Weather, Quizzes and Punctures

Saturday 29th January 2011

A week of fairly nasty weather interspersed with interludes of very pleasant sunshine . It started with high winds, turned to rain, developed into storms, settled into gales with ocasional thunder and finished with hail but there was always spells of of hot sunshine. Weird and unpredictable but I am writing this as the sun sets majestically over the Atlantic and the forecast is promising.
We have settled into the routine of La Rosaleda, managed to visit the farm shop, the market and the beaches between climate changes.....some stunning surf one afternoon.
Have renewed friendship with Paul & Marianne, parked nearby who we met 3 years ago on a bus to CADIZ and got on well with, saw briefly last year but not parked close to and who are now are best buddies......especially since they partnered us at the Wed. night quiz and we came 2nd (could have won). Since over 4 weeks last year the Gf and I were placed 1st,2nd,3rd & 4th with a variety of partners we have a reputation to maintain......and the money is useful.

Through Paul & Marianne we have joined the Boules set and having purchased our own sets at the Chinese Bazaar (7€50 each) have had 3 very jolly afternoons with P&M, Tony & Sabena, & Jim & Carol.

Dave & Geraldine arrived on Monday having abandoned Nick & Barbera in Girona still trying to get their Hymer moving. To be fair, there are no campsites open in bandit country at this time of year and N&B were being looked after by the AA rescue team so they had no option but to press on. As of today, N&B are back on the road and mobile...but around 2500€ poorer......having had both fuel pumps (high and low pressure) replaced although the second (fiat main dealer) garage has suggested that the neither of the pumps looked as though they had been replaced recently...???? An email this evening suggests that they will be here monday/tuesday after getting to Vilanova today.

Just to keep me on my toes, the small God of luck who normally watches over me presented me with a flat rear tyre on the bike this morning in case I was feeling overconfident. Last year we had a puncture on the scooter. Fortunately I had a puncture repair kit with me, although the glue tube was dried up but neighbours wre soon flocking to assist. Successfully mended said puncture and inflated tyre only to discover that the valve was leaking, albeit slowly. Rode into town to discover that replacement schrader valves are not a common item in the local bike shops (2) but I did get one in the motorbike shop...but the little twiddly tool to insert/remove them were unknown. Did pick up a spare inner-tube for a mere 3€50 which seemed very reasonable. Back at the ranch, word was circulated and a schrader valve tool appeared as if by magic and problem sorted..........which was a relief as changing the inner tube would involve removing the back wheel and disconnecting all the cables to the disc brakes and the hub gears which seems a daunting prospect.....I have emailed the Electric Transport Shop for instructions as the manual is more concerned with battery management and troubleshooting.

Phantom have still not sorted out the tracker gps......may have to drive somewhere remote and set the alarm off 30 times.

My great joy this trip so far has been the discovery that I can connect to Suffolk Libraries on the internet and download 3 books at a time for the E-Reader which last for 21 days before disappearing back into the ether..........don't ask me, I don't know how it works but it does and it's a terrific service which I would be quite happy to pay subscription for.....and they have 000's of books on the catalogue. The Gf is now getting interested and we may have to buy another e-reader.
Nextime: Radio Roda and the voice of america

A WEEK IN CONIL

Saturday 22nd.Jan

A week of sunny warm weather has been replaced by cloudy with strong wind. THe evenings have been a bit chilly, sometimes requiring heating but never cold enough to need overnight heating. Had a very pleasant Buffet night in the restaurant on Monday (8€) but they have dispensed with the services of Jose the cuban who has been so entertaining in previous years with his interpretation of Bingo, Salsa lessons and Club 18-30 games for 60-somethings which have been great fun. Now we have a disco which precludes conversation and empties the restaurant fairly quickly. Shared a table with Stuart and Thelma who are between motorhomes, being unable to agree on the specification for their next one, so have flown out to stay in one of the chalets for a month before heading over to Olhao in Portugal for another month......nearly everybody seems to heading to Olhao this year and all start the conversation with "you either love it or hate it but....". We have no strong feelings either way but wouldn't go there for a month as parking in the roadways is not very comfortable and once you've done Faro there's not much else (see last year). The other couple we shared with were Dave and Jackie who have a house in Pembroke,a house in France(Aveyron),a motorhome,a caravan,a trailer tent and a tent. At one stage as Jackie was explaining their very complicated lifestyle arrangements, Dave looked up and said "I just go where I'm told and most of the time I don't know where that is" which must just about sum it up.
The local Romeiro festival is on Sunday 23rd this year and the restaurant put on a free lunch on Wednesday which was another fairly alcoholic affair well attended.
The electric bikes have been given a good outing everday and are proving excellent fun...and a great conversation point. Accosted on the prom whilst having coffee by an Austrian motorhomer who had to have full chapter and verse on them. But we see a lot of them around.
Prices at Mercadona, the local supermarket, seem less than less year, and the wine I was paying 2€50 last year is 1€80 this year and still as drinkable. 12 cans of San Miguel 33cl. and 5.4% was 5€34 which I am sure is cheaper...and certainly was cheaper than the local CruzCampo brew which I usually drink. Might have been on offer. Shopping has proven no problem on the bikes so far, and we were told about a local fruit & veg farm up the coast near Roche where 3€60 bought 6 oranges the size of grapefruits, a kilo of clementines, a lettuce,kilo of tomatoes and a bunch of bananas. Not bad for £3.10 so we shall return as we run out of east anglia's finest veg.
Site is still much emptier than previous years, Nick & Barbera have broken down for the 5th time and are now at Fiat Girona awaiting something to happen next Monday and I assume Dave and Geraldine are still with them........text message today said last night temp was -3.5 but at least they are in a hotel.
On the malfunctioning front, setting off the alarm by opening the door before disarming revealed that the tracking device is not working as the alarm did not trigger the usual phone call to check we are ok. When I phoned to see why they had not responded they say they had not received an alert. When they ran a check it seemed they were not receiving a signal fron the vodaphone simcard in the device that communicates with them. They checked with vodaphone to confirm the card was authorised for roaming..which it is and has been in the past..and now say that the device....which is hidden deep in the bowels of the dashboard needs resetting to kickstart the simcard into european life. I have no idea how to dismantle the dashboard & although I have a vague idea of where the tracker may be hidden I am not happy. They have also suggested forcing a reset by setting the alarm off 30 times in succession for more than 5 secs each time........that'll makes us popular round here !

.......and finally, CONIL de la FRONTERA

Sunday 16th Jan

Should have been an easy and pleasant run down to CONIL de la FRONTERA, but the ubiquitous fog rather spoiled things, especially around a town called Marchena where the Tomtom was convinced that a new link to the A62 was open except that it wasn't. It may be open one day but not this year. As visibility was down to 50 yards at this stage things got a bit fraught as I tried to avoid the stagnating roadworks that will one day connect to the A62 and began retracing our steps back to somewhere with a signpost. When we eventually found the signs all became clear...except for the visibility...and the fog lifted by the time we in site of civilisation and glorious sunshine saw us to Conil. Arrived at 13.15 coincidently since that meant we had been on the road from Sunday 12.15 to Sunday 12.15 allowing for the time difference, 1540 miles with one days stopover.
La Rosaleda looked good and fairly busy, many smiles and greetings as we booked in and a lot of old faces to say hello to. Weather has been in the mid 20's since beginning of month soeverybody happy. We have a great pitch.......as expected since we picked it out last year and paid a deposit as we left. This is still one of the best sites and very friendly, same staff in the restaurant as we had a bottle of wine to celebrate our arrival and catch upon the news.

Note: I have failed to mention the problems that Nick & Barbera have encountered on their journey down. They left on the Friday before us and took their usual route from Calais down to Orange, then basically following the Med coast all the way down to Gibralter then across to Cadiz. We did this route with them in 2009 but I baulked at doing it again as it cost about £200 in tolls ( we spent £35 in tolls this Year and £5 of that was a mistake) and is slightly longer. Anyway, last year the turbo blew on their Hymer and cost them nearly a week and £1000. So we somewhat startled to receive a text from them on Wednesday to say that they had broken down near Montpelier but expected to be mobile soon. Dave & Geraldine were travelling with them so thay had help at hand. On Thursday a text to say on their way followed by another one saying oh no they weren't as had broken down again. I think it's something to do with the alarm. By Friday the problem was still not fixed and they were being transferred to a Fiat garage on Monday. Meanwhile they are in a chalet on a campsite courtesy of the recovery insurance and as of Tuesday there is no news.

MARTLESHAM TO CORDOBA...1300 MILES

SUNDAY 9th JANUARY 2011

All packed and ready to roll. Despite the absence of the scooter we seem to have no more space than before and the Gf kept appearing with yet another bag of last minute items that required packing as essential items and I fear for the payload. We gained about 100kg from the scooter and the bikes weigh in around 45Kg with the necessary-for-insurance D-locks at 2 kgs each so we should be fine as there will not be much water aboard....or fuel at £1.30 a litre which will be cheaper abroad... but we do appear to have a vast amount of 'stuff'. The Gf has taken her winter and summer wardrobes, pessimistically. Optimistically, I have thrown in an a thick jumper to wear down to the Spanish border.......who'll be smug in Madrid?

Off at midday, sunny run down to Folkestone and straight on to 15.50 and in Calais aire by the port by 17.45 CET. Aire full of british vans heading south. V.cold night..and noisy, as the ferries berthed in the port seem to have reverted to running their engines all night, a practice they stopped last year. Consequently up and away at 8am.

Monday 10th. Jan

God run to Lemans. Used toll road down to Rouen for €11.30 to save time. Remembered that we had used an aire close to Lemans at Suze La Sarthe so changed plans halfway and got there about 16.00. Brisk walk round town. Everywhere very wet but temp. quite mild. Chat with other british van also heading to Spain.....their first van and first trip abroad with v.long Kontiki double axle. No guide to aires, finding them by luck and intending to cross the Pyrenees- when I raised an eyebrow, Adrian said that he thought they were like the welsh hills so what was the problem? I explained about alp-like mountains & snow and he seemed surprised.
Gave him details of some aires on the route. May see them at next stop.

Tuesday 11th. Jan

To CAVIGNAC, as last year. Good run mainly down the N10, no tolls, very busy with lorries.
Minor disaster to find height barriers at both entrances to aire ! Found details of another one in next village but as emerging onto main road saw aire sign pointing up towards church...they had relocated the aire next to the cemetary and a vineyard but it was very new and clean so fine. Walked down to the supermarket and bought 3x5litre bottles of water. Later joined by another brit van who I re-directed as we were walking back from shop, also stuck in front of the height barriers and feverishly thumbing through the Aires book. A sign at the barrier would be helpful.

Wednesday 12th. Jan

Horrendous journey to PAMPLONA. The A63 was 'fermee' between Bayonne and the Spanish border and there was a 'Stockage des PL' ?????? according to signs out of Bordeaux. As I intended using the A63 between those points this was worrying but not disastrous as we could continue on the N10. At coffee time in a service area I walked round the truckers asking what the problem was but they all shrugged and said that the road was closed for some reason not known. 50km from Bayonne we discovered what 'stockage' was.......stacking. The 2 lane dual carriageway was coned off and gendarmes were waving lorries into the inside lane where they parked. The nice policeman waving cars through thought about us but grinned (?) and waved us on. The queue of lorries, parked nose to tail went on for 15 kms ! Work that out. Suddenly we got to the head of the queue and there was no reason for the parked lorries. The road was clear for us and a few cars for 20 kms and then we ran up against another stack, this time 10kms long as we were waved through on the outside lane. As we joined the A63, the stack started to move so were slowed as they tried to filter into our lane because there were road works ahead. Chaos. And then there were signs saying we would have to leave the motorway at J.7 as there had been a bad lorry accident with a fire in the roadworks and which was why the road was closed ahead. Fortunately, it was cleared and re-opened as we approached and we saw the debris being carted away on flatbeds on the opposite carriageway. So we got through with only about 30min delay in the end.........I think the last lorries in the first stack would take 24 hrs to get moving so we were lucky. New Motorway not on Satnav caused some anxiety trying to find motorway to Pamplona as the signs showed Pamplona, didn't show Pamplona etc as the satnav went into a sulk. But we got there in the end. Should have been a spectacular view but crossed mountains in low cloud all the way until 20 kms from Pamplona when we burst out into bright sunshine. Campsite above town, we were the only visitors. Ground v.wet so parked on roadway close a hookup rather than a pitch. Nice and sunny and mild. Chilly overnight. Might come back this way and explore into town as there is a bike route.

Thursday-Friday 13th-14th. Jan

Terrific run to ARANJUEZ, just south of Madrid. Only spoilt by great banks of low cloud/fog for much of the way, spoiling any views. But the driving was great with very little traffic until the last 35 Km round the Madrid ring-road and onto Aranjuez. Very nice site behind the royal gardens which we explored in the late afternoon sunshine. Decided to stay 2 nights in order to do the palaces as we are here and break the journey. Ground again very wet and much signs of trouble getting off pitches even though sun is shining. Parked on the mats. Had the first bottle of Rioja to celebrate from the camp shop at a mere €4.
Woke to thick fog....the site is at the confluence of the Tagus and Jarama rivers and prone to this. Didn't burn off till mid-day when we walkked through the gardens....being Jan. not much too see but will return later as they look wonderful....to town,had bloody awful lunch including a soup like dishwater with a poached egg in it but 3 courses, bt.of water and decent bt.wine for 20€. Vist to the Palace, well worth the stopover and EU citizens over 65 with audio guide each for 10€ for both of us was value for money. We were vastly outnumbered by the guards as I rhink we were the only visitors that afternoon and monitored very closely. However, top monument and very informative guides.

Saturday 15th Jan.

Again woke to thick fog, apparently its normal. Good run down the A4 to CORDOBA (or VILLAFRANCA DA CORDOBA to be precise) spoilt by endless fog banks. Ground is very wet but sun is very warm. Having 'done' Cordoba twice now ....its still my favourite city....we are only stopping overnight so staying at Villafranca is easier and cheaper than the city site.
Arrived in glorious sunshine and sat outside for the afternoon after strolling into town. This is what we came for !

IN THE STARTING BLOCKS.......

Well that's Christmas & New Year done for another year and probably the best one ever with us all together for the first time in 5 years...and altogther on New Year's Eve for the first time ever ! How weird is that ?

Justin,Minako & Marcus are back in Japan after a fairly fraught flight for Marcus who contracted some form of 'flu on Sunday night and had to spend 3 hours at Frimley Hospital Emergency Out of Hours Clinic...
Many thanks to William and Lynn who put up with us all over Christmas despite the weather disrupting many plans..............

So we are now getting ready to leave on Sunday for 3 months in the Sunshine ....we're off to sunny Spain, Viva Espagne......not forgetting Portugal where Sir Bruce will be joing us for (another) alcoholic sojurn at Praia da Luz and we try to avoid being pestered by Austin Healy again.

And of course we have entered a new phase.......the scooter is gone and we have 2 electric bikes.......one too many trips up into the mountains for the Good Fairy and the SanRemo riding experience I suspect. We bought them from the Electric Transport Shop in Cambridge who are terrific and have several other branches and whom I cannot recommend enough for their knowledge, help and service. With the weather we have had last month they have not had a great deal of use by we are both very excited by the trips we have done......so roll on the sunny weather....and watch this space