Introduction to our 4 Month Trip

Introduction

This is a journal covering our caravan tour of Classical Spain.  We will travel through France to Sitges in Northern Spain where we join fellow members of the Caravan Club for a 4 week trip along the East Coast.  The tour ends just outside Malaga from where we will go off route.  We plan to see all we can in Andalusia before heading North via Madrid to the Picos de Europa.

Our trip will last about 4 months.  This isn’t the first time we have done this – we toured Italy in 2009.

We think everything is now ready.  The various insurance policies are in place, we have out route.  I have just synchronized the Samsung Tab with the PC so we have all the electronic files we need.

Our main problem has been ensuring that we do not overload our Bailey Unicorn Valencia Van.  When we visited a weighbridge a couple of weeks ago I was shocked to see that it was 40kg over the maximum permitted technical load.  So, we stripped out the microwave, free standing table, gas bottle and lots of other stuff.  We are now under so we can put the clothes and food inside the van but carry the heavy stuff eg gas bottle, awning and chairs in the car.

Monday 11 March 2013

Here is the first edition our travel blog from sunny Spain.  

We left home on Tuesday 5 March 2013 and spent our first night at Chatsworth Caravan Club Site to check that everything worked and we have not forgotten anything vital.   Everything seemed to work ok and so far we haven’t forgotten anything vital.   

We drove down to Dover on Wednesday and took the ferry on Thursday morning.   Just about had time for a coffee and we have arrived in France.   Thankfully the Channel was like a mill Pond.

We spent the next few days driving down through France and some terrible weather.  The first site we stayed at was just a mud bath.   The second night we stayed on a very pretty little site on a farm but were a little lonely as we were the only people there.  Our final stopover in France was in a town called Touron sur Rhone where we had a view of the river from the caravan, watching the huge cargo barges going up and down. 

 

As we drove South of Lyon we started to notice signs of spring with Almond blossom on the trees.

We arrived in Spain on Sunday evening, a day earlier than planned.  We covered 1,201 miles from Chatsworth to our site in Spain.  Camping Vilanova Park  is just South of Barcelona.   It is a huge site and we have been surprised at how busy it is.   There are many nationalities here including quite a few from Denmark and Sweden which must have involved quite a drive.  I presume they come for the daylight and the warmth.   The weather has been warm and sunny today, though quite breezy.   We have already met up with a few people on the Caravan Club Tour but many more yet to arrive.  The tour officially starts tomorrow (Tuesday) evening with a welcome meal.