And Finally

Once again a list of things needing to be sorted on Bertie - he is starting to get on a bit! - although nothing major thank goodness. Once fully unloaded we'll put him back into storage whilst we get sorted then have a couple of days dedicated to a thorough cleanout.

We've once again enjoyed the break, just a bit saddened at having to come home early in the circumstances. Morocco is changing quickly, although to be fair it is a vast improvement over our first visit 6 years ago but it is still possible to find the true country, you just need to go out into the sticks a bit. We weren't, however, much impressed with the Rif region, a new place for us. Travelling on our own, after seeing off the small, was perhaps not the best idea but of course this wasn't the original plan, circumstances again changing matters. We'll still go back however.

So to our next trip. We had pencilled in a return to Norway and the south west coast, which we missed due to technical problems, in a couple of months. However it may be quite a long time before the coronavirus situation is resolved so for the moment it's wait and see.

Thanks again for reading this drivel!

Sunday 22 March 2020 - Gravelines to Home

Yesterday was a nice day but cold and breezy, we didn't feel much like going out even if there wasn't a lock-down in France, prohibiting all but essential journeys although dog-walking was okay. So we spent the day catching up on paperwork, reading, hobbies etc. Then an earlyish turn-in as we planned to be moving very early on Sunday.

So up at ridiculous o'clock to the dawning of another bright and breezy day. A couple of vans had come onto the aire last night with the same purpose as us, waiting for the 24 hrs after dog-worming. We tried not to disturb them and after a quick breakfast set off round to the tunnel.

The signs said a train every hour and our boarding pass was issued for the 9.20 however there didn't seem to be an actual schedule running, everyone was just put on the next train, not that there were many. Just half a dozen motorhomes and three coaches, we didn't see any cars boarded. Drove straight through, French not interested as usual, although they did a drugs/firearms sweep, and the UK passport control was the usual friendly face.

The train departed at 8.55 local and we noted that the ride seemed very harsh for the first half of the crossing - square wheels? Whatever, we disembarked onto UK territory at last at 8.30 local and joined the M20 motorway for the long haul back home. Due to the implications of the coronavirus, we'd agreed with Mum that we wouldn't be calling in to see her as normal so just pressed on.

Unlike Spain and France the UK was not (yet) in lock-down and we were surprised at how much traffic there was, although it was quieter than usual, even for a Sunday. Stopped a few times, at Birchanger for a comfort stop and cuppa, another loo break at Peterborough then a lunch break at Markham Moor. Mid-afternoon Jamie started whimpering and whining so we pulled into Wetherby to give him a run and a much-needed poo - which he hasn't done since his worming so he probably needed it quite badly!

Weather stayed nice for the trip and we finally pulled up at home at 4.55 pm, deciding on a cuppa first before tackling the chore of unloading. Just the essentials tonight and we'll do the rest tomorrow.

It's very nice to go travelling, but it's oh so nice to come home!

Friday 20 March 2020 – Le Crotoy to Gravelines

After a much-needed rest we awoke to rain showers and a grey blustery day. Our plan today was to see the vet, change the tunnel booking then find somewhere to wait out the necessary 24 hours we needed after Jamies worming treatment. So we were a little alarmed on checking the Eurotunnel website to find all departures were sold out – that simply cannot be! However a telephone call, with a not unexpeceted longish wait on hold, reassured us we could have virtually any time we wanted so chose early Sunday morning. This means we've got the full day to drive home and maybe stop off at Mums too.

So after breakfast we drove the ten minutes to Rue to find the vet was open. The girl covering reception was not at all helpful, saying we needed to telephone for an appointment but all three vets were there and after explaining our crossing was on Sunday morning they told us to bring Jamie in and they would see to him there and then. Could have been a problem with our tunnel booking......!

Aldi have a store almost next to the vet so Bren popped in, after having to queue outside, for some little extras to tide us over for the remainder of the trip home. Then a decision; should we go back to Le Crotoy for another night or head on to be closer to the tunnel. Choosing the latter we took our usual D940 route along the coast, being stopped once by the police who waved us on when we said we had a tunnel reservation back to Angleterre.

Wissant is our preferred stop as it is only 15 mins from the tunnel and very quiet, but today it was too quiet, ie closed! Hmmm, being now unable to use the carpark at Citie de Europ and all campsites and official aires apparently closed, we resorted to those we knew could not be closed off and settled for Gravelines, a little past Calais and about 30 mins drive from the tunnel. A miserable run in pouring rain along the motorway, our consolation being that Bertie was getting a good wash at last, and we arrived to find an empty but open aire.

So now we're sitting watching and listening to the rain but at least we're warm and dry and can relax for 24 hours; we've got all we need now. Just every now and then Jamie wants to go out but that's okay and the weather forecast says this should clear up this evening and then stay dry for our trip home.

This is probably our last post before returning home. It's a shame that the trip should end in such a sudden and unexpected way but we feel, in the circumstances and judging by all the news reports we're seeing about Covid-19, that we have done the right thing in timely fashion. But at least we're in a position to do things for ourselves, unlike the thousands of holidaymakers “trapped” in Spain, threatened with being thrown out of their hotels with few aircraft available to bring them home.

With this and Brexit it's beginning to look like travel and tourism will wear a somewhat different face in the future.

Thanks for reading this load of tosh. We haveno idea of where or when our next trip will be!

Thursday 19 March 2020 – Verteuils sur Charente to Le Crotoy

An early start to a bright day making travelling in the sunshine more pleasant. Usual morning routine before we were under way 10.00-ish back onto the N10 where once again all we had for company were trucks. Needing fuel we paused at the Auchan hypermarket in Poitiers, where police were stopping cars but just waved us through. Surprisingly the fuel consumption was not as bad as we had feared as we were pushing somewhat harder than we normally do.

But what was annoying was the tyre pressure monitor system kept warning us of a deflating tyre even though we stopped to check all was okay. So when we stopped for lunch we changed the battery, thinking that would cure it. No such luck this time, however, and as the readings were fluctuating wildly it was obviously a sensor fault. We finally just switched the whole thing off!

We were making excellent progress, helped of course by the complete lack of traffic – it felt really weird to see absolutely no-one around. Late afternoon we felt we had come far enough so planned to overnight at Pont de L'Arche, where there is also a vet 50 yards from the aire, but on arrival found it closed. A dilemma; should we try to find another locally or push on to Le Cretoy which we knew was open. With an expected journey time of an hour and a half we felt happy enough to press on and shortly passed through Rouen then onto the motorway as it started to get dark, not helped by the sky clouding over.

No problems though the last half an hour seemed to drag but we arrived just before dark to an almost empty aire – this place is capable of holding 100 units but tonight had just three so plenty of choice! We'll overnight here then in the morning pop along to Rue where hopefully the vet is open and we can get Jamies Pet Passport certification then re-arange the tunnel booking.

Journey today 359 miles, not bad! We've seen very few motorhomes, just a couple of Brits and Germans plus a couple of Brit registered cars. We did see a Swedish m/h – boy has he got a way to go!

Wednesday 18 March 2020 - Ampudia to Verteuil sur Charente

A cold and foggy dawn greeted our early start and with no clarification on the border situation we decided to carry on as normal and see what happens. So breakfast and service the van before heading off into the gradually lifting murk. Everywhere very quiet although we did spot a few shops open, as were all the fuel stations and we rejoined the autovia near Palencia to head north once again.

Planning to stay with motorways we refuelled a little earlier than we had hoped but felt it wasn't a good idea to take any chances just to save a few pennies. Anyway we noticed that fuel prices seemed to have jumped 10c per litre, although that may have been because we were on a motorway where it's always dearer anyway.

So past Burgos and on to San Sebastion, noticing few cars but an ever increasing number of trucks, far more than we've seen before, however having decided to push on somewhat faster than usual it was no bother. What was more alarming was a couple of gantry signs telling us about restrictions at the border with France. But at least the sun had come out as we started the long descent off the Spanish plateau down to the coast.

A shortish section of toll road then we paused for a comfort stop before passing through a couple of toll stations - when suddenly we were in France! There were many trucks stopped at the border but the three gendarmes took no notice of us at all and we weren't going to stop to ask questions! So, for us at least and for the moment, the border was open.

The main road north to Bordeaux is partially tolled but whilst it is possible to avoid them we felt we might be pushing our luck so stayed with it. Just short of the city we paused at a rest area for a quick cuppa and some planning, where we saw several police motorcyclists pulling French cars in to the aire for a check - but again they completely ignored us. So we just pushed on, aiming to get as far as we could this evening.

Passing Angouleme we felt that we had come far enough for today (it was almost 6.00 pm) so Bren sorted out a few options for a stopover and we picked a small aire a little off the main road which looked nice - some of our best places have been discovered like this, and Verteuil sur Charente was another. Except it was almost full and we had to ask a poorly parked Swedish van to move over a little so we could squeeze in. A good spot to settle for the night and wind down from our long, long drive today, 445 miles which is a record for us!

We've made it safely into France and so far it seems all we need do is keep going and maintain a low profile. We don't need any shopping just yet, although we'll probably need to make at least one stop, so our plan now is to head for northern France, maybe finding a vet for Jamies Pet Passport stamp, then book an earlier crossing with Eurotunnel.

Tuesday 17 March 2020 - El Real de la Jara to Ampudia

Some good news - we found the cassette cap that disappeared down the toilet disposal!

But now an update as to our progress.

After more rain we left El Real early this morning with full water and empty waste tanks and got straight on to the A66 autovia heading for Caceres, Salamanca, Valadolid, and Burgos. We programmed as far as the French border into TomTom but didn't think we'd actually get there today. Called at a Carrefour in Merida to refill the fuel tank then just settled down to a steady run, mostly on cruise control.

We paused for lunch at Hervas on an empty service area with the sun now making an appearance. The road was empty today, just a few big trucks, several motorhomes going our way and a handful of cars. It looks very much like the Spanish are doing as asked and not travelling unless absolutely necessary - everything except foodshops and garages are closed although it looked like many factories etc. were still working, though we don't know of course under what conditions.

Under way again and we espied snow on them thar hills - then around Bajar we were in it, the road having been ploughed thankfully and drying out rapidly in the warm sun. Although we had hoped to get past Burgos, it was really too far and after Valadolid Bren started looking out for somewhere quiet again to stop for the night. We have previously used an aire at Ampudia, just short of Palencia, and knowing it would very likely be empty we altered TomTom who took us almost straight there - first Terry missed a turnoff then the coordinates were wrong, but we knew where it was so no problem.

We are still around 3 1/2 hours from the border with France and have no positive information that we will be allowed to cross. The news sites are hopeless and our other information sources as yet are only offering opinions on what they've read - nobody has yet reported crossing since Macron "closed" the border. Even that is questioned as it appears he meant the EU Borders, not national, and EU nationals (includes us at the monent!) are to be allowed to cross, subject to the host nations own rules of course.

To that end the French have published a form which everyone on the move has to complete and explains why they are not at home - we can't print it out of course but apparently hand-written versions are allowed. So we've just spent an hour downloading and writing those out. Not that we've any confidence in them but at least we're trying.

So we're going to have an earlyish night for a quick start in the morning. Hopefully our next report will be from somewhere in France, but we've sort of resigned ourselves that if it all goes pear shaped we'll just deal with it and try not to get upset. There's still some nice places in Northern Spain we can have a look at.

Monday 16 March 2020 – Algeciras to El Real de la Jara

An earlyish start to a cool dull morning with a strong breeze. Over breakfast we consulted the various news sources to find the chaos over Coronavirus escalating, encouraging us to cut short our plans and get on up the road. Some things were, however, non-negotiable and after breakfast we went over to Carrefour just after it had opened and got ourselves stocked up. Wanting a few other items we then drove over to Mercadonna to find a queue outside – our needs were not important enough so we dropped that idea, as well as the washing expedition, and headed for the aire at Castellar de la Frontera to see to the van.

That plan was thwarted too, though, as the police had the village blocked off and turned us away; we know not why, maybe the French had invaded and it was full or the town council had just decided to close it down. So that'll have to wait and we thus headed back to the motorway to start our trip homewards, pausing at the fuel station at Los Barrios to top up the gas bottles – at least they were open but very much in “night service” mode. No access to the shop and the staff all wearing masks, as were all the staff at Carrefour incidentally.

From there it was back on the road, which was very very quiet. From what we'd gleaned all the roads were open but the gantry signs all had the message that travel without justification was prohibited. We were passed by a couple of police patrols but there did not seem to be any checks being made – or maybe they saw a UK registered vehicle heading north as justifiable. Hopefully this won't change for at least the few days it'll take us to get clear of Spain.

We've decided to go up the western side of the country using motorways all the way and only stopping for rest. We paused for lunch just short of Seville at a service area and identified a couple of small quiet aires where hopefully nobody would take any notice of us and we could also service the van properly. So after negotiating a surprisingly busy Seville we thankfully arrived at El Real de la Jara, a small town with an out-of-the way aire with services and, apart from an empty caravan, nobody on it.

Having serviced the van, dropping the cassette cap straight down the disposal (grrr, but we have a spare) then Terry dropping his smartphone and smashing the screen (it's still usable though), we took the decision to call it a day here – it was gone 4.30 pm – and try for an early start tomorrow to get as far as we can. We've managed 177 miles today which, considering all our errands this morning, we're quite happy with.

But now it's raining and gone very cool.

From now on, the blog is really only going to be a report of how we're getting on. We'll keep it up but might not be posting every day. Thanks for viewing it.