Getting Ready

Max and I have not had any psychotic attacks from our Larium trial (Phew!) and with his hayfever starting to subside we decided that Victor could also start today. Lute will probably begin next week. There is certainly something disconcerting about taking antimalarial prophylactics especially when you only have to take them once a week. That innocuous little pill sure packs some punch and my organically centred tendencies are repelled by the concept. However the alternative of possibly contracting malaria is not appealing.

The boys went indoor climbing today in the south of Antwerp, which they enjoyed. They said they were the best in the group and I can only imagine their bandy low weight frames helped. They have no fear of being left behind with strangers any more and if I happen to ask, they are quick to reply "Yeh its OK dad you can go now!". It's moments like this when I feel the confrontational era of teenage independence dawning. Throwing them into the deep end in a foreign land has no doubt accelerated the process. Antwerp has an excellent summer holiday program for kids to participate in and for only 4 Euro's the boys have access to activities ranging from scuba diving to music instrument making.

I have been busy juggling getting everything ready for our camping trip to the South of France (we leave Thursday) and continuing the prep for the big journey. For those of you who may like the concept of travelling thru Europe using smaller, environmentally friendly campsites you should check out the website run by ECEAT - European Centre for Ecological
and Agricultural Tourism http://www.eceat.org/.

Note that due to the southern migration of well planned Dutch, Belgians and Germans it is important to book at least three months in advance if you want to guarantee your spot during the July holiday season. Even then, some were fully booked when I started enquiring. The campsites profiled do vary in their "eco" extent. The last place we stayed at in Florenville (Belgian Ardennen) asked us to put used toilet paper aside in a bucket and we still chuckle over the concept that they were recycling it.

Our next two weeks in Southern France will be spent at the Groeneuitleg http://www.groeneuitleg.com/ and Albugue http://www.albugue.com/.