We left Camping El Astral at Tordesillas on Friday morning for a 4 hour journey to the coast. We had booked a night at Camping Helguero before our ferry crossing at 13:00 on Saturday. We arrived at Helguero campsite (near the pretty port of Comillas) early in the afternoon and the weather was warm and sunny.

Some cables under the caravan had worked loose so balancing the caravan on a grassy ledge, I sent Moe under the van to carry out repairs.

The break in the stormy weather didn’t last too long and by the morning, the campsite was a quagmire.

This set the scene for a very stormy crossing over the Bay of Biscay. Joe spent the first 18 hours lying on his bed!

Our arrival at Portsmouth was precisely on schedule at 20:00 and we were one of the first outfits off – before 9pm we had pitched up on our ferry pitch at Rookesbury park CAMC site. An uneventful tow back to East Devon and we arrived home around 2pm, Monday 24th March 2025.

Another great way to spend winter and the beautiful weather which greeted us in England was in sharp contrast to rather wet winter in Spain.

Hasta el proximo ano…

We are two thirds of the way back to Santander and our ferry leaves on Saturday.

We are camped at Camping El Astral close to the town of Tordesillas and after an early morning deluge of rain, the skies brightened up and we headed over the River Duero into this quaint old town.

First stop was the Tratado de Tordesillas (the Treaty Houses).

In 1494, the Kings of Spain and Portugal agreed upon how to carve-up the New World in this old house in Tordesillas. Apparently this is what world leaders do; in this case they started by drawing a line (pole-to-pole) intersecting the Canary Islands. Portugal weren’t happy about this because access to the Island of Mina would meaning sailing through Castilon territory. In the end, the line of longitude was drawn several leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands and land to the West of that line became Castilon and land to the east Portuguese.

This explains why the country of Brazil is Portuguese speaking whilst the countries to the east are Spanish.

After the cultural tour of this museum we head to the Nuestro Sitio bar / restaurant at the Plaza Mayor. Here we enjoyed a glass of local white wine (from the Duero valley) and some tapas. The Torrezno is somewhat like the Chicharrones dish from southern region of Cadiz..

And after cooking…

Yesterday we travelled from Conil de la Frontera to Tordesillas, a journey of around 450 miles which leaves just another 150 or so to the port.

It was a blustery but predominantly sunny day and this is our pitch at Camping El Astral.

This was only the second fully dry day we have enjoyed in March as named storm after named storm has hit the Iberian peninsula. Spain really isn’t far south enough to guarantee hot weather during our winter but it is the best mainland Europe can offer.

This March has in fact been the wettest on record. It feels like it has rained solidly for a full three weeks. In fairness, our journey yesterday was dry and we had a dry day around a week ago which enabled us to take down a dry awning.

An extract from “The Times” about Spain, 2025:

“Country is wettest in Europe with more bad weather to come after a month’s rainfall in just nine days

Heavy rain in Spain has ended a four-year drought, filling reservoirs, causing floods and making the country the wettest in Europe this month.

Images of dry, empty reservoirs exposing the remains of buildings long submerged have been replaced by video of sluice gates being reopened to release waters to prevent dams overflowing.

The latest rain in March, which will continue this week and next week in much of the country, has put an end to the drought in Spain, the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) confirmed. A shortage of rainfall led to restrictions in recent years on urban consumption, agriculture and hydroelectric generation in many areas.”

Reservoirs which have been empty for years are now overflowing; Lake Vunuela is approaching 50% full and Malaga has enough water stored to last for three years.

A landslide has closed the main route from Marbella to Ronda and this will remain closed until August.

Trains were suspended between Sevilla and Cadiz and traffic was diverted from the AP-4 due to flooding.

We have entertained ourselves with several meals out, daily petanque when there was a break in the showers, the Rosaleda quiz and several communal meals. Met some folks we haven’t seen here before including a couple who’s husband came to thank me for some travel advice I’d provided on one of the caravan forums! That was a really nice touch.

I think they enjoyed the meal at El Nautico but yet again the heavens opened and I’m not so sure the cycle ride home was quite the same experience!

These blog posts aren’t always in sequence. I’ve a long blog which I’m working on from our recent outing in Nellie, so this is a nice easy interlude.

Despite a rather mixed weather forecast, today turned out to be bright and warm if a little breezy on our cycle ride to El Nautico at the Port of Conil. Perhaps because it’s a Monday, and most restaurants are closed, El Nautico was extremely busy – or maybe the reputation of this fine restaurant is spreading.

Food and wine as always was excellent and every table has a great view across the harbour.

Our mainly off-road trail back to the campsite goes right by a new Autocaravana park, in a lovely rural location on the outskirts of Conil.

It is a mystical place. I’ve never seen the gates open and there’s only ever a couple of motorhomes visible above the high, closed fences. Today, there’s a large trailer parked next to the fence which appears to be some kind of luxury toilet block. Not bad facilities for a 5 place site.

Further along the perimeter wall there’s a little break in the fence and you can see that this five place park has ambition – it is akin to Dr Who’s Tardis.

Sunday we packed our Campervan, Nellie and headed west and into Portugal for a few days. It’s around a four hour drive and somewhat of a convoluted route as you need to head up to Seville to cross the Guadalquivir river before heading west to Huelva and then along and into Portugal.

On crossing the border into Portugal, foreign vehicles are diverted away from the main motorway lanes to register for the toll system. The car number plate is then associated with a credit card and the toll for the bridge into Portugal can then be deducted automatically along with the road tolls on the A22.

Except that Portugal removed tolls from the bridge and the entire A22 along the southern coast. Apparently the EU (no doubt with pressure from Germany) were none too impressed that a) They financed a new Motorway to be built in Portugal and b) The Portuguese government then slapped a toll to generate revenue from the EU investment.

Anyway, for the moment, the tolls are gone.

We hadn’t booked anywhere for our first night which was in Albufeira. Whilst our destination was much further west, we did stay in Albufeira some 25 to 30 years ago – in fact our last visit to Portugal and we wanted to stay here again. We couldn’t actually remember where we stayed but we visited slightly out of season (maybe May or June time) and found most places closed.

How things have changed. Albufeira was busy – a little bit run down and perhaps a smaller version of Benidorm.

We found a pitch at Camping Albufeira (the site was mostly full and they don’t take advanced bookings) for the princely sum of 15 Euros. At that price, there is just no reason to wild camp. However, wild camping in much of Portugal is again allowed after a brief suspension and one can stay up to 48 hours in a municipality so long as the camper van or motorhome is fully self-contained.

It’s about a thirty minute walk into the town of Albufeira and that’s where we headed after checking in to the campsite. We looked around the town and drank Gin & Tonic at a bar overlooking the beach.

In the evening, we ate at the campsite restaurant which had a most impressive wood burning stove and lovely views across the campsite.

The stove was just perfect for the cool evening.

The next day we drove further west until we arrived at Turistcampo Lagos, near to Praia de Luz. A top-rated site at which we had managed to book a pitch for 3 nights. That was the longest stay available and the campsite was full. Our pitch was pre-allocated and wasn’t the best pitch we have had. Too much shade for the time of year. It was fully serviced with electricity, water and waste water disposal. None of which we needed nor utilised.

Tuesday we caught the bus to Sagres which is at the very Western tip of the Algarve and it is historically connected to the early Portuguese Age of Discovery.

Sagres is actually near the Western end of the world’s longest estimated straight-line path over land, at 11,241 km, ending near Jinjiang in China.

We weren’t particularly early in setting off and so by the time the bus had meandered its way to Sagres, it was already lunchtime. Being that it was a Tuesday (and Tuesday is our pizza night (Ember Pizza) at the Bridge Inn in Topsham) we felt obliged to eat Pizza.

We shared a delicious meatball Italian pizza before heading to the Fortress of Sagres, which was built to protect the strategic coastal position and the coves that sheltered shipping.

The church of Santa Maria, consecrated in 1519, to the invocation of Nossa Senhora da Graça (Our Lady of Grace) was constructed at the centre of the site, during the reign of King Manuel I of Portugal. The fortification was remodelled in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, after various attacks (including an assault by Francis Drake in 1587); its current form dates to 1793.

On the cliff edges were numerous fishermen; apparently there are several deaths each year fishing from cliffs above the sea…

Wednesday we headed into Lagos before spending the late afternoon at Praia de Luz. Again we used the bus services from nearby the campsite for our travels.

Lagos castle and the old medieval walls are located close to river Bensafrim close to the fort of Porta da Bandeira.

The Fort is located at the point where the Bensafrim River meets the Atlantic Ocean. This position was of great strategic importance, being close to the walls of the city but with easy access to the sea. In this way it could protect both access to the quays along the banks of the river and the south-eastern and eastern sides of the walls, and allow crossfire with the bastions of Lagos Castle and the city gates.

At the time of its construction it was considered one of the most advanced in the Algarve region

Some photos of Praia de Luz, where we enjoyed late afternoon drinks in the sunshine on a warm “winters” day.

Returning to Conil on Thursday, we were treated to a beautiful sunset. This might be the last one we see for a while as the weather is turning much wetter and unsettled for perhaps the next two weeks.