Trip to Besalu…

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Today we traveled from Camping Begur some 40 miles to the village of Bessalu. A nicely preserved medieval village with some stunning viaducts.

Besalu

Besalu

From Haro to Dolores…

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A big days towing and because we had arrived late the night before in Haro, we hadn’t been able to pay on arrival. That meant waiting until reception opened at 09:00 and after engaging in a discussion about driving routes with some fellow Brits, we didn’t actually leave until 09:45.

With 760km to cover, this would be a big day but the roads were excellent and free of traffic allowing us to cruise at the speed limit virtually all day. The Sorento pulls like a train and one forgets that there is 1400kg of Caravan floating along behind. The Sorento was new late last year and this was the first Eurotrip in the beast. The built-in satnav performed flawlessly for the entire journey and we arrived in Dolores sometime after 18:00.

Sheppards Rest

Sheppards Rest

 

Sheppards Rest is a small site run by a British lady and has accommodation for around 6 outfits, being located in the countryside just north of Dolores.

Day at sea, night in Haro…

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Due to the projected ferry delays reported in yesterday’s blog, we sought out alternative

Approaching Santander

Approaching Santander

locations near to Santander and had Camping el Helguero (www.campingelhelguero.com) allocated as a backup. In the end, the ferry caught up some time and we made the decision that if we were out of the port by 18:30 we would head to Haro.

 

 

Camping de Haro

Camping de Haro

 

In the end we were out by 18:45 and drove to Haro anyway, arriving around 21:15.

The campsite was fine and Haro being in the middle of the Rioja region (one of my favourite wines), we will try to stay a bit longer on the return journey and stock up on some wine. We were able to park on a grassy area and remained hitched-up, ready for an early start the next day.

 

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Travel to Portsmouth…

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We were booked on the evening crossing to Santander, scheduled to arrive at 17:30 on the Saturday. We had been in touch with Camping de Haro in Haro, Spain which is around a 2 hour drive (190km) from the port of Santander and would just take the edge of a very long drive the next day.

The campsite had indicated space wouldn’t be a problem but reception closes at 18:00; however security would be happy to site us after that. Arriving after 22:00 was considered by them less than ideal.

Our dilemma on reaching Portsmouth was that due to bad weather in the Bay of Biscay the prior weekend, the schedule was recovering and still 2 hours behind our arrival time of 17:30, leaving just 30 minutes to offload and then precisely 2 hours to reach Haro, some of the drive being in the dark in a country we had never towed in before.

This weekend the Bay of Biscay was kind and we had a pleasant smooth crossing. I hope for similar on the return journey.