Wednesday 22nd September mileage 10796 Arles France

Not a good nights sleep in the tent, hqd bqck ache and then when on my sides the hand underneath my body kept going numb causing me to have to keep moving.  Long night, cold also but not enough to bother getting up and doing something about it !

Went for shower and there was no hot water even though the sign said there would be hot water after 7:30, so abandoned that idea!  Went and boiled a cup of water and had a cup of coffee and waited for the sun to come up and dry the tent.

Eventually pqcked up and set off with tomtom set for Cannes.  Went through Gap and then Chateau Arnoux following the N85.  Nice scenery but not as impressive as the previous days in Switzerland and Austria.

Looked qt the map and decided I needed to make some progress towards Spain if I was going to get through all the places I wanted to go and get back into the UK on schedule.  So decided to use the paege motorway and speed up my progress across the south of France.   Stopped at a large out of town supermarket with an outdoor eatery place, but I went and bought myself bread and tomato and cheese and made myself a huge sandwich.  I think the people eating outside were amused by my actions, as three chaps were leaving they smiled at me and wished me "bon appetit" .  I think they were jealous of my freedom to just do what I wanted!

Tried to find a hostel in Aix-en-Provence but although tomtom took me to the qddress I could find no signs of the hostel.  Decided to press on and tried another reasonable looking priced hotel, but could not raise anyone, eventually the man from the bar came over and told me I had to phone a number to get the owner!!  So didn't bother with that one either!  pressed, on towards Arles and went through an industrial hinterland, and then through the Camargue which seemed like open salt flats with no people or civilisation for miles.  Dark now and I thought it was strting to rain, but in fact it was mosquitoes and they were masses of them.

Eventually arrived at Arles and on the outskirts there was a collection of hotels, Camponile, Ibis etc.  tried three of them and all fully booked and thought I was in for some trouble, but the fourth hqd rooms; Probably because it was one of those plastic box F1 type hotels, anyway good enough for me !

More later
TOR