The Silk Route Motorcaravan Club.

Bulletin 105 (Part 1 of 4).

July 2003.
Editor (Original edition in French) Jacques Mahaut.
Translated by Rowena Brunning and Les Brook.
Translation Edited by Les Brook.

N.B. Words in red have notes attached to them, place your cursor over the word and wait. This page uploaded from Norway by GSM phone so no photographs and in four parts! - Stephen Stewart.

In this bulletin.

The life of the Club: the A.G.M.

I hope that, with the last Bulletin, you received a yellow form for registration etc.

Even if you can't get along to the AGM, we welcome your questions, comments and suggestions. For example, what do you think about an HQ? Following the retirement of Michele Lombart, we must make a decision. At my place? At another committee member's? If we need to make ourselves known, Paris would obviously be the best bet - but is this what we need? In fact, having the HQ at your home involves having to pass on future communications/mail to the individuals who can best deal with them.

Should be abandon the 'dossiers' (information files on maritime transport, insurance, carnets de passage en douanes)? Experience shows that it is very difficult to bring these to publication stage.

Last year I did not get a single response to my call for help. So I now repeat it for the special number to come out on 1 January 2004. Send me your best camping photos by 1 December at the latest, if possible showing an unusual location with your vehicle in the photo. It doesn't have to be in the wild: there are some beautiful campsites too.

The Balade in Alsace: First Impressions.

Records.

Fine weather! Record warmth - in all senses of the word. Record kindness on the part of [the organiser] Lucien Schroeter - rather overshadowed by the indiscipline of his 'baladeers', the complex nature of the road network in Alsace, the tastings of food and drink, the observance of timetables! Record warm welcome from the winemaker Jean Boesch of Soultzmatt who opened up his yard and his warehouse for tastings of Cremant d'Alsace, Tokay-Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, followed by an enormous sauerkraut with a generous sprinkling of the white wines from his vineyard. His entire family helped to set the table and to serve us. I think this effort was rewarded because he needed a van to deliver the orders to the site when the vans were parked up!

Record stinginess by the Cave Co-operative de Cleebourg. After being subjected to a telling-off because the group arrived a bit late, the tasters had to pay €4.5 per person for two tiny glasses of wine. Since we paid the bill, our friend Lucien was surprised to get a bill two days later for more euros to pay for the tasting a little bits of kouglof. A place to forget!

Record for luxury and delight at the Royal Palace of Kirkwiller.

There's more, in the next bulletin.

Gossip from Alsace (or from the sidelines of the balade).

The Alsatian roads: between Philippsbourg and Lemberg, near Bitche, the D36 is a fabulous road, picturesque and fascinating as it meanders and zigzags through the Moselle forest alongside a little river. Usually the road markings of the by-roads consist of a continuous white line or a dotted one - or a pair of dotted lines to signify that the road is too narrow to be divided into two. The peculiarity of this is that one side is dotted, the other continuous - and then this is reversed. We studied the highway code but it gave us no explanation.

Wine cellar and vault visits: a reference to the Klipfel establishment in Barr (good products, free tasting, no stinginess.). The visit starts with the cellars and the storerooms covering hundreds of metres until you reach the tasting room. On the wall, a sign says 'tasting cellar 500m'. Opposite, on the other side of the road, another sign points to it - in 350m! It would seem that, on leaving the cellar, someone measured the distance to the tasting area as 350m, but having tasted, he recorded the return distance as 500m. How could this have occurred?

Dog days in Alsace: since our President went to test the scorching heat of Africa, he can't do without it! Nobody knows how he arranged matters with the organiser of the balade and the French weather forecasters but he supplied us with temperatures of 30C and 38C - outside, in the shade - throughout. I will leave you to imagine the temperatures inside the motorcaravans. Some people's fridges even refused to freeze ice cubes and to cool the water for the aperitifs. Most inconvenient! Particularly since the most popular drink was... mineral water!

Precipitations - not atmospheric! Forest rambles were a bit too lengthy for us to keep to the schedules. Hence a bit of tension, and precipitation/haste, a few missed turnings and re-tracing of steps. We had no accidents and, as far as I am aware, only one puncture. But whilst carrying out a manoeuvre at a slight halt in the journey, one of our number (Andre B.) encountered a tin-opener! If you meet him, he will personally acquaint you with the exact circumstances and the extent of the damage. Certainly significant, but it could have been a lot worse!

The projected balade in England [actually, mainly Wales! Ed]: As each day passes, we go from one surprise to another. With some difficulty, we explain to our English [-speaking] friends that on Wednesday lunchtime we will eat at a 'secret' place. As he walked by, Lucien added "At 18.00 hours, after the meal, you will all be 25 years old!". Translation. then after a moment's thought, Peter cried out "Vive la France!".

Walk in the forest: a sign at the entrance to a forest path near the Gachnay (pronounced 'Kash-nay') car park indicates "This path is not a municipal ski route. In an emergency, telephone the police at the police station. Telephone...". Guess the number: it ends in 22!

Culs-de-sacs: we visited a few of these. At Rumbach, some of us went in with a shoehorn, and then got stuck. We only got out thanks to the skill of the drivers who manoeuvred their vans like corkscrews.

Paul Gouwy. (To be continued.)

Trip to Mainland Greece - 19 April to 13 May 2003.

Left Ardeche on Saturday morning via Gap and Barcelonnette, then the Cuneo and Asti motorway in Italy with a stop-over near Regio Emilia. After a journey of 917kms, arrived in Ancona [on Sunday] at 13.00. Crossed from Ancona to Igoumenitsa on Minoan Lines Open Deck. Return ticket bought in Ancona. : two adults and a van (less than 5m long) €373.80. Anek Line a bit cheaper (€357.20) but no space that day.

Having reached Igoumenitsa, we visited Corfu. Outward trip: €34.40. Return from Kavos in the south of the island: €24.

The price of diesel varies from one station to another, ranging from €0.59 to 0.75. The entrance fee for sites is €6 but only 3 for over 65s, except in Athens where it is €12 (€6) but this covers several sites as well as the Acropolis. Although wild camping is against the law, we had no problems except near Delphi where we were chased by the police.

To visit Athens, we stopped at the "Athens" campsite, 7kms from the city centre, very noisy but very clean. €31 for two nights. We were able to visit the city from there using the bus and underground, stopping at the foot of the Acropolis. Restaurants are not very cheap. Expect to pay €30-40 for two people with no cheese, dessert or coffee.

In summary: visit to Vikov gorges, stop at Ioannina for jewels and cash. Meteora is unmissable. If you go to Thessalonika which is not very interesting, press on to the Sithonia peninsular. Another interesting region east of Volos is Oros Pilio. Do not miss the Delphi oracle and Cape Sounion.

West of Athens is industrial and the beaches uninteresting. Free admission to the interesting Akrocorinth castle. Mycenae, Nafplio, the theatre at Epidavros with a stop-over. Coastal road to Nafplio Leonido, then Pirgos Gerakiou and Mistra, an impressive site. We were recommended to see Monemvassia. The Mani peninsular south of Githio is very unusual for its scenery and buildings in the shape of square towers.

On the west coast of the Peloponnese, stop-over recommended at the hot sulphur spring of Kaiafas, south of Olympia.

The Greeks are very friendly and a lot speak English. Lots of water-points with screw ends in most cases. For the telephone, buy an OTE card costing €3 to provide several calls to France.

This is a summary. Members wanting more details can contact Rony Loeschnigg and Gislaine Rouyre, La Salette 07700, St Marcel d'Ardeche, Tel: France (0)4759 87077, mobile (0)6702 96676

New Places to Stop.

Aire de Mechouroux in the commune of Santec (department 29) situated between Roscoff and Lorient near St Pol de Leon, the artichoke capital. In a rural setting amongst fields 50m from the fine, sandy beach at Staol. Free parking, quiet, and sheltered from the sea spray. You pay what you think fit for electricity. Views of the site can be found on the official Sante website (www.santec.fr) under the heading hebergement.

Voyage to Namibia.

We are back from Namibia, a big country one and a half times the size of France but with a population of only 1.8m. You don't need an air-conditioned vehicle: you just choose the right season. Since May is a pleasant time of year, we had three weeks of sun and blue skies without severe heat, and with cool evenings and even cold nights when we were in the mountains. On the other hand, using a 4x4 and the services of a competent guide are essential for travelling as we did on some tracks in remote and stony places, and also in concessions where a permit is compulsory when looking for animals. Not all of these are concentrated in parks like the Etosha, which is very interesting: they can also be found in the wide desert spaces. We enjoyed very much watching springboks frisking and ostriches strutting proudly in front of the van. We even saw a cobra at the roadside.

We went to a Himba village to meet these people dressed in their traditional costumes, smearing their faces and bodies with a mixture of milk fat and powdered ochre. You need to proceed there with care not to offend the sensibility of these people and to know how to make yourself acceptable to them. We used campsites but mostly we bivouacked, sleeping in a tent in the open under trees or at the mouths of caves. At night we could hear animals passing, the gallop of onyxes etc. However, do not leave your shoes at the tent entrance or next morning you'll only have one left, the jackal having come by.

A long march took us around the Spitzkoppe, dubbed the 'Namibian Cervin'. We attended a display by the young people of the next village who came to dance and sing for us in the Damara language. They even had us joining in.

Damaraland is very beautiful. Worth seeing are the remarkable cave paintings of Twyfelfostein in the Brandberg mountains. The flora is abundant and the plants numerous. You can see the one that is unique to the area, the weltwitschia mirabilis. Trees too, such as the kokerboom or quiver [as in arrow holder] tree, and many species of long-thorned acacia.

We did not miss out the 80,000 sea lions at Cape Cross. A touching sight of the mothers and their pups. The flight over the country above the dunes and canyons showed us the extent of the immense desert. Scaling the dunes of Sossuwlei to see the sunrise is an unforgettable and majestic memory.

We have had a fabulous adventure.

Marie-Jo and Remy Chaigneau.
Madeleine and Eugene Deschateaux.

For Sale.

Michel Barbaudy is selling his Toyota van conversion. You have already seen the photos so we aren't showing it here. Phone him for more information - if you can get hold of him! [Michel is always on the road - from Brazil to China to the Western Sahara! See below. Ed]

Part 2 of 4.

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