The night was dark and full of terror. In this case the terror was mostly rain and some thunder rumbling in the distance. Last night was pretty wet. At least that’s what I thought then. What I considered a torrential downpour yesterday, proved to be only a light summer drizzle. The real torrents came today.
For most of the day it was mostly just damp, with a droplet here and there. We drove from Die – via the small semi-ghost town of Crest – to Malaucène. This is where we were told we would find a brilliant campsite, with equally brilliant views. Once we arrived, the campsite turned out to be almost full, staff very unfriendly, and the remaining spots not worthy of our money. We decided to move on. The next campsite seemed to have ample space, but refused camper vans. I somehow understand that – many of them are the scum of the earth. Why they did, however, accept caravans is beyond me…
We decided to settle for the ugly but conveniently located RV lot. Some people seem to thoroughly enjoy their stays there, watching people come, struggle to get the gates open, and go. They gladly take a sprint to come and help you with the gates. Kind… I guess. Don’t they have anything better to do than observe fellow campers? I find these lots to be utterly boring and uninspiring, and would certainly not spend more than a night on them – and usually only when there are no other options. This particular one is a very short walk away from the city center, so the plan was to have a pizza somewhere on a square or whatever. Until, well, those real downpours came.
It was so bad that we didn’t want to spend a single second outside. Change of plans. We spent our time cooking, eating and waiting inside our Nugget – all doors closed. It’s a good test to see if this sort of van is for you (or how much your travel companions are getting on your nerves I guess). While the rain filled up the RV lot with 10cm of water in some areas, we devoured some kind of weird fusion dish made up out of Hungarian paprika, Spanish beans and Italian rizoni. Fuck it. It tasted good. And by now we all seem to have found our place in the van, so what started out as an “oh, fuck!”, turned into an “hey, this is quite good fun!”
What is less fun is that my son refused to go to sleep. Not sure what he’s doing, but it includes creepy whispering…
Robin Heinen 