Club Motorhome Bloggers

This news update should have preceded 'Landed'.  This covers a week wandering along a short part of the southern coast of Spain

News No 5

When we left Avila we decided that we would give Madrid a miss this time and make haste to the coast and the sunshine. We chose not to use the toll motorways and, as we thought, there really would be no benefit to us at the speeds we travel at. Spain has an amazing road system – we travelled all the way on motorway-standard dual carriageways. They were very lightly trafficed except when passing through Madrid (yes through – including a very long tunnel right under the centre, with several turn-offs which we somehow managed to get right) where the traffic was a lot heavier, but we still didn't experience any hold-ups. Here's a couple of views seen from the road as we travelled through.

News No 6

We followed the coast west for a few miles, and when we had been about 20 miles in the whole day we stopped beside the sea again at a 'freecamp', along with about 15-20 other motorhomes, well spread out on the sand. As you can see, this is not the best of sand, and it packs down quite hard, so is fine to drive on.

We had a walk into the small town (St Juan de los Terreros) along a beautifully paved promenade which ran for about 2 miles from just beyond where we were parked to the centre (such as it was!). For a country which is short of money they do spend well on their pavements and promenades – and you don't find many trips in the pavements. The whole place was all but deserted out of season, existing only for the sake of the sun and the beach (which was nice white sand, unlike the grey stuff where we were parked).

News No 4

We have visited two old Castillian cities, Segovia and Avila. Getting there from Valladolid was easy – this is a typical via of the Autovia on our way there.

Doesn't fall often, even in winter - but when it does it falls wherever it likes - like going up the mountains on the longest hill we have ever driven up, in the pouring rain.

News No 3

We travelled on to Biarritz, on the way staying at an Aire by the river Lot at another recovering medieval village, Casseneuil.

News No 2

After leaving our overnight spot on the Loire we travelled on to Oradour-sur Glane, near Limoges. Oradour is the site of an atrocity carried out by the Waffen SS in 1944 – just a few days after D-day. In their effforts to supress the resistance they attacked the village murdering one third of its inhabitants, of whom the majority in the village during the day were of course women, children and the elderly. They then burned out the village, which has been kept as a memorial; a new village was built just a few hundred yards away, but not until 10 years later.

The following morning we were befriended by a cat; it simply walked in as we opened the door, and despite being forcibily removed camped on our step. Eventually we gave in as it had not tried to claw us when we threw it out, so we made abit of a fuss of it. No doubt it it regularly popped down to visit the motorhomers – it certainly looked as if it was used to having double rations! We called him 'Smoky' which he seemed to respond to, no doubt to ingratiate himself for a free meal!

We are now on our third night in France and 3 very different days so far.

On Wednesday night, after a very smooth trip across the channel we went on as planned to the Auchan supermarket in Boulogne, parked in their car park and went into the French version of fast food, where we had a bacon omlette and chips and a glass of wine for just 12 euros – not fine dining, but just right for a quick and easy meal at the end of our travelling. In the morning we topped up with diesel for 1.20 Euro (£1) a litre before setting off. All good!!

2014 – News No 7

Into Poland.

Our first stop in Poland was at Zakopane – a favourite ski resort for the Poles and a popular summer destination too; we had expected to stop 2 or 3 days visiting the mountains, but as we had just spent 3 days just 30 miles away in the mountains in Slovakia, we took a brief look at the town, drew some zlotys from the hole in the wall and continued on through some very distinct villages where, even now, almost all the houses are made of wood. In one such village – particularly noted in our guide book