Busy Times

Busy Times - Day 94 May 18

It is much harder to find the time to keep up this blog when we are camping and driving.  There is so much else to figure out and get used to.  Here are my main categories of daily activity in approx. order (sleep is a given and going very well)*

-Talking, having fun and playing games

-The mechanics of living on the road

(looking after the van, setting up and packing, re-arranging for sleeping and day use).

-Looking after each other (conflicts, moods, changes, decisions)

-Finding out, exploring and learning new stuff

-Driving and navigating

-Recording (blog, photos, video)

-Cooking and shopping and eating

-Looking at the views

-Researching the route and making bookings

-Working remotely

-Keeping the IT going

-Staying in touch with friends

-Staying clean

-Acquisitions and Disposals of gear

-Car sickness

*Note these are not chores but simply consumers of time.

 

On a day with lots of travel, 2 camp sites, rain and a visit to the Grotto of Chauvet it was pretty much go, go, go.

The Caves of Chauvet at the Pont D’Arc a mere 10 minutes from our camp site will never be open to the public.  These first known works of human artistic genius are preserved intact for posterity but a very ambitious replica of the caves and their extraordinary paintings has been constructed. I was dubious about the value of viewing a replica and it is easy to find negative reviews from purists but we thought we should give it a go.  I was blown away. 

I got a real sense of antiquity and awe as the guide drew us into the exact replica cave; revealing and interpreting the paintings and tableaux which as we penetrated further become more extraordinary, complex and artistically profound.  What an impossible discovery they were – miraculously preserved from 36000 years ago by an extreme coincidence of geology, access and climate. They prompted Picasso to say "We have learnt nothing" and they must be preserved. I must applaud the invention and confidence to re-create them where we can all see.

We drove through the linked civil engineering feats of the French Alp roads, picking flowers as we went, 

to arrive at the base of Alpe D’Huez , the famous Tour De France ascent, in the pouring rain.  We set up camp and after a good homemade supper of risotto and two veg went to sleep a little nervously knowing that in the morning, in the tyre marks of Geraint Thomas’ 2018 tour winning climb, we would attempt the 21 corners and 1071 vertical metres ourselves. 

 Geraint Thomas burst from the leading pack to clinch victory at the end of the stage. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images