Wednesday 21 March

The wind is blowing ferociously without any let up.  It’s sink or swim so we pack down ready for our next move aiming closer for home.

We pack in the wind, we leave in the wind, and drive slowly to the motorway, where we join others in the wind. It’s quite a few hours of very careful, slow driving with total concentration of both of us, I didn’t dare interrupt Steve’s concentration with conversation. Feeling every gust and thump of wind Steve holds the steering wheel determinedly and as much in control as he can be.  Every now and then a particular unexpected blow to the car made us both wince and worry about the caravan fish tailing –

Driving in the slow lane, with no intention  whatsoever of speeding up or overtaking, I couldn’t believe the number of huge trucks on the road and how close they drove to each other.  As each one passed us there was relief of a bit of a wind shield followed by a slip stream wobble.

By the time we crossed the Millau bridge – our second time – the Mistral was firmly behind us, thank goodness!

Settling into the next camp site in daylight our thoughts were firmly focussed on purchasing Propane.  Last night was cold but the forecast for tonight was -6!  This site was arranged either side of a river, it couldn’t have been any more picturesque, there were only a couple of travellers and our night’s comfort increased when we saw that the Reception had a small bar.

I told Steve I didn’t care how much it cost I would like gas, and lots of it.  On our quest we were successful but the French/European regulator fittings are different to ours in the UK.  Try as much as he could with his tools, box of bits and pieces and determination there was no way we were going to have gas that night, so it was wack the electric heating up as much as we could, imbibe central heating and look forward to a warmer day and evening.