Safe Return Doubtful

After just ten weeks in Cumbria I’m on the road again, heading south to the coastal Estrela mountains of central Portugal initially, then returning indirectly back north, through Galicia and Leon, on a different route to that of two years ago, then east across the Cantabrians and back to the UK with some time in the Dordogne and Brittany, all in three months. 

I left Shap last Friday before the snow came. Though there were storms, the first half of the Cumbrian winter had plenty of fine days. It was a good stay, and helped expel any doubts I had as to whether the area is really ‘home’. I plan to return in mid-April and work the hiking season on the bar at the Lodge, welcoming exhausted Coast-To-Coasters with a beer. It’s then that I will change the van also, a process that, along with a new build, will take a couple of months. 

My first stop on this course was Worcester, and a visit to my friend Tom and his family. We worked together in Chile and had some great times. He is now Head at Kings Hawford Prep School, and it was an excellent weekend watching more sport than I could have imagined, sharing the house with his thirteen year old son and his friends on a sleepover. 

From there it was a half hour south to see another friend I haven’t caught up with for a few years, Lee and his family at Malvern.

We had a couple of hours out on the hills with the dogs in the snow, before I continued south to Poole, to catch up with my old cricketing buddy, Joe. From there it was just an hour to Portsmouth ferry terminal and the night boat to Caen, perfect timing for a good night’s sleep in the van before docking at 7:15 am. 

There are always frustrations on such journeys. This time it was that my internet provider, EE, had changed their system. I’m still getting to grips with exactly how it’s changed, suffice to say that it used to be excellent, unlimited data for as long as necessary in Europe at £25 a month, to something like three times the amount, £2.47 a day. I’ve a few options; getting sims from each country (as they don’t generally allow similar use outside their borders), sticking with EE, or, moving to Starlink, something I may well do after this course. 

Despite heavy rain I made excellent progress through France. I’m keen not to dilly-dally in these first few days, and get to some double figure temperatures. I had originally thought to avoid the peages, which are expensive down the west coast, and exaggerated because my less than 6 metres van is in the same category (2), as vehicles 15 metres in length, but with the heavy rain I changed my mind and used them to get as far as I am now, an hour or so south of Bordeaux. The really expensive ones are through the Basque area, which I will avoid tomorrow. So the journey was very quick, about 480 miles in just less than six hours. 

I’m in a little village called Magescq, just off the E70, in the sports hall car park. There’s an excellent bakery apparently, and it’s very quiet, and good for a dog walk, which we’ve just done. Onwards and southwestwards tomorrow, heading for the Sierra de Atapuerca, not much more than three hours away.