Le camping sauvage

We did an overnight camping trip at the plaines de esquiou which is a flat area at the top of a pass where there is a hunting lodge. It is not too far from home which meant we had time to wizz up there after I finished work, and it is remote enough that the dog could run around reasonably safely - although ther is a surprising amount of traffic passing by for how remote it is. We had thought about walking up somwhere and camping beyond car access, but in the end we were both quite tired and it was much easier to lob a load of stuff in the car than it was to pack carefully enough to be able to carry it all.

First get the bbq going (we have failed to find good charcoal here and it always takes a lot of fire lighter to get it alight. The French seem to think that everything should be doused in petrol (or for bigger fires an old tire is a good starter), but I think British men think firelighters and the like are not manly and it should be possible with a bunch of twigs and some cardboard.

Nice view huh?

Next is beer (which would have been first if Doug had his way)

Then tent - this one you just throw up in the air and it lands pitched! Amazing. Bit trickyer to fold back up.

Sunset was pretty

Sunrise - the horses came and investigated us in the dark, before we went to bed, then we heard them galloping around in the night and they came for a more thorough investigation in the morning. They seemed to like eating the coal and had a bit of a nibble on the tent too.