First long stopover.........

Jan 23 onwards......Benecasim

Left Vilanova on saturday morning and took the pretty route, mainly on the N340 but occasionally on the very new A7, which confused the Tomtom when it occasionally petered out in the midlle of nowhere. The Tomtom knew it was there, the signs said it was there and we could see that it was there; unfortunately someone kept barricading sections off which resulted in navigating by the sun to relocate a road going in roughly the right direction. The trip was otherwise uneventful except for 1)the 44-ton lorry on our carriageway but pointing towards us, having demolished the central reservation for 100 yards and apparently having most of its tyres replaced 2) the 44 ton lorry who overtook us at 60mph on a single carriagway and caused an oncoming car to take to the mercifully provided emergency strip at the side of the road. Even though I stood on the brakes to give him as much room as possible to pull in, the lorry remained steadfastly in the opposite lane and must have caused at least one driver to require a new set of clean underwear and 3) the sudden appearance of a police road block in the middle of nowhere. The old fake-police shakedown being the stuff of legends in the travelling community, I briefly considered the option of a handbrake turn followed by smoking rubber on the tarmac as we headed back the way we had just come but reality kicked in and we stopped dutifully with all doors locked and finger hovering on the tracker panic alarm button. I was reassured by the fact that we were actually in a queue of traffic and not alone otherwise I might not have been so sanguine. We were, however, waved through with the peremptory jerking of several sub-machine guns and waving of pistols and my quick glance to the right showed what appeared to be the imminent summary execution of various suspects lying on the ground with their hands cuffed behind them. I wanted to remonstrate with the officers but the GF thought it best if I shut-up and got the hell out of there. So I did.

So we arrived at Bonterra Park in Benecasim. We are only here because when we first talked about wintering in Spain, everybody mentioned this place at least once so the GF insisted that we had a look......we had attempted to stop here for a couple of nights last year on the way back but it was a) full for the next 3 months and b) only taking bookings for a week or more by march. It is large, extremely efficiently run, clean and tidy,excellent facilities, completely impersonal and packed with Brits who have been coming for the last 30 years and stay for up to 6 months. A new arrival is like a magnet to them. Their pitches have little pots of flowers, signs with their names on,and worst of all, little extra tents like garden sheds that they keep the sunloungers and BBQ in.
The satellite dishes are enormous and the collective sound of the theme tunes to Corrie and Enders is like the muezzin calling the faithfull to prayer!

Anyway, the weather is unseasonably chilly although after an overcast couple of days the sun is now shining and the sky is blue again. Overnight temperatures can drop severely.

You may have gathered that I don't particularly like this place. There is nothing nearby to vist that I can discover and if the weather is not condusive to shorts,sunloungers and a cold beer in the hand then we ought to be somewhere else that is. I don't know if we will see out the fortnight here ( thank god we were a week late starting and did'nt have to stay for 3 weeks) . Nick & Barbera are back on the road with a new turbo fitted and will have sailed passed on the way to Conil. We may join them sooner rather than later.

Friday 29th..... Sun is shining, shorts are out with sticks of celery, sandals with brown woollen socks (except yous truly). By bus to Castellono .. 5.40€ return for both us, 30 minute journey....where we admired pleasant town and had nice lunch , 3 courses, 1/2 litre wine, water, coffee for 20€ most reasonable. Flamenco sat.night in the restaurant. Have discovered some very drinkable Rioja at 1.75€

If it can go wrong............

Murphy's law kicked in as soon as we left home on Saturday.
(1) As we arrived at the Caravan Club site at Folkestone and reversed onto the pitch I discovered that the reversing camera had decided to show the images upside down.Not a disaster but somewhat inconvenient and involving a fruitless half hour checking all the visible connections.The screen is also a TV/DVD monitor but we seldom use it as such, preferring the larger TV for viewing but on checking with a DVD, found that this was also playing upside down. A 'factory reset' had no tangible effect and since nothing has been touched since our last trip there was no reason for this aberration. The only other connection is behind the screen and involves removal of the flip-down console so I decided to live with the upside image until safely esconced on a site in Spain with time on my hands.
(2) So then having settled ourselves down I turned the Tv on and pressed the switch for the satellite receiver box only to discover that this had no effect whatsoever and the box (which is in the wardrobe) steadfastly refused to switch on. o I did all the usual things and eventually jiggled all the wires and it burst into life....then burst out of life...and into life etc etc. There appears to to be a loose connection at the switch which is only reachable by removing a large section of trunking at the rear of the wardrobe.....so another job for a slow day. Meantime a piece of gaffer tape has secured the wires in a fixed position that so far keep the connection live so that the Good Fairy can listen to Radio 4 non-stop.
(3) The CC site emptied by 9am as 20 odd motorhomes appeared to head for the ports. We were booked on the 11.20am Shuttle and arrived at the Terminal at 9.45 and as hoped were immediatley loaded onto the 10.20 train along with a string of motorhomes, 2 cars and not a lorry in site. As we exited the shuttle at Calais 30 mins later the Tomtom satnav refused to boot-up. This turned out to be self-inflicted by me as I had omitted to clear the route when turning it off on arrival at Folkestone. For some reason this has the effect of draining the battery even though it is switched off and it can require a reset with a paper clip in a very inaccesssible place to get it going again.......and since I am now barreling down a french motorway this operation was not feasible.Fortunately. I know where we are going having been here so often so it was not a major problem...just a niggle in case it turned out to be something more serious.

So by now I was getting paranoid about things not working which had been fine before we started but there was more to come.....

The Tomtom turned out to be only sulking and when we stopped for lunch and I poked the paperclip into the correct orifice all was well.

(4) First night stop was an Aire (free overnight parking spots for Motorhomes) at Broglie
Despite being described in 3 Guides with 3 different GPS cordinates it was simple to locate thanks to the good signing by the town council and was not in the river (Camperstop Europe), or in the back garden of the post office (guide officiel des Aires). A very nice purpose built Aire with marked bays, gated and close to town. We were the only occupants but its location and nearness of habitation was reassuring. NIce town, pleasant walk along river and then settled down for evening. Very cold outside so gas fired heating on till bedtime. Up at 8am to make tea and turn heating on.......no gas.
This was a new full cylinder, no way it could be empty unless it had a leak or the temperature was down to -20. This was worrying, so dressed and outside in dark to investigate with torch. Temp just above freezing so that was not the problem. The 2 bottles in the locker ( 1 UK calor and 1 Spanish cepsa) are connected to a changeover valve with a gauge...which was showing empty! Tried switching to the spanish bottle but that showed empty even though it had not previously been switched on. Disconnected calor bottle and found it certainly was not empty. Problem had to be the changeover valve so disconnected that and reconnected calor gas to regulator directly. This solved the problem and we had gas again but why the changeover was blocking the gas flow I do not know......

So we left Broglie nice and warm and worrying about what was going to fail next. Long drive including a spell of 225 miles through fog with very bad visibility and evidence of recent snow but made such good progress that we passed our intended stop at Saintes at 14.30 and kept on for another 100kms to a town called Cavignac, deep in the Bordeaux vines of the Cote de Blaye. Functional Aire in the main car park, centre of town and market place. Quick stroll located a bottle of the local brew for a mere 3€ which washed dinner down a treat.

From Cavignac to south of Perpignan and as this is considered Bandit Country by the motorhoming community we headed for a campsite at Elne. Aires are considered risky around this corner of France but campsites are generally closed this time of year. This one was opening all year for the first time this year and was of unknown quality. Turned out to be a building site probably under new management with major rennovation under way. Facilities were virtually non-existent now but will be good next year. However they charged me 15€ for the night and as we left the next morning saw a large sign saying 'Camping Cars Special Rate 11€' so seen off there then.

So far all the route has been mainly motorway for speed and convenience but this is expensive.....142€ in tolls....so the next leg into Spain was on the local roads and a very pleasant one to. Managed to avoid the worst of Barcelona and finished on a very pretty (if winding) coast road to Camping Vilanova at Vilanova i la Geltru where we are stopping for 3 nights. Had a trip into Barcelona by bus and train, about an hour away, and did the tourist thing on the ubiquitous Tourist Bus. Very impressed by the Sagrada Familia, the cathedral still being built after 130 years and still a building site inside.

Bad news of our friends Nick and Barbera who we expecting to meet up with on Thursday when we received a text to say that they were in a fiat garage at Narbonne with a blown turbo. Had to move into a hotel and will not be mobile for 6-7 days. Nothing we can do to help so will see them in a few weeks at Conil.

Best laid plans

To avoid more confusion amongst our avid readership, we have delayed our departure till Sunday17th, just a week late, as trying to get loaded up in this weather has been unpleasant & difficult, to say the least, and coupled with the dire warnings for the weather in central france mid-week, discretion has been the watchword. So we shall now leave on saturday morning and stop the night at Folkestone before crossing on sunday.
Our friends Nick & Barbera were also due to leave on Wednesday but they have delayed until monday for the same reasons and are now travelling down with another couple we met last year, Bob & Sue, who also are victims of altered arrangements and looking for safety in numbers. They have a caravan however and can only stop at campsites which are mighty thin on the ground at this time of the year in france, so they are all going on the eastern route down to Lyon and Orange then west, which is where we had such an exciting time last year. We are heading down the west coast, Lemans, Tours, Bordeaux then Perpignan and Barcelona. If everything goes to plan we shall all meet at Barcelona for a couple of nights and then meet up again in February when we eventually arrive at Conil de la Frontera for a month. So that's Plan G. Who knows, there may yet be a Plan H,I,J,K..............

Picasa Web Albums - Paul - Drop Box

Picasa Web Albums - Paul - Drop Box
Some pics of Martlesham in the snow

Year of the snow leopard ?

The route has been finalised for the nth. time and is still subject to the ever changing/worsening weather forecasts which do not bode well.......but heigh-ho we're off to sunny spain, viva espagne...hopefully. The van will be picked up on Wednesday after a trip to the blacksmith for new shoes on the front and hooked up to get some warmth into it's rather chilly interior before we start loading up on Thursday............my pre-flight checklist indicates a separate trailer will be required for the ever increasing collection of electronic gizmos and their attendant chargers.

Friday....... starting date cancelled as massive snow storms forecast for central France & most of Europe with snow down to the Riviera. This is due to move eastward and hopefully we will be clear by mid-week so have changed booking to Wednesday but that is still flexible. The problem is really that I can't load the van and do all the little tweaky things that men do before starting out on a very long trip as it keeps snowing and is very cold......14.20 and it's started snowing again. I never knew it would be so hard to leave England.

Year of the Tiger

Well here we go..........moving into the 21st.Century and abandoning 6 years of handwritten journals,charting our adventures in a motorhome, in favour of the electronic blog. This has been done, kicking and screaming, at the behest of No.1 son Julian who has created this site so that he can keep track of us for some strange reason...which is a bit rich coming from someone who could never remember to call us on Sunday evenings. But I am being uncharitable and shall try to get to grips with this stuff so that you may be entertained with travellers tales from beneath a burning sun whilst you shiver and attempt to keep warm and dry in a British winter.

We hope to be off on january 10th, snow ploughs on the M25 and a lack of ice on the eurotunnel tracks permitting.
The route down to Spain is still in the planning stage due to adverse weather forecasts but I am still favouring the westerly route ( Rouen,Limoges,Bordeaux) as opposed to last years highly expensive toll route (Reims,Lyon,Orange) which nearly did for us before we had started. If the weather forcasts are favourable we shall test the widely held belief that the spanish keep the roads clear and cross the Pyrenees (don't tell Felicity) or if it is not favourable head from Bordeaux to Narbonne /Perpignan. Since we are intending to spend a few days near Barcelona this is probably the most sensible route to take but when did sensible have anything to do with adventure.
Our friends from last year, Nick & Barbera have had to postpone their original starting date until the 15th but we may well hang around Barcelona till they arrive so that we can say hello and ooh thats a nice bottle of wine. They are heading straight down to Conil de la Frontera but we are going to then stop near Valencia for 3 weeks first as the Good Fairy wants to experience the delights of Bencasim.......could be hell on earth but what do I know?
I shall now try and post this rambling to check that all is working and will update before we leave...........
to be continued......