A Fuller week

Here’s a tiny glimpse of a great week spent with good friends from the UK.  For some reason there is minimal photographic evidence, but I have excellent memories of us having a lovely time.  A lack of sunshine on certain days meant that the showering facilities were rather colder than expected and the composting loo was deemed not to be up to the standards of modern day living, a few too many flying, stinging, biting things for comfort, but all in all, I believe a positive experience.  We ate and drank well and had several tourist excursions to places that I would never have visited on my own.

http://gouffre-esparros.fr/le-gouffre/la-visite/la-visite-en-images/

A great, though much longer than expected, walk in the mountains to see the tallest waterfall in europe.  Little Emma did amazingly well having set out on a walk that we thought was going to be an hour and a half but was actually nearer to five hours.  we should have taken out picnic with us.

there were that many people we could see where to go

can you spot the Fuller family?

getting soaked

Brilliant achievement

Cirque de Gavarnie from a distance

Next time I’ll wear appropriate footwear when I have the opportunity to visit the local amusement park. Parc de Demi Lune.   Proper flying fox and tree top rope bridge experiences - they didn’t approve of flip flops as appropriate foot wear otherwise I’d have spend half the day up in the trees.  Emma thoroughly enjoyed her pony ride and we all had great fun with the craziest crazy golf ever, but the best bit for everyone were the bumper boats.  Out on a lake with ten or so other bumper boats.  Little, inner tube surrounded tubs powered with outboard motors, with their drivers intent on bumping into and splashing the other occupants, known or otherwise, for fifteen minutes or so.  It was a free for all, we all ended up soaked having had great fun.

The whole visit flew by in a moment and i was left standing in a bit of a daze, had a short moment to gather my thoughts before heading off for a weeks’ participation on a straw bale build project in the mountains.

improved facilities

I have guests coming.  Well, now that I write a family of five have just spent a great weekend with me, they camped and we ate, drank and had a great time  around and about, including two great evenings in the comfort of my new garden shed/chalet.  Facilities were needed, something better than a chair with a hole, a bucket and a windbreak.  Thanks Dad, it was a brilliant start and will remain an emergency second, but things are moving on quickly in some departments and a better dunny is called for.  So I set too:

a collection of pallets and salvaged wood awaiting inspiration 

a path in the woods with no destination

I checked on the ground to see that the pallet base fitted

but not in the trees above.  The structure had to be moved to fit the walls and roof

a round hole in some planks to provide a comfortable seat

With a bucket below and a well fitting lid to keep everything where it belongs.  An old enamel saucepan to keep the sawdust and toilet paper dry and when I find one, a little brush to tidy the seat.

I finished the main construction with four hours to spare, the driveway had preoccupied me somewhat during the last week or so and I used a sheet of groundcover plastic as a temporary door.  Got a real one at a local junk shop over the weekend but haven’t had time to fit it yet.

It works like a dream, is comfortable, private and won't blow way in the breeze.