aturday 11th July. [Ewout is writing this blog].

We found a spot to park two night ago after winding up a narrow road through small villages and parked on the uptrack of the hill. We were lucky and parked next to Peter and Wendy a couple from England. Peter was a bit wacky like me and helped me set up the flags etc. They were a great couple with a good sense of humour, and we had a lot of laughs together. Most campers parked the day before and on race day cars came and filled in any gaps or small places left. Some of the cars were parked in places that I wouldn’t park the Prado. Race day was fun and I was very popular, with many people wanting to take photo’s and have their photo taken with the Koala. Having the Australian flags out meant that a lot of Australians stopped by as well. Before the race the promotion caravan comes past with lots of sponsors throwing out their souvenir items. Being Koala draws a lot of attention and we scored a bag of goods. A lot of t-shirts ,hats, keyrings, sweets, clothes detergent flags etc. The race came but unfortunately The Koala was on the wrong side of the road for the cameramen to spot him, better luck next time. The countryside here is beauifull and we will be heading north for the next couple of days and will try and catch another stage or two in the alps.

Our plan is to make our way north then east hopefully being able to enjoy the sights along the way. After the races finish then we plan to head down to Spain to visit with Cousin Mike at his place in Denia, Spain. Hopefully by then most of the summer holiday crowd will be dispersing and we will spend some time looking at Spain, maybe Portugal before following the French Coast back to Belgium and then The Netherlands. So still a way to go.

BTW: Don’t forget about our message board, we love getting feedback and emails from everyone. We look forward to hearing about what is happening with others and it makes us feel as if we haven’t been forgotten.

cheers