Hohllay Cave & Washing

We had a great nights sleep compared to the night before and I felt refreshed and ready for the day when I woke up but Ellie had a tummy ache and a headache and felt like crap. Fortunately for us there are public toilets near the aire and we walked to them at 8:30am but even after using the toilets Ellie didn’t feel much better and then it started to rain.
We had a mega hike planned for today starting at Hohllay cave and walking to the Gorge de Loup and we left our parking spot just after 9am to locate the car park which was 6 miles away.
By the time we got there at 9:30am it was teeming down with rain so we just thought we’d sit it out, have a cup of tea and some breakfast in Wanda and let Ellie have a snooze and sleep her headache off.
At 11am it was still raining so we wrote our mega hike off for today and started looking for laundrettes near by so we could do our first washing of the trip.
We found a decent self service laundrette 15 miles away just off the motorway at a truck stop and services and just as we finished plotting the sat nav it stopped raining.
Not wanting to be stuck in doors all day we decided just to walk to Hohllay cave which was about 800 meters away through the woods and we set off, it was another beautiful walk and we saw a Fire Salamander walking across the path in front of us as well as hundreds of nuthatches in the trees and red squirrels.
It felt like we were in a dreamscape again as all of the forest had thick green moss on the floor and deadfall and even the mushrooms and fungi looked magical with the funny shapes and colours. As the trail went down thick walls of granite, covered in green moss towered either side of us reaching hundreds of feet up and then we came to a stone stairway and climbed up. There in front of us was Hohllay cave, a man made cave where you can still see the marks from the picks used to create it. On the floor were thousands of standing stones people had left from there visit. As we wandered its cavernous depths and intricate passage ways it started to rain again and this time it was real heavy rain.
We gave up on going any further and started our way back to Wanda and then the heavens really opened and we got drenched. Thinking it was just a short walk we didn’t even think about taking coats and before long we were soaked to the skin power walking through the mud of the forest back to Wanda. The 20 minute walk seemed like hours.
Back at Wanda we put dry clothes on and then headed straight for the services where the laundrette was to do our washing.
The Bonjour services was heaving with people and cars and people were coming out of the services with supermarket trolleys over flowing with cigarettes. Ellie originally thought it was some black market dealership but we worked out that cigarettes are a few euros cheaper here than Germany and people are buying them here to take back. Almost every car or Motorhome was German and everyone was leaving the supermarket with cigarettes and alcohol. It was like a duty free shop.
The washing machines and dryer were right in front of the services entrance so we loaded our stuff up, paid the €12 to wash our stuff and then went inside for some hot food. Ellie had a Giant Cheese covered pretzel and some bread thing with a crumble topping and I had a spicy sausage, with cheese and tomato heated baguette.
Once the washing was done we then paid €6 to use the dryer for 30 minutes. That’s double the price washing anything cost us last year.
With the washing done it was now 2:30pm and it might not have felt like we had done much but in reality we had a productive day getting all our washing done while it was raining.
We set off back to the car park where the waterfall was yesterday and we arrived at 3:30pm. It was still raining and pretty grey and miserable and our plan was to just sit here and chill for 2 hours before heading back to the same sleep spot as last night.
The thing is with last nights sleeping spot is the maximum of 12 hours stay even though it’s a camper place, and at 5pm someone drives around and takes photos to make sure you don’t out stay your welcome. It’s out of season so I don’t think going back is going to be a problem but I don’t want the confrontation so we’re leaving it as long as possible so they know we’ve been away all day and we’re just sleeping there. I think we’ll have to do the same tomorrow.
At 5:20pm we’d had enough of just sitting around, Ellie had,had another snooze so we set off back to our camp spot and we arrived just before 6pm just as the van taking pictures turned up. Luckily for us he wasn’t taking pictures tonight and didn’t even give us a second look.
Once settled it was time for dinner of Luxembourg schnitzel and they were pretty good and then we settled in for the night. This is our 10th free camping night so we have been lucky with our park ups so far, the rain has stopped so we’re hoping to get our hike in tomorrow so it will be an early night ready for a day of exploring tomorrow.Read more