The damn drain pipe

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Hello guys! I think we should tell you what has happened in the last few days since Ronchamp.

Thursday and Friday:

So, we started at Ronchamp around 4 p.m. and headed towards Besançon, just as a rough direction, but before we knew it, we were already in the middle of a small metropolis with a huge traffic chaos.

With a lot of luck and detours, we eventually landed in a parking lot and went to a tourist information office. There we were given a brochure with 30 campsites in the Jura region... of which only ONE was open in winter. It was 30 km away, which was still within reach, so we tried to get out of Besançon. Not so easy. Eventually, we made it.

The campsite was located on the river "Le Doubs", on a small island between a canal and the main course, and behind an artificial step in the water, just like in Ilmpark.

We woke up late the next day and decided to stay for a day to relax. During a small inspection of Rosti, I discovered that the pipe that leads the wastewater into the sewage tank was broken and our entire wastewater was rudely pouring directly onto the ground. I immediately had an idea of how to fix it, cut a piece of hose and inserted it into the pipe. Then secured it with a metal ring and duct tape.

Just as I was taking off my rubber gloves to tighten the screw of the metal ring, I slipped and stabbed the screwdriver into my thumb.

The sewage pipe is a pretty unhygienic thing and accordingly, I reacted strongly to this small scratch, which - as Lotti will gladly tell you over and over again - "didn't even bleed".

I washed it off, rubbed it with hand sanitizer and put a bandage on it, then we googled blood poisoning (the third leading cause of death in Germany).

In complete panic, I called Steff, who said something about iodine for wound cleaning, so we looked up the French word for iodine ("iode") and the nearest pharmacy (2 km away) and ran there.

When we arrived, we said "Iodeeee" about 5 times and pointed at my thumb. When the pharmacist denied it, Lotti said "Desinfectante" and I nodded in agreement and showed the ladybug bandage on my thumb.

Then she understood and brought us a 10% iodine solution for wound disinfection. On the nearest park bench, I rubbed my thumb with it and completely exhausted, we made our way back.

So more of a working day than a day off.

Saturday:

Saturday started (once again) with the question: Where do we want to go next? We had a hard time finding an answer, so we agreed for the time being to look for a permanent solution to our drainage problem. That's why we stopped at a huge DIY store on our way to the southwest around noon. We had to go in and out about 5 times until we measured everything and had all the necessary parts (plus provisions) together. The result: a large red container under the sink, into which our wastewater should flow through a hose in the future. This way, the actual drain pipe was protected and should not rust anymore!!!

After this action, we visited one of the monster French supermarkets to stock up on more groceries (and bought a lot more than we actually needed thanks to the extremely large selection) and decided to spend the night on its parking lot at a cute little farm near 'Saint-Amour' ❤️.

Arriving there at dusk, we met the owner of the farm and stumbled in our French like: 'Le parking à la camping car! C'est ok?'

To which he cheerfully replied: 'Do you need electricity too?'

Throughout the rest of our stay at 'Terre de Ferme', he continued to impress us with his fluent German with a beautiful accent and we later found out that he originally came from the Netherlands, so he is at least TRILINGUAL. Fascinating!

The only downside of the beautiful farm: a slightly ambitious rooster who crowed every 20 minutes right next to us from 5 a.m. like with a snooze function. At 7 a.m. there was a crowing competition with his rival, who wanted to make it clear to him who was pleasing the chickens here. At least we managed to be ready to leave by noon!

We'll reveal the further course of Sunday in the next blog entry (for the sake of clarity)! So stay tuned!