Little Lolly's Small Adventures: La Chiappa Naturist Village

Showing posts with label La Chiappa Naturist Village. Show all posts

On The Road Again.

As we were heading towards La Chiappa's reception Paul got a call from VW - our car was ready for collection. After checking out at reception Paul called for a taxi to pick us up and take us to the VW garage. It was good to see the car again but not the bill - over €2,000!

After last week's disaster we decided on a different route to Bastia's ferry port; driving northwards along the east coast then across the neck of the narrowest point of the island to the west coast. We then headed northerly along the west side for a while before crossing back over and heading to the ferry. Some roads narrow with hair-raisingly steep drop. Many twists and turns, enough to make one feel sick. On a funny note we saw a sheep parked in someone's garage as we neared Bastia.

Checking-in at the ferry port was a breeze again. Someone comes around with a small hand held computer, you confirm your details which is then logged on the computer and your car gets a checked-in sticker. We found a place to settle near a window alongside a french woman and her dogs. Unfortunately, later on, someone asked us to move because we were in the reception area. I don't understand why we were asked to move because later we saw people sleeping where we had originally been! Anyway, we found a place near the stairs on the next floor. As soon as we had settled down dog and its owners came walking down the stairs. The dog promptly peed on carpet and its owners did nothing. I was gobsmacked 😡. I was going to call the owners back but I was too shocked at what I had seen so it was a bit too late. I ended up going to reception to get someone to clean the carpet. The receptionist was not impressed. There are specific areas on the ferry for pets to pee and poo! Thankfully 2 friendly stewards came later with a carpet cleaner and cleaned up the mess.

Time to try and get some zzzzz.

Our route. Driving a bit slower we took a bit longer than what google maps predicted but we still made it to the ferry with a good hour to spare.

Last Days at La Chiappa & Dive.

Not much has been happening other than relaxing. KwikFit in the Netherlands contacted Paul and admitted liability for what happened. They us to bring the damaged radiator back with us to the Netherlands; and send them the VW invoices.

Yesterday Paul went to La Chiappa's reception and asked one of the receptionists to ring VW for him. Because his French is limited he got her to find out more or less when the car would be ready (again probably Thursday after 5pm), and also asked them not to throw out the damaged radiator - Kwikfit wanted to see it. The receptionist was very understanding and was of great help to us.

In the afternoon we took around the campsite's outer borders, along the coastline. The bordering fence between the campsite and a lighthouse became non-existent so we followed a path below the lighthouse and down to narrow cape or point of the coastline. During the walk we saw a baby tortoise - it was no bigger than the palm of my hand. We left him to continue his own little journey. Some of the surrounding bush had been burnt by a fire but fortunately there was new signs of life with a bit of green showing through the charred bushes. It was nice to walk as nature intended - with nothing on, feeling the fresh air, sun and water on our skin. I felt at peace, relaxed.

This morning we went to the Hippocampe Dive Centre and booked ourselves on a dive for the afternoon. It was good to see the familiar faces of Lulu, Wolfe and Nadine as well as other members of the team. They were a bit surprised to see us again because we had said our goodbyes last week, but we were made to feel welcome again. We had hoped to do a wreck dive but plans had to change because of the choppy sea. We still enjoyed our dive though. Our dive guide today was a James Bond (Daniel Craig) look-alike!

Despite having a cold, my ears, nose and sinuses felt ok (one should never dive with a cold and I was fully aware of that fact prior to going out) and the dive went smoothly . My right ear though, at one point, would not equalise and became painful. I tried to surface but Paul, thinking that I my buoyancy was a problem, kept holding on to me. I tried to explain by pointing out what my problem was. Our dive guide came over to see what was up. He also didn't want me to surface and with signals, told me to stop, and then held onto my jacket whilst I tried to equalise my ear again. After quite a few tries my ear equalised and I was pain-free, ready to continue. I've not had problems with my face-mask before but today it kept on leaking. A couple of times I emptied excess water, as I had been taught, but in the end I gave up. At least I could still see to a major degree. If the water collection in my mask had been bad I would have taken it off - I can see in sea water without any problems.

We finished the day with a meal at the campsite's restaurant and have been doing a bit of packing. Hopefully the car will be ready for us sometime tomorrow!

Walk & Hair Dye

Chalet at La Chiappa

The past 2 days my cold got the better of me so I spent quite a bit of time sleeping while Paul did some reading.

Tahiti Beach

Today we decided to check out "Tahiti" beach, a 40 minute walk along the coastline in a south westerly direction from the campsite. It could have been a lovely beach but huge mounds of seaweed was banked up, making the waters edge look as if was rocky but in actual fact it wasn't - it was soft rotting seaweed. We found a log on the outskirts of the beach and sat looking at the small cove and scattered sunbathing bodies. A bit later on we were joined by 3 goats who seemed to be calling for the rest of their herd - but there was no answer. Clouds began to gather so we decided to leave the cove sooner rather than later. Just as well we did because it started to drizzle.

Last week we had bought hair dye and were going to dye our hair for when we attended our friends wedding vow renewal. Although we could no longer attend, due to car problems, we decided to dye our hair anyway. We had a good laugh, even more so when we traipsed to the communal showers to wash the hair dye off!

It's just about time for bed and we are lying here listening to a thunderstorm. Rain is pouring down and the sweet smell of wet earth and vegetation is rising; fresh and welcoming.