62. Aire time

ONESSE ET LAHARIE, Landes, Aquitaine - France

That's Spain at the bottom.  Will we ever get there?

Moving south again, but a particularly late start with a stop a couple of miles up the road in the local town, Salles, at the supermarket for provisions and lunch making.  The family disappeared into the supermarket for an hour and then we took another hour to heat and eat the lunch, pizza, and the general larking around that all children perfect in order to seriously compromise the composure of even the gentlest adult and particularly these frazzled adults.

The only practical option south was the toll road, rendered painless by the beeping little box on the windscreen.  It beeped once last month and that was fifteen pounds. The automatic booths measure length and height. While we were motoring along, slightly under the one hundred and thirty kilometre an hour limit (such speeds unthinkable and viewed as socially irresponsible in New Zealand) at eighty kilometres per hour passing massive Aires full of trucks but with caravan and motorhome logos also.  As it was now four thirty and dark within an hour we decided to have a look and drove back from the road into a virtually deserted stop with beautiful toilets / showers and a playground.  Quite exciting actually particularly when we are averaging around thirty Euros per night.

Kiwis can cope with crowds like this
Disco suspension on full height to level the caravan

This is where the six kW fully ducted gas central heating, gas fridge, built in three kW inverter and two hundred amp hours of fully charged twelve volt, deep cycle, batteries really give us options. I sit here now looking at the glowing green inverter remote showing the battery to be still fully charged after five hours of lighting, dinner prep and the kids watching a DVD on the TV - altogether too smug and nervously waiting for something to happen, I see it is three degrees outside and getting colder on this starry night.

Tomorrow we head for the Barritz area, our last stop in France on our way south.