Thursday 6 May, Corte

A day of low level irritations of the sort non-campers don't experience. Let me take you through a not atypical 15 minute slot of this morning.

1 Awake to discover the temperature is 8 degrees and we are once again in the middle of a cloud. This is particularly annoying because...
2 The showers are solar powered.
3 Finish lukewarm shower, hop around putting trousers on in phonebox sized puddle of brown water. Bottom half of both trouser legs wet.
4 Trudge back through mud to van. Throw clothes on floor, look for tea.
5 Discover tea underneath clothes, with yesterday's underpants half submerged in the still steaming beverage.
6 Sit down on chair to drink what is left of the slightly stale tasting infusion.
7 Back falls off chair.

Such annoyances were put into some kind of perspective on our afternoon excursion to the Cascade d'Anglais, a renowned beauty spot. By the time we arrived, this sun drenched corner of the Med, this jewel in France's crown registered an air temperature of 2.5 degrees above the freezing point of water. In a cloud.

Come to Corsica in May, the guidebooks all said.

But all was well as the VW T4 California Freestyle Westfalia conversion comes with heated front seats as standard.

Learning point of the day: A beaker of water can be transferred from the receptacle to all six internal surfaces of a van uniformly in just under 3 seconds. Simply pour the liquid onto a dog.

The forecast for the next four days is rain with a brief interlude on Sunday for a period of heavy rain.

Haiku to a campervan,

The joy a veneer
This crucible of despair
May it rust in peace.

101 uses for a campervan #5 Internal cloud viewing vehicle.
Simply programme into the sat-nav the part of the world from which you would like to view the bowels of the cloud, and, in plenty of time for your arrival, a moisture laden cloak will descend.

They were beautiful, those campervans in the mist...

The top 3 Most Pointless Items Carried Hundreds of Miles Across a Continent And Associated Islands

In reverse order:

3 A train set. Used once. Limited Cinderella imaginative play potential. Back in box.
2 Boggle. Whatever possessed us to think that a game requiring 16 small cubes, an egg timer, 2 pens, mental freshness and peace and quiet could ever be located and enjoyed in a campervan with 2 small children?
1 A ukulele. Yes, really. Those warm Meditteranean evenings. The children sleeping. A glass of Chianti on the table. The van as my muse. It just hasn't worked out like that yet.