A rather anxious day waiting for news of the repair to Henrietta – would they finish it today and how much was it going to cost? The AA had been excellent up to now but were a little disappointing today. Despite a call to them at 11:00 explaining that we would have to book out of the hotel by 12:00 and asking them to phone us back with an update, they didn't do so. We asked the hotel to phone the garage and they were told that they hoped that the repair would be finished late afternoon. So we checked out of the hotel and headed off to explore Gap again.
If we had known that we had the whole day, we would have gone on a long walk but as it was, we felt that we had to be able to get to the garage as soon as the call came. We did however manage to do a one of the shorter walks from the pack of 10 - an hour starting from the centre and taking us in the same direction as that on Tuesday but shorter and lower. Much of the walk was through woodland with good views over Gap and the mountains.
About half past four we finally got the news from the AA that the van was ready. They organised a taxi for us and we were soon at the garage. Fortunately, the balanced flywheel did not have to be replaced but replacing the clutch and hydraulic cylinder left us with a bill of €1,050. I can't blame Ford for the problem as I believe it stems back to an incident in Portugal in January 2008 when I nearly burnt the clutch out getting up a steep hill with no more than two inches clearance on either side of the van. I didn't scrape the bodywork but certainly damage the clutch.
Still, we had Henrietta back and we could continue the Sojourn. By the time that we had paid the bill, been told that the Ford clutch was too small for a 3.5t van, been told that Sicily wasn't good (it's Italian) and Corsica was fantastic (it's French!) but they don't like motohomes (motorhomers don't spend any money), bid farewell to the very friendly owner, time was getting on! In our new Italian aires book (Guida Camper – Aree di Sosta, published by Belletti, purchased from Vicarious Books http://www.vicariousbooks.co.uk/) we found an aire an Barcelonnette but on the route that the sat nav decided to take us Jane spotted another aire listed at Chorges just a few miles outside Gap. This was good news as it would have been dark by the time that we arrived at Barcelonnette and the journey was probably going to take us into the mountains. The journey to Chorges is very pretty, part of the same route (in reverse) that we took from Briancon to Gap in the breakdown truck.
The aire at Chorges was being renovated but there were six vans already there and more arrived after us. It looked as though they intended to asphalt the parking area but it is currently only an aggregate surface. There are some clean public toilets next to the aire but no motorhome service point (waste water disposal and fresh water tap) – they may well put these in as part of the renovation.
I had been very concerned about Jane as on Tuesday she had finished the only book that she had taken to the hotel. This is a disaster as far as Jane is concerned – no reading material – and she eventually resorted to buying a Sudoku at the local hypermarket! Back now with her supply, she was soon cuddling up with a new book.
Photos: View over Gap from the walk; A friendly goat that we met on the walk.
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