Seal Spotting and South to Nonancourt
Zagan the motorhome isn’t moving very quickly at the moment (does he ever?). Truth be told, we could have happily stayed at Stella Plage for a good while longer, however the motorhoming gods decided we needed to move on. We’re now parked up under slate grey skies at Nonancourt (N48.77241, E1.19198), a place we visited and had a good look around last year, so we don’t feel too bad staying holed up in the van, avoiding the rain.
We’ve both been trying to shake pretty nasty Christmas colds, which is why you’ll find me coughing quite a bit on our video about taking the channel tunnel – sadly we couldn’t reverse and do a second take! The nasty bug has sapped our strength and it would appear to have rendered us incapable of motorhoming on a basic level. After a couple of nights recuperating (also know as watching telly via the internet) at Stella Plage the heating started to switch off. Everything else worked fine (the water leak is fixed), so we were a tad confused. Jay checked the gas bottles and they were both showing empty. We’d totally forgotten that on our last trip we decided to use our small gas bottle first as it’s always kept as a reserve and we thought the gas in it might be getting old (I have no idea if this happens, but it seemed logical at the time). The fridge was clinging on in there, doing its best with the fumes that were left, but we needed an LPG station.
After tea and under the cover of darkness we headed north for about 6km to Le Touquet. Using MyLPG.EU we knew the Total station had an LPG pump, sadly it was all taped off and shut when we arrived. No worried there was another LPG pump a couple more kilometres away – only there wasn’t – the station looked like it had never had one. Third time lucky we now drove 20 minutes south (waving at the Stella Plage turn off as we passed it) to Rang du Fliers.
The Intermarche at Rang du Fliers (N50.41481, E1.60868) has a 24 hour petrol station, and LPG – winner winner. Only the LPG wasn’t 24 hour, you could only use the pump when there was someone in the pay booth and they wouldn’t be back until 9am. Defeated, we drove to a quiet corner of the car park and settled in for the night. We haven’t ‘wild’ camped in a random car park for a while, and in reality a Brico Marche car park (similar to a B&Q) isn’t really that wild. But needless to say I spent the night convinced the police would come, or we’d be in trouble when the staff arrived in the morning, or we’d freeze to death in our bed. None of which happened. No one gave a hoot about us being parked there and we were quite warm fully-dressed under a duvet, two sleeping bags, a blanket and sofa throw! It stays dark until around 8am, so we didn’t surface until just after dawn. Under a beautiful red morning sky we did a quick shop in Intermarche before filling up with LPG – we had less than a litre left (possibly just a few grams) so no wonder the heating was having none of it.
We couldn’t be bothered to move far once we’d filled up with gas, so we headed to Berck Plage (N50.39664, E1.56391). The aire is next to the sea and should be €10 a night, but when we arrived the barriers were up. The water was switched off (this happens at a lot of aires in the winter so it’s worth filling up when you can) but as we still had half a tank we made the most of an unexpected freebie.
After a spot of breakfast we went for a walk to the beach. The slipway was all fenced off as there is a lot of maintenance work going on along the beach front at the moment – the collection of huge earth movers in the car park next to the aire was a clue. On the other side of the barriers were three people with tripods and telescopes pointing a huge rocks on the sand – hang on, they aren’t rocks, they’re moving. We nipped around the barriers and joined the tripod people to gaze at around 60 grey and common seals (phoques) having their morning rest just a couple of hundred metres from where we were stopping for the night – once again I remember why I love motorhoming. This is about as far south as seals live in Europe, with their population recovering here after hunting was banned in 1972.
We stood there for quite a while gazing at these beautifully cute, but equally big teethed and scary creatures. It also gave us chance to test out our new camera, so I’ll make no apologies for the number of seal pics, they are but a fraction of what we took!
After a gratuitous amount of seal watching we went for a walk along the boardwalk to the town, before heading back to Zagan. I was shattered and had a nap. Jay is further along the cold recovery road then me, he managed to go out for a run along the beach where he got up close and personal with a few more seals and explored the building works going on.
In the evening we went to see if the seals would be back at low tide. We were a little early, as they were still all out swimming in the water, but we timed it perfectly to see the convoy of earth movers setting off. Ten of them set off across a sand path created by a JCB right where we were stood seal watching in the morning. It looked like they were on a tight timescale or having fun, as they tore along the beach, returning about 10 minutes later full of sand. They then drove further around the bay to where the trees were falling into the water, and deposited their sand to rebuild the beach. It’s a huge operation to move tonnes of sand around 2km along the beach an was fascinating to watch as the seals bobbed around in the sea.
Back in Zagan we now found our batteries were down to about half charge. Not really surprising as it’s been too cloudy for the solar panels to put much in and we’d only done about an hour’s driving over the past few days. We wrapped up in sleeping bags, saving the batteries to power the heating overnight – now we had gas to burn. It’s easy to forget how carefully you need to manage your resources when off-grid. This morning another grey drizzle day loomed. We paid a visit to our new seal friends before setting off for a three hour drive south. France is a much bigger country than we realise sometimes. I know folks who blat across it in a couple of days on the toll roads to reach Spain, but we love France, we’ll take a little longer and hope we’ll reach some sunshine soon.
Tonight we have full gas tanks and batteries – we’ll have the heating on and the telly and all the lights! Tomorrow we’ll see how we are feeling. We may carry on south, or stay here for another day – that’s the beauty of motorhome life.
Ju x
Hi guys, hope you’re both feeling a bit better, I’ve just emerged from ‘man-flu-world’ myself so I’m with you. If the pics are from the new camera…great! We liked Nonancourt too, but didn’t manage to secure the free electric point, nice little town, so nice of them to provide a free(ish) Aire.
Happy travs…Kindest…Wayne.
We thought we were in luck mate as there was no one else here. The borne’s off for the winter though. :-) The new camera seems to be working well, has usual limitations for a small sensor but the zoom and convenience are bob on. Cheers, hope you’re 100% soon, Jay
Hi again,
Our paths have virtually crossed, we are now just leaving Dieppe having been parked in Nonancourt only 3 days ago. Not sure what your route plan is next but I can tell you that there is water available in the Aire at Saran near Orleans. We really like Nonancourt, bigger town than you first think and the Grand Cerf does a great lunch as you know. We generally use it as a last call before Dieppe although this time we tried Montville, very nice Aire and town. Keep warm and safe.
Carl
Good intel, thanks Carl. Jay
Hi – great to see you out and about again!
Buying LPG outside ‘normal’ shop hours (when a person is present\0 is like trying to get hens teeth – I believe this is covered by law which also means that Sundays are often a no-no. We spent ages searching around the edge of the southern alps last March.
Still you are all sorted now – hope the colds go soon.
Ann
Hello J2,
that’s what we like in motorhome travelling: energy , water & other ressources are not taken for granted. You have to be aware of stocking things , that are imprtant for you.(for us it’s wine/water/bread & some delicious food) & you have to be gratefull, just to find a safe place to stay overnight.Idyll is always inside.Many surprises to get to know are outside!
Have a good trip! H2 ( Heide & Helmut)
PS: as GB lovers we’ll cross our thumbs for Tuesday!! Heide
Hi guys. Just driving round Rouen destination Portugal in a couple of weeks. Will shake your hand if we spot you about.x
Thanks Marie, happy travels! Jay
Currently in Dieppe until we head west in small stages. Possibly Honfleur tomorrow (Sunday). First time we’ve been able to access 240v …The beauty of off-season I guess.
Milder today but rain is starting to come in horizontally.
Later.
Lee at Go Humberto!
Sounds good Lee, enjoy! Jay
Great read as always, and good to see your out on the road again.
Another app for lpg/gpl finding is FillLPG we now cross reference with both and have found stations on both that aren’t on the other. So gives wider choices
Hey guys. Good to read you are this side, back over the ditch again : ). We have a Wanda (you knew as Dave). We sold up and are currently near Bergerac with the in laws. If you are anywhere near give us a shout. There’s a free Aire in this Bastide town too
Great stuff, will do, thanks Paul. Jay