Further Bongo Adventures
In 2013 we spent the May half term near Paris and used the annual Disneyland passes we’d bought on the sabbatical. We took a tent as well, but discovered we could plug an electric heater into the van and keep warm inside in the evenings as it was rather chilly. That summer we drove to the Dordogne, again taking a tent as well, and camped for 2 weeks. We had amazing weather till the last day when there was a tremendous thunderstorm as we left. We’d bought a bike carrier for the tow bar so took 4 bikes, although arranging them on the carrier was a nightmare and involved turning all the handlebars . We also took our first blow up canoe, the Tahiti Plus Pro, an enormous thing which Danny ordered in a sale. It had no fin and was impossible to steer but the boys enjoyed jumping from it and turning it upside down in the river.
In 2014 we took the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, unfortunately during the tailend of hurricane Bertha so Danny’s promised mini cruise never materialised and he spent the voyage in the cabin feeling terribly seasick. We had a lovely few days in San Sebastian and saw the fireworks festival twice, the highlight of which was the fire bull, a man dressed as a bull running wild with fireworks shooting from him in all directions. We camped in the Pyrenees where the cloud didn’t lift for a week. We went to Lourdes but that didn’t help. One of the boys ended up in a French hospital with suspected appendicitis, which turned out to be a gut infection. We’re still not sure if it was caught from unpasteurised goat’s cheese or the camp toilets. That trip put us off long camping trips and the next year we drove to the Dordogne but stayed in a gite.
We kept the Bongo for about 5 years, taking it on short camping trips. It was about half the time to pitch or pack up camp compared to a large tent. Our friends were envious. When it rained we sat inside and kept dry. Then I convinced Danny we should sell it as we were hardly using it. He reluctantly agreed although he’d always enjoyed driving it to work because he’d felt as if he was going on holiday, even though it took ages to defrost and warm up in the winter. He found a nice new owner for it. We missed it and I wondered if it had been a mistake to sell it.