Bonus Posted June 4, 2015 Author Posted June 4, 2015 The exchange rate isn't doing us any favours at the moment, but we have a "make the best of it" plan in place to help with that.
ZakAttak Posted June 4, 2015 Posted June 4, 2015 (edited) The exchange rate isn't doing us any favours at the moment, but we have a "make the best of it" plan in place to help with that. Change your location on your profile as your travels progress... This way we can see where you are more or less... That would be nice... Oops, that sounded like an order... Sorry... Edited June 4, 2015 by Buzzman Bonus and Slowbee 2
Slowbee Posted June 4, 2015 Posted June 4, 2015 Bonus, all the best. Please stay in touch. We might need somewhere to come stay ! Bonus 1
Bonus Posted June 4, 2015 Author Posted June 4, 2015 (edited) As per Buzzman - Just so everyone knows . . . . Living in JNB.Currently stopped in the UK to see my son for a few days.Monday crossing through the tunnel with the car to France.Monday / Tuesday - driving down to the Pyrenees (the scenic route)Then two weeks of touring around looking at properties, eating good food and enjoying the sunshine.Return to JNB end of June, via the UK again. If all goes well, this is when we will be packing up and selling in Jo'burg. Edited June 4, 2015 by Bonus Captain Fastbastard Mayhem and ZakAttak 2
Bonus Posted June 4, 2015 Author Posted June 4, 2015 Bonus, all the best. Please stay in touch. We might need somewhere to come stay !Slowbee - I will keep this thread going indefinitely. Although our main aim is just to get a small B&B up and running, we have several secondary plans as well. One of them is to act as a central point for South Africans who want to visit the area, either to do a the Camino de Santiago walk or to visit the area generally. A sort of "home from home" where our countrymen can find a helping hand and a friendly face. Slowbee, ZakAttak, Captain Fastbastard Mayhem and 4 others 7
Bonus Posted June 7, 2015 Author Posted June 7, 2015 (edited) We arrived in the UK last Tuesday morning. Spent a few days with some old SA friends in Kent and then the weekend with my son and his family. Tomorrow morning early, we take the car on the Eurotunnel to France and then start our drive down to the mountains. Looking forward to it in a nervous kind of way. . . . . B. Oh and the Criterium du Dauphine is on . . . what a coincidence :-) Edited June 7, 2015 by Bonus BSG 1
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 We arrived in the UK last Tuesday morning. Spent a few days with some old SA friends in Kent and then the weekend with my son and his family. Tomorrow morning early, we take the car on the Eurotunnel to France and then start our drive down to the mountains. Looking forward to it in a nervous kind of way. . . . . B. Oh and the Criterium du Dauphine is on . . . what a coincidence :-)It really is a beautiful drive. Apart from the tunnel bit, but hey. Sacrifices Bonus 1
Bonus Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 This evenings location is. . . . . Jaca, Spain :-) Left the UK first thing Monday morning. Put the car on the train thru the tunnel. Then spent yesterday and today driving down here. Would you believe it was raining when we arrived? Lol last night we slept at a roadside B&B which was fine. Tonight we're booked into the cheapest reasonable looking hotel we could find (40 Euro for 2 people, B&B) and it seems fine. walked across the road to a Tapas Bar for dinner :-) One thing to note, both hotels had free Wifi. Last night I was downloading at 1.4meg / second. Tonight it's around 800k / second. Compared to our SA connection, this is heaven! Captain Fastbastard Mayhem and MacFly01 2
Bonus Posted June 11, 2015 Author Posted June 11, 2015 3 days in Spain and it has been raining (on and off) for 2 of them! You might think this is a bad thing, but in fact it is good for us to see the place at its worst as well as its best. My glass is half full today :-) Last night we were in Zaragoza where our Spanish friends live. (Our ONLY Spanish friends nog al!) they took us for dinner at a Tapas bar where we tried several small dishes of (quite often) unknown heritage . . . . It was all very nice. It was also good to run through our plan of attack face to face with Miguel and for him to tell us that our plan is good. I had been doubting myself a bit recently. Stresses have been running pretty high for the last week or so. We're both close to flash point for much of the time. We've been spoilt over the past few years because at home everything is "in place". Finding ourselves in a foreign speaking country, with no working SIM cards, driving a car on the wrong side of the road, in unknown towns etc etc all gets a bit tiring. Now we have SIM cards that give us Data so we can google our way out of trouble. (As we do at home so much of the time) we are getting used to the driving long distances day after day and we're picking up the lingo at a rapid rate of knots. When things start to come right, the feeling is just so good. By the end of our trip next week I'm sure we will laugh and wonder what all the fuss was about! Brett, Gen and Captain Fastbastard Mayhem 3
NixM Posted June 11, 2015 Posted June 11, 2015 Good luck guys what an adventure. When you are up and running you should organise some sort of self catering bike tour through the Pyrenees using your place as a base. Bonus and BarHugger 2
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted June 11, 2015 Posted June 11, 2015 Nix, you read my mind... Bonus, looks as if it's going VERY well so far. Meant to be? Maybe - but I reckon you guys are so invested in this, and done so much homework and mental preparation for this segment that you're actually finding it easier than expected due to that prep. Like studying for that exam and finding that ALL the questions are relating to the data that you studied the night before. No luck, no coincidence, just plain preparation and mental fortitude - going into it with an open mind and an even more open willingness to make it happen, no matter the consequences. Reminds me of when I went to the UK. And dammit, man, you've ignited a spark inside me that has remained buried for the past 8 years. Thank you. Thank you... Bonus 1
Bonus Posted June 11, 2015 Author Posted June 11, 2015 Good luck guys what an adventure. When you are up and running you should organise some sort of self catering bike tour through the Pyrenees using your place as a base. Thanks Nix - Providing a central base for people wishing to cycle either Road or MTB in the mountains is definately one of our aims. Might take a little while to get that bit up and going but we will get there! :-)
Bonus Posted June 11, 2015 Author Posted June 11, 2015 Nix, you read my mind... Bonus, looks as if it's going VERY well so far. Meant to be? Maybe - but I reckon you guys are so invested in this, and done so much homework and mental preparation for this segment that you're actually finding it easier than expected due to that prep. Like studying for that exam and finding that ALL the questions are relating to the data that you studied the night before. No luck, no coincidence, just plain preparation and mental fortitude - going into it with an open mind and an even more open willingness to make it happen, no matter the consequences. Reminds me of when I went to the UK. And dammit, man, you've ignited a spark inside me that has remained buried for the past 8 years. Thank you. Thank you... I'm loving the praise Cap! It's not all smooth sailing though, as I'm sure you can imagine. We're working on uprooting ourselves from all that is familiar to us (the good and the bad) and risking what we have on what is essentially our dream of a lifestyle - and some days, when a challenge arises, you wonder if its really the right thing to do . . . Sometimes luck plays a hand, and often you won't even know (cos the bad thing, whatever it was, didn't happen due to the good luck) but yes, as you say, we've done homework, asked questions, discussed options and made alternative plans. People back in SA do tell us how lucky we are, and I don't like to say too much because they mean well, but in truth - this came after long and hard preperation and with no small sacrifice on our part. I'll take any good luck that comes though, with pleasure. As to your own problem . . . .sometimes the itch needs scratching hey?? B. Bat 1
urbanroyal Posted June 11, 2015 Posted June 11, 2015 (edited) Sounds like quite the adventure. .Airbnb is a handy little app....should help with the marketing of your place as well as finding accommodation whilst on your recce. .. good luck...???????????? Edited June 11, 2015 by urbanroyal Bonus and NixM 2
Mntboy Posted June 11, 2015 Posted June 11, 2015 I'm loving the praise Cap! It's not all smooth sailing though, as I'm sure you can imagine. We're working on uprooting ourselves from all that is familiar to us (the good and the bad) and risking what we have on what is essentially our dream of a lifestyle - and some days, when a challenge arises, you wonder if its really the right thing to do . . . Sometimes luck plays a hand, and often you won't even know (cos the bad thing, whatever it was, didn't happen due to the good luck) but yes, as you say, we've done homework, asked questions, discussed options and made alternative plans. People back in SA do tell us how lucky we are, and I don't like to say too much because they mean well, but in truth - this came after long and hard preperation and with no small sacrifice on our part. I'll take any good luck that comes though, with pleasure. As to your own problem . . . .sometimes the itch needs scratching hey?? B.Bonus, Steven Waugh the great Australian cricket captain believes luck is best viewed as an opportunity and whether it's good or bad is dependant on how you respond to the opportunity. You have obviously made good use of many opportunities that's helped set up this particular opportunity. Trust your game plan (and the back up one) but be flexible and allow new information to help shape and build on the plans you have already in place. Keep positive and keep making the best of the opportunities that's coming your way. Bonus and Captain Fastbastard Mayhem 2
Bonus Posted June 18, 2015 Author Posted June 18, 2015 Well our time in Spain is over and we're on our way back through France heading for the UK We've seen many properties over the last week, some in very good condition and some in various states of disrepair. Had a very informative meeting with Pedro Miguel the architect this morning and we are confident that what we want to do is do-able. The area we are considering, having put the Camino route on hold for now, is an area that encourages foreign investment and has helpful laws regarding running any tourist related industry. They need money (and economic growth through new businesses) coming into the area and they are sensible enough to know how not to chase it away. Exciting times ahead! Today we're heading up to Paris. We will stay on the outskirts of Paris somewhere so that tomorrow we can visit the Palace of Versailles before heading to the tunnel :-) Mntboy, Brett, Jacques@ACT and 6 others 9
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