LOST PATROL

About half of the 24 vans that were here last night have left by the time we are up.  Despite that number it’s been a quiet stop and a quiet night.  Our journey begins through wide open countryside, very attractive but with strong and gusty southerly wind pushing us around on the westbound road.  We drive throughSt Pourcain sur Sioule and take note of the central aire as it was one of our ‘possibles’ yesterday.  We join the D46 and the sat nav shows ‘exit in 73 miles’ so we expect good progress.  Traffic is light and the route is through lovely farm land with lush grass and large herds of white cattle.
Soon after Montlucon we stop for lunch.  The temperature is 24C and people are sitting out on the rest area’s picnic tables spreading out their lunch.  Some have even brought table cloths.
Much of the route from here is a reversal of the start of our tour on 23rd September, but now the grass is green and trees are looking less stressed so obviously there has been some rain over the last three weeks.
This time we bypass La Souteraine and pick up a narrow, bouncy and wooded shortcut to Lussac-les-Eglises.  Soon after we are turning into our lane in village, but over the hedge Ali spots a “...big tractor coming…”.   We meet it by the sports ground so there is just enough room to pass. The ‘big tractor’  has six huge wheels, is painted green and brown and black and has three soldiers and a gun on top!
After we have parked in our garden the ‘big tractor’ and two more armoured cars go by, then the armoured scout car turns around and the soldiers get out and wander up and down the road looking quite lost.  They scan adjacent fields, chat on their radios and have a smoke then drive up and down twice more before going away.
Ali opens the house and finds all is well indoors.  Plus our grass has returned to a healthy green, flecked with mushrooms and mole hills.
Early evening:  26C, a few rumbles of thunder, flashes of lightening, then torrential rain and all hell breaks loose. We were wishing for this before we went away to help the parched garden.  It didn’t need to  wait three weeks to greet us on our return.
The storm rages for about twenty minutes then the sun breaks through with a massive, full rainbow.

So ends this tour but we’ll let our readers know as soon as we are on the road again.