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**Toyark** · #1 13 Jul 2021

This may well help you get your tests done- Interractive map.
And a useful app is called TousAntiCovid
Or maybe head to Wales instead

**mark manley** · #2 13 Jul 2021

It is Wales for me.

**backofbeyond** · #3 14 Jul 2021

Very useful - thanks. We're hoping to go to France in Sept and this whole business of what tests, when and how much is a bit of a nightmare at the moment (especially the how much bit!). At least I now know the nearest test centre is about 30 miles away from our destination of choice. I was hoping originally that Covid would be behind us by then but it doesn't look the way now.

We have a couple of boxes of lateral flow covid tests here at the moment (my wife gets them free from work) so any time anyone has a sniffle or feel a bit below par it's two paracetamol and a test swab up the nose. If the test is negative the response is 'no idea what's wrong with you but at least it's not Covid'. Because we're so used to 'twitch testing' for free it comes hard to have to actually pay for a test. We're not getting anything we didn't already know from the test itself but bureaucracy always seems to demand its own pound of flesh.

**Bones667** · #4 14 Jul 2021

Same as BoB...

Got loads of home test kits if needed but due to the uncertainty of traveling overseas at the moment I'm heading to the Lake District instead of Europe this year.. probably Wales too

**Toyark** · #5 16 Jul 2021

Friendly natives (always a good thing!) solid good food, amazing cheeses, scones the size of side plates and scenery you wish you could bottle and take home. Camping by sea and rivers- fabulous country only a few hours away.
No testing, no bull- Packed up and went

**backofbeyond** · #6 17 Jul 2021

And now, if returning home means coming back to the UK, there's an extra 10 day holiday courtesy of Boris. We are tearing our hair out (such as there is) over this. My wife certainly can't take an extra 10days off work so her Sept visit is now in the bin. I will need to go isolation or no isolation because we have property there and nobody has checked it since last Oct. There could be no windows in it by now for all we know.

A friend in the US emailed me a few days ago to say he was feeling very rough after they'd had a few days away and suspected Covid - despite being double jabbed. His doctor did all the tests and I then got another email saying 'thank God it's not Covid, it's only Lyme disease.' What sort of world are we living in where it's a relief to be diagnosed with Lyme disease.

**Toyark** · #7 17 Jul 2021

Hang in there B-O-B
What with Bojos' weather pane decision making

, things could probably change by September.

Sad news about your friend indeed.

IMHO, our world has changed forever; covid and its variants ( what next...) is here to stay. I must say I get confused by posts talking about 'post-covid' especially the Morocco threads- I'm wondering which part of a 'World Wide Pandemic' they are missing?
On the news last night (already) the first yearly mention that 'the NHS will be overwhelmed this autumn/winter' -
Alas- Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Could you not ask one of your trusted neighbours out there to do a skype/zoom video call while walking around your house?
Fancy catching up in Wales? heading out again shortly

p.m. me

**Tim Cullis** · #8 17 Jul 2021

I thought I would miss our several weeks at a time in the Spanish Altiplano, but we traded our Discovery against a VW 'expedition' campervan

earlier this year and so far this year we've done the Cotswolds, Eastbourne, eleven days on the West Coast of Scotland and next week ten days around Salisbury/New Forest.

Have van, will travel. Brecon Beacons maybe for a week at the end of August. Thinking of the National Show Caves (Dan-yr-Ogof) area.

**backofbeyond** · #9 17 Jul 2021

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toyark

Hang in there B-O-B
What with Bojos' weather pane decision making

, things could probably change by September.

Fancy catching up in Wales? heading out again shortly

p.m. me

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Cullis

I thought I would miss our several weeks at a time in the Spanish Altiplano, but we traded our Discovery against a VW 'expedition' campervan

earlier this year and so far this year we've done the Cotswolds, Eastbourne, eleven days on the West Coast of Scotland and next week ten days around Salisbury/New Forest.

Have van, will travel. Brecon Beacons maybe for a week at the end of August. Thinking of the National Show Caves (Dan-yr-Ogof) area.

We're off down to the New Forest area tomorrow as it happens. We've family living on the coast down there and they've invited us to a BBQ. Sadly though it'll only be a day trip. My son and his wife (+baby) came over from Sweden a month ago and are staying with us so no real hols until they go back towards the end of August. That was our plan - wave them off and head for Dover (more or less anyway) - my wife in her car and me on one of my bikes.

We've been trying to put together short UK trips as well - Lyme Regis area in May, South Downs region last month and anywhere the crowds are not (based on airbnb prices) sometime in the near future. Dan-yr-Ogof caves are very good - we went there with the kids when we were younger and were very impressed. Salisbury cathedral is also very impressive (we were there a month ago to meet some friends) but at £18 entrance fee I concluded it was a better spectacle from the outside.

As you say who knows what the situation will be like in Sept but my wife can't afford to get it wrong. She can't work from home (except for a very small part of her job).

**Toyark** · #10 19 Jul 2021

quick update re: going to France?
IMHO, don't bother this year.
What with the news about the lifting of restrictions re: Amber countries, I'll wager Bojo will make France 'Red' shortly.

So it's back to the

in Wales then.