Day One in COVID-19 Preventative Isolation
We’re home, we’re safe and we’re now isolating ourselves for 14 days. It’s been one crazy week – yes it’s hard to get my head around that everything was pretty much normal on Thursday last week. On Friday we saw panic buying in the supermarkets in Spain, but folks were still out and about enjoying the sun in the cafes by the beach.
After some idiots woke us up very early Saturday morning, we decided to move to a campsite. We, and everyone else, were turned away. They weren’t taking any new guests. At that point we decided things weren’t fun anymore so we set off north. 2468 kilometres (1534 miles) and €76.67 (plus £2.50 for the Dartford Crossing) in tolls, we arrived home on Wednesday afternoon – full of adrenaline and in desperate need of sleep.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the film Gravity with Sandra Bullock trying to get back to Earth from space, but those four days really reminded me of that – full focus to get somewhere, get there, think it’s safe, find out it’s not, move on. We drove across Spain in two days, trying to get there before the full Spanish lock down happened and with the fear of the border closing on us. Once we reached France things seemed much more normal; traffic, folks on the beach etc. We felt we’d reached relative safety, breathed a small sigh of relief and even had a bit of a lie in. We ended up parked next to Cynthia and Stuart from flipflopsandwoollyhats.com and thankfully they felt the same as us, we kept our distance from each other – waving through the van windows and messaging through WhatsApp. We all thought that France felt like Spain did just a couple of days earlier, our safe haven was to be fleetingly temporary. Stuart asked the guy collecting payment for the aire if it was staying open, he said it might be closing the next day, and we think it did. We didn’t know for sure as we had seen the signs and scrapped our plans to rest there and take a steady drive across France over a few days. We brought our tunnel booking forward and crossed France in two days too.
As I type this, it looks like motorhome travel from Spain, Portugal and France is still possible, with Channel ferries and the Eurotunnel running France to UK services (not Spain-UK though). As I understand it, you can only travel for the purpose of getting to your main home, and once you’re in France you need to download, print (I *think* you can write these out by hand) and complete a form for each person travelling stating you’re travelling home (link to it on this forum). The Portugal-Spain border appears open for those who opt to travel home (maybe only until 15 April), as does the Spain-France border. The Motorhome Fun site has forums dedicated to the COVID-19 travel/campsite situation. Motorhome Facts doesn’t appear to have any dedicated forums for CV19 yet, the posts are mixed in with various forums.
Arriving back in Nottingham, we drove past Jay’s parents’ house on our way home, parking up outside and speaking to them over the phone as they stood inside by the window. They both have health conditions that put them at very high risk if they catch the COVID-19 virus, so they have gone into self-isolation. They’ve already been locked away for a week and seem to be in good spirits and it was great to see them – even if it was from a distance.
Driving through our local towns we were amazed to see so many people out and about, shops all open and folks going to the pubs. We’d just come through the start of two lock downs, virtually empty roads. In France when we drove to the tunnel after the noon lock down deadline we should have had the form described above, stating why we were on the road and would have faced a €135 fine if stopped without it. The UK looked very much like Spain did a week or so ago, almost business-as-usual.
We parked Zagan on our street and emptied everything out of him as quickly as we could. It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff we squeeze into that little space, and I think even more so this time. While we were waiting for the tunnel, I experienced the supermarket of the future in France. We had to enter and exit through a separate door, limited numbers allowed in at one time, had to keep 1 metre from all staff and other customers, contactless payments at the check out, they even recommended using your own bag instead of a trolly. It was a very strange experience, but it meant I could buy some extra food compared to what we normally have in the van. Once home we wouldn’t be going out for two weeks (we weren’t tested as we entered the UK and weren’t given any advice, but we are following the advice given to those flying back) and we’d heard the supermarket online delivery sites were already struggling.
While emptying Zagan we saw a few friends, we stood back keeping our distance or spoke through the windows of the van. You might think we are taking this all a bit far, after all the area of Spain we were in hadn’t had any local cases of COVID-19 and we pretty much self isolated on the way home – using motorways, pre-pay pumps at petrol stations, contactless payments on tolls etc. But we just don’t know if we have picked anything up. If we have and we get sick, it hopefully won’t be too bad for us, but if we passed it on to someone, anyone, and they passed it on it could reach a vulnerable person who would need a hospital bed at the best, or kill them at the worst. We couldn’t live with ourselves if that happened. So it’s a small sacrifice to keep away from everyone for a few days. Fortunately we’re used to just having each other for company and being in a small space.
With Zagan empty he was parked in his storage space, drained down and we got on our bikes and cycled back home so we have less chance of meeting people. We shut the gates behind us and said goodbye to our little town for a while. The rest of the day was taken up getting everything packed away, in fact there were still a couple of bags hidden beside the sofa that I didn’t spot until the following day. The cupboards in here are now full, but at least everything is less likely to fall out on us when we open the doors as the place doesn’t move like a motorhome does!
Thursday we started our first day in isolation. While we aren’t in our motorhome touring about, we have made the decision to continue to blog. If it doesn’t interest you, please don’t feel you have to read it. We just feel we need some way to process what had happened and is happening, and writing out our thoughts is a great way of doing that. We talk and support each other a lot, discussing our fears, feelings and thoughts but when you sit and write it out, it’s different somehow and really helps.
On our first day in isolation we had a friend drop off an exercise bike for us, so we can still keep fit and try to burn off some of the emergency chocolate that is being scoffed in great amounts (if this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is!) and my best mate bought some coal and delivered it. One of the guys from our running club has started a local facebook group to organise help for people, and streets are creating whatsapp groups to keep in touch so people can ask for help. It’s beautiful to see everyone coming together like this and we can’t wait to get the all clear and get out there helping too.
I’m taking a couple of days off to relax, read and start to feel a bit more human again. The anxiety of the last week hit me hard and has had me in tears several times, physically shaking on other occasions. I’m not going into denial, but I am taking a step back for a little while. I no longer need to constantly refresh the news sites, instead I’ll listen if it’s on the radio, or turn on the TV at Boris O’Clock (our name for his nightly briefings) and see what the latest is – then quickly change over to something else. My body needs time for all that adrenaline to leave it, and watching a comedy or movie gives it chance to do just that.
In a few days I’ll draw up some sort of timetable of things to do – otherwise the day just disappears. I have my Spanish books with me and although I lost my 120 day streak on Duolingo while crossing the continent, I’ll pick that up again too. The exercise bike is calling, as is my yoga mat and The Cooler could do with a spring clean. I also have loads of reading to catch up on if I am going to hit my 52 books in the year target. Our local library is closing from Monday, but they do have a massive online resource and my kindle is fully charged. When you think about it, if this had happened just 10 years ago, things would have been a lot tougher. Now we live virtual lives and can get pretty much anything delivered for a price (even loo roll). In a strange way I’m going to enjoy my fortnight of me time.
Ju x
Pleased you made it back home safely, as you say we will be living in a virtual world for a while. We made it back to the UK on Monday and have been on a campsite since. Surprisingly we have been offered sanctuary in a friends house where we can hunker down and ride this out. Stay safe and look forward to all the future travels we all will be planning
Hi Ja and Ju
It must have been really upsetting when you were targeted ,we were after our break in 2 years ago.
We tried crossing from Portugal to Spain at Villa Real Santo Antonio on Tuesday at 11 am and was sent back along with most other vehicles by the police saying border closed for 3 weeks,we think they had the wrong information as we found out later people were crossing the border to travel home 6 hours later.
We decided to go to the aire at Lagos as it is one of the bigger towns and had met other brits there (there is about 25 British motorhomes here now out off 60 or 70)
We will stay here until the UK gov advice is to leave as it says those wishing to leave should do so.
There has been no bad will from the locals and the shops are well stocked.
The weather is rubbish today but it will be great next week.
Hi Ian and Abi, thanks for the update. Sounds like you’re in a safe spot, good to hear. The weather here isn’t bad, about 8 degrees C so a bit of a shock after 20 odd degrees! From virtual chats to folks outside around us, the shops sound sparse with fresh food missing but not totally stripped bare. There’s talk of them consolidating lines so instead of tens of types of pasta they carry just a few different bags, which makes sense to me. My parents are locked in but they’re stoic, bearing up very well and mentally geared up for the long haul. Sending you guys the best possible luck. Jay x
Hi J&J
Having followed your blog before we bought our first van 6 months ago we were so disappointed to exit Spain hastily after only 3 great weeks. So saying hi (at a distance) to you at Canterbury did provide a mini boost. Thanks and carry on the great work.
Gave us a mini boost too, thanks Mike and Rachel, it always makes us feel a bit special when folks say hi. We feel for you guys (and others who’d just started out on a long trip), fate just wasn’t letting it happen this time, dammit! You had a wee taste of it though, of that intoxicating freedom, of personal adventure? It’s not the same thing (nothing like really), but that sense of desperately wanting to get back on the road powered me through 2 years of being back in the office. Two years was the price, and for me it was worth paying, every minute of it. My thinking is the worse of this COVID-19 job **should** be over inside a few months and we’ll then start gradually coming out the other side. “This too, shall pass”. Jay
Just wanted to say hello and let you know how fascinating I find your blog- been reading it for years now and find the mix of travel, finance and the new covid 19 angle all so interesting and helpful. We’ve finally decided we’re just going to do it… I was planning to work for another 5 years but looking at it with new eyes we already actually have enough. Will spend the next year finishing work well, buying a camper, renting our very large house out and renting a small cottage for a base when we’re back from our travels. Not sure yet where we’ll go but 2021 it is. Been thinking about it for ages but in these strange times the importance of living life to the full even more apparent. Thanks for the inspiration.
We bought our new Carthago (83,000k) in February, very excited, got it home a couple of weeks ago. It’s now sitting on the drive with nowhere to go. GRR!. I am hoping we will get to France this year.
Stay well everyone.
Glad to hear you’ve settled back at home as best you can – what a journey.
Life has changed over the last couple of weeks hasn’t it? We’re both fairly introverted anyway, so self-isolation doesn’t feel so bad at the moment. Our Welsh tutor is still running lessons over Skype, although yoga and volunteering maintaining the footpaths and coastal path has stopped.
Anglesey is very busy at the moment – cars, caravans and motorhomes pouring in ‘on holiday’ and people are partying on the beaches – it’s madness! Other rural parts of the country are seeing similar. You’ve experienced what it’s like in countries a couple of weeks ahead of the Covid curve and I think I’ll take a mandatory lockdown to bring some to their senses.
Stay safe and keep on blogging!
Best Wishes,
Paul
Hi both, every sympathy with the tearful and slightly shaky feelings. I wondered if it was adrenaline depletion after our two difficult two days here in France. OK now though and hope you are too. For information, you CAN hand write the form for travel in France. It must have your name, date of birth, place of residence and one of the four acceptable reasons for being on the road. These are: to and from work, necessary shopping, health related, compelling family reasons (help for vulnerable or children), local individual exercise. Then it must be signed and dated. Probably best to have your passport as well. You are allowed to travel home but that does not seem to figure on the ‘attestation’ for . Best, Robina
So glad you both are home safe and sound. We where off to Italy in May for 4 months. Thanks to both of you for your brilliant blog and all the advice.
Take care and keep safe.
Hi Ju and Jay.
Been reading Ourtours for years. (Norway and Charlie. A while ago) it must have been stressful driving and worrying that you would be stopped driving through Spain and France.
I wonder do you have any tips for relaxing in streeful situation. My Mental Health is bubbling and where I can control it most of the time but with be indoor it can get hard. We are self isolating after been in Lanzarote and our 2 weeks are up on the 30th March. Our son and daughter wants to stay isolating and they are great getting all our shopping but I feel we are putting them in danger too.Stay safe and keep talk and washing you hands By. The way welcome home. Nora
Hi Nora. Good idea, Ju’s going to write a blog post about what we’re doing personally to manage our mental health, hopefully something in it will be useful to you. Thanks for your thoughts and kind words. 30 March is one day ahead of us! I’ve a sense the general public will be more strictly locked down by then though – sod’s law!!! You son and daughter sound like they’re doing you proud. x Jay
Hi both
Frank here from NZ, you may remember I wrote to you a couple of times in 2019 re our trip to Europe. We are just about to enter lock down here in NZ, certainly a funny time when we think this time last year we were about to depart on our European Odyssey. On the upside, we are still planning to return to Europe next year for another 6 months of touring, hoping Covid 19 is just a memory by then. In my younger days I drove coaches from England to Spain for cheap holiday Co’s, so understand the journey you made very well. I was there in the early 80’s when a group stormed the Spanish parliament and started shooting, we left very quickly fearing what may happen. I think in unsettled times there is just a comfort in being home, it is afterall a haven for most.
Take care and keep up the great writing.
Frank
Thanks Frank, bring on 2021 and freedom again eh? Take care mate, Jay