Day 50 - off to the coast!
2024年10月24日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
I spoke too soon about Marla adjusting to the time change…. She was trying to wake us up from 6am this morning…. We were not impressed. We managed to ignore / distract her until 6:45am.
We have had a lovely couple of nights in amongst the trees and countryside, but with the weather being so lovely I wanted to head to the coast for a while, so as soon as we’d all eaten breakfast and packed up the van, we hit the road.
Today’s excitement was that I drove on the wrong side of the road - not once but twice. The sat nav said to turn left, so I did but I forgot to turn up the road on the right hand side and there was a traffic island blocking the way to get onto the correct side of the road so I made an interesting set of manoeuvres to try and be on the correct side. Unfortunately I ended up then facing the way I had just come from, so I headed back down the road to the road about I’d just come off from to turn around. This is where I went on the wrong side of the road again, thankfully the car coming towards me was a fair way off (but close enough for me to realise I was in the wrong!). Annoyingly, after all this - when I finally got back to the left turn where it all started to go wrong, Garmin didn’t want me to go that way - so it was all for nothing.
We had to stop at a petrol station today, and I think we found the most expensive diesel so far… €1.65 a litre, and we were fairly low so for the first time we spent over €100 filling up. To try and soften the blow, I also bought some Monster and (rather fake) chocolate croissants.
Back on the road and the plan was to head to a supermarket in Aveiro then straight to camp.
Parking in the supermarket was interesting. There was plenty of room, so I tried to park in the shade so Charlie and Marla wouldn’t get too hot but we were shoo’d away by a man doing some sort of construction in the car park. We then noticed the many Jurassic Park trucks and decided to listen to the man and park somewhere else…..
My turn to go in, it was a pretty big shop and a bit overwhelming! I’ve never seen such a large fish counter in a shop before. I came out with a few meals and even some salad vegetables. It’s the first supermarket I’ve been into where there wasn’t a complicated way of buying fruit and veg.
Back to the van for a quick bite to eat, then off the our next campsite - Parque Municipal de Campismo - Praia de Mira. We have been to this area before, many years ago when we cycled from Porto to Lisbon.
The camp is extremely basic. No toilet seats, no toilet roll and no hot water for washing up. We are going to move a bit further down the coast tomorrow to hopefully a nicer site….
This afternoon we had a little wander around the edge of the lagoon that’s just in front of the campsite. We were going to head to the sand dunes and beach, but we couldn’t find our way out the camp easily, and by the time we got out, it was getting a bit too warm for Marla. So we had a gentle still near the lagoon as it was closer.
Marla’s body clock was still off this afternoon and we had a lot of hints that it was dinner time from 2:30pm. At 3:30 we caved, she was sat on the floor next to the drawer where her food is kept, just staring at it!
Dinner tonight for us was veggie hot dogs and chips. I made a rookie mistake when buying the hot dogs and didn’t realise there were 5, and I bought 6 buns - guess who ended up with a chip bun…もっと詳しく
Day 51 - we have toilet seats!
2024年10月25日, ポルトガル ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
This morning Marla‘s body clock was still a little bit out of sync but she was a good girl and managed to go back to sleep after waking us up just before 6 am so we got up just after seven had breakfast and a couple hours later went for a walk along the beach. It was warm and we were the only people on the beach. It was absolutely lovely. We let Marla off lead and she had a lovely run around. She found a disgusting bit of rubber that she decided to play with and then we ended up playing fetch with it for a little while, then she got silly so she had to go back on the lead. We wondered towards the town centre and found a patisserie to buy some pastel de natas and bread rolls for lunch. While Charlie was waiting outside the shop, he spotted a random shop that looked like it might sell fly swats, something we have been looking for in every single shop we go into for the last three weeks. I was so excited I bought two!
On the walk back to the campsite we stopped outside the hotel that we stayed at in 2017 when we cycled from Porto to Lisbon so that was quite fun to reminisce.
Back at camp we picked up the van had some lunch and then checked out, given how basic the campsite was I was actually rather pleased that it only cost €11 for the night for the two of us plus electric so the lack of toilet seats is almost understandable.
We had a very scenic drive to the next campsite. It was mostly one straight road with a 50 km an hour speed limit so it was a bit boring but went through lots of very small villages that all seem to be in connected and just a relaxed way of life really checked into the next campsite and it is much much nicer than the one before we have toilet paper we have toilet seats we have direct access to the beach. We have nobody around us. It’s very nice indeed.
This afternoon has been very nice weatherwise still couple of short sharp showers so we went to the beach again and it’s the nicest sand I think we’ve come across so far in the trip. I took my shoes off and let my toes sink into the sand and then went into the sea so that my eczema could have some seawater on it. I was so busy taking pictures of my little toes in the sea that I didn’t see this big wave come up and get me and my shorts got wet.
We did some laundry, that was very exciting it’s the first proper wash we’ve done a little while and as a bonus the tumble dryer was free. I think somebody had already put some money in there and not used it. We had to line dry a few bits, with a fairly hefty wind and sunshine that all dried really quickly. Which is just as well as just before dinner time the rain came and stayed for most the evening.
Charlie found some fun beverages in the campsite shop. Somersby cider and Super Bock Stout!
Dinner this evening was falafel, couscous cucumber, and tomatoes. We watched our last two episodes of Silent Witness so that’s it. We’ve now watched every single episode of Silent Witness. Not sure what we’re gonna start watching from tomorrow night watch this space and I have almost finished my crochet blankey I am pretty sure I’ll finish it tomorrow - very exciting.もっと詳しく
Day 52 - rainbow blanket finshed
2024年10月26日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
This morning after breakfast Charlie and Marla went for a run. Charlie had found a trail route from Strava that somebody else had run so said it would be about 7km. So off they went and I did a bit of van work of hoovering, washing up and then finished my crochet blanket. Then I realise they’ve been gone quite a while and should I be worried? I had to look at where they were on Find My Friends which said he was about a mile away so I thought that’s not so bad and then I looked about 10 minutes later and they were still about a mile away but moving towards back home. I thought well if there’s been a problem Charlie would phone me and then I realise they’ve been gone almost an hour and a half to do 7K… but maybe they stopped on the beach for a play or something. Then I saw this figuring orange running towards the van looking a little bit dishevelled but all in one piece, so that’s good. It turns out some of the trails were non-existent and the terrain was not brilliant, so the run ended up almost 5km longer than it should have been.
Charlie was fairly traumatised and asked if he could have a beer - it was 11:50 by this point so why not.
Lunch was cheese sandwiches followed by ketchup flavoured crisps although Charlie didn’t like those so I have some extra for tomorrow while he had some gourmet crisps that weren’t actually that gourmet. It was a bit sad. Desert was tiramisu flavoured Oreos very fancy and they actually tasted like tiramisu. I was quite impressed. This afternoon has been very relaxed. Marla and Charlie have been absolutely shattered. Marla has done almost nothing but sleep and drink a lot - not beer just water. Now I’ve finished my crochet project, I’ve restarted the Cross-stitch that I bought with me to finish off. It turns out it’s a lot more fiddly than I remember, but I’ve started so I have to finish.
Dinner this evening was supermarket for cheese pizza which was surprisingly cheesy for a supermarket pizza, it was very tasty.
The weather today has been quite rainy for most of the day with short, sharp showers and overcast. But this evening when the sun was setting it was very bright and very lovely. Tomorrow is forecast to be a very dry and warm day, so I look forward to going and playing on the beach.もっと詳しく
Day 53 - perfect beach day!
2024年10月27日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Clock change again today - it made a lovely change to wake up and it be daylight! Marla did try and get us up at 5:30am, but with a bit of gentle persuasion she went back to sleep.
It was very misty in the morning, the forecast was for sunshine so we were hoping the sun would break through.
Another change this morning, we had toast for breakfast! Oh the things that we get excited 🤣
After breakfast we went to the beach for a wander and we played frisbee with Marla for a while.
Back to camp for lunch, simple cheese roll with a glass of Vinho Verde or two.
I started a new crochet project, it’s easier to pick up and put down than cross stitch. It’s going to be a pink and white houndstooth cowl.
The sun was still shining this afternoon so we hit the beach again for more walkies. Back to camp for an afternoon beverage and a sit down…. which didn’t quite go to plan for me. I was moving my chair around the campsite to enjoy the most of the sunshine, but our pitch is mostly in the sand and it’s fairly loose sand. I plonked myself down and one of my back legs disappeared completely leaving me very lopsided and almost on the floor 😂😂
Dinner this evening was a cold pasta salad with a lot of peppers, onion and tomato. Very tasty but the strongest onion I’ve had in ages.
The sun is setting quite early now, so tonight we’ve been catching up on the latest season of All Creatures Great and Small - it’s felt like a proper Sunday night!もっと詳しく
Day 54 - Quinta do Pomarinho
2024年10月28日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
It was an early start to today, Marla woke us up at 6:20 and wouldn’t go back to sleep - so we all had to get up. Charlie took her outside while I changed the bedroom to the sitting room, and when she came back in she was very insistent it was breakfast time….. unfortunately it really wasn’t and we had 40’mins of a very grumpy puppy.
Eventually I caved and she ate at 7:40. She then happily went back to sleep….
Charlie went down to the beach to do a workout at around 9am. I took Marla down later on in the morning (once her breakfast had gone down) for a final walk up and down the beach as we are moving camp today. There’s a lot more people around today, so I couldn’t let her off lead (a fair few small children), but we had a lovely walk.
Back to camp for a pack up, lunch and then we headed off, we’re going inland for a few days while the weather is supposed to be nice.
First stop though was the supermarket for essentials. Marla had a nice nap while Charlie was off doing the shopping. It’s proving strangely difficult to buy plain natural yogurt.
The next section of the drive was straightforward, but the scenery certainly changed to green trees and more mountainous. We are seeing a lot of the emergent run off sections for lorry’s on the long downhill drives - it’s keep having urges to have a go and see if Big Dave can drive through the sand traps - but it would be disastrous to get stuck…. and a massive misuse of the escape lane.
We arrived safe and sound. This is a peaceful camp in the mountains, with nothing in the immediate area apart from some donkeys and chickens. We had a small issue with the electrics, thankfully resolved quickly by the site owner. A super helpful Dutch man, he realised that when the electrician completed some work on the box of plugs, he forgot to turn it back on.
We sat out and watched the sun set at around 5:30, it’s definitely getting cooler and darker in the evenings now.
Dinner tonight was spinach and ricotta lasagna and some bread. We had some very interesting options for pudding, including a pot of what I think is custard with a very mushy rich tea on top. Strange but tasty.もっと詳しく
Day 55 - Castelo de Vide
2024年10月29日, ポルトガル ⋅ 🌬 20 °C
This morning Marla was better at sleeping for a bit longer, but still getting us up before 7am…. at least she was less demanding for her breakfast this morning.
After breakfast we decided to go exploring and take the scenic route to the local town of Castelo de Vide. I’d found a public route on Strava that was around 10km that was mostly off road, so we decided to follow that (despite Charlie’s terrible luck when it comes to following other people’s Strava routes). I’m pleased to say that following the route was no problem at all!
It was a mixed bag of terrain, we started off on the side road from camp and followed it up, up and up where once we’d gone past the last house on the road, it turned into a narrow footpath that was really well maintained in terms of vegetation and trees. The path itself was a mix of rock and grass - fairly easy to walk on. It then carried on as a mixture of cobbles and dirt track all the way into the town. Then it was just a case of following small side roads until we got to the centre of town. It was interesting to see that some of the trees have residual fire damage - you can see a line on them where their bark has been damaged. And all the olive trees we saw were all at the same height, so it looked like they’d all be re-planted at the same time.
We arrived at about 11:30am, and considering that it’s Tuesday today - we were pretty surprised to walk into the town square where there was some sort of event happening. There was a big stage with people speaking to a fairly large crowd of people, with lots of police around. We had no idea what was going on, but it looked fairly serious so we headed off in the opposite direction to find a shop for some fresh bread.
I’ve looked this up since we got back and it turns out it was the Ceremonies of the Territorial Command Day of the GNR of Portalegre.
The walk back followed a slightly different route to start with, which included up a lot of stairs, and then a short, sharp hill to get up into the woodland. We came across a fun looking cave - but up close it was pretty tiny.
Back to camp for a late lunch, showers and a spot of sunbathing while the sun was still warm.
Dinner tonight was stuffed pasta in a tomato sauce.
It’s turned windy, wet and a bit chilly now, so this evening we caught up on a bit more Taskmaster.もっと詳しく
Day 56 - Markadia
2024年10月30日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Marla‘s body clock is still not quite on the same time zone as us, so it was another slightly earlier than hoped morning but it’s moving on day today so it’s never a bad thing to be up and about early.
We had a relaxed couple of hours of getting up, having breakfast and packing away the van. We didn’t have much to pack away because the weather has not been brilliant, so no outside things like chairs to put away. We took Marla for a mini walk so she could go to the bathroom, said goodbye to the donkeys and then we headed off.
Our first stop of the day was an Aldi just outside a small town, however due to a slight navigational error by me, we ended up driving right through the old medieval town. It was very pretty, there were lots of old and new churches and castles, it’s just a shame our route through it all was pretty narrow and a bit scary at times!
After a not hugely successful shop, it was back on the road, and it was all pretty straightforward.
We did make one more stop at a pet shop that just happened to be next to the road, and I don’t like to pass up the opportunity to find more food for Marla.
After that stop, I was stuck behind a lorry for most of the trip as it was basically the same road until the camp site turn off - so we just chilled out and enjoyed the scenery.
We arrived at camp mid afternoon. It’s a very big camp where you can pitch wherever you like, as long as you are at least 10m away from anyone else. It’s all along the shore of a reservoir. We initially picked a little spot that was all tucked away, but after taking Marla for a walk and coming back to the van, we could see we had made a mistake in stopping there as it was actually really gloomy as we were all hidden by trees. So we moved a bit further round the site into the open a bit more, and we can’t even see our closest neighbour.
Dinner tonight was some vegan burgers we’d picked up a while ago, and I’d bought a selection of vegetarian sides to go with them from Aldi this morning. We went for the ons that looked like empanadas, unfortunately they turned out to be absolutely inedible. They tasted like fish cakes that had gone off…..
Addendum - things I forgot to mention.
Strangest thing happened in the night, about 3am Marla got up and left our bed and went back to her own. She’s not done that before - it didn’t last too long, but strange nonetheless.
Also - there are Hoopoe birds here around camp, they are beautiful. I’ll try and get a photo tomorrow.もっと詳しく
Day 57 - Resevoir Dog
2024年10月31日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
It was another 6:30 wake up thanks to Marla again this morning, she stayed in bed a bit longer but still it was everyone out of bed before 7am. It was a cool, misty morning. The forecast for today was pretty wet, so we went for a fairly early morning walk after setting off a load of washing about 9:30
The campsite is on the banks of a reservoir so we just picked a direction and followed the shore. It was a bit confusing as to what point we actually left the campsite, but as soon as we couldn’t see any other people or campervans around we let Marla off lead and she went potty following all the rabbit scents. She lost us a couple of times. I could see her though so it was okay. She really enjoyed going into the water here, it was quite shallow at the edge and then a fair drop off. So we played some fetch into the water so she could have a swim out, she had a very lovely time.
We retraced our steps back to the campsite and decided to be civilised and sit outside the on site café and have a cup of coffee. We had a cappuccino each which came to a grand total of €3. It was so nice we stayed for another.
Back at the van and Charlie got his toolbag out for some more van DIY. The second spring on our kitchen counter extension snapped, thankfully we bought a multipack when we had to replace the other spring.
Lunch today was some bread and cheese.
When we had finished lunch, it looked really nice outside so I suggested we go for an early walk. It was only about 1:30, for us that’s a very early afternoon walk. It started to rain on us almost as soon as we left the camp, so we headed back but as soon as we got close to the van, the sun came out again so we carried on walking the shore of the reservoir but this time the other way round. We didn’t let Marla into the water this time, because she only really just dried off after last time. The terrain in the other direction was so different, it was kind of like a giant cobweb all over the floor. We’ve decided it’s where the reservoir used to be a lot higher than it is now. I took a few photos but I was expecting a giant spider to come out and try and eat us.
We got back to the van just in time for the afternoon rain
We had pizza for dinner so in the van. We’re getting very good at cooking pizzas in our oven, even though one almost ended up on the floor today - but I saved it ….just. Dessert was a very strange thing that I bought from Lidl. It was like a rich tea biscuit on the bottom, some kind of sweet cream in the middle and then sweet egg yolk on top. I thought it was very tasty. Charlie wasn’t convinced but I’d eat it again.
We’ve been talking about our plans for the next few weeks. Our plan for the next month was to slowly make our way back home all along the southern coast of Spain and enjoy a bit of winter sunshine along the way. Given the the devastation that’s been caused by the flooding this week, we have decided avoid most of the southern coast of Spain. We will carry on through Portugal, we’ve got the next place booked and then at some point we’ll just start making our way up through Spain and then across the top and cross into France and then come back home in a few weeks.もっと詳しく
Day 58 - Camping Serro de Bica
2024年11月1日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Guess who woke up at 6:30 again today…. Yes… Marla. It’s moving day again today so we got up, had breakfast and started to tidy and pack away the van.
It’s the 1st of the month now and both Charlie and I have decided to take part in the MND Squat challenge, we each need to do 5000 squats before the end of month.
Charlie powered out 200 this morning, I went for 150 thinking I would pace myself a bit more.
We tried to take Marla for a walk, but there are so many rabbits around the site that she was going absolutely potty so no one was having a good time. We cut the walk short and decided to go and have a coffee at the cafe instead.
Back to the van for a final pack and set off.
The drive today was short, only about an hour and a half. Today’s a national holiday for All Saints Day so there wasn’t much traffic about, but there did seem to be a lot more cars up my bum than normal - and I was maybe driving at slightly over the speed limit already. I think that the Portuguese must have overtaking on their driving tests because everyone is so confident and does it in the same way - get right up behind so you can’t see and then just go for it 🤦♀️ terrifying….
We arrived at camp just in time to have lunch. Charlie had leftover bread from yesterday and I had cheese spatzle that I’d been saving since we left Germany.
The camp here is not quite what we expected. The pitches are all terraced but sort of all facing each other so I don’t feel like we have much privacy. We are also next to a main road and there’s a fair bit of road noise. We can walk a bit in the other direction and be on the trails, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. We were planning on staying two nights but have decided to call it a day tomorrow and move on.
The toilets are also a bit strange in that they aren’t in a block, but are individual cubicles accessed from the outside of a building, but with big gaps at the top and bottom so anyone walking past can hear what’s going on.
There are some fun and strange ornaments / sculptures around the camp.
We made a Quorn bolognaise from scratch for dinner tonight and had that with some flageolet beans.
We watched a couple of episodes of Gone Fishing and the next thing I knew it’s 9pm so time to blog and then go to bed.もっと詳しく
Day 59 - storks, ostriches and the sea
2024年11月2日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
The Marla Bear yet again woke us at 6:30 - although to be precise it was 6:29 this morning.
We had breakfast and I then went off for a shower while there was still plenty of hot water. The site was predominantly filled with Dutch people who all seemed to be up and about very early! We took Marla for a short walk along the trails behind the campsite and then packed up and headed off.
First stop was a supermarket - our fridge was looking surprisingly bare! Charlie went into Pingo Doce for supplies, the only thing they didn’t sell was yogurt. Luckily for us there’s an Aldi next to the Pingo, so I popped in there for some yogurt. I ended up buying an almond tart each and some other treats.
We couldn’t check into our next campsite until a bit later on today, so we headed for a local beach.
We noticed a lot of Stork nests on the drive, they build absolutely massive nests on the top of power / phone poles. We saw so many poles for miles but no sign of a Stork at all. A quick google search told us that they migrate for the winter to the sub-Saharan desert. About 2 minutes after finding this fact out, we saw a stork sitting in its nest! We saw a few more over the space of a couple of minutes, but then nothing again.
In this area of Portugal, the bus stops are all very prettily painted blue and white, in keeping with the houses. I couldn’t resist stopping to get a photo.
We made it to the beach, parked up and had some lunch, cheese rolls. We then headed down for a walk and play on the beach. Marla had fun hopping in and out the sea with Charlie. Every time she came out the sea, she rolled around in the sand, then would launch herself back into the sea.
As we were just leaving the beach, Charlie noticed in the field opposite the car park there were three ostriches!
For our next campsite we have gone for the premium pitch as it’s hard standing / gravel so we finally have a couple of days off of glittery orange sand being continually trodden into the Van.
It’s a nice big pitch and the site seems nice - although there are a few children around.
We had spinach and ricotta cannelloni for dinner tonight followed by some honey and cinnamon biscuits - very tasty.もっと詳しく
Day 60 - Porto Covo
2024年11月3日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
The hairy alarm clock woke us up again this morning….. I’ll be glad when we go back into Spain and the clocks go forwards an hour.
A normal start to the day for us. Marla is still struggling to wait until 8am for her breakfast.
Today’s forecast was for cloudy all day, so after everyone’s breakfast had gone down we headed down to the beach.
We found a little cove that was deserted so we hopped on down the cliffs and spent a good hour paddling, running around and doing squats! Charlie and I have both signed up to do 5000 squats each in November to raise money and awareness for Motor Neurone Disease.
After the beach we gave Marla a good hose down and then hit the showers ourselves. This is the first site we’ve seen washing machines that not only accept card, but you can also pay via an app. And it’s the first site in a while with tumble dryers so we took full advantage and did a big wash.
This afternoon we mostly hung around camp, waiting for the washing to finish and keeping and eye on the clothes we have hung out to dry in case it started to rain. It’s been a warm day but this afternoon has been really quite grey.
Charlie did a mini clean of the van, taking advantage of the dry day and lack of sand around site to sweep the van. He put our mat outside to air, and the next thing we know Marla has taken herself off to the mat and laid down. At home it’s by the back door and it’s where she goes to tell us that she’s hungry and wants to be fed 🤣
I’ve started my next crochet project, a colourful blanket for Charlie in the pattern and colours of his choosing.
Dinner this evening was Quorn chilli and rice - I think we have almost used up everything we bought with us food wise.
We have quite a long drive tomorrow, so this evening we did a bit of planning of the route and having a think what to listen to on the drive.もっと詳しく
Day 61 - the start of the end
2024年11月4日, ポルトガル ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Today was a big travel day for us so we happily woke up with the hairy alarm clock and had an early start.
After coffee and breakfasts had gone down we went for a little walk along the sandy paths to stretch everyone’s legs before the big drive. It was quite warm and muggy so we didn’t stay out too long.
Back to the van to pack up and refill with a bit more water as we just about ran out.
Our destination today is just north of Porto, we are now heading back to the UK in the most direct route as we want to avoid the south of Spain and ideally avoid the mountain regions which are just starting to get cooler and have winter tyre restrictions imposed. Although we do have winter tyres, I’d rather avoid the situations where we might need them just yet.
We stopped for diesel at about midday on the motorway, not ideal but very convenient. It was also a picnic area so once we’d filled up we went and parked with the big trucks and had some lunch. A little wander for Marla and then back on the road. It was all pretty much motorways today so we listened to some Brydon & podcasts to entertain us. Thoroughly enjoyed them all, easy listening and very funny.
We had one more stop off for another leg stretch at about 2:30 before the final push.
We ended up driving through Porto, which was pretty busy and the weather was against us so it was raining too - made for an exciting last 30 mins of travelling. We came off the main roads and ended up straight into a cobblestone village to get to camp. It felt a bit surreal.
We got to camp, had a bit of a faff checking in as they couldn’t find my booking details - but we got in eventually.
It’s an ok stop for a night, or if you’re wanting to go into Porto but I wouldn’t stay here for fun. But at least there are toilet seats and paper!
Charlie made us a Tuscan pasta for dinner, served with a delicious bottle of white.
Just after dinner we had a knock at the door - it was a chap called Marcus who is a travel guru, it just so happens that his mum owns an RP and he has just got back from leading the RP Balkans adventure! He was interested in the slide as he’s not seen one of these before. We had a bit of a chat as I’d met him at the NEC show in the RP back stage area.
After dinner we did a bit more route planning. We have now booked our next three campsites which takes us just north of Bordeaux. We still need to amend our Shuttle booking once we are 100% sure on what day we will be coming home, and we need to find a vet to sign off Marla’s Animal Health Certificate and administer a worming tablet, which has to be between 24-120 hours before we arrive back in the UK.
I didn’t take many photos today. Charlie captured Marla looking out of the window wondering where I’d gone when I went off and did the washing up. I also took photos of the ladies and children’s toilet block signs to send my sister to show it’s an easy mistake to make to go into the children’s block 😂😂 He got a few sneakies of me practicing my bubble gum skills while driving 😂もっと詳しく
Day 62 - what time is it??
2024年11月5日, スペイン ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
It turns out our camp site was right next to Porto airport so from about 6am we had planes taking off and landing every few minutes….
Somehow the hairy one slept past her normal wake up time and as 6:30 rolled around she was still asleep. It’s a shame both Charlie and I were awake and we both needed a wee, so we got up.
It was a rainy morning, so we pretty much got up, had breakfast, did the washing up. I started to pack away the van and Charlie walked to the local supermarket for some rolls so we could make a lunch to take with us.
We opted not to go for a big walk in the rain, but Marla had a wander around the camp while I finished the van stuff.
We headed off mid morning, back through the cobblestone town from yesterday…. one quick stop as we could hear our cans of Rockstar rolling around in the fridge - we meant to have them up front with us for an energy boost.
It was quite busy on the road as we skirted Porto again and made our way to the motorway. One we were on the main roads, it was clear sailing.
We gained a lot of elevation today, there were a lot of bridges and tunnels - one tunnel was over 5km long and when we popped out the other side, we were in the clouds! I had to figure out where my fog lights were for the first time.
Not long after this the ad blu light came on…. Oops. One to sort tomorrow when we stop for petrol.
We stopped at a couple of motorway services on the way to try and have a leg stretch and take Marla out - unfortunately a couple had works going on as were very limited in parking space, and more importantly green space.
We crossed into Spain and the roads were instantly very different. Gone were the dual carriageway smooth roads and here come the single, awfully paved roads… it still amazes me the amount of people who overtake me when I’m doing the speed limit (and maybe a tiny bit over…) they are absolutely flying past - and it’s not just the odd person, it’s everyone.
Our destination this afternoon is a site we’ve been to already on this trip. Camping El Astral.
We did try to book somewhere else, but all the other options we spotted were closed for the winter now.
We arrived at about 3:30 Spanish time (when we crossed the boarder the clocks changed again). We took Marla for a walk along the tracks and the sandy pine forest that’s over the road from us. She was having an amazing time rolling around in all the sand and playing with the pine cones.
After she had her dinner, we all popped over to the restaurant where we sat outside and had a few beverages and the four cheese pizza, followed by a Maxibon.
Back in the van for the evening, we watched some Gone Fishing and I worked on Charlie’s blanket some more.
Another travel day again tomorrow - so an early night for us tonight.
Edit - just before going to bed we had a small accident. The kitchen scales in the dog food drawer went bye bye and disappeared down the back of the drawer. Not a problem, I’ll pull the drawer out. But wait - it doesn’t come out. WTF?? We could just about see the scales, somehow there’s a gap under the drawers where the hot air heating comes out and it landed down there. Cue 20 mins of using a multitude of tools to try and prop the scales up so I could reach them. Hammer wasn’t bendy enough, the socket wrench has an end on that we need to change the tyre, so we didn’t want to risk losing that too… finally a Joseph Joseph plastic serving spoon did the job. Charlie managed to manhandle the scales where I could just about reach them and then did some jiggery pokery to pull them out. My wrists are going to be so bruised tomorrow!もっと詳しく
Day 63 - back into france
2024年11月6日, フランス ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
With the clock change in Spain, Marla was sufficiently confused and didn’t wake us up at 6:30am. However it’s now my turn to have a confused body clock and I was the one wide awake….
We got up and had breakfast. I had a shower and tried to dry my hair using both the supplied hair dryers at once, but gave up after 5 mins as they were pretty useless.
Charlie took Marla off for a walk while I popped to the shop for bread and second breakfast (pain au chocolate), made a packed lunch, did the washing up and packed the last bits of the van away.
In my haste to tidy up, it seems I might have thrown away the piece of paper with the exit barrier code on it… Charlie wasn’t impressed and took a bit of pleasure in blaming me when he had to explain to reception why he needed the code again.
We hit the road mid morning and headed straight for the petrol station for more diesel and ad blu. I’d programmed into the sat nav to stop at the first petrol station it told me was on our way. However as we got closer it turned out to be on the other side of the motorway and we were being told to do a 3km loop back to it. We decided to ignore that and just drive on to the next one, but somehow I managed to miss the turning so on we went to the next one. We finally pulled into a Cespa just off the motorway. I hopped out and started to fill up with diesel while eyeing up the ad blu pump and wondering how to operate it. All of a sudden there was a chap next to me trying to take over the holding of the pump because he had gloves on and I didn’t. There didn’t seem to be much point in him taking over so I said I was ok but could do with help with the ad blu. Once the fuel finished, we popped the bonnet and took the cap off and the chap stuck the nozzle in and pressed go - no different to any fuel pump - so that was easier than I expected (and a bit embarrassing that I asked for help, but he seemed happy to be of service - event though I may have splashed him with a bit of diesel when putting the nozzle back).
Off we headed, back onto the open road with about 300km to get through today. After about half an hour on the road, I realised I had no memory of checking which type of fuel I put into Big Dave. I was sure if I’d have put petrol in, he would be grumbling by now… but best to confess to Charlie that I don’t think I was paying attention…. Thankfully he was and he saw me putting in the cheap diesel. Phew - must pay more attention in the future.
We stopped for a later than normal lunch, finding a random truck car park behind a petrol station that had enough greenery for Marla. Just a quick stop to eat then back on the road.
There were a lot of tunnels today, and we had it again where we went through a tunnel and came out in the clouds (or fog). It faded after a little while, and wasn’t bad enough for fog lights this time. We crossed into France with no problem and the camp for tonight was pretty straightforward to find.
It’s a nice looking site, sandy pitches in amongst pine trees. We had about an hour of daylight, so sat out for a bit until we realised we were being bitten by little bugs.
We had stuffed pasta and began escalopes for dinner tonight, followed by a semolina protein dessert pot (a bit odd).
We have one more day of driving tomorrow before a rest day which I think we all need.
Oh - and my arm has bruised very nicely, just as I knew it would after our drawer issue yesterday.もっと詳しく
Day 64 - Camping Le Paradis
2024年11月7日, フランス ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
We finally slept in past 7am - yay!
We had breakfast, packed the van up and then took Marla off for a good walk in the woods behind the campsite. She had a nice time and we managed to keep her out of all the water / mud puddles.
We headed straight to the biggest supermarket to restock the fridge with cheese and the cupboards with wine!
On the road and today it was a lot of motorway driving… we drove for a while, then stopped at a picnic area for a quick lunch stop. I thought we would get away without having to fill up with diesel again today, but about 20km from our destination the little orange light came on and we ended up having to find a station to top up. We pulled into the first one we could, which turned out to be a truckers only station, no problem - I can play with the big boys but all the pumps were out of action. A nice French trucker told us there’s another station just a little way up the road so off we went and filled up.
We arrived at camp just after 4pm, the owners are British and very lovely. Although they were pretty surprised to see us as we weren’t booked in until tomorrow…. Charlie made a bit of a mistake with his dates it seems…. Good job we were going to ask to stay another night anyway!
We are all in need of a break from driving and this site is lovely, and even has a dog field for Marla to have a good run around in (although we have to make sure the chickens are in their enclosure before we go barrelling in!).
We set the van up, and then realised we are out of water… oh well - we can top up tomorrow when we head off to the vets to sort Marla’s paperwork for coming home.
We were even given a welcome drink, in a proper glass! It was quite a novelty. Dinner tonight was burger and chips made in the van.もっと詳しく
Day 65 - a day of nothing (almost)
2024年11月8日, フランス ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
A relaxed start for us all today - Marla only woke properly when we did, just after 7. We finally had something different for breakfast today - that was exciting! We had cereal instead of our normal overnight oats and protein powder.
A couple of hours after breakfast we went to the dog field on site and let Marla have a big play with a frisbee and tennis ball. We would throw the toy and then release Marla once it had landed - the grass here is so long that it would take her ages to find it each time!
For the rest of the morning, I did some crochet and had a shower and Charlie did a campsite workout. This is one of the best showers so far - the bathrooms are absolutely massive and there’s proper bath mats on the floor for you to stand on when drying. It felt like you were almost in someone’s house.
Lunch today was cheese and biscuits.
This afternoon we had a vets appointment just 10 minutes down the road. It was all pretty straightforward, Marla was checked over by a vet - who said she was very thin, but then was surprised she weighed in at 26.5kg. Marla tried to give her sneaky kisses when she was listening to her heart 😂 Once she’d been checked over, she was given a worming tablet and our forms were all stamped ready for travelling on Monday.
Back at camp and we had a couple of beers in the afternoon sun. Dinner this evening was vegetable balls, cous cous, carrot salad, baby tomatoes and chips. Just a bit random…. but tasty.
We’ve sorted somewhere a bit different for tomorrow night as we head up towards Calais….もっと詳しく
Day 66 - a night with the horses!
2024年11月9日, フランス ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
An early morning for everybody today. I woke up at 5 o’clock with backache and hip ache and Marla lying on me. Every time I turned around to get comfortable she turned around to get herself comfortable and ended up more and more on top of me, which was not fun. So we finally called it a day and got up just about 6:30.
Everyone had some breakfast and let that go down for a couple hours. We did the washing up and then took Marla back to the dog field to do play frisbee and then ‘find it’ with a tennis ball to try and tire her out ahead of another day of travelling.
We left about mid morning and headed to a local supermarket just to get our last few essentials that we need to keep us going for our last couple of days. Then we headed off to Le Mans, specifically an equestrian facility called Pôle Européen du Cheval.
It’s €12 a night for a field to camp in with toilets and showers, it feels very safe and secure.
When we arrived and there was another camper van here already in the last hour or so a caravan arrived, so we’re not going to be the only people here for tonight.
It’s a bit strange not to have met anybody official, I booked online yesterday and had an email to confirm but they didn’t even want my registration number and I haven’t seen anybody today to say we’re here or had to check in anywhere. I keep expecting someone to come and knock on the door.
Dinner this evening was us trying to use up some of our food, so we had stuffed pasta with vegan meatballs - they were really weird, very thick solid and with a smoky flavour.
I would not buy those again … and we had a starter of some vegetable croquettes that I bought from Aldi or Lidl a couple of weeks ago in Portugal, they were not terrible.
The excitement of today was probably first thing as we were leaving our campsite when I went the wrong way because I was following Google Maps - forgetting that on the way in it said to turn right here but to my right it was just a hedge. So on the way out, it tried to take me that way again - I realised this when I started going down a very small track that looks liked it’s going to lead to someone’s field (because it did….) I started reversing and could hear someone shouting and whistling, it was a chap telling his friend (who was on a tractor trying to come out onto the road) to stay put. He then directed us so I could reverse all back up this track back up the road and then head off in the right direction … what a faff.もっと詳しく
Day 67 - almost home
2024年11月10日, フランス ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
Day 67 - our last full day away….
I have really mixed feelings about going home - I miss my bed, my friends and vegetables…. but going home means it’s closer to the end of an amazing year off work and doing pretty much whatever I want to do.
Anyway - back to today. The Horse sleepover place was really quiet, I should have slept well but Marla was being a bit of a pickle. She was drooling more than normal, so we didn’t want her sleeping on the bed with us, but every 10 mins or so I could hear her get up off her own bed and walk to ours and wait to be invited up, and if she didn’t hear anything from us she sort of tippy taps her feet. About midnight she gave up asking permission and launched herself on the bed - she’s a big lump when she wants to be and I didn’t have the energy to fight her, so I let her stay.
We woke up about 7am, it was cool and a bit misty this morning. I took Marla out for a quick business walk and it was still just us, another motorhome and a caravan there for the night.
Breakfast and coffee done, we took Marla for a bit of a walk around the field as we knew it was going to be a longer than normal driving day.
We headed off about 11am to the closest petrol station and supermarket for some fuel and fresh bread. We hit the road not long after, heading up to Calais but having to take a longer route around Rouen as there’s a low emission zone in place and we hadn’t applied for the permits before leaving home.
We stopped about 1pm for lunch, it was cheese and bread - we needed to finish off all the stinky cheese we had left in the fridge. I had found a bag of my new favourite crisp flavour in the supermarket yesterday, Cheese Naan, so we had those as well. We did the washing up and then headed off again - love a van picnic!
The motorway today is very quiet indeed. Most trucks aren’t allowed to drive on Sundays, and it really makes a difference to the volume of traffic. We spent most of the journey on our own, just being overtaken every now and again. It probably made a difference that we were on toll roads most of today. It cost around £66 in total, the most expensive being the stretch from Le Mans up towards Rouen, that was £45!
We were planning on stopping about 4pm to let Marla eat, then waiting before carrying on as the reception of the next place doesn’t open til 5, but if we drove straight through, we were going to arrive at 5 on the dot - so thought it would be best to just plough on and Marla could hate us for delaying her dinner - but she would get over it quickly.
This site is a bit odd, there are quite a few static caravans and car park type spaces for campervans / motorhomes but it feels like we are just behind someone’s house. There’s basic facilities (no toilet paper!) and one of the toilets is out of action completely,
We whipped up a quick dinner of pesto pasta and flageolet beans.
A relaxing evening listening to podcasts and I did a bit of crochet.
We have an early start tomorrow so it’ll be bedtime very shortly for us (it’s not quite 9pm at the moment!)もっと詳しく
Day 68 - we are home
2024年11月11日, イングランド ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
Neither of us had a great nights sleep, I just wasn’t tired at bed time so took ages to go off to sleep. I had to have a quick tinkle in the night and came back to find Marla all curled up in a ball on my side of the bed - cheeky madam.
We got up at 6am, had breakfast, did the washing up, packed the van up and headed off at 8:30. We stopped off at the closest petrol station and then made our way to the shuttle check in. Google maps took us a strange way, lots of back roads before finally letting us join the motorway. Dave wasn’t too dirty, but after those roads he is absolutely filthy now!
Our shuttle was booked for 11:15, I love to be early so we arrived exactly 2 hours before to start the check in process. We headed over to the pet reception first and it was absolutely empty. We gave over Marla’s paperwork and we scanned her microchip and we were good to go. We then had to go and check in for the shuttle, we were offered a space on the 10:15 train for no extra cost so we took that.
We quickly popped into the terminal to spend some of our loose change, but we didn’t have much time now, so no time for duty free browsing. A quick wee for Marla and off we went to boarder controls, first the French then the UK. We were boarded by security who checked all our cupboards that are big enough for people to hide in, and our cargo box - we were given the call clear and off we went.
The rest was all quick and straightforward, before we knew it we were on the train. The phone signal was really good so I took the opportunity to call the vet to make an appointment for Marla as she has a poorly ear (nothing too serious). Then we were moving! We filled the time by making some lunch for later, and I did some crochet - and some squats for my challenge.
Back in the UK and it was surprisingly sunny! A straightforward and relatively quick drive home, considering the significant amount of roadworks with a 50 limit.
We got back home not long after midday - not bad going at all!
We’d decided not to empty the van today as we just couldn’t face it, we just were going to bring out the essentials.
We had not been home more than 5 minutes and I trod in some cat poop that was on our front lawn, camouflaged by all the leaves on the floor. Great… I’d somehow managed to get it smeared on my trouser leg too…. 🤦♀️🤦♀️ So I stripped down to my pants on the front door step and did the walk of shame into the house 😂
I hopped into the shower and Charlie did a quick bit of leaf blowing to ensure that we wouldn’t tread on anything else unpleasant.
I had a quick shower and then we took Marla off for a proper walk in her favourite place. This is when I realised I have a flat tyre on the car…. thankfully it’s a run flat so we got to where we wanted to be and got back again all ok. One more thing to fix tomorrow.
Back home and time to open all the post and check everything in the house is all good (thankfully I think all is ok!).
Time to take Marla to the vet (thankfully I was able to pump the tyre up so we could just use the car). A quick check over and it looks like she’s probably stuck her head somewhere she shouldn’t have and got a small infection in her ear from something like a bramble or thorn giving her a poke. Not the first time she’s got injured from sticking her head somewhere it doesn’t belong. She has been given some drops that will clear it all up soon.
We treated ourselves to an Indian takeaway tonight as we couldn’t face a supermarket shop this afternoon.
Marla has enjoyed having so many comfy spaces to have a snooze on.
It feels a bit odd to be home after 2 months away - in some ways it doesn’t feel like we’ve been away that long but it also feels very strange to have so much space to move around in, almost a bit surreal.もっと詳しく
