The "Bird" mystery, what's that noise??????????

And finally one of our guests knew the answer at one of our questions (see beginning of May)

It is NOT a bird: it is a kind of 'frog' It is the Alytes obstetricans.

Sorry for my English friends, but I am not able to translate this complete, but the biological book says: In southern parts of Europe the 'calling' sounds like an owl.

After I read this story AND saw the pictures in the book, two days later I saw the Alytes Obstetricans:

So, this is the animal that kept us awake, trying to find out what kind of 'bird' was making the noise that could get on your nerves.

Hallo lieve vrienden, (speciaal te vernoemen: Rien, Ernie, Rene, Betty, Vivian en meerdere gasten die hier begin mei waren).

We weten welke 'vogel' het 'uilen'geluid maakt:

het is de Vroedmeesterpad!

Clemens en Arjan vertelden mij dat deze pad het oehoegeluid maakten. Eerst dacht ik natuurlijk dat ze me in de maling namen, maar nadat het Natuurboek erbij gehaald werd, waar ik de tekst van gefotografeerd heb (zie foto) was ik ervan overtuigd dat onze vogel inderdaad de vroedmeesterpad (Alytes obstetricans) moet zijn:

De volgende dag zag ik toevallig de grote pad op de foto's hierboven: wat een mooie grote he?

Dus lieve mensen, die vraag is beantwoordt EN de foto is erbij.

Een vraag van de grote Vacansoleilkwis opgelost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, we are still here!

Helly everybody,

Oof, it has been a long time that I wrote something OR put pictures on the site.

Yes, we have been very busy, with every single day arrivals and departures. That, and the hot weather made it that I had no energy, inspiration or appetite left to even open up my laptop in the evenings. Also there were a lot of great guests with whom we shared a drink, a bbq, a chat or an evening at the bare some evenings.

Today I took half a day off, so I forced myself to sit down and take my laptop to update you a little. But, again I discover that my writingskills are poor at the moment.

So, I am just going to upload some pictures of the 'campinglife' in our Vacansoleil street and after that I will tell you something about the 'Bird mystery'.

Sorry guys, next time I hope I have more inspiration to give a funny story

Last night Stef, Reinout (Stef's father) and I went to Albenga, around 21.30 after the last check out. In Albenga there was a Sagra, a foodfestival, which are organized in many towns/villages in August here in Liguria. At this festival the old citycentre was beautiful decorated and many people were dressed in medieval clothing, it was like the knights on horses could appear any second to 'rescue' the ladies. The locals were sitting in the small streets, where everywhere there were wooden banches and tables displayed, with food, drinks, medieval music. It was a great sight to walk through the narrow streets and now especially you noticed how old the city centre of Albenga is. Unfortunately we had no camera with us, so no pictures of this festival. Who knows, maybe we can go another evening to another festival in the coming 2 weeks.

And....... check out the latest pictures: click foto's, click on the picture and use volgende to see the next one.

Ciao xxxxxxxxxxxxx

And when the rain begins to fall..............

I almost forgot already, (with the temperatures at this moment), but with the heavy rain a few weeks ago Stef and I went to get some small stones to 'pave' the entry of our field, so that we would not end up again with a mud pool through which all the guests had to go to their tents.
Not very clever, we found out. We did the job that well, that indeed there was no mud pool anymore, but........ the water went like a river straight to and into tent nr. 1, the tent occupied by Jos and Marjon. Jos sent me some pictures, so I also want to share them with all of you

So, click on the button foto's, click on the album when the rain begins to fall, click on the picture and then volgende, volgende, etc.

Ciao my dear friends,

Rita

Holland against Spain, gonna be interesting

Just a quick note, before heading to bed.

A good game last night and tonight the bar was even more busy when Germany was playing. Our German guests came after the game to us to say that they are supporting Holland. It is about time that Holland will make it till the end and then WIN!!!!

After the football game there was a party IN the swimmingpool. We were all wondering what that would be, and indeed: they opened up the swimmingpool and every body was allowed to go for a swim. I think that was a great idea, you should have seen the children jumping and diving in the pool over and over again. Also a great idea because it will prevent people of going for a swim at night when normally it is NOT allowed. There was a lot of supervision this way and they will do this once or twice a week during the high season. A big bravo for the camping!!!!

In the meantime the temperature is rising: 34 degrees! Not the best temperature for cleaning and preparing tents! Did not realize a human body has so many holes where water can come from, dripping from the tip of my nose, my ears, just every where.

A beautiful night tonight, peaceful, quiet, clear sky.

Have to mention that yesterday I had a fantastic surprise: Kayshani - the girl who was in Nepal the same time as I was and we celebrated Holi together (the paint-festival) passed by with her dad, his wife and her sister. They were just for a few days in Italy and they made a detour to come and see me. Pictures will follow soon.

It was her birthday yesterday, but it felt more like it was MY birthday with this fantastic present of her visit. It suddenly did not feel like it was March 2009 since we saw each other. She is going to hitchhike end of July to Kroatia, Slovenia and hopefully she will get a ride to Italy to come and stay for a few more days.

Now time to sleep. Am still working on the download of the pictures of the bbq and the visit of Kayshani.

Love you all. Sweet dreams, Rita Sanghita

new address Nepal site!!!!

Hello dear all,

First I like to say I am really touched by the interest that many of you have shown for my 'work' in Nepal. I gave many of you my email address (which is still the same), my address of this site AND the address of my Nepal website.

Now that I finally got round to it to update this site I found out that the FTP has been changed and to be honest I do not know how to link my Nepalblog easy to the site sanghita.com.

So for the moment : the site still contains my diary of my last travel to Nepal in February 2009 but the adress is changed: you need to use:

http://ritasanghita.blogspot.com/

to get to this site and to be able to read the update.

As promissed in this update, as soon as I find some time I will publish the 3 weeks trip (originally planned in February 2010) that - also because of your enthousiasm and support - hopefully will become true in February 2011. Shoot for the moon, you will always land between the stars is my motto, so from now on I will just say to myself: it will happen! I will be back in Nepal in February 2011 and you are welcome to join me.

That's all for now. We had a few busy days on the campsite with many departures, but even more arrivals. The pictures from the last barbecue and some pictures of the Annual Meeting of the Fiat 500 Club in Garlenda will also soon appear on this site. (about 1000 fiat 500's!).

Love you all, thanks for your good company and warm words so far,

Rita (Sanghita)

An Italian boys confession

Hello All,

First a little joke agai AN ITALIAN BOYS CONFESSION.

The priest asks, Is that you littleJoey Pagano ?-

Yes father it is.

And who was the girl that you were with ?.

I cant tell you father. I don’t want to ruin her reputation.

Well Joey, I am sure to find out her name sooner or later.So you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti ?.

I cannot say.

Was it Teresa Mazerrelli ?.

I”ll never tell.

Was it Nina Capelli ?.

I”m sorry, but I cannot name her.

Was it Cathy Piriano?.

My lips are sealed.

Was it Rosa Di Angelo then?.

Please father, I cannot tell you.

The priest sighs in frustration.You”re very tight lipped and I admire that.

But you”ve sinned and have to atone.You cannot be an altar boy now for four months.Now you go and behave yourself.

Joey walks back to his pew.and his friend Franco slides over and whispers.

What did you get ?.

Four months vacation and five good leads.

Like I hear in Holland, also here the temperature is rising: 30 degrees and up. In the afternoon we get sometimes a few clouds, which is nice, to cool down a bit. Also for the first time in the evening it was beautiful to sit outside. Many people were watching the football game last night at the bar and starting from tomorrow the animation team will be working.

The programme so far looks likes this:

10:00 stretching. Stef and I will do our stretching with our 'wax in' 'wax out' (cleaning the windows) and cleaning the roofs of the tents from leaves.

10:00 miniclub.

11:00 acqua gym. Think we will still be busy with other things, so we have to skip that one.

11:45 cocktail game. No idea what this is, we will let you know later.

15.30 miniclub

15.00 sport competitions. Perfect timing, that is exactly the time our siesta-time is up

17:00 acqua gym. No time for that, we have to be at the reception at 18.00 :)

18:00 Latino americano. That could be interesting, we will have a look at it.

21:00 baby dance ????????????????

21:30 night show.

Tonight we are having a bbq again, about 34 guests are coming, so must be fun. On purpose we organized it tonight, no football and maybe safe to organise this before Holland is playing, in case they might loose.

We will keep you posted.

Love for now, Ciaooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

driving into the mountains

After a few departures AND an early arrival we both needed a brake from the campsite. We got in my car and drove in the afternoon to Imperia.

At Bordighera we took a turn to follow the road towards DolceAqua. (Thanks Mevr. Bogert for your description of the route, it was indeed a beautiful road, although narrow!!!!!)

We have been driving through the Valle Argentina, running from sea level all the way up to Monte Saccarello at 2200 meters, it reaches the highest altitude of the valleys of Liguria. The road sometimes became soooo narrow, lucky that there were no cars coming from the other side.

We made a stop in Dolceaqua, where people were watching the football game of Italy on the square. We went to a cafe, where Stef was watching a part of the game between the old men of the village. Friendly, as ever and everywhere, the lady pushed his chair a bit more towards the screen, to make sure he had a clear view :)

Then on our way, to Apricale. An art-village. The coll was fantastic, many many curves, but as you know I love driving ralley, and the views on the way!!!!!!!!!!! Just wow! And the flowers on the sides of the road.

At one point we ended up in a village where either the road looked like a dead end or the other 'road' was a very small passage between the houses. Two old men told us we could pass. Do not EVER listen to old men in villages: while going back in reverse I have left (once again) some yellow Fiatpaint on the wall :).

Passing Catel Vittorio over the Colla di Langan, climbing and circling up (1127 m) again. (No, Sjouktje, you would never ever stayed in the car, not even with your eyes closed!).

Then a turn to Triora, which is considered the city of witches. According to legend, there was a terrible famine in 1587, which the population believed was due to a group of evil women who gathered in the crumbling cottage of Cabotina, now an isolated and mysterious place. The Council of Elders thus began a series of trials and torture to force confessions from the women, about 30 of whom were burned at the stake, while others died of hardship and deprivation in the prisons of Genoa.

From Triora back down to drive the Passo della Teglia (1387m), where the 'road' was even becoming more narrow, my little tweety just fitted on it.

At Triora Stef and I already said we were getting a bit hungry (19.00). Being Sunday we once again had trouble finding a nice place to eat. Or no parking space or the restaurant was packed with the Italians on their day out.

Finally (yes, I know, don't ask us tips for restaurants, you will end up starving and eating Pizza for a change :) we parked the car in Alassia (almost home) around 21.00! To the first Pizzaria we saw, having Pizza for a change and back to the campsite, where we came home at 23.30.

But, besides the poor dinner, the rest of the day was beautiful and we enjoyed it very much.

And, as you know by now: click on the tab Foto's and you can see some of the pictures I've made, until duuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh my battery of my camera went flat. For the other pictures look at stefgodschalk.mijnalbum.nl.

Ciaoooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Not to worry, we had rain, but everybody is okay!!!

A quick note to everybody. We also are getting news flashes about the terrible weather in France, that some campsites needed to be evacuated etc.

Yesterday we also had almost all day and night rain, sometimes heavy rainfall, then just dribbling. Everybody kept their feet dry in the tents, so not to worry.

This morning it was still raining just a bit, but now everybody is sitting in the sun again with all the sidedoors of the tents open to get the humidity out. Also the ground is drying up quickly, so we are all just fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love from Italy