Spain 2013 | Baxterbus Blogs

Monday morning, just arrived at Santander docks and sat on the quay waiting for the ferry – 24 hours of sea ahead, can’t wait, praying for calm seas please.

Slight problem this morning – arrived at ferry terminal to find it gone – literally, where the gate and the quayside were had been demolished. Then followed a frantic tour of the city one way system to try and find a new ferry terminal. After two trips around we found it, got parked up and had a couple of hours around the city. Somewhat of a culture shock after 3 months of villages and sleepy towns to suddenly be in the middle of noise, traffic, bustle and people everywhere was a real wake up call.

Each time we go away someone asks the “fuel consumption” question, and I have not a clue. So in the spirit of recording useless data and statistics here are a few kept over the last 3 months.

Miles driven to date : 2706
Total fuel bought. : 92 gallons
Fuel usage : 29.5 miles p/gallon
Total nights away : 80
Average miles driven per day : 33
Weetabix eaten : 240
7 kg Calor gas bottles used : 1
Dutch campsites in Portugal : 7
Total views of our Blog : 6897
Average fuel cost per litre €1.40

Worst bit – day 1 and discovering no electric plug so no electric for 3 months – (women will understand this means no hair straightening i.e. disaster).

Top 5 best bits
1) Finding the electric cable plug on day 2 rates fairly highly:) (See worst bit).

2) Visits from Sian and Al and the 116’ers were very special.

3) Places – Fatima, extreme in many ways but wouldn’t have missed it – closely followed by Convento De Cristo and the Ria Formosa.

4) Octopus and bread porridge – because it sounds so terrible but tastes so good.

5) Iain when he got caught in a freak wave (you had to be there but trust me it was side splittingly funny).

There endeth our Blog for another trip – we had the proverbial ball as always, met some lovely people, saw amazing places and made many wonderful memories.

Thank you Bus driver for making it all possible, you are a star x.

Tomorrow we start saving for the next adventure:)

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After 2 days driving we have now arrived on the northern coast of Spain. We stopped overnight yesterday at Salamanca, along with a convoy of 20 Dutch caravans, as they were up and away with the lark we followed suit. Incredible drive up, very few cars on the roads, loads of sunshine, skies full of red kites and the snow capped mountains in the distance. We were in Santander late afternoon so went out to find our campsite in Somo and settle in for the evening.

Ok so less a campsite more a ‘spot the piece of ground not covered in tarpaulin’. To be fair calling it a 5 star dump would be generous. Iain popped into reception to be told its €32 a night! No way Jose we are off to find somewhere else. Problem being no other sites open with 30 miles. We parked up on the beach and had tea whilst we thought of what to do next.

Plan B is to go for an aire and we find one on Sat Nav 10 miles away in a National Park. We think its a bit of a clearing in a forest – not ideal but as its getting late we will brave it for a night.

Up through little lanes, looking bleak then we turn a corner and its like we have arrived in a glorious little bit of Spanish mayhem. Tiny old fashioned village, stone church in the middle, several pubs and bars, tacky shops galore and 5 or 6 motorhomes parked by the lake. There are Spanish family picnics galore – groaning tables of food with 4 generations all speaking very loudly at once. We are liking this a lot – lovely place, great atmosphere oh and its not €32 its free:)

A quick walk to the pub for a drink once we are parked up and it gets really weird – there is a field in front of us full of elephants. No we have only had one drink each honest – these are big, real live elephants, about 30 of them. And in the next field there are camels. We are not sure where we have landed – but we are liking it lots:)

Obviously this place is well known in motorhome circles as they are turning up every 10 minutes. Looks like a lively night as the local picnics look set to go on long into the night. Tomorrow we investigate the Serengeti.