Our journey began following a lovely break at Waterrow on Exmoor for Christmas & New year. Doug & Elvira were also at Waterrow, and they decorated their van and Elvira dressed for the occassion! (her Knickers had the words "Knickers to Christmas" written on them! We were booked on the train through the Channel Tunnel on 3rd January. However, snow was forecast for Eastern England and for France, so we decided to leave Waterrow on 1st January, with a view to crossing into France on 2nd.

We made very good time, and were at the tunnel by 2.30pm on 1st, so decided to take a chance and see if we could cross even earlier. The man at the check in said he would look to see if it was worthwhile going earlier, as he said it could be very expensive. Luck was with us, if we had arrived at 4pm it would have cost an extra £100. At 2.30 it would cost us no extra! By 3.30 we were on French soil, parked up at the aire in Calais, where we spent a quiet night, amongst many other vans.

Jack & Scatty’s siesta

2/1/8. We were up and away by 8.30am, and started off on the A16 South. We intended travelling via Rouen, but missed                   
our turning and ended up on the outskirts of Paris. It was a big mistake. The traffic was horrible!!
We regained the original route at Tours and it was dark by the time we stopped for the night on a car park at the cross roads in the town of Sainte Maure de Tormes. We had looked for the aire but couldn’t find it. It was a noisy night with lots of traffic noise, however we were off the road. (N47o6.522  E0o36.845)

3/1/8. Next morning, while turning round, we found the aire – the next road up on the right!! We had travelled 361km. Unfortunately, while carrying out a U turn in a narrow road, I gently bumped a wall while reversing, and smashed the rear light cluster. Bugger!! I stuck it together with silicon glue and duck tape, and the lights still worked, which was the important thing.
We made our way south toward Bordeaux, making good progress. At 3pm we looked for an aire to spend the night. Our English book gave two which we couldn’t find; the grid co-ordinates put us in a field! And the 3rd which was one place for one night was over run by gypsy type travellers – so we moved hastily on! We found a list of Aires on sat nav and decided to try one. It put us on a toll road going the wrong direction even though it said it was South of us. (Next time we will bring it up on the screen and check it!). However, it was a godsend. We found a very quiet aire in the village of St Paul near Blaye. (N45o8.873 W0o36.290)No shops, no bar, just a church and the chimes were turned off at night!! Late in the evening we were joined by a French van.
   St Paul  Aire

4/1/8 After a really good sleep, we were moving again by 9.00, and got on a motorway around Bayonne and found ourselves in Spain by 1.0pm! We stopped in a lorry park to have a coffee and look at the map. A pleasant English lorry driver came up to us and told us of a better route than the one I had marked on the map. – A shortcut! – it was too, and a very good straight road. (The A121; come off the AP68 at junction 19 S of Tudela). Not long after passing through a toll to get off the obligatory toll road to enter Spain, I was pulled over by the Spanish police, and asked to show my driving licence, and a routine breathalyzer for alcohol and drugs! It was an experience! We missed our turning when it got to dusk, so did a U turn on an industrial park, and stopped for the night in the car park of the Moncayo Hotel, near Albeta, between Magallen and Borga on the N122, which we were assured was covered all night by a camera. We enjoyed our evening meal in the hotel – Jack had veal fillet, and I chose veal Provencal, which like last year turned out to be beef casserole! Max doesn’t like this part of Spain. The grass is all brown and straw like, and he is used to something greener &  softer! We spent a good night there, only disturbed by the sound of lorries.

5/1/8 Jack is 60 today. I saw a beautiful sun rise while giving Max his early morning walk. By the time I got back to the van it was over. It lasted all of 10 minutes! We had a long drive today, made all the longer due to a diversion due to the building of a motorway. Both Jack and Sat nav decided the official diversion was too long and they navigated me over narrow roads which were only wide enough for me. (Fortunately, we didn’t meet any thing coming the other way at all, which says something about the road they chose!) Often the tarmac ran out and we were on dirt roads. Some of the villages we passed through had very narrow streets, and thankfully very small balconies! A few corners were very sharp, but we got round. Eventually we made it to Oliva, and camping Pepe, where we found our selves a small sunny pitch and set up. I went and found Pat Cherry, to let them know we had arrived. She came over to us in the evening and stayed for a chat. John was in town watching football! I walked Max on the beach at 5pm, and it was warm enough not to wear a jumper! – Bliss!
Sun set at Camping Pepe
6/1/8 I was on the beach with Max by 8.00 and it was warm and sunny. On returning to the van, we decided to have a make do & mend day, and clean the inside of the van, and a bit of a tidy up. I did 2 loads of washing – all our winter cords – and it all dried in the sun. We spent a pleasant couple of hours with Pat & John, bringing them up to date with the club and old friends. Then it was time for us to have a late lunch, and for Jack to do his “lie down”. While I sat reading in the sun. According to e mail it was cold and raining at home!

7/1/8 John took Jack & me into Oliva town today in the car to do a little shopping and visit the bank. On our return Jack felt dizzy, and went down with Vertigo, so he went to bed. Max & I went on the beach for a walk. (he had a swim). It really was a very pleasant restful day.

Camp site at Pepe           The rest of our stay was spent relaxing in the sun, although I did manage to clean the van, as it was very dirty, and we also walked to the new shops at the golf complex.

10/1/8 A long days drive toward Kendal & Nita’s in bright sunshine and nearly empty roads. It was an interesting drive though through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which had a little snow on the very tops. We also passed the troglodyte villages built into the mountain side. One such large one was the village of Guadix. The inhabitants literally live underground. Some even have underground garages! They are said to be a constant temperature and very dry. We stopped for the night at Loja and parked behind a hotel next to a service station. Dinner was taken in the ala carte restaurant, which gave both of us a break. We covered 405km today. We now have only 54km to do to reach Kendal & Nita.

11/1/8 I’m very glad we didn’t have far to go, as we made our way very slowly and with some difficulty through the narrow cobbled streets of Antiquera. At one time, Jack had to get out and give me directions on a three point turn to get round a right angle, at a road no wider than the van. In another place, on a steep cobbled hill, the van’s wheels were slipping on the shiny cobbles – not good when trying to carry out a hill start on a 90o bend!
Nita & Kendal’s house

However, we made it out of the town and onto twisty  mountains roads leading to Alora the town next to Kendal & Nita’s village. It took us a couple of hours and we had to phone Kendal a couple of times for directions.

Nita was out working at a charity shop when we got there, but Kendal was at home and we had a very pleasant lunch of fresh baked bread with English Cheddar and ham, washed down with Kendal’s sherry. (A mix of Tio Pepe & Pedro Ximenes).  That night we went into Alora and had a very good meal of Chicken & Chips and Steak & Chips!

We spent a great weekend with our friends. Lesley went shopping with each of them in turn, and also went out walking amongst the olive groves with Nita and her dog Eduardo. The area is abundant with sage, fennel and Lavender growing wild amongst finger palms. Nita thought it very funny when Max lay down in a puddle, but was horrified that I suggest Eduardo copy!
One evening, we went for a wonderful drive up into the Parque Ardales to El Chorro. It was beautiful as we drove up the narrow twisty roads above the lake, just as the sun was beginning to set. The reflections on the water were breath taking. Apart from it’s beauty, El Chorro is famed for a railway bridge that is featured in “Von Ryan’s Express”. There is also a walkway, across the face of the mountain, built for the construction workers, then used as a tourist attraction. It is now closed to the public, but is visible from the road. We stopped to eat in a typically Spanish bar/restaurant, whose walls were covered in photos of the bridge, and its opening. There were also photos of the dams being built, and of the valley before it was flooded. Jack became adventurous, and tried Pil Pil Prawns, (cooked in chilli, garlic and olive oil); he said they were really good.

On 15th January, we moved on, a few miles south to Puerto Cabopino where we intended to spend a few weeks. The site was quite full, and we walked around trying to find a pitch that wasn’t shaded by pine trees. We fund one, and pulled onto it, only to sink into soft sand. Two very kind German men came to my rescue, and tried to dig me out, but it was no good, and I had to go to the office and  ask to be towed out. The lady in the office was very angry with the office staff, as they should have marked the pitch as out of use, but they had forgotten. It is usually Ok, but they had a lot of rain the previous day and had already pulled Our new pitch a large van out of it.(another hobby!) We found a large corner pitch near to the disabled showers, but we had big pine trees around our pitch and had to keep moving round in our small patch of sunshine; although half way through our stay we were able to move to a small but sunny pitch next to Barbara and Jeff. While under the trees they had taken pity on us and invited us to join them in their patch of sun.       We spent our days walking Max on the wonderful beach, which was regularly
Our Pea Pod green Ka    cleaned, walking into Calahonda to do the shopping in Supersol or Lidl. We also stopped for a coffee in the out door bar, and once a week bought a newspaper to catch up on the news at home. Calahonda is 800mtrs away along the dual carriageway; we walk alongside it behind the crash barriers.
We hired a pea green ford Ka for a week and enjoyed some trips out, which included:
Ronda: A drive of about 11/2  hours along twisty mountain roads. Jack said the views were fabulous, but it took 100% concentration on the driving. There were scores of motorbikes on the road, it was like Brands Hatch for them! The city was lovely. It is split into two by a gaping river gorge, the Tajo. The gorge is spanned by an impressive arched bridge, and tall white washed houses lean from its precipitous 130 meter high brink. [Local legend tells that God, fed up with the constant squabbling of the people of Ronda, sent a huge bolt of lightening down to earth and split the city in two, with the women in one half and the men in the other. This arrangement was so unpopular that they built the bridge across the gorge to reunite the community.]  It is possible to climb down the staircase inside the bridge, into the gorge and out up the stairs the other side. – needless to say we did not do it! Ronda has been the film set for the film “For whom the bell tolls”. The views along the city walls were breathtaking. It does have a bloody past though; It is said that in the 18th Century, injured horses from the bull ring were flung over the cliffs, and during the Spanish civil war, over 500 nationalist prisoners were thrown into the gorge by Republican sympathisers.

Fuengirola Market: Jack had suffered a few black outs so first time, Lesley went with Keith & Janet Miller, an English couple who had taken our old dark and shady pitch. Jack got to go later when Barbara & Jeff gave us a lift. The market is the largest, liveliest and most colourful market on the Costa del Sol, and a great place to buy fruit, vegetables, clothes, shoes, lace, toys, souvenirs and local crafts.  (Just look at the size of the cauliflowers!)
Lesley bought most of our thank you gifts in one mornings shop.
The fruit and veg looked wonderful, with in-season fruits such as cherries and strawberries, as well as the expected oranges (5 kilo for 1.75 Euro) and lemons. The spice stalls were heaven to stand near just for the aroma. Garlic, chilli’s and peppers hung in long strings from the stalls, and spices and herbs were sold loose.

Marbella: We had a short excursion to this busy town, mainly to do some shopping, and get cat food. (Our local shop, although of the same chain of shops, did not sell the cat food our fussy cat liked). We found our way down to the Marina, and enjoyed coffee, while gazing at all the boats. It was 23deg in the sun. – wonderful!

El Chorro: We re-visited this stunning area again on our own in sun light. The roads were narrower than they seemed when Kendal was driving, but we found our way easily enough.

Spanish Building at its best!	Post card of El Chorro

Once again we ate in the friendly Spanish Bar. And then headed homeward.

Fuengirola: A nice stroll along the promenade on a Sunday afternoon, and Roast lunch for approx £2.80

Fuengirola also held a car boot sale on a Saturday in the market place. I have never seen such a huge car boot.
I was fortunate enough to buy a flamenco dress for 30e. (If I could have taken lots of them back home I would have made a tidy profit!) It cost 1.33E each way on the bus, which came every 15-20 minutes. It is a very efficient service.

Max made friends with Henry, A beautiful Weimirander, who belonged to Hannah and Clive, a young couple who were wild camping, while finding some where they wanted to live. (they had left the UK in October – for good!) he and Henry played together on the beach in the mornings.                               

It’s a hard life!	Max learning snorkelling!

Friends we made along the way:
Joan & Rex Wade from France. They were moving onto Portugal, but several weeks before we did.		Barbara & Jeff Lees on their way to live in Portugal
Keith & Janet Miller from the Midlands

The days passed very quickly, with our time taken up playing petanca with Barbara, Jeff, Janet, Keith, Jack and myself. The girls beat the boys more often than not.
I also went swimming with Barbara, and in the evening the six of us sometimes met for a game of “uno”. Good clean fun!

We ate out a bit: an impromptu meal in the bar on site after a boules match; dinner with Kendal & Nita at “Albert’s”, a very nice restaurant at Cabopino marina. (It was decorated with old records, sheet music, mannequins dressed in 40’s dresses and boas draped over very old bicycles and lots of low chandeliers. Very theatrical.)
I ate with Barbara and Jeff one lunch time at a Chinese (3 courses for 6E). – Jack   wasn’t well at the time. The day before we were supposed to leave Cabopino, we all went out for dinner to a buffet diner Janet liked, for a farewell meal. Her daughter Debbie joined us, as she was to spend a week with Keith & Janet.
The first of 5 farewell meals!

When our car went back, Jeff & Barbara took us shopping into Lidl and Fuengirola Market & the car boot, Keith & Janet took Barbara and myself to Dunnes the Irish version of M&S where we all bought very nice plain T shirts for 4E! Cheaper than Matalan! We also discovered C&A, which is alive and well in Europe.

Processional Caterpillars on our pitch.
These caterpillars are poisonous to both animals and humans.  They trek from Pine tree to Pine tree to feed and eventually kill the trees. The only way to kill these things is to spray them with hair spray, so that the hairs don’t fly around, (it is the hairs that do the damage), pour lighter fuel on them and set them alight. Strangely enough, the caterpillar, although dead, doesn’t shrivel up. They stay quite plump. It is then safe to scoop them onto a dustpan and put them in the bin. These things live in the pines all over Spain and Portugal and a great deal of France. Their “nests” look like candy floss tufts in the tips of pine trees.

Our departure to Portugal on 15th February was delayed as Jack didn’t feel well.We eventually left on Monday 18th, on a chilly damp day. (Still warmer than the UK though!) We travelled up to Seville and entered Portugal near to Elvas where we parked outside a closed camp site Camping at Elvas      (N38o52.396 W7o10.821) where we had a good quiet night. The camp site is in the centre of the town, with not much shade. I suspect it would be very hot in the summer. Next day we completed our long drive to Dave & Cathy’s, using good single carriageway roads through the heart of Portugal. (Dave & Cathy N40o13.957 W8o17.330)I had to have 2 goes at getting our van through the tight bend in the village of Vilar, scraping a small corner of window on the wall – it will polish out! This van is much wider than the Phantom we had last year, which went through with ease. The village has had its roads covered in tarmac since last year, which made a big difference to the look of the village.
Vilar We spent a week with Dave Cathy and the boys, doing very little, just relaxing and drinking coffee or brandy at Pedro’s bar. Cathy took us                    
to market, but in comparison to Fuengirola market it was very small. We did buy a very nice pair of traditional Portuguese curtains for our future home (where ever it may be).
Cathy took me out to see properties she is selling on behalf of friends. (she was showing them to an English couple). The first had beautiful views, and was incredibly peaceful; the second was a ruin, and needed much imagination.

The Mountain Paths at Vilar	A muddy Max returning from a walk

   Max enjoyed walks on the mountain through  the forest paths, as he was able to run free. The trees were mainly Mimosa, Eucalyptus and Cork. Every morning we walked with Cathy and the boys to the village square to get the school bus. It left at 9.00am and returned them at 4.30 – a long day for 3 year old Ben let alone 4 year old Daniel! Blaze caught his bus at 7.00am and did not return until 5.30. He did enjoy school though and his Portuguese is fluent. When the boys came home they often took Max out for yet another walk. The younger boys went to their Grannies for our second weekend at Vilar, and the rest of us, including Blaze went into Coimbra for KFC. It was a real treat for them. Unlike the UK, it came on plates with proper cutlery, and was piping hot.

Dave turned the van round for me as worrying about it was causing Jack to black out (he said it didn’t but the black outs stopped immediately!) It was easier to get the van out of the village than getting it in, and we were soon off heading to
Salamanca and Camping Regio for an overnight stop. (N40o56.837 W5o36.866) We stayed there last year, so knowing the shower blocks were made of cold marble, filled the van with water, and showered in the van.
Next day we set out early, and travelled through Northern Spain and spent the night at Biarritz in France on a very  large aire full of French vans. We had travelled 436km. The weather changed here, and we had the first of persistent wind and rain, including hail stones. (N43o27.495 W1o34.313).
The Aire at Mansel Our journey up through France was uneventful,                        
stopping after 301km at Mansel on a very peaceful aire (N45o52.687 E0o10.915), again outside a closed camp site. We then travelled 307 km and stayed in a tiny village car park at Pace, recommended to us by friends. ( N48o26.694 E0o0.239)
Pace Having made good progress we did a diversion to the Village of Albert, which housed a museum dedicated to the first world war. The building was very impressive. We did not get to go inside           though as we could not find anywhere to park. We will do it again another time, and get there very early. Passing several sites of war graves we made our way to Doullens, and spent the night on an aire in the village centre. (N50o9.232 E2o20.549) We had travelled 283km.  The water tap didn’t work, and I couldn’t find where to empty the loo. There was a lot of lorry noise, but we were undisturbed, and spent a good night there. We wandered around the village in the morning before setting off for Calais, and the vets for Max and Scatty’s treatment for their passports. Our first night at Calais was peaceful, but we were woken the second night by youths banging on the vans at 5.00am. Fun for them, but we were not amused. The French man in the next van chased them off, for which I was grateful.
We whiled away the time at Calais by going shopping at Cite Europe, a huge shopping centre. We found Tesco expensive for wine, and did our shopping at Carrefour, where we also bought some excellent Beef. Never have we tasted casserole steak that nice before. It was also very lean, and needed no trimming.
Calais Aire      Following our disturbed night we left the aire at 7.00am to set off for the Tunnel in the rain. Just as well we did, as we couldn’t find where to check in the animals, so had to go round twice, and we since found out that Sea France ferries were on strike!
Our trip through the tunnel was fast and uneventful, and surprisingly it was sunny! Stopping at Maidstone services for a coffee and small breakfast, we bought a newspaper, and discovered that England was expecting a very large strong storm, so we phoned the camp site at Chertsey, and battened down of a stormy night. We had a fairly quiet night, and seeing there was more storms to come in, booked in for another night. It was a good decision as we had torrential rain. (it was a free night too as we had accumulated points the previous year).