Kings day in Alora

Our next stop was Alora where Simons Uncle lives. We met him at a bar just outside the town called the Tropicana. It is a nice little bar run by an English woman with free Wi-Fi & English meals available. We were there the day before Kings Day which in Spain is the day when the children get their Christmas presents & people celebrate. On the day before there are often parades with people throwing sweets at the people they pass, beware they are boiled sweets & can hurt!

Sweet throwing!

Torreguadiaro

After visiting Gibralter we headed North again. Only about 20 miles away is Torreguadiaro where we stopped for the night. There is a beach park up there which a lot of campervans use. It is a handy place to stay if you want to be able to get to Gibralter or the Costa del Sol easily & you can pick up a couple of English radio stations there.

Torreguadiaro

Gibralter

We stopped for a day in Gibralter as we were passing by. It was very busy at the border especially for vehicles where there was long queues. We parked in La Linea at the border & cycled in. It was strange getting the British money out again to use & seeing all prices in pounds. We had a look round although we didn't go up the rock to see the monkeys, we are going to do that next time. We did go to the Morrisons to get some English goodies & got some cheap tobacco. Gibralter is nothing special really but is handy for cheaper things & British things.

 The Rock of Gibralter

Local graffiti

Africa

After three weeks at the Pig field we had to start heading North to Murcia where my Mum lives as my son Lee was flying in for a weeks holiday. As we climbed the mountain away from Tarifa we looked back accross the water to Africa. Agua is doing well now, putting on weight & is so cute even Busta loves her :)

 Africa

 Best Friends Forever :)

Pig Field, Tarifa

Our next stop was near Tarifa on the Southern most tip of Spain. There is a tarmaced carpark & a field (known locally as the Pig field) where there is free parking at Punta Paloma. We spent Christmas & New Year there with lots of other van dwellers. We took lots of walks along the beautiful long stretches of beach & our new baby, Agua seemed to settle in, we even managed to teach her to recognise her name, to sit & to sometimes come when called!

 Pig Field

Punta Paloma Beach

Agua!

On our first morning in Vila Real de Santo Antonio we saw a very young puppy looking very sad sat under a tree at the park up. After a couple of hours of her sitting there & no one collecting her I went over to see her. Immediatly she attached herself to me & came back to the van. She was thin but not too bad compared to some of the strays you sadly see around so often in Portugal & Spain. She was a bit smelly & had a couple of fleas but nothing too bad so we don't think she was born on the streets. I think she was probably about 8-10 weeks old. She didn't want to eat anything but was happy to hang around with us for the day. We were going to move on that day but decided to hang around an extra day to see if anyone came looking for her. That night she curled up on the front seat & we didnt hear a peep out of her all night. I think it had been the first night for a while where she was sleeping somewhere safe & warm. The next day we named her Agua (Portugese & Spanish for water) & we took her with us. Hopefully she'll settle in!

 Agua

Vila Real de Santo Antonio

After spending nearly two months at Barranco it was time to move on into Spain. We stopped for a couple of nights at a park up in Vila Real de Santo Antonio which is right on the border where the Rio Guadiana seperates Portugal & Spain. There is a large area just outside the town on the riverside where campervans park up. It is close to all amenities & a nice large area. We saw quite a few storks there in their big nests on chimneys. I had thought all storks migrate to Africa for the Winter months but obviously not!

 Rio Guadiana

Storks

Wildlife/death

At Barranco beach we were lucky enough to see all sorts of wildlife. The beach & surrounding area is a nature reserve & so there is no hunting & the wildlife is free to flourish. There was some amazing colourful small birds that I was unable to get photos of & we also saw a big white bird of prey one day that may have been a Sea Eagle that flew off before I could get the camera out! We also saw some amazing storms out at sea which I couldn't photograph with my main camera due to the torrential rain but I did take some videos on my phone of the lightening. Unfortunatly we also saw a Dolphin that had been washed up after being killed. We think it had got trapped in a fishing net as its tail had been cut off :(

 Praying Mantis

White Heron

 Weavil

 Lightening

Dead Dolphin

Barranco

Barranco beach near Sagres on the South West tip of Portugal was to be our home for the next few weeks. We had been here in the Spring & it is a lovely place to park up for a while. The nearby town of Villa do Bispo has everything we need; a supermarket, spring water & free internet access at the libary. It is a good base to explore the Algarve.

Barranco beach

Algar Seco

On the way to our first long stay park up we visited Algar Seco, a small lagoon among the rocks on the Algarve. The rocks around this area are amazing & well worth a visit. Algar Seco was a nice spot to visit but a bit touristy for us to stay any length of time. At nearby Lagos there are some other amazing rock formations at Ponta Piedade which are also worthy of a visit.

 Algar Seco

Alamendres

Our first night in Portugal was spent at the Neolithic site of Alamendres near the town of Evora. The whole area has quite a few Neolithic sites including Alamendres which at 7000 years old is one of the oldest sites in Europe & the biggest in Iberia. There is also some standing stones & dolmens nearby, one of which is huge! Alamendres is also a good spot to park up for a while, the nearby village of Guadalupe has water, toilets & showers as well as a cash point & bars.

 Alamendres

Barren lands

We have now driven all the way accross Spain & into Portugal. I know there are some parts of inland Spain that are beautiful & well worth visiting but I must say that most of what we saw from Vitoria Gasteiz to Badajoz was pretty barren. There was some nice looking rocky mountains nearer the North but the further we travelled inland the flatter & more barren the land became. The land was very dry, I don't expect it has seen much (if any) rain for a few months & everything looked brown & dried out. There was very few crops or animals grazing & I wonder how the people living out here make a living as the tourism is all concentrated on the coast. It did make a difference from the mountain driving we did last year around some parts of Spain though & for a couple of days we did nearly 300 miles each day as there was nothing much to stop for. It also meant we got to Portugal a lot sooner than we expected!

 View towards Caceres

No WI-FI!!!

Hey bloggers I have not forgotten you all! We are down near Sagres in Portugal now but I have to go into the library for the internet and so cannot post you the things I have saved on my laptop. When we move somewhere new maybe I will be able to! In the meantime if you are interested we are at a little beach called Barranco, you can look it up on Google Earth!

Into Spain

We spent our last night in France at Moliets Plage near the town of Moliets-et-Maa. There is an Aire there with showers at 5 Euros for 24 hours out of season & 11 Euros in season. We stayed in the carpark for free though as the place was a bit of a ghost town with all the shops & bars shut for the winter. We crossed into Spain at Irun, a typical border town with lots of shops selling tat. A good place to stock up on cigarettes, tobacco & fuel on the way North though as they are all cheaper in Spain than France! As we are heading south we dont need to worry about that. Our first day in Spain was glorious with sunshine & blue skies, we took the toll road from San Sebastian to Vitoria Gasteiz which was only 10 Euros & we went through a tunnel 3.5km long! We spent our first night in Spain was spent at the monument of Al Pastor near Miranda de Ebro, there is plenty of room to park there & a bar/resturant & campsite. We spent the next day driving on through the country until we were South of Salamanca. The countryside is quite barren around here, there is not much between the few main towns. We stopped near the Embalse de Saint Teresa where a nice local man engaged us in conversation. Our Spanish is pretty terrrible but we managed to have a bit of a chat! We have now done 1500 miles since arriving in Calais!

Monument of Al Pastor

Dolmens

In the area of Carnac & further south we visited quite a lot of other Neolithic sites. France is rich in Neolithic history & there are a huge amount of Dolmens, Menhirs & Cairns around the country. Many are marked on an average road map of France & they are usually well signposted. We found that we often found a few more on the way to one marked on the map. We saw an interesting one near Carnac called Dolmen de Mane Kerionned, there is 3 Dolmens on the site. One is completly underground & on a few of the stones inside there are authentic engravings. At Locmariaquer there is also a Cairn with engravings inside, be warned though the site there is 5 Euro per person entry fee. There are plenty of sites to visit for free including another Alignment at Kerzerho which is impressive even though it is not on the same scale as the Carnac Alignments. One of the biggest Dolmens we visited was the Dolmen de la Frebouchere which has an 100 ton cap stone. We have now finished our tour of the Neolithic sites & are heading towards Spain now :) We parked up on the way at Pointe de l'Aiguillon which is just North of La Rochelle near l'Aiguillon-sur-Mer, the town has an Aire but we decided to go out to the point where there is also plenty of places to park.

 Dolmen de la Frebouchere

We visited the Alignments at Carnac to start our Neolithic tour of the area. What an amazing sight! I have spent a lot of time at Stonehenge, Avebury, West Kennet Long Barrow & Wayland's Smithy which I feel are very dramatic Neolithic sights but Carnac is something else! Rows & rows of stones as far as the eye can see, some quite small but others 2-3 metres high. The stones dominate the landscape as it rises up hill & then back down again. The Alignments are divided into six sections as there are some gaps in between in places. From October to March it is free to visit although some sections are closed off. There is an informative visitors centre at the west end of the Alignments which is also a gift shop. There are car parks along the route of the stones which helps anyone with mobility issues. There are also toilets at the visitors centre & at a carpark halfway along the route. In the evening we parked up in the town at an Aire with a few other campervans. Luckily there was a Pizza house opposite so Simon got to have Pizza for his birthday! There is also a good tourist information office in the town where we found out about all the other Neolithic sites in the area.

Le Menec, 1050 stones over 950 metres

Kermario, most visited area due to large stones

Cap Gris-Nez & Gorron

Bonjour! We are now in France after a smooth Euro tunnel crossing. The tunnel is a bit more expensive than the ferry but it is quicker & we are able to stay with Busta (the dog) who hates loud noises & I'm sure would hate being left in the van on his own on the ferry. We crossed at about 5pm after stopping at a supermarket on the way to stock up on t-bags & a few other things that are more expensive or hard to get over here! We stopped for the night just 20 miles or so outside Calais at Cap Gris-Nez, the same place we had found when we came back in June. There is a big carpark at the Cap which says not to park overnight, it might just be the summer though I can't remember now. Anyway we found a road just before there that goes down to the beach which has some car parking spaces & campervan spaces. It is free & you can stay as long as you want I guess! Also further along that coast road towards Boulogne are a couple more parking areas, handy to know when you are coming & going accross the channel :) We then went to visit a friend near Mayenne who has just bought a house there. A beautiful house, although it is only a shell at the moment it will be lovely when finished. He also has some land & old barns so plenty of renovating to do! On the way we stopped at a nice Aire (French rest area) in Gorron, it has water & electricity available there & a nice location on the riverbank. If you are in Gorron follow the campervan signs, there is a Super U supermarket a few minutes walk away as well. Handy to know if you are in the area :) We are now heading towards Carnac to have a couple of days seing the Neolithic sites in the area before heading south for the better weather!

Mussel farming on the beach at Cap Gris-Nez

Time To Go...

It is time for us to leave the UK again, infact by the time I get to post this up we will already be overseas! At the time of writing though we are in Brighton & leaving in the morning for the Euro tunnel. We have spent 3 weeks staying in Stanmer Park on the outskits of Brighton with some other vehicle dwellers. I have never been anywhere where there are so many live-in vehicles around! Everywhere you go there are live-ins, some not permanant homes but quite a number are. There are a few park-ups in the Brighton area & a couple of sites. It has been nice staying somewhere that feels a litle more accepting than other places in the UK & we have met some great people, some of who we hope to see over the winter on the continent. We have had some work done on the van ready for our trip which meant a few days of not being able to move & a few hectic days buying last minute necessities & doing last minute jobs. We had a few days of beautiful summer like weather whilst the van was off the road which was a massive bonus but now it has been feeling quite Wintery at times & the wood burner has been fired up a few times. We have luckily had time just about to catch up with some old friends in the area & Simon managed to do a tattoo on a mate. So thats it from the UK for a while, we are heading for Carnac in France to start with & then onto Spain & Portugal to see some bits of the country we didn't see last time & some of the bits we loved so much we must go back! Hasta luego amigos xoxox

Autumn leaf at Stanmer park

Alchemy Festival

We were lucky enough to get tickets to Alchemy Festival which is one of the few festivals left in the UK that still allow dogs. The line-up was great with Zion Train, RDF, Back to the Planet & Rhythmites being some of the great bands playing. What made the festival extra special was that so many of our friends were there too which was lovely. Also at the festival was a pretty good fire show, (although not a patch on the one at Freekuency Festival in Portugal earlier in the year!) some workshops on wild foods & some nice stalls. There was quite a lot of dance music which wasn't really to my taste but the live music stage more than made up for that. The vibe was amazing & the toilets were pretty OK all weekend. Thanks to the organisers for such a great little festival & thanks to Neil for the tickets :) Here's some pictures...