Heading for Home

A cold misty morn turned into another lovely day as we headed north (eventually, got a little lost again!) over the hills into Spain, with a degree of nerves as the fuel gauge was reading very low – we hadn't wanted to refuel in Portugal as it was much cheaper in Spain. It wasn't too far to the first fuel station, but it had no fuel! TomTom told us there was another in about 15km so we had little choice but to drive very carefully and fortunately we made it, although we calculated we had less than 3 litres left – a bit too close that.

A more or less direct route had us heading for Palencia so we took the opportunity of refilling with gas on the way also stopping off in a layby for lunch in a small village. This part of Spain is very flat and not very interesting but at least the roads, for the most part, were good and we made excellent time. We had stopped at the aire in Palencia on our very first “snowbirding” trip and found it had been increased in capacity although there were actually only a handful of vans using it.

Being quite close to the centre, another time we would have had a walk in to explore but we were on a fairly tight schedule so after another very cold and frosty start we set course for Burgos. Now able to make use of the autovias we made good time, passing Vittoria and lunching at a service area. We had hoped that we might make San Sebastion by tonight (Saturday) and it all looked good, although some 50km before San Sebastion we encountered quite a lot of lying snow, gradually getting worse although the roads were clear – witness snow ploughs sitting on standby at every major junction!

We've mentioned before that most of mainland Spain is on a high plateau but San Sebastion is, of course, at sea level so we found ourselves falling off the edge as it were. Obviously due to the descent into warmer (relatively!) air the snow disappeared and after asking TomTom to take us to the parking area we had used on the way out we found ourselves following a very full and fast flowing river down a narrow and winding valley road. We're sure it would have been quicker to use the motorway..........

But anyway we got there and settled down for a quiet evening, well pleased we were on schedule. Unfortunately there was some kind of party going on in the town and the riverside path we were next to was obviously a main walking route to/from a local housing area and it was well after midnight before we got any peace!

Sunday dawned grey and drizzly although not quite as cold as the last couple of nights. After our traditional Sunday breakfast we went looking for fuel before crossing into France, where it was currently more expensive than at home. That done we headed for the motorway, deciding that for this section it was worth using the toll roads, both in Spain (cheap) and in France (not so cheap) as far as Bordeaux. After lunch and past Bordeaux the weather dried up into a bright afternoon and it soon became clear that another of our outbound stops, at Montguyon, was an obvious choice for a stopover. Nobody else using it so a peaceful night, again very cold.

Although we had no need to rush, our objective now was to get as far north as reasonably quickly as we could so our day was spent following our usual route through France with Chateaudun as our target for tonight. Nothing remarkable although after their enforced “day off” all the trucks were back on the road and we passed several long lines, taking care whenever the satnav announced a speed camera as technically we were limited to their speed. We don't think we were caught...........

Navigated through Tours surprisingly easily, having usually encountered delays here, and arrived at Chateaudun where there was plenty of room. We did look carefully at the adjacent river Loir (no “e”) as it was running very high and fast and had broken its banks outside the village, but there didn't appear to be any danger for now. After a cuppa Terry changed a battery in one of the tyre pressure sensors which had started giving spurious warnings – they had to be spurious because there is no way the pressure should be quickly increasing whilst the temperature was decreasing! We had paused for a visual check but all seemed okay. This became an irritant for the rest of the way home so it looks like a replacement sensor will be necessary.

Tuesday was our critical day as we needed to be at Le Crotoy by tonight so we could get Jamie into the vet for his passport stamp tomorrow and there be sufficient time before we could re-enter the UK. So after yet another cold frosty start we were back on our normal route, heading for Rouen, lunchtime and Pont de L'Arche coinciding again. Once clear of Rouen and onto the non-toll motorway it started to snow quite heavily in gusty wind making driving somewhat tiring, but we persevered and by Abbeville, where we turned off, it had stopped and the sky was clearing.

We'd actually made better time than we had hoped and, as the vet was only a few minutes from Le Crotoy, we thought we'd go there first. Happily we were welcomed in straight away (to the sound, apparently, of “lots and lots of baby dogs” being born in the next surgery – we wondered what the squeaking was!) and 10 minutes later we were headed back to Le Crotoy.

Although one of our favourite stops, the motorhome parking is fairly exposed and the wind was still fairly strong, and cold, off the sea. There were only a handful of vans parked up and we debated if we could find a more sheltered place within easy distance. In the end we decided to stay, parking alongside a couple of others hoping for at least a little shelter. Then another Dutch couple decided to leave and very kindly offered us their ticket, which had until lunchtime tomorrow on it. Another free night – we haven't paid for a pitch since our first night in Portugal.

It was a cold and drafty evening with the heating turned up and extra ties on the insulating screens but eventually the wind died down and next morning was bright and sunny – but still very cold!

We were in no rush now but not having been able to refill the water tank for a few days (always a problem at this time of year) we went looking and managed to find a working service point up the road at Le Touquet. We also refilled the gas bottles, one having run out as we were using the heating quite extensively.

With our train booked for early on Friday we now had some time to kill so not needing anything else we headed for another favourite stopover, at Wissant, for tonight. We'll head on up to Calais tomorrow, possibly refuelling on the way, and overnight at Citie Europe, close to the Eurotunnel.