pasangan, Nomad digital, Alam, Fotografi, Penemuan jati diri, Tur, Gurun, Margasatwa
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  • 88footprint
  • 90hari
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  • 283suka
  • Got a bit ticked off!!

    9 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We had some chores to do today, a little shopping. Filled up with fuel and found a washing machine and tumble dryer to get our clothes clean and dry. Washing machines at the fuel station...inspired idea!
    We had high hopes for the place we had planned for tonight as the reviews on P4N were all good. When we turned up there was one other van there, a French couple with their little boy who waved hello to us as we arrived. We immediately got out to go for a walk which we were all keen to do after feeling a bit cooped up the last couple of days because the river stops did lack decent walks. The place was very interesting with woodland paths and lots of hills and crater like holes in amongst rock formations. In rocky areas there were lots of little lizards 🦎 scurrying around our feet. Of course this was extremely exciting for Bliss who had to be put back on her lead so she didn’t try to catch them and eat them! They were pretty quick though so I’m not sure she would have been very successful.
    On returning to the van we soon regretted the lovely walk we had just had! The next two hours were spent removing the hundreds of tiny ticks that Bliss had picked up, and several on ourselves too!! Cringing 😬 we decided that as soon as we woke up in the morning we were out of there! Darren did a bit of research and discovered that we were right in the middle of the very worst area for ticks and Lyme disease 🦠 in the whole of France. Tomorrow was going to be a long drive to get as far as possible away from the area.
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  • A long journey south.

    10 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Made significant progress towards the south today through some stunning landscapes. The first hour through flat farmlands with huge uninterrupted fields of wheat, rape seed and other staple crops. The terrain definitely seems to be changing now though. Slightly more hilly with views as far as the eye can see. This country just keeps getting better every corner we round there’s more jaw dropping scenery. The urge to keep stopping to take it all in is great but we must press on slowly to get to our next overnight stop. After a quick interlude at an aire where we could empty our grey tank, toilet and rubbish we continued on another forty minutes and arrived mid afternoon to a lovely park up with a view across woods and fields. There was by the end of the day no more space as it’s pretty popular but that was fine as we were at the end with the best spot. 😆 We were lucky to arrive when we did. We got the awning, chairs and table out and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the view and catching up with this diary. 📔
    Tomorrow we should get a lovely sunrise as our back doors are facing East with a vista of lush woodlands and pasture between us and the horizon.
    Tonight we ventured into the village that’s here to see the sights, the tranquility, the stone buildings and the summer atmosphere with sweet fragrances and swooping swallows catching the evening insects. It’s just so… it’s just so, well it’s so very French ain’t it 🇫🇷 😂
    Tomorrow we’ll go again to buy some fresh bread and to see what else the village has to offer.
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  • Didn't have a clue what we had just witnessed!

    Aurora this far south? Don’t be silly.

    11 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    An evening sitting outside with a small glass of bubbles. Late into the night there was a strange glow in the sky which Darren noticed because he was trying to get a photo of the stars ✨ that are just so bright with the total lack of light pollution here. The photos he took however were initially discarded as he couldn’t capture the stars without this strange pink glow that he didn’t notice until he looked at the photos and frankly was completely spoiling his intended photography subject the stars.
    Turns out it was the northern lights, something that is definitely on our bucket list. Who knew that it could happen while we were away, all we needed to do was just stay at home!! The display we missed on the Island was spectacular by all the accounts people were sharing online... gutted to have missed it... but anyway, here’s what could be seen as far south as we were.
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  • Rise & shine sleepy head.

    11 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    The promise of a great view from our bed got us up early (well Darren anyway 🤭) What better way to start the day than this. Coffee in bed waking up with the most stunning sunrise and the fresh morning air coming in the back doors. I can’t believe nobody else is up to see this (but happy to have it all to ourselves)
    After a short walk into the village for fresh bread we packed up and slowly made our way to the next place to stay the night.
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  • Picture perfect parkup!

    11 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Up a narrow winding dirt path to find a wonderful spot for the night right underneath an old windmill. Now restored to its original condition by charitable donations this beautiful quaint windmill has stood high on the hillside since 1716. In the UK we’d all have to pay £££’s to visit, but it’s just here for two wanderers and a husky to rock up and stay the night for free.
    It’s pretty hot and humid today and so quiet here that we decided an outdoor shower would be nice 😊...and it really was. Luckily nobody turned up in the middle of it, could have been very embarrassing 😳. Sorry everyone, I didn’t get any pics of Darren in his budgie smugglers. 😜
    After the impromptu shower a couple of people did turn up to take pictures of the windmill so we timed it well.
    Bliss was happy laying in the shade of the van staying cool 😎 for the afternoon. We were hoping for an opportunity to get some amazing sunset pics of the windmill but unfortunately we weren’t the only ones with that idea. A family turned up and set up a picnic with their two young children right underneath the windmill. Darren didn’t feel comfortable taking photos with the family there, can’t really do that sort of thing in this day and age. But would have made for some lovely pictures with the little girls in their pretty summer dresses picking wild flowers under the shadow of the windmill.
    They left just in time to get a few pics of the sunset and the lighthouse lit up and Darren was more than happy with those.
    In the evening as it got dark and quiet we were treated to a distant thunderstorm that lit up the far hills. A lovely quiet nights sleep was had here.
    In the morning we were surprised by a girl walking past with her two dogs and her pet goat! The goat was not on a lead, just behaving exactly like a dog walking alongside her like it was the most normal thing in the world.
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  • Another quiet lakeside

    12 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Like a pair of migrating wildebeest we do seem to gravitate toward waterside park ups. We arrived after a pleasant uneventful drive and immediately went for a walk around the lake. It wasn’t a huge one so we walked around the perimeter in under an hour. Met a nice friendly French man with his old lassie dog. Had to keep Bliss on lead as there were signs saying “Cyanobacteria present” in the water which is dangerous for dogs and people.
    Darren got a couple of nice pics around the lake but nothing to match the last couple of days.. On returning we retired to the van when we suddenly realised how many mosquitoes were buzzing around waiting to feed on any unsuspecting victims. Tried the citrus candle as a deterrent but it didn’t seem to work. Laying on the bed before it got dark I was quite disturbed to see hundreds of them hanging around above the skylight like they knew we were there and were just waiting to pounce.. 😳😬
    The noise of the frogs was simply ridiculous… don’t believe me? Watch the short video below.
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  • Can you have too much adventure? - YES

    13 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Excited and nervous for the next leg of our journey that is going to take us to the mountains! 😁😬
    The terrain gradually changes and is becoming more hilly as we make our way, suddenly we breach the brow of a hill and there before us in the distance is a huge range of snow capped mountains 🏔️ stretching from east to west in our line of vision. Darren was looking at his phone at the time so didn’t immediately see it until I, calmly as I could, said “look at that!”
    He looked up and was clearly shocked “OH MY GOSH” he exclaimed 😂 ( or choice words to that effect)
    We needed some supplies so we found a Lidl and right next to it a McDonald’s. Thought we’d see if it’s any better here but no! Still junk.
    We were going to go to Lidl together but as we were going in I thought better check if Bliss has settled down in the van okay... checking the camera she was giving it her all... howling like her life depended on it! So Darren had to go back to the van while I did the shopping. Unfortunately I didn’t have a list as I’d left my phone in the van so the shopping took forever. By the time I got back to the van an hour later I was stressed right out and so was Darren because I’d been ages. 😳. A rare mini domestic ensues as we argue about who should do the shopping until the pointlessness’s of it all gives way to the resignation it’ll have to be me. Can you imagine the food choices Darren might make? Octopus with strawberries and gravy anyone? 😂
    We continued on our way heading up the mountain, up, up, and up we went getting steeper and winding along narrow roads through tiny hamlets that were barely wider than Ivy. Switch backs and death drops and huge rock faces looming over us all the way up. No barriers, loose rocks waiting to crush (or so it seemed) Already feeling a bit stressed out from the shopping trip this was definitely getting out of our comfort zones, it was all becoming a bit much. Overwhelmed by the adrenaline rush of it all. The views all around us were otherworldly like nothing we’ve ever experienced before so close up, and feeling so responsible for all of our lives I was genuinely quite scared. 😱
    I was worried about how Ivy was going to cope with climbing such extreme hills but I needn’t have as she was a real trouper, she did get a little warm but she coped so well with the really steep and long climb.
    We reached a small plateau which was going to be our stop for the night and tried to take a deep breath to calm down from all the excitement. We looked at the weather forecast for the night, it was predicting thunderstorms and heavy rain! Uhoh 😟 Thinking about how very exposed Ivy was, and the lack of any phone signal in this remote location we decided that we should move somewhere safer for the night. Yes OK... we chickened out!! 😂
    It probably didn’t help that there was literally a huge real life vulture circling above our precarious choice of home for the night.
    I’m sure we would probably have been absolutely fine but after having moved down the mountain to lower ground I didn’t regret our decision especially when the stormy weather did finally hit us. Even at this lower altitude and sheltered position the van was buffeted. I don’t think we’d have slept much if we’d been up that mountain in the storm and I’d have had many pairs of pants to wash today had we survived.
    At the end of the day, this is all new to us, we’ve lead quite sheltered lives on the sleepy Isle of Wight. I think we can forgive ourselves for bottling out this time while we become acclimatised to this more adventurous way of life x
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  • Rest and recuperation

    14 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    When we came down from the mountain we found a little clearing by the side of a dirt road to spend the night. We had to drive through some ridiculously narrow village streets praying that we would not get ourselves actually stuck between the buildings, we have seen others on YouTube suffer this fate so it was a real concern. We were relieved to get to the place we were going to stay but it probably wasn’t the wisest choice, when the stormy weather arrived we realised we were right under a big old oak tree. We survived the night though and ended up staying there all the next day and another night. I don’t think we realised how much the day before had taken out of us but we enjoyed a long peaceful day just relaxing in Ivy and gathering ourselves together to get back into the scary mountains once the weather improved. We had depleted our batteries so we planned a trip to an aire the next day that would provide free electricity and water, if only we had this kind of facility in the UK!Baca selengkapnya

  • Return to the mountains

    15 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    After a slow start we got going to the aire to replenish our batteries and our water tank. We had to wait until 3pm before we could charge the batteries so in the meantime while we waited we went for a walk to the local village. Bliss enjoyed a splash in a lovely little river that we found and on the way back to the van I visited a small shop where I bought some bread and some bacon which went well with eggs for our brunch.
    We took advantage of the free water and even gave Ivy a good wash inside and out as she had got pretty mucky over the last few days. Finally we were all done with our chores and we headed back out to conquer our fears and the mountain.
    The drive was incredible, again it was pretty extreme and scary but we made it all the way up to the lake that we had chosen to stay beside. Stunning is all I can say...high up in the clouds for the night. On getting out of the van Bliss was even more excited and animated than usual, this is her kind of place, so wild and untamed.
    Tomorrow we cross the border into Spain 🇪🇸. Another first for us all.
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  • We conquer our fears and the mountains

    16 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    After a peaceful nights sleep by a lake we are revived and ready to tackle the steep climb and the mountain pass into Spain. 🇪🇸 Excited 😝 is an understatement!
    We head off and after a very short time come across an open area too stunning a sight for us not to stop and explore. With snow capped mountains on all sides there’s a fast but shallow river flowing through immense boulders of rock that at some time you can imagine having tumbled from up high. Bliss of course absolutely has to dip her toes in the glacial ice blue water, seemingly completely oblivious to the freezing temperature of it.
    On we go in the direction of the summits, climbing up and up getting closer and closer to the snowy peaks. Finally we reach a car park on the mountain pass just before the border of Spain. Bliss was ecstatic to discover the snow when we got out of Ivy and immediately rolled around in it before getting up and jumping, leaping and running around like a puppy. It’s just lovely to see her so very happy, being able to bring her to a place where you can tell she feels so completely at home 😊
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