Monday 6th Oct
OK.. so today we decided to stick to the coast road and head for Imperia. When we got to Alassio however the sun was boiling and we spotted a lovely sandy beach so decided to explore. A friendly Scottish lady who worked in the tourist info gave us lots of info (we later found out that she'd studied languages at A level and came to Italy as a young woman set to be an air hostess. Then she met and fell in love with an Italian and she's been settled here ever since). We decided to stay the night and found a little hotel with sea view. Spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing....keep telling ourselves “ we deserve this!” but can't really believe how lucky we've been...not one day without sunshine in 6 weeks! The sea was just lovely today and we both enjoyed the swims. As in Levanto we spent the evening in a bar with nibbles and filled up on pizza afterwards. We drank the local wine Pigato, which is delicious, but proved to be a bit expensive...oh well, after 4 nights of camping “we deserve this!”

Tuesday 7th Oct
( Brent here ) Sitting in the tent in the rain thinking back over the last two days. Yesterday,( thats date above in the blog ) started cloudy but at the far end of the bay the sun was peeping through the clouds. Linda and I went in pursuit using our legs- that is we walked. The walk proved pleasant along the 4km stretch. Got into next village where we sat down at a cafe by sea for a lemon soda delivered to us in a can. On paying for it was charged 3E for a can which cost 40cents. Most frustrating thing when you are ripped off abroad is not being able to vent your anger. Eventful walk back to our town with Linda in search of nearest toilet. Got back to room for a siesta so fully recovered to have a good nite out. Went in search of an eatery. Wandered up and down for ages going past many empty ones – never a good sign. eventually stumbled on a peach of a restaurant with live music. One of our aims when we set out was to search out music venues but this had often been out of synch with events. The group consisted of keyboard, violin, flute, and guitar with all four men joining in with vocals. One of them looked like Art Garfunkel- sort of forehead that goes back for ever. The music was sort of folky but all musicians were having a good crack. We enjoyed the food and music thoroughly.

Weds 8th Oct
Woke up to another glorious day – sun shining yet again. Did a quick shop in local supermarket to get some provisions for lunch and the evening meal. Got back to car to find a slightly deflated tyre. Set off on journey with intention of putting some air in it. On journey very few garages with any facility to do this. Many closed down – assume this is recession related. Eventually found one on the Auto-route so relieved to pump it up – must be a slow puncture. Crossed the border into france – happy that at least one of us could now speak the language. Pulled in to the first Aire we came across. Nobody does Aires as good as the French. Found a lovely picnic bench under the pines and got out our fresh bread, tomatoes, ham, cheese, salad, and mayonnaise. Made the best sandwich yet and to cap it all was able to sit down at a TABLE. Had to give it a little hug. Carried on to j36 of motorway and after a brief detour found the campsite we were looking for and set up camp.
Thursday 9th October
Decided to explore the coast path reception had told us about and headed for les Issambres where we found a fantastic sandy beach. Decided to do the walk first only to find that lots of it was along the busy road. We quickly gave up on this and forced ourselves to join those sunbbathing and swimming in the warm waters of the Med. where we spotted lots of fish...” we deserve this!”

Back at camp and the nearby group of bikers who are clearly taking part in the local VTT (mountain bike) race at le Rochebrune decided to start their loud banter. Boys will be boys, but it did get a little wearing and we decided to get up early tomorrow and do the gorge walk ( also recommened) before heading off towards the Camargue and then on to Vias.

Friday 10th October
Oh well! Best laid plans and all that! We'd packed the car up nice and early, when trying to avoid the tree behind us Brent managed to reverse over the terraced drop. The left rear wheel was well and truly stuck and a horrid smell of petrol. With help from campsite folk the car was jacked up and off the kerb, but we spotted a hole in the aluminium cover of the petrol tank. Although not sure if the actual tank was broken we knew it needed checking, so called out green flag who transported it to a local garage..this being Friday, the earliest they can look at it is Monday. The local English guy, Gordon came up trumps helping us out with provisions to see us through tonight. He's also offered to take us to the supermarket tomorrow, which is great as there's absolutely nothing near the site!

Saturday 11th October
Off to supermarket at 10 then decided to walk to Bouverie, the nearest town... what a laugh! Looked quite a large town on the map, but when we arrived it basically consisted of loads of housing, a stadium / sports field and a few miserly shops. But at least there was a cafe. So we had a quick drink and headed back to the camp pool. Now here we are in the camps laundry, where we've found free electricity to plug in the laptop and bring the blog up to date. It's nice and light too so we're going to have a game of back gammon too, as this is proving difficult in the tent after 7.30, when our little lantern is a bit ineffective!