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| Beautiful wildflowers beside the river in Long. |
Woke to light rain this morning
and everything looked a bit grey, so we didn’t feel so bad leaving this really
nice spot. Said our good byes to Jill and Paul, have so enjoyed having them as
neighbours and set off to the Somme Valley.
Had planned on spending quite a
bit of time in Northern France visiting the war sites, but with Ian’s issues
with walking at the moment, have parked that plan for another trip and just
heading to places where we can get out and do quite a bit of biking. There are
bike trails right along the Somme River and managed to find an Aire close to
the river and the trails.
Jilly managed to find a good
route which included a stretch of toll free motorway, no dramas like the other
day! This is peak holiday season and the motorway was very busy, and we stopped
at a motorway service centre to have lunch. We couldn’t get over the cars,
caravans and motorhomes pulling in, no sooner was a space empty than another
vehicle was in its place. Interesting checking the number plates to see what
country they were from and most were either GB, Belgian or Netherlands. Guess
ours causes some interest as it has GB on the plate, the surround has a German
motorhome dealer’s website and we have a NZ sticker beside the plate with the
large New Zealand label on the back. Can just imagine the conversation of
people that are following us wondering what it all means.
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| The open countryside of Northern France. |
Once again enjoyed the drive
which took us through vast areas of rolling cropping land and quite a few wind
farms. Turned off and followed the Somme inland for a way to the town of Long.
Turned out to be a really good spot in a grassed area and only €5 a night. We
got the bikes out and had a bit of a ride to check out what the town was about.
Very impressed, it had a good feel to it and even patches of beautiful wild
flowers beside the river. There is a castle with great gardens and hopefully I
will go and have a look through tomorrow. Rode up through town to the church on
the hill, but then the rain came so we quickly headed back to camp. Looking
forward to a good ride along the river tomorrow and there seems to be quite a
few interesting places along the way.
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| Beautiful castle and gardens beside the Somme |
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| Views of Long. |
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| The church in Long, and below, views of the rooftops. |
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A few photos from yesterday - after I loaded the blog.
Such a great spot to camp. |
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| Jill called this "Ian's Gravy train"! |
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Paul and Ian checking out the Belgian guys catch.
He put in hours and got a number of fish, all which
were released as inedible! |
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Comments
Take care
xx J