8th February 2010 Cangas de Onis to Covadonga

We had a bit of business to sort out today. Yesterday I managed to find a free wi-fi spot in the town so I quickly downloaded my emails in the street on my iTouch. One of them was reporting a problem getting rent off one of the tenants we have so the first call this morning was to the agency to sort it. Luckily it was a basic administration error so no need to worry. Secondly, Jack had developed a bit of a gammy eye so we took him to a vets in town. The vet checked him out and told us what the problem was, in Spanish. Obviously we had no idea what the diagnosis was without the vet resorting to sign language which he duly did and we then gathered that it was simply a dry eye. He gave Jack the first of his prescribed treatment and then handed us several syringes of eye wash and some drops for us to administer every day for a week. Preparing for the worst I got my wallet out, expecting a bill of at least €30 for the consultation alone, I nearly fell over when he handed me a bill of €8.90, it seems that vets in the UK are on to a pretty good thing.

Did I mention that it was an awful day? Well it rained consistently throughout the morning and when we returned to the motorhome we had a cup of tea and tried to decide where we would go next. As we were debating the options an English couple in a converted Ford Transit pulled up behind us and so I went for a chat. They had been travelling for 10 months and had been to many places including Corsica which they raved about. We asked if they had been to Covadonga (a place recommended by two other people we had spoken to, but with no ‘official’ parking) as it was just 10 minutes up the road and it turned out they had spent the last two nights there without any problems. That was good enough for us so we did the usual filling and emptying (the toilet cassette being a particulary nasty one as we had run out of the chemical that is used to break down the solids – my apologies if you are reading this over your lunch) and made our way to the small town of Cavadonga.

As you approach around a bendy road the Bascillica suddenly appears, it’s two spires protruding, in today’s case, into a dank and misty sky. The clouds hung around all of the hills surrounding the town and the rain continued to clatter on to the roof of the motorhome. We found a prudent place to park, right beside a gushing waterfall, and waited for the rain to ease off before venturing out with Jack for a walk up to the small town.

The light was beginning to drop and the mist and clouds were still hanging around making for a very atmospheric photo opportunity, the rain started again but I stuck it out and got wet (so did Lorna and Jack, bless ‘em)

The Basillica at Covadonga

7th February 2010 Cangas de Onis

We woke up quite late and decided that a Spanish Sunday lunch was in order so we took Jack for a good walk around the town of Cangas de Onis where there was a large (ish) market on, people selling everything from pirated CD’s and DVD’s to wooden clogs. We went to the Roman bridge and then back to the motorhome to drop Jack off. After this we went to a local restaurant and took advantage of their menu of the day for €10 a head, I had egg and garlic with vegetables for a starter whilst Lorna had a fish paella. For the main I had veal and chips amd Lorna pork shoulder with chips, all very tasty and the restaurant owner was keen to see that we had a good meal.

We then got tempted by the local bar where everyone was drinking Vermouth so we joined in. The bar had wood chips on the floor and photos of previous owners looking suitably dowd above the bar. They served local cider by pouring a small measure from a great height and expecting the customer to drink it straight down, anything left from the first gulp was cast on the floor. We finished our drinks there and then happened upon a busy square which was being serviced by another bar. What to do?

We went into the bar and Lorna ordered a Vermouth whilst I decided to try the local cider, only available in 70cl bottles and you couldn’t pour it yourself, you bought the bottle, the barman then served it to you whenever you wanted, again pouring it from a great height and every time you were expected to drink it straight off. A very strange way to drink cider compared to the English pint. Bottle drank and another Vermouth for Lorna we were both fairly happy with life and we convinced the barman to sell us another bottle of cider to take back with us.

Back at the motorhome we got chatting to the Spanish in the motorhomes next to us, they didn’t speak English and us not Spanish but we conversed for about two hours, them telling us where we could park for free along the coast (even giving us a Spanish camping book) and very keen to look around our motorhome. We gave them cans of Heinz Baked Beans and they gave us a can of something (Callos con Jambon) comprising of pigs trotters, pork snout, beef paw meat and beef tripe, we look forward to eating that at a later date!

Later in the evening we settled down, watching Only Fools and Horses and The Vicar of Dibley before retiring to bed.

6th February 2010 Cabarceno to Cangas de Onis

We left Cabarceno at about 11am and made our way to the town of Santillana which is an ancient town with cobbled streets, some lovely old buildings and a striking church. We pulled up on the car park right behind the motorhome of the Spanish couple that we had next to us last night just as they were getting out of their van, the usual ‘Hola’ and a smiles were exchanged before we left to have a wander around the town. It was typically touristy though which meant shops selling tat and many restaurants and hotels, numerous coaches had unloaded a hoarde of tourists there as well, not that I have anything against tourists obviously, we are they.

After a short walk around we returned to the motorhome ready to move on, I bought some Golden Virginia from the local shop, €4.85 for a 50g pack which is a silly price considering you pay near to £7 on the black market in the UK (the Daily Telegraph that Lorna bought was much worse value at €4.30). We then hit the CA131 and then the N634 looking for a possible sleep over spot.

We pulled up on the car park at Comillas deciding to have some lunch before our next jaunt onwards when who should pull up next to us but the Spanish couple we saw at Santillana, were they following us, or us them? I decided that we needed some advice as to where we could spend the night as it appeared that parking the motorhome and stopping could get you a ticket (or worse) from the local police if you were in the wrong place. Luckily they spoke English very well and guided us toward a beach about an hour away where they said motorhomes usually park, also commenting that Northern Spain is difficult to ‘wild camp’ with very few aires like in France and Germany, we already had that feeling but they confirmed it.

We decided to carry on our drive to Llanes, there was a car park there that was detailed in our aires book but it specified day parking only, we thought we would have a look anyway and took the opportunity to stretch our legs and give Jack a run on the beach. The sea here was really rough, crashing against the rocks and throwing water way up into the air.

Llanes

There were two other motorhomes there but neither looked like they would be stopping so we left and headed toward the spot the Spanish couple had told us about at Vega.

We arrived at the beach at Vega to find all of the parking spaces filled with cars and a very busy restaurant, we had to move on. We then went to the next beach at Berbes but found that there was no parking there either, actually there wasn’t even a car park. After this things got a little confused, it was getting on for 3.30pm and we knew that we needed to find somewhere both safe and legal to park for the night so we carried on along the coastal road stopping off at every sign for the beach to see if we could find somewhere suitable. One place we stopped looked ideal, a cafe car park right overlooking the sea, level but isolated, we decided against as there was only one way in and one way out.

The next stop was at Caravia (I think) where we found a car park, right on the beach but it had a no camping sign, we saw a VW camper on the opposite side of the beach so I took Jack for a walk over to see if they were stopping the night, they weren’t and they also said that if we stopped where we were parked it would be likely that we would get a ticket or fine if the police came past and saw us, though where they were parked it wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately where they were parked was on grass and knowing that we had had rain for the past two mornings I wasn’t prepared to risk getting stuck.

Whilst I was away Lorna had scoured the aires book and found an aire about 40 minutes away so we plotted that in the sat-nav and made our way there. The road there took us right over the mountains that we had been in awe of for so long, numerous S bends to get up and the same on the way down with some absolutely stunning views of the snow capped peaks and small villages of 20 or fewer houses.

Eventually we arrived at Cangas de Onis and parked up in a large car park with a few other motorhomes, legally parked and tired we had our tea and disposed of the stresses of the day with a few glasses of wine.

5th February 2010 Cabarceno

Neither of us settled very well during the night, maybe because we both felt that we were quite isolated, maybe because we had seen some ‘boy racers’ yesterday evening or maybe because there seemed to be cars coming and going at strange times during the night, whatever the reason we didn’t sleep well and both woke up in a fairly grumpy mood. We couldn’t decide if we were going to move on or not and neither of us had a clue where we would head if we did, so, we decided to stay put, spend another night and worry about it later on.

It was another glorious day and despite there being a bit of rain early morning, by noon it was clear blue skies and a temperature outside of 25 degrees. We took Jack for a walk and realised that we were right next to the grounds of a safari park. We had an idea from the description in the aires book but it obviously didn’t quite sink in yesterday. The elephant enclosure was just a minutes walk from where we were parked and it soon became clear that this was a beautiful place to be, quiet, great views, elephants, water and lots of geese.

Elephants at Cabarceno

We explored the small town and kept seeing coaches coming down a hill in the distance, when we reached the far end of town we saw where they were all headed, the main area of the park where a falconry display was being performed for a load of school kids. We watched for a while from a distance before heading back for lunch.

We decided to move the motorhome to the edge of the lake and spent a relaxing afternoon sat by the side of it, we even had the deck chairs out.

By the lake at Cabarceno

Later on in the afternoon we watched the sun cast some lovely warmth over the mountains in the distance whilst another motorhome pulled up beside us giving us the probability of a better nights sleep.

Evening Light

4th February 2010 Hendaye Plage (France) to Cabarceno (Spain)

Up at 9.30am the excitement was building as our next stop would be in Spain. We left at about 11.30am having planned our route, deciding to rely more on road maps than the sat-nav.

The transition from France to Spain was barely noticed as slowly all of the signs were in Spanish, no ‘Welcome to Spain’ signs and no passport control at all, just another road. We took the A8 toll motorway until we passed Bilbao. On the way there we went through a number of tunnels and those that know Lorna will know of her phobia of them but all went well and we travelled through tunnels up to over a kilometre and a half long without an issue, no screaming, no shakes and no attempt to traverse around them. We then decided to get off the busy motorway as we felt we were missing so much of the smaller places, not that there were many unfortunately, the areas surrounding both Bilbao and Santander were busy bustling towns. We took the N634 which took us up hill and down dale, all with views of the peaks of the Pyrenees and it’s snow capped mountains.

We wanted to have a look at Laredo (something to do with it being mentioned in a Johnny Cash song though I presume there is also one in America). This was another large town so we simply drove through and headed toward Cabarceno, an aire mentioned in the ‘All the Aires in Spain and Portugal’ book that we have. In total we drove for nearly four hours and eventually arrived at out destination, I was tired, the concentration of driving both on the busy motorway and the smaller, tight and twisty roads taking it’s toll. However, we still had enough energy to go to a local bar to have a drink, my first pint (yes a full pint!) of beer since we left the UK on Christmas Eve, Amstel.

The language barrier got the best of me I’m afraid as I had to show Jack to the bar owner and make insane waving motions indicating that I was asking if it was ok to bring him in. It must have been quite funny for the people in there plaing dominos to watch. After the drinks we settled up and went to the local supermarket, it looked like someones front room but Lorna managed to buy a baguette and a bottle of unlabelled local rose wine which was suprisingly strong.

I think that Spain is going to be a bit more of an adventure, the problem of us not speaking the language and the lack of ‘official’ parking spaces means that we are going to have to chance our arms a bit as to where we stay and if someone wants us to move on, we won’t understand them, there is also the issue of the availability of water which really was no problem in France but in Spain it could be more difficult, certainly LPG will be a problem but we are now on rations. It does feel good to have moved on to a different country, new challenges and new experiences await us at every turn.

Madness really, but happy days indeed.

3rd February 2010 Biarritz to Hendaye Plage via St. Jean-de-Luz

Again woken by traffic noise we were up and about fairly early and we decided to move on to have a look around St. Jean-de-Luz which was about only half an hour away from where we were. Before we left we carried out the usual tasks such as emptying the waste and brimming the water tank to give us as much water as we could carry.

We arrived in St. Jean-de-Luz and, after a quick lunch we had a walk around the centre and along the sea front, the sun was shining and we had temperatures of around 18 degrees, very pleasant.

The Harbour at St. Jean de Luz

The aire there was right on a very busy main road so we decided to move on to the last aire in France before Spain, Hendaye Plage.

The aire there is located right outside the small train station and we parked up alongside two other motorhomes and then walked down the hill toward the beach. It is a lovely place with lots of beautiful houses along tree lined avenues and the beach was a massive expanse of sand with the calm sea softly lapping on to it.

Hendaye Plage Reflections

We sat on the beach for a short time before heading into what we thought was the town centre. This turned out not to be the town centre of Hendaye Plage but the centre of a Spanish town called Hondarribia, which was inacessible because of the harbour water. Spain was literally just over 500 yards away. This photo was taken in France but is of the Spanish town of Hondarribia.

The Spanish town of Hondarribia

The harbour area of Hendaye Plage was also quite big with plenty of boats moored there, we then went to find a supermarket that was open to get some wine for our evening meal. After finding one in what was the centre of town we decided on an aperatif at one of the small cafes. They had wi-fi so after a few Skype calls, a blog update and a few emails we finished our rose wine and walked back to the motorhome. Things had certainly got a bit busier since we left as there were now about seven motorhomes parked there. We settled in for the evening with a dinner of Toulouse sausages and lentils.

Spain tomorrow!!

2nd February 2010 Biarritz

Road noise was a bit of an issue for me this morning as I was awake at around 7.30am, woken by cars and lorries thundering past the aire that we were on, we were seperated by trees but it didn’t cut the din down very much. We both got up and showered and then filled our water tank back up using the watering can, both of us managing to get soaked by the rather fierce tap that threw water out at an amazing rate.

We made the most of the early start by making sandwiches and heading off along the beach into Biarritz centre, it was a wonderfully sunny day without a cloud in the sky.

Biarritz Beach

As always Jack managed to make some friends on the beach, running around with two huskies until he was tired out and ready for a rest, little did he realise we were going for a long walk.

The Pyrenees were much clearer today, very strange to see snow capped mountains in the distance when the sun was so bright as we wandered along the beach.

The Pyrenees from Biarritz Beach

Everything seems to take so much longer these days as by the time we had arrived at the bridge it was time for us to sit in the sun and eat our dinner.

The Famous Bridge at Biarritz

We the walked into the centre of town and had a browse around the shops and streets, most of the shops open for a change, and then back onto the beach heading back to the aire. Whilst Lorna took off her shoes and socks and paddled in the sea I looked after a reluctant Jack, watching the suffers take advantage of the warm weather and decent waves. Stopping only for a drink at a little bar we were back at the motorhome at about 3.30pm and spent about 10 minutes there before deciding to go back to sit on the beach. After a while watching the surfers again I decided to take the 5 minute trip back to the motorhome to get my camera. I took one batch and realised that the surfers themselves were a tad underexposed so I dialled in 1/3 of compensation and the result was much better. Shame I didn’t have any more zoom as 200mm on a full frame camera just isn’t enough, these were cropped quite heavily.

Biarritz Surfer

We had another drink at the bar and watched the surfers a little longer before going back and having roast chicken for dinner.

It’s so much nicer when the sun shines and Biarritz is a top place to be, no charge for the aire yesterday either, hopefully the same tonight and then we are off further south again.

1st February 2010 Capbreton to Biarritz

Up and out by 10am this morning as we wanted to get filled up with diesel, LPG and shopping as well as making a Skype call to Steve and Sonia who we had been in contact with for a while. They set off on their travels at about the same time as us and we had swapped information prior to them leaving the UK in December. We had missed the opportunity to meet up in France unfortunately as we emailed at different times and when we did eventually tie up they were north of us. Anyway, they were now house sitting just outside of Limoges for the next few weeks and we worked out that we may be able to meet up on the eastern side of Spain in the future.

We did the shopping and other duties before leaving for Biarritz at about 12.30, arriving there about an hour later , the sat nav taking us a very weird way around Biarritz but it got us there ok. There were numerous other British motorhomes parked at the aire and it was fairly full. As we had topped up the LPG tanks we thought this an ideal time to see if we were still losing a bit of gas using a guide for checking for leaks in the Truma instructions. It turned out that we were so I started checking all of the connections on the gas system, quicky realising that I hadn’t got the right tool I was soon talking to the other Brits there begging an adjustable spanner. I soon had a small crowd around me as we all checked for loose connections, even the chap next to us who was German was helping out. After finding a slightly loose connection and tightening it we were all fairly satisfied that the issue was cured though I do have to make sure I get myself a thin adjustable spanner for future tightenings.

We then went for a walk into town to find the La Poste to send some postcards and presents, it rained and we got soaked on the way back, Jack included. It was nice though to see the Pyrenees just that little bit closer up compared to yesterday, if it’s a clearer day tomorrow the view should make a nice photograph, hoping for a sunny day tomorrow.

We returned to the motorhome and hung around for a while before a knock at the door which introduced us to Clare, another Brit on the site who’s partner we had talked to earlier at the taps. We invited her in and talked about where we had been and where they had been for a while before finding out that they work as Wardens at British campsites for eight months of the year and travel for the other four, having visited Austrailia, Morocco and loads of other places, quite amazing. So, we now have ideas of aiming toward a lifestyle of working for a number of months throughout the year and travelling for the rest, house sitting or being Wardens on the possible list of future jobs, and this after only one month in!

We popped back round to Clare and Bob’s motorhome later that evening to have a look at their van before returning to our dinner of prawns, salmon, roast potatos and haricot vert.

31st January 2010 Vieux-Boucau les Bains to Capbreton

It was nice to wake up to a sunny day today. I took Jack out for a good walk around Vieux-Boucau les Bains, down to the end of the holiday apartments, virtually onto the beach and back again.

Vieux-Boucau les Bains

Being a Sunday we chose to get our blogs and photos uploaded before going to the next stop of Ondres Plage, an aire that was again right on the beah and recommed by Ken and Lynda.

We unplugged and left at about 11.30am and made our way to St. Vincent-de-Tyrosse where we sat in the McDonalds there for about 2 1/2 hours. I managed to get completely up to date, thanks to the WordPress app on my iTouch I instantly upload all of my blog posts and then insert the photos using my laptop. This took a long time as this was the first opportunity to get back up to date since the laptop crashed, my battery completely failed to give me the stated life and I was seriously low after just over 1 1/2 hours, on low brightness too, but I managed it.

Lorna spent a little longer but we stuck to our guns and resisted another burger, maybe we should have given in as just as we had parked up at Ondres Plage she realised that she had left her coat there. We plan to return tomorrow to retrieve it.

Ondres Plage is a fantastic beach and very popular with suffers, amazing waves. We walked on the beach with Jack for a while before deciding to move off the aire as there was only us and one other van there, also it felt a bit enclosed. Whilst we were on the beach I pointed out to Lorna the Pyrenees which could be seen in the distance, snow capped peaks and a big difference to the fairly flat landscape we have been used to, looking forward to it.

We arrived at Capbreton just after 5pm and managed to find a perfectly level spot on the car park, electricity was off (I’m predicting lack of electricity to be a bit of an issue for us in Spain and Portugal as it clearly isn’t as readily available unless on a paid campsite) but it was a wide open aspect with other motorhomes there, including this beauty!

Old Campervan at Capbreton

Light fell pretty soon afterwards and Lorna cooked vegetable stew whilst we saw the other motorhome that was at Ondres Plage pull up, they obviously prefer the views and company too.

30th January 2010 Mimizan Plage to Vieux-Boucau les Bains

The Aire at Vieux-Boucau les Bains

We were unsure as to whether we were going to leave Mimizan Plage today as we had been having such a lovely time with the people there. David and Anne came round for coffee mid-morning and we had a chat with Ken and Lynda before having a tidy out (between more showers), filling with water, emptying the waste and finally leaving Mimizan Plage at about 1.30 with some good memories. We hoped that we would be able to upload our blogs and photos but didn’t pass any well known burger outlets on the way to our next stop, Vieux-Boucau les Bains, about an hour or so away. The sat nav decided to take us on a different route than we thought and took us all the way on the D652, through numerous different little towns, none with supermarkets that were open and nowhere to fill up our LPG bottles, something I think we will have to get used to quite quickly as in Spain it is not as common and so difficult to get hold of. We arrived at Vieux-Boucau les Bains which is a specific motor home park set in tall trees with gravel paths at pitches, very pleasant despite the fact that the rain came back. On entry you take a ticket from the machine and the barrier allows entry. There are electric points dotted around but some were not working so we found one that was and parked up. We were told that the charge was 5 euros for 24 hours, electric included.