The Nieppe forest seemed like a good place to do my first bit of wild camping back in France. On finding a way in I was immediately savaged by endless squadrons of mosquitoes. I quickly applied some repellant which helped a little, but less than expected, and set about finding a place to put the tent; when one has the luxury of time, a fair bit of it can be spent looking for the best spot to pitch, primarily in trying to avoid too much moisture/mud, insects and visibility to others. I ended up pitching in a bend in a dirt road inside the forest that was not visible from either side.
The next day I decided to stay put for a bit and recuperate, and so pottered about for a while. I started to notice the ticks quite soon after and probably took off 30 or more over the course of the day, with none of them having time to bite me. My shoulders got a good burn from the sun though, despite my trying to seek shade. In the afternoon, walkers started to pass by on the road and one of them stopped to chat to me. He had popped over from Belgium and was seeking to photograph a rare specie of butterfly that officially did not exist in this forest. He told me how that with the thrill of the hunt he was practically trembling with anticipation, and I contemplated for a moment how exciting it must have been for him, being not only his passion but also the chance to prove an 'expert' wrong.
Having been seen there by so many people I decided to seek a new campsite, and along the way raided a supermarket bin I'd seen the previous day, finding a nice haul of goodies. Then I found a totally sheltered and happily tick-free spot next to an abandoned factory and installed myself for a couple of days. Whilst there I read John Gray's Straw Dogs for the umpteenth time, and made several batches of chapatis on my flat-pack rocket stove (plans for making your own here). At one stage a farmer turned up with rifle on his back and a mobile phone on his ear, but he seemed nonplussed by my presence so I decided to risk staying on one more night.
The next day it was time to head to Lille for my first lot of vaccinations for Rabies, Hepatitis B and Japanese Encephalitis. I took my time preparing my daily coffee and a hearty breakfast before getting on my way.
Sometime into the trip to Lille I realised I'd left it a bit late and the pressure started to come on to make my 2 pm appointment that I'd booked from London. Lille turned out to be further than I'd expected, and my haphazard and circuitous route didn't help matters, but immediately on my arrival I stopped an older woman cyclist and asked for directions and she gave me a photocopied map which got me there just in time for the vaccinations. Phew!
I sped out of Lille's surprisingly pretty centre again fairly quickly towards the southeast, stopping at a McD's to try to pick up their free wireless, but without success. Finally when I'd exited the sprawl and started to see forests again, I spotted my haven in a forest south of the village of Cysoing, and picked a camping spot next to an abandoned wood cabin and some kind of animal enclosure that was all overgrown with nettles and such.
I could hear people not too far away drumming and making music of some sort, which I assumed to be some kind of hippies, but they seemed far enough away that I was unlikely to be discovered...
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