As we wander and as we beam, we find a world not previously seen…….. As our plane crossed the English Channel and over southern England, we had no idea of what was below. The clouds were thick with no gaps, no cracks, no breaks, just thick grubby white fluff. So as we came into […]
It was a dreary start to Tuesday July 29th, so we didn’t rush to pack up and when we did, the sea mist and drizzle turned to rain. We seem to have developed a pattern of wet weather whenever we leave or enter a new country. Strangely, Rodney was hearing radio reports that it
Well well, we arrived at ‘The Well in Fennel’. Le Petit Puis in La Fenoulier, Julia & Kevin’s holiday home in France. It’s a pretty name; certainly prettier than say ‘The Bucket in Garlic’ and we had a pretty good time there. Their daughter Hannah arrived a day later than us, flying in on
We left Torla around 10:30am and headed south for the very last time. The drive to Ainsa was scenic, but not as dramatic as what we had been seeing for the last five days or so. By the time we arrived at Camping Ainsa the thermometer had hit 35°C and for the first time
Farewell to Camping Gavin where the eagles soar overhead. It was a nice campsite, one of the best and I felt a little sad to be leaving after four nights there. With our eyes locked firmly on the sky, we drove up the Valle de Tena and over the Col du Portalet to make another
On the road to Pamplona we expected to meet a lot of traffic. But yet again the road was empty, the nation was either still asleep at 10:30am or they were all already at the bullring. After we passed Pamplona and crossed from Navarra into Aragón, the clouds seemed to lift higher in the
Sadly, Saturday had been a whole day without cherries and yet another day without a pasteis de nata. How is that you can cross an imaginary line in Europe that says you are now in Spain and suddenly no-one sells pasteis de nata, or roadside cherries. When we crossed from Germany to France last
Friday started with the internet down, wet rain falling down and a massacre down in the shower cubicle. At 9:30am, as everyone else was collecting their bread from reception, we checked out and set off. We were both apprehensive about riding a cable car and standing in a damp cloud, but as we drove up
It was after 10am by the time we drove away from Cudillero and we didn’t drive very far to start with. We stopped on the outskirts of Avilés at a huge Carrefour supermarket and went a bit crazy. Rodney came away with a pair of swimming shorts and a couple of screwdrivers in the size
And the sun did come out on Friday. We got up early, set off early and were on the road by 8:40am, which was a bit of a shock for us. Every village we drove through still seemed fast asleep, which made it feel more like 6am. We followed the Ria de Arosa and
Thirty-five days were spent in Portugal travelling from the south east to the north west. Admittedly it’s been mostly on the coast, but we feel like we’ve got a sense of the country. We left Caminha at 9:30am and as we crossed the border in to Spain we lost an hour; dang there’s
Driving up the N14 from Porto on Saturday we played a new game of spot the English words. BP and MacDonalds didn’t count and neither did ‘stop’ signs. But there were so many and we couldn’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t be written in Portuguese. Men, women, kids, kitchens, made in, indoor
And then not a lot happened. We needed to stop, recoup and take time to smell the…….fishes. So on Tuesday afternoon we cycled down to the beach, stretched out on the sand and watched the local fishermen doing their thing again. I kept trying to imagine, the tractors, trailers, fish and noise being part
We have less than five weeks to get to Julia and Kevin near St Gilles Croix de Vie in France and we’re not even half way up Portugal. Time to get a bit of a wriggle on. We left the nice campsite at Guincho and drove out to Cabo da Roca, the most westerly
Having said goodbye to Belem the night before, we left the campsite and drove back down to Belem. We waved goodbye to the tower again, turned right and headed along the coast road through Cascais and out to Cabo Raso, where we turned north again and found Camping Guincho set on the hill above
It’s the start of week seven and we’re in the big city of Lisbon. Every day seems to start as an adventure. All of the day-tripping campers wend their way to the bus stop; but which bus stop? Which bus? It’s a muddle of languages, smiles and slightly anxious glances. Are we on the
Saturday morning was ‘travel time’ and we started by leaving Evora and heading back toward the coast. We drove through Setubal, checking out the flea market as we drove past. On the coast road west out of town, we parked on the cliff edge to take a break and eat another picnic complete
It was 11am by the time we left Camping Markadia, crossed the dam at the end of the lake, and set off north along some very straight roads. The scenery didn’t change much, more olive trees, more cork trees with their numbers painted on them, hay already bailed up in white plastic and more
Subtitled by order: Rodney’s birthday On yet another perfect blue sky day, a day that would be perfect for lazing on a beach, we left the coast and headed inland. Gertie Garmin GPS informed us that it was only 77kms to our destination, but we were wary that she might want to
Rodney beat me at our first round of Uno last night. We’d had a drink at the nice bar above the swimming pool at the campsite and I was in fighting form for a quick game, but he slaughtered me, conclusively. There will be a comeback soon and then we’ll see who wins. Weak
Twenty-two years married and still very much together; in the tiny space within Eileen, it’s hard to be apart! At 11am Marmelete looked like it was still asleep. Rodney didn’t want to wake anyone, so we drove on, ever upwards to Monchique. The road twisted left and right as we climbed higher and higher past acres
After sorting out some necessary paperwork for back home, with the help of the campsite office, we started our slow trek north. It did feel a little strange after having spent the last 37 days heading in a general southerly direction. We spent most of the day following roads across to various beaches along
After our day out around Lagos, we checked into Camping Turiscampo at Espiche, not very far from where we were the previous two nights. Yes Ann, it does have an exceptionally smart bathroom, it’s nearly up there with the one we found in Venice, and it’s definitely the best one we have found so
On Saturday, Rodney climbed aboard his bicycle and did a reconnaissance of Luz, giving me time to get our website up to date. Or not. He was back in less than an hour; it turned out that we were a lot closer to the town than we thought. He didn’t fancy cycling back in
After the best shower so far, we left the campsite at Olhão and drove along to Faro. The big car-park near the old quarter was almost completely full, and yet there seemed to be no-one around…? We meandered along to the Marina, back to the old sector and then paid a visit to the
Tuesday was a lot cooler with grey clouds building over us and, just like when we landed in Spain, it rained on us as we left Spain. Not a lot of rain, but it was a bit of a shock after so many weeks of blue skies. We managed to register Eileen to drive
It was time to move to the far south-western corner of Spain and then we needed to just stop for a while and reflect. We packed up, paid up, stocked up and filled up, then drove up to Seville and out on the A49 to Isla Cristina on the Costa de la Luz, the
When we left Cordoba, there were no olive trees, just pleasantly rolling fields ploughed golden brown on one side and filled with bright green crops on the other. Back on the A4, the oleander centre line started again and we did find more olive trees, but they seemed to be more laid out in
To get to our next campsite we didn’t have to travel too far, so we enjoyed our olive grove view over a very slow breakfast. We also enjoyed the free internet; it seems Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest with a bearded man dressed as a woman……hmmm…..I hope the song was good, because it
We said farewell to our Toledo campsite at 9:30am and headed south past fields of dry grass and poppies, with only occasional small hills, or should I say mounds. At Consuegra we pulled off the freeway looking for windmills. No not those windmills. We were looking for the ones made famous by
Leaving Aranjuez started off as a slow process; we actually went in the right direction but got stuck behind a pony and trap trotting through the roadworks and over the cobbled streets. On the outskirts of town, we stocked up on supplies and set off west to Toledo. I got the giggles when Gertie,
Aranjuez, the town immortalised in one of my favourite pieces of music, The Concerto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo. I was hoping it would be a beautiful town full of beautiful buildings and colourful flowers. I wanted it to be a very special place that I could associate with the music whenever I listen
Our day in the capital city of Spain didn’t start so well, then again it didn’t finish too well either. Another different campsite, another different set of showers. We’ve found showers with taps (always good), showers with push buttons (not so good) and this morning a shower with a sensor!!! It’s the first time
We had really enjoyed our stay in Burgos, but life in a campervan is meant to be on the move; so we moved. Heading further south down the A1, across the flat plains of Castilla Y Leon, past Lerma and Aranda, we finally turned off the freeway to the pretty little town of
We gazed out at the grey cloudy skies as we ate our full English breakfast aboard the Pont Aven. We were close to the coast of northern Spain and the weather looked disappointing. Suddenly I had an epiphany, or was it just a very clever thought? Why hang around in the north, why not
Dartmouth campsite gave us our first night alone in Eileen this year; no more packing up bags and borrowing beds for a long while. We dined on delicious venison and cranberry pie at the Green Dragon pub in Stoke Fleming and then walked back to the campsite with bellies full to bursting. After a
The flight from Sydney to London was long but soon forgotten, although the jetlag did hit us on and off throughout the first week. Lynda kindly collected us from Gatwick airport and drove us up to East Grinstead for a happy reunion with Eileen the Campervan. Jonathan had warned us that throughout the wet but
Are we tourists? Are we travellers? Are we sightseers? Are we holidaymakers? Or are we just chasing an inquisitive wanderlust? What are we looking for? Are we actually searching for anything? Is it just a constant fascination with seeing different places, a different lifestyle, meeting new people and different conversations? A traveller’s mind always wanders,
Gosh! Where do I start when I’ve written nothing for so long? My right hand has been so preoccupied with writing endless lists of what needed to be done or be bought, that I had no time to write more creatively. With our lives so full, all hours of every day, my pen travelled with
Even after a rather late night, we all managed to get up early on Thursday and, after stopping to grab Alison’s daily statutory takeaway coffee for the journey, Ramsay drove us east along the motorway to Abu Dhabi’s Emirati neighbour, Dubai. We were then treated to a private tour of the city. We drove
Washing, blogging, sorting photos and generally relaxing, was how we spent Saturday back in Abu Dhabi. In the afternoon Rodney and Ramsay settled down to a feast of live English Premier League soccer, one match after another, after another….. Dinner was a yummy barbecue, non-Aussie style; we ate indoors! Oh, and Alison
Late on Wednesday morning we checked out of the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat and drove round to the Muttrah Souk on the Corniche. Not many stalls were open because it was Eid, but there were still plenty of fascinating shops and people to gaze at. After Rodney had modelled an Omani hat
Monday became a travelling day; a long one. The Pajero was loaded with four days of ‘stuff’ for the four of us, and we left Abu Dhabi heading east to Al Ain and the border with Oman. We arrived at 11am, queued to leave the country and then queued for hours to get
Lynda very kindly got up an hour early on Wednesday 9 October and drove us, and our mountain of luggage, over to Gatwick Airport at 6:45am. We really do owe you a lot Lynda, you are a good friend and somewhere in the years to come, we will give you a good
We started Wednesday by getting all the bedding and towels washed, dried, and sealed into vacuum-pack bags. Then with the ‘World’s best mature cheddar cheese’ safely stowed on board, we drove up to Bath (no time for a bath) and reached the M4 by midday. Rodney is always annoyed by restaurants like
We said our cheery farewells to Phil and Ingrid around midday and pointed Eileen’s nose in a southerly direction. At Cross Houses we didn’t spot any houses looking angry, but we did spot a sign advising that the road ahead was closed. We pulled over to work out which direction to take and almost instantly
Rodney is enjoying listening to British traffic reports on the radio, especially when we are stationery in Eileen and perhaps looking out at a beautiful view in a remote part of this busy little country. But having said that, we’ll no doubt get caught out badly, somewhere on our travels….. Our first morning in Betws-y-Coed
On Saturday we woke up to horrible, drizzly weather and a horrible shower block full of daddy-long-legs. Let’s get out of here! The drizzle eased a bit, but the whole of Anglesey seemed to be covered in a thick mist. Rodney commented that there would be nothing to write about because we couldn’t see anything.
The sky was chucking the rain down on Thursday morning, so after getting nearly as wet running to the bathroom as we did standing in the shower, we warmed up with a big cooked breakfast. Then, just to surprise us as we drove through Criccieth late in the morning, the sun came out and the
All night the rain fell and the wind kept buffeting Eileen; it was a mighty quick dash to the bathroom in the morning! We turned right out of the campsite, intending to park by the sand dunes and take a stroll over the sand to the sea. But sitting in the car-park, with the rain