We crossed the Spanish border into France this morning and are now just north of Bordeaux for the night, parked in an aire next to a small fishing lake in the little village of Laruscade, it’s just south of Angouleme, twinned with Bury, near home….we won’t be driving into the centre to look for similarities!

Our base for the three nights
at Bardenas Reales
We enjoyed our last main stopover spot in Spain, the amazing and unusual geology of the place was something completely different.  It is a vast unpopulated semi-desert area with three different aspects providing many different habitats for birds and wildlife. It has UNESCO status and in the heart of it there is a military zone (closed to the public) where bombing missions are carried out, one started on our second day and we were treated to a free air show, not to mention being able to hear and almost feel the bombs dropping.  We stayed in the area three nights and had this wonderful view directly behind us, the view to the front of us was not as good, being of a modern housing estate, interspersed with agricultural buildings. We drove some miles each day in order to get into the heart of the natural park, Nigel having a long bike ride one day whilst I walked the dogs and then sat and read in the sun….hard work but someone has to do it! On the morning before we left, whilst eating our breakfast, I noticed some huge birds flying over, seven griffon vultures on their way to look for food, floating along the ridge above us. Brilliant! Oh and remember the sorry tale of the Bustards? Well, this is another area they allegedly live and breed in, and guess what…….we saw the grand total of NONE. Having now been to two main areas where these beasties are meant to be proliferate we have now decided they are mythical creatures just made up to disappoint the  amateur birdwatcher and get them rubber necking looking for them whilst driving around so the locals can laugh at their expense.

Nice place to sit and read in the sunshine!

Cabezo de Castilleria
Peña del Fraile
















Some much better pics from Nigel’s camera will be added when he downloads them to the mac. These are all my phone pics so far!




Tomorrow we continue our journey north through France for a ferry on Monday lunchtime. Though sad another trip is ending it will be so good to catch up with family and friends again. See you all soon xxx

Me, Him and Them!


A few extra photos…..


Two of the seven griffon vultures
that flew over