After making the difficult decision to leave Switzerland, over the weekend we made inroads on our journey back up towards the coast of Northern France. As forecast the weather has been beautifully hot and sunny, so we have tried to do all the driving in the mornings, arriving on site around midday. Fortunately by driving north the sun has been behind us making it bearable to drive in and keep relatively cool.

On friday we arrived at our Aire next to Lac de Kruth-Wildenstein in the heart of the National Park Unfortunately all the shady pitches had already gone but there was a little bit of breeze which boosted by the fan I have in the van, provided a little relief inside. At about 4 we took a wander down to the lake and strolled in and out of leafy cover for an hour or so before admitting defeat and returning to the van….

After a quiet night, though the aire had filled up during the evening, and after a short stroll to the lake we were on the road just after 9, again heading northwards. It was an easy mostly dual carriageway drive, not the most interesting but I was grateful for the simplicity and speed as we watched the external temperature rising to 28 degrees by the time we arrived at an aire on the outskirts of the small village Charny-sur-Meuse (I’m sure we have been somewhere else along the Meuse).

This time we found a spot underneath a tall tree but even so it was a struggle to keep in anyway cool and even though we waited until about 4 to head out we really struggled without any breeze and very little shade whilst walking to last more than half and hour – just enough time to see the river and wander into the village and see we weren’t missing anything before heading back to the sanctuary of our shady tree….

It looks to be another hot one tomorrow so I intend to use the Toll roads tomorrow and an early start to get a good few miles westwards and that will leave us with a relatively short hop on Monday to reach the coast and then breathe….

Friday’s stats:

• Miles driven – 138
• Miles walked – 4
• Fuel – £91.35
• O/N – £12.87

Saturday’s stats:

• Miles driven – 155
• Miles walked – 3
• O/N – £13.35