Day 41 - coléoptères de pollen😖

June 18, 2023

Pollen Beetles. 😖

It was not a comfortable night last night🥵. Even at 10pm it was still 26-27 degC and the humidity was thru the roof with the thunderstotm on its way. With all the windows open and the fly screens down all I could do was just stretch out and sweat. It was the hottest day we had encounted so far. Even with the screens, the candles, the plug in units, we were still plagued with 'things' that managed to find a way in.

The pollen beetle is a tiny little black flying beetle that sinks its teeth into you to see how you taste and decide if it wants to eat you or not before injecting saliva into the wound. This is quite nice of him (or her) as the mosquito injects saliva into you straight away and thats why you get a red lump or patch. Nevertheless the pollen beetle, dispite its size, gives you a really sharp pain then darts off in a random direction before you have chance to 'squish' it. Even if you do get one they are hard to 'squish' as they are armoured with a hard outer skin as most beetles are. Up and out, lets get going away from the heat. The site itself was good with great showers and shade but we needed to move north.

"I want to go to Brittany, on the coast, it will be cooler. I want to go and look at lighthouses", "yes dear, ok".

Heading NW for 240 miles would take us most of the day even with motorways by the time we stopped for fuel and lunch. Our destination was a 'proper' campsite, voted in the top 15 campsites of Brittany by the Telegraph or some other paper, notably for its sea views. It wasnt long before the hot and sticky weather produced thunderstorms, rain and lightening giving us spray and slippy roads.... 'Welcome to Brittany' 😅

Camping RCN Port l'Epine is a large site right on the coast. The facilities, showers, restaurant, bar etc are all very good. The girls on reception all speak several languages and are more than helpful. The site is one of a few dotted about Europe owned by a Dutch company so all the signs were in both French and Dutch surprise surprise.The sea view pitchs everybody raves about are not really all that good. Yes you are a coussiant's throw away from the water but there is a path that runs directly infront of every pitch. The entire campsite shuffles past your sea view pitch on its way to and from the beach plus the pitchs are not actually all that wide. I'm sure you would hear your neighbors sleeping or toilet activities at night 😯.

(Luckily?) no sea view pitches were available so the receptionist simply highlighted on a map all nine pitches which were and said go pick. Although pitch A11 was right by the road that ran around the site, being two rows back and sitting on a slope actually gave us a view over the top of the caravan in front, of the sea and the little boats. Jill was happy. "Do you like the view?"..."oh yes, better than looking at a bug infested rainforest 🤨".

Jill had wandered off to look around the site then came back all excited. "They have a launderette and the young man at reception said the token machine is broken so we can use the washer and drier for free; thats €9 we've saved. "Quick srtrip off 😮 lets throw everything in !"

It was cooler now and with a few hours left till sunset we wandered off to explore. Down to the beach and then up along and round the headland brought us to a carpark on a pebbly beach with paddle boarders playing on the calm waters and a geocache hidden behind a road sign.