Tuesday 28 January - Peñíscola

Bertie is parked in a sheltered spot here at Camping Los Pinos, but such was the wind on Sunday night that he rocked and rolled, disturbing our sleep.

Yesterday was warm, at 22 degrees, but it continued to be so windy for most of the day that it wasn't inviting to go outside - so I didn't, at least not until a lull late in the afternoon.

All was forecast to calm down at 1900 last night, and so it did, only for us to be woken by a reinvigoration of the winds overnight.

It was, however, pretty calm again by morning, with a clear sky, which worked out nicely for me as I was off for a foray into the local hills.

Route - just over 11km

Almost none of it enticed me to run, being very stony and rough underfoot, but it was a good walk with the only slight disappointment being that I couldn't find a way (other than bloodying my shins through spikey scrub) to reach the actual summit of Vistahermosa, thus I had to make do with standing within sight of the summit.

View on the way back down

I wasn't going to wade through that to get to the summit!

Another view

Not a cloud when I set out.

I was back and changed in good enough time for a cup of tea and a crossword before we headed out for lunch.

Restaurante El Cañar was my chosen location, being one of the closest eateries (2.2km) and with excellent reviews. There we failed to even glance at the Menu del Dia price before we went in - something we didn't think about until after we had ordered (there was no written menu; the owner read it into Google Translate then showed us the result. I understood much of the Spanish, and we all had a giggle when Google misheard one of the dishes and offered us 'bald men'). 

I'm out of practice at photographing our food, so you'll have to imagine the toast topped with caramelised onion, ham and cheese for the first starter. We were then part way through the second starter and then the tomato & cheese salad (which was a set course) before I snapped those. I did a better job with the main and pudding. 

My main course was most disappointing! More disappointing than any I've had in Spain before. It was a goujon of fish, topped with a few prawns, in a toasted wrap on a meagre swoosh of pureed vegetable. 

Mick's was good and big enough for me to share after I'd eaten my goujon. 

Both puddings were superb (as had been the starters and tomato salad). 

The menu turned out to be €17 each, but didn't include Mick's wine which came in at a very reasonable €2 per glass. 

I'm used to being so stuffed after a Menu del Día that I don't need anything else to eat for the rest of the day, but that's not the case today.

Almost opposite the restaurant was a path into the nature reserve, so we took a longer route (2.8k) for the nicer surroundings, rather than walking back up the road. 

Sunday 26 January - Peñiscola

As we are going to be stationary for chunks of time on this trip, there won't be things to say for daily posts - however, I do have a couple of observations from today.

I took myself off for a run this morning, along the seafront promenade from Peñíscola to Benicarló. As I would expect for Spain, there were lots of people out and about and you could tell the locals from the Northen European tourists (puffer jackets & hats vs shorts & t-shirts).

Along the way I took a detour to look at the other campsite that we thought we might want to move to next weekend, and my first thought was that it would be much better than the one we're currently at. Indeed, I even stopped in to enquire as to their availability, but it turned out the 'Open 8-20h' sign on the Reception door wasn't quite accurate, as it was all locked up.

Continuing along my way, I thought further on the pros and cons of the two locations.

The route I'd taken down to the seafront this morning (2km via the most direct route) used a quiet road and a path through a nature park and was far more pleasant than the route we'd taken into the town yesterday. Behind us here are hills, that I will be exploring later in the week. Next door to us is a supermarket.

Yes, the other campsite is only about a 5 minute walk from the seafront, but there aren't many businesses open nearby at this time of year, and it's further away from the centre of Peñíscola than we are here. I'd expected there to be more open at the S end of Benicarló, which isn't too far away, but when I got there I found that not to be the case. In fact, I recognised the place from our previous visit and was reminded that it doesn't have a seafront prom like Peniscola does; instead apartment blocks are built right next to the beach, with the pedestrian way & bike path running behind those buildings.

Back at Bertie, this campsite got another tick in its favour as the shower was right up there as one of the best campsite showers I've ever used. No push button, as hot as you like, powerful water flow, a hook for clothes/towel, and a basket for shampoo and soap - everything one wants in a campsite shower (except there is no mop for afterwards).

So, we may be parked on a slab on concrete with no view, but otherwise, this place isn't looking as bad as I adjudged it yesterday.

Saturday 25 January - Peñíscola

¿Dónde está Bertoli? He's at Camping Los Pinos on the edge of Peñíscola, where it costs €13 per night, including electricity and all other campsite facilities.

Weather: A showery morning, then we drove out from under the cloud to sunnier conditions on the coast, albeit with a couple of short, light showers this afternoon. 8 degrees this morning inland; 17 this afternoon.

With a drive of just over 2 hours to get to the coast today, we were in no rush this morning, so I didn't have to spring out of bed too early, nor worry about how slowly I was going on my run. Was my tiredness real, or psychological after Thursday's 31km outing? I think probably the latter, but either way, today's 10.5k was more effort than I would have liked.

Fortunately, save for the first and last few minutes, down to the town and back up to Bertie atop the hill, it was a pretty flat route, along dirt roads around a loop in the river and there wasn't a breathe of wind. 

Back at Bertie, washed, dressed and breakfasted, we were just ready to move when our only neighbours suddenly made their own move and beat us to the service point. We patiently waited, our turn came around and finally we were able to leave town.

The timing meant we were going to arrive in Peñíscola at lunchtime, when I doubted that the campsite reception would be open. We optimisitcally came here anyway, found an 'open' sign on the door, and after ten or fifteen minutes of me loitering at the desk, a chap came along to serve me.

It's not a large campsite, and they only had two pitches left, adjacent to each other. Unfortunately, they weren't one of the hedge-boundaried, grit pitches in the main campsite area, but effectively spaces in a concrete car park out the back. Mick was a little miffed that the 'car park' spaces cost the same as the proper campsite pitches, but beggars can't be choosers, and we get all facilities for €13 here, including electricity and wifi, whereas if we went to the nearest Aire we would be paying €10.50 just for parking and a service point. 

I'm searching my memory, and I think this may be the first campsite we've visited in Spain since we've had Bertie ... and we picked him up eight years ago on Monday. So, a campsite isn't a normal choice for us, but for this year, at least, it will serve a purpose. (Almost immediately I remember that we spent 6 nights at a place in 2023 when we needed electricity during a wet week when there wasn't enough solar power to run the laptops; can't quite remember if that was an all-singing Aire or a campsite. It's still a rarity.)

Walking into town this afternoon I did wonder whether we had made the right choice of campsite. It's the best part of a 3km walk into town, and it's not an attractive route. The Aire we stayed on last time we were here (two nights in March 2022) was almost on the seafront. We've booked in here for a week, but when I'm out for a run I will take a look at another campsite that is also 3km from town, is more expensive, but is also practically on the seafront. 

Performing a loop in the town before heading back here, we passed a Chinese shop. Outside we paused, frozen, whilst we both thought hard. We both recalled a conversation in the last couple of days that involved the statement "When we see a Chinese shop..." but neither of us could remember what the end of that sentence was. Eventually it came back to us, and a few minutes later, having spent €1.90, I had a bigger sieve for our kefir making (I've been using a tiny tea-strainer sized one), and 25m of ribbon, to add an additional anchor point to the new driver's seat cover that I made quite badly the week before we came away (the old one, which I made really well (even if I do say so myself) had worn out to a holey mess). 

Photos from this morning's run, in reverse order, because that's what my blogging App does if I add multiple photos at once:

Friday 24 January - Quinto

Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in the village (small town?) of Quinto. Exact location: 41.425091, -0.499799

Weather: Sunny and warm (max 20 degrees)

We were away from Capbreton just a few minutes after 0830, and soon heading Spainwards. No need to take a painful around-the-houses route as we did on the way in - the road works are extensive, but only the townwards side of the road is closed. 

Toll roads saw us out of France (€10.10 total), into Spain (€3.06) and past Pamplona (€13.65 total). For the rest of the journey, at least as far as Zaragoza, we were on free motorways. (This detail may not be interesting to anyone else, but next time we find ourselves travelling this way, I will want these details and will revisit this post.)

Initially I'd set the SatNav for a supermarket in Pamplona, but that was only 1.5 hours into the journey, which seemed too soon to stop, so I reset it for the town of Tudela. There we achieved a big shop and Bertie was topped up at the bargain price of €1.35/litre.

We then had choices before us. We could continue our run for the coast, but with another 3.5 or so hours of driving, it would have been a long day. The second option was an Aire between Tudela and Zogoroza, but the third option was the one chosen: a stop at Decathlon in Zorogoza then onwards to this Aire in Quinto. 

There's an anotated map in the Aire showing the only advisable route in and out, so as to avoid the narrow streets of the old town. It'd be mighty handy if they also put some signs from the main road, as it's a bit late to impart the route information once you're already here! I knew not to enter the old town, but we did a bit of driving back and forth to find an acceptable way. 

It seems like a nice little Aire, in an elevated position with far-reaching views over the plain below and with the church right in front of us. That church also houses the (indeed, Spain's first ... they don't say if it's 'first and only') Mummy Museum. 

Being such a warm sunny afternoon, we took a wander around between arriving and tea time. Predictably, the place is absolutely dead (because places generally are at the times we find ourselves looking around), and seems to have more than its fair share of run down, dilapidated houses, many optimistically displaying for sale signs. Those are interspersed with some well presented houses. 

Those narrow streets don't catch the sun at this time of year, so it felt decidedly chilly down there, even though the display at the pharmacy told us it was still 17 degrees. Much warmer up by the church where the sun had heated the flagstones. 

View from Bertie's front bumper

View from the church

Town gates. Both have chapels above them. 

Bertie with one (French) neighbour

Conrad: hills you have walked through, as snapped early on in our drive this morning

Thursday 23 January - Capbreton

Where's Bertie? As planned, he's still at Capbreton.

Weather: Gloriously sunny and acceptably warm.

With Mick working today, I decided to bring this week's long run forward by a few days and take myself off for a 30k outing.

It was rather nice! The sun was shining and the lake at Soorts-Hossegor (the next resort, N up the coast) was a good place to circumperambulate, even if I did have to take an inland detour, involving a dodgy path through a forest, due to some roadworks that had closed the cycle/pedestrian paths for a short distance. My detour was, by necessity, rather longer than the closed section and it involved me descending through a hillside development of mansions.

Having walked along the firm sand on the beach yesterday, given the choice between returning to Capbreton by road, or using a combination of the dunes path and the beach, I opted for the latter. It was something of a trial, with the tide high and not a bit of firm sand to be found. 

That first loop only accounted for 20k of my outing, so after a pitstop at Bertie, off I went to do a second loop, this time through what I refer to as 'the Cannock Chase of Capbreton' (I'd done this loop before and the forest really puts me in mind of the Chase, albeit with sandy tracks rather than gravelly ones). 

For this loop I performed a case study in bad navigation. First, I forgot to activate the route on my watch, and assuming that I knew where I was going, I started heading towards town. Realising I'd gone awry, I backtracked and found a way to join up with the correct route, only then to follow it in the wrong direction and not notice until I was nearly back at Bertie. That accidental circuit had, of course, added on some distance, so I decided to implement a shortcut later on, in the forest, but another incident of navigational confusion saw me get my compass out to get back on track. I'm pleased to say that the rest went smoothly, and I got back to Bertie with only a little over 31km covered. 

The only other news of the day is that Bertie's oven, which has never been used to any significant extent, was today called into action to bake a loaf of bread. 

Not as good a result as we achieve at home, so we need to experiment with oven temperature and timing. 

Mick's day

Part of the extensive marina at Soorts-Hossegor

Lac d'Hossegor

Beach between Soorts-Hossegor & Capbreton

Forgot to take a photo until we'd made inroads into it for lunch. 

 

Wednesday 22 January - Capbreton

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire at Capbreton.

Weather: A few drops of rain, otherwise mainly lightly overcast (a bit of sun) and warm (14-17 degrees).

Last night I suggested to Mick that we could stay at Capbreton until Friday. He works all day every third day (just bits and pieces on the other days), and it's beneficial if he can do that in a location with electricity and wifi. His next working day is tomorrow (Thursday). On seeing that the weather forecast for Capbreton was every bit as good as that for the E coast of Spain, and given that this Aire is good value for money, it made sense to me to just hang around here. Mick's vote was to continue on our southward migration.

So, I set my alarm for 0715, and hauled my sleepy self out of bed when it went off.

"Where are we going today?" Mick asked. I opined again that it made most sense to stay here, and this time Mick agreed. Harrumph! Needn't have got up so early!

Staying here gave us the opportunity to get a few items of admin out of the way in a leisurely manner. Cash was obtained from a bank, fee free; and email was sent to, and a reply received from a motorhome dealer in northern Spain, establishing that they don't have in stock the spotlight we need*; another email was sent to another dealer; I obtained an ACSI card and researched campsites around Peniscola; and I got tomorrow's loaf of sourdough bread started (my first experiment into baking bread on the road).

The mission to get cash involved us walking around town. It was quiet indeed, with few people at any of the eateries, and we had to wonder whether it's worth the tat & clothing boutique shops opening at this time of year - although perhaps the lack of people in the shopping area was because lunchtime closing time was almost upon us. Window shopping in estate agents' windows established that even a tiny, 35m2 holiday home here comes in at more than €250k - and we'd walked past some sizeable, well-presented houses on the way into town, which must be worth well over a million.

This afternoon's leg-stretch was a walk along the beach.

Modelling the sweater I knitted early last year

It's a hoodie.

I'm sure I would have overheated dressed like this, if it hadn't been for the brisk wind. 

(*Quite a while ago one of Bertie's ceiling LED spotlights started flickering intermittently. A couple of weeks ago I belatedly remembered that it needed replacing, but because our Chunnel was, at that point, booked for few days hence, I didn't have time to get one from the cheap source that supplies better quality ones than the originals. So, I bought from a Hymer dealer at a slightly outrageous price. The day before we came away, another started not so much flickering than flashing incessantly. There was no time by then to get a new one, so I was hoping we may be able to pick one up in Spain. Bertie isn't short of lighting options, so it's not the end of the world if it has to wait until we get home.) 

Tuesday 21 January - Capbreton

Where's Bertie?. He's in the Aire at Capbreton where he's been quite a few times before. Current cost is €8.90 including electricity, services and wifi.

Weather: Cold, foggy start, then sunny and warm, ending wet and warm.

After a quiet night at Villedomer, we got going not long after first light this morning. The 'is the tail light working today?' question was less important today, as we soon had fog lights on (of which Bertie has two, one each side).

Murky

In an exact repeat of two years ago, the toll road was taken from just N of Tours until S of Poitiers (90c on joining the Peage; €21 on leaving). We then took to the free N10 dual carriageway, with a constant stream of HGVs in the inside lane, as they are not allowed in the outside lane - although some do ignore that rule, and they all ignore the 80km/h speed limit.

Continuing the repetition, a 1km detour was taken at Reignac for me to take a trot along a Voie Verte route whilst Mick prepared lunch, travel mugs of drink and a fresh flask for the afternoon. I would say that it was for the sake of variety that I opted to head S along the Voie Verte (last time I went N), but it was purely the wind direction that informed my decision - I wanted to run outwards into the wind so I got the easier second half.

Lunch run in the sunshine

It may have been windy, but it was also warm - after a minus one degree start this morning, it was 11 degrees as I stepped out the door for my run. As we passed Bordeaux it got up to 14 and the sunshine coming through the window had us in our shirtsleeves inside.

The usual toll avoidance was employed S of Bordeaux (off the motorway the junction before the toll plaza, back on the junction after), but only on the first section. A road closure in Capbreton caused us to then veer away from the Péage, tackling much smaller roads (along with half of the rest of the world) on a fiddly route through multiple villages. By the time we got here (the last twenty minutes being in the rain) we wondered if we should have headed elsewhere, but it is such good value here that the difficulty getting here was probably worth it.

Continuing the repetition from 2 years ago, we don't know where we're heading from here. Exactly the same as in 2023, we had fully intended to go to the area between Portugal and Tarifa, including a trip to Seville. And now we're thinking that maybe we should head over to the E coast instead.

It may come down to a coin toss in the morning.

In other news, we forgot to bring any Euro currency with us on this trip! Yes, 'Money' is an item on our packing checklist, and we certainly talked about picking up the cash, but I think that when we had the final run through the checklist, I read 'Money' and thought 'We've got our wallets'. As I never spend cash at home (I don't even carry any these days and cannot tell you when I last used a cashpoint in the UK), it didn't occur to me that 'money' meant 'cash'. Rather annoying, as we've worked hard to build up a bag of change, for things like laundrettes and parking, and we'll be starting from scratch. First, however, we need to find a cash point, and preferably before we leave France, as most Spanish banks charge for using their cashpoints.

Monday 20 January - Villedomer

**Where's Bertie?** He's in the Aire at Villedomer where he's been at least three times before. 

**Weather:** Mainly murky, with a bit of sun breaking through in places late afternoon. Temperature between 0 and 3. 

I forgot to mention yesterday: we've stayed at the Aire at Wissant many times, going back to 2016. For all that time it has been free. When we were there a few months ago, in September, a payment barrier had been installed, but not commissioned. Now there is a charge of €10 per night plus 50c/person tourist tax. Given all the free stays we've had, that wouldn't feel too bad a price to pay, except that they've not altered the layout of the place at all, so the pitches are narrow, crammed in, and almost all of them are slightly on a slope. Compared with many other Aires in France, it is not good value. That is probably why, when we've seen it quite busy even in winter, this time there were just five of us there (there are dozens of spaces). Still, it's convenient when travelling to or from the south from a late Channel crossing or to an early one, so I'm sure we'll continue to stay there.

As for today, we were away as soon as it was light enough to drive without lights (0840), and set out to repeat our staging from 2023. The only difference in the journey was that today we forked out for the Péage from Boulogne to Abbeville. I'm not sure how much time it saved, but it saved a lot of roundabouts, junctions and concentration on constantly changing speed limits, at a cost of €13.70.

Other than taking a different road, our repetition extended to stopping in Neufchatel-en-Bray so that I could go for a run along the Voie Verte there. With Mick not running today, he was able to shop and prepare lunch whilst I was gone, then all we needed to do on my return was eat, refuel Bertie and get back on the road. 

Mick drove the easy bits, at times with me working in the back. I drove the intricate bits, with Mick working in the back. The only afternoon stops were two brief pauses to swap driving duties, at the same time refilling our travel mugs from the flask I'd prepared this morning. 

We made much better time than last time we did this journey. Then we arrived here a few minutes before 1800; today we were here at 1635. The toll road will have helped, but I suspect we were also more efficient with our stop in Neufchatel. 

More repetition tomorrow, with a bigger day of driving as we try to make it down to Capbreton. 

Sunday 19 May - Wissant

**Where's Bertie?** He's in the Aire at Wissant, where he has been many times before (most recently in September 2024), this time at a cost of €11 per night.

**Weather:** Mainly dry but overcast and quite cool.

Our Chunnel crossing was originally booked for a week earlier, until we realised that we had a lot to do in too short a time, some of which was being scuppered by Erica being poorly (no windscreen wipers is rather an impediment even in dry weather at this time of year, what with salty roads). So I pushed the crossing back, thinking we would get away at least a day in advance. As it came to pass, it was 0830 on the morning of our crossing that we pointed Bertie's nose south.

In the usual way we stopped in for lunch with friends in Crawley (and what an excellent lunch it was too!), before continuing on to Folkestone*. After tea in the car park at the last services on the M20, onwards we went to check in at the Chunnel at just gone 1800 (for our booked 2017 crossing) and as is usually the case, we were offered an earlier option. Thus we were on a moving train at just gone 1845.

As we then did the short hop down to Wissant, I check out how we staged this journey the last time we did it, two years ago. I may just as well cut and past the blog posts for the next couple of days as, provided all goes to plan, we are going to do exactly the same again.

A long and empty train making it look like we are going to drive through to France.

(*Bertie failed his MoT on two points. Many Bertie-esque vehicles don't have a driver's door, with just the habitation door as their means of entry and exit. Bertie does have a driver's door, but since someone tried to steal him, that door hasn't been openable from the outside - an excellent security measure and no trouble to us as we never used it anyway. Unfortunately, even though a motorhome doesn't have to have a door there, if it does have such a door it has to open from both sides. Thus, the failure. Bertie also has a long-standing intermittent fault on one of his rear side lights, and this year our luck ran out and it wasn't working for his initial MoT. He did subsequently pass, but with that light being unreliable (we will redouble our efforts to get it fixed, but thus far the fault has been elusive) we try to drive in daylight as much as possible. This journey was finished with a red bicycle light taking the place of that side light.)

Friday 6 December - Lincoln

Where was Erica: She spent the night at the roadside in Thonock Close, Lincoln

Weather: Dry and calm

Eurotunnel tickets are booked to take Bertie (for Bertie to take us?) over to France in a couple of weeks' time, so I thought it was about time that I wrote a little post, just for my records, about a quick overnight outing in Erica in December.

Mick wanted to go to a get-together with some ex-colleagues in Lincoln and I saw the opportunity to visit an 'away from home' parkrun on the way home, which meant staying over. 

The drive to Lincoln was uneventful, Mick went off to the pub and I was drawn to the Lincolnshire Runner where a new pair of trail runners came into my ownership. On the way back to Erica, I thought I'd solved the question of where to spend the night (overnight parking of motorhomes in the Lawn's car park, where it has been allowed for several years, had been banned just a week previously), as I found three nearby car parks with height barriers, but no overnight restrictions. At 1830, when I came to move Erica there was not a space to be had in any of those other car parks. No idea what was going on, as it was too late for shoppers and too early for Friday night revellers. Hence we ended up in Thonock Close - rather too close to a main road to be a good spot, but we weren't in front of anyone's house, so we figured it would do. 

Aside from a minor disturbance from some chatting going on outside at just gone midnight, a quiet-enough night was had. 

Why did that white car decide to park right there, causing rather a squeeze between it and Erica? Why were its windscreen wipers pulled away from its windscreen? Two questions to which we will never know the answer. 

This was the weekend of one of the named storms. Every parkrun in Wales was cancelled; huge numbers in England were cancelled. The one I'd earmarked was not only on, but I didn't get rained on, nor suffer the impediment of the strong winds that prevailed elsewhere. It was lucky timing. We also met up with eldest (step-)son on the way home and by the time we left the weather was positively wild.