Winter wanderings - week one

Our plan for this sneaky little escape to Spain was, after transiting France, to spend about a month making a circular tour across the north, down along the Portuguese border to the south and then back up the Med into southern France before heading for home in plenty of time for Christmas. This would have taken us from La Seu Urgell once we had dropped down the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, across to Zaragoza, up to Burgos, over to Salamanca, down to Sevilla, over to Granada, on to Almeria and then up along the coast via some of our favourite haunts into France and then home….

Although we planned to stay on the usual ACSI campsites as much as possible, part of the thinking for this trip was to allow for more off-grid free camping, especially given the paucity of campsites that were open this time of year in the northern part of the planned trip. To this end we’d made sure that our kit was all checked over and ready to keep us warm and dry…

So we left Blighty under blue skies and on a calm sea. We took this to be a good omen…

We knew we were likely to meet wet weather as we crossed over into France and sure enough, it came out to meet us halfway across the channel. It’s always a shame, but frequently the case, that we get pants weather on this first part of the trip and so arriving at our first overnight stop at

Marcilly-en-Villette in the rain was nothing new. This is a regular stop for us as it’s one of the fabulous free Aire de Camping Cars we use when possible – and it’s only a few hours drive from Dieppe – just right for the first night. We remembered not to park under the trees so that if and when it did stop raining, we wouldn’t be teased by the slow and erratic drip of rain from the leaves onto the skylights.

Luckily, it stopped raining for breakfast and for just long enough to top up with water before it started again. And with the rain came the news that Trump had won the US election. We woke up on our last trip to mainland Europe to the Brexit vote result, and here we were again waking to more news that beggared belief and makes us more doubtful than ever about the sanity of the world we are living in. Still, we had managed to stay nice and warm in the chilly 5c temperatures of the night and we headed off towards the Pyrenees looking forward to blue skies and snow, watching warily for posters supporting Marine le Pen for president of France…

The rain kept us company on the drive south until we reached the outskirts of Cahors, where unexpected roadworks and diversions helped us change our minds from heading for a campsite that might be closed by the time we got there, to seeking out the riverside Aire in Cahors’ centre. This is a good example of where the Aires are a bit of a gamble, as the one we were heading to only allowed three vans to stay at a time…

Lucky for us, all three spaces adjacent to the river were free, so we made our choice and settled in for another wet evening, smug in the knowledge that before long we’d be toasty warm once the diesel heating had fired up… except it didn’t and we were straight back to the memories of the last time we’d relied on it in the cold of winter and it had failed. Still, we’d had it fixed since then, and tested just before we left the UK, so surely all would be well?

Long story short, we failed to get it going and spent the evening contingency planning before filling up the hot water bottles and having an early night. Should we continue with Plan A and hope the heating might sort itself out? Find a dealer who might be able to fix it? Plan a route where we could get access to electric hook up so we could stay warm with our electric heating? Wait until we woke up and Trump and the diesel heater were just a bad dream? Or just head off towards the Med where we knew the temperatures were much warmer than in northern Spain – and where there are plenty of cheap campsites. Call us a pair of wusses if you will, but we decided to head for the Med. After all, we’re only in Spain for a month and the places we’d hoped to get to will still be there on another trip.

As we still had the Pyrenees to traverse (and temperatures of -3 predicted overnight) we also decided we’d look for a campsite with electric hook up, rather than our usual €4 Aire at Les Cabannes in the foothills of the mountains. And so we headed for what looked like a very picturesque site just up from Ax-les-Thermes. OK, we could see that we would be high enough to be sitting in the low cloud that was dressing the Pyrenees rather than the blue skies we had hoped for, but being able to plug into the mains had an altogether different pull now we needed it to stay warm at night.

We pulled up at the gates to the site just as darkness was falling and were surprised to see that it was completely empty. But not as surprised as we were to see that reception was closed… Still, there were some signs up suggesting that new arrivals should call a mobile number if no-one was in reception… So, with French verbs conjugating themselves in her mind, Mrs B called the number…only to discover that the Dutch owners were in Holland and that their replacement cover was not due to arrive until the following day…

Thinking that this was the perfect end to a perfect day (not) how amazed and surprised we were to be told that not only could we park up where we fancied, and that the toilets and showers were open, working, and with hot water, and that the electric hook-ups were also on, but, we could stay the night for free!! What a truly wonderful mindset the owners must have to both leave their site open like this, and to trust us from a distance. Our faith in some of humanity a little restored, we settled down for what was a very restful, and toasty warm night.

Morning brought no let up in the rain and as we headed higher into the Col de Puymorens near the border with Andorra, it was joined by sleet and snow. But as we approached the Spanish border at Puigcerda, the skies cleared, the sun shone and suddenly I was wearing the wrong trousers and was left wondering how far beneath my many jumpers I’d buried my shorts! This isn’t the first time we’ve made this crossing to be greeted by such a pleasant improvement in the weather and after stocking up with the much cheaper fresh food and wine just across the border, we set off for the coast, stopping only for a quick cuppa and marvelling at the change in the weather.

Not entirely sure of what our revised plan might look like now we were in such sunny climes, we headed for Alcossebre north of Castellón, where we knew we had a good chance of a free overnight camp on the beach south of town. Sure enough, our favourite spot on the beach was just waiting for us – as was the flat piece of rock I’d used back in May this year to get the front of the van level! Falling asleep to the gentle sound of the waves lapping on the shore is one of our favourite bits of van life – and this spot delivers time after time! And with a night-time temperature of 15c – no need for a heater!

Waking to what soon turned into an amazing 25c scorcher of a day, we decided to look for a site on this part of the coast that we’d not yet been to, and to use it as a base for exploring both the coast, and some of the interior. And so, although we must have driven past it loads of times and not stopped, we decided to head off and explore the delights of Oropesa del Mar – just a few miles down the coast, where we could start to rebuild our plans for the next few weeks…

S.