Returning to Montherme in brilliant sunshine to find a beer festival underway and Aurigny moored up was rather more delightful than our arrival on Friday in the peeing rain. I was right, the boat was familiar and, although we had never met, belonged to Facebook friend Nicci and her husband Peter.

I decided to scale the mountain very steep hill before returning for a beer or two with G at the festival and then calling around to Aurigny for another beer. It was hot and steep (the hill that is) and the beer was desperately needed. It’s amazing how sound echoes around the valley and, if my French was up to it, I could have picked up on the conversations of the people picnicking below me at river level. We were expecting Kevin and the boys about 8 ish but, in the end, it was gone 10 so we had a late night/early morning.

After a late start on Monday morning, Kevin and I collected Nicci and headed for the mountains hills again in a different direction from the one I took Sunday. This route was by a narrow track which would have been wonderful if we hadn’t experienced thousands fifty or more hill runners coming down towards us carrying big walking stick pole thingies – the front (and more serious) runners weren’t mega impressed by encountering meandering Muttley and the large and enthusiastic Herbie as there was no way we could put them on leads in that rough, steep terrain, without becoming even bigger hazards!!!!!!!!!!!!! After the front runners passed us (without any legs broken), the rear markers were a lot more friendly and the path widened. Both Nicci and Kevin are serious walkers and I found myself eating their dust and begging for an opportunity to, ‘stop and admire the view’ at ever more frequent intervals.

If you saw some of these photos in the hasty note I flung up the day we crossed into Belgium then, tough, you’re going to see them again. I climbed that bloody mountain twice in two days – the least you lot can do is look at the photos and be impressed at the agility of this knackered OAP!

“Can I get up here Mum?”

“Are you coming up Herbie? The view is great”

Just to round off a great walk, we found somewhere for a beer on the way down; well, it would have been rude not to.

Between the two boats and the motorhome we managed to cobble enough stuff together to have dinner on Francoise; a great night/early morning ……..again!

PS Wi-Fi courtesy of the Casino next door. Free provided we spend an hour at the roulette wheel later.