So….For some- Life Goes on

At the last blog we had rushed home from southern Spain in time to see my mum Corinne before she sadly died of cancer on 24th February. Very bad, sad days for all of us. 

The next two months were therefore in turmoil for us and many family members. We were blessed with the generosity of the neighbours of Mum and Dads who let us park Ruby outside their homes and even more generously let us plug our electrics in to keep the winter chill out. Thank you.

Mum had ,managed to hold on for four days after we arrived there before dying peacefully in her own bed. RIP mom.

Afterwards we stayed very close to support Dad for several days before moving away for a few days to give him space and time to gather his thoughts and continue his grieving without us helping (nagging !). There were also plans for the funeral and the painful paperwork to sort out. 

We spent three nights at the Beechwood Caravan site near York which gave us the chance to spend a few days in this wonderful, interesting and buzzing city. One visit by bus and and the second day with a five km walk each way into the city. We loved it for the famous Walls, unusual attractions and the huge history.

We then headed for a couple of wild (free) camping nights at the attractive (not) Rodley area alongside the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. To be fair the joy of this place was somewhat hidden behind heavy grey clouds and huge puddles of standing water everywhere. It would be difficult to ‘sex’ up anywhere in that weather.

We did also manage a couple of hours at the Temple of Elland Road. Home of the awesome Leeds Utd. Always room to fit another Leeds shirt in our wardrobe in Ruby !

We then went back to parking outside Dads house again for a few more nights to give our support.  

7th March arrived and once again we took time away whilst awaiting the funeral. We planned on visiting the west coast with Blackpool in mind and the surrounding area. Trouble is that we found ourselves driving through Ilkley alongside the moors on the way…‘Remember when we stayed here last year?’ Says I ‘ Yes, what a great place it was. Why don’t we just pitch up here instead’, says Mrs B.  So (because we can) we pulled over into the quiet, level, tarmac car park below Ilkley Moor and stayed for two nights. Michelle even took the plunge and booked an appointment to have her hair cut/coloured/dried/girl-hair-stuff at a local salon. Thus giving us an excuse to return again a few days later. Win Win. Turns out it was the best salon ever.. and bloody cheap too. Defo a favourite place of ours to stay for nowt. 

We then headed to the east coast and via the delights of the SearchforSites app found another cold, wet, grey and ugly place to wild camp at Carnforth in Lancaster.

So after just one unexciting night we headed into Morecambe and plonked ourselves on the sea front through the day and into the night. A recommended site directly alongside the sea wall with views across the bay. Trouble is…the road was far too busy, for far too many hours, and with cars and buses passing far too close. Don’t think we slept an hour all night. ! Time to move on again. To be honest I don’t think our hearts were in it, for wild camping. Wrong time of year and wrong circumstances really. 

We therefore pitched up at a proper site at Pot Haw farm near Malham for two paid nights. This turned out to be a brilliant stopover. This is a working farm with half a dozen pitches (all empty this week) and it was in the first week of lambing season. The farmer and family were amazing and so welcoming. ‘Yes, come on over, you can watch the lambing any time’- So there I was spending several hours on each day in the lambing shed. The farm has 600+ acres of land and 500+ sheepses. I was up close and involved with a sheep giving birth and seeing how the whole process worked, from ewe to field. There I was sitting in with the nice farmer chap, taking the ewes and fresh lambs out into the field in their buggy/trailer (The farmers buggy NOT the lambs buggy…!)  Really enjoyed it. Well worth the £30 per night for the pitch including electric. There were plenty of places to walk nearby on quiet country lanes and with a splendid farm shop and cafe to provide sustenance it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. 

13th March and we got back to Ilkley for two more nights. Michelle got the hairdressing sorted and we enjoyed a tasty posh evening meal at the Bistro Pierre restaurant. We may have to move to Ilkley as we Likley (sic..!) it so much. 

We then returned to park outside Dads house for several more days as we were now approaching the date of Mums funeral and we were able to assist with some planning and support. We did manage however to skip along to Elland Road with brother Jez to watch Leeds United under 23s give Man Utd under 23s a thrashing… ( Shame the first team can’t follow suit ! ).

We moved into the Pontefract Premier Inn at Xscape on Thursday 17th for a couple of nights. The extended family were all arriving in preparation of the funeral and mostly stopping there too, along with dad. So, of course, a Wetherspoon’s posh dinner and a few drinks was entirely necessary. 

Despite the sadness of the occasion it was great to catch up with the family.

The 18th March was the sad day of the funeral. I will not share the details on this blog but it went well and Mum had a good send off. She would have loved it..! Followed by a buffet/ drinks then an impromptu, raucous family celebration of Mums life at the hotel late into the morning. Emotional and fun at the same time. Goodbye Mom….

Now you may not be surprised to learn that many of us then got struck down with Covid.! All that hugging and kissing in close proximity was bound to have an impact. Thankfully it was mainly little more than heavy colds/flu symptoms. 

So after a few more days hanging around and getting in the way… we headed back off onto the road. We had some photography work to do back in Bristol so needed to head back down country…slowly….

21st March and we visited a site previously recommended in Anglesey. A paid site called Shoreside is also alongside RAF Valley and right at the end of the runway. We had RAF training Texans and Hawk jets looping round every day, starting at 9am (can’t get out of bed too early those RAF types !). Due to decent weather we were able to just sit outside Ruby and watch them taking off / landing and giving them marks out of ten for their skill level..!  Add to this a beach very close by and some walking areas and all was good.

Apart from the actual site facilities. Once again they charge the earth and provide very little. £30 per night and a scabby pitch, unheated shower block with a shower that dribbles water gently onto your back. ! 

Thankfully the following few days didn’t have that problem. On the 24th we upgraded to a nicer camp site at Llanberis – in the foothills of Mount Snowdon. We had some work to do now… a mountain to climb. The Llanberis Touring Park is a vast improvement on the Shoreside site we had just left. Much cleaner, warmer, welcoming and £1 a night cheaper. It was also within 5 minutes walk of the town centre and 20 mins walk from the footpath up that big mountain. We wanted to have another go at walking up it but hadn’t done much exercise at all over recent weeks so we were expecting it to be a challenge. It was..its a bloody long way… and its uphill… quite a lot…But we made it (blisters and all) up the Pyg Track route. Which is a bit of a cheat to be fair as you catch the bus to the start of this footpath gaining 360m of the 1085m before you start.! The top was probably the best weather we have seen up there and in fact the best of any mountain top we could remember. We were able to sit and enjoy warm sunshine with a gentle breeze for our picnic rather than the usual hiding behind rocks, stuffing our food in quickly because of the cold, wind and wet. It was a most pleasant break before heading back down the long Llanberis track and back to the camp site. Simples… Well, perhaps not… but we did it and it only took us three days to recover! So we then spent four days at the Llanberis Touring Park. Hobbling round..!

We were then into a stretch of ‘Wild’ camping. Having been excited by the sight and sound of RAF jets at Valley we were keen to get back to one of our previous haunts. The infamous MACH loop. Just outside of Machynlleth in mid Wales, (still within the Snowdon National Park) is where the RAF and foreign air forces test their skills at low level flying. Once seated precariously on the hillsides we can watch Hawks/F15s/Hercules/Typhoons and helicopters flying BELOW you through the valley and down towards the lake and turn in a loop, returning a few minutes later to get lower again. Absolutely awesome, exciting, breathtaking and frankly unbelievable. There is a large lay-by just below the favoured hillside where we parked up and stayed overnight. We trudged the 15 minute hike up the hill on the first afternoon and sat in the warm sunshine, picnic to hand and waited, and waited and waited. Well we have been before and know that sometimes nothing happens, people sit there all day with nothing more than a passing buzzard or two. Though in the warm weather it is pleasant enough. But later in the afternoon we had the arrival of an Osprey. Not the dickie bird of prey but the twin propellor-ed military vertical-take-off aircraft. This is a bit of a rare sight anywhere but a real joy to see one pass below us. After a thoroughly peaceful sleep in the lay-by the next morning we returned back up the hill with a serious lunch pack picnic.

Sat and waited, and waited from about 9am until just after 2pm when our first visitor arrived. A lonely black hawk trainer (from RAF Valley) came fizzing through. (Now this is always an interesting moment. When one of the occupiers of the hillside suddenly notices signs of an approaching aircraft, they leap into the air shouting ‘Incoming’ in an excited voice. At this point every one of the 30-40+ folk on the hillside spit out their sandwiches, knock over their coffee flasks and eagerly grab a camera/binoculars/mobile phone and turn towards the incoming aircraft. Cannot miss one moment of its passing on film. None of us actually watch it passing through…We have to catch it on our camera then replay the footage in order to enjoy the moment afterwards. ! We all do it and we all regret it and wish we could just sit there and enjoy the moment. But no…. Gotta capture it on the camera to share with others..! )

 Followed shortly after by two F15 Eagles thundering through, alongside our level before tanking down the valley and turning left by the lake.. Wow. Incredible. They returned again about 6 minutes later having completed a circuit of the MACH Loop. This time being chased energetically by the little black hawk trainer. Peddling like hell to try catch his bigger sisters..!

29th March and we headed south again and towards Abergavenny. We had located a free camp area in the car park near the town centre. Lots of signs saying ‘No Vehicles over 2 Tonnes’ at the entrance, but this was ignored by many campers and motorhomes. We had ‘permission’ from another camper van owner who said ‘its ok, I have stayed here for weeks now’ – So that made it OK…!

On the way to this spot we did have a bit of bother and yet more damage to Ruby. A passing white van (again) smacked his wing mirror into ours and completely smashed the previously cracked mirror casing on the right hand side. Bugga! Fault was maybe 50/50 because of the narrow roads (and to be fair our motorhome wing mirrors do stick out a long way (bit like my ears really ! )). So it was probably more of a 60/40 blame-wise. But either way this decided us to buy some bullet-proof, armour plated, carbon-fibre covers to prevent too much further damage in the future. Watch this space!

Anyway a quiet night (apart from the road sweeper at 6am!) in the Abergavenny car park and then off to Totnes in Devon. Gawd do we get about a lot…! We had yet another visit to Alan Kerr Motorhomes who we bought Ruby from, in order to have another go at repairing the mischievous electric control panel. So the night before we stayed in one of our old haunts of the Totnes Longmarsh car park alongside the River Dart. Nothing exciting but a comfortable, dark, cosy nights sleep for £10. No facilities but we are at least welcome and safe. 

Next morning we dropped Ruby off at Alan Kerr’s in Paignton and with the use of the courtesy car spent a night in the Premier Inn at Goodrington Bay. Not too shabby to be fair. 

Anyway in short…. We didn’t get the control panel repaired (again!) but with grim resolution we collected Ruby and headed up back to the homelands of Portishead as we now entered April. As you may recall our reliable red Mini was left parked up over the winter in the motorhome storage park near Weston super Mare. And yes, of course, she wouldn’t start as the battery was flatter than my wallet….. And of course, it is at this point that it starts to rain heavily as we grab jump leads and strain every Amp/Ohm to eventually get her started. Joy. Shame that Michelle then stalled it 50 metres down the road..!

So, it seems that the Mini is now out of MOT – by several weeks (but keep that to yourselves!) We had no chance of getting it booked in for several more weeks either but as we all know….there are no police officers out there so it was pretty low risk..!

Now this was an interesting thing.. on one of the nights parking in Portishead by the Lake Grounds we noticed a car drive past us and around the lake, quite noisy, about 10.30pm. Not totally unusual however this same car went round again, and again, and again….probably over 30 times, the clown driving it just drove in circles. Think he was unhappy about motorhomes/campervans parking around his lake. He was absolutely bonkers. He didn’t honk/toot/wheelspin/blast-music but just kept driving round. WTF was he on…! I went from curious to laughing, to irritated, to angry, to gettingmypantson and stepping out to challenge him on this next circuit. Trouble is, by chance, this was his very last lap and he disappeared out of sight on the other side of the lake. Dammit…! But this was by now almost midnight. Hate him…!

6th April and it was time to prepare for a few weeks of graduation photography. We had both been booked for ceremonies at the Students Union of Bristol University and then a week at Ashton Gate- home of Bristol City Football Club..(clowns!) This amounted to 12 days working in April wrapped around two big family events and included the arrival of Kelly, Alana & Scarlett from Australia for a month. Never a dull moment. 

In short we booked Ruby into the Brook Lodge Farm site in Redhill near to Bristol Airport for two sets of nine nights (18 in total for those of you needing help!). Despite the fact that we spent most of the working week leaving Ruby at 7am and returning at 9.30pm at least she was in a safe environment and there were good quality showers on site. And as we had the weekends off we could at least get the camp chairs out and chill. 

The family events comprised firstly of the brilliant wedding of daughter Nicola to Paul at the Walton Park Hotel in Clevedon. The location was good (it is where we got married) the weather was perfect (sitting outside beyond midnight) and the company was terrific (no actual fisticuffs!). Result. A really, really good weekend. Thanks Mr & Mrs Cocking. 

The Monday morning was our second family event which saw us up and running over to Trecco Bay near Swansea in that-there Wales for four nights with the Oz kids, staying in a caravan at the seemingly Chav infested holiday park. Well… this was in fact an extremely good and surprisingly entertaining spot. Walking on the beach, climbing rope-walks and visiting Dan Yr Ogof Caves added to the fun. Worked out well and gave us the chance to catch up on the overdue Oz bonding. Top Gig. 

Our second period of photography work at Ashton Gate (tossers!) had the added bonus of being joined by an old (ish..!) friend – Di. She has joined us as part of the graduation photography team on a trial period and she fits right in. Gave us the chance to work again with my previous ‘work-wife’ from a couple of years ago. 

So, all in all, March and April was busy with a chunk of working hard and playing hard. It gave us chance to earn some money to put fuel into Ruby and pay for some more camp sites. We did eventually get the mini through its MOT (seven weeks late!) And we had a dental check up (two years late..). See, its never tooooo late..!

And what better way to end the month than for me and Mich to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. A very pleasant romantic lunch at the Inn at Yanleigh (near Bristol) followed by watching Leeds United on TV – getting their asses kicked (AGAIN). Oh well. Happy Anniversary Michelle. I love you. 

Did you know….Mount Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, and the second highest point in the British Isles. It is located in Snowdonia National Park. The Snowdon Mountain Railway is a narrow gauge rack and pinion mountain railway running to the top from Llanberis during tourist periods topping out at the Summit Cafe which is also open during peak seasons.

There are six recommended paths to reach the summit. They are all classed as ‘hard, strenuous walks’ and you should allow at least 6 – 8 hours to get there and back, even if you’re pretty fit. 

1- Llanberis Path (9 miles/14.5 km) is a popular ‘first time’ path. It’s the longest route but provides a gradual climb up to the summit. 

2-The Miners’ Track (8 miles/13 km)starts from Pen y Pass car park. It starts off gradually until you get to Llyn Llydaw. Then it’s a steep climb pretty much all the way to the top. 

3-Pyg Track (7 miles/11 km) also starts from Pen y Pass. It’s a steep start but the views are worth it. It joins the Miners’ Track before the final ascent to the summit. A popular circular route is to go up one and come down the other.

4-Rhyd Ddu Path (8.5 miles/12km) starts at Rhyd Ddu car park. It’s one of the quieter routes, but you’ll need a head for heights and sure feet as you’ll be following a narrow ridge near the top.

5-Watkin Path (8 miles/13km) takes you from Nant Gwynant to the summit. Starting from Pont Bethania car park, you can see some of the old copper mine workings along the way.

6-Snowdon Ranger Path (8 miles/13km) winds up the side of Snowdon from Llyn Cwellyn car park, giving you views of the many lakes in the area.

19th Dec 2021

So.. here we are in Europe and just entering Spain at the time of the last blog. 

This has worked out (as always) to be a journey of discovery and to get a feel for the areas we visit. Often times it is not possible to spend much time in one area as travel is necessary, however we are still learning, seeing and soaking up as much of the areas that we pass through as possible. We never really planned on continuing south day after day but the sun just teases you and drags you along. Every 200 miles adds about +1º of temperature and increasing amounts of bright blue sky. Of course we did the research in advance. Well in advance. I remember whilst sitting in a  cold dark wet campsite in Gloucestershire at this time last year, looking at the temperatures in Spain (and many other places). Trouble is that research does not really tell the whole story. You have to be there, feel it, and find out the reality of the weather on the ground. We are still learning and this is the reason for the one month trip. Though it is a bloody long way..!

Anyhow, 25th Nov we drifted into Spain, slipping east of the Pyrenees and with a new target location of Barcelona. Michelle identified what turned out to be a great site at Carbrera de Mar, which is about 30mins north of Barcelona and just 200 metres from the beach. More importantly it was also alongside the main train line into Barcelona, so we planned on staying for four days. This site cost €15 per night and was very popular so it was a constant change of motorhome neighbours. Space was a little close but otherwise a great site. The electric was included plus good quality toilets and (hot) showers plus all the necessary water servicing etc. On our first evening we wandered down to the railway station (well just a platform really) just to check the train route and tickets etc. Good job we did really. Bit tricky for us folk that spoke no local lingo. We have been surprised by the lack of English being spoken round here. What’s matter with these people.? No school education..! (Ha! Yes, of course I am joking). 

Next day we managed to find our way into Barca on the train which runs all the way along the coast into the city centre. We had an enjoyable day visiting Las Ramblas, Gaudi’s buildings, fish/meat markets and a very nice restaurant alongside the marina. Bloody lovely. It was sunny and warmer than expected so a good day was had. We managed to get back to the campsite in one piece despite some anxious railway moments. Bit busy in places. Oh, and on the Covid front, both France and Spain are much stricter than the UK with masks and movement. We got checked before entering some premises for our vaccination record and everywhere requires masks. Many people wear masks in the street whilst walking round so we presume that the population are pretty nervous. 

We loved Barcelona so much that we ventured back in again two days later. We had seen the outside of the Sagrada Familia (church), on the Friday trip and were absolutely gobsmacked. I am certainly never keen on looking at churches but this was something else and another of Antoni Gaudi’s designs. Google It. It is still being built after 140 years and it is awesome. And guess what…inside was even awesomer (that’s not an official word). We had to pay a gentle sum of €14 each (discounted for us old folk…!) and found a playground of colour, design, shapes and masses of unbelievable design features. Best church ever. It’ll be alright when its finished..! Wouldn’t mind but they already have a cathedral in the city. 

Otherwise Barcelona was bloody cold this day. Still sunny and blue sky. An icy wind blowing off the mountains straight through the city. Brrrrr. So our trip was a little shorter than we would have liked. We did however discover that they have an Arc de Triomf….- very similar to the one in Paris. – who knew… There are many sights worth visiting in Barcelona including modern busy shopping centres (yuk), old town (Gothic Quarter) with lovely historic buildings with bars, cafés and curio shops. 

After four nights at the Carbrera de Mar we were starting to understand that we needed to keep going south to increase the level of warmth. As you know Spain has loads of mountains across the whole country and the weather and temperature can change quite regularly and by several degrees. Always seems to have plentiful blue sky (which is probably the best part of being away from the UK) but it appears to suffer with wind. (I know what that feels like..!). So we decided to head south again and after another few hours located a free ‘wild’ site on 29th at Deltebre at Sant Jaume where we stayed for two nights as it was so peaceful and safe. We were originally looking for a launderette in Sant Jaume which turned out to be closed down. But thankfully we then stumbled onto this wonderful site. Again it had drinking water and disposal points for toilet cassettes. Brilliant. Totally free, very large and uncontrolled. Next day we headed out for a touristy trip with a plan on parking up near a local marina for coffee and lunch. But we never made it there. We came across an absolute gem of a place which stopped us in our tracks. It was basically a very long beach along a peninsula leading to some extensive salt fields. Lorries drove up and down this sand bank all day collecting salt that had been ‘farmed’ at the tip of the peninsula. There are large public car parks on the sand which are free at this time of year. Once there you have the Mediterranean Sea on one side and flat calm Bay of Alfacs on the other. Now picture this…. Ruby parked on the sand facing the bay. Bright blue sky, very warm. A wooden boardwalk in front of us with views across the calm bay and mountains all across the background in both directions. It was a delight. So, we just simply made some lunch in Ruby, sat on the boardwalk to eat, accompanied by a small glass of red and soaked up the beauty in front of us. And stayed there for the day. And to add to the delight there were large flocks of pink flamingos flying past from the nearby nature reserve. Absolutely loved it. We had a long walk down the sand ‘road’ along the peninsula before eventually dragging ourselves away after several hours and back to the reality of food shopping. !

And that was November dealt with.

1st Dec -This day was a cause for celebration as the anniversary of our Road Trip.  One whole year, 12 months, of our three year road trip. Amazing. I know we spent the first four months locked down in Gloucestershire however here we are now, deep into sunny Spain and still loving every day.. (well, mostly…).

We now travelled another chunk south and another couple of degrees warmer. Still sunny with blue sky. We had decided that we were now in need of a holiday (!)… so booked the Camping Eden site at Peniscola. (Mainly because it had Penis in the title!). Initially we booked a full seven days but added another five later on as it suited our purposes very well. We decided that we could not keep on heading south at the rate of 200 miles every few days. It was already a long way back home and we could end up missing out by spending all our time on the road. At a cost of around €25 (£22) per night this was a good spot and largely full most of the time. Each pitch was tucked amongst some cropped trees- originally looked very tight and close together. However once parked up it turns out this was quite a good size pitch which included our own sink as well as the electric hook-up. The vast majority of the other campers were German with French, Dutch and Spanish making up the rest. Mornings were so difficult trying to work out whether it is ‘Guten Tag’, ‘Bonjour’ or  ’Buenos Dias’ was required when greeting the neighbours. We decided that a brisk ‘Good‘Morning’ was the best approach – as they all should know how to speak English…! At no time during our 12 days did we see any British registered vehicles on any of the hundred or so pitches. Very surprising. Even round the town of Peniscola and surrounding areas there was no evidence of Brits anywhere. 

So, despite the daily wall-to-wall blue sky this area was often quite windy which does restrict some beach related ambitions. The wind tended to be warm and retained temperatures of 16-20 degrees and feeling even warmer. Most days were jeans and T-shirt but taking a warmer top for later in the evening. It was so relaxing being able to wander around, with no driving and just chilling out. 

Memorable amongst those days was 3rd Dec. A friend had recommended a bar called Cheers in the neighbouring town of Alcossebre which did good old English meals. Not normally keen on being ‘Brits Abroad’ but we were interested in this idea. There was a great coast walk of 22km or so from our site to Cheers so we considered we could safely manage that trek as long as we could catch a bus home. Our research online did not provide options and the receptionist on our campsite said ’Not possible-there are no buses’- But still, there must be a bus…surely. If not we can grab a taxi….So the walk along the coast path was tremendous. Nice gravel and concrete paths along the coast and sandy beaches with barely a soul in sight. It was a hot day – shorts on, shirt off (well me anyway). After an energetic four and a half hour walk we finally arrived at Cheers, ready for a beer and then some food. Well….no… it was bloody closed. ! aaargh. We had checked the opening hours online so it should have been open, however the website failed to mention that it was closed for the winter. Bugga.!

OK then, we just grab a beer at a neighbouring Spanish bar and then look for a bus. We asked the bar owner who spoke just enough English to say ‘Not possible’. Oops, this is getting tricky now. ’So what about a taxi to Peniscola then?. Where will we get a taxi?’- The exact same English response of ‘Not possible’ was helpfully repeated. No bus. No taxi. Getting dark in an hour, painful feet and under-dressed, under fed and stuck in a tiny village with no transport. Damn….! Anyway to cut a decent bit of panic down to just one paragraph.. We did manage to find a bus that went to a different village, we found the railway station and after detailed trains discussion with a terrific local dude (‘no speaka da English’) we took the decision to grab a taxi from there. Firstly, we went to the town supermarket and stocked up on cakes, biscuits and water and the friendly cashier phoned a local taxi for us which arrived five minutes later…. Top job. Taken straight back to the campsite entrance within half an hour- at just a paltry €35 (£30)! . Lesson learned. If everyone tells you there is no bus…… there is NO BUS..! We don’t like to do things the easy way do we..!

Oh… and look at this little beauty. This praying mantis – about 6 inches long was spotted by Mich whilst out on our long walk. He was on the gravel path and didn’t move as we took photos. Apart from his eyes which followed our movements slowly. Wow. What an incredible beast.

The following days just trickled along nicely. We found Sheila’s cafe, Horchata Granizados and our favourite evening haunt the Mandarina Club where a bottle of Rioja was just €18 (£15) and some great burgers.

We were pretty experimental with the other local food too. Fish, fish and more fish. Everyone, everywhere eats mussels, crab, crayfish, langoustine and every other kind of crustacean. Think we over did it one evening with the full platter which was tricky to work through but worth a go.

We even prepared and enjoyed a bbq back at Ruby one evening with langoustine, chorizo, plantains and quail eggs alongside a beautiful salad. We really loved the Mediterranean diet and realise that the lack of chips/burgers/coke is what keeps them slim. Also…everyone drinks beer. Any time of day. Male and female. Half a litre with lunch, dinner, mussels and probably breakfast. – they certainly don’t get involved in much fancy pants cappuccino stuff. ! 

So after 12 days in Peniscola- (which we recommend, even in the winter,) we need to start heading home. We have to be in Calais by the 16th Dec and we had over 1,500kms to get there. We shared the driving from the start and chewed up loads of miles on the way. Once again we opted for the Autopista and Autoroutes to make the journey progress quicker. There is quite a cost but as mentioned previously there is a balance between time/cost and one has to consider the wear and tear of Ruby during the miles done along the free roads. The vast amount of the toll roads involve sitting there at 60mph on cruise control with very little traffic on dual carriageways or three-laners. You really get to eat up the miles in a relaxed and safe manner (apart from manic Barcelona). First night we failed to stay on a free site at Clermont le Herault, which proved to be in use by the caravans of a travelling circus. We had to then drive for the first time in the dark through some mountains which would have been glorious to see in the daylight..! We ended up parked in a truck stop along the A75 which was safe and easy to use. We then became aware that we would be passing along the famous Millau Viaduct on this road the next day which caused a great deal of excitement. We have visited this before but the prospect of driving over it the next morning had us keen to start early. It was -3º overnight here as we were high up in the mountains. We drove half an hour to the Millau Viaduct in gentle rolling mountains to then park up at the viewing point. Almost empty at this time of day (8.30am), we had as much room as we wanted and freedom to put Derek the Drone up for some photos. Well…wow…! The lighting was incredible and there was thick cloud below us and below the bridge making for a stunning view of the bridge and surrounding area. What an amazing piece of engineering and a thing of beauty. Despite the freezing conditions it was an awesome visit and it was my birthday too…..

After moving on we drove for over a hundred miles up in the mountains reaching 1110 metres ( 3600ft) at the highest and with temperatures ranging from -3º to +8º dependent on the sun position and the flatness of the terrain.  The mountains are part of the Massif Central mountain range which surprisingly covers 15% of France. We didn’t expect to come across this glorious area as the route planning never mentions it. Perhaps we should have planned this a bit better and then maybe we would have had the snow chains that we were legally obliged to carry in this area. ! There were large areas of snow and ice either side of the road in some areas and we knew that it would be easy to get caught out. (We have now bought some ‘snow socks’ which is the next best thing and fulfil the legal requirements). What a joyful road.

Next night we stayed in yet another truck stop just north of Orleans- boy do we know how to party….! This was a bit ill conceived as we were kept awake for large parts of the night as the trucks drove alongside us headed out from the truck stop. Never mind, it was free and we were damn tired by now. 500+ km per day for two full days was pretty full-on. 

15th Dec. Now this was a bloody difficult driving day. We had researched driving round Paris as being the quickest route and we picked a time that was quietest… apparently. Well this was so funny (afterwards!). Now…. if you are not aware, Paris (as well as an increasing amount of other European towns/cities) has environment zones restricting the passage of traffic in certain areas and certain days etc. We had failed to apply for our Crit Air certificate which would allow us to drive along the Peripherique (ring road). Therefore we had to avoid that particular area or face a sizeable fine. Well that was not as easy as it sounds. Every time we put something into the satnav it redirected us onto this route, even after we had started up. We stopped several times on the approach to make sure we had this right but noticed that we had the additional problem of the A68 going through a tunnel…with a height restriction of just 2 metres. Ruby is 2.7m ..! So we asked the satnav to tiptoe between the  Peripherique and this section of A68. No problem. ‘Turn left’ she says…’keep left’.. ‘follow the road left’ she says again…. Followed suddenly by a big flashing warning signal saying ‘STOP NOW’!!- What the hell. You know those big chunks of metal plate that they hang over the road before a low bridge..? Well we were in that lane. The only reason we didn’t clatter into them was because the metal plates had been worn down a bit by many previous miscreants…. We Stopped…… in the middle of the lane…. And thankfully managed to then steer right and away from the dwarf tunnel. God. And it was so busy and so many lane changes and so many vehicles and so many roadworks and …….aaaargh….

The only saving grace was the Eiffel Tower..

We managed to see it briefly whilst driving around the Peripherique (Ha.. still managed to end up on it…!). God that was a tricky hour for both driver and navigator. Not a big fan of that route.!

So that was all the hard work done. We had only a couple of hundred km’s to go as we parked up at the tidy little village of Grenay. What a great relaxing finish to Europe. A free Aire in the village with free electric too.. incredibly generous of the locals – knowing that we would all visit the local shops and spend money. It really does work. We were now all done and home free….. OR WERE WE..?

Now you know that we sometimes get things wrong…and we occasionally fly close to the edge….! 

Well… as everyone is aware.. Omicron was the new variant of Covid which was hitting the world as we lounged around in Spain. We knew that we had to complete lots more paperwork to return home including a Passenger Locator Form and Covid test results. Well, we (me) got a bit confused and thought that just doing a Lateral Flow Test of our own whilst in France would suffice. So we uploaded it online this last night in Grenay. Only to awake the next morning (six hours before our Eurotunnel booking) to find an email saying this had been rejected……. And we now had to find a local pharmacy to get an Antigen certificate before we could travel…! Nooooo. And no-one round these parts speaks English….

Yet again Glenn & Michelle were up against it…This is how it went…. 

1- Panic – Christ we have only got till 4pm to get the Antigen test done AND a result obtained and put on the Eurotunnel website.

2- Pack up Ruby quick time ready to go

3- Check online and find two local ‘infirmari’s’ via the (French language) official website that would do the Antigen check

4- Walk quickly around town and find both places closed.! 

5- Speak with a lady in a nearby ‘ pharmacie’ (notta speaka da English) who very helpfully researches online and finds three ‘pharmacies’ in nearby Lievin with post codes. – But no phone numbers!

6- Research online, get phone number and call one- Unilab. (They find an English speaking colleague Lucinda)- ‘Yes we can do the test, it will take 12 hours to get a result…! ‘ Noooo. ‘ Actually no, sorry, it will take one hour….’ Phew. 

7- Drive like the wind to Lievin and see Lucinda- ‘Not possible’. We must have a French address and French phone number to send the result to…‘.! This is getting rather challenging. 

8- Lucinda’s colleague points out the ‘Pharmacie Cornuel-Paladini’ 200 metres up the road that may do them. She helpfully calls them and takes us out into the street to point the way. 

9- Wander calmly (!) into the pharmacie and they get the job done (still no English spoken here..) and she indicates we are now local celebrities so they will give us the result in five minutes. Wahoooo. ‘€25 each si’l vows plaít’- Bugga. 

10- Twenty minutes later we have the ‘Certificat Covid Numerique Eu’ 

11- Go to nearby McD’s for very late breakfast and upload the certificate to the Eurotunnel website. 

We now have two hours to travel the one-hour trip to Calais. Phew… Slow down. Chew slowly. 

Not quite the end of the story. …Michelle had to upload two more times on the way to Calais whilst sitting behind me in Ruby at the table. Our uploads had been declined for some reason saying ‘Incorrect document’. But hey, sod it. We drove to the Eurotunnel terminal and presumably arrived at the same time as the latest upload was verified. The guy on reception, plugged our ticket details in and waved us through…. ‘We have a problem with our Covid result’ we say. ‘Its fine’, he says. ‘If it accepts your details then all is well. Enjoy your trip’. Perhaps you can imagine our relief as we wander over to the Duty Free shop grinning like kids. No worries……!

And as a reminder..Boris had further restricted travel back to the UK and Macron was in the process of kicking everyone out two days later so we stepped out through a rapidly closing door. 

So now back in the UK we have to self isolate AND pay £35 each for a PCR test…!!! 

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Incidentally the toll roads (Autopistas) appear to be in some kind of transition period throughout Spain. We passed through many unmanned toll booths and many where the road had been re-directed around the booths for some reason. We were worried that perhaps we should have been paying online for many of them however research shows that the government have ended many contracts and allow free usage until 2024 at least. – So get yourselves over quickly as it saves loads of €€€€€€€€s all down the east coast. 

And for those of you that are faintly interested…..Despite the free roads in Spain, the fast route up through France cost us about €132 (£112) to travel 785km (488 miles) of toll road. Is it worth it to save several hours driving through towns and villages? There are certainly compromise options in between but we have more to learn.

Did you know…

Millau Viaduct runs across the Tarn valley in France. The only way to cross the gorge prior to the construction of the viaduct was by using the main road. This wound its way slowly down each side of the valley to a narrow bridge over the river in Millau town centre.

A competition to design and build the structure was won by an engineering and architectural group headed up by French engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Sir Norman Foster. 

The Millau Viaduct was built in just three years, opening in 2004. It is the world’s tallest bridge at 343 metres high and it carries the main A75 from Paris to Beziers.

And its bloody beautiful…