Transiting, Toll free & (New) Toys

So, here we are then, back in much sunnier and warmer Spain - I won't bang on about the weather too much as I know it's been cold and miserable back home.

The last post saw us in what ended up being our final few days in the UK and with Mum and Paul. The van passed it's MOT with flying colours (as we all knew it would) and the rest of that week (7th Jan) passed by in a blur of shopping, sorting, packing, final washing and van loading. We had a number of lovely farewell meals, firstly with Jase's Mum Sandra plus Jules and Sarah at a local pub, then I enjoyed a lovely overnight hotel break with my bestie Jo, followed by a super curry with Mum & Paul and Dad and Liz, and finally we started our journey back on Saturday 12th January. Not too far on the trip though, only as far as Newbury to spend a couple of nights with Tess, Nige and the dogs Boodles and Bonzo. It was here we sprung a bit of a surprise. As all avid readers will know, we have enjoyed plenty of goodwill and festivities with Tess and Nige, and we wanted to take them out for a meal to thank them. However, as Rusty and Kay also wanted to show their gratitude, so during our pre Christmas get together, the Morris' and the Billett's hatched a plan! I'd said to Tess we would book a table and a taxi. What they didn't know is that the taxi would be none other than Rusty and Kay! Cue much surprised faces when Jase went out to the road to flag them in - Nige saying "that's not a taxi mate, it's got two people in it for a start!" I think we definitely pulled that one off. Anyway, a lovely meal was had by all, and hopefully we made some inroads into showing our gratitude for all their hospitality over the first part of Jexit.

Our final meals at Chez Ethelson were a stunning brunch followed by a Mexican feast - Tess making sure we enjoyed all the things we won't be able to get over the coming months.

And so, Monday 14th January, and we put our final overnights bits back in the van, and headed for Eurotunnel. We had a trouble free journey, stopping at Tesco in Ashford for those all important last minute supplies. Our new Sat Nav was put through its paces very early on as the postcode for this particular store has obviously moved several times!

We'd booked our crossing for 1420, but having arrived nice and early, we took the offered crossing of 1320 - very useful with the hour being lost on the other side, and not much daylight to work with this time of year.

Over on the other side, and although we were both sad to say goodbye to all our friends and family, it felt good to be back across and on our way once more.

Our first day was only a short trip of just under 2 hours to a free Aire in Nouvion - having arrived in darkness I can't really tell you whether this place bore any resemblance at all to it's comedic partner 'Allo 'Allo, but it was definitely a nice quiet corner for the evening.

Tuesday morning and an early start as we wanted to make some good progress today, and all being well make it to the Loire valley. The early morning was very cold and cloudy, but we made great time and arrived into the Loire valley with a chance for a lovely walk around the Chamboard estate, stopping in a few of the hides to see what we could see - a lovely couple of birds, but no deer unfortunately.

Our resting place for the night was a free Aire at Tour-En-Solonge, a place we'd last stayed back in the summer. It's a 3 day max stay, but interestingly, there was a huge motorhome still right where we last saw it back in July! Clearly they have a bit of a deal with the local Mairie! Jase had spotted a bit of a cheeky plug socket, so we enjoyed a lovely shower & evening in the van with electricity.

Wednesday morning, and far from the 30+ degrees we'd last seen here, we woke to -4.5 although a crystal clear day. The journey today was to take us back into the Dordogne - this was a minor detour but allowed us to take in a lot of free motorway and also grab a chance for some wildlife spotting later in the day. The journey through the Loire was lovely, with plenty of deer and lapwings roadside. On arrival near Domme, we headed to a nice layby beside the river, and hoped for some Kingfisher action. It was quite late in the day and pretty cold, so we only got the one brief sighting. We did also see a Robin, Long Tailed Tits plus a yellow Wagtail.

Just a short drive up the river, we found a nice Aire at Montfort.

Thursday morning and another cold one. We headed riverside for a short while to see if we could see anything, but no luck. With still a fair bit of journey to do we pushed on. Today's trip took us close to the Pyrenees at Oloron-Sainte-Marie. Along the way we saw fields and fields with lots of White Egrets just hanging out together. We also saw our first glimpses of the snowy mountain tops. It was a cold and wet evening, so we hunkered down and stayed warm.

Friday morning and again it was cold and fairly cloudy. Our route today was the final push in many ways, aiming to be back at Camping Miramar, just south of Tarragona, and the place we'd stayed a month back in November. Our route was to take us through the Pyrenees via the Somport Tunnel. With it being so overcast, we didn't hold much hope of seeing much, but we were wrong! The views were stunning. We stopped for a few photos just before the Somport tunnel, at -3.5 at the top, and a very icy road we quickly made our way (carefully) onwards. The tunnel itself isn't anything to write home about, but the fact that it crosses beneath a mountain range is pretty cool. Added to which it being free and completely empty are extra bonuses!

The journey the other side was equally as stunning, seeing circling vultures and possibly a golden eagle along the way.

Once into Miami Platja we had a brief pitstop at Lidl for some supplies, and then booked into the campsite. We were even lucky enough to get the same pitch as before, beachside and with a lovely view of the sea.

Since arrival here at Miramar, our days have fallen into a similar routine really. We've not been able to get the bikes out due to extremely windy conditions all week. We have done plenty of walking though and even took advantage of the wind to have a play with the kite.

I also found myself on national radio yesterday - I'd responded to a tweet the day before on the question of swimming trunks in France (their restrictions of anything less than a budgie smugler), and well, to cut a long story short, they liked my tale of Jase being thrown out of a spa for wearing the wrong shorts and asked me to tell all live on air! The biggest laugh came when I told them Jase had been offered either a refund, or a loner pair of trunks from lost property! Hits Radio from 24th Jan at 8.10am or so if you are interested, with the questions coming from Dave Vitty (ex Radio 1), Gemma Atkinson and Gethin Jones (both ex Strictly).

We've also spent some time using all the new toys that Jase installed while we were home. We've had the battery and new solar panel going through it's paces all week - the charge controller tells me we've generated 1kWh since we arrived - that doesn't sound like much, in fact it's only enough to boil a kettle for an hour, but importantly to us it is more than enough to keep our fridge working, TV on for a couple of hours each time plus lights and 12v chargers for the phones etc for at least 5 days. The new Sat Nav got us here without too much of an issue (thanks Dad x) and the new frying pan has been used already for nan bread as well as chips and toasting hot cross buns (I know, soon be Easter!). As I type this, Jase is getting busy having borrowed a ladder to fit the new Fiammi roof vent - something that it was too cold and damp to do back at home.

I think we've both settled back into Vanlife pretty quickly, we are both sleeping really well (Jase is miles happier with the new fitted sheet too), and the sense of relaxation and well being is definitely showing in us both. These pics are flowers out now around the campsite, amazing for January!

The plan from here is to move on tomorrow (which reminds me, I must go and pay the bill!), and head slightly inland to Castell Miravet, we will then spend a couple of days at Delta de l'Ebre which is a bird habitat down the coast from here where we might see some Flamingos. Hopefully that will see us getting our first few free nights in Spain, and then onwards towards Valencia to another campsite which hopefully will be a few degrees warmer and more crucially for the riding be less windy.

Until next time all, stay safe

J&J x