Spain 2017

Our first break since I retired from full time work almost a fortnight ago. I start again in December working probably a couple of days a week but the plan was always to have a decent break so that we can spend around a month away. The prospect is almost daunting since, like most people (who aren’t teachers), I’ve never had more than a fortnight away previously – and not many of them. I have a list of topics of conversation in case I run out of things to say to Dud.

I got a large part of the packing done yesterday – but still had a fair bit to do today. I’d wanted to be away for 10:00’ish but we didn’t actually set off until just after 12:00. We still only have 3 wheel trims. We’d ordered one from Hartwell but they rang this morning to say that it hadn’t arrived. Not a big problem – but it spoils the look of the MoHo on the off-side.

We had a bit of an issue with packing. We’d bought the comfy chairs on the way home from the last trip in the summer. In packing them under the bed, that left less room for the area where we’d normally store the wheelchair. I got round that by using one of the Carrefour flags that we ended up with from the Tour de France stage and put that on the bed as a cover. I then put the wheelchair on the bed. It was originally intended as a temporary measure until I found a way of making room under the bed but it ended up as a permanent solution – and wasn’t a problem at all.

We didn’t stop until Birchanger Services – which was a fair way for us. And even then, we didn’t stop long because we wanted to get to Folkestone before 18:00. When booking the site, the commandant asked us if we would ring if we weren’t going to be there before 18:00 because the office would be closed.

We hit stationary traffic in a few places on the M11 and also on the M25 so that meant that it would be borderline whether we got there in that time. We stopped at Maidstone Services to ring them – but stopping added another 5 minutes so that meant that we definitely would not make 18:00. They gave us a PIN for the barrier and said that they’d leave a note with the pitch number. When we got there, there were 3 other notes on the board so we’re not the only ones late.

As we got close to the site, we saw a car coming in the opposite direction and he pulled in for what appeared to be no apparent reason. It was a badly lit road so I was concentrating a lot and was also looking for the entrance to the site. I then saw a flashing blue light in the mirror but could not move over so I carried on a short distance until he had room to pass. Sirens were blaring but I just hadn’t seen the ambulance approach. He would not have been behind us for long but that’s not like me to not spot blue lights in plenty of time.

Nice tea of sausages and rice. Went for a late night walk and Ellie saw the rabbits – which I’ve mentioned before. Funny how she does not feel the need to kill them if they don’t run away. It’s also strange to see lots of empty spaces on the site – we’re used to seeing it in the peak months rather than end of October.

We got off at a reasonable time and soon got to the tunnel. There were queues of lorries at the lorry check in and so we expected to be queueing to get on – as happened when we were here in the summer. When we got to the car park, there were only a few vehicles there so it didn’t look as bad as had first appeared. When we were here in the summer, we assumed that we would have time for breakfast but as soon as I started to do some toast, we were called so I didn’t even attempt to do anything this time. Sure enough, our crossing came up on the board just as Ellie and I went out for a bit of a walk.

We had paid full price for this crossing. I had cashed in £15 worth of Tesco points but when I rang the tunnel to book, they told me that you need to book more than 14 days in advance to use the vouchers – I’d left it until something like a week before. That would have knocked £45 off the cost so we missed out on that. I won’t lose the vouchers – we plan on going to Scandinavia next year so I’ll use them then.

In the summer when I booked, I noticed that it asked on the web site if there were any wheelchair users in the vehicle. Not sure why I didn’t want to tick that but I didn’t. On this booking, I did tick it – though I wasn’t sure what that would mean. When we got to the final check point, I found out what it meant – they put you on so that you are close to an exit in case of emergency. I know that because I asked the lady. She radioed someone to tell them we were wheel chair users and then she directed me into what was then an empty lane – even though there was a queue in one of the other lanes. As soon as we got to the barrier, the lights turned green and the barrier lifted so we were going to be first on. That means that you will be first off. No-one actually checked to see if we had a wheel chair so that could be a good ruse if you want to jump the queues. In writing that, I’m reminded of the signs on the disabled spots that we had seen in Italy – words to the effect of “Take my place, take my disability”.

Crossing was uneventful as ever but there is time for some breakfast and a sit down. I’ve made the point before that, in a car, it’s boring but in a MoHo it’s so convenient and you have time for a break and a relax.

Coming off the train and off the terminal, there were not police at the gates. We’d heard that illegals were starting to gather in Calais again but looks like they are not currently targeting the tunnel – which seems to have additional fencing every time we go through.

We went wrong on the way out of the tunnel again. We actually made pretty much the same mistake as we had in the summer and ended up doubling back and then got on the correct route. There’s a lesson to learn there in that it is best to set the satnav when you’re still on the train. If you don’t, there aren’t really any places to stop before you are on the autoroute network around Calais so you may already have gone wrong before you can pull in.

Our objective was to get through France as quick as possible so we were going to use the autoroutes. We must have headed south out of Calais before but a lot of the way didn’t look familiar.

We pressed on and eventually decided to head for an aire near Le Mans. There were a couple of likely candidates in the “All the Aires” book so we settled on one of them. Dud read out to me the co-ordinates which I keyed in and the satnav duly directed us there. When we got there, it didn’t look at all like the one that we had selected but it was definitely an aire. That might be because Dud had read out to me the co-ordinates of the wrong site. As it turned out, it wasn’t a problem and we ended up parking in what was basically a car park next to the local cemetery.

After a tea of corned beef hash, Ellie and I did our customary explore of the town. Unfortunately, it was typical of so many places that we see in France with run down houses, “For Sale” (“À Vendre”) signs and closed down businesses.

The day started off quite foggy – and it was cold. I’d seen that tokens for the service point – which was just down the road from the car park – were available at the Mairie – they usually are in the small towns. We’d checked it out the night before and I saw that the Mairie would be open this morning – even though it was a Saturday. We usually keep some jetons but we only had one left so we could do with topping up – so we duly bought four of them.

The service point was just down the road from where we had parked up. It looks quite new and was all very neat and tidy.

Most of the day was spent motorway driving so that we could get the mileage in.

We settled on an aire at Roullet-Saint-Estèphe close to Bordeaux. It was just off the N10 so there was some background noise but it was spacious – which was just as well because there were some sizeable MoHo’s parked up. The aire is next to a park which is a good dog walking area.

Tea was leftover corned beef hash for Dud and I had veggie fingers.

Ellie and I’s late night walk took us into the town and, yet again, there was a magnificent church for such a small place – and, yet again, no-one at all about – apart from some kind of do in what appeared to be a local church hall/scout hut type building.

The clocks went back last night so, in effect, we could get an extra hour sleep. But I still got up at the usual time so we could actually make an earlier start. Weather was dull – which was surprising and disappointing after not a cloud in the sky all yesterday.

I actually set the satnav for Pamplona but it looked like it was taking us down the A10 to Bayonne anyway so we decided quite early in the drive that we would stay in or near Bayonne. We made good time mostly on non-paying roads and by early afternoon we were ready to actually pick an aire.

We picked one just outside of Bayonne and I set the co-ordinates in the satnav. That took us into Bayonne and as we were going into Bayonne, we got our first sight this trip of the Pyrenees.

The satnav took us into what appeared to be the centre of Bayonne when it told us that we had reached the destination – but it was some non-descript side street so something had gone wrong there.

Eventually, we found somewhere to pull in and reset the co-ordinates. At the time, I thought that I must have done it wrong previously because it then took us back over 5 or 6 miles of the road that we come in on. Later experience taught that there must be some kind of issue with the satnav using co-ordinates – more of that later.

Eventually, we got to the aire. It’s a big one but was only around a third full. I suspect in the summer that it will be full because it is right by the beach.

Ellie and I went for a walk on the beach – though initially, it was drizzling and generally a bit miserable. There was no sign banning dogs from going on the beach so off we went. The sand was good quality – reminded me of Cleethorpes at its best.

We got out to the tide (Ellie’s first sight of the Atlantic) and she did her usual of not wanting to get wet. Strange because if she sees a ditch she will jump straight in. I suspect that it is something to do with the water ‘moving’

Tea was a tin of Morrisons Chicken in White Sauce which is delicious and we always try and keep a tin or two in the MoHo.

The “All the Aires” book had mentioned that there was a charge for staying on here but the barriers had been removed and there was no obvious means of payment. Our experience is that most aires are free so we didn’t bother too much about it but at around 20:00 (on a Sunday), there was a knock on the door and someone asked for the €8 so we paid. I assume he was official because he wrote out a receipt which he gave us. Strange time to be working.

On Ellie and I’s late night walk, we again went towards the beach. As we passed one of the MoHo’s, you could hear a gentle rhythmic squeaking of the suspension – no prize for guessing what was going on in there! Ellie is only four and far too young for anything like that (and she’s been spayed) so we quickly moved on.

I’d noticed that it was getting warmer yesterday – not in a major way but enough to consider wearing shorts – which I did this morning.

Ellie and I again went for a walk on the beach. It was almost deserted. There were a couple of other dog-walkers but that was about it so I let her off the lead for the first time this trip. You can tell the frustration that must build up in her because as soon as I do that, she just sets off running as fast as she can.

There was another dog-walker a couple of hundred metres away and she went tearing off towards them. Luckily, the dog wanted to play so the pair of them were running about on the beach.

As we walked back towards the MoHo, I started to realise that this was Monday morning and I would normally be involved in a project and change update meeting at work but, here we were, walking on an almost deserted beach that stretched miles into the distance and the Pyrenees were looming in the distance. Maybe, retirement is not that bad.

We needed to service the MoHo so we were watching the availability of the service point. When we thought that the previous MoHo was nearly finished, we got ready to drive to the service point. With that, another MoHo, who was closer to the service point than us, drove on to it. Lesson to be learnt there in that if you want to be next, you have to get in to a queue and block out other MoHo’s.

We would not be travelling a great distance today but we would be crossing into Spain so we did not want to take the Autoroutes. We have a tag for the French autoroute but not (yet) for the Spanish ones so we did not want to end up in a position where we would have to pay in Spain. The cost is not an issue but it’s difficult for Dud to reach out to a toll booth to hand over cash or to pay by card.

The journey was really slow and we hit a lot of traffic and also quite a few roadworks. At one point, we were navigating a tricky roundabout and I could see in the mirror a French driver in a Clio trying to pass us on the outside as we were going round the roundabout. It annoys me intensively that, even in the UK, roundabouts have become dual carriageways and I knew that letting this driver through would have restricted us as we went round so I pulled across to block him. I could hear the blast of his horn but I didn’t give a toss about that.

As we got further down the road, he came past us and so I reciprocated the horn blowing. With that, his female passenger gave us the finger. We then caught up to them in the queues for the traffic/road works and pulled alongside. Dud opened her window and I suspect would have given them a mouthful (in English, presumably) but they had their window firmly shut. I used to be a road-rage candidate but don’t let myself get involved in it now – what’s the point? A good bit of fun, anyway.

The crossing from France into Spain was a complete non-event. We weren’t even sure that we were actually in Spain until the road signs changed. I am a supporter of the EU and I suppose that Schengen means that borders will become less and less relevant but you actually want to know that you are crossing national boundaries, don’t you?

Driving through the Pyrenees provided some, at times, spectacular scenery but the visibility was not always great.

As we got more into Spain, it was noticeable that all of the signs had two names for the various towns. I assume that is because of the Basque separatist movement. We were heading for Pamplona – which was also called Iruña.

We arrived in Pamplona and had seen signs for a camp site on the way in. We also saw a supermarket but we decided to try and find the camp site first – which we did. We headed back to the campsite but when we arrived, the office was closed so we had a tour round the site and decided that we would stay there so we parked up. As we did that, a bloke who looked official approached. We told him that we would like to stay and he said that would be fine but the office would not be open for a couple of hours so we told him that we head back toward the supermarket and would then return.

The supermarket was a Mercadona. This was our first experience of a Spanish supermarket but Mercadona appear to be a slightly upmarket Lidl/Aldi but not unpleasant (unlike Lidl/Aldi). We stocked up and then headed back to the camping.

Ellie and I went for an explore of the camp site. At this time of year, they would appear to concentrate everyone in a reasonably small area but the site covers a very big area – most of which we explored and it went high into the hills.

Tea was our first experience of a chicken risotto this trip.

Our late night walk was within the camp site boundaries – mainly because, when we got to the main gate, it was closed. There was maybe some pedestrian access but it was not immediately apparent.

Today was to be our first relaxing and non-driving day. It was also my sixty fifth birthday so I had cards and some presents to open. So, I am now officially an old age pensioner.

We spent some time chilling and then decided to take a drive into Pamplona. I know that it is famous for the bull run and we had seen what looked like an old town area yesterday so we headed into the city. I am always wary of taking the MoHo into places like this. I have no fear of driving in heavy traffic but, particularly when you are in an historic place, you can get in some tight situations and parking is never easy. We couldn’t really find anywhere that looked sensible to park so we decided to head back to the camping. We will try it one day but the solution is to rent a car – get them to deliver to the camp site and use the car which will be much easier to park.

As we were driving down what looked to be the main road through the city, a bus pulled up alongside as one of the many traffic lights turned red. I looked round and was quite surprised to see the driver reading a book and he had his mobile phone in his hand. When the lights changed, he, thankfully put the book down before he moved off. We noticed a in a few places throughout the trip that some of busier roads have lots of pedestrian crossings and the lights all change together. I expect this driver’s day consists of a large amount of time sat at traffic lights but surely reading a book is not what you would want to see as a passenger. I didn’t see what the book was!

Another satnav incident on the way back. I knew that I could get to a roundabout and double back on to the way that we had come to get back to the camping but I set the satnav instead. It was pointing to a turning ahead so I assumed that it had found an easier way – but it took us miles out of our way. We got back correctly but I couldn’t fathom out why it took us on the route that we did. Of course, it’s not compulsory to take the route they are telling you.

We got back to the site and all had a walk round after which we sat outside for a while. I had seen another British MoHo close by and the lady from the MoHo came walking past and started speaking to us. They were ex-tuggers and this was their first break in their new MoHo – which I am ashamed to say that I hadn’t noticed that it was a Bailey. Our model has been superceded with a different design but it is not as recognisable as ours – that’s my excuse, anyway.

Tea was fish cakes – posh one for me and plain old cod one for Dud.

We move on tomorrow and head south. This has been a pleasant site.

We had planned to drive from Pamplona towards Madrid but did had no intention of doing that in one day so we would have an overnight somewhere along the way.

As we were heading out of Pamplona, we approached a roundabout and there was a police car parked up with a couple of policemen looking for victims to pull over. There was no other traffic around us so we were picked.

It was quite comical when I stopped because I got out of the driver’s door but there was no sign of the policeman. I suspect that he had gone to the left hand side expecting the driver to be there. So I went round the MoHo to that side and he must have been making his way to the right – so we missed each other again.

We finally met up and I practised my very limited Spanish and told him that I didn’t speak Spanish – but he had sufficient English to tell me that he wanted to see documentation for the MoHo. I went back into the habitation area to find it – I have photocopies of the V5 and insurance docs because the various web sites tell you that these are compulsory to carry. I couldn’t remember where I had put the carrier with all of the documents but I quickly found them. He also checked my driving license. All was ok – why would it not have been – but I always have a guilty conscience and expect them to find something wrong.

We got on our way again and we were short on a couple of things so we looked for a supermarket. The first one we saw was a Leclerc – my favourite in France – but the car park was empty. Quite by chance, Dud had been looking at one of the Spanish tourist guide books that we have and she mentioned that 1 November was All Saints Day (Dia de Todos los Santos). I hadn’t given that too much thought but seeing the empty supermarket car park made us realise that it would actually be a bank holiday – so, no supermarket. Whatever we were short of, it wasn’t a problem so we ploughed on.

We were not on paying motorways (signified by the letter P in the road number – eg, AP7) but the roads were still almost motorway standard. Apart from the fact that there were no service stations or aires. The French autoroutes have loads of aires where you can park up and stretch your legs but we could see nothing like this on the roads that we were using today. We eventually pulled off the main road and parked up in whatever space we could find off the main road.

I used the ACSI site finder on the satnav and it told us that there was a site within six miles – but when I actually set the route for that site, it recalculated and then the site was actually sixty odd miles away. That happened a few times later on, as well.

So we pulled in again and used the “All the Aires” book that we had bought before the trip – but this one was for Spain and Portugal. We picked out that was reasonably close. I had looked through this book before we came and noticed that there were nothing like the number of French aires but I hadn’t thought too much about it. It is only in situations like that you realise that, at least according to this book, the likelihood of just being able to pick somewhere close is less likely in Spain that it is in France.

Generally, the scenery in Spain is quite spectacular with lots of different mountain ranges. As part of the route towards the aire, we passed some reservoirs – one of which looked to be almost empty. There were some sustained periods of very high temperatures and long periods without rain in the summer so I suspect that low reservoirs will be quite common;.

Eventually, we got to Buendia but it was not obvious where the satnav was directing us. There was a camp site which was all locked up. We later learnt that the aire was actually within this camp site and the “All the Aires” book made reference to visiting the Tourism Office to pay for the site – but today being a bank holiday meant that the Tourism Office was closed.

We weren’t, at that point, sure that we were in the right place so we had a drive around. At one point, we saw a sign pointing to a camp site so we followed that but it led to a very narrow road. We ended up having to do some reversing to get out of some even narrower roads. At one point, we saw another MoHo who, we suspect, was going through the same process as us in looking for somewhere to stop.

We followed the other MoHo for a while but he ended up heading out of town whereas we decided to have one more try at finding the aire.

In the end, we couldn’t find it so we drove alongside the locked camp site and decided to just park up on the roadside. It was a quiet’ish road with plenty of room for traffic to pass.

Tea was Morrisons sausages and scallop potatoes.

After tea, Ellie and I went for our walk and we found a route into what must have been the old town. The church was very impressive and all of the old town built around it looked very old. The bell of the church clock was particularly loud – frightened the life out of Ellie when it did a single strike at quarter past the hour when we were right next to it.

We found the tourism office and there were some houses near there that appeared to be built into the hillside – reminded me of the hobbits’ houses in the Lord of the Rings movie.

Given that we were parked on a public road, I got the baseball bat at the ready.

Decent night’s sleep in spite of being parked on a normal road side. Only one car pipped his horn to wake us up. Ellie had been a bit restless in the night. When she’s like that, she jumps up against our bed – it’s too high for her to get on to but she just props herself on her hind legs and stands looking at us.

We heard some activity outside the MoHo so I got up to look and there was a bloke in the camp site where we should actually have been staying. I took him to be the owner/manager which I found out later was not the case. After a while, someone else joined him and it became obvious that they were there to chop down a tree.

I didn’t think too much of it so Ellie and I went for a walk – and we got a “bueonos dias” from the bloke in the camp site. Our walk took us down a footpath which had some allotments alongside. The old town of Buendia is quite picturesque – but not that good that we wanted to stay another night on the roadside. The walk also took us past what was obviously the aire section of the camp site. There were electrical hook up points and a service point – all on the other side of the fence to where we were.

When we got back to the MoHo, the tree-felling was in full swing with chain saws going and driving wedges in to the tree to force it to fall in the required direction. The bloke doing the chain sawing had all the PPE on so it looked reasonable but as it progressed, he took off his jacket and was swinging the chain saw around with bare arms. Plus, it was a bit worrying that they kept giving it a good coat of looking at and kept giving it a bit of a push.

I started to get a bit concerned that if the tree fell in our direction, that would not do the MoHo a lot of good so I reversed well out of the way and then we started breakfast. As we were having that, the tree fell and it looked as if it went in exactly the direction they wanted but better safe than sorry.

But then, they moved to the next tree and the way they were cutting the wedges, I could see that it would fall directly toward us – so I moved forward this time again, hopefully, well out of the way. It did actually fall toward where we had been but was short of the boundary fence so would not have hit us.

I still assumed that the older of the two blokes was the campsite owner so I went in and asked if we could fill up the MoHo with water – or rather I tried in my pathetic Spanish – I knew the words ‘agua’ and ‘autocaravanas’ so worked it from there. Luckily, the younger bloke had some English so I managed to show him what we wanted. The older bloke rang someone and them told me that we could do it for €5 – which is what an overnight with electrics would have cost us but well worth it – especially seeing as though the toilet cassette needed emptying – we carry a spare but that has not been christened so the longer we can keep it that way the better.

So we got to the service point – but not until they had removed the top part of one of the trees from the road so that we could drive past. The older bloke had told me to give him the money – which I did. I say ‘told’ but actually he shouted. We had seen him earlier using a second chain saw to cut up one of the fallen trees and he had no PPE whatsoever – so I suspect that years of using a chain saw without ear defenders had deafened him. I know we all go on about Health and Safety but some aspects of it are worth doing.

As I was servicing the MoHo, a car pulled up alongside the fencing and a bloke got out and unlocked one of the gates and proceeded to write out a receipt. I asked if he was from the Oficina de Turismo – which he was. I also asked if he spoke English – which he didn’t – which surprised me for someone from the Tourist Office.

Off we went going back over some of the roads that we had come in on yesterday. I was hoping that we would go past the reservoir that was almost empty so that I could get a photo – but we didn’t.

We set the satnav to Guadalajara – that was one of the places that I had picked out as a likely stopping point prior to the trip. There is some good mountainous scenery in this part of Spain and we passed some picturesque mountain-side villages.

Guadalajara turned out to be just another big town – which is not what the name would suggest – so we just carried on towards Madrid.

We had another supermarket visit – this time to a Carrefour.

We again used the satnav ACSI site finder to pick a place as we approached the outskirts of Madrid. The site is in a fairly built up area and, as we found out from the commandant when we checked in, is within walking distance of a station where you can catch a train to take you into Madrid. We had no intention of doing that this trip but maybe some other time.

We all went out for a walk around the campsite but the traffic was quite heavy and that always worries me with Ellie being so active so we did not stay out for long. That was a shame because Ellie and I went out on our own a bit later and across the road from the campsite is a good area of parkland with lots of walkways and cycle tracks and no traffic.

The campsite is ok. It’s not cheap at €30 or so per night but I suspect that is the going rate for somewhere with easy access to Madrid.

I had bought some minced beef in the Carrefour so I did an ad hoc ragout and used Bovril to enhance the beef flavour. A bit of cornflour to thicken it up and it ended up delicious.

On our late night walk, we went past an area with lots of high rise flats. Being the capital city, I suspect living in apartments is quite common – as it would be in most capital cities.

There was some rain in the night but it had cleared by the morning. Slightly overcast but still reasonably warm.

Ellie and I explored the parkland area opposite the campsite. There is a huge Vodaphone office building alongside it – very impressive building and presumably the HQ for them in Spain.

We decided to head for the Toledo area and I used the CamperContact web site to look for a site. We picked one out that looked ok and set the co-ordinates into the satnav.

We didn’t want to visit Madrid in any detail but we thought that, since we were here, we would drive into the centre until it became a problem and we would then set off for Toledo. At one point, we got a bit confused and were switching autovia but we ended up heading into Madrid on the Avenida de America – mainly because it sounded like it should be a major road.

For the first time on the trip, we noticed people looking at the number plate as we stopped at lights on pedestrian crossings.

It didn’t take too long before it started to become a bit stressful so we decided to press on. It took a while, though, because I had to head left and so had to work my way across four lanes of traffic. Got there in the end.

We got to Toledo and could see the old city. It looked quite spectacular – but we would see more of that later.

The satnav took us to what appeared to be someone’s house. The co-ordinates on the web site may have been wrong or I keyed them in wrong – though this seems to be becoming a regular ‘feature’ of this trip.

Again, I used the ACSI finder on the satnav and it came up with the site that we had seen on a roadside sign so we headed there. This is Camping El Greco and it looked a good site.

Evidently, El Greco spent the later years of his life in Toledo. Whenever I see that name, I am always reminded of the Hackenthorpe Book of Lies from one of the Monty Python books that says that El Greco is Buddy Greco’s brother. We pay on the way out but I told the commandant that we would probably stay 2 nights.

The site is by the Rio Tagus and you can see parts of Toledo across the river. The best views are from the restaurant area.

Ellie and I had a bit of an explore. At one point, she shot off to the fence and a cat popped up hissing and spitting. I had to drag Ellie off – I suspect she would kill a cat but would probably get scratched in the process.

We all went for a walk. Must have been around 20 degrees but the sun was getting a bit low and the area around the MoHo was mostly shaded so we went and sat in one of the public areas for probably around an hour. Most pleasant being warm in November. The birds must be used to being fed by campers because a few of them came really close, Ellie looked at them but didn’t react – unlike what she does with the pigeons at home – a couple of whom have met an untimely dog death.

Veggie finger tea for me – Sue had the leftover mince from last night and some of the beans from the night before.

Satellite dish locked on so we watched a bit of Sky News and a couple of other free Sky channels. I looked through the other channels and went to ITV again more in hope than in expectation and we were both pleasantly surprised when Bradley Walsh and the Chase came on loud and clear. I had done nothing to retune so not sure why that happened. It meant that Dud was able to get a bit of a fix of Emmerdale and Corrie.

Another episode of the Sopranos.

It rained in the night – not a lot – but we woke up to overcast skies.

We had a bit of a lie-in until gone nine but after a cup of tea, Ellie and I went for a walk in a slight shower. The slight shower soon developed into quite a heavy downpour so we rushed back to the MoHo.

We had been able to pick up ITV on the satellite and when we got back to the MoHo, we changed channels. ITV had been showing on the channel listing as ‘Scrambled’ – which I took to mean the signal was scrambled but it was actually the name of the programme! So I switched channels to Sky News and then switched back to ITV and we had actually lost it. Go figure!

The rain got progressively heavier and continued for 3 or 4 hours. We pottered about and Ellie was good but she was getting a bit frustrated at being kept indoors.

After a few false starts, the rain eventually abated and Ellie and I went for another walk. I was conscious that, yesterday, she had had a full banana and had had lots of other food but had not had the opportunity to get rid of that volume. She managed to get rid of a small part of it and we carried on the walk to the end of the approach road to the campsite.

There is some kind of function hall next to the campsite. It looks quite a grand place. As we got close to the gates, something spooked Ellie and she pulled away from me quite sharply and in doing so, she pulled herself out of her collar. We were almost alongside what is a reasonably busy road – and a bus route and she went towards that. She is not good at recall – she thinks it’s an excuse to play a game so my heart was in my mouth. I kept calling her but decided that the best approach was for me to walk back towards the camp site and hope that she would follow – which she did.

She was now away from the main road but we were still on the slip road that leads to the camp site. A car came down there and I waved the empty collar at him and thankfully, he slowed down. I’ve made the point before that every morning and night, we walk down the lane outside of our house so Ellie has no concept of the difference between path and road – and she was still in the middle of road now. That car passed and then another came along and again slowed down. After a couple of attempts at grabbing her, I finally achieved it and got her collar back on – tightened up another notch.

It doesn’t pay to dwell too much on what could have happened – but I did anyway. I have a blood pressure monitor at home but don’t take it in the MoHo. Had I taken a reading at that point, I suspect it would have gone off the scale.

After lunch, the weather brightened up a bit and we decided to have a drive round Toledo. Same applied here as applied in Pamplona in that I didn’t want to end up in narrow streets so we took what appeared to be scenic route round the city – and that’s exactly what it turned out to be.

The views of the city were even better on the opposite side to the camp site and I wanted to pull in somewhere so that we could have a look. I saw what appeared to be a pull-in on our side of the road so I pulled in. I’m not sure what it was but there was no exit as I had expected and there were some fairly low trees. We worked our way through with a few twigs scraping the roof and I stopped and got out to check the view. I then saw that there was an actual layby just a bit further up so I started tricky process of reversing out. The twigs seemed to be more of a problem on the way out and I had to stop, move forward and try again to get out.

The laybys were all on the opposite side of the road to the way that we were driving but we could see that tourist coaches were coming in the opposite direction and stopping in them to we drove into the city and found a place to turn round and then came back down the road.

We pulled in one of the laybys and as I got out to take some pictures, a coach pulled in right behind us and a load of Japanese tourists got out to do the photography thing. We had seen some coaches of tourists on our way in the day before. Toledo looks to be well and truly on the tourist route.

We carried on the drive. We needed supplies so we drove towards what we thought would be the outskirts to try and find a supermarket. The only one what we could find was a Lidl. I didn’t want to spend too long looking for somewhere so decided that it would have to do. Gordon Bennet – how depressing are those places! They may be cheap but, to me, the choice is appalling – as is the whole experience.

On our late night walk, Ellie again seemed spooked by a couple of the places. I have no idea what causes it but she pulls against going past certain places. Thankfully, the extra notch on the lead seemed to have done the trick in preventing her slipping the collar.

My usual late night routine is to go on the laptop. Dud will have been in bed ages so a bit of blog writing and Facebooking with a glass of wine is the order of the day. As I was doing that, a message popped up on Facebook that an old friend, Tony Howlett, was waving at me. I’d not seen that before (probably because I don’t have many friends) so I clicked the button to wave back and we had an online chat. Tony lives in the States and I had completely lost touch with him for years before I saw him post on Facebook. Technology eh? There was I, sitting in a motorhome in Toledo, Spain, chatting to a friend in Denver, USA. I may have worked in IT for the best part of forty years but I still find that fascinating.

We woke up to a cloudless sky again so the rain from yesterday looked to have cleared.

We’re moving on today so we needed to take on water, empty the waste water etc. We had no idea where we would be staying tonight so you need to do those things while you can. The previous evening, a Brit tag axle Autotrail had arrived on the site. As were servicing the Moho, the Autotrail man came up and we started chatting. He pointed out that we had half of a tree stuck in the awning. I hadn’t noticed that but knew immediately that it was from when I was reversing out of what I had taken to be a layby yesterday. Dud’s walking stick came in handy in poking at the tree to dislodge it – or rather to dislodge most of it.

The Autotrail had a Ducati logo on the side so when the man said that he was on the way back from Aragon, I mentioned about my interest in bike racing – and I told him we has seen the bloke at Bayonne who had won the Honda championship. I said I went back to the Barry Sheene era and he said he was an ex racer and he was racing at that time. I stopped short of asking his name but suspect I may have hear of him.

While we were talking, I had the grey waste tap open but it flowing out very slowly. I took that to be because of the angle that we were at.

We kept talking and I kept thinking “Is he going to stand there all day?” Then, as we pulled away, we saw him emptying his toilet. That was obviously his main purpose in being at the service point – not, as I had assumed, to chat to me. I bet he thought “When are they going to clear off?” Nice bloke, though, and I enjoyed the chat.

The grey waste had not emptied fully but I thought that we had had long enough on the service point so we set off and, at the end of the lane approaching the campsite, the police were blocking the road and we could see that there was some kind of marathon or some other distance run going on. Ellie and I had heard some kind of event going on over the wall in the function grounds so this must have been it. The police stopped us but let us through in a gap in the runners.

As we were driving south, we started to see lots of olive groves. At first, I thought they were vines because some of the trees were planted in neat rows. I normally expect to see olive trees in, what looks to me, like a random pattern but this was a bit more regimented.

We took the autovia for a fair distance then we stopped in a village and by chance there was a sign for an aire de servicio. We took the opportunity to visit the aire and carried on emptying the grey waste – but it was still slow.

We could have stayed on that aire but it was around 14:30 so we thought that was a bit early and we could get some more distance in so we set the satnav for the nearest ACSI site. That was around 60 miles or so.

While we were at the aire, we noticed some windmills – see **** Wikipedia re Don Juan and Toledo and windmills

We passed by a couple of reservoirs that looked to be almost empty. Another reminder of the drought conditions that they had had in the summer.

We eventually got to the site and it didn’t look very busy but there were some people about so we assumed that it was open. We found a pitch and then I set about looking for the reception. That turned out to be the bar but the woman behind the counter told me that, as of today, they were closed for tourers. I suspect their license means that residents of the permanent bungalows are ok but tourers are not. With hindsight, maybe we should have made an offer to allow us to stay but it was still reasonably early so I assumed that we would find another site.

On approaching this site, the satnav was telling us that the next ACSI site was only 10 miles further on. I had no reason to question that but now that we needed to actually go there, I set it as our destination and it was actually another 50 miles or so further on. The “All the Aires” book had nothing in this area so we had no choice but to plough on to this next site.

As we approached the destination, we went over some fairly minor roads but we got to the site eventually. Same as the site before, there were people about so we assumed it would be ok until a woman came along and told us that they were closed for tourers.

No choice now but to set the satnav for the next ACSI site but that turned out to be another 50 miles or so away.

The fuel gauge was over quarter full and the computer predicted a range or 130 miles so I didn’t see that as too much of an issue and it was still only around 17:00 so not too late. We passed a garage and Dud suggested filling up but I didn’t want to waste the ten minutes or so that it would take to fill up and I thought we would be ok so I said we didn’t need it – another lesson learned.

We turned off the main road and started to climb. We still around 16 miles to go and the predicted 130 miles dropped to 90. More third and second gear corners as we climbed and the predicted range kept dropping. We were still 10 miles from the camp site and the fuel light came on and then the low fuel warning bleeped.

In my usual calm and collected way, I didn’t panic at all (I did). But then we started to descend and the zero fuel gradually crept back up to 100 miles or so. I really thought that we were going to run out of fuel.

That didn’t matter anyway because we saw a garage at the edge of Riopar which was around 4 miles from the camp site. As we approached the garage, there were 2 policemen – one on each side of the road – that’s the third time we’ve seen that this trip. They were pulling in cars for whatever reason. I’m sure we would have been stopped but we pulled in at the garage before we go to them – even though it looked as if it were closed.

It wasn’t and we filled up – not self-service – a bloke did the work for us. When we were ready to pull out of the garage, both police had stopped someone so we nipped out and they were busy so we didn’t get stopped. I was slightly concerned because I have done nothing about the headlights. I have set them on the lowest angle but have done nothing to block the beam to our left. I suspect Spanish drivers in the UK do nothing to block their right hand beam but I was slightly concerned that the police might pick up on that.

I had no expectation that this campsite would be open. We were in the mountains so why would it be open in the winter but we had little choice to press on. Dud was looking for likely places to wild camp if it wasn’t open – and there were some possibilities.

As we pulled off the main road, we passed an area that looked ideal for wild camping but we pressed on the half mile or so to the camp site – only to find it closed. So we turned back on parked up in the area that we had seen.

We had covered significantly more miles than we had intended and I suspect we had gone miles (dozens of miles?) out of our way. Also, because of the closed sites, it had been a very stressful end to the day.

We had a tea of frittata. True to the form of the day, I ended up knocking over the jug with the egg in it and then spilled even more egg when I flipped pans – but, in spite of that, it was delicious.

It’s a bit eerie being in the middle of nowhere but alarm on tonight and baseball bat within easy reach. Hopefully, we’ll be ok.

Peaceful night’s sleep. Didn’t need to use the baseball bat at all. I’d set the alarm last night but forgot about that this morning and just opened the door to take Ellie out. At least, I now know that the door is alarmed because it went off. Cloudless sky again but a cold start.

Over breakfast, we’d picked an ACSI site just outside of Granada – and checked in the book that it was actually open. We have started to have breakfast before we set off. My usual preference is to get going and then stop on the road. The scarcity of convenient places to stop has meant that that is not a good idea.

We traced back our route from last night for around 16 miles and then got back on the main and made some decent progress.

We stopped for a drink and Ellie saw some a couple of dogs that seemed to belong to a café down the road so she started barking at them. The dogs started barking back and came running up to the MoHo – along with a couple of others that had joined them. It was quite comical seeing them all lined up barking at each other. They looked a bit scrawny so I didn’t want to take Ellie out.

After a while, we pulled back on to the road. I was a bit wary that some of the way back on to the road looked a bit soft – but stupidly, I went that way anyway – and, sure enough, the wheels started spinning with no movement. I rocked the MoHo back and forward a bit and eventually got it to get one wheel on the road and the other eventually followed. It was red mud and I looked back and had made a right mess and was leaving red tyre tracks on the road for a hundred yards or so. It also plastered the nearside cab with the mud (no mud flaps at the front). Bit of a moment.

Before we set off, I rang the site we were aiming for and the man said that there would be no problem – so a slight relief after the failures of yesterday. We pressed on but after a while, Ellie started barking at us and then started to whine – which she rarely does. I took that as a sign that she needed to be outside for natural matters so we pulled off the road again and she duly delivered – and how! Took three poo bags to clear it up.

We got going again and, unfortunately, she started whining again so, yet again, we pulled in. We were at Jaén and the first place we could stop was a Carrefour car park. There was no issue with her this time but I took the opportunity to do a shop.

Back on the road and at one point, Ellie again got a bit restless and she slipped her collar off again – this in spite of the fact that I had tightened it a notch after it had happened outside Campsite El Greco. Dud got hold of here and Ellie spent the next 30 miles or so resting on Dud’s lap looking out of the window. We had to then make yet another stop so that we could re-fasten her collar.

The satnav took us into Granada and we headed for what looked like the city centre. I was thinking that it was a strange place to have a camp site and how it would be noisy – which was not how it was described in the ACSI book. We got to what it said was our destination and there was nothing but city buildings – exactly as it had done at Bayonne. I just had to drive round the city streets while Dud checked the details in the book. When we pulled up at some lights, I checked the destination history and I had keyed in the correct co-ordinates so I told it re-select that destination and it told us that the end was 16 miles away. Looks like a bug in the software.

Yesterday, we started to see olive groves. That was also the case through the whole of today’s drive. Spain is the biggest olive oil producer in the world. Evidently, 40% of the world’s estimated 700 million olive trees are in Spain (int Google brilliant!).

When we got to the real destination, we picked a spot and first job was to empty the cassette since we had not been able to do that since yesterday morning.

Also, the warning bleep started to sound telling us that the grey waste tank was nearly full so we took the MoHo to the service point which is not very conveniently located near the reception area. I had one go at emptying but the angle was all wrong and there was no flow so I turned it round and connected the waste pipe because I couldn’t get the outlet anywhere near the drain. No flow at first but all of a sudden, it started and we emptied it.

Eventually, a tea of pizza from the Carrefour and then another episode of the Sopranos. I’m enjoying watching an episode a night and even look forward to it. Maybe record some other box sets and watch them on future trips. Satellite dish would not lock on tonight – we are in trees but a MoHo nearby has his dish locked on – maybe not the same satellite. Try again tomorrow.

Today is 3 years to the day that we picked up the MoHo. One of our better buys. It meant that both insurance and MOT would be due from today which is why I had already sorted them before we set off.

Relaxing day today. We had no plans to even start up the engine. Leisurely breakfast followed by a walk for Ellie and I down the hill outside the campsite into the nearby village of Beas de Grenada – but we abandoned it halfway down the hill and instead went for a bit of a wander through the olive grove by the road. That resulted in Ellie having a shit against one of the olive trees – remember that if you eat some olives that are particularly bitter!

After breakfast, we did a bit of chilling and some people watching. I nipped to see the commandant to see if they sold chemicals for the toilet but they don’t. We’re ok for a few days yet but will need some before we get home so we need to get hold of some.

We ended up with an Autotrail parked behind us and Dud and I went and sat outside and chatted to the owners. They spend 9 months of the year in Spain on a permanent site somewhere on the coast and occasionally venture out to other areas for a break. As great as it is sitting outside in the warmth in November, I’m not sure I would want to live here for that length of time.

I had a veggie finger tea and Dud finished off the chicken pasta that we had a couple of nights ago.

I’ve tuned the television into Spanish terrestrial because the dish won’t lock to any of the preset satellites. I think that’s mainly because we are in some trees – other MoHo’s on the site have their dishes up. Our neighbours told us that Astra 1 is the one to go for because you can Moto GP on Eurosport. They are Marquez fans who have gone off Rossi after his coming together with Marquez.

Another episode of the Sopranos. It was the one where Artie the chef gets his hand badly burnt and it ends with him cooking coniglio (rabbit) and the music is Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra) – written by Francisco Tarrega about the Alhambra in Granada – how spooky is that. A bit like the times that we switched on the tv in a hotel room in Manhattan and “As good as it gets” was showing.

On the road again tomorrow. Finally, we’ll hit the coast. It is tempting to divert to see a colleague from work, Richard, who has a place and Nerje and is there this week but we’ve decided not to – mainly because Richard and I will talk about work and that won’t be much fun for either of our wives – and also not what I want to do just yet.

Another shit against an olive tree for Ellie so another thing to be aware of when buying Andalucia olives (I do clear it up so it doesn’t have long to permeate the soil).

On a similar subject, a first for me today was when I used the camp toilets. We always use the facilities in the MoHo rather than the site ones but given the potential shortage of chemical, I decided on this occasion to not add any more content to our own internal toilet. All a bit too public for me – I prefer the privacy of our own.

We serviced the MoHo – the waste now has a fine flow on it – and off we went. Dud was on the lookout for caravan/MoHo dealerships so that we could call in and get some chemical. We saw what looked like a possible just off the motorway but couldn’t find any way to get to it so carried on. It actually looked more like a storage place anyway.

We then saw another a couple of junctions later and had difficulty getting to that. We did eventually but not until we had passed another campsite and tried, unsuccessfully, to get some there. When we eventually got to what we thought might the dealership, I went and asked at the office and it turned out that it was storage – so still no chemical.

We have used the road from Granada to Motril when we originally visited Granada many years ago. I remember at the time that there was some major road construction going on with viaducts being built. That work is now complete and it is Autovia all the way. Couple of dizzy moments on a couple of the viaducts but I know well enough to focus on the road and not look over the side.

As we were approaching Motril, we got our first glimpse of the Med through a gap in the hills. Always an exciting moment.

We had another satnav moment once we arrive in Motril and ended up in the middle of an industrial estate. Not the satnav fault this time, though. The co-ordinates that we used from the ACSI book only had one decimal place for the seconds. I suspect that gives it too wide an area and so the satnav made its best guess. I then re-set it using the address but again, that didn’t find it so we pulled in and re-set it for the next site along coast. As we were following that route, we passed the original site that we wanted so we pulled in and booked in for 2 nights.

I asked the commandant if they sold chemical and, at first, he said no but then must have realised what I wanted because there is a supplies shop on the site. He showed me two types but they weren’t Thetford (which are colour coded depending on what the chemical is for) so I had to do my best bit of Spanish interpretation to decide which one was the stuff to do all the dissolving in the cassette. Time will tell if I made the right choice.

Once we got into the site, my initial reaction was that we had made a mistake. It’s quite big and most of the pitches are shaded but I would guess that over 50% are old caravans and awnings strung together in what are presumably permanent dwellings for people. Access was also very tight but eventually we found what looked like a semi decent spot.

Ellie was whining again so I took her out straight away. She very quickly found an empty pitch and left a big and messy deposit. It’s either the pâté or the bananas that Dud feeds her. It was a three bagger and I had to pick up a fair bit of gravel which left a gap. I filled that by raking the surrounding gravel back over it.

We then all went for a walk along the prom which is just across the road from the camp site. There are some board walks that extend out from the prom on to the beach with ramp access from the prom. Excellent facility so we took the wheelchair down there. Dud sat at the end of the boardwalk while I took Ellie for a walk down the beach – and introduced her to her second new ocean this holiday. (You can see why I failed Geography O level thinking that the Med is an ocean. It became a standing joke throughout the rest of the journey and we always referred to it as the ocean).

We had a good walk down the prom and then came back to the site and sat outside for a couple of hours in the sun.

A tea of sausage and rice and another episode of the Sopranos. Dud then went to bed early while Ellie and I went for another walk down the prom. I usually wear my high vis jacket because a lot of the places we stay, the street lighting is not great. I felt a bit of a tit here, though, because everywhere is well lit and it is also still warm so I was a bit overdressed.

We’d planned a relaxing day today but were dozing around 08:00 when Ellie jumped up against the end of the bed. She can’t get on the bed but, I’m sure, would if she could. Dud sat up and said that she was just standing against the door – something she doesn’t do usually.

I suspected that meant that she wanted to go out – especially in view of the shit episode yesterday so I got up and took her out. Sure enough, we’d not gone very far when my suspicion was confirmed. She did it just outside a MoHo and on the road. Another 3 bag job but there was still a mess on the road so I tried to wipe it up with my tissue and even used my handkerchief (which I then put in the poo bag – didn’t think it would be very nice trying to clean my glasses with it after that!). It still wasn’t cleared up properly so I came back to the MoHo and took the watering can to the spot and tried to wash it away. Still no good so another trip back to the MoHo and I took a roll of kitchen towel. That did the job as best I could. I have no idea if the people in the MoHo could see what was going on but it would not have been pleasant watching this if they were having breakfast. I went back later in the day and you would not have been able to tell what had been there – but the MoHo had cleared off.

Poached egg on toast for breakfast. Main reason that I mention that is so that I can refer to it in future. I set the timer for 5 minutes but chickened out at 4. They were almost perfect but possibly could have done with slightly longer so I reckon 4 1/2 minutes in future.

We have new neighbours – a Swiss couple and their dog. When we arrived yesterday, the next pitch had been taped off. I took that to mean that it was under repair for whatever reason so I was annoyed when I saw the woman undoing the tape. Turns out they are regulars here and intend to stay for around 6 months and have stayed on that pitch before so it must have been reserved for them. There are a few others taped off so looks like some more long termers are on their way.

I had had a “you don’t see many Airedales” conversation with a British lady on a walk in the morning and I ended up chatting to her. Turns out she and husband are also long termers and they spend the winter on this site. They had a nice fifth wheel outfit. I’m usually impressed with them – they look very flash – but they are basically caravans so would not be interested in actually having one.

I mentioned to the woman that the place looks like a bit of shanty town and she agreed. Evidently, Spanish people park up their old caravans here and then add bits and bobs but they are not here all the time so the place becomes weather beaten. Re the long termers, I don’t think that I would like to stay here for months. It’s not a bad place and being able to cross just one road and then be on the prom is great – but not that great. Two days is enough for us.

I’ve emptied the toilet and used the new chemical so we will find out if I’ve bought the correct type. I’m sure I have. I also spilt some on the disposal point floor so ended up using the mop that was in there to clean up. I bet everyone thought I had spilt some shit on the floor but, honestly, it was just chemical. (Today’s post is becoming a shit-oriented post!).

We got the washing machine out for only the second time. The wash was more manageable than we did previously – we didn’t cram too much washing in and we didn’t put too must powder in so it all went ok.

We all went for another walk down the prom in the afternoon. We went away from Motril this time but the prom actually ends in a short distance in the direction. We sat for a while and then walked back towards Motril for a way.

We got back to the site and spent a couple of hours sitting and reading outside the MoHo. We’ve seen on Facebook that some of the area around the France/Spain border is covered in snow. Something to look forward to now that we are effectively on our way back – or, at least, we will be tomorrow.

Tuna pasta for tea for Dud and I. Just dried stuff for Ellie in the hope that her stomach settles. She certainly seemed settled on our evening walk down the prom – again.

We’d both gone to bed reasonably early last night so we woke a bit earlier this morning. I got up around 08:00 and, as usual, made the first cup of tea of the day. Our new neighbours next door were also up and I could hear the dull thud of their radio.

A walk for Ellie and I along the beach and I’m pleased to report that her motions are on the way to getting back to normal. I let her off the lead because no-one else was around and she ate at least two tissues before I could stop her. We turned back to go back to the camp site and there was another dog walker heading our way. Turned out it was the Swiss guy who is our neighbour. Ellie had already been introduced to his dog the day before and she went up to him today to see if he would play but we was having none of it and almost ignored here – he does look as if he is getting on a bit.

Back to the MoHo and I started to get stuff ready for moving on and also did breakfast. I took the toilet cassette to empty it and again spilt the newly purchased chemical on the floor. I had to do the mopping exercise again.

We serviced the MoHo – the grey waste is flowing really well for some reason now – but it still took ages to empty. We then got on the road heading firstly in the direction of Almeria. We are still two days ahead of ourselves on my original provisional route. I had originally planned to stop at Almeria and the stop after that would be Cartagena (pronounced – as corrected by my English friend that I had met the day before – Cartahena). But Cartagena would be over 200 miles which I did not fancy so we decided to head in that general direction and see where we ended up.

We had an early decision to make in that the satnav was directing us to Almeria on the Autovia and Dud had said that she wanted to go on the coast road – the N340. We decided to follow her route and I’m pleased that we did because we ended up driving through some pleasant villages but, more importantly, we drove along the coast road which skirted some spectacular coastal roads. Amazingly, there were plenty of rest stops with great views. We took advantage of one of them to have a drink and a look round. I needed the break because my vertigo kept kicking in on some the viaducts and the hairpin bends.

Eventually, we did join the Autovia so we could get some miles in. You drive through miles and miles of polytunnels. Sometimes, all you can see is polythene.

We passed Almeria and stopped at a rare service station for lunch and for a diesel refuel.

The ACSI map showed a couple of sights at Aguilas so we decided to head there. I had hoped that we would come off the Autovia and get back on to a coast road but the satnav took us to Lorca and then straight to Aguilas without even touching the coast. At least, that gave us the opportunity for a shop since we pulled in to a Carrefour.

We picked one of the ACSI sites and I rang them to see if they could fit us in. The woman who answered was English so that made the process easier. After finishing the shopping, we set off for the site which took under an hour to get to.

We had to make a stop before we got to the site because Ellie was getting quite agitated and appeared to be in some discomfort. I pulled in and took her out but nothing was forthcoming so we carried on the last mile or so to the camp site.

Looks a lovely site. We parked up and had a tea of chicken in a Sharwood’s Jalfrezi sauce which I had bought at the Carrefour (very Spanish).

On our morning walk, we went out on to the road and walked past some nearby poly tunnels. There were no crops so presumably recently harvested. The soil looked as though it wasn’t much more than dirt so difficult to see what would grow there.

As we were walking past one of the farms, a cat shot across the road and Ellie barked. With that, a couple of scrawny little dogs came from within the farm and started barking back at Ellie. A few seconds later, a German Shepherd joined them. They looked to be well fenced in but you never know. It was Ellie’s fault for barking at the cat. When we turned round and went past again, the German Shepherd was waiting for us and it carried on barking and running along the fence. It was then joined by another one so Ellie’s tail was really between her legs – and I was working out what I would do if they actually got free – not sure what conclusion I came to but I didn’t have to do anything anyway because the fence held them.

We were passed by 3 groups of cyclists out for their Saturday morning ride. Being in the mountains, this is, presumably, good cycling country.

We walked back past the camp site and carried on down the road – mainly to find out where the rubbish bins are. The camp site deliberately does not have its own bins in an attempt to keep down the number of flies. Given the high volume of flies that we experienced anyway, it doesn’t bear thinking about how many more there would be if the presence of bins meant that their numbers would increase.

Across the road to the camp site is a large field of what look like they could be lettuces. As we got to the bins, we could see activity in the field and it looked like they were harvesting the lettuces. It was fascinating in that there was a mobile unit that had shelter over lots of the workers (from the sun presumably) and they appeared to be picking the crop, trimming in and placing the end result in trays. There were other workers stacking the trays and there was a tractor picking up the stacks and putting them into an articulated refrigerated trailer. It looked like back-breaking work. Nearby, there were piles of clothes and packing up bags – presumably for when they were allowed a break. I suspect those lettuces will be in shops around Europe within a couple of days.

There were loads of people – all with high-vis vests and high-vis caps. Some vests and caps were yellow and some were orange. I suspect the colours signify some kind of hierarchy. There must have been around 50 people working – on a Saturday. We live on a farm which has (I’m guessing) around 500 acres and the work is all done by the farmer and a couple of contractors. I think I pay around 60p for a lettuce and that is after farmers and transport costs and Tesco’s profit. I wonder how much these people – presumably immigrant labour – are paid per lettuce.

As you can see from the video, I filmed some of it but I was slightly concerned that they might think I was an immigration official or something so I didn’t hang about (do you get immigration officials in shorts and tee shirt and walking airedale terriers?)

We had fused the electrics. I don’t think I had too much load on but I may be wrong. I could see the breaker through the plastic cover but I had no idea how to remove that cover. It wasn’t a problem for us because I just used the other socket but I reported it to the woman in the office when I went to pay for the two nights.

After that, we sat outside. Temperature must have been nudging 20 deg. After a while, a workman came along and he removed some kind of stake from the next door pitch. I’m not sure why he was doing that but I mentioned the electrics to him. After some coming and going, he sorted the fuse buy we ended up chatting to him for quite a while. He and his wife were originally from Middlesboro so Dud mentioned about teaching at Berwick Hills. Interesting chat.

We had decided earlier that we would not be moving today so we stayed sitting outside. Dud started to wilt a bit so I put the awning out. It always annoys me that I can never get the awning as taut as others seem to – I even looked at some YouTube videos on Fiamma awnings but they didn’t tell me anything.

We had the stake out so that Ellie could be outside but she wanted to stay in the MoHo. I assume that was cooler for her but we both felt quite sad when we were sitting outside and we could see her looking through the fly screen across the door.

I had worn my Town shirt earlier but changed it because it was too hot. Is that the reason that we lost 2-0 away to Exeter? Probably not but it niggles away at the back of your mind.

A pleasant tea of corazones de filete do merluza – which translates to hearts of fillet of hake. I had bought these in the Carrefour and they were very tasty.

I thought that we might be watching some F1 and some MotoGP tonight because I had set the dish to lock on to Astra 1 – but nothing would work so we reset to Astra 2 and ended up watching Sky News again – and another episode of the Sopranos.

Moving on, again, tomorrow.

The fly screens on the MoHo are very effective but it’s inevitable that there are times when the one across the door is open – eg when lifting the wheelchair in or out – so, inevitably, files get in. For the past few days, one of the first activities in the morning is zapping the flies with the electric shocker zapping device that we bring. I killed a few flies this morning but I think the batteries may need renewing because I think the force of the swatter was killing them rather than the electric shock.

Went by the lettuce field first thing but no sign of activity today. I suspect the Spanish respect the Sabbath in a similar way to the French. I’ve commented before that that’s not a bad thing.

We set off reasonably early. For us reasonably early is 11:00. We headed into Aguilas just to see if there was anything to see. There was some kind of castle on a rock but, other than that, it was just a town so we set the satnav for Cartagena and, after going through some rough looking areas, headed for there.

It looked like the satnav was going to take us on Autovia all the way so we turned off and took a more direct but slower route that took us through some good scenery.

We stopped for lunch just before we got to Cartagena. I think we were in a restaurant car park. There were a couple of busses – one of which we parked next to. I was half expecting a knock on the door telling us to clear off if we were not going to use the restaurant – but that didn’t happen.

We drove into Cartagena in a similar way to what we had done in Aguilas. There didn’t seem to be a lot to and the traffic was fairly heavy so we doubled back on a roundabout I(which we only spotted today is a ‘rotunda’) and headed in the general direction of Alicante. We actually set the satnav for Torrevieja because we thought that would get us off the motorway. It did and we went past areas where there was an ‘Indian Restaurant’ and ” other names in English *** get some more off the video **** which was an indication of the target audience of the area – ie ex-pat Brits.

We headed out of Torrevieja and pulled into the car park of a county park and set the satnav for a site from the ACSI book. I tried to ring them but the ‘phone was engaged. Seeing as though we were only 6 miles away, we set off and decided to take our chance.

The satnav – or the co-ordinates from the ACSI book – played up again and we went round in circles when we were supposed to be close to the site. We double checked the co-ordinates and I had keyed them in correctly but recalcs still were far from clear. I then used the ACSI search facility of the satnav and that gave us a different route – which we took and which lead us to the actual site.

Some big MoHo’s on site and, what is becoming, the usual concentration of Brits. Being a member of the EU gives Brits the right to live here but who knows what will happen after Brexit is sorted. I suspect the local economies would suffer without Brits staying the winter but who knows what will happen.

Once we’d parked up, Ellie and I went for a walk and we followed the signs from outside the site to La Playa. The fact that it was signposted lead us to believe that it was reasonably close – but it was at least a mile and a half away.

Tea of risotto – again.

We could not get the satellite to lock so we watched the final episode of the Sopranos. I’ve enjoyed watching them back to back.

Relaxing day today. Ellie and I went down to the beach again and I let her off the lead because there was no-one else about. I picked up a piece wood to play fetch but she wasn’t interested. Then I saw her pick up what I thought was her own stick but she did her “I know you’ll take this off me so I’m going to run away from you” act so I was a bit suspicious. I was right to be because what she had actually found was a dead fish! Luckily, I got it off her before she could start to eat it. It wasn’t a freshly dead fish by the looks.

After breakfast, we had a supermarket run. There was a Mercadona close to the site but they are not very inspiring and we had seen a sign for a Carrefour (which are also not exciting but they are much better stocked). It was in Santa Pola and we found from the satnav that that was 10 miles away – so we settled for the Mercadona.

We got back and had some lunch. For me, an open sandwich with cured ham, a slice of cheese, anchovy and some sriracha sauce – a real winner which I may patent. I tried to get the dish to lock on again but it wouldn’t so I gave up. That caused one of the neighbours to knock on the door and tell me that the likely cause was the tree in line of the satellite. I’d already realised that but it was good of him to help. He also said that there was a feed through the service bollard. I had seen this and we have a co-ax cable. It’s not uncommon for caravan club sites to have bad reception so they provide a signal through various points on the site. I connected the cable but it didn’t do any good because I was unsure how to tune the tv – do you select Spain as the source country or what?

We then all went for a walk to the beach. The sign outside the camp site points to the playa – which makes you think it’s not far – but it’s about a mile and half away. And it’s down some un-made road – not very easy with a wheelchair.

Dud parked up on the boardwalk because the wheelchair would get bogged down in the sand. Ellie and went to the sea. There were four or five couples each in their own separate area sheltered behind wind breaks. I looked at the first couple and thought that he must have really tiny trunks on – but then he stood up and he actually had no trunks on. His wife was similarly attired. Looked like some of the other couples were the same. I’ve been on nudist beaches before and it’s always difficult not to look – however much you might want to. We hadn’t seen any signs that it was a nudist beach but this web site confirms that it is.

Back on the MoHo and we walked past the open-air pool. It looked so inviting and I was quite hot so I mind my mind up I was going for a swim. I took Dud back to the MoHo and put my trunks on and off I went. There was no-one in the pool so I stripped off and started to climb one of the steps. I always think that the best way is just to dive in – that’s the quickest way to get over the shock of the cold water – but I wasn’t sure of the depth so I didn’t. I still got in fairly quickly and it was very, very cold. Normally, the cold hits you and then then you quickly adjust and it usually feels refreshing. This didn’t. I think I know how the people on the Titanic felt. I gave it a few minutes but I think that if I had given it any longer, then hypothermia would have kicked in. Probably not but it was not fun so I got straight out again. Still, if I hadn’t done it, I know I would have regretted it later.

We had steak for tea and then watched “As good as it gets” – a favourite of mine.

On our walk this morning, I actually felt cold. I had put a jumper on rather than a t-shirt but I still had shorts on. Other early-morning dog-walkers had coats and scarves on. Still an almost cloudless sky so I was confident it would warm up later in the day.

The pitches (or parcela as we call them in Spanish) have a disposal point on them. When we checked in, the señorita had said that the chemical disposal points were on the parcela. I even double checked with her later. So, yesterday, I had emptied the toilet down there but still wasn’t 100% sure that was the right thing (bit late once you’ve done it!). We needed to empty it again this morning so I saw my tv advising friend and went and asked him if it was correct. He confirmed that you can empty grey and black (brown) waste down there. So I did. Unfortunately, the pipe was too high for the grey waste to syphon effectively so we still had to go to a service point before we left to empty that.

Dud’s sister, Mary, used to have an apartment in the Alicante area and I had texted her last night to tell her that we were in this area. She texted back with directions how to get to the apartment. Part of the directions were on the route that we took out of the campsite. We could see a restaurant that she mentioned but nothing after that. We never visited the apartment because of my work commitments so it would have been nice to see it now – but it could have taken ages so we pressed on.

We got to Alicante and I set the satnav to Benidorm. We had no intention of staying there but I was curious as to what it looked like. I envisage being able to drive down the prom as I would at Cleethorpes but when we got there, I decided against because it looked horrendous with all of the high-rise buildings.

We were on the N332 which follows some good local scenery. At one point, I spotted what I thought was a young girl sitting at the side of the road – I wasn’t sure why. As we drove past, I could see that she wasn’t a young girl but was a bit older. Then we saw another – and another. I realised then that they were prostitutes – a bell was ringing about seeing this reported on one of the forums/Facebook. If Dud had not been with me, I may have checked it out more closely – all in the interests of research, you understand. Interesting how they sit on those white plastic seats that you see everywhere in the world.

We pulled in off the road (as you have to since there are no laybys/aires) and had some lunch and then set the satnav for one of the sites in the ACSI book. I had no expectation that it would actually lead us there and I was not disappointed. We tried a couple with the same effect. Nearby to where one of them should have been (but it actually turned out to be a golf club!), the satnav showed a Caravan Club site. We pulled in but could see no reception even though there appeared to be people staying on the site.

We let the satnav pick the nearest ACSI site and got there and booked a parcela. A German had checked in just before us and he picked a similar parcela but he had parked in a place that made it very difficult for us to get into our spot. I made it eventually with the German waving and directing us – even though I didn’t really need help.

Ellie and I went for a walk on the nearby beach. There was a sign saying no dogs so I completely ignored it. The beach is quite pleasant if you look south. If you look north, you see what appears to be a major container port. On our return to the campsite, I spoke to our German neighbour. He had a big teddy bear sat in his passenger seat for whatever reason. Turns out he was flying back to Germany from Valencia and was going to park up his MoHo somewhere and return to it in January next year.

We had a tea of chicken frittata – without any spills this time and then watched England v Brazil on ITV. I suspect I fell asleep during the game – something I achieve for most England games. At one point, if England were playing, I would be amongst the many people who would have the Cross of St George flags flying on the car. Nowadays, I have about as much passion for England games as the players seem to have.

First morning for ages where it actually felt cold so I put on a jumper. Ellie and I went for a walk on the beach. She seemed in a bit of distress at one point and was limping. I checked the pads of her paws but couldn’t feel anything. She was still struggling and held out her paw. I then felt a burr of some kind between her claws. It was actually painful for me trying to remove it so it must have been hurting her. It will all ok after that.

While we were out, we saw our German neighbour who was out jogging on the beach.

We got back and had breakfast. I hate to confess but we then sat and watched Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning – and then even watched a bit of Loose Women (who has been giving Stacey Solomon elocution lessons?).

I did various servicing and bin emptying duties and then we all went for a walk along the beach. Dud actually put on her cardigan because it was a bit chilly out of the sun. We spent some time watching a couple of surfers. I don’t think I would enjoy that – 10 minutes swimming against the waves and then 3 seconds on your surf board before you fall off and then repeat the process.

Earlier on, our German neighbour had given us some Magnum type ice creams. He is flying back to Germany tomorrow and leaving his MoHo here until he comes back again in January. He will be turning off the freezer so the ice cream will go to waste. We each had one when we got back from the walk.

We didn’t sit out for very long. It’s still warm but not as warm as it has been.

We had a tea of Lasagne and baked beans and then watched tv. We have ITV again so Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

A brisk walk by the ocean for Ellie and I first thing. It was quite cool – jumper on – and the waves were not as fierce as yesterday.

As I was winding in the EHU cable, our German neighbour came over and asked if we liked tomatoes. He is flying back to Germany today from Valencia so his tomatoes would either rot or go on the bin. I wanted to ask him if he had any beer or wine that he wanted to get rid of but didn’t do that in case my attempt at humour got lost in translation.

After breakfast and after servicing the MoHo, we set off north. We followed Autovia for a lot of the way and turned off into a service area for lunch. Whilst we were eating (another of my brilliant cured ham, cheese, anchovy and sriracha sauce open sandwiches), a lorry pulled that was carrying live chickens. When I took Ellie out for a quick walk, the smell of chickens from this lorry was pretty strong but they looked to be quite seriously packed in and the noises did not sound as if they were enjoying themselves. I’m not sure of the logistics and economics of transporting live chickens but it didn’t look right to me – says he with a couple of huge chicken breasts in the freezer!

We had set the satnav to Peñiscola (snigger – but the Spanish pronunciation is probably PenyithCoola) but that was only just over 100 miles so I thought we may get further. As it turned out, it was about the right distance.

We headed into Peñiscola because we needed supermarket – we had used our last bread (and wine and beer but that’s not important). We came across a Mercadona – which is only a small step up from Lidl but we didn’t want to spend any time looking for decent supermarkets so it would have to do.

When I’d done the shop, we set the satnav for an ACSI site and got there within 8 or 9 miles. We booked for one night so that we can suss it out before committing to more than one night.

The pitches are not the biggest but we got in sideways – with the help of our Dutch neighbour. We are pitched up sideways on so that needed some careful manouevring – we have inches to spare front and back.

Ellie and I went for an explore. We can see the Med from the MoHo window but on the walk, we found out that we on are on a sort of cliff and the beach below is stones and not sand. Regardless, we walked down the beach towards what looked like the town. Ellie had a couple of close calls where she nearly got her feet wet. I’ve said it before but I’m puzzled that she will dive into ditches near where we live but she will avoid the tide like the plague.

Back at the MoHo, we had a couple of issues with the electrics. I’ve since seen that it only 6 Amps – which is next to nothing but we seem to have hit on a good compromise – which means the fridge and the heating are on gas.

Another major event is that we can get Sky – or, at least, some of the channels. Shortly after parking up, I switched on the satellite dish. It locked on pretty quickly. I thought I would try and see if the Sky box would work – first time since we were in France. It does on some channels – but not all. We can’t get BBC or ITV but we can get the premium movies and sport channels.

Tea was defrosted mince as a base for a type of ragout – including using the tomatoes that our German fried had given us. Use of Bovril again made it very tasty.

Having Sky Movies available, we started to watch Jason Bourne (2016). Sue went to bed after 30 minutes or so and after 45 minutes or so, I started to wonder why I was watching this so I switched off, parked the dish and Ellie and I went for our late night walk.

Not a bad night’s sleep. There is a cockerel on the small-holding next door and it sounds more like someone is strangling it. I’d half expected to be woken up by that but we weren’t.

We decided last night that we would stay another night so my first job was to nip to the commandants’ office to pay. Turns out the site is owned by a British couple and they’ve owned it for the last thirty odd years. Their daughter was working the counter so language was not an issue.

A walk along the beach followed. It was already warm but still there were people in jackets and scarves. There were also a few (me included) in shorts and t-shirt – they are presumably the Brits. There is a gate out of the campsite and then you only have to cross a side road and you are on what is effectively a cliff top to the beach – albeit only a small cliff! The beach itself is then primarily pebbles so none of that is any good for a wheelchair so we went through the campsite and out of the front gate to check if the road lead to the beach – which it did so we had a route for a walk later on with Dud.

After breakfast, we sat outside and had to try and keep Ellie from barking and disturbing everyone – not always successfully. She sees any dog within a hundred yards as fair game to bark at.

After lunch, we all went out along the route that I’d checked earlier. There’s not actually a lot to see – in fact, there’s nothing to see – but still nice being warm and in the sun mid-November.

Dud’s tea was the ragout from last night and I had the tin of chickpeas and chorizo that I’d bought at the supermarket because I thought it might have been baked beans. Added a bit of chorizo and some Philly – very nice.

Nice to have a bit of choice on the Sky box – we even watched an episode of Broken (the Jimmy McGovern series with Sean Bean as the priest) that I’d recorded but not seen. Good program. It’s Children in Need night on BBC. Would have been to watch that but we’ve not seen BBC all the time we’ve been here.

We were woken up at 07:30 by animal noises. It was the animal in our motorhome barking. The German couple who had parked opposite were taking their two dogs for a walk and Ellie must have heard/smelt them (the dogs, that is). I got up and calmed here and she went back on to her bad. We were just nodding off when she started again because they were coming back from their walk. Nearly 08:00 and we planned to be travelling today so I got up.

It was actually the second time I’d got up this morning. Sue went to the loo in the night and I needed to go as well. In fact, I needed to go quite badly so I decided not to wait for her and went outside and peed round the back of the MoHo. I must have looked a right sight at 04:00 stood there in my boxers!

Unusual sight of a horse and cart on the beach. The bloke looked to be doing a bit of foraging for something. I normally take my camera just in case but, sod’s law, I didn’t have it with me this morning.

We made the decision last night that we would head home so yesterday would be our last relaxing day. When you know you have a long journey ahead, I find it difficult to relax and so why spend another day in Northern Spain. When we were emptying the grey waste from the MoHo, our Dutch neighbours walked past the service point and we talked about where we were both going. They were heading to just outside Barcelona and then a final location in Spain before heading back to Holland. They seemed quite relaxed about taking their time going back so maybe that ability to relax will come as I get into retirement (semi-retirement).

Just after setting off, the police were blocking the road. We could see a couple of lorries and a bus all with hazards flashing but there didn’t appear to be any sore of accident. Anyway, they were making traffic do a u-turn. The Guardia Civil man did a good job of helping us do the u-turn – waving his arms and blowing his whistle.

Shortly after, we came upon a Carrefour so we did what I suspect will be our final shop in Spain.

We passed some more ladies of the night sat at the roadside on their plastic chairs.

We wanted to get north of Barcelona – which we did. The ring road was strange in places with mountains to the left of us and then a big container port and other port related industries to the right.

We set the satnav for the nearest ACSI site in the direction we were heading. We passed it on the opposite carriageway and it was closed. We then did what we maybe should have done before setting off in that we started to check other sites in the area in the ACSI book – and nearly all of them were closed. We had learned on the way down that a lot of the sites close but nearly all of the ones on the Med in the areas we visited were open all year. I had assumed that would be the case with the ones in the north on the coast – but it clearly isn’t.

We eventually found a site in the book that was open all year to we set the co-ordinates for there – 59 miles. It was around 17:00 so that would another hour and a half. I thought it worth checking the “All the Aires” book and there was one that appeared to open all year round and it was only 10 miles away.

We set the satnav again for there and eventually got to the town. I’ve come to mistrust the satnav when using co-ordinates in view of what’s happened this break. It’s not the satnav – that is spot on – it’s the actual co-ordinates given. I thought that was the case here because we were in what looked like an area of apartments. We paused at a junction and an old bloke was stood there watching the world go by. He could see we weren’t sure where to go and he pointed down the narrow street where the satnav was actually taking us. It was correct and there was the aire and there was a sign saying “Open 365 days a year” and we could see that there was room. What we couldn’t see was a way in so we kept going on and went all of the way round and eventually ended up back with the old man – who again pointed down the same street. We tried again and I could see a gap so I was going to pull in check but this time, the gate was open. I suspect the owner/manager had seen us driving round and had opened the gate.

We found a decent pitch (parcela) – no electric but we can live with that. The owner/manager is a pleasant bloke with excellent English. The aire looks as if will take around 30 MoHo’s. We are on grass but the cloudless skies would suggest there is little chance of rain.

Tea of pizza. No electric so no Sky box tonight. Freesat will not let us get ITV so it was a night of watching Sky News – which gets a bit repetitive after a couple of hours.

On Ellie and I’s late night walk, we found out how to get to the prom. The road runs along the front but there’s a train line between the road and the prom. I think the train goes right into Barcelona. There are a number of underpasses that take you under the train line – at least one of them has a good wheelchair slope. I suspect we won’t all go for a walk tomorrow because we want to get the miles in and get into France. Narbonne is the minimum objective.

A quiet night’s sleep. I had expected it to be noisy because the aire is in the middle of what I think is a residential area – lots of apartment blocks. Last evening, there were a couple of cars doing the rounds with noisy exhausts but no noise in the night.

Early morning walk for Ellie and I on the prom. There were a lot of people about: power walking, jogging, cycling and dog walking. Apart from some of the joggers, I was the only one wearing shorts – though I did have my cagoule on.

On the way back to the MoHo and dog walker with two dogs appeared out of one of the underpasses and one of his dogs was an Airedale. He had reasonable English and we had a bit of a chat. His dog was a male but was smaller than Ellie and he commented on that. It was a good Airedale ginger, though – unlike Ellie who is more blond. I made a fuss of the dog. I kicked myself afterwards that I didn’t get a picture – and I had the camera with me. I also felt guilty that I completely ignored his other dog – a while large poodle’ish breed. I’m not sure that the other dog was that bothered.

We went to service the MoHo before leaving and the fresh water tap needed a jeton. It said that these are available from the commandant so I went to his office only to see a sign that he would not be there until 18:00. The tap had two options: the jeton or €1 for 50 litres. I had little choice but to put in a Euro. It gave out nothing like 50 litres and it eventually cost me €4 to fill the tank. Hardly the most expensive item but it’s the first time I’ve seen this type of practice.

We drove out of Spain avoiding the motorways and ended up driving through a town close to the border that looked like a big service station. There were loads of lorries parked up – Sunday so they would not be travelling – and lots of cars. It was almost like a duty free, “get your stuff here before you cross into France” type set up. Silly thing was, there was a similar thing as soon as you got on to the French side of the border. Given the two countries are EU and both are Schengen so there are no border controls, difficult to see what these places were.

We stopped for lunch and then headed towards Perpignan. We had pencilled in a possible visit to my brother in law who lives in Tautavel near Perpignan but I found out from Sue, his wife, that he would not be there until end of November. When we found that out, we did not know for sure when we would be passing but now that we knew that we would miss him, I messaged Sue to let her know. Disappointing, really, because it would have been good to see where he lives.

Once we got through Perpignan, I changed the settings on the satnav to use toll roads and we soon ended up on the autoroutes so that we could get some miles in. After a while, I turned off the autoroute so that we could pull over and pick an actual aire or camp site. I ended up taking a wrong turn off a roundabout and panicked a bit when we reached a section of road that had a 2.2m width limit – we are 2.4, Luckily, I could pull into a shop car park and turn round.

We picked out a couple of potential airs but changed out mind on route when we saw that we were nearer to some others that we had seen. We ended up seeing an aire sign telling us to follow the road to Le Bosc but while we were on that road, we passed a Camping that looked open so we pulled in there. We drove round the site – nothing spectacular but we just wanted an overnight so we checked in.

It’s not really set up for MoHo’s – or for tuggers either. I asked about chemical toilet disposal and he told me (in French) that it was in the main toilet block but there is no specific disposal point so I suspect he was telling me to just empty in in there – which I will do. He said there was no MoHo service point so we’ll have to sort that out at a service station on the autoroute tomorrow.

Tea of chicken pasta again – that could be the third time this trip – but it was still delicious.

We are heading to Clermont-Ferrand tomorrow and that will take us over the Millau viaduct. That will be a real test of my fear of heights but something I am looking forward to. I have googled and can see no record of any driver passing out while driving over it so we will see.

I did a silly thing when we had had breakfast and were ready to set off – I moved forward forgetting that I had put the front offside wheel on a block yesterday to level it off a bit. Clattered the underside a bit but there doesn’t appear to be any damage.

I had to empty the toilet in a normal toilet in what I took to be the gent’s toilet/washroom. There was no sign on either of the washroom but I took this to be the gents because there was no outside door on it – women wouldn’t tolerate that, would they? Also, there were no toilet seats so perhaps a throwback to the toilette turque that used to be commonplace it France some years back.

Plus, there was no vidange (drain) for the grey waste and the fresh water tap (I assumed it was fresh) had no threaded tap to allow us to directly fill up. All in all, a very uninspiring camping and not at all set up for MoHo’s – but it served a purpose.

We got back on to the A75 and headed north toward the Millau viaduct. As with every other day for the last three weeks, there was barely a cloud in the sky so I was getting quite excited and quite nervous.

As we approached the viaduct, we were climbing a lot. We reached around 2,800 feet and, at one point, we could see what appeared to be a cloud attached to the hillside. It was to our left so did not affect us. Unfortunately, as we approached the viaduct, there was another cloud directly ahead of us and completely obscuring any view of the viaduct or of the views below. In fact, it was very restricted viewing and I could barely see ten yards in front of us. I suspect I would have been very dizzy and it may have been an ordeal but I would have liked the opportunity to see it. Huge disappointment. There is an aire on the north side of the viaduct which, I am told, gives good views of it. It would have been a waste of time going in there because of the fog/cloud. Within a couple of miles of the viaduct we came out of the cloud and it was as clear as a bell again.

We stopped for a cup of tea and the temperature gauge was showing three degrees. I put the cagoule on but still had shorts – bit chilly, though.

We drove on through the Massif Central and there were some spectacular views. We did a fair bit of climbing and reached just short of 3,700 feet (the satnav can display elevation).

We stopped at a couple of service stations because Dud was short of wine. First one was a dead loss but the second had advertised “Produits de la Région” so I thought we would be on to a winner there – and we were. Problem is, I could spend ages in that sort of place. I know it’s a tourist trap but the different meats and other foods that they display makes me really feel as though I am in France. Ended up with some bottles of local wine and a spicy sausage (ooh matron!).

I wanted to reach Clermont-Ferrand which we did and we had picked out an aire at St Marcel en Murat. There were no other MoHo’s on the aire so we parked up and had a tea of Spanish skinless sausages.

We can get ITV again on Freesat so we watched (or rather I slept through) Emmerdale and a couple of Coronation Streets.

The village appears to be the square that we are parked in, the Mairie, a restaurant and a couple of other buildings that appear to be council type buildings. I’m sure there’s some houses somewhere but the street lighting is non-existent and we could what sounded like a big dog barking so our late night walk was centred very much around the MoHo.

Bit of a shock this morning to wake up to frost. A significant moment in that I put my jeans on and put the shorts and t-shirt in the wash bag.

This is a lovely spot but there doesn’t appear to be many houses in the village. We walked around and there’s the Mairie, a restaurant, some other council-type buildings and the church with a war memorial outside (which we could see through the trees lit up last night). The way the French provide the aires is great but I sometimes wonder why they do it – I’m pleased that they do because I love this type of spot.

When I took the blind off the windscreen, I had to scrape ice off it. If it were not for the blind, that would have been on the windscreen so I suspect condensation would have been horrendous. As it was, there was none.

As we were getting ready to service the MoHo and set off, a pickup turned up and 4 blokes got out and gave a job a serious coat of looking at. Turns out they were planting a row of hedges along one side of the car park. We had to put the MoHo in their way a bit to get it on the service point but they didn’t seem to mind.

The bourne is a Euro Relais 2 – probably the most popular kind so we have spare jetons for that. I put one in and pressed the fresh water tap – and nothing. It was still very cold but I doubted that the water was frozen because the wc water tap was working fine – as were the sprays for the black waste disposal. I suspect that the wc water and the drinking water are from the same source so both potable but people (including me) stick the spout of the wc tap into the top of the cassette so it’s the metal part of the tap that is probably the issue rather than the water itself.

We have some more jetons but I thought it would be a waste of time trying another one. Last night, I had checked the notice on the door of the Mairie and it had said that they were open lundi, jeudi and vendredi. I couldn’t remember whether jeudi was Tuesday (ie today) or Thursday so I went to see if there was anyone there – and there was – even though jeudi is Thursday! I bought another couple of jetons (€2 each) and tried one of them. My thinking was that the jetons might be specific to that particular bourne – but that thinking was flawed because the one that I had just bought didn’t work either.

I went back and told the woman – more to let her know than anything else – but she rang a couple of people who didn’t seem to provide a definitive answer and so she came out to the bourne and tried a couple more jetons – again, nothing. I have read that some of them are turned off in the winter so maybe that was the issue here. Anyway, she gave me back the jetons that I had lost and we set off without taking on any water – for the second day. We’re down to a few litres but it’s not really an issue because we have plenty of bottled water that we can use for tea and coffee and who needs to wash, anyway?

We got back on to the autoroute and Ellie seemed to be distressed. She had also had bad wind (though maybe that was Dud and she was just blaming Ellie) so we pulled into an aire and I took her (Ellie) for a walk. Nothing was forthcoming so we got back to the MoHo and on we went.

We really needed to get some mileage in today to make Gravelines a reality for Wednesday night but Dud mentioned about a vet for Ellie – which I had completely forgotten about. So we pulled into another aire south of Bourges and I googled “veterinary bourges france”. I rang the first vet that came up and the receptionist said that we could have an appointment tomorrow. I asked if we could have one today and she offered 15:00 hours. I said that we wanted to be on the move by then and she then gave us a rendezvous at 13:30 – which I could see from the web site was when they started again after lunch. That was perfect given that it was currently around 12:00 and it would take us best part of an hour to get there.

We set off again and the satnav took us straight there. We parked up just down the road from the vet and after a cup of coffee it was time for the appointment. There were a few other people waiting – on foot and in cars – because the barrier to the vet’s yard was closed. Eventually, a good few minutes after 13:30, someone official turned up and opened the barrier.

We all went into the waiting area. Guess whose dog was the one barking, sniffing at everything and wanting to make contact with all of the other animals waiting.

Eventually, we were called in. The vet had no English but I managed quite well with my French. Ellie got the “comprimée vermifuge” (worming tablet) and he also gave her tick treatment. He did not have tick treatment individually but only in a pack of four so we had to pay for that. €37.50 for the lot so that was not too bad given that we have three tick treatments that we can use back home. He stamped Ellie’s passport so we will be ok (hopefully) going back home through the tunnel. I mentioned to the vet that I hoped that it would still be this convenient post Brexit. Who knows?

We got going yet again but we were both a bit peckish so we pulled in at an aire yet again. Another cured ham/cheese/anchovy/sriracha mayonnaise open sandwich for me.

The motorway was taking us toward Paris via Orleans. Looking in the “All the Aires” book, surprisingly, there aren’t that many around Paris so I suggested to Dud that we head for one near Orleans and stay there the night but set off early in the morning – still aiming for Gravelines on Wednesday night.

We are playing the radio station Nostalgie in France. In Spain, we played Kiss FM. They both play lots of British oldies. They also both carry lots of ads – including lots of “Black Friday” ads. They don’t translate into their own language – it’s “Black Friday” mixed into their respective language.

The satnav took us straight to the aire. We took on fresh water as soon as we arrived. There were a couple of French vans here already – one of them had his engine running and the bonnet up – not sure why but it looked a bit seedy so we parked away from him. We find that, if there are no lines marking out the parking places, then just park wherever you want – so we did.

Again, there are all kinds of public buildings around. The aire is next to an extensive park with a big lake and a fine building housing the local library. The Mairie is also close by as is a kids’ school.

A tea of hake fillets (again – I bought another one from the Spanish Carrefour). A bit of soap tv for Dud and I and some texting to our niece, Laura, because Town are playing Swindon and we went 1-0 up, then got to 1-2 down and eventually ended up winning 3-2.

I’ll set the alarm from 07:00 in the morning. We need to get to Gravelines and that’s around 250 miles so we need to press on. Still not decided whether we should go via Paris or via Le Mans.

The alarm went at 07:00. It seemed like a good idea last night to set it for this time – but in the cold light of morning, I decided to have another half hour in bed. We need to cover a fair distance today so we definitely need an early start.

Ellie and I went for walk around the adjacent park. It’s a good location and maybe worth a longer visit at some point. A couple of market stalls were setting up close to some of the council buildings. The veg stall was all set up and looked inviting but the fish and seafood stall next to it was in the process of setting up and that looked really promising.

We set off and were very soon back on the A21 and so stopped for breakfast. Another spell of driving and then we stopped for lunch.

We then ended up driving around Paris. We had earlier figured that, rather than cost ourselves going via Le Mans, why not risk Paris? Even if we got held up for an hour somewhere, that would still be quicker.

There was only standing traffic in one place and we got through there in around 20 minutes so, overall, a good decision – on this occasion. That doesn’t mean to say that we are advocating driving round Paris – we have had some bad experiences in the past.

We are still listening to Nostalgi – which means regular Police, Queen and Abba music and Black Friday ads.

As we approached Calais on the A26, we stopped at one of the last aires to fill up with diesel. At around €1.50 per litre, I’m not sure that it is any different to the price in the UK but regardless of that, it would mean that we would not have re-fuel again before we got home.

We got to Gravelines and went straight to the service point – which is not on the aire. This would be our last time for emptying/filling etc. I have to say that the chemical that we bought at Motril has been extremely effective – in spite of some of the challenges that we have given it.

When we arrived, there was only one other MoHo on the aire – we’ve never seen it so empty. Three or four more Moho’s turned up later on in the evening.

I went to the wine shop (which is still open despite my thoughts on our previous visit when it looked closed) and I also went into the old town to get some bread and croissants.

A tea of chicken pasta again (third time this trip). We are actually low on supplies and did not have time to stop and shop today – but we can make do with what we have.

It was a bit windy tonight. I put up the satellite dish and it locked on but I don’t like leaving it up if there is any wind so I put it back down and we didn’t have any tv tonight.

A bad night’s sleep. I’d put the satellite dish down last night shortly after we got here because the wind was getting up. During the night, it got a lot worse and the MoHo was getting buffeted about quite a lot. It was almost like being in a boat but the worst part was the thermal blind was getting blown and was flapping about.

Eventually, I had enough of the flapping and so got up around 04:00 and went out and took the blind in and used the internal Remis blinds. They have no thermal capability but they maintain privacy – and they are inside and so not affected by weather. Even then, the wind was that strong that it was rattling the roof vents – but that was not as bad as the blind flapping so I managed to get back off to a patchy sleep.

I woke up again around 06:30 and, since I had set the alarm for 07:00, we decided to get up anyway. We had no servicing to do on the MoHo having done it all the previous afternoon so after a quick cup of tea and a walk for Ellie (Ellie just had the walk, not the cup of tea!), we set off.

It was raining – not very heavy but this is the first rain that we have seen since Toledo.

I don’t usually bother with any sort of headlight beam adjustment. I set the beam as low as it will go but all that does is reduce or even eliminate any dazzle to drivers coming in the opposite direction. The road from Gravelines to the autoroute is quite narrow and has a lot of armco. Not having any beam to the kerb was a distinct pain in the backside and made driving quite difficult. We had quite a queue built up behind us (not that that bothers me).

We got to the Pets area at the tunnel and we were the only ones there so we got processed straight away. We went the automatic check in with no delay for a change and were straight through French passport control. The UK passport control were a bit more thorough but still didn’t take long.

Again, the wheelchair check put us in our own lane and we only had 5 minutes or so to wait and the barrier lifted and we were first on again. Again, no-one checked that we actually had a wheelchair.

Given the high winds, I was glad that we were not using a ferry. We wouldn’t anyway with Ellie but I suspect it would have been a very rough crossing.

Normally on Le Shuttle, you hardly notice that you are moving. For whatever reason, that was not the case today. We started with a jolt – I know that because I was stood up getting breakfast ready – and the rest of the crossing was not at all smooth. Dud struggled to drink her fruit juice because she could not hit her mouth with the glass! There was a notice on the web site and we heard something on the travel news that services on Le Shuttle were reduced because of some kind of maintenance work so maybe we were not on the same track as usual. Dud suggested that it was because of the high wind – which I dismissed at first but then wondered if it would have an effect on buffeting the train in the tunnel.

Usual boring journey down M20, M25, M11, A14 and A1. Normally, I get quite depressed going down the M20 because that signifies that the holiday is over and you are going home and will then go back to work. I didn’t feel that way today – most likely because I don’t have to go back to work – at least, not just yet and then not full time.

We arrived home to see the place covered in leaves. I had already cleared the initial lot of falling leaves but now all of the rest have fallen so that is a job over the next few days. As usual, Ellie went mad when I first let her out in the garden.

God willing, we will do something similar next year but we will probably not do as much travelling and will do like we do with France and pick a couple of areas to explore and stay more nights in any one place. Good break, though and a good experience.

I took Ellie on a late night walk and, as usual, we went down the lane on which we live. The fact that I had to fasten my jacket and put on gloves and a hat was a shock – back to normality.