Foreword
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Hi all. Once again we’re off to the sun, trying to avoid the worst of winter. And once again this is more a record for us than a world blog although we hope you enjoy reading it, and we hope the info contained is useful to you.
Normally we would have been abroad all summer, but this year we decided to Buy an old boat to refurb and live on as both a base and a home. Thats now done, so were preparing for the next adventure to the sun, starting just before Christmas
The Start
Well its December the 8th 2019 election is 4 days away. And hopefully we will be on the Ferry before that. Trusty is almost packed, and ready To go, the boat is also almost ready for lock down. We have already made some great friends on the marina and they will look after her while we are away.
Good-by White Cliffs..see you March/April 2020
Left 12th December from Newhaven-Dieppe. Uneventful crossing, Flat calm luckily. Breakfast on the boatwas very good, and £7.50 each.
Off at the other end and 20 mins later Whoops!!
Bent !! Poor old Trusty
I won’t go into the ins and outs. Except to say it was my fault and too close to car in front which happened to be French. Anyway no one hurt just a few dents all round..
This picture below was after a makeshift repair to get us going (note the rear number plate on the front. Well see how far we get with that later on.
Good old gaffa tape, tie straps and wire were battered but still going. Did another 70 miles and found a stop for the night. At this point we realised Trusty was loosing water looked and looked but just couldn’t find it only a litre or so every 150 miles but not drippin.. so a nights sleep and decide what to do in the morning.
The Aire at Oissel., (park4night) We would not recommend this one, only in an emergency and mainly because there are only 2 bays for motor homes and normally full, but it did us for a night and no one but us were there in December so bonus. I would not try it in the warmer months
49.338001 , 1.092000
Tidy after a quiet night and breakfast sorted we are onto our next stop. We have decided to carry on another few miles to see how the water problem pans out, and then quicker across France. Were heading for the campsite that we use down by the border of Spain and France at Saint Jean de Lux. Camping Larrouleta, with a stop on the way at Harry’s Place. He won’t be there but has said we can use the place as we normally do. Merry Christmas Harry
https://www.larrouleta.com/ https://www.route66hotel.com/
I am not going to document this bit of the trip as its repetitious. And we have covered it before in the previous blogs. Suffice to say we made saint jean via Harry’s topping up water as we went. Trusty is holding out, but I still cant find the leak which must be tiny. We are off to Olite in a couple of days. A place we have not been before, also its a route we have not done before.
Olite Spain.. Sunday 15th December 2019
We set off from the campsite around 11 ish, crossed the Border into Spain at Irun, a few miles further on and headed towards Pamplona. It was 4 hour drive and we were now at Olite. There was a Christmas festival rehearsal on the evening we were there. Now that was amazing as well we loved it. Im not usually impressed with this sort of stuff, noisy and crowded but this was neither and very well done. The Christmas lights and decorations were amazing. The route to Olite was one we will defiantly use again easy going for Trusty and us, superb road and spectacular scenery. Its definitely the route we will use in future to the Costas. The Aire is close to everything and good although more of a car park than an Aire, but did us well. We strolled round the town which is very interesting, and stayed late on into the night soaking up the Christmas atmosphere. Absolutely amazing.
Really enjoyed Olite. and we will come again. Now the hard slog over the top to Moncofa around 200 miles or so the wateris holding out, a litre or so every 1/200 miles. Still can’t find the leak or where its coming from. one of those perplexing things that is sent to try an old Mechanic but I’ll sort it eventually we are not not going to stop over the top overnight as we need to be nearer the coast with this problem.
As I mentioned earlier this is the first time we have gone this way. And to be fair its great. Not so much of a climb as the other route we use and a much easier climb over the top. Brings you down to the costas no fuss. It will be Moncofa first then we then start meandering down the coast heading for camp Indalo Near Vera and Almeria, where we have decided to stop for Christmas and also to take another look at Trusty’s water problem.
Trustyrustytravels.com 