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.
Good luck. Thinking of yous.
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