A little uplifting ?

To start with I wasn't sure what to call this little episode but I think the title is quite apt really...as you'll see .....

We were on our way from Provence over to the French Pyrenees to attend another of hubby's orienteering events, this one being the French 5 days. We'd packed the caravan and set off fairly early as we'd hoped to arrive early to mid-afternoon. It is always more comfortable if we can get settled in at the new campsite and have time for a quick shuftie around the place and then a shower before supper etc.

Life at a leisurely pace is our aim on the whole these days and that was our intention this day too.

We'd gone about 15 miles along the main route towards Avignon when all of a sudden there was quite a loud 'pop' - the sort of noise the car usually makes when driving over a plastic drinks bottle ! but we'd not noticed one on the road and so were a trifle puzzled.

We carried on driving, nothing untowards had happened but we felt uneasy and so decided to slow down just in case and then it became obvious that something was wrong. Hubby figured out that maybe we'd had a puncture on the caravan ?

 So we began turning into the nearest exit which happened to be the entrance to a farm and also a small fruit packing factory unit. Here we came to literally grinding halt - the noise was awful in fact but at least we were out of the way of the traffic.



There was quite a slope off the road and as we turned in hubby had been able to look back and see what had happened - it is a very rare occurance that he swears but he exclaimed - bollocks ! I just knew that it was serious.


A tyre had punctured, and was shredding as we were driving into the parking area - in fact we were now on the rim and just had to stop once we were safely off the main road.

The spare tyre is got out from under the caravan, and I would not let hubby use the little jack as we were on a slope downwards and sideways and I had visions of the caravan sliding or doing something equally horrendous !!

I suggested that he go down to the fruit farm whose drive we were on and see if they had a big trolley jack we could borrow.

He trots off and to my great surprise comes back with the farmer driving of all things a small fork lift truck !! They'd gone into the packing factory and picked it up. 

It was so funny to see but was perfect for the job !!

The farmer drives up to the caravan, slides the forks under the side and gently, gently, lifts it up so the wrecked tyre can be taken off !!


 It's an amazing sight. The spare tyre is popped on and Bob's your uncle - all done and dusted, and safely too, which was my main concern.


We thank the farmer profusely for his help and he trundles back on down to the factory. We wend our way on to Avignon to try and find a new tyre which proved to be quite difficult in fact.

We eventually find a place open and they fix us up with 2 new tyres - and promptly close for a 2 hour lunch. We'd just managed to catch them in time. We resume our journey.



We arrived at Matemale (a ski resort in fact), ever so high up in the Pyrenees early evening in the end. The last 30 km stretch up the mountains was a marathon of hairpin bends and ever so slow going, as it was all uphill and ended up taking us about 2 hours !

Who ever said travel is quick and easy these days should just try taking some of the more obscure roads in Europe, and especially with a caravan in tow !!

The views had been absolutely amazing though, so worth the journey.

Phew it had been an exciting, exhausting day and I was ready for bed.

              Thank goodness the bed in the caravan is amazingly comfortable !