Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“That bloke's annoying me already. Oh, for God's sake, get your bloody animals off
me would you?” railed Jack as he continued his battle with the dogs who were now consid-
ering a window-launch after the departing Harry.
“Just open the door, darling, and let them out, they'll be fine. And don't let Harry both-
er you. We won't be here for long anyway,” I said soothingly.
We hadn't travelled very far before Jack's irritation surfaced again.
“Right, get the map and find out from Harry, nice-but-dim , what the exact address is.
We've passed this cow twice now.”
Sure enough the lonely bovine looked mildly puzzled as we sped past her pasture yet
again. I tried to contact Harry but after several failed attempts I had to confess that his mo-
bile was perpetually engaged.
“God! I just can't believe you allowed us to be escorted by another teenager!”
This opening salvo sounded unnervingly like the precursor to one of Jack's extended
sardonic critiques of estate agent competence levels. Luckily he was forced to make an
emergency stop which effectively stemmed his flow. Harry, with no warning at all, had
made an abrupt right turn. Rather than overturn our car, Jack drove past the turning then,
amid much cussing and grumbling, he performed a magnificent 'three-pointer' and had us
back on Harry's tail in no time at all.
We juddered down a stony track for a short distance and Harry pulled up. He stuck
his head out of the window and (with the mobile phone still attached to his ear) rang me to
announce that we had finally located the correct track.
“He's like a bloody Tigger, that lad,” groaned Jack.
In retrospect I understood why he had difficulty finding it. This domaine was defin-
itely off piste . We continued along a leafy avenue that must have been a secret to all except
the animals that lived there, the owners and the postman. After some distance we emerged
from the thick canopy of trees to be faced by a small dell. This was surrounded by a range
of those ever-present steep scree-covered slopes that were a consistent feature of this re-
gion.
As we breached a small rise we could see an incongruous group of buildings up ahead
that, to us, looked strangely like a terrace of houses. We weren't wrong. It turned out to be
an eccentric assembly of five or so buildings, some of which looked habitable and others
ramshackle. It wasn't clear which one was the main residence so we pulled up outside the
largest and got out to take the scene in. Just as we were doing so the owner appeared from
a different house altogether. It was a lady.
It quickly became apparent that this lady was as strange as her dwellings. She was
wearing a voluminous floaty animal-print kaftan, complete with an impressive collection
of jewellery. As she strode towards us like a ship in full sail, we had a moment to take in
this vision of bohemian couture.
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