The journey to Spain was on the Cap Finistere, route being Portsmouth to Bilbao with a stopover for a crew change in Roscoff (subsequently changed to Brest due to inclement weather).
Cap Finistere
The previous evening we had enjoyed a very nice la carte dinner onboard.
Mo’s Profiteroles
Mo particularly liked the desert (but then, she would!). Joe just had an empty placemat and a spare spoon!
As we had reserved an earlier sitting, we retired to our bunks at a pleasantly early hour.
This was a good thing as we had an prompt start (5:30 British time) and a long days towing ahead.
The arrival day didn’t start out particularly well and problems began before we had left the boat.
We were all poised to disembark when alas, a flat battery and the embarrassment of watching the vehicles behind trying to reverse and manoeuvre around us. You could just sense the frustration of the other drivers cursing our caravan! (Which of course wasn’t the issue).
Brittany Ferries were very good and it wasn’t long before one of the engineers appeared with a battery booster and then we were on our way to Caceres, in the Extremadura region of Spain.
What we encountered next was even less expected.
Almost snowbound in Bilbao
Already close to 1000 miles south of Blighty, this was the weather greeting us on our travels from Bilbao to Caceres…
We finally arrived at the campsite around 17:00, having left Bilbao some 400 miles earlier at around 09:15 in the morning. A note for the return journey – it’s around a 4 hour drive from our preferred campsite, El Astral, Tordesillas.
The weather is cold here in Caceres (just a few degrees) but the skies are clear and we are all ready for another early depart tomorrow. We haven’t even un-hitched the van!
Our evening stroll around the campsite turned into a 1 hours hike into Caceres in near freezing temperatures. Dinner was a set menu at the campsite restaurant – no shortage of meat!