The End In Sight.

Sunday 6th April 2014.

After all the rain forced us to stay in the van all day yesterday, we were starting to go a little stir crazy so we went to the local supermarket for a little retail therapy but it must be admitted that our best buy was a tank of diesel at just €1.274/litre thats just £1.06, around what we have been paying for the last three or four months, I wonder what we will be paying when we get back to UK?

Monday 7th April 2014.

Our last move before heading for the boat back to UK today!

The t’internet at Caminha was so poor (another result of the storm?) we were unable to find or research sites between Caminha and Gijon where we were to catch the ferry. We had stayed on a great site just 100km (60 miles) beyond Gijon a couple of years ago, so we headed there. It has been a long day towing some 550 km (342 mls) and the site pitches appear smaller than we remember them, we are too long to fit into one pitch so we must park across two and turn turn around so that we can go out as we came in through a third pitch. We hope no-one goes on it before we leave or we we‘ll be in Effluent Creek.

Tuesday 8th April 2014.

Rain and low cloud all day today, we did try to drive up into the mountains but the cloud was so thick we couldn’t see the front of the car let alone the views.

Wednesday 9th April 2014.

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What a difference a day makes. It’s such a glorious day today that we made a return visit to Ribadesella, it is one of the nicest seaside towns we have ever visited - like Frinton but posh!! While we were there we had a look at Camping Ribadesella where we had intended to go. It has a very, very tight entrance and the pitches (from what we could see) were even smaller than where we are. Looking for meat to take home at Mercadona supermarket today. It seems daft to take meat home but not only is it cheaper there are cuts that we like that are hard to get inUK. Unfortunately we can’t buy anything today as we have accidentally defrosted the fridge/freezer and must wait for it to get fully cold again before putting stuff in.

Thursday 10th April 2014.

Got the meat - a large rabbit, two pork tenderloins and, the piece de resistance, ten pork cheeks - YUMMIE.

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Returning from the supermarket we retraced our foggy footsteps of Tuesday, this time in crystal clear weather. The views were stunning, we drove up to a height of 1200 m (3937 ft) thats higher than Mount Snowdon at 1085m (3560 ft)

Friday 11th April 2014.

Up at crack of sparrow f**t to day. Getting off the pitch (no-one in the way) and 100 km down the road to Gijon where we were to catch the ferry. There were signs to the ferry port, called Puerto de el Musel, not Puerto de Gijon as expected and just before you enter the port there is a LD Lines sign but you have to get into the port (flashing a printed paper at the security barriers worked for us) and just drive forward looking around. With more luck than judgement we eventually found the queue (look for UK number plates!!) and listening to advise from other travellers we took our documentation to a sentry type box and was issued with boarding pass and other documents. The wait then started. At 12.30 loading started, half an hour to load when the Guardia were taking some panel vans apart and searching with sniffer dogs as well as men. Luckily cars, caravans nor motorhomes were were included in the excitement and we joined the queue in lane two. Just as we were about to start loading it was noticed that all the vans and small trucks had been directed to lane one not lane two so ensued a great kerfuffle while they were moved to lane three. Eventually loading was complete (they even remembered the motorbikes that should have been loaded first but had remained forgotten on the quay for over two hours) and 45 minutes late the ferry departed.

We wrote the following description of the trip in an email to friends: -

norman-asturias

“. . . The trip back on the ferry was good but it must be said that the boat and it’s facilities are basic but perfectly adequate, as is the food. We had lamb and rice for dinner that was plentiful, tasty and tender although there have been many complaints about the food standard, likewise I had a full English for breakfast which was of acceptable standard and reasonably priced. Our cabin was of a good size (for two) but four people would find it a squash. The only real problem was the boat likes to “jitterbug” moving even on a smooth sea, a crew member I was chatting to said the movement in bad weather was “horrendous” going on to say it (the boat) was designed for the Med not Biscay! and twenty five hours is a long time to be Moby Dick . . .”

Arriving back at Poole we were first off the boat and waved through customs without stopping.

Trip number two is complete.

Statistics (for the sad among you 😋).

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Well, thats the end of this blog, we hope you enjoyed virtual travelling we us. Our next trip is, we hope a summer in Scandinavia, please, visit this site again soon to see how we get on.

Last Updated - Sunday 27th April 2014.             © Seve  Ghost 2014