Things to remember:
- I got up at 5.30am to do the pratincole thing and - for the second morning on the bounce - was blearily-eyed greeted by a wild boar on a track about 70 metres behind the camper. This one was presumably a sow as there were also four piglets following her, snuffling about and frolicking with each other.
- Post breakfast and very careful ablutions I spent an hour and a half zipping all around the likely habitats for pratincole on the bike but it was a bust. There were loads of birds around though, including calling / feeding bee-eaters; I also caught another good hoopoe sighting.
- I actually felt OK on the bike but am quite sure the relatively cool 7.00-8.30am air was wholly responsible.
- So, to the L200 engine warning light. I'd decided to source and visit a Mitsubishi dealer to get a proper diagnosis. This wasn't so onerous as there was one just beyond Marseille, literally on my route to the port at Toulon.
- By noon I was standing beneath the 'Diagnostic Welcome' sign within the dealership and bonjoured the surly looking Frenchman sitting behind the desk. He had no English, nor did anyone in the team: so Google Translate it was. After back-and-forthing via Google servers it was established that they were unable to squeeze me in, in spite of my afternoon ferry to Sardinia. They did, though, offer to make an appointment for me in July. A Gallic shrug by him accompanied the offer and a no thanks face by me followed, and that was pretty much that.
- BUT, just down the road I spotted a solid-looking general garage that pledged to welcome all makes and models. The extremely helpful boss agreed to deploy his diagnostic reader there-and-then and it confirmed EGR issues. In a mix of French and English he reckoned I'd be good to go as long as the problem didn't manifest in black smoke or the dreaded limp-mode. He was good enough to clear the fault codes and for a full ten minutes I was happy. Of course, following a stop for fuel and an engine restart I was met by the demonic dash light again. Looks like fingers-crossed mode is the order of the next few days until a proper fix can be effected back in England. If things stay as they are performance-wise, then I'd happily take that result.
- The remainder of the trip down to Toulon was stinking hot and heavily trafficked but otherwise uneventful and once at the port and through check-in I was mustered in a purpose-built giant dutch-barn type structure with all the other vehicles waiting to board. It was blissful! The cover blocked the sun completely and there was a lovely cool sea breeze wafting through. It's the first time in a week that I've been at a daytime temperature at anything under the mid-30s C.
- I'd been a little worried about boarding since I booked the ferry as I'd left things so last-minute that there were no camping car or van places left to be had. I'd instead booked the crossing as a car, the maximum permissible dimensions of which were 6m L x 2m W x 2.4m H. Now, I do comfortably fit within those dimensions apart from the height. We're 2.38m to the top of the highest point of the cabin but - if you include the rooflight / hatch we're just about 2.42m - depending on payload. In the event, no-one cared and the camper squeezed under the relevant deck with at least 5cm to spare (pic).
- Once underway I enjoyed the cool conditions out on deck and had a look out with the bins. Literally the only thing I saw were half a dozen birds flying in loose formation that looked a lot like Manx shearwaters. The trouble is Manx shearwaters aren't found in the Med as far as I know, so more research is required.
- As an aside I watched the sunset off the back of the boat and realised as it sank that I'd also watched it rise this morning. I don't know if I've ever seen it break and then dip below the horizon on the same day before. How about that!
Post composed at 22:05 on Friday 29th May from a cabin on a ferry somewhere south of N 43.08272°, E 05.95563° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:43.08272%2C05.95563
