Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 6)

Week 5. 28th June to 4th July 2025. Briksdalsbreen to Gudvangen – 271 miles

Saturday 28th June – Briksdalsbreen – day 2

Water, water everywhere… We have had a good night’s sleep, but all you can hear is the waterfalls around us and the river that runs through the campsite. We now have more water… Rain… Lots of it, heavy rain, which is forecast to be on and off all day today. We are keen to get out and walk.

We are in need of some laundry and they have machines here, so to kill some time, Hayley legs it out in the rain with an Ikea bag full of washing. Where would we be without Ikea bags? Del gets on with some homework for future work.

Finally, there is a break in the rain. The campsite has a smart little coffee shop, and they do waffles with brown cheese and jam. Brown cheese is a speciality of Norway, so when in Norway…

We sat and chomp through them with a view of the fast-moving river. There has been a lot of rain, and it’s running fast, so much so that the ice pool has been closed due to flooding.

We get our waterproofs on and get booted up. We are setting off for another glacier, which is a good two hours each way. It’s a fantastic walk as we do a steady climb up through the woods.

The scenery here is big… We stop now and then to take it all in. There is the odd shower of rain, but they are short.

It’s a long way, and Hayley is still aching from yesterday’s hike (and the day before that too). Just past halfway to this glacier, though, we decide to call it a day, turn around and head back to Jess. It’s a good job that we turn back when we do. When we get back to Jess, just as we open the door, the heavens open with heavy rain and strong wind, but this time for a prolonged time. Even though we have some waterproof gear on, it would have made for a very wet walk back.

We have done a good walk despite not going all the way to the glacier. We saw the best one yesterday. We spent the rest of the late afternoon in Jess. We have showers and dinner on the van.

The rain and the wind is occasionally battering Jess. Meanwhile, at home in the UK, there is a heat wave, again…! But we know where we’d rather be!

Tomorrow we are moving on.

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Sunday 29th June – Briksdalsbreen to Dragsvik- 122 miles

Hayley went to bed very early last night. She was wiped out! Del stayed up and caught up on some homework for a few hours. At 11:45 pm, he called it a night, looked outside, and it was still daylight!!!

The rain and some very strong winds started at about 10 last night, and it hasn’t stopped. Real heavy rain for over 12 hours with no sign of it stopping. We had a bad sleep last night.

We are doing a full service on Jess, as we expect to be off-grid tonight. Hayley is starting the drive, and she will have her work cut out. Heavy rain, some wind and some very narrow roads as we head north again, then do a left, then back down south towards…? Well, we don’t know yet.

You can’t just cut across, you have to drive around. There are some rather large mountain ranges here.

There is no let-up with the rain. It’s just constant. On the way, we find a supermarket. There are strict rules here in Norway regarding opening hours and square footage of your shop! If the shop is over 100 square metres, then you can’t open on a Sunday… We pull into the town of Skei, where there is a supermarket measuring 99 square metres, so it’s open. It does, however, have a big sign on the alcohol shelves. “SUNDAY. NO ALCOHOL AVAILABLE”, which is stuck over the door of a big fridge full of cold beer. Humans. The things we dream up!!

Back on the road, this time it’s Del at the wheel. No change in the conditions. Still lots of rain and narrow twisting roads. It’s great fun. We are heading for a place where you can park for free overnight right next to a waterfall on the Fossestien trail, which is a 27 km long trail of 14 waterfalls and 7 lakes, with bridges and boardwalks. There are a couple of vans and cars parked, but enough room for us. As it’s still raining, we put on boots and waterproofs and set off for the short walk to the waterfall. Wow… Amazing.

It’s the loudest, fastest flowing body of water we have seen up close (apart from Niagara Falls last year), and there is a small steel bridge that you can walk over. It’s a shame the weather is a no-no, as we would have liked to have followed the trail. We head back to Jess cold and wet. Del gets the kettle on!

It’s only 3:30 pm, and we are thinking that maybe it would be best to carry on and see some of the Norwegian countryside, rather than just settle down here, watching and listening to the rain. We both agree to press on.

Despite the terrible weather, the views are just jaw-dropping. The views from the roadside of massive lakes, mountains, and so many waterfalls and streams coming off them are just breathtaking, even in bad weather.

We make our way to the Gaularfjellet viewpoint, where you can look down into a very deep ravine. You can see the narrow road winding its way down.

This place has been redeveloped to expect a lot of tourists, but not today. We mostly have the place to ourselves.

We get soaked and cold, but it’s worth it. The view, the low cloud gliding through the valley, and the heavy rain are just as good as a bright sunny day!

We are off and on our way again. We are so cold and damp. Del takes us down the narrow, winding road and back to sea level. High revs, low gear to keep us from using the brakes too much. It’s a fantastic drive down.

We are now making our way to a campsite in the small town of Dragsvik. We all need a rest. Jess has worked hard today, hauling us up steep inclines and back down again through terrible weather. We are cold and wet, and tired; everything in the van feels damp. We arrive at Veganeset Camping, which is right on the shores of the biggest fjord in Norway, Sognefjord (known as the King of Fjords).

The rain is now very light, but there is no other noise of waterfalls or rivers and streams, which makes a change. Peace at last…

Hayley goes for a shower while Del sorts out the van, drying her out, cleaning the floors and setting up a little heating for when H gets back. We swap over, Hayley gets some dinner on, which goes down a treat. After dinner, we sit and look at the spectacular view of the fjord from our warm, cosy van. A good day. We are hoping for a quiet, restful night tonight. Fingers crossed.

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Monday 30th June – Dragsvik to Tyinstolen – 77 miles

We both had a good night’s sleep last night; it was so quiet and peaceful. We are not exactly sure where we are going today; we know our route, roughly, but where we will stop for the night is not so clear. After a full service, we set off to catch the small ferry from where we are, Dragsvik, for the ten-minute crossing to Hella. The ferries here are something else. There are lots of them. With all these mountains and all this water, there is a need to get about, so the ferry service is modern and efficient. So modern that they are electric.

The boats are clean and well-maintained. We hardly notice when we slip away from the port; it’s so quiet. Wonderful. We dock at the other end, and the plugging and unplugging for charging is fully automated.

Once the boat is lined up, a box opens up and a large cable with a magnetic plug lowers and plugs itself in…!

After a quick shop and dropping off a birthday card at the local post office, we set off for a campsite on the other side of the huge fjord that we stayed at last night. When we arrive, we’re not crazy about it, plus it’s a bit too early in the day to be pitching up, and there is stuff to see. We set off onto another ferry, this one is a 15-minute crossing, so it has a full lounge and cafe service, amazing. Being from the Isle of Wight, we have low expectations for ferries but have been pleasantly surprised by the Norwegian ones. We head for the Hjellefossen waterfall, which is 365 meters high. There is some debate about that, but who’s bothered, at around 365 meters it will be impressive. Located in the valley of Utladalen, a valley that has the highest concentration of untamed waterfalls. Another wonderful drive, every corner is just a fantastic view.

We park up at the carpark next to the waterfall and do the short walk. Yes, it is big… very big, very wet and very noisy. We try and get as close to it as possible, we get soaked for our efforts, but it’s worth it. A wonderful force of nature. We head back to Jess and get the hiking gear on, and set off for a 2.5km hike upwards, following the waterfall. It’s quite a challenge, and sadly, we don’t make it as it’s a bit treacherous because of the slippery rocks. We enjoy what we do manage, however, as we make our way back to Jess.

It’s now late in the afternoon, and we probably need to find a place for the night. We are making it up now. Do we do a free park up or a campsite? Hayley finds a nice little free spot just off the road and about 30 minutes from the waterfall.

The route involves a steep climb again, with hairpin bends inside unlit tunnels, very strange. When we arrive, there are a few cars in the small place already, but there is enough space for us, and the cars won’t be staying the night.

Once the cars are gone, we move into a better space.

They get a lot of snow up here, and there are still huge piles of it. There is one right outside the van, a big one that never melts over summer because of its size and then gets lots of heavy snow on it again during the long winter they have here.

It’s a lovely spot, so we get settled in and set off for another hike up the side of this “mini glacier”. Another challenging walk, almost vertical and very wet. We get quite a way up, and while looking at it, Hayley is not happy. “What happens if there is an avalanche, and all this snow hits us? I’m not happy…” So we trudge back down, decamp and set off to look for another spot. It’s now 6 pm. Granted, it doesn’t get dark until gone midnight, but we want some dinner now…

We pack up and drive east towards another spot, which will costs us £8.00 to stay in. We are about 1.2 km up, and the scenery is fascinating. As we are driving, we see lots of little cabins and bungalows scattered all over the place.

These are private places that people own; they don’t necessarily live there permanently, but they have them as “getaways”. It’s an extraordinary sight to see. Some are on their own for miles, others are in clusters, all with grass roofs.

We arrive at the spot. It’s well worth the move!! It is stunning. We have a view of a massive lake. We are high up, so we are seeing the tops of the mountains all around us, and below us are lots of these cabins. It’s a fantastic spot to stay the night. There is a little cafe next door, we are in the middle of nowhere, mind you. He is just closing and will open at midday tomorrow. We will be there!

We get settled in, and we are staying here for sure. We get Jess working… Gas is on for the heating and the cooking, her battery will be working hard tonight, we have a full tank of fresh water, an empty grey water tank and a fresh empty toilet, we can stay off grid for 2 to 3 days. It’s the toilet that’s usually the first to go!

Dinner is fantastic. A nice pasta dish with salad and white wine, looking at our lake and mountain view, helped along with some Norwegian jazz that had to go by the cheese course…

A good day. We had no real plans; we had a rough layout on a map, but today we went off-piste in another direction. It was well worth doing…

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Tuesday 1st July – Tyinstolen to Gudvangen – 71 miles

At about 4 in the morning, Del just happened to wake up and could hear the tinkling of a bell, a bell that sheep wear. It was getting closer and closer, then it stopped. Suddenly, there was a light bang that rocked the van, just a bit, and the tinkling started up again, fading away into the night. Clearly, one of the sheep doesn’t approve of us being there!

After an excellent night’s sleep, we wake up to the pattering of rain on the roof…, again. We are having a relaxing start to the day, a light breakfast this morning as we want to try the cute little cafe next door and have some waffles, again with the famous brown cheese and jam. We have a productive morning planning. Del gets on with some homework.

After 12, we take the short walk to the restaurant. We are greeted by a very nice, friendly chap who serves us delicious waffles with the traditional Norwegian brown cheese and jam, served with tea and coffee. Just how we want it. It’s delicious.

The man continues to tell us that in April, there’s normally 2 metres of snow here and the lake is frozen solid to about a metre, golly. This is an extraordinary place. Huts are scattered on the hillside, and this fabulous restaurant is out here, high up in the middle of nowhere. Despite its location, it’s a popular place.

We leave our beautiful park-up spot and head down the hill towards the Borgund Stave church, which is 30 minutes away. This is the best-preserved example of this type of traditional Norwegian wooden church, which was built in 1180. We’ve seen pictures and videos of this.

It always looked bigger, but when we see it for real, it almost looks like a model. It’s tiny compared to the other stave church we saw a few days ago in Ringebu. It’s still quite spectacular, though, with a fabulous visitors centre that explains all about the history of stave churches and how they are built.

Next, we are heading for a campsite that we have booked for 3 days in Gudvangen. We have had a lot of damp, mucky weather, and Jess and everything inside her needs a good airing, so we are hoping to get some dry weather and do a good clean out and freshen the van up.

To get to Gudvangen, we have to travel through the Laerdal tunnel, which is the longest road tunnel in the world – it’s 24.5km (15.23miles) long and even has 3 rest areas inside which are large caverns lit up in blue where you can get out and stretch your legs. Work started in 1995 and was open in 2000, 5 years to build a 15 and a half mile tunnel. Amazing… Quite an experience.

In total, today we have spent over 40km in tunnels by the time we eventually pop up out and into Gudvangen.

Our campsite is such a wonderful place, quirky, and it has the most magnificent views of many waterfalls along the mountains that tower over us; we are situated in an impressive valley. The campsite is also very reasonable. Tomorrow we will be taking a (rather expensive) fjord cruise on the stunning Naeroyfjord here, the next day we are going to a Viking village to do some axe throwing, watch out, Del.

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Wednesday 2nd July – Gudvangen – Day 2

Finally, at last, we have woken up to a spectacularly sunny day! It’s beautiful here in the Gudvangen valley. It’s not hot, but it’s warm enough for us to have the first coffee of the day outside, followed by breakfast. No rain…!

Today we are taking a two-hour cruise along the Naeroyfjord to the town of Flam, that’s later this afternoon, so this morning we spend some time giving Jess a good clean and getting some laundry done, and just generally give the van a good airing and clearing out after all the wet and damp weather we have had this week. Del also gets on with some homework.

With all the jobs done and Jess all clean and smelling fresh, we take the short walk to the ferry port here in Gudvangen. It’s busy here at the port today. This is the port where the local fjord cruises and ferries depart from. It is also where the Viking village is located, where you can see how Vikings lived and try your hand at some axe throwing. That’s tomorrow.

At 2:30 sharp, we set off on the “Legacy of the Fjords” for our two-hour cruise to Flam. The boat is fantastic, five years old and done out in a very Scandinavian fashion, all minimalist but excellent. No corners have been cut on this boat; it’s immaculate.

We are cruising through one of the top 2 most beautiful fjords in Norway (the other being Geirangerfjord), the views are just some of the best we have seen, the mountains tower over us, with many streams and waterfalls carving their way through the rock. Spectacular.

Towards the last 40 minutes of the trip, we go below decks and have a glass of prosecco served in old-fashioned champagne glasses, how charming, and sit indoors at the back of the boat watching the world go by. What a trip…

We arrive in the town of Flam, negotiating our way around the moored-up P&O Cruises IONA, currently on a 7-day round trip from Southampton. This thing is enormous – 5200 passengers and 1800 crew. We would love to do a cruise, but for us, this is way too big. We fancy at most a couple of hundred people, but that would probably be way out of our budget.

Flam doesn’t really have much to offer. It’s an interchange really for the cruise liners, railway and ferries. A few shops are selling overpriced clothes and souvenirs, plenty of places to eat and drink, but that’s about it. It’s from here that we are getting on the bus for the 20-minute drive back to Gudvangen and the short walk back to the campsite.

Back at Jess, we get showered and relax in the late afternoon sun. The campsite has a fire pit on, so we wrap up a bit more and have a cocktail and a glass of red wine by the fire to end the day.

Back at the van, we have a light supper outside before calling it a day, and a good day it was too. Tomorrow is our last day in Gudvangen.

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Thursday 3rd July – Gudvangen – Day 3

We wake to a bit of a dull day today, but at least it’s not raining. Today we are off to Viking Valley, which is right on our doorstep and is very popular with the tourists, of which we are one…! We have a light breakfast, as there could be some fighting in the village! We set off pretty sharpish before it gets too busy.

The village is a reconstruction of a typical Viking settlement, and there are about 30 people living and working here in traditional Viking roles, such as blacksmith and textile production.

We get a chance to try our luck at axe throwing and archery with mixed results. Axe throwing is a lot harder than it looks. “Just throw the axe…!” No, it’s much harder than that, especially if you want it to go in and stay in…

There is a free guided tour which runs for about an hour; it’s very informative. We learnn lots of interesting facts about Vikings from our tour guide, Richard.

We learn stuff like the Vikings had shallow light boats for creeping up rivers and surprising the English, they also used them to get as far as Asia. They also used different types of weapons, from daggers to axes. We also learn that they never had horns on their helmets; that was something made up for an opera by Wagner. The stuff you find out.

We spend a good couple of hours there. We watch the blacksmith making rivets for a shield, a fight between two drunk Vikings, and the tourists having plastic sword fights with the “locals”.

It was very good and well worth the time and money to go to. We finish our visit off with a hot drink and…, yes, some waffles with Brunost, brown cheese.

We wander back to Jess just in time for the rain to start. We are leaving tomorrow, but we still have a bit more laundry to do. We take turns getting wet, going back and forth, but we get it done. We have had to fill our shower with some wet chairs and table covers that we left outside in the rain while we were out. It’ll be ok by tomorrow.

Our stay in Gudvangen has been excellent. We managed to get everything done that we wanted, so despite the weather, it has been an excellent stay, but tomorrow we have to move on. We have 12 days left in Norway, and there is still ‘stuff‘ to see.

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Friday 4th July – Gudvangen – day 4

We have woken up late today, very late, not saying how late! After careful consideration and a lot of thinking, not, we have decided to stay for another day. There is rain all day today, which is expected to be on and off for the most part. It’s nice here, and there is a short 2km hike we can do, and we have Jess where we can just chill out.

To wake ourselves up, and to feel more with it, we have a shower and just read for the most part of the morning until the afternoon. We get spells of sunshine, which makes it all look and feel very pleasant. We finally get a spell of no rain, so we get the hiking boots in and set off for a 2km round trip hike with a 190-meter climb, so whilst it doesn’t sound much, 2 km, it is steep.

The weather holds. It’s a good hike, but we are ill-prepared, with no water and no sticks, as some of the walk is quite challenging, with a few rocks to climb over, and steep, slippery tracks.

Del finds a couple of sticks which he wrangles to a good size to help Hayley with the climb. Finally, we reach the end of the trail, which is exactly 190m high, and it does feel like we have done a 1km uphill climb.

The view is spectacular. We can see the Viking Village below and the start of the Fjord that we were on yesterday.

After 15 to 20 minutes, we start the descent, which goes a lot smoother and a lot quicker than the ascent. The weather is still holding, so we nip into the Viking Village restaurant for an early dinner. We have read good reviews, and it certainly matches them. The food is excellent, and because of the rain, it’s not very busy.

Back at Jess for more relaxation, we still don’t know where we are going tomorrow. We read and have early showers, and just settle in for our final night. We mean it this time though…! Hayley goes to bed early as she’s not feeling great.

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Week 4 . 21st – 27th June 2025. Gothenburg to Briksdalsbreen, Norway – 496 miles

Saturday 21st June 2025 – Gothenburg day 4

After a couple of days of walking around and exploring Gothenburg, Hayley plans a quieter day today. First, there’s the mundane, yet necessary, task of doing the laundry. We take our washer at home for granted, and it can be a struggle on the road sometimes to find decent laundry facilities.

The laundry at this campsite is the best, £8 for 2 hours exclusive rental of the laundry room with washers, dryers and an iron. Hayley gets 4 loads done and ironed – result! The rest of the day, she sits in the sun and reads before setting off for a look at the forest and trails that are near the campsite.

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Sunday 22nd June 2025 – Gothenburg day 5

Del is back today, woohoo! He’s not due until 4 pm, so Hayley tidies up the van and goes for another long walk. At last, he’s safely back, and it’s been a successful job that he has enjoyed. Hayley has also had a good few days in Gothenburg, but now we’re back together, we can resume our travels.

The logistics have worked out well. The campsite is excellent, in a good place near Sweden’s second biggest city, which just by chance has an amusement park with a world-class coaster in it. The airport was only 45 minutes away, with good flights back to London.

Tonight we celebrate with a rather expensive dinner in the city (Sweden is expensive, but nothing compared to Norway, so we hear).

Tomorrow we will move north towards the Swedish/Norwegian border.

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Monday 23rd June 2025 – Gothenburg to Åmål – 110 miles

We slept well last night despite bursts of heavy rain drumming on the roof.

We pack up, check and refresh Jess for a 100-mile drive today to the small town of Åmål, which has a campsite called Örnäs camping, located right on the banks of Lake Vänern. The lake is not only the biggest in Sweden but the biggest in the EU, with a length of 140 kilometres (87 miles!!!) That’s a big lake… We have some heavy rain along the way.

We get a nice pitch right next to the lake. The sky is heavy with lots of grey clouds, but it’s nice and dramatic.

We manage a walk through the forest to a marina and back. There are some good walks here, but it’s a shame that the weather today is so unpredictable.

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Tuesday 24th June 2025 – Åmål, Sweden to Gata, Norway 146 miles

It’s a bright, hot, sunny morning with coffee outside by the lake today. Strong gusts of wind are blowing across the lake, though.

After a large breakfast, using up some Swedish potatoes, which are banned in Norway, we set off. We have some Swedish kroner to get rid of, so we fill Jess up with diesel and buy some bits and pieces from a supermarket. There are a lot of motorhomes on our route today, mainly going in the opposite direction. Most people going to Norway take the ferry from Denmark, travelling clockwise, we are doing it differently as we went east first to have a look at Poland. Norway is very popular with motorhomes and can get extremely busy, we shall see. ​

During our picturesque drive to Norway, the weather changes. The rain showers are back, and the sky is grey. We have a good drive north and we cross the border into Norway at around 2 pm, stopping at a peace monument that straddles the border of Sweden and Norway.

The scenery in Norway, as expected, is wonderful and by all accounts it will only get better. We want to do some wild camping today, a free place in a forest. We try a few places, but they don’t really do it for us. Eventually, we find a spot, two miles down an unpaved road, 10 km south of the nearest town called Gata. We really are in the middle of nowhere.

In Norway, like Sweden, you can camp anywhere you like, so long as there is no sign expressly forbidding camping, and you are 150m from private property.

The place we have found is fantastic, no sounds, nothing. No moose either, although there are droppings nearby. We are right in the middle of a wood. We are off-grid tonight, relying on batteries and bottled gas. No problem for Jess as we settle into a fantastic dinner and watch the final episode of Clarkson’s Farm.

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Wednesday 25th June 2025 – Gata to Ringebu – 84 miles

Last night was a fabulous stop, off-grid, wild camping in the middle of a Norwegian wood, fabulous. Today, we are planning on another wild camping spot,stopping at a secluded place by a river. We have a few things to do, though. Jess needs her grey water emptying, fresh water, diesel, LPG, a wash and we need some local currency!

After breakfast, we set off, heading north.

First stop, Diesel, a litre here is about £1.40 – £1.50 which is not as bad as we thought. Next, we are driving to a marina, en route to empty the grey water tank and fill up with fresh water. After ducking under a 3m bridge, we arrive at the marina. (Jess is 2.95m, we make it just). Norway is great for free motorhome service points, maybe even better than France.

Next, Jess needs a wash. The heavy rain and mud from yesterday have left her looking like a rally car. We have found the most expensive car wash in the world. £10 gets us about three minutes. To wash Jess to her normal standard, that we have achieved everywhere else, would have cost £50.00!!!! She looks worse than before she went in!

Finally we need LPG. We have two bottles, one is almost empty, and we like to keep them full. You never know… This was a bit of a challenge as the place was off road in the yard of a garage, very rustic, and very muddy, and we have just had the most expensive ‘non-wash’ of Jess.

We are all done, and finally, we are on our way to our river stop. The weather is glorious, the roads are lovely to drive on, winding along the lakes. The scenery is just breathtaking, the best.

We pass a campsite about 30 minutes from our proposed stop, which looks fabulous, and after a bit of a ‘shall we, shan’t we‘ moment, we decide we shall. We turn around and head for it.

This is one of the best sites we have stayed in. Elstad Camping, near the town of Ringebu, is located right on a wide, long lake, you can pitch right on the edge. It costs us only 23 euros for the night, and it is just stunning. Across the lake, there are steep mountains covered in pine trees.

There is a Stave church here in Ringebu. A Stave church is a medieval wooden church which is a regular sight here in Norway. Once we get pitched up and comfortable, we head up the hill to the church. It’s a bit expensive to get in, £8.00, but inside it’s very cute and is worth the money. The surrounding grounds are spectacular and so beautifully maintained.

Back at the van, we share a beer and enjoy the rest of the afternoon and later dinner outside. It never seems to get dark here.

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Thursday 26th June 2025 – Ringebu to Geiranger – 130 miles

It’s a fantastic sunny day today, and we slept really well last night. The view this morning is incredible—towering, tree-covered mountains with a slow-moving river winding through the landscape. It’s a wonderful sight to wake up to, especially with smoked salmon and poached eggs for breakfast. Fabulous.

After finishing our hearty breakfast, we clean up and set off, making sure everything is ready after a full service. Tonight, we’ll be off the grid, so we need to have everything stocked up.

We’re still on the lookout for an ATM, but they’re scarce here, and very few shops and outlets seem to use cash. The Scandinavian countries, in general, don’t seem to like using cash, but we do need to have some for showers at campsites and some service points.

It’s a fabulous drive today as we climb higher, above 1000m, and the snow-covered mountains flatten out. Our drive takes us along rivers and lakes. The scenery is something else here in Norway. They’ve got some good stuff here.

We find our chosen overnight stop and pull in after negotiating a rather interesting road, narrow, with deep rivulets carved by other vans. We’re a little concerned the raised middle might scrape the underside. We make it, but only just.

It is a spectacular spot—difficult to describe how stunning it is. The temperature has dropped as we’ve climbed higher, and the mountains are snow-covered. We get settled in. This will be the furthest north we’ll go; in fact, it’s the furthest north we’ve ever been on a van trip.

Hayley suddenly has an idea: while it’s lovely here, we really should be heading to Geiranger, with its spectacular fjord. She finds us a campsite, and off we go. So much for the off-grid night by the lake!

It’s a good drive, but the roads are getting narrower, twistier, and more perilous. Your wheels hug the outer marker line, and some drivers either don’t understand that or are so scared themselves that they drive far too much in the middle.

Twice we have our wing mirror clipped. It’s okay—our mirrors have sacrificial covers and are designed to fold inwards—but the noise of clipping is quite disconcerting. Comes with the hobby. As long as it’s just clipped mirrors!

Mirror drama aside, the drive is probably one of the best scenic routes we’ve ever done. Every corner reveals another jaw-dropper—huge mountains and aqua-coloured lakes. We get a fantastic view of the Geirangerfjord, which currently has two cruise liners docked.

We arrive at the Vinje Campsite in Geiranger, which is quite high up. We have a very nice pitch with a view of the fjord and a huge waterfall that runs right through the camp. Noisy!

Once settled in, we set off down the hill for a walk to the fjord and the town of Geiranger. There’s a large cruise liner in, AIDAprima, which we think we’ve seen in Southampton before.

The place is a massive tourist stop. It’s busy, full of buses and people from all over the world. A popular place for cruise ships to stop. We walk around, the town is nice, but nothing really to write home about—everything is overpriced and done up for tourists.

We take the steep walk back up the hill to Jess and our little campsite, where we have a fabulous (and simple) dinner: beans on toast with a poached egg. We don’t normally carry beans, but Hayley has ‘stocked up for the wilds of Norway’, thinking we could be stranded without shops for days…!

We are wiped out after the challenging drive and the walk down to Geiranger and back, so we turn in early. A good day.

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Friday 27th June 2025 – Geiranger to Briksdalsbreen – 70 miles

Despite the waterfall outside the van, we slept well. Today we’re going to stay at a place near the Briksdalsbreen glacier. The drive is another challenging one, and today it’s Hayley’s turn.

We’re not sure why, but today there are so many coaches on the road—long ones—so the climb up the winding road is a difficult one. The traffic often comes to a standstill as coaches and motorhomes try to pass each other on hairpin bends. We are probably averaging 8 mph. The locals must be fed up with this chaos every day.

Once off the mountain road, Hayley thinks she is clear until she encounters a number of narrow tunnels of 4km each, which are not even wide enough for a centre dividing line, and have low rocky roofs. We swap over when we fill up with diesel, and Del has the next drive. The road leading up to the campsite we have reserved is even narrower, and Del is forced to reverse to let some traffic pass. It also has the creepiest tunnel ever.

Finally, finally, we arrive at the campsite: Melkevoll Bretun, which is surrounded by glaciers, mountains, and waterfalls.

The people here are lovely, and we get our pitch that Hayley had pre-booked. Again, to our right is a massive waterfall; to our left, a huge glacier; and straight ahead, another one. You can’t move for them!

We get dressed for a walk—boots, weatherproofs, etc.—and take a 4km hike along the Briksdal glacier trail. We get a few heavy showers of rain, but so what…

The glacier is in front of us the whole way and is quite an imposing sight. It’s hard to believe that these glaciers are moving forward down the mountain, while global warming is making them recede even faster.

We arrive at the base—or as close to the base of the glacier as we can get. Wow! is all we can say. We walk around, taking pictures for half an hour before heading back down to the campsite.

After a short break, we get changed and head for the on-site sauna. There’s a glacial stream next to it. You’re supposed to spend 20 minutes in a sauna, then take a dip in the stream before going back in. We do the sauna no problem, but the stream bit… that’s a bit harder. Hayley manages to get up to her knees before the pain of the icy water forces her out in a rather ungraceful fashion, losing her flip-flops and nearly falling over in the process. Ice-cold water, straight off the mountain… Hmmm.

After a shower, it’s back ‘home’ for a fantastic dinner of Swedish meatballs, asparagus, and crushed potatoes, washed down with a cold white wine.

A perfect end to a perfect day.

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Week 3. 14th – 20th June 2025. Lundakrahamnen to Gothenburg – 146 miles

Saturday 14th June 2025 – Landskrona to Annerstad – 89 miles

It’s a stunning morning today, with a gentle breeze and a bright blue summer sky. We have a quick breakfast since we want to try and get into a very popular campsite off the beaten path in a town called Annerstad, which might be full since it’s a lovely weekend.

We set off north on the E4 motorway. It’s a fantastic, scenic drive, especially in the sunshine.

After about 45 minutes, we stopped for a Fika—a Swedish tradition of sharing coffee with a pastry. Hayley has managed to book us into the campsite; there are only two spots left, and we have secured one.

We continue our drive, passing some beautiful scenery. It’s a rather lovely place so far, Sweden. After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the charming farm of Prästgården in Annerstad with a lush green field to park in and where cows graze next to a barn full of chickens and pigs. The host is very friendly and tells us we’re free to do and go as we wish.

We choose a spot right next to the cow field, and we have two visitors already—some curious cows.

It’s lovely here. The barn is filled with pigs and chickens. An unusual thing about the pig area is that they have paintings on the walls and a chandelier, quite charming.

The weather is so gorgeous that we decide to take down the bikes and explore the area. Our cycle takes us to a large lake, one of many around here. It’s simply stunning. The scent of fresh pine trees is fabulous as we cycle along. The lake is clean, bright, and inviting, shining in the high afternoon sun. It’s genuinely a fantastic ride in a beautiful place.

After about 10 miles and feeling a bit sore, we return to Jess, and sit in the shade with a cold drink and some time to stretch out. It’s warm today, and tomorrow is expected to be even warmer.

We have a reservation for tonight at the little restaurant on the camp that specialises in pizzas. By all accounts, and according to many websites, this place does the best pizza in Sweden. Every review gives them 5 stars, so we take a table outside in the evening sun and order 2 diavolo pizzas, beginning with a walnut and pear salad.

The pizzas are amazing and we both agree they are the best we have ever had, who would have thought it, in a tiny farm in the middle of Sweden?

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Sunday 15th June 2025 – Annerstad to Bolmsö – 31 miles

It’s a bright, hot, and sunny morning. We have coffee outside with the cows. Our road trip today will be about 45 minutes to our next stop by a lake in Bolmsö.

We find a lovely spot shaded by trees, with a beautiful view of the lake. It doesn’t take us very long to get level, (just about), plugged up and settled in. There is a free ferry—yes, free—that transports people and cars across the lake in about 10 minutes. So we shall have a look at that. Just below our pitch, there’s a small beach. Hayley tries to paddle, but decides the lake is way too cold, despite the 25-degree temperature and sunshine.

We board the small ferry without any fuss; people and cars board simultaneously. Everyone just looks out for each other—it’s a strange concept, but it works.

Since the ferry ride is just a continuation of the road, there isn’t much to see along the way, except for a small hut at the other end when we get off that serves coffee and ice cream. We couldn’t resist the ice cream.

Hayley chooses a salty liquorice-flavoured one; this flavour is very popular in Sweden and is delicious. Simple pleasures, eh?

Afterwards, we take the ferry back to the camp and relax, read, and just sit in the warm, still air. It has now clouded over a bit, but it’s still humid and 26 degrees. Tonight we dine outside, with our view of the lake. Afterwards we get cleaned up and decide to sit outside again, this time with a few drinks and a game of chess that ends badly for Del… We are outside playing chess in daylight at 10:30pm…!

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Monday 16th June 2025 – Bolmsö to Rydal – 93 miles

There were a few light rain showers last night here in Bolmsö. We’re moving on again today, taking a short drive to another camping spot by a different lake. We can’t get enough of these lakes. It’s a chilly, grey morning compared to yesterday, 12 degrees less—the sun never seems to last! We enjoy a hearty breakfast to cheer ourselves up before a quick Jess service, then we’re on our way, via the ferry to the other side of the lake.

We get the ferry to ourselves. It’s an earlyish Monday morning. The ferry is run by the equivalent of the highways agency; it’s a continuation of the road, so it’s free. Just drive on and off. No nonsense, no delays, it just bounces back and forth all day.

We stop by a Willys (stop it!), the Swedish equivalent of Tesco, and do a quick shopping trip filled with Swedish goodies—Dime bars, bread, smoked salmon and crackers.

After about an hour of driving through beautiful Swedish countryside, we arrive at Kvarnsjöns, but unfortunately, we’re a bit disappointed. There’s no real information available, everything is a bit spread out, and it just doesn’t quite hit the mark for us. Hayley then finds another spot, this time in Svenljunga. (Are you keeping up with these Swedish names?) This will be a free stop next to a small reservoir; there’s space for three vans.

When we arrive, we’re the only ones there. To get to it, you have to drive off-road along a rugged, uneven dirt road, but at the end, there’s this charming little hideout.

It’s very nice, but again, it doesn’t fully satisfy us. There’s no cycling or even walking paths nearby, and it’s only 2:30, so we fear we will get restless.

After a quick search, Hayley finds us a paid camping spot in the town of Rydal, just an hour southeast of Gothenburg. Rydal was historically big on textiles, similar to Bolton! There’s space for eight campervans right on the river, which the local boat club maintains. It also has a private sauna, which visitors are allowed to use; it looks good, let’s go.

Another 30-minute drive brings us here. It’s a beautiful spot—lots of trees, with a narrow river threading through. The van pitches are right by the river, and there’s also a small covered fire pit ideal for sitting while cooking your BBQ.

The sauna is available; to use it, you book a slot on their website, receive a code to open a key box that contains the sauna key. You get two hours, but if no one else is waiting, you can stay longer. The only catch is that you need to bring logs; it’s a traditional burner, not electric. We didn’t think of that…

The staff here are incredibly helpful. We email the owner about our situation, and he tells us to hang on—someone will bring logs soon. The logs cost ten quid, and the sauna itself is free to use. While Hayley prepares dinner on Jess, Del starts the fire in the sauna. We enjoy a delicious meal while it heats up to 80 degrees.

Later, we get changed into flip-flops and swimwear and head into the sauna. It’s perfect—hot! Inside, there’s a large window overlooking the river. Outside, a spacious decking area provides a refreshing cool-off. It’s a fantastic feature.

After an hour in the sauna with rests, we return to Jess for a shower, fresh clothes, and a cold drink . All in all, it’s been a great day. We plan to stay here again tomorrow, we have plenty of logs left over for another sauna and a BBQ.

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Tuesday 17th June 2025 – Rydal day 2

It’s a lovely, bright, sunny day today. We like it here, so we decide to stay for another day. It’s such a lovely place, with lots to do and see, and already we have a full day lined up.

We start off by having morning coffee outside, followed by a nice hearty breakfast of lots of stuff! There are canoes here for hire, but there is nobody here to help us except for a telephone number and an email address. Hayley does a little research, and it turns out the owner is not in the country, but is happy to give us the key code for the garage where the oars and life preservers are kept. All we have to do is pay for the rental using PayPal. Amazing trust – we go the code to the garage before making the payment.

We drag a three-seater canoe into the river and set off. The Swedish countryside is just fantastic. We weave our way along the river, there is nothing to suggest “man” is here, no pylons, poles, wires or signs, just the river and bird song, with the odd ‘plop‘ of a fish surfacing.

We do a good two hours, drop all the stuff off and let the owner know what we have done. Yesterday we had a sauna, and we still have some logs left over, so we decide to use them up and have another one. Del gets the fire going, gets the room up to 60 degrees, throws some water on the stones, and it’s not long before the temperature is at a nice 80 degrees, lovely.

The day has just flown by. It’s now 6pm by the time we have cleaned up, showered, and reset ourselves. We meet the two men who look after this place and compliment them on their work; they are grateful for the feedback. We spend a few minutes chatting away about the Swedish countryside and Sweden in general. They have lots to say!

It’s time for dinner, which we have outside. It’s a very pleasant sunny evening, which is finished off by Hayley playing a few Loretta Lynn, Britney Spears and Eagles songs on her baby guitar (she has a very unusual repertoire shall we say).

All in all, a very nice day indeed here in Rydel. A place that we will remember for a long time, and that one day we will return.

Tomorrow, Del is off to London on business, back on Sunday.

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Wednesday 18th June 2025 – Rydal to Gothenburg – 35 miles

We are sad to be leaving Rydal which has become one of our favourite little parking spots, but we must as Del has a flight leaving this evening from Gothenburg. He has a short job in London, so Jess and H are booked into a campsite in the city. This campsite just happens to be owned by Liseberg park, which has a world-famous roller coaster called Helix, so H certainly won’t be bored; however, Del won’t be to hand to hold the bag!

We arrive early afternoon, after a small stockup and full van service, we’re not used to the city feel and scenery, we prefer trees and lakes and nobody around, but cities can be interesting too, especially this one. This is Sweden’s second biggest city and a big draw for tourists. The campsite is huge (150 pitches) and fully booked as we are going into what the Swedes call the Midsummer Festival.

We take the short tram ride to the interchange in the centre for the airport bus, and soon, Del is away to work while Hayley will have some fun in the park!

As we are staying at the campsite, Hayley is able to get into the Liseberg amusement park for free this evening. It doesn’t include rides, but she pays to go on the standout coaster, the one she has been waiting for, the one that everyone talks about (in coaster circles anyway) – Helix. She gets a front row ride and loves it.

It’s not the best value to pay as you go on the rides tonight, so she will return tomorrow with a proper entrance and ride ticket and do the whole day, but for now, she is happy to walk around and see the lay of the land before tomorrow.

The Corrs are doing a concert tonight inside the park, and the ticket to get in is just £5 (what?!). Hayley has never really been a fan of the Corrs as such, but likes some of their songs, so she decides to stay and check them out.

The concert is fantastic, they are one of those bands that you know more songs than you think. Great musicians, catchy songs – a really enjoyable show (funny enough, their next stop on their tour is the Isle of Wight festival back home). Hayley gets back to Jess at 10:30 pm after a great day, it’s still daylight.

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Thursday 19th June 2025 – Gothenburg day 2

It’s yet another lovely sunny day today, but not as warm as the UK. Del has reported back that the UK temperature is in the upper 20s and expected to be in the low 30s by the weekend! Today is a big day for Hayley as she is going to the Liseberg Park Amusement Park, so she has a relaxed start to the day as they open at 1 pm. 

Once in, she manages quite a few rides, as the queues are pretty small.

It’s a public holiday tomorrow for midsummer, so it looks like most people are waiting until then to come to the park. After 5 hours and 14 rides (including being turned upside down 27 times), Hayley has finally had enough. She’s not getting any younger and is already the oldest person in the queues! She’s not as able as she once was to be chucked upside down and thrown around for long periods.

She heads back to Jess for some quiet time and to just relax after what has been another great day.

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Friday 20th June 2025 – Gothenburg day 3

Today, Hayley plans to explore the city, despite most things being shut for the Midsummer festival, which is the second most important holiday in Sweden.

After a few transport issues, she makes it into the centre. She has found out what the issue is with the trams this morning by reading about it in the British press. A tram took a corner at high speed early this morning and derailed, travelled across the asphalt and wiped out a pizza restaurant. Luckily, no one was killed, but it has left quite a mess and a few injuries.

As predicted, the town is pretty quiet, with most of the places Hayley planned to visit locked up. Even Ikea is shut until Sunday! She hops on a tram to visit the city’s main park. They have Moose there, we hoped we would see some casually crossing the road (not too close) in the quiet forest areas, but have had no luck.

She gets to see a couple, some nice goats and chickens and then walks down into the main lawned area. This is where all of Gothenburg is; it’s crazy busy with people dressed up and wearing the traditional flowers in their hair.

She watches a few traditional dances and then heads back to Jess. It’s another quiet night in, giving her feet a rest.

Week 2. 7th – 13th June 2025. Lieblingshof, Germany to Lundakrahamnen, Sweden– 375 miles

Saturday 7th June 2025 – Lieblingshof, Germany to Dziwnow, Poland – 122 miles

We still have our poor kitten outside that we met yesterday. It’s been raining on and off all night and this morning. Today, we’re heading to Poland, where we have a two-night reservation at the Black Pearl Campsite. Just as we’re about to leave, the sun comes out!

The drive has been challenging. Hayley has to navigate narrow roads in Germany, with trees leaning into the road. We swap over before reaching the border, so Del has to handle very tight roads and heavy rain.

It isn’t long before Google sends us down a nasty, narrow cobbled road to…? No idea… There is a new motorway with maintenance being done once you cross the border into Poland. Speed limit 35mph…!

We’re in Poland! One of the first things we do is to stop at a border shop and try some Polish chocolate.

We are staying at a campsite for a couple of days. The journey has been nonstop since we left home—long days of driving. Once we’re settled, we do our weekly cleaning of Jess, which involves pulling everything apart to remove dust and dirt. It feels good to have her spotless inside. All surfaces are thoroughly wiped down. She now looks in showroom condition inside, although the outside is beginning to look a bit sad. The rain and motorway driving have made her filthy.

We encounter a power issue at the Dziwnow campsite. The pitch sockets are only outputting 180 volts, which isn’t enough to power the battery charger (it took us a while of pulling the van apart to test fuses before we managed to figure this out).

As a result, the fridge can’t run on mains power. Luckily, the fridge is a multi-power source unit—AC, battery, and gas.

After completing all the chores, we settle into a very clean and tidy van with a cold German beer. It has started to rain again.

For dinner tonight, we set out to a local restaurant. We eat too much again, but it’s very tasty. We try the local dish of Pierogi, which is very nice, a dumpling with meat inside.

We are so full of food, we decide to walk it off by heading to the beach to have a look at the Baltic Sea. The view is fantastic. We will be crossing it on Thursday to go to Sweden.

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Sunday 8th June 2025 – Day 2 in Dziwnow, Poland

We have big plans today to go cycling around here; it’s nice and flat, and by the sea. No chance… there’s more rain today in Poland and, in fact, the whole of northern Europe. We are hoping to get a break in the weather to go for our bike ride later. It has rained on and off all morning.

There is finally a slight break, enough for us to go to the nearby model village, which is very popular here. 9 quid to get in, it’s very nice. Well tended to, clean and lots of working model trains. The main theme of this model village is Polish lighthouses. Well, why not…? There are 16 of them here.

We get into the flow of the park when suddenly… we have a massive thunderstorm with heavy rain, but really heavy. We take shelter in the model workshop thanks to a worker there. When the next break in the rain happens, the lady in the ticket office gives us a couple of umbrellas from a pile she has in the office, clearly a regular thing, this heavy rain thing. We are now the only two walking around in the not-so-heavy rain. Good though, we like it.

We make it back to the van for some hot tea and put the heating on. We cosy up with a good dinner in, and a couple of episodes of Clarkson’s Farm while the rain and now the strong winds batter the van. Nice.

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Monday 9th June 2025 – Dziwnow to Wolin – 20 miles

The rain has stopped, and the wind has died down. We’re driving to a small town, slightly south of Dziwnow called Wolin. When we arrive, we find that the area is essentially a large, well-organised car park that accommodates campervans. Full services are available, though: you can empty your toilet, fill up with fresh water for a small fee, and dump grey water. It’s very convenient.

Once the rain clears, the weather improves, so we take a walk into the town of Wolin. On the way, we pass a new wooden structure—a viewpoint called Wieża widokowa w Wolinie. It offers spectacular views of the surrounding lakes.

We continue our walk into Wolin, which has a rustic charm. It reminds us a bit of Grimsby in the 1980s, but we enjoy the walk. To us, this is what it’s all about. Our trips are not just about fantastic views and spectacular drives, it’s about seeing where other people live and how they do it.

We stop for a cold beer before heading back to the van. Overall, we manage a 4-mile walk.

Dinner in tonight… A fantastic, juicy, thick steak done to perfection and fries…

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Tuesday 10th June 2025 – Wolin to Marina Wicko, Zalesie – 11 miles

It’s a grey but calm day so far, no rain and no strong wind. We enjoy a fantastic breakfast in Jess this morning (aren’t they all?). Then, a short 11-mile drive to the town of Zalesie. The place we are going to is right at the end of a lake with kayaks for rent, so all being well, we will have a go at that. There is also a V3 museum here. The V3 was also known as the V3 London Cannon.

The campsite is fabulous—small, rustic. It’s looked after by a couple of guys who are very helpful and accommodating. They make us feel very welcome despite the language barrier. It’s charming and “handmade,” with kayak hire, a BBQ area, and a communal cooking space. We really like it. The V3 museum is just across the road, so what’s not to like?

Sadly, the bad weather has set in again, with rain and increasing wind. We decide to wait it out before heading to the museum. It looks like the kayak rental is off, which is a shame.

The next break in the rain, we go across to the road to the smallest museum in the world, a tiny room filled with various items, but very interesting. It doesn’t take us long to look around.

We are not able to climb up the launch area as they are replacing some steps to it, but we are shown where we can see some of the concrete mounts used to place the pipes and the barrel. We knew nothing about the V3, but we do now.

There’s also a model village nearby. They seem to be very popular in this part of Poland, so we set off for the short walk. It’s rather impressive, with famous buildings from many European countries.

For dinner, we have a lovely meal cooked in the van.

The rain and wind don’t dampen our spirits; we stay in and enjoy a movie.

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Wednesday 11th June 2025 – Zalesie to Miedzyzdroje – 3 miles

It’s finally a sunny day, but still a bit windy. We are sad to leave our little, cute camping spot, but we must move on. Our next campsite is in the town of Miedzyzdroje. Forest Camp is a 10-minute walk to the front, where all the action is. There’s white fine sand for miles in either direction.

The town of Miedzyzdroje is one of the top 4 beach holiday destinations in Poland. It has a great feel to it. We visit the Polish Walk of Fame (we don’t know anyone there), and the Chopin Park (we know him), which has a statue in honour of the man.

We have ice cream and some currywurst, and chips – a lot of the town is set up for the large number of German tourists that they get here, as Germany is just next door. Back at Jess, we have a small beer in the sun. Dinner in tonight is a typical Polish feed.

Pierogi with meatballs, very nice. ​

Tomorrow we catch the ferry to Sweden.

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Thursday 12th June 2025 – Międzyzdroje, Poland to Klagshamn, Sweden -140 miles

It’s warm today. We’re off on a ferry to Trelleborg in Sweden this afternoon, after a service at the campsite, we set off.

Jess finally gets a good wash—after a thorough scrub and wax, she looks showroom new.

We do a bit of last-minute shopping before making our way to the ferry port to join the line to board the ferry.

The ferry is excellent—very, very empty. We have a comfortable cabin at the front of the boat with a window for the 6-hour crossing, and enjoy a good dinner of Swedish meatballs in the restaurant before arriving into Trelleborg. We only need to do a 30-minute drive north to a free overnight parking area.

We arrive just before sunset and watch the sun go down behind the Öresund Bridge, which connects Sweden to Denmark.

It’s a fantastic welcome to Sweden. We head back to Jess for a celebratory glass of rosé.

Welcome to Sweden…!

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Friday 13th June 2025 – Klagshamns to Landskrona – 37 miles

It gets dark here at 10:30 at night and light at 4:30 in the morning. It’s a beautiful day today, clear blue skies, bright and sunny, lovely. After a short breakfast, we set off, driving north to the town of Landskrona to Lundakrahamnen marina, which allows campervans. The roads here are excellent, clean and well made. Fabulous.

We stop off at a supermarket. It might sound a bit sad, but we love checking out foreign supermarkets; they are all so very different.

We get a few things and set off for the short drive to the marina.

We find a space, it’s already busy as we are going into the weekend, so not only are the foreign van people out, like us, the Germans and Dutch, but the Swedes are also out in force as the weekend weather is promising to be very good.

After paying 295 SEK (£23), we find a space sandwiched between a Dutch couple and a German couple who are very friendly and chatty to us. We later get chatting to an elderly Swedish lady who lived in the UK, Salford of all places…!

We get settled in quite quickly and go for a short walk to see what’s what.

Del starts the laundry (they have a washer and dryer), it’s a thankless task, but one that needs to be done all the same. Hayley gets on her bike and sets off for the town to get some Swedish cash!

Hayley’s bike ride snaps…

Dinner tonight is outside. It’s a lovely evening and the place we are at is so peaceful and so relaxing, we could live here!

Tomorrow we are moving onto a forest location, which sounds really good on the campsite finder app, but will we get in?

Summer 2025 is upon us, so before it gets too busy, we are off on one of our van travels. A seven-and-a-half week outing. This time we are off to Norway and other parts of Scandinavia. We are planning to go from Calais, through Belgium, Holland, then northeast through Germany and across to Poland, where we will grab a ferry from the Polish port of Świnoujście, (yes, we can’t pronounce it either!), landing at Trelleborg in Sweden.

From there, we plan to go up through Sweden, then cut west into Norway, down along the west coast, doing a bit of snaking as we go, whilst heading south, taking a ferry from Kristiansand to Hirtshals in Denmark, finally making our way home.

This is the third attempt to see Norway in Jess. Our first attempt was stopped by crazy COVID-19 rules between the different countries to get there. The second attempt was cancelled for family reasons.

This is a diary of our travels, for our friends and family. We like to share our trip with you all, and we are so happy to hear from you. If you have stumbled upon our site, then you may find some parts of our journey interesting, so please subscribe by clicking the button on the right to receive a weekly update, normally on a Saturday. You can easily unsubscribe at any time by hitting the unsubscribe link in the weekly mailshot.

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Let the journey begin…

Week 1. 1st – 6th June 2025. Home to Lieblingshof, Germany – 764 miles

Sunday, 1st of June 2025. Home to Calais, France – 181 miles

It’s a bright, warm, and sunny day as we set off with a fully loaded van for a 7-week adventure on Jess. It’s a familiar route: taking the ferry from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth, followed by a 6:05 pm crossing to Calais from Dover. The drive from Portsmouth feels like a bit of a long slog… it takes forever!

We arrive early for the ferry, so we begin with a comforting cup of tea while waiting to board.

The crossing is smooth and uneventful. It’s windy, but the sky is clear and blue, and the sun is shining. During the crossing, we enjoy dinner, and before long, we arrive in Calais. After disembarking, it’s just a quick 10-minute drive to a paid camping aire. Once we’ve settled in, we unwind with a glass of red wine before heading to bed.

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Monday, 2nd of June 2025. Calais, France to Poperinge, Belgium – 50 miles

A smashing day today. We enjoy a very relaxing breakfast this morning. We’re leaving Calais and heading to a campsite, a regular one of ours, which was our first European stop when we started this motorhoming thing back in 2018. The site, Stal ‘t Bardehof, is located in the Vleteren area of Belgium. We have a lovely spot tucked away, and without much delay, we unload the bikes and set off on a short six-mile cycle.

Our first stop is at the Sixtus Abbey, where they brew the world’s best beer (according to ChatGPT). You can only get this beer here; it’s not available anywhere else in the world. Visitors can enjoy a glass in the garden, which we do, paired with some abbey cheese, or purchase boxes to take away.

It’s fantastic. Afterwards, we cycle back to the campsite via one of the many Commonwealth Military Cemeteries, very sobering, very peaceful places of which there are many in this area.

Back at the farm, enjoy one of our favourite beers, a St. Bernardus 12.

The weather is perfect—clear skies, warm and sunny. It’s so lovely that we shower early and then have a fantastic dinner outside.

After dinner, we clean up and settle down to watch a couple of episodes of Clarkson’s Farm 4. It’s 10 pm, and it’s still light outside…

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Tuesday, 3rd of June 2025. Poperinge, Belgium to Hapert, Holland – 131 miles

Del collects our bread order from the office.

We have breakfast outside today. After a full service, we get on the road, northeast towards Germany. H finds a nice place near a small Dutch town called Hapert, which is not too far away from Eindhoven. The stop is perfect, and the surrounding area is beautiful, so it’s off on the bikes again.

Today we manage 13 miles, stopping at a holiday park (like a rather fancy Butlins in a forest) and the small town of Hapert. Very equine, lots of manicured fields and horses. The town is so smart, clean and tidy. ​Back at Jess, we get showered and H makes us a nice, simple, tasty dinner. ​A very nice but short day in Holland.

A good day today; a good long cycle and lovely dinner.

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Wednesday, 4th of June 2025. Hapert, Holland to Bockholt, Germany- 147 miles

It’s a wet, drizzly start to the day. As we reach the German border, the weather begins to clear, but we’re warned that rain may return later and persist throughout the weekend as we head into Poland.

We stop at a marina on a canal, which is okay; the camping spots border the canal with a decent-looking restaurant nearby. However, the internet here is terrible, we are struggling to get any data.

Del falls asleep for a while, feeling a bit under the weather for some reason. Luckily, he soon starts to feel better, gets up, reads, and takes a shower. We have dinner at the local marina restaurant, which is okay, costing about 50 euros. Afterwards, we take a walk along the canal during the early evening, watching the setting sun.

It’s lovely and genuinely lifts Dels’ spirits. We enjoy these camping spots near rivers or canals; they’re so peaceful.

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Thursday, 5th of June 2025. Bockholt, Germany to Horst, Germany – 155 miles

A late departure today, 10 am. We are heading north towards Hamburg. Another long drive today, 150 miles of German motorway. We fill up with diesel. It’s expensive. Depending on where you stop, for approximately half a tank, it is between 50 and 60 euros.

Germany is a big country. We arrive at the town of Horst, SE of Hamburg. We are here as there is supposed to be an excellent restaurant specialising in the food of the region. The Horstner Muhle is a restaurant that allows overnight parking if you eat at the restaurant, it’s located on a river with a working water wheel.

We have arrived early, at 2 pm. We settle in for the day until our reservation for dinner. There are heavy showers on and off for the rest of the day, so we stay in the van catching up on paperwork. Dinner out tonight is fantastic.

We have lots to eat, big portions and very tasty. We finish off with a gentle walk by the river with the sun setting. The birdsong is deafening, and there are a couple of deer near the van.

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Friday, 6th of June 2025. Horst, Germany to Lieblingshof, Germany – 126 miles

It rained a little in the night. We are wild camping, so we are not connected to anything, so after a short breakfast, we set off in search of a supermarket. Supplies are low. We find an Edeka supermarket.

Very nice. Like Waitrose on steroids. Fantastically clean, fantastically expensive, so much so we put some stuff back, and leave in search of an Aldi. We know our place.

It’s another long drive today. We are passing Hamburg and taking a right to go east towards Poland, where we expect to be tomorrow. We arrive at a farm on the way at a place called Lieblingshof, where we will stay the night. The rain has been on and off all day.

We have befriended a little cat that has been dumped by some campers. Bad, very bad.

The rain is on and off all day, but we manage a walk across the barley fields to a small swimming pond that the farm has made available to people staying. Not sure we would go in it ourselves, but the idea is brilliant and the location is fantastic.

We get caught out in the rain and run back to the van to find our towels blowing away across the grass. These rainstorms come out of nowhere. It seems every time we come to Germany, it rains a lot.

It’s the season for asparagus (Spargel) here in Germany at the moment, especially white asparagus, which is referred to as ‘white gold’. It’s the same vegetable as the green variety, but it’s grown underneath the soil away from sunlight. Tonight we are having asparagus with Hollandaise sauce (a traditional combination) with ham, potato salad, sauerkraut and a good German Weiss beer (white beer).

Tomorrow we will be in Poland. All being well…

Week 7. 25th of January – 2nd February 2025. Lisbon to Home 1120 miles

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Saturday 25th of January 2025 (Lisbon Day 2)

We can’t seem to escape it. Last night we had a massive fall of rain, really heavy. On the upside, we have got up this morning to clear skies, even though it’s still a bit chilly. No matter, we have a good breakfast, do the weekly blog check, work out the route etc. for our last week (which will change of course) and do a van clean before setting off for Lisbon city once again. But what this…? Visitors.

We take the easy option and use an Uber cab into town. They are so cheap. It cost 5 euros last night to get from the town to the campsite which is a 10 to 20 minute drive depending on traffic.

We are dropped off in town and off we go. Lisbon is spread out, very hilly and busy! We intend to do as much as we can such as try all the different types of transport, food and drink. Of course, we’ll never get anywhere near the latter, but we will try. After some walking around we venture onto the old trams they have here. The old tram network is over 100 years old, the council, in their wisdom, years ago started to decommission the system but there was a backlash from the locals and tourists alike, so there was some backtracking.

They are small and rough and snake their way through the tight hilly, cobbled streets, but they are fun. You get to see a lot, especially on the famous No.28.

We have a cone of Dutch-style chips with piri piri mayonnaise, which are delicious.

Onwards, more walking, admiring the buildings and countless monuments. There are some great views of the city from here.

We like Lisbon, it’s a lively place, the people are friendly and to just walk around is fabulous. It’s busy, even at this time of the year so the summer must be madness. We can understand why the locals are getting fed up and why councils are imposing tourist taxes, and new and sometimes expensive fees to get into attractions etc, but we all know that that won’t stop people from coming. We always pay in the end!

We take the steep walk up the top of the Santa Justa Lift, built in 1902 to get to one of the higher parts of town and take in the views of the city below. There is a rooftop bar not far away from where we take a seat to carry on and enjoy the view and watch the afternoon sun change colour on the houses on the hill opposite us, helped along with a white and a red Port. What’s not to like?

Tonight we are looking for a traditional Portuguese night. There is a style of music hear called Fado so we are looking for some of that and a good feed. We wander into the back streets and find a lovely place that has traditional Portuguese dishes and music from 7:30 and it’s Fado. Excellent…

We are shown to a table upstairs, we’re the first to arrive. The service and the food are fantastic and cheap. The 4 piece band, 2 guitar players and two singers strike up and we are serenaded as we pay the bill.

We liked the singing, but after 20 minutes it would probably get on our nerves. Have a listen at the link above and you’ll get the idea…

We use our last form of transport, a funicular back down from where we have had dinner and to a Ginjinha bar which is basically a “hole in the wall” bar that just serves a local cherry liqueur. Not finished yet, we are on our way to a cafe for a Pastel de Nata and a glass of port. It never stops!

We are done now, so take an Uber back to camp. We have done 11,000 steps and 12 floors of walking! We have seen a lot, tried lots of typical food and drink and enjoyed all of it.

Lisbon is a wonderful place and one that we will certainly come back to. We have hardly scratched the surface of this wonderfully, chaotic, beautiful place. Tomorrow we have to move on even though we don’t really have a plan. We’ll do that over coffee in the morning.

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Sunday 26th of January 2025 (Lisbon to Evora – 82 miles )

Over coffee, we look at the options left for our final week. We were going to go to Nazere to see the famous huge waves but sadly, according to the local webcams, it’s not playing ball today. Shame. We have decided to head inland, go east and stay in the Roman town of Evora. It’s a cold damp morning, slightly chilly.

We set off and thread our way through the complicated and bumpy road network of Lisbon and get onto the motorway.

The rain is off and on all morning. The countryside does look rather good but would be better in the sunshine, which we have not seen for a while now. Oh, and it’s windy too. The clue to the weather is that the fields are a vibrant green.

We have acquired a fault and found that the left turn rear indicator at the back is not working. So when we get to the next campsite we will need to have a look a that.

We arrive at the campsite just outside of Evora. The plan is to get parked up and take a bus into town but discover that the bus doesn’t run on a Sunday, so we will use Uber for 4 euros each way later. It’s still raining, so Del checks out the indicator problem, and Hayley gets some laundry on. We have a damp towel situation brewing.

Fortunately, the indicator fault is not serious A dry or dodgy connection on the lamp bulkhead. For now, it’s working, but we’ll keep an eye on it over the next few days.

It’s a miserable day so we decide to stay on Jess and will stop in Evora on the way out tomorrow. So tonight we have an excellent dinner in with some good music to chill out to. A bit of a washout today, but we are lucky to be doing what we are doing.

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Monday 27th of January 2025 (Evora to Caceres, Spain – 117 miles – Portugal to Spain)

We have finally seen the window of good weather close. Last night we had heavy rain and wind again. We had very little sleep, so we’re sluggish this morning. As we look out the window this morning, the campsite is a mud bath, and it’s still raining. The Spanish, for the first time, have named a storm, and it is the one that today is in the UK, storm Herminia. It is racing through the Iberian Peninsula and causing havoc.

Today we are moving to Caceres, a city in the province of Extremadura which is in the west of Spain, 100km or so from the Portuguese border. The city has an old part, but really old, we are looking forward to seeing it.

First, we think we might try and have a look at the town where we are staying, Evora. It’s supposed to be a very nice town and well worth a look. We pack up and do a full van service. Del manages to leave behind a small rubber mat that we use outside the van to stop trailing dirt into the van. We bought it on our first trip to Spain 6 years ago. Odd how you get attached to some things. We feel sad and miss it! We give up on looking at Evora, the roads are just dreadful, the signage leads us all over the place: dead-end here, no right turn there, it’s raining, and we just get fed up and give up.

The drive to Caseres is long and tiring, we don’t notice crossing the border into Spain. We have rain and wind all the way, and the roads are twisty in some parts. It’s a bit of a slog, but the scenery is nice, even in the rain. Lately, we have been looking at places and saying, “…it would look nice in the sun…” Oh well. We know where we would rather be…

Two hours later, we arrive at Camping Caseres. For 21 euros, we get a pitch but with a small twist. Each pitch has its own ‘outhouse‘ that has a shower, toilet and washbasin. Different.

We get settled in and set off to catch the bus to the town. A short walk to the bus stop and we are on a bus that only costs 1 euro 10 cents. The driver doesn’t mess about. He drives the bus like he’s in an F1 race, making Del giggle, we are positive that on some of the roundabouts we are on two wheels!

The city of Caceres is lovely, even though we get caught out in a massive fall of rain.

We have come during the afternoon lunch break, so everything is closed, too late for lunch and too early for dinner. No matter, we have a good look around and make our way to the old town, which is just fantastic. The old town was used as a location for Game of Thrones.

Being a damp, cold Monday afternoon, we seem to be the only ones wandering around this once fortified town, wandering around the old stone buildings and narrow streets. Wonderful.

The sun has come out for a while as we decide that we have had enough and go in search of something to eat. It’s still too late and too early so we cut our losses and head for the bus stop and back to camp. We came to see what we wanted and after 3 and a bit miles of walking, we decided that we had had enough.

Back on the F1 bus to camp, and by coincidence, it was the same bus driver, Max Verstappen, to drive us back (he gets about). He even recognises Del. In lightning speed, we arrive back where we started a few hours ago. It’s getting cold, so we decide to have dinner at the campsite restaurant. It’s nothing special or fancy but we really enjoy our simple Spanish dinner. Time to try out our ‘outhouse‘ shower.

It’s quite a novelty to have a shower and toilet room on your pitch. It’s excellent. A nice hot shower. Del prepares the room, clears the way and showers first.

Hayley next while Del gets a hot tea on and we settle in for the night.

Despite the weather, we have had a good day. Tomorrow, we are heading for a two night stay in Salamanca. The forecast has a maximum temp of 5 degrees, 1 degree overnight, can’t wait…!

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Tuesday 28th of January 2025 (Caceres to Salamanca – 125 miles)

We have woken up this morning to… surprise, surprise… sunshine…!!! and no wind… It won’t last though, the forecast for Salamanca is for rain and wind. We shall see. It’s also very cold there, -2 last night, and 6 during the day.

A light breakfast, and we are off. It’s a good two-hour drive today and a bit of a climb to over 1000m, with snow on the mountains around us. It’s a fabulous drive though. The scenery is fantastic.

When we get glimpses of the sun the countryside is beautiful, green and lush. A very nice drive. We stop at a restaurant just off the motorway and have a three-course lunch, a menu of the day, for 14 euros, three courses, bread, a drink and a coffee. Great.

Full of food we set of for the last 45 minute push to the campsite which is south east of the city of Salamanca. The weather is changing all the time, sunny then rain, can’t make its mind up. We arrive at Camping Regio.

It’s a little bit scruffy and the ground is chewed up in most parts, but we get a warm helpful welcome and told to pitch up wherever we like. We are not here for the campsite, we are here to see the city of Salamanca.

The bus is easy from here, 20 minutes or so to the centre. We have a cup and tea and set off just before 5. It’s feels freezing, 5 degrees… A 20 minute bus ride later and we are in the centre of Salamanca. The city is just beautiful, one of the best we have seen yet. Salamanca is a university city and world famous. We arrive first at the Plaza Mayor. Wow!

We thought Seville was impressive, but this is something else. It is so beautiful. Our walk takes us next to the cathedral which is actually two together, one built in the 12th/13th century and the other in the 16th.

Sadly we are a bit late and the cathedral is closed to the public, so we will have to come back tomorrow.

We have a good long walk outside the cathedrals and return to the old town and the main university. What strikes us most is that it’s so clean and tidy, with no litter, fag ends or squashed chewing gum. Why can’t everywhere be like this? It’s just perfect.

We pop into a bar for a vermouth and wait for it to get dark so that we can see the old town lit up. It’s just as impressive at night as it is during the day. We nip back through the Plaza Mayor which again is just breathtaking.

We have an hour beofre our bus back so we go into a bar and try two local tapas and a drink before making the 8:30 bus back to camp. It’s cold.

We plan to come back tomorrow to look in the cathedral. The weather is forecasted to be a bit mucky tomorrow. Rain and wind.

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Wednesday 29th of January 2025 (Salamanca – Day 2)

It’s always about the weather… This morning we have rain and strong winds which are predicted to get even stronger, so we sit it out in the van. Hayley does some research for the last few days of our trip while Del does some homework.

After gusts of 60mph winds, we finally get a break in the weather and catch the bus from the campsite. Today we are going to the cathedral as we missed it yesterday, it closes at 4 pm. The main road where the bus stops is closed due to a strike by taxi drivers. They are on strike because of the high cost of insurance and repairs. Er… don’t we all suffer from that? The bus stops some way away from the normal place, the rain has started and we get a bit of a soaking on the way to the cathedral.

10 euros later we are inside one of the biggest and most impressive cathedrals we have ever seen. Built in the 16th century the cathedral is just immense. How these things got built back in the day just holds us in awe.

It’s amazing. We have a good look around by following the small arrow which eventually leads us to a door that takes us into the cathedral next door, this one built in the 12th/13th century. Smaller than its next door neighbour but impressive all the same.

Our ticket allows us entrance into a museum that holds walls of religious paintings and ornaments. It’s all rather good but we notice that it’s all about pain and suffering. None of the paintings ever show anyone smiling… It’s all about pain and death, some of the paintings are quite violent showing one guy getting skinned and another painting of a woman being beaten. Not for us.

At the end of the museum you are led into a room that has small swivel cubes that you sit on and on the cube is a pair of VR glasses. Now these are amazing. You are given a 360 fly through both cathedrals. There were lots of ‘ooo’s’ and ‘ahhhs’ from us as we sat there swivelling around on our cubes, heads nodding up and down. What a sight, but it was fantastic. Next, there is a small immersive room with 360 projection onto walls showing an animation of the city of Salamanca being built along with its famous cathedrals.

Next we buy a ticket to climb the steps up to the bell tower of the cathedral. There are stops on the way that allow you to walk outside along some of the cathedral roofs, then back into the cathedral along a small walkway that runs along the inside high up in the ‘new’ cathedral. What a view.

Finally up in the bell tower. We miss the three o’clock chimes but we get the 15 minutes past. Hayley is already a bit nervous at the height we are at, and jumps out of her skin when the bells toll. The views up here are wonderful.

We go back down the precarious spiral staircases and we feel we need a stiff drink and something to eat, so we are on the hunt for a ‘menu of the day’. For 16 euros each we find a place doing a three-course lunch, drinks and coffee. We have the same, a lentil stew followed by a thin frying steak and potatoes with pepper. A fantastic lunch with great service from a typical Spanish waiter. They are just good at it, they make it a career. Quick, efficient, not always over friendly, but you are not there to be mates. We like it…

Back for a walk into the Plaza Mayor. We miss our bus so we go back and have a drink while we kill time for the next one.

Finally, the weather has calmed down. No rain, no wind, clear skies, but it’s quite cold. We finish the planning for the rest of the trip.

Tomorrow we are going to Valladolid, the capital of Spanish tapas. It’s a lovely city, so we are looking forward to visiting again. We have enjoyed our time here in Salamanca. It really is one of Spain’s finest cities and Spain has a lot of them…! We will come back again. Del wants to move here! There is a lot to see and it has a very safe comfortable feeling that is difficult to describe. It just feels “nice” to walk around.

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Thursday 30th of January 2025 (Salamanca to Valladolid – 75 miles)

We have been to Valladolid before, out of curiosity. Everything we picked up in Spain was ‘Made in Valladolid‘, it has a big industrial space, but the centre of the city is fantastic, with it wonderful eateries and the park, so it’s worth another visit.

We set off in sunny but cold weather. It’s a short drive today, an hour and 15 minutes. We stop off for coffee and then it’s non stop to Valladolid. There’s plenty of space for us in the motorhome parking area. For 5 euros you get a spot for 24 hours, no electricity, but you can empty the grey tank and change the toilet. Once we get settled in we set off for a walk in the park.

Hayley has a bag of nuts to feed the tame squirrels that roam the park. It takes a while but we’re able to feed two of them.

The park is lovely, a bit wild for a city park, but it is looked after. The last time we were here it was a lovely warm sunny day. Today it’s much cooler and the trees are bare but it’s still a lovely walk.

Valladolid has won many competitions for its tapas, the small dish that is given with a drink. They used to be given free, the small dish with a small nibble of food would be placed on the top of your drink. Now, it’s a big thing. We have learnt never to go into a bar that calls itself a “Tapas Bar”. Tourist trap, guaranteed. There is no such thing as a tapas bar, just a bar.

We try one that from the outside looks like nothing really, but inside the small bar it’s packed.

We are lucky to get a recently vacated table by the bar. We order three delicious tapas from a very friendly lady called Julia. This place is rated as the best for tapas on Trip Advisor, and because we are in the cooler season, we are the only ‘foreigners‘ in the bar.

Another short walk and we try out a Michelin-rated restaurant that does a small selection of tapas.

Hayley has a small red wine and Del a 0.0 ‘Tostada’, a non-alcoholic beer which is excellent, the best of the non-alcoholic beers Del has tried. It turns out that currently, 16% of the beers served in Spain are non-alcoholic, so they must be good. The Spanish like their beer.

There is a cathedral here, which is a little more ‘modern’ than most we have seen, but nice to walk through, even though half of it is taken over by a paid art exposition.

It’s late in the afternoon, so we slowly head back to Jess via the Plaza Mayor and have chocolate con churros.

We dive into a Jamoneria to buy some Spanish ham and a stick of bread, just in case we get the munchies later on this evening. Back at Jess.

We settle in for the night and tackle one of our escape room games, a new one… We didn’t do well.

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Friday 31st of January 2025 (Valladolid to Cobreces – 153 miles)

It’s a beautiful morning in Valladolid. Clear blue skies, cold but lovely. We have a quick breakfast, get cleaned up, and are off and on our way north towards Santander for our last night in Spain. We are heading towards Cobreces and a small aire there that has everything and is situated in a small town.

The drive today is fantastic. The countryside as we get further north is stunning with green rolling hills and small villages in valleys, the lovely sunny weather is helping of course. In the distance, we can see the Picos de Europa which are covered in snow and from the motorway look amazing.

The Spanish motorways are fabulous, you get the odd bit of rough road, but in general, they are smooth and well maintained with plenty of excellent service stations along the way.

We arrive at Cobreces and get settled into our pitch with a nice view of the town with its two spire church.

It’s still sunny and bright, but it’s warmed up enough for us to go for a walk on a 2km round trip to the beach which is situated in a small bay. We stand and look out to sea. Tomorrow we will be on this sea heading home.

Back at Jess we take advantage of the sun and sit out and have a beer and a chat, it’s the best weather we have had in a while so we soak it up as much as we can. An English van, which is on the same ferry has pulled up next to us with their dog, Hugo. Nice couple, stories are exchanged for a while before we shower have dinner and settle in for the night. It’s cold outside.

We will be up a bit early tomorrow to do a shop and get ourselves ready for the 32 hour crossing back to Portsmouth.

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Saturday 1st of February 2025 (Cobreces to Santander – 25 miles)

Today is our last day in Spain it’s the last day of this trip. The next few days will be spent getting home from Santander to East Cowes on two ferries. The first is the Brittany Ferries from Santander to Portsmouth, the next from Portsmouth to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight.

We are up early this morning. It rained heavily in the night, which surprised us as yesterday was such a lovely day. We need to do a bit of a de-prep of Jess and stop at a supermarket to get a few goodies to take on the ferry with us.

We are in the line for the ferry early, our ship is the ‘Santoña’, which is only 2 years old. We are directed on and into the belly of the boat and parked up, two floors up, and we are in our cabin, which is small but cosy and has everything we need for the 32-hour trip. We have an outside cabin, which is what Hayley wanted and quite right, too.

There has been some really bad weather on the Bay of Biscay recently. We met a couple who said that the waves were anywhere between 8 and 11 meters. Rough. The journey was so rough that passengers were confined to quarters, in other words, ‘stay in your cabin’, and their van got damaged by another sliding and hitting it.

Hayley has emetophobia, a phobia of vomit! (Nice) Many people suffer from it and because of the reports of a possible rough sea (and the prospect of other people getting seasick), she bought a cheap flight from Santander to Stansted for 17 quid…. 17 quid…!!!! It costs 28 to go from Southampton to London on the train… For that price it was worth having it on the back burner in case the weather kicked up again, she could make the decision on the morning of departure.

During the moring Hayley has been watching the weather and decided that it will be ok for her to go on the ferry with a maximum predicted wave height, rounding the corner of France, of 4m.

Once we get settled into our cabin we have a walk through the ship and go out on deck to watch our departure. We have had some heavy rain again this morning and the sky is heavy with more as we depart.

We watch Spain disappear into the distance, make our way back to our cabin, and go to the restaurant for a light lunch. We are both tired this morning as we didn’t get the best night’s sleep.

After lunch, it’s back to the cabin. We try to watch the film Dunkirk but only get 45 minutes in, so we try to sleep, which we both manage for a bit anyway.

After a sunset aperitif, dinner tonight is in a very pleasant restaurant on board. A nice dining room, good service, and very well-presented, the dishes were quite tasty. Helped along with a small glass of red. 

Still tired we go back to the cabin and try and watch some more of Dunkirk,  we didn’t make it to the end.

Time for a shower and bed… We are done!

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Sunday 2nd of February 2025 (Santander to Home, UK – 603 miles)

We were in bed by 9 pm last night. Del had the best sleep he’d had in months, possibly a year! As for Hayley, it was not so good, but she tried. She experienced the turn from the Bay of Biscay into the English Channel at Brest, France. By all accounts, there was quite a long rolling swell as we turned the corner but quite comfortable.

She did get some sleep from about 6 until 9 then we get up and set off for breakfast. It’s a lovely day, blue skies but with a force 5 wind. The crossing is so smooth and gentle. Breakfast done we shower and sit in the public area and try one of our escape room games but halfway through we realise we need internet for the game to work. We give up and decide to try again another day. We get our coats on and go for a bracing walk around the outer decks. It’s breezy but lovely. 

With 8 hours to go, we retire to our room and finally finished the film Dunkirk, followed by an Indiana Jones film.

Three hours remaining and we go for a light dinner. We are to arrive in Portsmouth at 8 pm but we have to wait until 10:30 for our ferry home. It will be midnight before we are home.

32 hours later we are docking at Portmouth, on time at 8 pm. It takes a while to off-load everyone, but we have eough time to do the short drive to the Wightlink Ferry and home.

Just before midnight we are home. Jess is parked up overnight outside the flat with Del staying on board as we can’t get access to the van storage until the morning, but we are finally home. Safe.

We have enjoyed this trip very much. We have visited some places from previous trips that we enjoyed, but we have also visited some new and interesting places this time around. Del managed to squeeze some work in to keep the van tokens coming in. A fabulous 7 weeks out in Europe.

Here are a few stats from the trip:

Miles driven – 2974

Sailing miles – 723

Tolls – 214 euros (mainly in France)

Diesel – 533 euros (£444)

Every 6 and three-quarter miles cost us £1.00 (approx.)

We are already looking forward to our next trip in the spring/summer. It will be another long trip where we hope to do some of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. We have looked at a map and the time we have available and planning has already started,

Again we thank all of you who have been following our journey and reading our daily ramblings. We are not doing anything special here, this is just our travel diary that we are sharing with friends and family. We enjoy reading past trips and reading your comments, we love hearing from you.

We would like to wish you all good health and safe travels wherever you go. To travel is to live and we are trying to do as much as we can while we can.

Best wishes and lots of love.

Del, H and Jess…

Week 6. 18th – 24th of January 2025. Seville to Lisbon 359 miles

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Saturday 18th of January 2025 (Seville, Spain to Altura, Portugal – 94 miles )

Today, we are leaving Spain, we’ve spent 32 days there so far. There are two weeks left so the plan is to go into Portugal for a few days, then back into Spain for the last few days. Today we are setting off to a small campsite in the countryside, in a town called Altura. The drive is about an hour and a half and is very pleasant. Del is at the wheel today having not driven Jess for a week. It’s a lovely day, it’s a bit of an obstacle course trying to get out of Seville, but we make it and we are soon on our way.

Soon, we are crossing the border into Portugal, having passed the usual blue square with the gold stars. The roads have a noticeable change, a bit bumpier, let’s say.

The campsite is just outside the town of Altura and is set on a hill so the pitches are all “terraced” style. It looks very nice. We are greeted by a very friendly lady who offers us a pitch without electricity, which is fine, there’s plenty of sunshine so the solar panels on the roof of Jess will keep the batteries charged.

We have a very pleasant pitch. It’s bright and sunny and we have a view of the Atlantic Ocean off in the distance through a valley. We need to do some laundry. We give the bag of goodies to the lady who welcomed us, she disappears and comes back later all done! All we have to do is stick it out to dry. We have the usual plastic line from one of Jess’s ears (a wing mirror) to a fence post. While the clothes are drying we have a nice cold beer in the sun.

Dinner on board tonight is a salad served with salmon and broccoli, fabulous.

It’s very quiet and peaceful here once the sun sets. You can hear a pin drop. The skies are bright and clear and the stars are so clear. A very chilly but lovely night.

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Sunday 19th of January 2025 (Altura to Faro – 34 miles )

Del knocks up a nice omelette with some chopped green peppers and onions. Fantastic with fresh coffee…

We say goodbye to our host and set off for Praia de Faro, the southernmost part of Portugal. The weather has changed a little bit, some clouds are coming in and we are threatened with rain later.

It’s a short drive today to Faro to the Municipal Campsite there, where we get another warm friendly welcome. The site is located right next to the beach on one side and Faro Airport on the other. It sounds odd but the airport is far enough away to see it but not really hear it.

We get settled in and set off for a walk on the beach. It’s fantastic, it stretches for miles, just clean sand for as far as the eye can see. It might be cloudy but it’s still quite warm. There’s enough wave height to attract some surfers.

We walk along the front of where we are staying, popping into a bar with a rooftop terrace where we have a small cold beer and enjoy the view.

A late lunch/early dinner today at a restaurant called Elementos. We have a very nice meal there, it’s a bit of a noisy, busy place but good all the same.

Back at Jess for early showers and a cup of tea, while we listen to some Sarah Millican. Very funny…

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Monday 20th of January 2025 (Faro – Day 2 )

The rain and wind overnight has been horrendous… Heavy rain and strong winds, so much that we get buffeted about a bit. Looking at the forecast ahead, it’s going to be like this now for the next few days. We had big plans for Portugal. Today we were hoping to take the small ferry that goes from where we are to Faro itself. That’s now off…! The original plan was to go to Albufeira for 5 days but on that campsite there are grass pitches and dirt roads, which will make it a mud bath which is not great, so we have binned off Albufeira for this trip, which is a shame. Looks like we will have to make it up as we go along, which is fine, as long as we are in Santander on the 1st of February…

We are stuck on the van today, Hayley catches up on some admin, Del does a bit of homework and in between the rainstorms we go to the beach for a walk and some fresh air. We can’t stay out for long as the rain is soon back with us.

There is a nice little restaurant here at the front of the site called Bel’mare, it’s very quiet so we have no problem getting a seat. We have a full view of the tempestuous sea and angry sky. It’s rough, very rough and the sky is heavy with more rain.

Lunch was delicious and good value. Back at Jess, we settle in to play one of our many escape room games, this time with no clues! Yeah right! Hayley helps the afternoon along with some more guitar playing. She’s not bad at it really.

She has brought along with her a Yamaha “Guitarlele” (restrung for normal guitar tuning). Del loves listening and watching. Well up to a point anyway!

A night in. We did two games and yes we needed clues… We cheered our defeat up with a massive salad and some prawns. It was all very nice.

Tomorrow we shall see how the weather is and decide what to do, but we have a feeling that we might be here for another night. We are hoping for a break in the weather to get over to Faro on the ferry for the day. We shall see.

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Tuesday 21st of January 2025 (Faro – Day 3)

We were shocked by a storm last night and into this morning. Heavy rain and the strongest winds we have experienced in Jess, in fact, Hayley had a government emergency weather text about the conditions. It was made worse because the back of the van, which is a 3m square block takes the wind at full force, so it feels like we are trundling down a Belgian road! Constantly buffeted and shaken by the fierce wind.

We have decided to stay another night as we feel that it’s so fierce out there that it could be dangerous, besides we would only be moving to another campsite with the same problem. What we will do though is spin Jess around the other way so that we are facing into the wind.

First, we secure everything inside and drive to the freshwater fill-up and grey water emptying. The rain has stopped but the wind is so strong. We get all the jobs done and get back to our pitch with the front-facing into the wind. It certainly makes a difference, it’s still windy of course but it’s a bit more comfortable and quiet.

We are both tired and a bit weary from the lack of sleep, so Del does a massive hearty breakfast which goes down well. As we are finishing breakfast we see some blue skies appearing, there is a break in the storm, we still have the wind, but the rain has gone. We are still surrounded by angry skies, and we are told that the storm is still with us, but as there is a break we decide to take a chance and get the small ferry to Faro town.

The boat is waiting at the dock and we are the last to get on, arriving just in the nick of time. It is certainly a windy crossing and it takes the captain of the ferry 6 or 7 attempts to get docked in Faro.

Once safely docked we make our way into Faro.

Faro. Hmmm… Was it worth it?

We are scheduled to be here for about two and a half hours. We set off through the old town where we just meander around the streets. No disrespect to the people of Faro, but we find it all a bit disappointing, but to be fair we are not sure what we were expecting. There are many unoccupied buildings in disrepair, just generally unkempt. There is a lot of graffiti everywhere. Yes of course you can’t really go anywhere now without some graffiti, but this is just everywhere!

We try to get into the only real attraction here, the Cathedral of Bones which is closed so we find a small friendly coffee shop and have coffee and a Pastel de Nata served by a very friendly lady.

What we have noticed is that the Portuguese do like cash. Most places here so far just take cash!

Disappointed in Faro (sorry), we get the early ferry back.

It’s sunny with broken clouds, so we make for a beach bar with a view of the rowdy sea before heading back to Jess where Hayley studies maps for the rest of our trip and Del cracks on with a bit of homework.

It’s still sunny but still windy.

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Wednesday 22nd of January 2025 (Faro Porto Covo – 113 miles )

We have finally had enough of Faro… It hasn’t stopped raining and the wind is driving us mad… Once again we were battered by heavy rain and strong winds last night, and the cherry on top was the addition of thunder and lightning! We thought that we had seen the last of the bad weather yesterday, but overnight the storm returned with a vengeance.

We get packed up, do a full service and set off.

Hayley finds us a campsite, Parque de Campismo Costa Do Vizir (a bit of a mouthful!) in Porto Covo which is on the west coast of Portugal, going north. It’s a 1 hour 40 minute drive through more heavy rain and even more terrible roads.

We thought Belgian roads were bad, but some of these Portuguese roads win hands down. In the UK we complain about bad roads. Go to Belgium or Portugal and you will find that UK roads are like driving on silk!!!!

The weather, thankfully, is easing. We find the campsite which is an oasis. It’s a lovely place with a good clean pitch. We get in and Del cleans the van inside of all the grit from Faro and we are soon settled in… Bliss. We are both exhausted after three nights of little or no sleep.

We are visited by a cat on this pitch. A cute little thing who, after a bit of caution, is soon inside our van exploring before settling down in the passenger seat for a wash and a nap… Nice. While clearing up we are visited by a second cat, who just like the first, soon makes himself at home in our van by joining the other while they take turns washing each other and settling down for a nap, and generally looking cute.

We leave the two cats alone. They are in good condition and clearly they make a habit of visiting vans and pleading poverty, so we give them some cat treats each and leave them alone to rest… Cheeky.

Tonight we are going to an Indian restaurant that is very popular here in the town of Porto Covo, It’s a ten minute walk and soon we are settled in and looked after by a very smiley Indian chap.

The food is excellent and the service is very pleasant. His sister lives in Birmingham.

Back at Jess, we settle in with a nice glass (or two) of port. It’s quiet and peaceful. At last. There is the slightest hint of a breeze with the odd gentle shower every now and then which we don’t mind.

We are deadbeat. Time for bed…

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Thursday 23rd of January 2025 (Porto Covo Day 2)

We have woken up to grey skies again this morning, but we don’t have the howling wind, sea and constant rain on the roof. It makes a pleasant change that’s for sure. The weather forecast has also changed, it looks like we are going to have a grey day all day today. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that the rest of the trip now will be like this, it is mid-winter after all. Today we read that Ireland and the UK are about to get battered by another potentially terrible storm, Storm Eowyn, so we are lucky really to be where we are, and we hope that everyone will be ok back home.

These storms, throughout Europe, are getting more frequent and ever more ferocious and dangerous. A terrible sign of the times, one that we feel there is no going back on, these storms are just going to get more regular and more dangerous.

We are up and about, the laundry is on and Del has done another fabulous breakfast. We are visited by our two cat friends, one of which makes herself well at home far too quickly.

It’s a cloudy but peaceful day, with no wind and about 16 degrees. Nice. We set off for a walk to see what’s in Porto Novo. As we leave the camp there’s a lot of new building going on in the area. Saying that, there are also quite a few abandoned building sites, where apartments have been started, and for whatever reason, probably Covid, the site has been abandoned which is a bit of a scar on the town.

It already has lots of apartments and the excellent campsite we are staying at. The town punts itself as a holiday destination. There is also a rather flashy-looking Spa hotel on the seafront, which is where we are going to have a walk today. Although the weather has calmed down, the sea is still quite high and rough with 4m waves.

The small town is quaint with a few shops all of which are taken care of and looking smart, even on a grey day. We are heading for the seafront.

The coastline here is fantastic and stretches for miles. There are lots of alcoves and caves with unreachable beaches.

There are plenty of beaches that you can go to that require you to take a steep staircase to get to, but when you get down to them the beaches are excellent. We have a good walk and get as close to the sea as we safely can. We love it, such a great coastline.

Making our way back to Jess we stop at a small coffee shop in the town and have a very tasty cup of coffee, Del has two, with a pastel de nata and a nutty chocolate brownie. Very tasty.

Back at Jess, we do some more laundry. We are on our last 10 days.

There are some barbecue stations here where you can bring your own coals and food. They also provide tables with a brolly roof with a light inside, all very smart. Hayley has a brainwave that we should have a barbecue for dinner. Del is not so keen and is being a bit miserable on the whole idea, but Hayley insists and prepares all the stuff needed and dispatches Del back into town for some more bits to complete the dinner.

What a fantastic dinner we had! Barbecue chicken, burgers and baked potatoes with a huge salad. We had our candles, and some music with beer and wine. It was absolutely brilliant. We were joined by our cat friends, of course.

One we have called Alex on account that one of her eyes has what looks like black eyeliner that gave here the look of Alex from the film A Clockwork Orange! They are well behaved as we give them the odd bit of chicken. The cats here are spoilt by all the visitors but like to play the “we never get fed” card.

A lovely day and evening. We have enjoyed our stay in Porto Covo. Tomorrow we are heading north to Lisbon.

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Friday 24th of January 2025 (Porto Covo to Lisbon – 107 miles )

We have a two hour drive today which will take us to a campsite near the centre of Lisbon. Del worked there only last week but didn’t see much of the city. It’ll be good to explore it together. The plan is to do a two-night stay.

This morning, we wake up to the cat posse waiting outside. After a short breakfast, we spend a little time with them before departing for a full van service and then to do battle on the Portuguese roads! Until we get to the motorway, we have to dodge and weave around the deep potholes on the local roads, but once we are on the motorway, it’s pretty much smooth going until we get to the city of Lisbon.

The traffic into Lisbon is heavy, but we safely arrive and get checked in.

It’s rather rustic. It’s a municipal campsite in a city so it’s a bit scruffy in parts but we get a concrete pitch, so no more gravel or mud for a change. Once we are in and settled, we do a little research to see what’s what in Lisbon. We find that it’s quicker and easier to catch an Uber into the city, which is 8km away, rather than 40 minutes on the bus.

Lisbon is a beautiful city, however, it’s so big and so spread out. It’s also quite hilly in parts, with lots of steps, lifts, and funiculars.

We are not entirely sure where we are going or what we are doing. We are more interested in mixing and seeing what the locals do, we are not so mad on museums and castles unless, of course, they are a must do, which not all of them are (we saw a sign for a flour museum yesterday). We get an Uber to drop us in Praca do Comercio. Wow! The square here is just amazing. We start to just walk and walk and walk, through back streets, and main roads.

There are a lot of things to try out one is a salted cod croquette, this one is a little different, it has cheese in the middle. Not bad, a bit salty but ok.

We probably need to try another. Which we will. Ginjinha is the local typical drink in Lisbon. It’s made from local cherries and there are dozens of hole-in-the-wall bars serving it in shot glasses, we find it’s very tasty. On we go. There are so many shops and restaurants and the place is just alive, busy and full of life. It’s quite a place.

We are having an early dinner tonight at a restaurant called Bomjardim where we will have some Piri Piri chicken, again a popular Portuguese dish. This is not your Nandos nonsense, this is the real thing. It’s fabulous tasty chicken cooked on the spit served with a fiery chilli oil and cheap. We also have a starter of the salted cod fishcakes, these are much better.

Time is marching on and we have done 4 miles of walking already just around a small part of this enormous spread-out city.

Before catching another Uber back to camp we have a Pastel de Nata but this time with a glass of port, which is really what you are supposed to have. Port or the cherry liqueur we had earlier, Ginjinha. There are many shops that specialise in Pastel de Nata, this one, Castro, is one of them serving them along with the liquors.

Well, this is something else. These little cakes are good with coffee, but with a Tawny Port, they are something else. Who came up with that idea?

We are worn out now and just want to get back to Jess. We have another full day tomorrow, but we would probably do a little more research before we set off. What we have seen so far is wonderful, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. We only have tomorrow left so we need to make the most of it knowing that we will not be able to fit everything in.

We have another cat friend here in Lisbon, a rather plump one who is trying to tell us that he’s hungry and destitute, “feed me please” look about him. They’re scammers, the cats here.

We can’t help ourselves though and give him some cat treats that we just happen to have on board.

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_{We recognise the copyright holders of the picture used of Alex from A Clockwork Orange as Polaris Productions / Hawk Films, distributed by Warner Bros (US), and Columbia Warner (UK). We don’t know much about Alex the cat.}

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Week 5. 11th – 17th of January 2025. Nerja – Seville 248 miles

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Saturday 11th of January 2025 (Nerja to Manilva – 99 miles, Del goes to Lisbon)

Today, we are going our separate ways! We’ve had enough!!!

Del is off to Lisbon, Portugal to do a week of work, while Hayley is driving off to a campsite west of Marbella. Before that, there are a few things that need to be done. Jess needs a wash, a top-up of LPG for the cooking and the heating, and a full service, and a shop. The plan is to do all of that before dropping Del off at Malaga airport, so a busy morning.

We are up early to pack up Jess, we say goodbye to our parrot friend at the campsite here in Nerja. We have had a nice stay here and we are sure that we will be back again.

The first stop is a shop, which is not for very much, but enough for Hayley as she will be in one place for a few days. Next, we find a van wash and LPG. Hayley has found a fantastic place that does everything. It’s very spacious and has ladders on castors so you can even wash the roof of your van! An excellent place for vans and caravans.

Next stop is the airport. We are not sure where we can drop Del off as there are reports of height restrictions and drop-off fees, we have read everything that appears to make everything as inconvenient as possible! In the end, we research a small BP garage which is right in the airport, so we head for there, fill up with 10 euros of diesel and buy a coffee. Google Maps in satellite mode is a godsend!

Del grabs his bag and is off, crossing the main road between the airport and the garage, within 10 minutes he is in the airport, meanwhile, Hayley has set off, passing Del as he jumps over the central reservations barrier and is on her way to Manilva.

Hayley:

The drive to the campsite becomes very windy and it’s a bit scary as Jess is being strongly buffeted by the wind. A larger van in front is being blown across the motorway lanes, and Jess feels like she is on 2 wheels sometimes. After what feels like a long time, H arrives at the campsite in Manilva. The Bella Vista. She has been here before with Del and it’s very comfortable, right on the beach, with all the facilities that you need and close to an excellent Indian restaurant.

She checks in and gets her spot and after some faffing for a bit, getting onto ramps to get level, she sets up camp and gets comfy.

After a walk around the local area, she has a simple dinner, clearing out some old stock from the fridge. Stuff does build up in there after a while.

Del:

A very comfortable flight from Malaga Airport, which is huge!! It’s all too easy this trip as the taxi from the airport to the hotel is only 15 minutes away and 8 euros! He’s in a comfortable hotel which is only a 10-minute walk to the venue.

The rig build progress there is going very well. He is here now until Friday 17th January. A full week!

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Sunday 12th of January 2025 (Manilva Day 2)

It’s a beautiful warm day today in Manilva. H didn’t need any heating in the van last night either. After a morning of sunbathing and getting some laundry done, she trots off to what we regard as the ‘best Indian restaurant in Spain’

The setting isn’t great sadly, it’s next to the main road and is accessed by a long trek down the noisy road to a very unattractive bridge and then back up the other side, but the food is great and well worth the walk.

Afterwards, she has a perusal of the Chinese (junk) shop next door, she has acquired some pegs, more Tupperware (sorry Del) and a sewing kit for Jess. All in all not a bad day out for a Sunday in January.

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Monday 13th of January 2025 (Manilva Day 3)

Hayley:

The weather is a bit cooler today with a bit of a breeze, it’s a time to get some chores done, change and launder the bed, clean the van and sort some of the cupboards out.

A quiet day in all, with just a walk to the marina nearby. Got to keep up with some kind of exercise.

Del:

All in and working. Rehearsals start tomorrow…

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Tuesday 14th of January 2025 (Manilva Day 4)

It rained in the night last night and the wind has built up to a fierce force 6. After a long walk, H goes to the local Indian, again, for their menu of the day. A staggering €12.90 for 3 courses. It’s delicious, Del will be sorry he’s missed this.

Back at the van, H contemplates packing the outside stuff up early for tomorrow’s departure just as a huge rainstorm comes and soaks everything. Oh dear.

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Wednesday 15th of January 2025 (Manilva to Gibraltar – 25 miles)

H is moving off today. It seems to take ages with all the jobs to do like toilet emptying and van servicing, it’s a lot easier with 2 people that’s for sure. She sets off for Gibraltar which is only a 50 minutes drive away.

There are some spectacular views on the motorway of the huge rock of Gibraltar and Africa. She is staying on a large aire tonight in the marina just by the border on the Spanish side. We have been there before, it’s spacious and well appointed with services. It’s a 10-minute walk to the border and into Gibraltar.

It seems a bit strange walking down the high street with familiar British shops having just been in Spain just a few minutes ago.

She wanders around having lunch at the marina and going in M & S. ‘Why?’ says Del, ‘novelty value’ says H. After 6 miles of walking she heads back to Jess where she has a view of the rock out of the windscreen.

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Thursday 16th of January 2025

It was a quiet night last night apart from some fireworks just before midnight. H managed to pop her head through the roof hatch to catch a glimpse of the fireworks.

It’s a longer drive today and the last one on her own. It’s about a 2.5-hour drive to a small basic campsite just a couple of miles from Seville airport, where Del will be flying into tomorrow.

A quick stop halfway for a coffee and a diesel top up, this includes taking a wrong turn and ending up in a very cramped and pokey car park. This is always tricky on your own with no one to get out and help with backing up. The reversing camera mostly shows a view of the bikes on the back, so isn’t of great use. After some careful manoeuvring, she finally gets herself out and back on the road again.

The aire is interesting. The parking area is accessed by driving through a huge warehouse space full of stored motor homes. It’s right next to a busy road and a train line but handy for the airport and a bus line into the centre of Seville.

Once Jess is set up, H jumps on the number 28 bus into town.

The city is even prettier than she remembers it from the last visit 20 years ago. Hopefully, Del will be in a fit state to spend a few hours there tomorrow. His flight leaves at 7ish so he will be up very early. 4:30 am!

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Friday 17th of January 2025

Del:

Del is flying back today to Seville. The week has gone very well. Happy customers!

He’s up at 4:30am, showered packed and in an Uber by 5:15 to get to the airport for a 7:15 departure. Again a short cheap drive. We leave on time and are expected into Seville at just gone 9am.

The flight is spectacular as we do a tight turn above Lisbon in the sunrise.

Hayley:

H watches as Del flies over the van at 9:15 am, not long after he is back in the van. It’s great to have him back. He’s tired but wants to see Seville so we jump on the bus.

We are on the number 28 bus making our way into Seville. We were here 20 years ago so we are looking forward to seeing it again together. Hayley did a good couple of hours ago yesterday so is ready to share what she knows.

The city is beautiful, absolutely stunning. We make for the famous Plaza de Espana and arrive just as there is a horse procession. There is some religious festival going on and the police have given speeches and some horses have been ridden… It all looks fantastic against the blue sky and warm sunshine.

We have a good walk around the plaza, checking off all the Spanish towns and cities as we walk around. Each town has a bench and all are decorated in splendid Andalusian tiles. It’s all rather good.

We have a walk to look at the cathedral and the Giralda tower, this cathedral (a former Mosque) is the largest in the world and also the resting place of Christopher Coumbus. After we settle into a back street restaurant for a typical Andalucian stew and a salad.

After lunch we just walk around this lovely city, Hayley buys some shoes! The streets are vibrant and colourful with hundreds of bars, restaurants and shops. It’s all very clean and tidy and a joy to walk around.

It’s almost 5 pm, we set off at 12 midday so we are starting to feel a bit weary, so it’s back in the bus and back to Jess via a supermarket which we drag ourselves around somewhat unenthusiastically… We have walked 7.5 miles today, but it was all worth it.

We have had a full week apart. Del went off for a week to earn some pennies while Hayley drove and took care of Jess from Malaga to Seville. It all worked out rather well. Hayley found and booked the flights as well as the campsites that are close to airports. She did a great job.

We are back together now and setting off for Portugal next. We have two weeks left of this trip so we are expecting the weather to get cooler especially as we will be well in the north of Spain for the final week heading north to the ferry in Santander.

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Week 4. 4th – 10th of January 2025. Cabo de Gata to Nerja – 116 miles

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Saturday 4th of January 2025 (Cabo de Gata day 3)

It’s still the Christmas season here in Spain. Yes, it’s not over yet. We have had Christmas, and New Year, this week it’s King’s Day which is on the 6th of January. This is the day when the three kings turn up if you believe in that kind of thing. (Thought it was the 25th?)

It’s our last day today here at the Cabo. We like it here, it’s very peaceful and quiet. There is not a great deal to do here, you can walk and bike ride, but that’s about it. There isn’t much to see as the campsite is set in a national park which is very flat and arid. It’s not stopped this place from being a very popular campsite with many Europeans and we are sure that we will come again in the future.

A bit cool this morning, so it’s breakfast inside. The weather does improve though and we have a lovely sunny wind-free afternoon outside reading and just taking it easy. A very nice day.

Dinner is at the campsite restaurant, a very simple dinner… Pizza!!

Back at the van, we watch the last episode of Squid Game 2, we think it’s not as good as the first series… Very slow, and very laboured.

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Sunday 5th of January 2025 (Cabo de Gata to Adra – 54 miles.)

The drives for the next week or so are quite short. We leave the Cabo de Gata campsite having spent a very nice few days there. Today we are going to a campsite that is buried deep amongst the plastic-covered greenhouses that cover most of Almeria. Called Camping Las Vegas, it’s supposed to be a very popular campsite, but unusual for its setting and location. We are staying two nights, tonight and tomorrow, King’s Day or Epiphany.

But first a breakfast of tortilla and Hayley’s tomato bread. According to Del, this is the best van breakfast he has ever had! A warm chunk of potato and onion tortilla. Hayley’s tomato mix; a traditional Spanish dish of grated tomatoes mixed with olive oil and salt and warm toast.

Put a generous dollop of the tomato mix on your toast, leave it to soak through a bit and eat with some tortilla and fresh coffee… Whoo… heeee!!! The best…

It’s just over a 1-hour drive during which we will stop at an Aldi and do a small shop. The drive is thankfully uneventful but the scenery is changing to a plastic city.

We find the campsite after driving through the greenhouses on not very well-kept roads, and are greeted by a lovely Spanish lady who just tells us to park wherever we like and make ourselves comfortable, pay when we leave. She even gives us a one-day out-of-date stick of bread… It’s the thought that counts.

We get settled in and yes it is very charming, like a little oasis, we can see the attraction.

There are plenty of campers here and we can imagine that in the height of summer, it will be packed.

We sit outside in the afternoon sun with a tea and some King’s Day cake, a roscon.

It’s a short walk to the beach which is mainly gravel and rock.

It’s a cool day today with a slight wind, but very nice all the same.

Better than the snow that is, according to the news, that’s bringing armageddon to the UK.

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Monday 6th of January 2025 (Happy King’s Day!) (Camping Las Vegas day 2)

We had some very heavy rain last night from about 3 am until daybreak. It’s very noisy on the roof of the van in rainstorms.

We are up late today, the latest ever… We have a good, hearty breakfast while we are waiting for the weather to clear, which is expected later this afternoon. We stay in the van and read, Del gets on with some homework. It is very grey outside. We celebrate King’s Day with a tea and the remainder of the roscon from yesterday.

Inside the cake is a figure, of course, you are supposed to collect all three kings. We have two. Clearly, we have not eaten enough cake!

By 2 pm the clouds have gone and we get our bikes off the back of Jess and set off. It’s warm enough but the wind is building as we cycle through a lot of localised flooding. Our bike ride is nothing spectacular as the campsite is set among the largest collection of greenhouses in Europe, but we are glad for the exercise and the fresh air all the same.

We don’t go very far, but we have been out for over an hour and done a good few miles. Once back at Jess, despite the strong wind, the sun is out and it’s nice outside so we take advantage of it and sit and have a beer until the wind gets too much.

We pack away and cover the bikes ready for leaving tomorrow, and take a quick walk to the beach to see how rough the sea is. Compared to yesterday it’s rough!

Dinner is on board tonight after which we tackle one of our escape room games.

Tomorrow we are moving on to Nerja which is about an hour’s drive. Nice and easy.

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Tuesday 7th of January 2025 (Adra to Nerja – 64 miles)

Today we are halfway through our trip. So far we have come through France, trundled down the east coast of Spain, around the corner and headed west along the south coast. The remainder of the trip is not set in stone, but the plan is to carry on along the south coast of Spain up into Portugal, head north then pop back into Spain heading for Salamanca and Valladollid before running north to Santander for the ferry back to Portsmouth on the 1st of February.

We have had a good trip so far. The weather hasn’t been exactly stable, but it’s been pleasant and we have enjoyed the trip so far.

This morning, we wake up to a beautiful, fresh day, with the bluest of blue skies and sunshine. We are not going far today, 50 to 60 miles to Nerja and a regular campsite that we like. First, we need to do a spot of shopping.

Despite being short, the drive today seems to take ages to get to Nerja. The scenery is fabulous though, very mountainous and surprisingly green, it just feels long. Eventually we arrive to do a shop, fill up with diesel and even give Jess a wash. We are all set for a 4 day stay in Nerja.

The campsite have been expecting us so we are checked in quicky and given pitch. It’s nice here, lots of cacti, exotic flowers and avocado trees. We are parked right under one, tucked in out of the way.

It’s time for Jess’s internal cleaning. We get to work and air the van sweep her out wash her down and freshen everything up. She is now shiny and sparkling inside and out.

If you ever see an old fire engine, ambulance, military truck or just a truck that is being used as a campervan, the odds are that it will be German.

They love it! They buy and convert old utility vehicles into campervans. Some are basic looking and some are very slick and well done. We happen to have an ambulance on the opposite side of us. Brilliant.

We set off for a walk to the beach which is just 10-minutes away. We say ‘hello’ to a friend of ours who has been here for a while, a green parrot who is at the entrance of the site.

She’s very cute and likes a head scratch. It’s a lovely day. The sky has stayed clear, no clouds light wind, perfect. There is a small beach bar/restaurant where we take a table and have a cold glass of cava and some calamares fritos. Very very nice. We just sit and take it all in. A Tuesday afternoon in January.

After the lovely afternoon we walk back, and as usual at this time, late afternoon it starts to cool over so we get back and warm up Jess and have a fab tapas dinner of Spanish Jamon, potato salad, prawns and ali oli… Whew! It was fantastic. After a clean up we get stuck into one of our escape room games. We tried an old game that we did at the start of the trip three weeks ago. We still got a bad score!

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Wednesday 8th of January 2025 (Nerja day 2)

Bit of a grey start today, but still pleasant. Today we are off for a walk along the beach towards the town of Nerja and stopping for lunch at a restaurant called Torrecilla. We have had lunch here before and it has always been very pleasant.

We start with a traditional red vermouth, aubergine rolls and a salad. Hayley goes for the Secreto Iberico and Del a Wagyu burger. All very good and all helped along with a glass of wine each. The view, like the food is tremendous.

Our German ambulance is leaving today…

Thoughts of going for a longer walk are put to one side, so we decide to take a slow walk home as the weather has changed to a cooler, fresher feel. Back at Jess we just take it easy and settle in for the night. Another good day.

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Thursday 9th of January 2025 (Nerja day 3)

It started grey, but it soon clears up to be a lovely warm but breezy day. We had planned to walk today into the town of Nerja, but it’s so nice on the site with the van that we decide to just stay where we are for a couple of hours, sit in the sun, read, and chat.

It’s early afternoon, and we decide that maybe we should go for a walk now, so we get ourselves sorted out and take a long walk into the town.

Nerja is a lovely town, clean and very vibrant. It’s a busy place, very popular with the Britsh. There is a large contingent of them that live here.

On the walk back we stop at our favourite beach side bar/restaurant and have a cocktail in the sun with some patatas brava. The walk back is fabulous, bright and sunny with a very nice breeze.

Dinner tonight is Hayley’s Paella with some Spanish music to add to the ambiance.

A lovely day today. Tomorrow is the last day before Del flies off to Lisbon for a week and Hayley carries on along the coast towards Manilva just past Marbella.

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Friday 10th of January 2025 (Nerja day 4)

Our last day here today. We have liked our stay, we have had some good weather, good food and a little exercise, not as much as we would have liked but what do you do?

We have a relaxed morning outside today. It’s so warm that we manage a light breakfast outside. The rest of the morning, into the early afternoon is just spent reading, Hayley starts to plan our next section of the trip.

At 2pm we set of for a short walk and to find something to eat. We end up at a beach bar restaurant where we have a shared salad and Secreto Iberico. It’s the best day yet, clear blue sky, no wind… Perfect!

Back to Jess, it’s late, we had no idea.

Del packs a few things as he is flying off to Lisbon tomorrow for a week to work while Hayley will set off for Manilva, about an hour from where we are now.

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Week 3. 28th of December 2024 – 3rd of January 2025. Mar Menor to Cabo de Gata – 130 miles.

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Saturday 28th of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 2)

Cloud, cloud, cloud everywhere, with a small rain shower this morning. Our first morning on the Mar Menor where the weather was forecast to be sunny, big sun though, 18 degrees…! What a letdown. No matter we are up and about and we have had what Hayley calls, “…the best breakfast of the trip so far!…“. Del does the breakfast and today it’s just a simple arrangement of the remainder of the fresh eggs from the other day, hash browns and bacon, toast and coffee… We have a small van but Hayley does some great dinners and Del does a good breakfast on board Jess, so we don’t see why things like good eating should change despite the size of the cooking area.

Today we are hoping to get out on our bikes and get some proper exercise. So far this trip has been a bit disappointing, we have done some walking, but that’s just local. We have been concentrating on getting as far south as possible so we have been arriving late and leaving early some days. We are also going out for dinner tonight to an excellent local restaurant called Kinita. It is attached, but independent, from the campsite. It’s highly regarded and we have been before and had a fabulous dinner. We are hoping for their tasting menu tonight.

We finally get the bikes off the back of Jess, two weeks after setting off.

We have a fabulous cycle along the front from the campsite to the town of Los Alcozares. A small, typical Spanish town that has the biggest nativity setup we’ve seen. The Spanish like to put a nativity scene in the town, either in the town square or church or both.

They keep them up until past the 6th of January (King’s Day or Epiphany). This one not only shows the nativity but the whole of Bethlehem and other places. It’s rather good. We cycle around the town some more, visiting a chemist and a hardware shop.

The cycle back is bright and sunny, beautiful. The view of the strip, (la Manga) of the Mar Menor is clear on the other side. We stop and have a coffee and a coke and soak up some of the sunshine.

What a lovely day. We clock up a modest 9 miles. Not much but it’s a start. More tomorrow.

Back at Jess we spend a couple of hours in the sun reading, a marathon read. Del finally finishes a book he’s had going for weeks now. He finishes just as the sun and the day is cooling off, around 5 pm. It’s been a lovely afternoon. We have a hot shower and get ready for dinner.

It’s a cool 3-minute walk from Jess to the restaurant, but inside it’s warm and inviting. We are looked after very well by the staff and we order the tasting menu, 2 snacks, 2 starters, 2 mains and 2 desserts for 50 euros each. Excellent value and excellent food all presented expertly in this lovely restaurant.

After many years of being associated with Spain, Del finally tries a vermouth as an aperitif and is hooked. Vermouth is regarded as a very typical Spanish drink and there are many bars specialising in it. Somehow it has escaped our notice until now.

Two hours later we leave the restaurant absolutely full, but satisfied. It has been our 4th visit there, 5th for Hayley as she came here last year when Del was working in Berlin.

We have been to a lot of eateries in Spain, and Kinita is, at the moment, our favourite.

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Sunday 29th of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 3)

It’s a sunny morning today, albeit a little cool. We manage a very simple, light breakfast outside and plan on doing a long cycle ride today.

As the morning wears on the clouds slowly disappear leaving behind clear blue skies. We don’t waste any time and get ready to go out for the day on the bikes. The plan is to cycle around the Mar Menor as far as we can. The boring bit is cycling around the military airport next door which is not operating today, the campsite is on the opposite side of the runway. It’s all nice and flat so we shouldn’t be moaning really.

It’s a great day for a bike ride. Soon, we arrive at Santiago de la Ribera, where a lot of the urban furniture is a nod to the Spanish Air Force. There is an air training centre here.

All the benches are aircraft wings, with statues of planes, plane parts, and helmets dotted along the bike and pedestrian route. It’s all very nice. We stop at a small cafe and enjoy a coffee and watch the world go by. We have full sunshine. It’s glorious.

Back on the bikes and it’s non-stop to Playas de la Llana which takes us past the salt pits and wading flamingos. Playas de la Llana is a beach with a great view of the Med and we remember passing here a few times on Stargazer our boat.

Indeed once we stopped at the Mar Menor at San Juan de Pinatar to visit Hayley’s Auntie and Uncle who once lived here in a beautiful house. Here are a few snaps from 20 years ago…!!!

The whole area is fabulous. It’s full of life with plenty to see and do. Great for walking, and as we found, cycling.

We stay at the beach for a while, gazing into the horizon and watching boats go back and forth.

It’s a lovely day, but we have to turn back if we want to be back before it gets too cold.

On the way back we can’t help ourselves, we have to stop for a Menu del dia (menu of the day).

For 15 euros we get a three-course lunch with a drink, we sit outside, it’s fantastic. We get back on the bikes and back to Jess. Today we have done an 18-mile cycle, better than yesterday, but we could do better.

We have an evening in tonight, no dinner. We settle in and watch two episodes of Squid Games 2. We were a bit confused for the first half an hour as to what was going on, but a quick google solved that.

It’s a cold night tonight. Nice warm days, but very cold by night!

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Monday 30th of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 4)

The weather has no idea what it’s doing today. We had a splash of rain last night and it’s a bit grey and cloudy first thing, but as the morning moves along it gets brighter. The local Airforce are busy today, planes are zooming about.

We take our chances and set out for a long walk. The weather has brightened up a lot, and it’s a lovely walk. We walk about 11,000 steps, or 4 and a bit miles.

We get back to Jess just in time, and the heavens open up. We get torrential rain, thunder, and lightning. It’s a massive storm. We stay for the rest of the day. Del does some homework for upcoming jobs in the new year, and Hayley reads and pesters Del!

We spend the evening in and have a fantastic dinner of chicken and long green peppers. Ace. We settle down and watch a movie—The Matrix. Del has never seen it, it’s a good film. We start thinking that we would take the red pill, but by the time the film finishes we’d rather have the blue one after all. Ignorance is bliss.

Despite the weather, we have had a good day. We’ve had a good long walk, witnessed a massive storm, had a good dinner and watched a movie. Not bad for a Monday…

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Tuesday 31st of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 5)

The last day of 2024. More rain today, but we will be going out to our favourite restaurant here again, Kinita. We had a fantastic dinner there the other night so we thought we would give them a try for lunch. We spend the morning indoors. Del gets some more homework done.

The rain and the thunder today are massive again and we are lucky to get a small break in the intensity of the rain and make it to the restaurant.

The lunch doesn’t disappoint. It is delicious and truly amazing, and as we are sitting there the rain stops and we got a good view of the bay and across to the strip on the opposite side. The visibility is crystal clear despite the cloud.

We are spending the night on Jess to bring in the New Year, along with all our other campers who will be doing similar. It’s a lovely afternoon back at Jess.

For the evening we have a very light snack of Spanish tapas and a glass of fizz and we settle down to watch some more Squid Game.

Midnight fast approaches and we celebrate the start of 2025 with another glass of fizz and reach out to friends and family to wish them a Happy New Year.

We stick our heads out of the van to see what’s happening at the campsite. There are a few sporadic cheers and giggling. We toast our immediate neighbours (in our best German) and retreat back inside.

It’s been a very good day today. We like it here…

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Wednesday 1st of January 2025 (HAPPY NEW YEAR…!) (Mar Menor to Palomares – 80 miles)

Happy New Year to you all. We hope and wish that you all have a good 2025, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Don’t let them grind you down!

We are up late and take our time packing up after our five-night stay. The outside stuff is all wet and gritty after the huge amounts of rain that we have had here. We have been parked on ramps to level Jess up and when Hayley rolls back off them a torrent of water pours from off the roof and into the open side window, whoops. A hasty mop-up is done before it can get into the battery compartment, then we set off on our way south. It’s a nice day today, with a few clouds, but it’s sunny and warm. The roads are empty, we drive for miles and miles without seeing a car.

We are heading to a free overnight spot, a regular place in the town of Palomares, right on the beach. When we eventually arrive it’s busy. New Year’s Day here is very popular with people from all over Europe, and why not… We slowly drive along the beach and find somewhere, side on to the sea. It’s fantastic. The sun is out and the sea is blue. We get settled in and just sit outside Jess looking at the sea reading our books. A great way to spend the first day of the year. We love it.

By 4 pm the temperature is cooling off a little so we take our chairs in, turn on the hot water and have showers and settle in. The sun is setting and tonight we are having ‘Spanish Night’ on board. We have some Spanish goodies to eat with some music and dancing. Tricky in a 6m van!

Bedtime, as we settle down all we can hear is the sea breaking on the beach, fabulous (oh and Del snoring).

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Thursday 2nd of January 2025 (Palomares to Cabo de Gata – 51 miles)

We have had some good weather so far on the trip, but we have had some unbelievable storms, it seems that the whole of Europe is suffering from terrible weather at this time. Back home in the UK, there have been some strong winds and heavy rain, with snow on the way.

We had a lovely night in Palomares, very, very chilled.

We have a light breakfast and set off. There’s nothing to decamp today as we have been wild camping so it’s just a tidy-up and we are done. We need to do some shopping so we stop at the Consum Supermarket in the town of Palomares. Another of Hayley’s favourite supermarkets. Sad innit?

We are fully loaded and it will be just over an hour to our next stop which is the southeastern tip of Spain, (that’s the bottom right of Spain as it goes around the corner.) We are going to a regular place Camping Cabo de Gata. Which is in Andalucia, considered the poorest region of Spain, it’s very dry and arid but covered in greenhouses made from plastic sheeting. This area provides the bulk of the fruit and veg in Europe.

It’s a beautiful warm day. 18 degrees… The drive is fantastic, the scenery has changed. It’s more mountainous, dry and brown.

Finally, we arrive at Cabo de Gata and we are given a very nice pitch for our 3-night stay. First things first.

We have lunch, a fine salad and some ‘Chiperones’ (baby squid) Fantastic…! It’s time for Jess’s weekly clean and we have a bit of cleaning up to do after the soggy stay at the Mar Menor, so everything is pulled out of the storage locker, known as the garage, and the inside of the van is clean and swept out to within an inch of it’s life!

The rest of the afternoon is spent reading in the waning afternoon sunshine. At around 5 pm the birds, including some green parrots, get quite chatty as they settle into their nests, which are the numerous palm trees around the site.

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Friday 3rd of January 2025 (Cabo de Gata day 2)

A bright sunny morning this morning, with the sun on our pitch. It’s warm enough to have breakfast outside today. Without wasting any time, Del springs into action and prepares a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and fresh coffee. Lovely.

We need to get some laundry done and there is a good facility for doing it. Hayley sets off while Del is sorting out breakfast. After putting our laundry in a queue earlier and then having two German ladies push in at the washing machines Hayley puts her foot down and gets stroppy, our washing is soon loaded in.

The rest of the morning is spent reading and enjoying the warm sunshine while drying our washing on a line between our trees. Very handy. Once the clothes are dried and put away, we get our walking boots on and set off for a good walk towards the beach.

There used to be lakes and a small river that ran through her but it’s all dried up. There is one small lake left where there is some wildlife pecking about; ducks, cormorants and 4 white flamingos.

The wind is building and it’s supposed to be very windy this afternoon. We have a good walk and make our way back to Jess to do some more reading outside which goes well until the clouds come along and take away the sun…

Not to be defeated we just get in Jess close the door and carry on…

French night tonight for dinner. Steak, dauphinoise potatoes and green beans with a splash of red wine.

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