A weeks worth of travel....

Friday 30th March 2007
This being my last day in work, I wasn’t particularly in the mood for doing much……As it happens, once I’d had a meeting with my supervisor, I was able to get away early which was good as this let me get the last few jobs needing done completed in the daylight. As it happened, I was all ready to go by 3.30pm, so I decided to fuel up and get going towards Rosslare for the ferry tomorrow. While I was in the local Agricultural Suppliers getting cheap diesel, I asked them to weigh Hermione on their weighbridge, which they kindly did, free of charge. So, now I know… she weighs in at 3560KG loaded, but without any passengers. This leaves a reasonable 440KG of payload.
I set up the sat nav system and headed off. The adventure begins!
It was a very uneventful journey via motorways for a lot of the way and only a couple of small traffic hold ups to contend with, nothing too bad really, especially for a Friday afternoon. I made Rosslare Harbour by about 7pm and spotted a sign for a campsite and I pointed Hermione in the direction of St. Margaret’s Beach.

It’s a nice little site from 1st impressions and looks well maintained. The woman in reception charge me 15 euro for my pitch, which I had a free choice of and I didn’t bother with electric hook up, partly because it’s only for 1 night and also because I need to fit a connector to my hook up cable and really couldn’t be bothered!
I was absolutely starving by this time as I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast time, so it was time to do a raid on the fridge and see what was there. Well, I made myself quite a nice snack of carrot and coriander soup and a pastrami sandwich, all washed down by a lovely cold beer. Aaaahhhh…. Start the holiday as it’s meant to continue!
I’m just about to get settled down for the evening and watch a DVD I think. I have ‘Cars’ there which I’ve only seen at the cinema so that will do. Meantime, I have my music on the go with the speakers powered from the inverter, so I’m pretty well sorted.
The ferry tomorrow is at 4.30pm, so I’m hoping I can hang around here until about 2…..
Spending today: Diesel: 42 euroToll: 2.60Camping: 15
Mileage at start 42282 kmFinish 42542 km




31st March

Woke up fairly early (6.30am!!) and decided to lie on. Had a quick look outside and the weather looked quite grey and windy. Finally surfaced about 9am and had breakfast, then took a wander over to the shower block to have a shower. Found the showers to be nice and clean and looked to be just recently refurbished. All in all, this is a nice little site, very quiet at this time of year.
I took the bike off the back of the van and headed down in the direction of the beach with my camera. Only about a 5 minute cycle mostly downhill to St. Margaret’s Beach which is lovely golden sand but was very cold with a sharp northerly wind whipping across the sands. I cycled over towards the small harbour area to have a look at the boats that were tied up at the pier. The only let down from this otherwise really nice beach was the unmistakable odour of raw sewage from an outfall. I think I would be wary of swimming anywhere near the outfall. The other end of the beach would probably be better, but I also imagine that the water would be freezing!

On the way back from the beach I stopped off to have a look at some old ruined farm buildings. Quite a substantial range of building that had just been abandoned. Looked like an ideal renovation project…….
I plan to head off around 2pm and get organised for the ferry.







1st April

Irish Ferries? There’s not much Irish about them these days. I didn’t speak to one Irish crew member the whole time I was aboard. All the crew seemed to be Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian. Now I’ve nothing against any of these nationalities, but there’s just none of the craic that you used to get when at the car when the crews were Irish.
The ferry itself was a bit shabby, but I just headed for the bar and had a few beers. There was a huge horde of French teenagers on board and they seemed to completely take over the bar area and moved around in a swarm…..
There was a band playing from 9pm, but they were a bit ropey…… mostly to do with their sound equipment playing up, but this also distracted the guitarist from his playing. They were ok in the end though and kind of got into their groove……I ended up chatting to a drunk Polish lad called Lukas about how he was finding things living in Dublin. He was amazed that he could understand my English ok as he has trouble understanding the Irish. I found out that he works in Firhouse in Tallaght which explains a lot. Eg…. “how mooch is dat bood?” Translation: “How much does that cost, my good man?”
I finally rolled off to bed (a reclining seat – not all that comfortable) about 1am and eventually just took to the floor with my sleeping bag. I actually slept not too badly and managed about 8 hours before the teenage horde had decided to take over the area I was sleeping in and 3 of them kicked me on the way past and another practically stood on me until I growled at her!
The ferry was delayed due to poor weather. Some folks looked a bit green and I saw one girl being sick, but I was absolutely fine – must have good sea legs! I headed fort some breakfast and got chatting to an English truck driver who is now living in Ireland and was on his way to transport a load of baby milk powder to Lisbon in Portugal. A very interesting character…. 60 years old, has an old Harley that he’s spent thousands on over the last 20 years and is a member of the Outlaws M/C club.
I finally managed to get off the ferry about 1.30pm and headed out of Cherbourg port after a cursory glance at my passport from the Gendarmerie and set the sat nav for Bourgneuf en Retz, about 400km south. On the way, on the odd occasion I strayed from the autoroute and RN, I travelled through some really quaint villages that would have been nice to explore. Everywhere is so clean. Not a drop of litter to be found anywhere. The French have a real pride in their villages and even on the roadside verges, there’s no litter. Not many shops open; not sure if it’s because it’s Saturday or a holiday weekend.
On the way down, I picked up signs for Le Mont St. Michel and reckoned that this was a must see since it was only about a 20km detour from the autoroute. Wow!On the approach, I could see Le Mont off to the right in the distance. It just seemed to rise out of the land.

I stopped about 2km from Le Mont and took a couple of photos. I rolled into the Aire (Parking area) and paid my 8 euro for 24 hours which allows me to stay overnight. I got chatting to some Brits in motorhomes. One, Mark, was in a huge Frankia tag axled outfit with a Peugeot 107 being towed behind it on an A frame. Quite an outfit. I strolled of to visit Le Mont and there were a load of youngsters, mostly scouts I think, carrying branches for palm Sunday. Le Mont St. Michel is very pretty and quaint and well worth a visit; lots of steps though…… The only slight let down was the number of touristy shops on the way up through the very narrow cobbled street that climbs up.

I headed into Hermione on my return and had a snooze as I was starting to feel a bit wrecked and snoozy, and later set up the sat dish, although I had no joy in picking up astra 2, so decided to cut my losses and get astra 1 instead, which although mostly foreign channels, has a few English language channels.
So, that’s day 1 nearly over. The rough Plan for tomorrow is to head for around Nantes or La Rochelle direction.
One thing I’ve noticed as a lone traveller is that people are really willing to just come up and start chatting away and are quite surprised when they hear I’m alone in the big van.
Spending today: (not including too much spent on the ferry!) 8 euroMileage: 42749 km





2nd April
Le Mont St. Michel to Saumur.

It’s been a bit of a clumsy day for me today so far. I woke up about 8am and stuck the boiler on for a bit so that I could have a shower. While I was outside packing up the satellite dish, the inevitable happened…… I clattered my head off the bike rack. I cursed under my breath and tried not to show the pain I was in to my fellow motorhomers around me, hoping that they hadn’t noticed it happening! I have a lovely big red mark on my forehead….. Not long after that, I managed to walk into the edge of the drop down bed over the cab. I just completely forgot to duck. Hmm…..
Anyway, while I was packing things away, David, one of the guys I’d been chatting with yesterday wandered over to say that he’d managed to get his fridge running on gas. Yesterday, he was studying how the gas knob on my fridge worked as the knob on his was the wrong one. The knob works anti clockwise for on and clockwise for off, so I showed him how to set it and switch it on. So, he’d managed to get it running on the last week of their trip. He passed on his contact details to me so I can update them on my progress…..
I wanted to get off fairly sharpish to make decent headway, so once the packing was complete (why do all the things never seem to fit back into the boot?) I went to start Hermione and………… the curse of the dodgy starter struck again! Well, I say dodgy starter; I can now rule the starter motor out of the running completely, as the extra fly lead that I had (wisely, now it seems) hooked up to the starter solenoid last week before leaving Ireland came into play and I managed to get her started no bother using that straight on to the battery. Phew! So it seems that it’s either the starter key switch that’s at fault (intermittently) or maybe a relay, but I’m not sure if there’s one fitted in the starter circuit or if the cable goes directly to the solenoid.
I headed off in the general direction of Angers, as I’d decided I wanted to visit the Loire Valley and that looked as good a starting point as any. The drive was pretty uninteresting on the autoroute, but finally I got on to the Route Nationale and there was at least some scenery to be had. And very nice scenery it was too……
‘Maisy’, as I’ve now christened the American woman inside the sat nav, decided about half way to throw a wobbler and was showing me as driving across open fields. This led to me having to go back to the old fashioned method and…. Consult the map! I decided to ignore Maisy’s protestations and continued using the map and road signs toward Angers. I think that due to my change of general route, I have missed out the map sections needed for this area, so I’ll need to deal with that later from the map software on the laptop. She did continue to show the main roads, but they must be quite old mapping as the alignment seemed to be a bit off at times.
I stopped off at an InterMarche in Beaufort en Vallee for some provisions for lunch and also managed to pick up a bulb kit for Hermione since that’s needed along with a warning triangle in France. I forgot to weigh the bananas before getting to the checkout, so that led to some embarrassment as the checkout girl threw some French phrases at me in rapid fire. “Jen e comprend pas” I muttered, while no doubt turning a lovely shade of pink. She smiled and took the bananas off to be weighed while I waited, no longer looking cool at all in my shades….. Hermione didn’t start again when I got back out to her. Maybe she doesn’t like being left alone?
The final part of the journey was along the RN to Saumur, a reasonably large town on the banks of the River Loire. I set Maisy for the Municipal Aire and she managed to take me fairly close (about 200m) and it’s more of a small car park at the end of a long cul-de-sac, next to a campsite. I would go into the campsite and pay, but I’m being scabby and am on a budget, so I’m gonna freebie it here for the night. I still have ¾ of a tank of fresh water on board and the loo is only 1/3 full so I’ve no real need for the services of a campsite.

(Left Pic.... Le Chateau De Saumur)
The weather is absolutely gorgeous. I reckon it’s about 18 or 19 deg outside, but le Francais must all be acclimatised to the warmth as they’re all wandering around with woolly jumpers and jackets on while I sweated it out in my t-shirt. I wandered along the river bank towards the town and had a snoop about. It’s a really nice town full of historic buildings and a chateau up on the hill. The buildings are all made from limestone and have great architectural detail. The town centre was a couple of main streets and some of the shops were closed with this being Easter Monday. I had a good walk around anyway and down to the other side of the river bank, where some more motorhomes were parked up, but I reckon my spot will be a lot quieter as the river is right next to the main road.
Update:I was knackered and was in bed by about 10pm after a couple of glasses of wine. I stuck on some music and drifted off, only to be wakened by the rain teeming down, so I jumped up and quickly closed the roof vent. It continued to pour down for most of the night; and I mean in torrents!. The parking spot was totally safe and quiet. I woke up early and did the dishes and got some brekkie and decided on an early start and to try and get some decent miles under the belt on the way south......
Mileage to this point 43060kmSpending: 31 euro diesel and 18 euro in Supermarket.
(Left pic.... Fiat 500 snapped in a street in Saumur. I declined the offer of having my pic taken sat in the driver´s seat!)











(Left pic..... some fine terraces in Saumur)














3rd April
Saumur to Biarritz......

Toady was just a day for driving. Not a whole lot to write about. The N137 was the most scenic part of the journey, before ending up on a poxy dual cariaggeway that really just resembled a motorway with serious amounts of lorries on it. I just cruised along about 90k's and took my time. Maisy got us lost again; or actually it was probably me initially who decided to ignore her and try to stick to the main road. Her detour took us along some crazy narrow country roads and the French don't like to slow down as they're coming towards you! One guy in a Volvo estate nearly ended up putting himself in the ditch.
Approching Biarritz, I set Maisy for the Aire de Service, although having consulted the book, it was showing as only being open from mid May onwards, but I though it was worth a try....The route to it was a small bit tricky as some of the streets were quite narrow and then I came across some muppet who had parked half up on the pavement opposite another car. I think I just managed to squeeze through with about 2 inches to spare between each wing mirror. One thing this trip is doing is making me ever more confident at throwing the big bus into tight spaces!
Maisy brought us impeccably to the Aire de Service and boy, was / is it busy! it holds about 40 motorhomes and there must be about 30 on it today in early April. Still, it's a useful enough spot to park up and so far I haven't had to pay any money to anyone. Lots of the vans are hooked up to the electric, but there don't appear to be any spare points, but I'm pretty self sufficient anyway, having stuck the laptop on charge using the inverter on the drive down and also having charged my phone. So, I won't bother trying to get hooked up, although I did use the opportunity to empty the loo. I still have a 1/2 tank of water.....
(Biarritz Aire)


It's quite cool today; definately hoodie weather and I wandered over the road to the small beach but there was no one around. Not much surf happening either. Tomorrow I'll head in towards town and see what the story is. I think I'll stay here tomorrow and move on Thursday, probably toward Bourgos in Spain. I reckon I'll hit the south of Spain around Sunday and I've no plans on killing myself with silly mileages. Today was just about ok, but verging on the limit of what I'd want to max out at.... 540km, about 340 miles.
The stupid starting hassle is still happening, more often than not, although the temporary fix is doing fine; the only hassle being having to remove the engine cover to get access to the cable. I might try and rig up a switch somewhere under the dash area if I can get somewhere to mount the switch I have in the toolbox.
Anyway, that's about all that I have to write about today. There is only 1 other English speaking van here on the Aire, some Brits who I had a chat with when I arrived. They've just come back up from Spain and are heading over to the Med Coast of France in the next couple of days.
Right, I'm off to sup my wine.......
Mileage: 43600Spending: 38 euro diesel leaving Saumur and 50 euro diesel between Bordeaux and Biarritz. 10 euro in Lidl.





4th April
Biarritz to (just beyond) Miranda De Ebro.

The Aire in Biarritz continued to be very busy.....I decided to walk into the city centre and see what Biarritz had to offer. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it was because it was cold; although it was bright and sunny, but it was and it wasn't what I expected. Part of it reminded me of an old fashioned English seaside resort, like say, Scarborough; full of Victorian / Edwardian elegance, but there just didn't seem to be any 'vibe' about the place.


Lots of old people to-ing and fro-ing from the Boulangerie etc., but I don't know.... I just wasn't that taken by the place. In fact, after Saumur, Biarritz was a big disappointment.
I decided, post disappointment, that I woudn't stay another night, but would make tracks that afternoon and head down into Spain. The weather has been a big disappointment today as well. It's cold, hoodie weather for me, although for the poor French, it's coats, scarves and gloves weather and I did in fact get some stares when I was down to my t-shirt after a brisk hill climb. Oh, that's another thing. Biarritz is very, very hilly. I left the bike back at the van and decided to walk it.


Anyway, headed back to the Aire and started to get organised. I really needed to empty the waste water and top up the fresh. The first task was accomplished after waiting for an eternity for 4 surfer dudes in a hired motorhome to get their hippy asses into gear and stop pissing fresh water all over the tarmac while I waited (impatiently). I managed to dump the grey tank, but the fittings I had for the hose connection were of no use, although in hindsight, I think I had a fitting in the boot of the van that could have been made to fit.... anyway..... I still had about 30 litres of fresh so would be ok.I've also found that using the inverter to power the laptop really takes a punch out of the battery, so I've found it best to have the laptop charging using the inverter while driving - that way, the alternator is keeping everything topped up and I can get a couple of hours from the laptop on battery.
I moved off and down the twisty road towards San Sebastian, just over the Spanish border. I decided not to take on any more diesel as I reckoned it would be cheaper in Spain. I was right.... a good 10c a litre cheaper in fact. Once over the border, you didn't need any signs to tell you that you were in Spain; the road surface said it all. The road went form smoothly tarmacced to an abomonation of uneven surface, ruts and potholes. Obviously the Spanish don't take quite as much pride as the French in their roads, which I have to say, 90% of the time have been excellent. Even the more minor, equivalent to say, an Irish regional R road, were really well surfaced. Spain is different.
San Sebastian is a kip. Well, from what I saw of it while driving throught it anyway. It was raining, so that didn't help any, but it looked very industrial and run down, grimy and as if no-one really gave a toss about it. The drive out of the town was a bit of a nightmare. The N1 road was very heavily congested with articulated lorries and the road twisted up and up into the mountains. Picture a mountain pass, only in dual carriageway format. A bit scary actually. I just kept the speed to about 90k's and was in no rush as the surface was so crap and it looked very greasy in the rain to boot.
As the dual carriageway ended, the traffic ground to a halt as drivers jockeyed for position on to the single carriagewaY. Once through another industrial looking smallish town, Miranda De Ebro, the road started climbing again and the weather was getting worse. And I really needed to pee, so I pulled off the road into a lay by type picnic area place. Just as I came into the main parking spot, there were signs for a campsite. I'd had enough by this stage of the drive, and the signs sealed it!
I pulled into the campsite, which was located at 'Monumento Al Pastor', through the pillared entrance, and spotted another 3 motorhomes parked up on a concrete hard standing which turned out to be the basketball court! Somehow I don't think anyone was going to need the use of the court today! I headed into the bar / restaurant and spoke pigeon Spanglish with the waiter dude and finally made myself understood that I wanted to camp for the night. It was very cheap... only 8.36 euro without electric. As I settled up, I looked outside and it had started to snow! This is not what I signed up for.... I expected sunny skies to greet my arrival!


I got settled in and had to put the heating on. I only hope that the gas supplies that I have will last until I can get back into France to get some TotalGaz or to Germany where I can exchange the bottles I have. Time will tell...... I had parked up in behind a German 'Hobby' motorhome towing a Smart Car on a trailer and only hoped he wouldn't be needing to move, as I wasn't going anywhere for the night and had pulled down the silver blinds and cranked up the heating......
I set the alarm (1st time in the trip!) for 7.45, as I wanted to be away before Herr Hobby needed to move his rig and it would also give me a good spur to get some serious miles under the belt. Dinner consited of pasta in a tomato-ey kind of sauce (from a packet....) and some left over French bread from earlier in the day. It was surprisingly quite good. The snow is belting down.... I hope it doesn't lie too much. My notes read: "Too bloody cold for my liking!"
Mileage to date: 43850 km






5th April
'Monumento Al Pastor' just outside of Miranda De Ebro to Granada.

Awoke early.... brrrrrr..... cold. Stepped out from the duvet and very nearly decided to get back under it again, but threw the clothes on instead. Once the blinds were up, I could see it was pretty white outside, with the snow lying on the higher slopes of the hill. I backed Hermione up th the toilets area and decided to try to get her filled with fresh water. this was going to be a military manoeuvre! I unravelled the flat hose from the cassette reel and decided on my choice of fittings. Thankfully, the 1st one screwed on to the tap ok, but when it was turned on, a good impression of the Trevi fountain being made and the wee cleaner wummin who had just arrived on site to start her shift looked none too impressed as it sprayed water all over the washing up area ceiling! I retreated to another tap slightly embarrassed....... This time I managed to get filled up, but boy, were my hands freezing afterwards. I'm reminded of Glasgow on a January morning.
On the road now........
Single carriageway, twisting in through the mountains; quite spectacular scenery in parts, just a shame that the road is so shite.... It snowed more or less continuously for this section of the journey and even beyond, when we cleared the mountain part, we must have still been high up, as the snow kept coming down. I started to worry a bit when the snow ploughs started passing going the other way. I hoped that it just wouldn't lie.
Beyond the mountainous region, the scenery went to poo..... All flat fields and nothing really to speak of. Some mountains in the distance, but that was about the highlight of it, but at least the snow had turned to rain and finally eased off and dryed up. I made the decision that I would keep moving and stop around Granada. Once into the region of Andalucia, the scenery became dramatic again. Mountains and crazy roads, 3rd gear hillclimbs stuck behind the lorries. I was in no hurry, and wasn'y going to screw the life out of Hermione's engine. I'd just take axtra time that's all. The Spanish drivers are also a bit nuts. They overtake you and then cut straight back in front of you. The antithesis of Irish drivers who just like to sit in the outside lane and not get their arses back in to the inside lane. The Spanish do at least seem to posess some modicum of skill in their driving.
Madrid was a bundle of fun.... I managed to take a wrong turn in the roadworks on one of the many ring roads. Thankfully, Maisy got us out of the jam admirally, after some 'close yer eyes and hope for the best' antics on a few roundabouts. Although it does appear that car drivers at least respect that 4 tonnes of motorhome 'may' just do them some damage if they get in the way!
On the approach to Granada, I stopped, and set Maisy up with the campsite adress from one of the books, in the hope that I might find it. Well, she did us proud. I was just about to give up, and had set her with an adress of a different campsite, when we came around a bend and spotted the camping signs. It was a bit of a crazy 90 degree swing in off the main dual carriageway, into a campsite surrounded by high hedges, so I couldn't really guage what to expect and when I swung all 26 feet of Hermione in through the gates, my initial reaction was "Shit!, How are we gonna get back out of here?"
Camping 'Maria Eugenia - 2 star' was small and it's Easter weekend..... It (on initial unfair 1st impression) looked a bit hillbilly too.....
I stopped just inside and was greeted by the couple running the place. Well, I'm assuming they're a couple; maybe bro and sis.... Nice folks anyway. She spoke pretty good English and he spoke none.... They showed me the only pich anywhere of a size that would accomodate Hermione's size and I said I would give it a go. The place was very, very busy. Basically, any spot that could, had a tent, a caravan or a campervan on it. I had to blitz us through the muddy quagmire toward the pitch and hope for the best. We very, very nearly got stuck in the mud. Only my rocking the van back and forth in gear, we eventually managed to get enough traction to get beyond the mud and after a 6 point turning job, managed to line us up on the pitch. Getting out may prove more difficult in reverse. I was congratulated on my skills by the English gent in the caravan next to us who has been stuck here for 3 weeks after his car gearbox gave up the ghost. Still, it's reasonably cheap at 14.50 euro and is hopefully going to be close enough for a visit into Granada tomorrow for some sightseeing.
It's just as well I didn't leave things any later, as another 3 French motorhomes arrived at our back and they squeezed them on to my access 'road' on to the pitch (after asking if it was ok). The place is chock full.
After all the driving, I really was knackered, and although I tried to read for a bit.... some of Christopher Brookmyre's 'Country of the Blind' (cheers Neil!), I really needed to hit the hay.
The rain pelted down again tonight and I really felt bad for all the poor sods in tents who had come away for the weekend, as I've been there and done that. (Remember Italy Lettie?) I just tucked my feet into the end of the duvet and listened to the rain lashing down. Bliss...... camping as it was always meant to be! ;)
Mileage to date: 44562 km
Spending:70 euro diesel14.50 camping.





6th April
Granada to Almayate Costa.

I surfaced about 9am, after having been woken by the young team who'd arrived back on site at 6am after a night of wreckin' it in town no doubt. (OK, I'm jealous!)
I had some brekkie and headed in towards the city on le trusty mountain bike. Brrr....... it was cold! I very nearly had 2nd thoughts about going back for a jacket, and I did wish that I had gloves. I saw a sign with the time on it that also read '4 deg', so it's no wonder I felt a bit chilly.
It was a bit of a trek into the city (about 6km) and I didn't really manage to get my bearings at all. No nice, simple grid system for Granada.... no, this is your good old fashioned planned as they built it kinda city. I did eventually stumble across the city centre. Initially it was very quiet and lots of the shops, in fact nearly all, were shut, but the Granadians? did eventually come out in their droves for their Good Friday perambulation.
It's a nice city. Not stunning, but interesting and certainly somewhere worth a visit for a couple of days, maybe take in some of the nightlife etc. I wanted to find Le Alhambra and kept seeing fleeting glimpses of signs pointing this way and that way. I eventually managed to get on track but it was a long, climbing road that left me ditching the bike and having to push it up a very long, steep hill, only to find, once at the top, that I could have accessed it far easier from the old town, but the signs were for cars. Grrrrrr.......
There was a huge queue to get in to the Alhambra, so I decided on a small tour around the outside. Impressive and old. Not a lot else I can say really, since I didn't get to see inside. Maybe another day..... The journey back downhill on the bike was much more fun, hurtling down in towards the old town. I headed back toward the campsite to get moving again.
Today is going to be the final day of travelling on the road for a while and I'm looking forward to the rest.
Luckily, the caravan that had been parked in front of me last night had moved off, so I was able to drive straight out and on to the road. I had enough diesel on board to make it to the coast. The journey was fairly spectacular in terms of scenery, but good concentration on the road was needed too as it snaked uphill, then over the crest and down the other side, from dual carriageway, to single carriageway, older section of N342, then finally on to the coast road, the N340, which was a bundle of fun to drive as it switchbacked all over the shop. Nice in a Mini Cooper perhaps - not in a big motorhome.
Eventually we drove through Torre Del Mar and found Camping Almayate, which is very big and looks to be well specced, but it's heaving busy again and it's very expensive. 31 euro a night (inc electricity) over the Easter weekend, although that'll drop to 14 once the Camping Card rate kicks in on Tuesday, if I'm here that long.
Actually, I'm kicking myself, as after I got set up and biked it back to Torre Del Mar, I realised there are another 3 sites to choose from, all off the main road and closer to town. You live and learn. I've been pretty lucky so far. It's a bit of a trek to town, but it's more the cost that's pissing me off, as I don't want to blow the budget on campsite fees.
I'm also running low on supplies and there are NO shops open at all. I don't suppose there will be until at least Tuesday, so it looks like packet past and rice will be order of the day!
Mileage to date: 44695 km.
Spending: Nothing so far... not paid for camping yet....