Today is the end of our fifth week in Spain and we are now sitting 200 miles, by road, from where we entered the country.
We have, of course, driven a little further than that, having weaved inland and then back to the coast a few times, but we are still on the tank of fuel we bought just after crossing into Spain.
Whilst the intention of this trip was to stay longer in each place, not to minimise the mileage, our reality of not moving very far is working out well. It's irrelevant whether our next location is 5 or 50km away: having never visited this area before, it is still new to us. I can't think of anywhere we've been that wasn't worth visiting, and in many cases we would happily have stayed longer, if the rules/etiquette had allowed.
Our lack of miles does, of course, also have a financial benefit, as the cost of fuel is usually the most expensive aspect of our travels (ignoring the purchase of Bertie!), so the Spanish portion of this trip has been excellent value thus far. That said, the downside of short journeys in a lumpy country is that our MPG figure is low (currently just under 28mpg, compared with the opposite extreme of having achieved 36 driving through Benelux and northern Germany in June).
We might have to put in some bigger journeys next week, as we are now in an area with a lack of Aires, and we can only go for so many days without a service point (the toilet being the limiting factor; water is always easy to come by around here, with public taps all over the place, and we don't get through much anyway).
Talking of Aires, with Spain being generous with its provision of free motorhome parking areas, plus the general statutory right to sleep in a parked vehicle overnight (provided you don't stray into the definition of 'camping'), our overnight costs for the first five weeks have come in at a grand total of €58.60 - a ridiculously low figure.
We have, of course, driven a little further than that, having weaved inland and then back to the coast a few times, but we are still on the tank of fuel we bought just after crossing into Spain.
Whilst the intention of this trip was to stay longer in each place, not to minimise the mileage, our reality of not moving very far is working out well. It's irrelevant whether our next location is 5 or 50km away: having never visited this area before, it is still new to us. I can't think of anywhere we've been that wasn't worth visiting, and in many cases we would happily have stayed longer, if the rules/etiquette had allowed.
Our lack of miles does, of course, also have a financial benefit, as the cost of fuel is usually the most expensive aspect of our travels (ignoring the purchase of Bertie!), so the Spanish portion of this trip has been excellent value thus far. That said, the downside of short journeys in a lumpy country is that our MPG figure is low (currently just under 28mpg, compared with the opposite extreme of having achieved 36 driving through Benelux and northern Germany in June).
We might have to put in some bigger journeys next week, as we are now in an area with a lack of Aires, and we can only go for so many days without a service point (the toilet being the limiting factor; water is always easy to come by around here, with public taps all over the place, and we don't get through much anyway).
Talking of Aires, with Spain being generous with its provision of free motorhome parking areas, plus the general statutory right to sleep in a parked vehicle overnight (provided you don't stray into the definition of 'camping'), our overnight costs for the first five weeks have come in at a grand total of €58.60 - a ridiculously low figure.
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