Sunday 31st March – El Encinar to Vitoria-Gasteiz

El Encinar to Vitoria - 234 miles

A cold night, not surprising when we were almost 3000 ft amsl, but at least nothing froze up this time. However the heating was switched on for the first time in ages – and the gas bottle promptly ran out! So change bottles, work out what time it was then Sunday Breakfast. A cleanup, service the van and on our way again.

Found our way back to the motorway around Salamancar then up a good but quite busy motorway, not particularly interesting but at least the sun was shining. We pulled off for a comfort/lunch stop just before Burgos as we couldn't find a service area – then 500m after we rejoined the autovia there was a rest area!

We recently learned that Spain has taken over many of the toll-road companies as they have gone bust, not taking enough to cover their costs. As a result a number of autopistas are now free, as was the case with the AP1 from Burgos to Vitoria, a fact which it seemed TomTom already knew because he happily planned a route up it despite being told not to use toll roads. Clever dick machines! So more fast cruising through the mountains until we turned off at Vitoria-Gasteiz (double barrelled name because it is the Basque capital of Spain and all signs have the basque equivalent on them).

The aire here has been extended yet again but was still almost full, however we found a spot and settled in. We could have got further today but were concerned that there might not be room in other aires further north. Anyway we will need fuel and gas in the morning and there is a suitable place 5 minutes away from the parking.

Now debating a route up through France; we're on schedule so something a bit different would be nice although the weather forecast for later in the week isn't encouraging.

Saturday 30 March 2019 – Terrugem to El Encinar

Terrugem to El Encinar - 199 miles

A quiet night and we got our early(ish!) start after breakfast and a quick service of the van. We're in no great hurry but it's nice being able to cruise along at a comfortable speed and keeping a good rate of fuel consumption.

Sticking to the N road for the moment to avoid the toll section, we passed through Elvas, a nice border town whose main claim to fame is a four-level Roman aqueduct running for over 6km. There are also some other interesting ruins so we have made a note to come back here in the future for an exploration.

On our various trips we've never been to Portugal when it hasn't rained at some point. Up to now it looked like this jinx was about to be broken, but no, as we entered Elvas (still in Portugal if only just) it started to rain. Not a lot but we needed the wipers so it qualified. Record unbroken!

Once we had crossed into Spain, where it's significantly cheaper, we dropped into a fuel station to top up and get a baguette for lunch, also to put our timepieces forward one hour. Of course we're going to have to do it again tonight because the clocks go forward, losing us another hour! At Badajoz we took the X100 (no idea why it's an X, just a good single carriageway like many others) which took us cross country before joining the non-toll Autovia del Plata which will be our companion for a couple of days.

It's called del Plata probably because, as we've mentioned before, much of Spain is a plateau of over 2000' amsl and this road runs across it from SW to NE. On it's way it passes through several smaller sierras with mountains high enough to have snow on their peaks, but not at our level of course, although we did touch 4000 ft on one of the several passes.

However there are no service areas or even parking places so we pulled off the autovia at Plasencia to find somewhere to stop for lunch. Nice enough, if a little uninspiring, we found a place outside a closed factory out of the way for an hour before rejoining the A66 headed for our planned overnight stop.

There aren't many campsites in this bit of Spain and only a couple of aires but we noted one just short of Salamancar which was a bit early for us but we knew there was nothing else for quite a long way. So TomTom led us to a quiet but large car-park with a designated area for motorhomes and some basic facilities. With room for at least 30 vans along with 2 other units we didn't exactly over-extend the facility.

Much as forecast, it's been a bright, if partly cloudy day and certainly quite warm enough. We'll probably be close to the French border tomorrow night if all goes to plan, well on schedule.

Friday 29th March 2019 – Alvor to Terrugem

Alvor to Terrugem - 185 miles

We got a load of washing done, dried and packed away yesterday, which was our main reason for using a campsite. We shouldn't now need a laundry again before getting home. Nice hot showers too so today we were ready to get some serious miles under the wheels and managed an earlyish start for a change.

We decided to head north through the Algarve into Alentejo, which is very picturesque following the ID1 and IC2, both quiet fast roads and no tolls. We've used this route before and indeed stopped at the same places too – Beja for lunch then Terrugem to overnight. Not a lot more to say about our day except we're pleased with our progress – although one of our party is still grumpy at being cooped up in his cage all day...........!

Terrugem is still in Portugal, although only 30 mins from the border – we mention this because we'll be losing an hour tomorrow when we cross to Spain so are looking for another early start.

Wednesday 27th March – Vila Real de Santo Antinio to Alvor

Vilas Real de Santo Antonio to Alvor - 79 miles

After a relaxing day yesterday with a walk into the lovely little town and longish chats with a France-based English couple who originally came from County Durham, our intention today was to find a campsite so we could get the washing done and get cleaned up, ready for the run home, which we must get started on. A check of the books showed a couple of ACSI sites along the coast so after the usual chores and goodbyes to new friends we rejoined the N125 for a pleasant run along the Algarve coast.

This road has now been significantly improved over the glorified dirt track it used to be when we first came to Portugal and although reasonably busy it is now a fast and easy route. We stopped off at an Aldi in Olhoa for some basics, which as usual turned into a trolleyfull, before finding our first selection at Armacao de Pera, near Albufeira. First glance looked okay so we checked in, but then spent half an hour trying to find a pitch that wasn't on a hillside, wasn't in the howling gale blowing off the sea and was reasonably close to the facilities. On the basis if we don't like what we see we move on we did just that.

The next was a little further on, past Portimao, at Alvor. Again it looked okay so we checked in but again spent time wandering around. Eventually we settled on a smallish pitch next to some Brits which satisfied our criteria so dropped anchor. This site seems to cater mainly for long-term stayers and is a bit higgledy piggledy, but we're only staying for a couple of nights so it'll do – and it's relatively cheap too despite having otherwise excellent amenities including a cafe/bar, restaurant and swimming pool. The mini-market had closed down but we quickly discovered a “Pingo” supermarket a short distance away, not that we needed anything.

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.

Saturday 23rd March – Castellar de la Frontera to Rota

Castellar de la Frontera to Rota - 110 miles

Awoke to a somewhat cloudy, windy but warm day in no rush as we were planning on being a bit flexible for a while. So after breakfast and the usual seeing to the van, we decided to take a ride up to Sanlucar de Barramedar, a place we've stayed before and loved, but we had heard about some difficulties with motorhome parking there – however we had an alternative planned.

But first Bertie was in dire need of a thorough wash so having identified a suitable place yesterday, we went back to Los Palomes and spent €10 on a thorough jet-wash, before taking to the motorway once more with a now fully serviceable TomTom in charge.

The problem with satnavs is that they need to be kept up to date and as we hadn't done this, whilst at Mohammedia we'd given it a try. All we needed to do was connect to the internet and, yes, there were a few map updates waiting so off we go. Until our Maroc internet expired, which had the effect of deleting the existing maps – they were still there but we couldn't get at them....... We subsequently tried again several times but were only finally successful yesterday afternoon once we had re-connected to a new simcard with lots of gigabytes to play with. Lesson learned!

So TomTom did his stuff and took us straight to a campsite outside of Sanlucar. No, that's not where we wanted to be so reprogrammed the old-fashioned way, that is using lat/long, and tried again. That worked but on arrival we were not surprised to find the aire had been closed down, as well as it's associated service point. It's a real shame because it's a lovely town to visit but we guess it became a victim of its own success – we had heard of problems whilst it had been in use.

We did see, however, a large beachside parking area just outside the town with several motorhomes parked on it and no apparent restrictions so we went there for lunch in the now blazing hot sunshine. Unfortunately it was also very exposed to the still very strong winds so we elected not to stay longer and instead headed for our alternative at Rota.

Rota is known for it's large US Navy base, but the aire is well away from that, in a nice beach-side location that was reasonably protected from the wind by large sand dunes. Only a few spaces left, we squeezed in then took Jamie for a quick run down to the beach before returning to spend the rest of the day relaxing.

Friday 22nd March – Algeciras to Castellar de la Frontera

As luck would have it, last night we got parked next to our friends June and Derek who, unbeknownst to us, had also crossed back to Spain a lot earlier than expected, so a small reunion took place. Then after breakfast we went our separate ways, us to spend several hours completely restocking our supplies, ready for the next part of the adventure.

After lunch we said our final goodbyes (well maybe, their plans are not too dissimilar to ours) then went off to refill the gas bottles before heading to the quiet aire at Castellar de la Frontera, a few miles up in the hills behind Algeciras, which we've used before on several occasions. As usual, only a few vans parked up so we settled, sorted out the shopping and relaxed, both of us still a bit fraught with yesterdays shenanigans.

Checked the weather forecast and we've sort of planned to head west to the Algarve then amble slowly north through Portugal.