28th June/8th July - Ortherveille

A dry day, a wet day and when it's wet it really rains, no wonder the place is very green, not at all what I expected.

So, with a wifi connection I get down to catching up with this blog. The website is driving me crazy, I can't get the pages in order or to properly display them. Writing the blog works, so I've managed to put down most of what I wanted and from time to time go back to trying to work out how things are displayed. I've been here a week already, earlier than I intended, but with no wind, I went for the travel option, travel while I can't kitesurf.

What to do? Biarritz is not the best for kitesurfing. From what I can make out I need to go back north although I'm not keen on that. I'll investigate locations south and east into Spain. I've booked the ferry from Bilbao for the 23rd July, so I'll be back for aunt Sylvia's 100th birthday on 26th July, and Rye tennis the following weekend.

Got a message from son Howard 'I'm in Biarritz for a work function'. He was surprised I had made it so far south, we had met up for half-term in the Vandee. So I drive over to meet up. Biarritz is a crazy place to park particularly when it's central and we were meeting at the aquarium, right in the centre. Anyway I find a spot 15min walk away. As I was climbing the steps from the beach he walks down from the street, crazy. A great night and good to meet his work mates. It was raining when I went back to find the bus and I was lucky to do so, just managed to remember enough locations from the walk down, I hadn't saved the address.

The drive back at night was interesting, not only raining but only sidelights, no headlights! When I got past the street lighting I managed to tail a few cars which was a bit nerve racking but I was eventually forced to stop. What should I do, I didn't fancy sleeping in the bus in the middle of nowhere. Fiddling with the light switch I got the headlights working and was able to get back to Orthevielle. The idiosyncrasies of an old vehicle.

I've made a couple of sorties into the Basque hills where houses are perched high up with spectacular views overlooking the rolling hill all the way to the Pyrenees. Sadly the weather was rather overcast so my photos don't do justice to the views

This is La Bastide-Clairence

Pelote - Doubles

Salies-de-Bearn

7th July - Ortheveillle

The bus needs a front bearing and I don't want to risk it failing before I get home. The garage has ordered a part and it would be great to have it fixed tomorrow so I can continue down into Spain.

Ventured into the water yesterday with a boogie board. The beach at Biarritz is steep and the first break you meet is just 10m off the shore, the next break about 20m and then the surfers 50m off. So I was getting just a 20m ride and that was violent enough, still no injuries, so that was good.

8th July - Ortheveillle

Fingers crossed the garage will deal with the wheel bearing, I'm waiting on their call. In the meantime I've got a VPN connection which allows me to watch Wimbledon and specifically Norrie this afternoon.