The weather so far has been nice during the day and very pleasant in direct sun. Daily highs have been typically around 19 degrees but under clear skies, temperatures drop off rapidy post sunset and overnight lows are only a few degrees.

Electricity is charged at Eur 0.40 per unit which is close to three times the price for typical domestic energy. We can fill our Safefill LPG bottle for around Eur 14 and the equivalent price per kw/h is about Eur 0.90.

Needless to say we are running the heating on gas!

Pleasant BBQ in the afternoon before heading into Benicassim – this is after all, Thursday 16th January and the day on which the festival of San Antonio Abad and Santa Agueda commences.

From what we can see, this represents a perfect excuse for the Spanish to party for a good 10 days. Not that the Spanish need a lot of encouragement to throw a decent fiesta.

The tradition of St. Anthony Abad and the blessing of the animals is celebrated in many towns, not just Benicassim. Here there are campfires in the streets, and some of the typical products are roasted, such as chops and artichokes.

There is also a procession of floats, animals and bareback riders on horseback.

The celebrations will be noisy and last most of the night. Probably every night over the next 10 days!

Day 3 and we finally docked around 10:45 am Spanish time and the ferry, Cap Finistere, had found calmer waters the closer we got to Bilbao. Because of the late arrival we had a decent nights sleep but it would be more of a challenge getting down to Benicassim (just north of Valencia) in a days drive.

Fortunately we were in touch with Paul and Andrea who were already camped at Bonterra Park and they had reserved a great pitch for us. Thus eliminating the need to wander around the site in the dark trying to pick a decent pitch.

Had we not had that luxury, we should and would have stopped of at the municipal site near Zaragoza.

In the end, save for some caravan wobblying winds near to Bilbao – necessitating a max 40mph on the motorway – the remainder of the journey was uneventful on typically quiet Spanish motorways. A mixture of tolls and free passage with the charges coming in at about 35 Euros for the entire journey from Bilbao to Benicassim – some 405 miles.

We had reserved a standard plus pitch, which wasn’t the largest at the site but included water at each plot and grey waste disposal. The tiny avenues to the pitches are an absolute nightmare – we had to unhitch the van and use the motormover to get it all into postion.

We then found that the pitch wouldn’t fit van, awning and car with the direction we wanted to face so we actually moved into an adjoining pitch the next morning and set about siting the awning and all of our toys.

Here’s a picture of the setup.

Setting up took most of the day and dinner in the evening was at the site restaurant.

Our Brittany ferries sailing finally departed around 09:15 and I’m fully loaded with anti sea-sick pills.

The Club class cabin is nicely appointed with TV, fruit, water and a selection of biscuits. It is though close to the bow of the boat and this isn’t the best place to be in a force 9 gale. .

In fact, dry land is the only place to be – we are still a couple of hours away from the Bay of Biscay and the ship is heaving big time.

I used to tolerate sea motion but this tolerance appears to be fading as age advances. Still, the Stugerons appear to be keeping physical symptons at bay but whether or not tonights dinner hits the spot remains to be seen.

The bar at the rear of the boat isn’t too bad but it’s close on 5pm and I haven’t dared to try a beer yet. Times of old a few pints of beer would cure any motion sickness. In fact most any illness!

We are 8 hours in with another 16 to go. Correction it’s been changed to 18 more hours as progress is slow.

In the end, an uneventful 3 hour drive from East Devon to Portsmouth Harbour. Storm Brendan is brewing in the Atlantic and we are waiting for our sailing to be cancelled. Presently the departure time has been put back from Sunday @23:00 to Monday morning @08:45.

This is apparently due to prior delays, not an attempt to avoid the impending storm acorss the Bay of Biscay.

No email or text alerts arrive so we set off early afternoon, arriving at the dock just before 5pm. We will camp here until boarding commences at 6:00am on Monday the 13th.

We discovered a nice little unspoilt pub close to the docks – the Ship and Castle – for early evening drinks. Shame we hadn’t know about this place before as it’s a much nicer spot to enjoy early evening drinkies than the port building. It also serves a very nice pint of Fullers ESB and is just a three minute walk from the quayside.