This did not take long with the overhead fans quickly circulating air through the dormitory.But fate had one last disaster in store for me that morning “Are you sure you feel well,” she said It was definitely not the night watchman. Best town in Israel

Ramle is one of Israel’s most mixed and ethnically integrated towns, with a bustling market, a great mosque that was once a crusader church, and a tower that was the minaret of another mosque (the rest was flattened in an earthquake). A long room with ceiling fans whirling over 40 canvas beds laid out in rows. Each bed, I suddenly remembered, provided with a pair of spotless white sheets similar to those in which I was lying. Oh God! What do I do now? Needless to say, the beds around mine were empty, despite the fact that it was barely an hour after dawn.I’ll wrap myself in the bed sheets, run back across the courtyard and clean up in the wash room, I thought. No! Running like a demented Roman senator with the all-too-obvious trots across a courtyard full of backpackers driven from their beds at dawn was not an image I could live with and I abandoned the idea There was only one thing left to do.

When I woke next morning, I felt slightly better, but quickly realised all was not in fact well. Like a child who on waking knows snow has fallen during the night, a sixth sense told me what had happened. The fetid air above my bed and a careful lifting of the bed sheet confirmed the worst. Another moment of laxity in the night and a true disaster.To make matters worse, the hotel had been full when I arrived and I had reluctantly accepted a bed in the dormitory where I now woke. I made it, just, emerging half an hour later relieved and somewhat drained but still able to manage a reasonably civil comment for the smiling night guard who inquired if Sahib was “feeling quite okay?”.Of my journey back to bed I have no recollection at all. No hat, shirt off and armed with only a small bottle of water for the journey up Stupid.

So, fortified by lunch in a vegetarian restaurant, I began my climb just after midday. “THE HILL to Savitri temple is best climbed in the cool of early morning,” the guide book said, and I should have taken its advice. But a visit to this temple with its view over the lake, bathing ghats and hills around Pushkar would, I felt, nicely round off my last day in this restful north India town. Or tune into the radio Autoroute-Info 107.7FM for traffic conditions while you are en route.

If you do use the motorway routes, it would pay to get hold of details on Relais Centres (again, contact France Information). These operate until September in service stations, aiming to keep kids entertained with clowns and bouncy castles Some even pro vide nappies Jill Crawshaw is a travel expert, writer and broadcaster.. I would personally head fast down the A26 as far as Reims, rather than dawdling through the fairly industrial north or going via Paris. But if you do choose to do the latter, take the newly opened section of the A16 autoroute between Calais and Paris. It links a number of attractive little Cote d’Opale resorts, costs about pounds 12 in motorway tolls and offers a much more attractive and calmer route to the capital. Similarly, south of Paris, there is another recently opened 110km stretch of the D39 motorway between Dole and Bourg-en-Bresse, which offers a detour from the dreaded A6 between Paris and Lyon. Incidentally, take the telephone number with you for pre-journey road details (tel: 08 3668 1077, Ff2.23, or 25p, a minute when phoning in France).

These hotels tend to be situated in rural locations and pleasant towns throughout France, and reflect the French lifestyle – including serving local traditional cooking. As a complete contrast, 200 Formula One hotels (the no-frills, modern, almost service-free pitstops) offer budget rooms which include a double bed and a bunk bed – you presumably have a travel cot for the baby – and cost between Ff119 and Ff149 (pounds 1 2 to pounds 15). You can get a list of these from French Information (details above). The Logis is a network of 3,700 small, privately run, reasonably priced hotels, most of which have family rooms for Ff50 (about pounds 5).