Friday 25th December 2015
Merry Christmas to all our readers (courtesy of Heinz Baked Beans)
Tuesday 17th November
It rained a lot and was very windy overnight in Portsmouth. This morning was a bit of a rude awakening to the realities of British weather so soon after leaving sunny Santander.
We had a good view of a lot of boats from our overnight parking place. Anyway that was it for this trip - we made the very wet and windy journey of 152 miles (245 kilometres) back to our house in Widecombe - arriving home shortly after mid day.
Our trip this time lasted 58 days and we covered 3809 miles (6132 kilometres) excluding the distance travelled on the ferry crossings from Poole to Cherbourg and Santander to Portsmouth.
Many thanks to those of you who took the time to follow our travels.
Bye for now, Roger.
Monday 16th November
The ferry crossing from Santander to Portsmouth took 28 hours - leaving Santander at 17.45 yesterday and getting into Portsmouth at 20.45 today (one hour time difference). The sea was really quite rough last night and though we had comfortable beds in our cabin we didn't sleep much. As we left the Bay of Biscay and rounded the Brest Peninsula into the English Channel the sea got much calmer and we were able to catch up on lost sleep.
It was all pretty grey as we travelled towards Britain. It got dark long before we reached Portsmouth. We are parked for the night in a car park close to the ferry port but had a bit of a problem finding it so travelled (excluding the ferry crossing) 3 miles (5 kilometres) today. It is raining and blowing a gale. We've got our TV reception back and have been catching up on the appallingly tragic events in Paris on Friday.
Saturday 14th November
Fuente De is an absolutely awesome place. 1000 metre high limestone cliffs rise vertically from the meadows. I was up at crack of dawn to watch the sun lighting up the cliffs.
I have been here three times before, two of them with Ann. It's the kind of place that you know when you leave that you'll be back if you possibly can.
There were a few other vans parked at the telephrique car park overnight. The enormous (and empty) National Park car park just over the road sports prominent signs banning camper vans and caravans from parking there overnight. Presumably buses, articulated lorries, tanks, armoured personnel carriers etc would be allowed to park there. National Park Authorities appear to be well endowed with unenlightened ignorance.
As the sun got higher the cliffs changed colour.
The very nearby campsite were Ann and I have stayed on a couple of occasions in the past was closed. The person who runs the campsite lives in this rustic little house. He has very strange powers! He can talk to you in a language you don't understand but you can understand what he is saying. Similarly he appears to be able to understand what you say to him while apparently not knowing your language. Even more strangely he can change his appearance - sometimes he looks old - at other times young. I am being absolutely serious in making these comments.
If you do ever get the chance to come here it is well worth taking a trip up (and down?) on the telephrique. The unsupported lift of 1000 metres to the 2000 metre high plateau of the Picos de Europa is a thrilling and unforgettable experience.When you get up there, there are stunning views of the high peaks which rise from the plateau.
Anyway with a sick van and a heavy heart we decided it was time to head for home so we tore ourselves away from Fuente De and came north to the Cantabrian coast. We stopped for a brew by this estuary at low tide.
We stopped for the day at the village of Cabarceno, not far from Santander. We had travelled 99 miles (159 kilometres) today. There is a safari park here. There are elephants.
And bucks.
And buffaloes
.
We even saw an elephant with five legs!
The car park here is by a lake. At dusk hundreds of eagrets came and roosted in a single tree
Friday 13th November
This morning we had quite some difficulty getting the van started but we eventually managed it. We headed north through the mountains. For a long time we were following this lorry.
At a high pass we crossed from Asturias into Castilla y Leon.
We were not in Castilla y Leon for long! Not too far further on we crossed the border into Cantabria.
We were soon entering the Picos de Europa National Park.
We stopped off at the town of Potes to buy groceries and to consult a garage about our starting problems. The mechanic reckoned that if he diagnosed the problem today (Friday) he wouldn't be able to get the necessary parts till Monday so we decided to take our chances and moved on up the road to Fuente De for the night.There were quite a lot of cows on the road along the way. We travelled 100 miles (161 kilometres) today.
Thursday 12th November
Today we travelled east along the coast to Gijon and then south to the Asturian town of Pola Laviana where we are staying tonight. Our journey was 77 miles (124 kilometres) long.
There are good views to mountains from here.
We took a walk. There is a nice river nearby.
I took these pictures of the river from a footbridge. This one is looking upstream towards the mountains.
Wednesday 11th November
This morning before leaving Ortiguera we talked to the couple we had seen on the beach yesterday. They have an old VW Camper and are from Machynllech in North Wales. They plan to be away until February and are currently on their way to Portugal. We continued east along the Asturian coast following the old coast road, often under the arches of the new motorway.
We stopped for the day at the harbour of the town of Cudillero. Here's the view from our parking place. We travelled 51 miles (82 kilometres) today.
We walked the short way into town. It's a nice little place - as so often with the seaside places round here- quite reminiscent of Cornwall.
The church, unusually for Spain, was unlocked. We went inside - how about this for a Madonna and child?
There are enormous sea defences around the harbour walls here. They obviously get some big seas coming in.
These vicious looking rocks lie just outside the harbour walls awaiting any ships which have gone off course in the mist!
By contrast within the harbour all is calm and quiet.
Tuesday 10th November
This morning the local police from Tapia de Casariego came round about 10.00 to collect the Aire fees of 4 euros. It's a rather strange concept to me the idea of police collecting what is something in between parking and campsite fees. There are a lot of these little red tailed birds around here. Not sure what they're called.
From Tapia de Casariego we came east along the coast for 15 miles (24 kilometres) to Ortiguera and parked by this beach which is called Playa de Arnelles.
We went for a walk on the beach.
It was a lovely warm day.
We had a paddle in the Atlantic which was quite warm.
Just as we were leaving the beach another couple turned up on the other side. We learned later that they are from Machynllech in Wales and are travelling in a 35 year old VW Camper.
When we got back to our van Ann got her chair out!
Here's the view through the sliding door of our van from our parking place.
Monday 9th November
This morning the tide was out and vast expanses of sand were exposed in front of our parking place on the "sea front" at Foz. The van started first time after I had turned the ignition on and off a few times before activating the starter motor.
We made a short journey east along the north coast of Spain - we crossed from the region of Galicia into Asturias and stopped for the day at the town of Tapia de Casariego. We travelled 23 miles (37 kilometres). Here's a view out to sea from just down hill from our parking place on the town's Aire.
We talked to an English couple with a campervan who are staying on the Aire. They have two young children and a dog. They are from Devon, from Exmouth. They are surfers.
We wandered round to the harbour - this place is quite reminiscent of a Cornish fishing village. Another very nice place. I really like this area.
Sunday 8th November
This morning we made the short journey to the Galician town of Foz. We travelled 16 miles (26 kilometres) today. The Aire here is in a marvellous situation - right by the seafront - it's very popular - I counted 19 campervans here when we arrived.
The town of Foz is only a few metres walk from the Aire and is very nice indeed. Here's the harbour.
This was the biggest vessel in the harbour today.
Just beyond the harbour is a very good sandy beach.
We went into a restaurant in town for lunch. We had the menu of the day - three enormous and very well cooked courses, plus wine, plus coffee all for 24 euros for the two of us - amazing! We saw this interesting tree in the street just outside the restaurant.
It was quite hot today - about 22C this afternoon. It quickly cooled down as the sun got lower.
Nice light looking towards town from our parking place.
The niceness of the parking place is reflected by the number of vans parked here.
We have been having a problem starting our van (Fiat Ducato 2.2 litre 100 multijet manufactured in 2008). It seems that the electrical circuit which warms the glowplugs (if that is what they're called) is cutting out before the glowplugs are warm enough to start the engine when it is turned over by the starter motor. We think that we may have found a temporary solution which will get us back to our local garage. When you turn on the ignition the light indicating that the glow plugs are heating goes out very quickly. If you then turn off the ignition and turn it back on the light comes on again for a short period. If you repeat this several times in quick succession without activating the starter motor it seems to get the glow plugs hot enough to start the engine when you finally activate the starter motor!? Any advice would be most welcome.
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