Monday 25th March – Rota to Vila Real de Santo Antonio

Rota to Vila Real de Santo Antinio - 210 miles

We decided to stay another day at Rota as it was such a nice spot, it was warm and sunny …......... and it was Sunday! But ever onward and after a delayed getaway due to chatting with a solo Brit who was new to European motorhoming (actually we think he was just a tad lonely....) we set off with a view to visiting El Rocio which apparently is the venue for one of the largest celebrations of the horse – no that didn't come out right. But at Pentecost apparently thousands of horsey folk descend on the place as some form of pilgrimage with parades, carnival etc. and is quite a spectacle. However as it's not Pentecost we didn't expect to see much.

So a nice run up to Seville and we took extra care negotiating the very busy motorwork network. After a few miles westbound we turned off towards El Rocio, pausing to refill the fuel tank as it is cheaper in Spain than Portugal, before entering the town. First impressions were that motorhomes were not welcome, with signs everywhere, then the one and only campsite didn't help by not accepting dogs, despite assurances in our ACSI campsite book that they did. Then when looking for somewhere to park for an hour to have lunch and look around, it was all pay parking. Now we're not averse to this but the place was deserted and looked decidedly scruffy with lots of closed “touristy” places so we turned round and cleared off.

The road skirts a National Park, which is why it is awkward to get to and we could either return the way we came, anathema to us, or continue along the scenic coast road. Not our day today as it was neither scenic or coastal with fences along both sides and next to nowhere to stop. We eventually pulled into one of the service access roads and parked by the locked gate – nobody was obviously using it – and had a very late lunch.

It got no better as we headed towards Huelva and into our normal stopping time, so with no prospect of finding an overnight spot we just got back onto the motorway and headed into Portugal where we knew of a few aires close to the border which should be okay. Once registered for automatic toll payments we headed for Vila Real de Santo Antonio and the aire on the riverside, where we found a few spaces left and slotted between two English couples, now resident in France and thus being French registered. A bit chat when we discovered they were both originally from County Durham then a welcome drink, tea and settle, having to be reminded to turn our clocks back one hour because Portugal is on UK time.

We'll probably stay a couple of nights before heading onwards. However a check of the longer-term weather forecast indicates it is going to turn much colder everywhere at the end of the week so we'll have to consider some alternatives.