Monday 30th December - Last Entry on Blog

Just to update any lingering blog followers, we arrived home at 11am GMT on Saturday 28th having departed from Amy's 25 hours previously. It was 815 miles and we just slept for half an hour and one hour in England. It wasn't all plain sailing though! Having done the 400 miles in France and arrived at the dog check in at Eurotunnel at 9pm we had a bit of an issue. When I was scanned for the microchip in the back of my neck there was no reading. I won't bore you with the finer points but we were told that we could not cross for another 3 weeks! A few hours later, let's just say we overcame the problem and arrived in England at midnight. Bri wanted to get the other side of the M25 before the traffic started getting busy but we just kept going. We tried to get some sleep at some service areas but they all had 2 hour limits so we never got a decent kip (well I did). Funny isn't it, we travel all over europe and park for as long as we want wherever we want and when we get back to our homeland its all rules and regulations stopping us parking! Eventually we arrived at Scotch Corner and treated ourselves to a bacon and a sausage butty, even I got some, yum yum :-p. Just another one and a half hours and we were back in Carlisle, I use that phrase rather than 'home' coz home is the motokennel :-)

TOTAL DISTANCE 5,150 miles
FUEL CONSUMPTION 27 mpg
WINE CONSUMPTION excessive

Thursday 26th

"Dad, I think you've had enough of that Ricard, remember that we're on the road again tomorrow"

Wednesday 25th December

Merry Christmas everyone from us in Nantes (unfortunately Yann isn't with us until this evening and Amy has to go to work this afternoon!!)

Droopy after running through mud, urghh!

Still Thursday 19th

Met Amy and Yann's dog Droopy today. He's just a young French adolescent so I needed to put him in his place. Nothing personal, it's just I'm a 'human' dog not a 'dog' dog so don't tolerate all that 'sniffing' stuff. Honestly, they behave like animals some of them. Here is a photo of me smiling at Droopy, accompanied by the necessary growl so he didn't misunderstand

Thursday 19th

With Amy and Yann for Xmas :-)

Wednesday 18th

What £22 buys you in France-

A) 100 miles of toll motorway

OR

B) 22 bottles of wine

Lesson: DRINK, don't DRIVE!

Tuesday 17th

An early start for our easy trip north to Bordeaux. We stayed the night with a few others in a little car park then came to have breaky on the seafront. Setting off as soon as I post this.....

Monday 16th (cont.)

We were in and out of the fog for most of our journey north. When we arrived at Renteria (Spain, but very close to France) we found 2 things. One, it was remarkably warm when we stepped outside, and two, it was too remote for the oldies, although I couldn't see the problem with us being the sole camper in a secluded wood. Obviously I would have preferred to stay but never get a say, so off we went to France. Only 14 miles to the aire, only problem was it was being resurfaced :-/ so we drove down to the tourist office where Bri used his best French "Parlez-vous Englais" and was directed (in English of course) to our overnight stay in this seaside town.

Monday 16th

Woke up to frost and freezing fog (I think it's preparing us for our trip north!). Headed for the last aire in Spain and the sun IS making an appearance now and then. We are presently about 100 miles from the border with France (Vitoria-Gasteiz) and have about 85 miles to do to get to the aire. On the road again now........

Caceres

Photos from 12th

Photos from 11th Duloc

Sunday 15th

Greetings loyal blog followers :-)

Quite a bit has happened since the last entry. We woke to grim weather on Friday but the rain soon cleared although it did stay overcast for our drive into Spain to meet up with the Ross clan at Caceres.  It was great seeing them even though we joked that they had brought the Scottish weather! Yesterday was a beautifully sunny day and we had a look around the picturesque town/city. Today we woke to another lovely day, Neil, Kath and Mac headed west to Portugal and we headed northeast towards France. After about 200 miles we lost the sun and have been enveloped in low cloud since. We are staying the night at a great aire at Palencia (about 200 miles from the French border). I think I'm stealing the wifi signal off another camper and its asking ages for stuff to happen. I'll put photos on if poss but may need to wait until we're with Amy.

Thursday 12th

Contact!

Yesterday evening we had contact with Neil and Kath and after a few texts we arranged to meet at an aire in Caceres (Spain) lunchtime on Friday. 

Saw the sunrise and after another quick look around the place headed for another hilltop town in Portugal called Marvao, great views again and another remarkable place, as you will hopefully see from some of the photos. On our way we passed through acres of cork trees. I call them cork trees coz its where corks come from, but I  haven't had chance to Google them yet to find out their proper name. Oh, we also stopped at a Lidl to restock the wine cellar, yes we have one! Bri frequently lifts the floorboards of the motokennel and brings out all kinds of goodies, sometimes I fall in coz it's so much fun :-). Anyway, 6 bottles of red for less than seven English quid! In Marvao we  walked along the very narrow walls, Bri got a right stress on fretting I would jump (or fall) off, I'm not a stupid human you know!

6.45pm What's this I hear on the motokennel roof? The only time I've got wet since we left England was through my own choice, jumping into a lake, water fountain or sea. It'd better clear up by the morning! :-/

Wednesday 11th

The satnav took us along an 'interesting' roads for the first 20 miles from Silves. My ears did a fair bit of popping as we climbed up, and dipped down unusual countryside, very green but with red soil. The rest of the roads were pretty good and we headed for the barragems (reservoirs). Great scenery and really pleased we made the slight detour as we headed north in search of Neil and Kath (coming south in their motokennel). We are staying the night at a place called Monsaraz, one the best place we've visited. We got quite a shock when we first walked into the town, it was a little bit spooky with no sign of movement but piped Xmas music (just like Duloc in Shrek) and 'statues' even camels! I will let the pictures tell the story :-)

Tuesday 10th

Parking on a beach 30 metres from crashing waves was never going to be a 'silent night' but not too bad considering. The wind got up early doors and when we opened the blinds there were clouds! Not everywhere but far too many for our liking. The intention was to stay a couple of nights but we decided to head a little bit inland to Silves, a very pretty place. Depending on the weather we may start meandering northwards and hopefully meet up with a southbound Neil and Kath in a few days :-)

Monday 9th

You must be getting bored of this by now but I suppose if you were THAT bored of it you wouldn't be reading!

 I loved our 6 mile walk along the beach at Praia da Rocha yesterday, it was typical Algarve, lovely! A Brit van parked next to us late afternoon and Bri and Rachel obviously got chatting to them. I invited myself into their motokennel and had a good sniff around then came back outside to hear Bri say "Would you like a glass of wine"? to THEM not ME! 4 bottles later everybody split so they could eat, bit of a bad head job methinks. This morning after 2 nights at the aire we headed for the hills, 3,000', and had a great view of the coast, but as we were looking into the sun (remember that?) the photos weren't that good. We decided to come back down to civilisation with the intention of staying at a €3 aire at Lagos. We walked around the place, very nice, but the aire was boring so we drove 10 miles down the coast to a little cove we had been tipped off about by Steve and Jan last night. This place is idyllic, parked right on the beach, no 'no dogs' signs, its brill! :-)

Saturday 7th

A picture paints a thousand words so here's today's 6,000

Friday 6th

As we trundled through the coastal region of The Algarve along, what can laughingly be called a main road, I saw the traditional symbol of Portugal, a cockerel. It suddenly dawned on me that having been photographed alongside the traditional symbol of Spain, a bull, I should maybe rename The Dogs Blogz to 'A Cock and Bull Story'. 

We originally planned to meet up with Paul and Marissa in Tavira today to celebrate their 30 something wedding anniversary, I sent our apologies via email that we couldn't make it as we had to continue west as we were running out of days (THEY are here for another 6 months!). Well, would you believe it, as Bri and Rachel were stuck into the red wine and pâté (at 1pm!) who should roll up but Paul and Marissa! About 4pm Bri & Rachel wandered off with the usual 'Wont be long' and arrived back 2 hours later stinking of drink! Apparently €3.60 for 4 pints! I've REALLY got my work cut out with these two!

Basking

Basking in the sun at Villamoura, this is just a nice temperature and NO tourists :-)

Tuesday 3rd Panic Over

Rest easy, the menacing cloud build up we saw yesterday has dispersed and normal service is resumed B-)

Monday 2nd Update!!

Dreadful news, looks like the weather is turning as evidenced by this photo taken by Bri en route to free wifi locus! The clouds are coming!! :-(

Monday 2nd

Since arriving on The Algarve we have yet to see a cloud (no doubt it'll throw it down from now on!). Beautiful blue skies through the day and starry nights. It gets a bit chilly during the early hours but still t shirt and shorts weather for most of the day. We aren't doing much really now, just walking on the beach, Bri goes for a daily bike ride and just generally taking it easy and not driving so much :-).

The photos pretty much sum things up at the mo'

Friday 29th

We left our last aire in Spain at 9am, travelled 105 miles to Portugal and arrived just after 10am, not bad for a motokennel eh? We are now on GMT instead of CET so have an extra hour in Portugal :-) We are going to slow down a bit now and not do so much driving around so hope to stay around The Algarve for a while. The sun is shining very brightly, it's warm, the air is free and there is free wifi at the library 100 metres away :-)

Thursday 28th (cont.)

Here is the photo of the leccy point which only tall (dark, handsome (added by Bri)) people can reach.

Our stay here didn't last as long as anticipated, before dark fell upon us we scooted off to an aire just outside Seville. Now we have proper leccy hookup, proper wifi and should be safe for the night, it's at a motokennel dealer!

Oh, unfortunately the photos of the last town didn't do t justice so I'm not posting them.

Thursday 28th

A very peaceful night after which we made good use of the free water etc. before heading another 80 miles west towards Seville. 80 miles of olive groves, truly amazing, and now we have arrived at Marchena where we see the re-emergence of orange trees :-), Theresa Green? Nah! 

The free aire here has free leccy (if you're tall enough to reach it), now let me see, who do I know who's tall? I think it has been put so high to stop the vandals as apparently they were damaged in 2011. Surprisingly we can get free wifi in this (non tourist town), we even got it at the aire for a while but Mr Techno-Cretin is struggling to get it working again so I suspect we are in for another walk into town later. The town is lovely, I'll try to get a photo on the blog.

I think Bri fancies a haircut when we pass through Seville as Rachel says there is a good barber there ;-)

Wednesday 27th

Dost mine ears deceive me? What's this I hear on the roof of the motokennel? The first rain in I don't know how long, fell upon us during the dark hours and has driven away from the costas to the main olive growing region of Spain, 50 miles west of Granada. We are en route to The Algarve, so an overnighter at ................ you won't be able to pronounce it so i won't bother writing it, then one more before Portugal should do it. The landscape here is SO different! Thank goodness we have left all those ugly plastic tents behind and they have been replaced with olive groves. The hills have real texture, its like they've been crocheted, lovely.

Tuesday 26th November

Happy Birthday to blog follower Nige :-)

Algarve plans are brewing...... the present unofficial free aire we are at has views of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, complete with snow! A little odd as we are by the sea in t shirts and shorts, well obviously I'M not wearing them, but the humans are.

The Clingfilm Capital of Europe

We don't care for the acres and acres of countryside wrapped in Clingfilm, it doesn't make this area of Spain very appealing :-/ although the sunset on the backdrop of the mountains goes someway to make up for it.

After a stressful drive through Almeria city centre (think we must've seen the worst it  had to offer) we eventually found a great spot to stay the night at a marina in Roquetas de Mar, in The Gulf of Almeria, free of charge of course! I think we are going to take it easy for a couple of days in this area, before possibly making the big leap to The Algarve. We are just kicking ideas around at the mo' though, watch this space........

Sunday 24th (still) Goodbye Costa Calida, Hello Costa de Almeria

For those of you not interested in the intricacies of wild camping in Spain, wild?? how can it be wild when we are in a motokennel that has an ensuite for heavens sake!  Sorry, where was I, oh yes, if you aren't interested in the intricacies of wild camping in Spain then stop reading now, if you haven't already.

By wild camping I mean not at campsites or recognised aires, you can't imagine the joy expressed by Bri & Rache when they see other motokennels parked up, safety in numbers, especially with all the warnings about Spain! Today we left a beach where there were about 20 of us although we had a completely unobscured view of the sunrise (as you may have seen). The plan was to head to the next 'tip off' about 50 miles further down the coast. Lesson 1, ALWAYS fill up with water when there is some available. We left the beach driving past a water point, Bri being blasé about how much water we had on board. We stopped at a market 9 miles down the road to hear the warning buzzer of low water! It was a lovely coastal drive, BACK to our starting point :-/ After filling up it was back on the road again, quite a good day really so far, beautiful sunshine always helps. We stumbled across Mojacar then headed to the 'tip off', some you win and some you lose. We drove miles through pre wrapped pizza, very apt as it was through acre upon acre of plastic covered tomato plantations, on the hope we would find a tasty morsel at the end. When we arrived at the village the 1st place we parked was grim, even by dog standards it was poor. We decided to head off into the sunset on the hope of finding another motokennel to snuggle up to, but before we left the village Rachel spotted one, never before has she been so pleased to see a German!

Sunday 24th (still) Goodbye Costa Calida, Hello Costa de Almeria

For those of you not interested in the intricacies of wild camping in Spain, wild?? how can it be wild when we are in a motokennel that has an ensuite for heavens sake!  Sorry, where was I, oh yes, if you aren't interested in the intricacies of wild camping in Spain then stop reading now, if you haven't already.

By wild camping I mean not at campsites or recognised aires, you can't imagine the joy expressed by Bri & Rache when they see other motokennels parked up, safety in numbers, especially with all the warnings about Spain! Today we left a beach where there were about 20 of us although we had a completely unobscured view of the sunrise (as you may have seen). The plan was to head to the next 'tip off' about 50 miles further down the coast. Lesson 1, ALWAYS fill up with water when there is some available. We left the beach driving past a water point, Bri being blasé about how much water we had on board. We stopped at a market 9 miles down the road to hear the warning buzzer of low water! It was a lovely coastal drive, BACK to our starting point :-/ After filling up it was back on the road again, quite a good day really so far, beautiful sunshine always helps. We stumbled across Mojacar then headed to the 'tip off', some you win and some you lose. We drove miles through pre wrapped pizza, very apt as it was through acre upon acre of plastic covered tomato plantations, on the hope we would find a tasty morsel at the end. When we arrived at the village the 1st place we parked was grim, even by dog standards it was poor. We decided to head off into the sunset on the hope of finding another motokennel to snuggle up to, but before we left the village Rachel spotted one, never before has she been so pleased to see a German!

Good Morning Sunday 24th

Looks like another beautiful day down here in sunny Spain :-) dunno where we are going but not too far, probably in a south westerly direction

Friday 22nd

Happy Birthday Amy :-) see you in4 weeks:-) xx

Saturday 23rd

Headed 45 miles further south, now at a deserted beach stealing wifi from the nearest cafe. Toasty out here.

Thursday 21st 

Greetings my dear blog followers. Firstly I must apologise for not posting every day but, lack of Internet, power to the iPad and just pressure of life means I've been a bit lax lately. Anyway, if anybody is still following us then here is the latest. I'm typing this on Thursday night in a remote location so it won't get published until we find a McDonalds or the like. 

We went to Benidorm, well you just have to don't you, we stayed in little Britain, a campsite which was home from home for the 60+ which I suppose means it should've suited me, being 13 dog years but sorry, not my cup of tea at all! We walked down to the seafront, it was an achievement not to be run over by a motobility scooter, they are EVERYWHERE!!! I was desperate to get on the beach but of course us furry ones aren't allowed, I suppose in case we dump on somebody sunbathing :-/ I just love feeling of the warm sand between my pads, just LOVE it (in the words of Kevin Keegan) but alas, we will have to wait for another beach. So after the briefest of visits to the front (& McDo's) we took our life in our hands and shimmied our way around those damned scooters back to little Britain. Benidorm, it's Botchergate for the aged, but with sun. Once back to the 'relative safety' of Camping Britannia, names have been changed to protect the innocent, we (or should I say they) had a couple beers with Paul & Marissa & discussed the future (few weeks). This morning we did everything that needed doing, coffee with The Joneses (P&M) fond farewells then off to.............. Lidl :-/ then McDo's (email not working properly) then..........on the road again. Goodbye Costa Blanca, hello Costa Calida, 125 miles further south (recommended by Nigel & Beri). A long hard afternoon through wilderness until we arrived at this gem La Azohia just before sunset, beautiful. Beer, wine (not crossing MY lips, if I had any) & a lovely meal watching the sunset over The Med. I was thinking, "careful" I hear you say, so far I think Spain is like ......... pizza, crusty around the edges, but mainly a flat unappetising expanse of caca, pardon my Spanish, with the occasional tasty morsel. Let's see how the next few weeks go.......

Tuesday 19th

Having been here (Javea) longer than anywhere else it is time to move on to............Benidorm!! Yes, we are going to a campsite at Benidorm for one night only to recharge & clean everything but more importantly meet up with Paul and Marissa (who we met a week ago), then we will be back on the road continuing south.

Moi at St Bees, I mean Spain somewhere B-)