The Start of Road Trip Espagne, Winter 2020
Zagan the motorhome has, on hearing we were planning on heading down to Spain for the winter, started to refer to himself as El Toro Blanco (The White Bull, of all things)! Neither Ju nor I know quite what to make of this, and have humoured him as he got into character this morning, snorting out some diesel fumes and pawing at the gravel of the storage yard with his rubber hoof before rushing off to my mum and dad’s for a tank of fresh water. Since then he seems to have forgotten his Iberian inclinations and has pootled us south down the M1, around the (sodden and packed) M25 and along the M3 to here, The Fox & Goose pub in the village of Greywell, near Basingstoke (N51.257232, W0.972282). The pub has a grass camping area (currently off-limits due to being 85% mud) and a slightly sloping car park where motorhomes can park for free in return for using the pub. Meals start at 6 tonight (it’s pitch dark, we’ll grab a photo of the parking area tomorrow) and we’ll be in there at roughly 6:01pm. :-)
As is our wont, we’re taking our time getting to a the 8:45am departure of the Brittany Ferry’s boat from Portsmouth to Santander on Saturday (today’s Thursday). Our plan is spend tomorrow having a look around this area before heading down to a marina/retail centre which allows free overnight parking, so we’re ready for tackling the infamous Bay of Biscay on Saturday. It felt a little strange taking the anti-clockwise M25 today as, for the past decade at least, all of our crossings out to the continent have been via Dover or the tunnel. This time we’ve opted for the long boat south to avoid the winter drive across France, and to just try something new. Ju’s nervous mind you, as this stretch of water has a reputation for being rough in winter, and she suffers from sea-sickness.
In terms of costs, we’ve opted for the économie no-frills service (website here), which came in at £361 for our 6m motorhome, plus a bike rack and two adults. That’s including a discount Ju got from a kind soul on the Hymer Owner’s Group Facebook group, as some kind of ‘refer a friend’ scheme. We did a few basic calculations and although it would be cheaper in fuel to drive across France, taking wear and tear into account it’s about the same price to drive as get the boat, so the boat it is. And we get our own cabin, and get to try to do some whale watching.
Once we’re in Spain, our rough plan is to head south, although if the weather’s good we might explore a bit up north first. Most of Spain’s motorways are free, so we could very quickly head across to Salamanca and then south towards Seville, although we’ve done that route before. Another option looks to be head for Madrid and take in Toledo, a city we planned to visit a few years back but left it too late into the Spring and the heat would have been too much for Charlie (our aged pooch who’s no longer with us). It’s cold at night in the centre of Spain, but we’ve heating in here, M+S tyres and chains if we did hit snow, so both routes look like goers. We’ll see. We need to be back in the UK for early May as I’m having a crack at my first 50 mile ultra marathon in Scotland; other than that we’re free to roam.
So, that’s it. As usual it feels great to be back on the road, although neither of us have been feeling good the last couple of weeks as we mentally gear up to leave friends and family and the comfort and safety of home. We’ve written about the sensation in the past, describing it as ‘The Hump’ we have to climb when shifting from one lane to another, one type of life to another. Well, we’ve topped out on the hump and are on the other side. Who knows what we’ll come across wandering about the next three or four months?
Right, it’s starting to get close to 6pm and my stomach’s rumbling for a last British pub nosh-up for a few months. Catch you later folks! Jay
Yay back on the road!
Safe travels 😀
Happy travels! You are both a huge inspiration and your honesty about life on the road, financial freedom etc is very much appreciated by us. We’ve been reading about your adventures for over 3 years now and your window on an alternative non-corporate life prompted long discussions about how we could re-structure our lives. Once we’d finished talking…we jiggled our finances around and bought a motorhome which we love. Then we did some more thinking and some more jiggling and bought a house in France. I will take early retirement this year to focus on my creative interests and Himself is on a two year plan towards part time consultancy work based in mainland Europe. So thank you both for prompting us to be braver and more imaginative about our future. xx
You’re more than welcome Deb. Many thanks for your kind words. You’re clearly a brave and hard working couple and deserve every success. Chapeau! Jay
As always, looking forward to following your travels, we are anticipating a similar route in the autumn. Travel safely
Good luck and stay safe. We’re taking “Ned” the van over to Majorca in May for 3/4 weeks then back over to Spain/Portugal before getting back to the UK at the beginning of July
Sounds like an epic Med trip Eric, enjoy! Cheers, Jay
Good luck and safe travels! We are slowly heading back to France and are beginning to feel the chill of central Spain!! Mind you we still have blue sky and endless sun.
If you head towards Murcia, we can really recommend the Sierra Espuña and in particular Camping Sierra Espuña(ACSI site) at El Berro. Masses of walking/running, cycling, climbing – whatever you want, accessible from the site. The people running the place are super friendly and have maps etc for visitors. We were well and truly ‘El Berroed’ and will definitely return…..something we never usually say!
Hope you have a safe and smooth sea crossing. Xx
Hello Jason & Julie
Happy New Year!
The UK weather does not look great for the next few days but you may be lucky in the infamous
Bay of Biscay.
One suggestion re sea sickness, wrap up warm and stay out on deck (if not raining) and walk back and forth
along the deck (fore to aft) to get the feel of the ship moving in the sea.
Safe travels and enjoy the Spanish sunshine!
Cheeers, Robert
Hi Robert – we’re on the ferry now and it’s not smooth but it’s not too bad either (28 hours still to go though!). Cheers for the tip, Jay
Snap! We are also on our way to Spain – we tried to book the very same ferry crossing that you are taking on Saturday but left it too late and it was fully booked 😢 It would have been lovely to meet up with you on the boat! But instead we are driving across France and at the moment we are parked up in Camping de Paris (following your recommendation, thank you) with a day in the Louvre planned for tomorrow. And who knows, we might cross paths again in Espagne.
Hi from Spain. You are going to start to enjoy, we are slowly heading back😢. Wish you lot of joy,
Vesna
Great to hear that you’re back on the road. We’re looking forward to your blogs.
We’ve been following your adventures for a few years now. We’ve got the van and finally quit work and we’re doing a similar trip to you starting next week. Wahay…
We’ve got the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao booked for the 19 Jan then plan to do a circuit of Spain and Portugal before heading back through France (just ordered your new book off amazon btw) to be back in the uk on day 90 because of insurance restrictions. Got to change our insurance company this year. Who do you use for motorhome and travel insurance?
Have a great trip we’ll watch out for you. Paul and Kerrie
Hi guys, thanks for buying our book, much appreciated. We’re with Safeguard for the van and Insure and Go. Cheers, Jay
Happy travels! Looking forward to reading about your next adventure.
Hope you tried the butterscotch sundae at the pub ….
Too full of pie! One for next time!
Enjoy Brittany ferries I find them usually clean and efficient, always fancied the spain route but lots of France left for us yet. I always eagerly await your travels.
I would love to hear about your crossing at this time of the year. We were travelling back from Spain 2 yrs ago. Bilbao to Portsmouth and the ferry was cancelled because of a storm. I have never been so glad to drive 600 miles through France. We experienced the storm on land and it was truly horrendous…but thats another story. Anyway it was enough to put me off a winter crossing through the Bay of Biscay. It would be good to hear about your experience. Wishing safe and happy travels…I am full of envy xx
Ju’s writing a blog post about it but we had a Force 8 gale for several hours, so nothing to worry the ship but it did worry the contents of our stomachs! I suspect we’ll be taking that drive through France and the way home! Cheers, Jay
Hi, The Fox and Goose is a great stop- in fact our first night in our new Burstner that we bought in London.The approach is a bit deceiving as you come into the carpark through the buildings . We had no trouble turning left into it at first. We had to go out to a nearby shop for some supplies and then on our return, turning right into it- the camber on the driveway put us on a very sloping angle . We scratched our awning on the old historic building on the right of the entrance, Oops. Building not damaged. Had a lovely meal at the pub and overnight stay.
First day, first scratch, tick, All good from then on.
We really enjoyed it there – the food was bang on! Yep, we’d read about the entrance on a park4night.com comment so came at it the ‘easy’ way. That said, we’ve scraped the awning and sides of both motorhomes on so many things – trees, palm fronds, pub umbrellas, you name it, so we feel your pain! Cheers, Jay
Happy New Year and safe travels.
We are into our 3rd year of Motorhoming with Margo the Carthago.
Balancing retirement life with family, friends, house & garden
Setting off this Spring heading for South France.
Wearing Sea bands on wrists really help I used to suffer really bad big improvement.
Reading your adventures sans jobs was one of the driving factors behind is taking a year off and parking ourselves in Penang. which is a stunning place to live! I have dabbled at the travel blog but found it slow going, so switched to education, which is where I spent 20 years and it flows out of me much easier. we came back to the coal face for a couple.of years but that’s all its going to be. when we leave next time it won’t be in a camper, but if we do well we might do it in a little 25ft sailboat instead. pleased to see you back out there, gives a lot of us out here hope!
Sounds like you’ve got your heads screwed on right, good for you guys, really pleased for you, Jay
Enjoy your trip. Love reading about your travels and look forward to your Sunday morning email.
With this being the last year of long trips to Europe we are planning 2 eight weekers this year like we have past 3 years.
Next year will be interesting juggling with the schengen calculator.
Great to get away at this time of year. I shall enjoy reading about your adventures on this trip, thank you for sharing your journey over the years.
Great to see you back on the road. Just to make sure you know, Spain declassified a few AP motorways to toll free including the AP1 and AP 7 at the end of 2019. So from the ports in the north you can now pick up the AP1 free all the way to Madrid and free all the way south. I think the motorway south of Saville is or due to become free to use.
Sat navs are still showing the motorways as toll.
Good info, thanks Peter. Jay
Still read your blogs every week. Good to see you back on the road. I’m off to Morocco – desperate need for some warmth and sun. Enjoy and may 2020 bring you peace and happiness xx
Hi, Look forward to reading your latest blog.
Have a safe trip.
One quick question, do you recommend any Sat Nav, as mine takes us down very narrow roads and needs replacing?
Cheers Richard
Hi Richard – we’ve a basic TomTom mate, which also tries to take us down narrow roads but we also use a paper map and ignore anything obviously daft it’s doing. Sorry I can’t be more helpful but we’ve gotten used to navigating this way and it’s working alright for us two. Cheers, Jay
Great to see you guys back on the road. Will look forward as ever to reading you adventures on your blog.
We are currently “holed up” in Albufeira for a couple of months, not what we really like but it gives us the chance to air the awning plus there is a great crew here to help us pass the time.
Plan to head up through the middle of Portugal in mid-March towards the top of the Douro Vally, across northern Spain and then back home to France by way of the Viehla Tunnel.
As an ex-Royal navy man I always swore by plenty of dry bread but the Memsahib has gone for the wrist bands, not that we need them to much in the Chunnel!
Hope that you crossing is smooth for you.
Happy and safe motorhoming,
Glenys and Fred Chase
Ha
Look forward to following your travels again. Used to sit at my desk at work following your blog thinking ‘this is doable’. So we did and are on our 2nd tour, currently parked up in Calp. Best wishes and safe journey. Doug
Fantastic.
Hi, really looking forward to updates of your travel. Hope you really enjoy and have a great time.
Alex
Hiya,
Few of our favourite places to share. I can’t help it, whether you are near or not, whatever. Methinks you’ve been to the site in Bilbao before. Regular no 58 bus from right outside into town to one of our top two Spanish bars ever.
Autocaravaning Kobetamendi, 43°15’34. 2°57’48., Carrer 8, 3, 46182 La Canyada, Palencia, Spain
El Globo Taberna, Diputazio Kalea, 8, 48008 Bilbo, Bizkaia, Spain
NW coast with dolphins in the bay. Loved this campsite. Long walk into Muros to one of our top two Spanish bars ever.
Lunchtime visits for us here. Ice cold wine washing down some fantastic nosebag. Free tapas popping up as well.
Campsite A’ Vouga, km 3, Carretera, 15291 Louro, A Coruña, Spain
Restaurante A Dársena, Av. Castelao, 11, 15250 Muros, C, Spain
Happy Trails, looking forward to your scribing ! Stay safe and happy.
GlorYa x
Like everyone before wishing you safe and interesting travels a looking forward to the updates x
Hi Julie and Jason, I’ve been reading your blogs for many years now and it’s always good to hear your adventures. So much so that the wife and I finally decided to take the plunge. After recently buying a motorhome, we’re just gearing up for our first trip to Southern Spain next month. The only downside being, I’m still working so it’s only for a few weeks. The plan to escape the working life is already in motion so perhaps one day we’ll be lucky enough to spend a little more time adventuring.
Anyhow, good luck on your onward journey, hopefully the weather is glorious.
Hi Jason / Ju, really forward to following your trip, do please continue to insert the Co-Ords for all the places you stay , as I’m hoping to plan a route I might do myself sometime soon . Thanks, and enjoy your trip , stay safe.
Will do, cheers Simon, Jay
Hi and happy travels. We’ll be following your antics closely as we’re planning on the same trip in October through to whenever we have to be back home. Enjoy 😉 x
Hi. Did the AP7 yesterday from Roquetas de Mar to Cartagena…and its still a peage….7 euros as Class 2 but that may be Sunday rate. Weather has been great recently. Enjoy your travels guys and don’t forget to wave!
Hi Jay
My husband and I are planning to tour Europe in the middle part of this year for 5 months. We have run into the LPG problem with some countries having different filling systems and bottles than others. WE are planning on going from UK to Holland down to Provence, back up through Czech Rep. etc and then on through the Baltic States up into Finland then back down through Norway before going back from The Hook to UK. I should explain we live in NZ and have purchased a motorhome in UK.
Do you have any helpful suggestions for full proofing the LPG problem. We had thought that the EU would have standardised their bottles/filling systems but evidently not!
Many thanks
Wendy
Hi Wendy. Nah, no standardisation! Lots of long term tourers fit a self-refillable LPG system and then buy gas from fuel stations. That works everywhere we’ve been except Finland and Morocco. Our system is from Gas IT but Alugas, Gaslow and others are also popular.
More info here:
https://ourtour.co.uk/home/installing-a-gasit-self-refillable-lpg-system/
Cheers, Jay
Hi we are looking forward to our first European trip down to Spain following all your great tips and guidance.
Thanks Rachel, you’re very welcome and happy travels. Cheers, Jay
Hi julie and jason
We met you briefly in san sebastion last march we are in alvor now after our 11;000 mile trip. Just wanted to say thanks for all the tips on your site
Its been very helpfull
May bump into you again on the way back home
Take care and safe journey
Alan and dawn