Our first stop was driven (no pun intended!) in part by the personalised naming of our vans and Evie the Iveco’s ‘birthplace’ at the Iveco plant in Valladolíd! We’d always known that although Italian by make, Evie had been made in Spain before being imported to the UK, and it was only a chance conversation with an Iveco technician in Britain that pinned it down to Valladolíd.
As it was on our route, Mr B couldn’t help but pull into the factory gate with all the HGVs waiting in line to deliver to the plant, take a cheeky photo and head on out before security realised what was happening!
We’d decided to look out for a free stop over on this stage, and eschewing the initial option of a supermarket car park at Miranda de Ebro (yes, we were surprised the Ebro comes this far up!) Park4Night delivered an interesting alternative in a small village just off the AP1 and N1 where its 114 inhabitants had decided to create an Area de Autocaravanas, no doubt to tempt some extra income as well as get their village known.
An odd place, Cubo de Bureba. Nobody was about except for a French campervan in the ‘Area’ and, after a peaceful night’s sleep, nothing much changed in the morning when we nipped into the supermarket for some bread – except today wasn’t a fresh bread day, as witnessed by the box of stale bread outside for the locals to take for free. Neither was the bar/café open.
Mulling over what had led to the Cubo ‘Area’ being created, but grateful for it, we headed off towards Vitoria-Gasteiz, spotting that the rest of the AP1 after there was no longer free. Luckily, the adjacent A1 was free (also a two lane motorway) so we completed the rest of the journey at the same pace, arriving at the outskirts of Donostia/San Sebastián via a very slightly longer, but free route.
It pays to check on which motorways are free or not in real time by the signs on the roadside, as our Google Maps thought the whole of the AP1 was a toll road – as did a number of trucks we criss-crossed with where the two routes overlapped!
Navigating the outskirts of the city via our old map was a bit of a challenge to start with, but we soon arrived at Camping Orio, or Orio Kanpina as it stated proudly in Euskera/Basque on the sign outside.
As we’d added Donostia/San Sebastián to our itinerary at the last minute (a Mrs B brainwave as we were both pining for the coast), Mr B hadn’t had time to get to grips with any Euskera, and with some trepidation he went into reception armed only with ‘sorry I can’t speak Basque’ in Spanish. Although the road signs were dual language, a lot of what we’d seen on shops and business as we drove through the Pais Vasco/Euskadi was in Euskera only!
Returning with a smile on his face that we’d both got a pitch and that the staff were appreciative of campers speaking either of the native languages, we pitched up on a largely empty site, with enough time to walk the 1km along the river to the nearby town of Orio, after a quick look at the beach.
And what a fabulous location it turned out to be, with a wonderful surf beach a few hundred metres away…
a lovely walk along the harbour into the town…
and a visit to the Turismo, where we discovered that we were right on the meeting point of a number of coastal walks as well as a short train ride into Donostia/San Sebastián…
We wandered back through the old town, admiring the active café/bar culture and starting to put together some plans for the next few days, and maybe even extending our stay!
We’d taken a punt on this site being open at all, as it closes the Monday after we arrived on Wednesday, and what a gem it looks to be!
S&J
19.11.22
This site looks like it’s worth us taking a note of as well as it’s close to the sea -steve can have a dip !!
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