Day Five:

We had to cross the border for this one into the land of Leffe (mmmmmmmmmmm!) and left our Heidi in the town below the castle to walk up the steep rock path to the drawbridge. Fantastic views of castle and river. This castle was how castles should look and nothing had been ‘made safe’ for the visitor, so it was with trepidation that Gareth and not I entered some of the tiny tiny passages that go deep into the rock face, darkly dark (actually f***ing pitch black) and then round bends on loose slippery cobbles with crouched posture. Me, I just kept calling out ‘hey Gareth - are you all right in there and will you be making your way back now?’

There was a little extra at this visit with a falconry show. Talons, beaks and feathers and that was just the common tater!!! The falcons, owls and buzzard flew a grand show and perched round the ramparts waiting to swoop over our heads to the command of the falconer. He looked very authentic in his attire until I noticed his ultra modern specs - very good for the money. Everything we had visited so far, had cost 5.50 euros each.

We wanted to visit a castle ruin and took the scenic route along the N884 to visit Herbeumont Castle and along the way stopped off at a viewpoint Roches de Dampire. We were standing on top of this rock so could not appreciate what was under us. The village of Herbeumont had a tiny tiny shop and we were running short of eau -

when in France drink bottled and at 1.08 euros for 12 litres this is affordable!

Also in this shop we found a gift set of Leffe Biere with the two Leffe glasses - in Belgium you have a special glass for each biere and each town has its own beer it seems - so we tend to stick with Leffe - our personal favourite!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We do mix this with lemonade most times because of the alcohol strength which is between 6 and 9 per cent. The newest variety being the ‘9’ which is still unavailable in England at this moment. Usually I do not drink and then drive, so I tried to have a drink diluted with the lemonade in the early afternoon and then no more until the next. Traditionally I drive and Gareth map reads, so we both have to keep alert. One of the benefits of driving in Europe with Heidi is that I can see to overtake and pull out of slip roads and junctions, unlike in England - as she is left-hand drive as all good Dutch Landrovers should be. Sorry, going off the subject again - we also bought some fresh farm eggs that were an alternative to the croissants and we would breakfast on them as we usually do (please see "Heidi Photos")

Driving back along the bigger roads we espied a Unimog and went ‘ahhh’ as we thought of our own at home alone! We had to cross the border control which is a crumbled old set of buildings and was deserted when we drove through in the morning!!! We/Heidi had a surprise awaiting us as three Gendarmes held their hands up for us to Halt!!! and then preceded to flag us over to the pull-in point for a search. Awww, we’re on holiday for goodness sakes, but as I pulled in I extracted all the documents from my universal overnight bag that I keep all my ‘special’ documents in for Heidi and Us. We were asked (I think) to alight from the car and undo the tilt for them to search inside. They struggled with straps and turnbuttons and ammo boxes (everything is green and military in the back except for the Leffe and please mind that!!!) No mention of our paperwork, but ‘where have you been, where do you come from, where are you staying, what are you doing, what’s in this box, what’s in that bag, what’s in the Jerry Can’?

 ‘Food, Food and Food, we like our Food, we do!’ was my answer - they did not laugh! But every fillable ammo box or gas mask bag was full of consumables for us to savour along the way or take home. They trampled over everything whilst one of them fingered the new tilt and the cover I had made for the aerial mount plate. I think they secretly admired her, but were too shy to say and from November they will not have much chance to see many ‘Green Vehicles’ with the new laws that are to be enforced.

Gareth said we should have take a photograph for Heidi’s www but I’m not sure if they would have appreciated this. I do like the Kepi though!!!

Back to the camp-site for dinner and then a stroll round the town to look for cashpoint machines to swell our euro purse. We have to have quite a bit of ready money ‘cos most places wont accept our cards especially in the garages, where we spend most of our holiday money.

We had already paid for the two nights camping, so left early after our boiled egg breakfast for...

Day Six:

Left Sedan twice (trying to find the right road out) and on to St Hubert, Le Roche en Ardennes and onto the Motorway to Leige/Maastricht/Eindhoven and Utrect and camped in Zeist. We had spent all day driving and they would not let us have the Landrover next to us in the camping field. This is quite usual in the Netherlands, but a bloody nuisance as we only have a small tent and live out of Heidi for everything - specially the tailgate for a table and a place to sit inside in the wet. So, even though it would be convenient to stay more than one night we decided to stay only the one and find a new site to visit. I had gone to all the trouble of making a storage porch to dump all our foodstuffs for the night - out of a plastic sheet and some pegs. This worked quite well, but in the morning we still had soaking wet tents to pack away. We had

progressesed onto our Dutch Military Tents that zip together, as we had been using my smaller back-packing mountain tent, but this is so tiny (but dries off quickly).

Day Seven

We struck camp - all rolled up and steaming wet in the humid weather and drove to Soesterberg where we had a Air Museum to visit - I have in my notes that Gareth got ‘sticky pants’ and this is due to the collection of aircraft that accosted him. I am not sure he enjoyed himself here?????????? Only joking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He wore the batteries in the camera out here and foreseeing this, I had the spare set in my pocket.

After dragging Gareth away from the ‘Starfighter’ which bought back fond memories of past air shows at Mildenhall and Lakenheath where Axel Ostermann and Siggy Schmidt used these wonderfully outrageous jets for the delight of the crowds - we drove off to a museum at Harskamp which we had seen on a previous visit to the Netherlands but it was closed. This and all the museums in the Netherlands are free for entry and it seems silly not to visit as many as you can and whilst you can.

I was studying the photos of the desert pattern Dutch uniform as I had just acquired one for re-enactment purposes and wanted to know what pattern desert boot to wear with it and a bloke stood right next to me, babbling on in Dutch. I thought - they don’t leave you alone anywhere, when he introduced himself as the curator of that part of the museum and actually turned out to be very helpful in our quest for the holy grail - sorry, I mean parts for Heidi. We had great delight in reading off our ‘wants’ list as he showed interest in helping us find and locate dealers or other museums that might help. So, in the end - this encounter turned out a real find as he was so helpful and friendly and quite surprised that we were actually driving the Landrover on our holiday. He wasn’t so sure we would find the MAG gun though and was a little dubious that we would find the Uzi and the FAL. It sounds like an arsenal - but they were all originally attached to our little Heidi. He waved us goodbye with a leaflet of another museum that we could try, but unfortunately was closed until tomorrow.

We found a little supermarket in the town and after all the starchy food we had been eating, chose a mixed salad to eat in the downpour - of course, sitting in the dry in Heidi. This time it was my turn for sticky pants as all the new Dutch military vehicles passed through the village. I am quite taken with their new G Wagen that has replaced the Landrover and I am certainly getting the taste......at least I am continuing the theme (Dutch all the way)! I must just say - I only bought four jars of Penotti choc spread and four packets of Ape Heads - but that was all the stock they had left in the shop!

We camped in a woodland in Nieuw Milligan where they did not want to keep our passports, but we did have trouble getting out of the campsite as it was so ‘natural’ We had a nice walk in the heather and collected a new bouquet for Heidi as her last mascot of "heidi" had dried out. Our tents had nearly dried when we put them away again in the morning to go off and visit the next museum that had been suggested - so onto