Day 3 – 28th December 2013-

Well well well, what can I say?  Mountains, mountains. This was fantastic driving – Neil A – you really do need to get your Porsche over here – you would love the roads.

The aires were a bit few and far between so we had a choice of staying on one in the mountains, or go another 50 miles plus to get nearer to Montpelier.  As I had not appreciated travelling in the mountains in December and that we were shortening our daily journey to around 250 miles I chose to stop earlier rather than later and we planned to stop at Campagnac, a small quaint village in the Massif Centrale (mountains).

We took a break at the motorway services where I quickly checked my emails – I wanted to make sure that nothing untoward had happened at home that we would have to return for BEFORE travelling ANOTHER 250 miles further south.  Luckily all was quiet and my mind was at rest.

Of course what I didn’t consider when agreeing to go over the mountains is that when you go up, you have to go down.  Also this was December and even though we were headed south to the warmth, we still had to go up the mountains where it was cold – and SNOWING!!!!!

At the top of one mountain (this is the Massif Centrale) the altitude marker was 1,110m that was the highest that I saw, I mentioned that the rain had become a little “sleety” and then it started snowing. This was getting quite exciting.   (Note, I’ve changed from scary to exciting).

We arrived at Campagnac which was very strange place, the whole place looked like it should have been deserted, the houses looked so dilapidated, however there were definite signs of life and  I’m sure this would have been beautiful in the summer months, but hey this was December.  During the night it was raining AGAIN!!! And I had the thought that at least I could hear the rain – that meant that it wasn’t snowing.  I really didn’t want to get caught here up the mountains for a couple of months during the winter – we were heading for Spain and the warm weather.

Unfortunately the strain of the driving, being in the van 24/7, no campsite facilities or electricity and the incessant horrible weather had taken it’s toll on me and I went into complete meltdown that evening.  I didn’t want to do this, we’ve left everything behind – what I really needed to hear was “That’s ok we’re going to the sun and to better things” but I’m afraid that that wasn’t forthcoming and the answer should not have been “Well we’ll go home now then” so my mood was even blacker than the sky.   Still a meltdown is a good thing sometimes, it gives  me a chance to think and to then come to my senses and remember all the reasons that we are doing this in the first place. Whilst for Iain this is a big relief, leaving work and retiring, I already had a charmed life and enjoyed it.  I didn’t need the change like he did.

I think Iain realised that I needed a rest and that rather than return home and get a divorce we agreed that as soon as we got to Spain we would stay on a site for a couple of days and have a break from driving. 

I didn’t sleep well and Iain had almost got the van ready to move on when I got up.  A bit sleepy  I got into the driving seat and we were off again for another 250 miles – next stop ……………………………………… Spain.