We’ve decided to visit some friends on their campsite in France and help them set up for the season- we’re here for a month

Good morning.

It’s Wednesday, our third day of volunteering and we’re going to bed early, after a full day of fresh air followed by group evening dinners.

There are 11 of us this week, and Els and Reiner, the owners of the campsite, have prepared a rota of who should do what. This includes tea and coffee breaks, jobs around the Campsite and Forest, shopping for and producing dinner, who lays the table, who clears up and who washes the pots and pans.

I don’t think the kitchen has been updated for a while.  There’s a huge gas cooker; only 3 of the 4 hobs work and we don’t use the oven because the door doesn’t close and there’s a shiny new state of the art hot air cooker which looks like a plate stacker.  We have three sinks; only one has hot water and not one has a plug. Each time it’s my turn in the kitchen, I raid our caravan for sharp knives, potato peeler, rubber gloves and oven gloves.

There is minimal food stock so whoever is in charge of each day’s dinner menu, also does the shopping. You can tell our nationalities from the menus.

It’s rained quite a bit, but Steve has resealed the sunroof on the Defender so I no longer have to wrap my car seat in a bin bag before I sit on it.  Gosh, so spoilt!

Apart from the work, it’s really good fun.  We love our communal meals each evening.  Most of the people are Dutch, friends of the owners, there is one Frenchman and us. Brexit raised it’s head the first day, but hasn’t been heard of since.

With much love

Us xxx

We’ve now been in France for a week, arrived at the campsite last Saturday and been at work since Monday.  Is it really only four days’ work that we’ve done so far?  Feels a lot longer! 

Being in the middle of a campsite, set in a wood, we’ve felled trees, split logs, cleared away branches from pitches, built fires, shopped, cooked, lit a log burner, organised morning coffee and afternoon tea breaks.  We’ve been shown most of the 50 or so bird boxes that have been set up by children, each one had to be cleaned and ready for their new inhabitants, as has each pitch.

Our meeting place is the main dining room.  We arrive wrapped up in warm clothes until the wood burner kicks in.  We share dinner duties and help ourselves to behind the bar. We’ve barely been off the campsite, not at all in the evenings, as we’ve been engaged in wonderful evening dinners and due to good company, flowing self/service wine and fresh air crash around 10ish.  However, yesterday we managed a few shops en route to shopping for dinner in the local small town of Boussac.  We tried our best to find anything we didn’t need, but still had quite a bit of change from a 20€ note. Seriously, that’s all we’ve spent in a week!

Stella accompanies us everywhere. She doesn’t have to be restricted to our pitch or on a lead.  She either is with us in the tractor, various vehicles including Mini Mokes, or following behind with her wagging tail.  She absolutely loves it here, best of all her early morning walks with Steve around the lake.

We’ve adapted well to living in our caravan.  First thing, Steve ramps up the central heating and makes tea before I even think of moving.  We then look at the rota to see what our duties are that day.  Since working in the woods Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we no longer have to work long hours; 9am coffee, 9:30 start, 11am coffee, 11:30 – 1, then 2:20 until 4 and we finish.  The weather has been mostly around 12 degrees, so we’ve been wearing several layers which vary according to the work we do.  This week the indoor swimming pool has been emptied, the boys have been busy cleaning the area, ready for me to start painting soon.  I didn’t think to bring painting clothes with, so there has been a whip round of cast offs. Bear in mind the cast offs are from very big Dutchmen!

Yesterday, three people left and two new ones arrived so we’re currently around the 8 people mark. For dinner, Steve and I cooked Mussels with tiny cubed roasted potatoes with herbs, mixed green salad, followed by pears in red wine and a cheese board. The owners stay in their main house, their guests stay in the holiday chalets and we wake up to bird song, uninterrupted views of the forest and a smile on our faces.

The weekend starts tomorrow and we’re very excited at planning where to go tomorrow.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Big HUGS from Team Wilph x x x

Hi All

We’ve been  having loads of fun.  We’ve played in the forest and with fire, done some painting

I did two coats; left and right

We have been living in our caravan for three weeks and its been great.  Haven’t had the TV on once – mostly because we can’t get a signal – but essentially because there is loads to do, we enjoy the company of the other volunteers, evening dinner starts with drinks at 6:45 and doesn’t finish until at least 9:30, 10ish.  There’s been the odd evening where I have binge watched Netflix, but all in all our time is well balanced and full of quality.

 
Last night we had our 18^th consecutive full evening communal meal, only interrupted last Saturday with date night at a Michelin Star restaurant and the Saturday before with friends, enjoying duck and chips. The volunteers, us included, have cooked each evening meal until last weekend when Chef turned up.  We have not had the same dish twice!  The food is bountiful and fresh and sometimes an unusual choice.

A week ago Thursday we walked almost two miles up and down dale to the local Market, which only had a few stalls as the weather was cold and wet.  I winged most of the way there and got a lift back. Yesterday was the best weather so far, until today which is glorious, dry and sunny, only one layer of clothing rather than the usual two or three so it was another walk to the Thursday morning Boussac Market. This time the town square with a few roads of it were full of stalls and bustling. So difficult not to buy too much food and stop off at a local bar or two. You can imagine how tempting the French bakery products are. However, having spent two weeks in Spain in February I did notice that the ‘tat’ was much the same.

With appropriate safety gear, Steve (not shown in this picture) has chopped a tree down and helped Robin (only 27) who you can see up the tree.  The guy to the right is Reinier, owner of the campsite and incredibly appreciative and gracious of all our volunteer efforts.

Steve and his Dutch friend Kees developed Leaf Blower Envy.  So much so, that over several rounds of drinks Wednesday evening, Steve suggested a game of walking football using the two blowers for Thursday afternoon after tea.

Not to be outdone by Steve wearing his Union Jack (yes, its always in the caravan), Kees wife Marion found a beach towel with a Dutch flag which she tied to his back.

Obviously the fan base was a bit Dutch heavy, but it’s all about the spirit of the game, not necessary winning (yep, the Dutch won).  One of the men Bart was referee, great whistle blower.  The only whistle he had was his dog whistle.  His wife Evelyn had their huge dog on a lead, but every time Bart blew it his dog bounded to the pitch dragging Evelyn behind. We were laughing too much to take a video. We had Magic Sponge, injury time and lots of cheating and some cheering. 

 

I’ve no idea if this is going to be a new sport for the campsite, but our creativity has been noted and we’ve been asked to contribute to the next Newsletter.

After afternoon tea and before dinner, we try to find a Bar to catch up on each day’s adventures and speak as much French as possible.

Since we landed on the campsite it has rained, been cold, odd hail storm and howled through the night temperatures sometimes dropping below zero.  Each morning we’ve woken up to astounding views, dawn chorus and mud. 

The wet weather ceased Tuesday morning and gradually it is becoming slowly warmer, promised to be around 19 degrees today, so it’s off with the warm gear and into shorts and T shirts as we’re off to explore – as soon as Steve has finished his big boy breakfast.

We cannot believe we will be making our way back on Wednesday morning to arrive back at Salamanca late Thursday evening.  So far, it’s been a total blast.

Missing you all and looking forward to catching up.

Much love

TeamWilph xxx