Sorry if a bit lengthy...
Set off with another couple from Newhaven 3 weeks ago and headed south west to Brittany, spent a couple of days with family there and then drove to Ile de Re, just by La Rochelle. It's an island connected to the mainland by a longish bridge, pretty nice sandy beaches and loads of campsites - stayed in one called Cotes Sauvage on the west end of the island...Nice place, plenty of shade and a decent enough beach. Decent enough moules frites in the evening but a helluva long walk to the restaurant...
Left the next day to camp outside a ruined farmhouse that used to be in the family down near Sauveterre de Bearne, tried to get the fridge cool on gas but no joy, it kept going out and never cooled the fridge below 10 C, which is all it would go down to running on 12v while driving
. Ah well at least kept the beers a bit cool. And it was 30 degrees plus during the day, which surely has consequences for the poor old dometic... Left the next day to head over the Pyrenees via St. Jean Pied-de-Port on the route of the Camino de Santiago. Very greatful for the manual override for the fan on the way up - second gear and 2800rpm for much of the way, but water temp didn't rise at all with the fan on. Though it draws so much power on the high setting that the van noticeably sped up when it was switched off...Stopped for lunch at the top, having driven up an even steeper narrower road after turning off at the top of the main pass. Beautiful spot, and some nice wild camping spots around, would have been a good spot for the night, but we had to get on, and made it over to Olite in Spain by the afternoon...nice town, with a beautiful old castle and so on, all closed by the time we got there but still nice to look at. Surrounding countryside was industrial agriculture at its most boring and unpleasent smelling though, and the only campsite we could find was 50 Euros to camp by a motorway alongside rows and rows of bungalows, so we kept driving, with things getting a bit tense as the evening wore on, to look for a better spot. Drove for another couple of hours towards Cordoba before coming to some more mountainous areas...The road got narrower as we went up, and finally right at the highest bit of the main road found a gravel track turning off up the hillside.
We decided not to be put off by the abandoned circus wagon with giant scary clown painted on it lurking at the entrance to the trail and headed up and up and up to a flattish bit at the top, where we pitched camp as it was getting dark. All four slept in the van for the first time and surprised to find it could actually sleep four adults in decent comfort. Woke up to sunlight filtering through pine trees and the most spectacular view back down the valley. Duly got back on the road after a slightly edgy descent - first gear could not be used for crawling down the hill as it kept popping out, so had to be second with brakes...just glad we didn't have any rain in the night.
Got to within 100km or so of Cordoba that night, and just as we were feeling generally fed up and ready to stop found a lovely campsite relatively out in the middle of nowhere, and were directed to a natural rock slide into a stream and selection of paleolithic cave paintings by the owner of the site. On his recommendation decided to stay in Cordoba the next night to go to a huge fair that night - Got there to find the place awash in senoritas in flamenco dresses, with guys in caballero outfits wandering around on horses. Looked like a lot of fun, so headed into town for an amazing meal and then hit the town. Unfortunately quite litertally in my case, as I severely sprained my ankle as we walked over the bridge to the fair. With egg sized lump coming up within 30 seconds of falling had to cancel the Feria plan and head back to the van for whisky and an early night. Managed to persuade someone in the hospital the next day to sell me a pair of crutches (having waited for hours with assorted other casualties from the fair and been told that no crutches, doctors or anything pretty much were available, due to the aforementioned fair.), and we carried on, with me in the passenger seat. Oh yeah, and the Mezquita, a huge mosque with a cathedral in the middle, one of the most important buildings in Spain, was closed by the time we got out of the hospital.
But we were now withing striking distance of the south coast, and carried on past Malaga and Marbella and a load of other fairly unpleasant looking places to Terifa, which is right on the southernmost tip of Spain, and set up camp in a sort of dense pine wood just off the beach. Amazingly nice place, loads of sand, wind, warm sea, etc, etc. Oh yeah, and Africa sitting 8 miles away on the other side, close enough that you can see peoples houses. Felt enjoyably strange to be sitting on the edge of one continent, looking out at another, and thinking that the beach we were on could well have been where the first humans to leave Africa washed up...
Up to this point in the trip there had been much consideration given to the issue of whether or not to actually drive to Morocco. We knew we wouldn't have much time there, because we took a week to get down, and only had four days until we needed to get to a wedding in Carmona...but ah stuff it, we've come all this way...hang the cost, lets just do it...
ulp...500 Euros for a return with 4 people and a van...makes the crossing the channel look like very good value!
So off we went, and held up for only an hour or so by the border formalities in Tangier (but not troubled for too much in the way of baksheesh), headed out of town (eventually - no maps and no GPS data), and up to Chefchauoen in the Rif mountains. Perched up on the side of the valley, a bit of a hippy-trap but with an amazing (in the sense of being maze-like as well) medina with tight alleys and staircases, all painted blue and white. Very nice, and there is a campsite, which by reputation is alright, up above the town. But didn't fancy a 2km walk to get anywhere with me ankle and crutches and so on, so stayed in the Hotel Rif just outside the Medina. Was a bit worried about the van being left, but they had parking outside (could see it from the room), and a guy stationed outside all night, and had no problems (Hotel guys: 'Club Joker hah! this we never see...with basil on the roof...we remember this when you come back!...').
Wandered the town for a day or two trying not to buy hash from the persistent vendors of same, and went off in the van on the last day to look for a natural rock bridge with streams and monkeys and pools to swim in about 40 min drive from the town. Got lost a couple of times before finding the right road, which turned out to have been washed out by huge landslides 4 months before. However there was a replacement road in the early stages of construction, complete with terrifying drops, steep hairpins, massive badly loaded trucks struggling up and so on, which we gingerly negotiated before getting back onto tarmac for a bit, only to find the road, an electricity substation and most of a village piled up at the bottom of the valley. Amazingly no-one had lost their life, and no animals had been killed, so we didn't feel too much like disaster tourists...
Pulled up at the last bit of the road and a local guided us over the lanslide, but couldn't make it all the way up to the bridge and so on due to the ankle, so settled for a picnic and swim a bit further down. Another beautiful spot, and with a campsite, which you'll be able to get to again once the road is rebuilt. Interested to see that the first shoots of new life were showing through the mud which covered everything on the valley floor - pot plants, from seeds washed down the mountain by the rain, according to the guy who was showing us the way.
Made it back along the road to Chefcahoen and got ready to head back to Europe. Van still hadn't used any oil, to my amazement, though was extremely dusty. Debated with myself whether to try fitting the new air filter I had brought, but didn't seem to be down on power so left it.
Leaving early we drove back down through the mountains, through incredible wafts of mint from the patches that grow everywhere beside the road, and got back to Tangier relatively hassle free. Though a word to the wise, carry cash for fuel in Morroco as petrol stations don't seem to take cards, and cash machines are a bit thin on the ground away from the cities. And quite a few of 'em we couldn't get to work anyway. Folrmalities going the other way focussed mainly on the obvious, and we waited for a huge truck to x-ray the van before leaving. We chose to get out and watch this process rather than get irradiated ourselves, but one lot of people ended up staying in their car and no-one told them to get out, so your health and safety are still up to you at least out there...
Not much more to go now
This has developed into rather a long post....Made it back to the other side, stayed off the motorways and had a nice drive along empty roads blessedly lacking steep hills, to Carmona, just north of Seville, for the wedding of some friends which had been the inspiration for the trip in the first place. Though we didn't camp, can confirm that Carmona is a beautiful town, ancient, medival spanish with a moorish flavour, delicous tapas, and so on. No idea if there's a campsite there though, but Spain in general seems a bit rubbish on that front, so maybe not...
4 nights in one place! Nice for a bit, but we only had 4 days to get back, so pushed off earlyish (well, before lunch...) the day after the festivities finished and started heading North. Strange feeling to be getting closer to home with each mile. Stopped at a random town in northern spain called Tordesillas not far from Valladolid that night. Fairly pleasant campsite just the other side of the river from the town, and seemed quite a nice sort of place, but once againm we arrived after everything was shut, so just had time for a quick wander before another delicious slap up meal at the van (highly recommed travelling with foodie types, most of the best food we ate on the trip was what we cooked ourselves...). Another early start, and back into France, this time on motorways via San Sebastien (much less stressful for the van...). Picked a spot more or less at random just off that huge beach that runs all the way up the coast to Bordeaux, on the edge of a big lake, called Gastes. Weird place - the other couple we were with wanted to sleep in their tent that night but all the campsites were closed, so we stayed in a pay and display motorhome place, full of retired couples in huge ducato based campers...don't know if these are commonplace or what (what with being totally new to this whole camping thing (campsites are a bit odd on the whole aren't they?))
Went off for a wander around the lake and solved the mystery of the platforms we could see out in the middle when we came round a corner and ran into one of those huge nodding donkey type oil rigs pumping away on the shore. Peculier sight, but other than the pertochemical extraction stuff the countryside was nice round there. Wished for bikes to ride the numerous cycle paths.
Next day on the road early again, aiming for the Loire, which was conveninetly exactly half way back to Dieppe, and, begin in France, could be assumed to be liberally supplied with campsites. Just as I was saying 'I hope we find some beautiful spot right on the banks of the river' we ran into just that, camping au bord de la loire, in Gennes, a tiny town just across the river from another slightly larger town called Rosieres sur Loire. Again, an absolutely beautiful spot, where, again, everything was shut when we pulled up. Having finally worked out how to get the fridge cold (probably helped by the 20 degree drop in abient temperature since leaving Spain) we enjoyed a Brune or two, and another amazing meal, before another good nights sleep (by this stage we are sleeping better in the van than we do at home...).
Break camp for the last time, back on the road and in Dieppe in time for the 6 o'clock ferry. Oddly, the same H-registered T25 autosleeper that was behind us on the ferry on the way out is behgind us on the way back. Peculier...
Got back to Brighton and between dropping the others at the station and getting home suffered the only mechanical faliure of the trip, when the horrendous clatter from the engine at idle indicated that the weld holding the last bracket on the exhaust before its end had failed
Anyone know a good welder in Brighton? Amazing though, 3200 miles, 19 days, 4 up and loaded and in 40 degree heat for quite a bit, and used less than a litre of oil...didn't need any of the spares I took (though had to repair a crack in the roof with tape temporarily (and ineffectively), and that was the only hitch, and I was parking at home when it happened!
So that was it - our first trip, a couple of weeks after buying the van, and it all worked beautifully...
Now to get that exhaust welded up so we can head off again, north this time I think...fancy seeing the midnight sun for the first time
Patrick