Devall Travels

After our stay a couple of weeks ago we decided to come again. The £17.50 a night on a grass only (no EHU) pitch was still running and so we booked another two nights. This time from Sunday to Tuesday. Packing the van up for two nights with our new larger outdoor mat and table we collected from Go Outdoors last time, was simple enough. I set the route to miss the narrow roads but TomTom Camper decided to choose the narrow road way. Until we got pretty much to where it thought we should be and my route.  Then it sorted itself out. On arrival we were met by the warden. I kept my foot on the brake so that the stop/start system didn't drive away.  On the Ducato when you come to a stop, the system stops the engine. When you release the foot brake, the engine restarts.  With an automatic, the van simply drives away.... Except it didn't this time. The engine didn't start. I put the gears into park...

Saturday Morning broke a little too early for us. After  the thud-thud of the music until 5am we hadn't slept well. Still, our next stop was planned to be along the N240 towards Jaca. With the heat already touching 25°C by 10.30am, we decided to get on the road. Frias can wait for another day.  First stop was at Tobera. We had oast it on the way in and now we were retracing our steps to the south along the BU-504. https://www.wikiburgos.es/wiki/Tobera A quick stop. The route us east and north east to Vitoria-Gasteiz and Pamplona. Bypassing both. As we had plenty of autovias to use we stopped near Gasteiz for a coffee. Claire then bought a couple of rolls for lunch. Then decided to carry on.  The TomTom seemed reluctant to amend the route. It's a failure of Plan dot tomtom dot com that deleting waypoints seems impossible.  Eventually the air...

The first stop after Oyambre has always been Potes in the Picos de Europa on the plan. Now that we are on Plan G it's still there. We have been before, twice in fact,  but not for very long each time. The first time was way back in August 2014 when we were heading back from a long week trip to Spain. Our destination was Santander. The night before we had stayed in the Parador at Cervera la Pisuerga.  We stopped again in May 2024. A quick stop on the sloping dirt car park behind the supermarket, and then further up the road at the bus station.  Again we had a short walk into the town. This time I planned to overnight two nights at the Vanventure Campervan Park. Checking on the aire's website shows that out of 19 bookable pitches there were none last night and again tonight. It also looks like people are pre-booking ahead of time. So I have. It's €15 a ...

I had an email from Sandaya to remind me that I had some loyalty points to use when making a next booking. I was thinking more about the midpoint of the trip when we started to move north or at least east to get away from Spain and into France.  I looked on the site and some of them allowed the use of the points and others didn't. In the end I wanted a good few days where after travelling we could have a longer stay to sit and do nothing.  I found a site near the Mediterranean that allowed me four free nights using my loyalty points. It's called Blue Bayou . I decided on five nights. We can't get in until 3pm on the first day and so it gives us time to come up from Spain and across the border. We have a week to come across from Oyambre and we can take in a few historical sites as well as a run through the Picos.... ...

Monday We had to be off site no later than midday and so we had started packing away the night before.  Reggie was up and out several times from before 7am and I was feeling tired by the time I got up and joined Claire for breakfast.   I took him out as she was washing and getting ready. As we were in a large field with fences all round, I let him wander off lead.  The van next to us had a young small cockapoo that was a little timid. Behind them was a nice couple with a very friendly, and again young, poodle.  Reggie and it got on, sniffing etc.  As we were talking one of the marshals came over to say there was an accident on the M4 and no one could get off the site.  In the end that was later amended to a person jumping from a bridge onto the road. Under cover of all this Reggie went and ate the poodles breakfast out of its bowl! Whilst I was apologising he went next doo...

Saturday evening we had another walk over to the marquee.  Tonight's entertainment in the main venue, the Barn, was Union Gap and The Foundations. The theme all weekend was 60's ... In the marquee there was a duo to do sixties songs.  We bought a couple of samosas and some churros. Very international. 🙂 Whilst we were there the duo were setting up. We didn't stay though. Reggie was wanting to go. So we set off back.  An evening of YouTube despite the poor signal. We have to put the phone in the roof light to get some signal, or enough to watch the TV. Sunday  Up a little late. It's Sunday. Claire wanted to see the Vanlife Eats guy demonstrating making a breakfast pie in the Ridge Monkey at 11am. Reggie and I weren't really that interested and so we had a walk around the show and stopped for coffee and a chat at the Motor Caravanners' Club stand. The chat wasn't a...

This would be first test of the new Victron and lithium battery setup. Four nights off grid at the Newbury Showground. The plan was to set off at around 1030am on Thursday and drive across to the South of London and then west to Newbury. In the end we left at nearer 1050am. Not too bad.  The first stop at the garage on the way at West Malling.  It was a bit of a faff finding the LPG pump. There is only one and it's access was a bit difficult. Involving a bit of reversing out of the wrong place and queueing.  Despite the gauge on the top of the bottle being close to empty we could only get £2.93 (at .99 a litre) in before the pump.m stopped and displayed "stop". Very odd. A quick check of the gauge showed it was full!!! Anyway, we set off again. The M26 and M25 were very civilised and moving. We stopped at Cobham Services for Reggie's breather and got a coffee from Starbucks at the McDonald's ordering machine...

It certainly looks that way. Fuel prices have started to come down a little. Locally diesel has dropped around 6p a litre but is still ridiculously high. In Europe, from the apps I have on my phone, prices are higher than here except in Spain. As long as the government are still keeping the tax cut, then it's way cheaper.  Currently the fuel price apps are showing €1.66 a litre near where we are spending our first few nights.... That's currently £1.44. I have had a look at the maps and am still thinking about where to go after San Vicente . This time I am thinking of spending more time in each place we go to. Instead of one night, depending on where we end up, two or longer.  I am looking at some familiar places on the Mediterranean coast for longer stops, whether aires or campsites. I have booked an appointment for Reggie's rabies jab at a vet in San Vicente and apart from the opening few days campsite, nothing i...

I had an email from Warners Show about camping shows we hadn't booked for. We are already planning and booked to go to Norfolk again. Then I saw on the Motor Caravanners Club (MCC) that they have a club area at the Newbury Show. There's a small discount for staying in a club area. We decided to book a club pitch. By then we should be able to exist off grid for a much longer time than we have at rallies at the moment.

The final day of this Easter Bank Holiday. "Where are we today Claire?" If you know, you know... We were up earlier to get away as close to 9am as possible. The plan was to get the "jobs" done and get away. I did the black waste with Reggie tagging along. He was off lead and he ventured away to check out what might be living in the barn. The destination: The Tiptree Jam Factory Tea Room in Tiptree, Essex. The TomTom took us on the A1120 route that we are used to and we made good time around Ipswich and back down the A12 past Colchester before Tiptree. I had checked it was open on Bank Holidays. It was. I parked in the overflow parking lot. They have a marquee in the garden that is dog friendly. Access is through the usual tea rooms and the small Wilkins museum. We ordered the Tiptree Breakfast and tea and coffee. Reggie didn't settle so I took him back to the van and ...

So Day 4 comes and boy was it WINDY! This weekend is supposed to host "Storm Dave" but up in the north and Scotland. We were parked up nose into the wind. But it didn't stop the gusts rocking the van quite violently. We also had the Remis blind on the roof light above the bed rattling.  We survived. Reggie survived. The plan for today was to go to Claire's sister's house after lunch.  She only lives 4 miles from Waterpump CL, but there are several ways to get there, some of them along sketchy roads. So that was the one TomTom chose. We had a pleasant few hours there catching up and having some homemade apple cake. Once we were away, TomTom chose a different way back. Although this was slightly longer it was on better roads. After a cup of coffee, we had a walk across to the pub. It was about ten to seven and it was closed. It did look like someone was in the kitchen though. Claire tried the door...

The reason for coming up in the van for the Easter holiday weekend was for me to go to the football at Colchester United. On Google Maps the walking distance would suggest at least 45 minutes to an hour walking.  I decided on a cab each way. I tried to book a couple in advance with no luck. They have Uber but they aren't reservable in advance. It was Easter. It was Good Friday. Kick off 3pm. When we checked in the young bloke that handled it said definitely a cab. I phoned the one on the site's info sheet. The number took we to an automated system. I booked cabs in both directions. Come 2pm, or a little before, we headed to the entrance and the cab was already there. So soon after 2.10 he dropped me off by the ground. The return pickup at the same place. All the updates about the cab were sent by SMS to my phone. I had a walk to Wendy's to get something to eat for lunch but the queue out of the door was too long. I opted for Greggs instead. A sausage roll, a co...

The plan for day 3 was originally to stay at Colchester Country Park and maybe go into Colchester to have a mooch around the castle etc. Although the site is okay, the distance to the centre was too much, and of course the traffic noise. It was LOUD! So in the week I emailed Sarah at the Waterpump CL, where we were booked on Sunday overnight, to add a second night, Saturday, as well. The altered plan meant we would have normally meant being off for 11am, but we were booked until Sunday. In the event, we had all the blue jobs done, and the waste water drained in good time. But where to go? I had thought Aldeburgh, but Claire thought with it being Easter, then it could be packed. So she suggested Snape Maltings. Nice walks, culture in the form of art works by famous sculptors, and a really nice dog friendly café. Once onto the A12 heading towards Ipswich and with a quarter of a tank used we decided to fill up at our fa...

We got away around 1230. A little later than expected.  The site at Colchester Country Park was a 2pm check in. We made good progress until the Dartford Crossing and even then the usual catastrophic traffic jams weren't too bad. It would make is safer and allow everyone to move more quickly if trucks over 7.5 tons were restricted to the left tunnel.  The site reviews show it is close to the A12. It is. We were allocated pitch 78. The A12 joining road was only about 40 yards away. Yes. It's very noisy.

I have made a slight change to the weekend.  Rather than have three nights at the Colchester Country Park site, I emailed them to say that we would only be staying for two nights. There's no refund on cancellations but I can swallow that. I haven't had a reply from them.  Although there is quite a lot to see in the area, it's all a fair walking distance and some of the reviews aren't too kind about the noise from the nearby A12. The two nights will enable me to get a cab or Uber from the site to the football stadium and back again.  I had already booked Sunday night at the Waterpump CL and I asked if they could accommodate us on Saturday too. We are booked in. It means we can arrive early there and maybe have Saturday lunch in the pub, or arrive later and visit  Aldeburgh  or somewhere on the way up from Colchester. One of the days we will see Claire's sister for an Easter visit. The only problem is the shortages of diesel fuel. All due to Trump's...

Once the van is back from Offgrid, and we can be confident that we can use her without electric hook-up, I am looking at more trips away. One I am interested in is the Lincoln Aviation Heritage Centre.  They have the Avro Lancaster "Just Jane" that they fire-up and do a taxi-run on the airfield. They also have a de Havilland Mosquito they taxi. Checking on the website there are a few days when they taxi on the same day. https://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/plan-your-visit/lancaster-taxy-times

Whilst I was whiling away a bit of time before the football, Oldham Athletic at home to Crewe Alexandra, was going to kick off on Sky Sports+, I was looking through the Caravan and Motorhome Club's European Campsites booklet for this year.  When we arrive in Santander on the long ferry from Plymouth, it will be around 1pm. If it takes as long to get out of the ferry port as it did when we arrived in Bilbao, we are looking at an hour after docking, at the earliest, before we hit the road. Bilbao is further to the east on the north coast of Spain, and we arrived early in the morning. So we had a little longer to work our way to the first site we had booked. After two nights on the ferry from Portsmouth, we were ready for a place to decompress for a few days.   Last time we stayed at Caravan Oyambre .  In the Caravan Club's book there are three sites around the same area. I chose this one last time as it was closer to a beach for walks than the rivals. That is still the case. I di...

The slight change is that we are no longer going to fit in a visit to Claire's friend near Saint Etienne.  It's simply to cut down some of the mileage involved and free-up a few hours on the road. Another change and what could be called a spanner in the works is that John, whose "surprise" 70th we are going to for lunch on Sunday, emailed to say that we shouldn't be too late arriving on Saturday as there is a dinner!  We were unaware of that! And it's not a surprise. He also said friends in the village had offered to put us up in their house (or apartment) whilst we are there. The problem we have is that we will have a fridge full of stuff bought on the way down, including Reggie's food that we can't keep frozen in the freezer compartment unless we are on an electric hook-up, or using the LPG onboard. It's not safe to leave a van with the gas burning when you aren't near it! We will need to address that nearer the time.  It may be that we can p...

We arrived around 2pm and wound our way past the entrance to the air museum to what we thought was the entrance. In fact it was the entrance to the "holding area".  We weren't told anything more and so after a while things got a bit heated, especially as it was very hot and sunny. Our journey from our overnight stay at Cresslands near Bourne took longer than we anticipated as we chose to take a more eastley route over the Humber Bridge . It's quite spectacular and only £1.50 for a car and van under 3.5 tonnes (3500kgs). It was worth the experience but if I had to do the journey again I'd go the quicker way via the A1! We seemed to be in the last of the holding area lanes and I had a walk to see as it looked as though the actual entrance was nearby. It was actually about a mile away. We were in the tenth lane.  As the vans moved from lane 1 across to us, the area they had vacated was filled with those that arrived after us. Then we had the long run to t...

This was a last minute decision really.  After having the last two trips cancelled by the weather and then a few denial emergencies we wanted to get away.  I chose the Premier Parks site at Fishery Creek on Hayling Island primarily as it's not that far away, not north of the Dartford Crossing and had hardstanding! We picked Molly up from the storage site on Thursday afternoon and then started to put the stuff we'd need for a weekend.   Friday   The plan was to leave on Friday morning, late enough to avoid the traffic.  Claire had a massage booked for 10am.  I was putting stuff in the van when the carbon monoxide detector started to beep. A single beep every thirty seconds is, according to the Kidde website, showing that the battery has expired or about to expire. So whilst she was being pampered I drove to Wickes in Folkestone and bought a new one. It's not that long ago that the one in the house had the same problem. The van version was supposed to have been installed in ...