The grand tour of Southern Spain: Western Andalucía 31st January – 6th March 2024 Day 1 to 5 Plymouth to Cordoba

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The grand tour of Southern Spain: Western Andalucía  31^st January – 6^th march 2024

Day One: Plymouth to Portsmouth

Starting mileage 14975 

We are away from our storage site by 0954. We have spent the last couple of days ferrying equipment across in the car. We have a new bike cover – the old one has finally given up the ghost – it did very well! We have tested all the alarms, checked the oil, Adblue, screen wash etc. To my horror, I discovered some mould in the passenger door pocket and so spend ten minutes getting that removed. I missed it on the previous week clean up and sort out check! Oops!  Over winter we didn’t bring Bryony back home for charging up – first time. It shows the success of the new solar panel and battery arrangement, but, consequently, she has felt a little damp in her interior air despite the judicious use of dehumidifier tubs. So, the lesson for next winter is bring her home once a month to switch on her heating!

This trip, I remember to take off the wheel clamp before reversing her out of her slot!! Maggie drives the first leg up the A38 and at Haldon Hill after a coffee stop, I take over the leg to Portsmouth. We stop off at Morrisons at Bridport for another coffee stop and fuel top up (£50).  We then have another stop at the M27 Portsmouth Services before arriving at Port Solent around 1600. You now have to call them before arriving in their car park to get their permission. I guess too many have been using it at times and so it has been causing problems.  A meal at the Harvester for £25 and a stroll around the one or two shops that have survived. Many retail units have closed.

During the evening, we have the heating on several times as it is chilly. There are about 20 vans in the car park and clearly some are stopping the night because they are up on ramps due to the slight slope in the car park.  Maggie does some knitting, I catch up on some astronomy videos. The weather is looking good down in southern Spain and the better news is that the French farmers are calling off the road blocks so hopefully tomorrow we should get a clear run down to Bordeaux.

We arrive at the ferry port around 2030 and eventually get on the ferry around 2300. There is a slight delay to departure – we get away around midnight-ish. Now being members of the Voyager club, we get a cabin on deck 9, a mere metres away from the bar area. That’s nice!

Distance driven: 170 miles

Costs – fuel £53; ferry ticket return – £670

Route followed: A38 – M5 – A30 – A35 – A31 – M27

Port Solent contact number is: 023 92 210606    info@portsolent.com 

Day two:  Ouistream to just north of Bordeaux

Starting mileage 15143.

The ferry crossing was fine. Well, I assume it was. I slept through it!  We are up and queueing at the café at 0530. One of us is excited because it is a free breakfast. The benefits of club voyager membership, we get 12 euros each to spend on board, as well as discounts on a room and the crossing charge. Brittany Ferries were doing a 50% off membership deal and the savings on this crossing paid for the membership immediately.

We manage to follow our route (see below) all the way to Poitiers before hitting a farmers road block. A diversion down the N10 with restricted speed to 80kph. We have a few stops at services on the way and keep pushing onwards and before we know it, we had arrived at our Aire at Libourne at 1715. It has about 9 spaces and there is a little steep ramp down into it which could potentially cause grounding issues for longer wheel-based motorhomes. We are 6.3m and then a 1m bike rack/towbar combination on the rear. The exhaust scrapes the ground! But then it always does! Have you seen the stupid design of the Autosleeper Broadway exhaust system? Heaven help us!

The Aire backs onto a school and a community sports astro turf area which is fenced in. There are residential houses 40 yards away. Trees to one side and then a gravelly car park area on its final side, where along one track you will find the services point. The pitches slope slightly but we don’t need ramps. No electric and just basic services but it is quiet and we have a peaceful undisturbed night.

Well, almost! I think the passports have fallen out of my side leg trouser pocket because I discover it is unzipped and empty and my last memory is putting the passports in them. Panic ensues – well from one of us – the other one just keeps silent and wears a resigned look on her face. She’s seen it all before! Of course, they turned up. I had put them in a special safe place!

Costs: fuel 99 euros; Aire 5 euros. Coffee and pastry stops – just don’t ask!

Distance: 365 miles

Route: N158 – A88 – A28 – A10 – N10 - 670

Day three  - Bordeaux to Riaza.

Starting mileage 15505

We are woken early and abruptly by slamming car doors and muffled voices. Lots of voices. I peer out of a window to be greeted by murky grey swirling mists and visibility down to a few metres. It’s still dark and a fumbled grope for the alarm clock shows it to be 0630.

What is this uncivilised Saturday morning start?

From across the Aire, on the gravelled side lot, apparitions begin to emerge; orange swathed from head to toe. Baseball caps and more sinisterly, rifles slung over shoulders. These orange wraiths appear and disappear as mists swirl. Dogs bark excited, their woofs somewhat muted, as if they are contained within some box structure. Tinkling little bells silence them instantly. This is all getting too surreal.

Of course, Saturday is hunting day in some parts of France. As long as they aren’t hunting lone motorhome occupants, then I am happy. Happy-ish. 0630 is a tad early surely?

We’ve had a peaceful night, no disturbances. But it was cold. The Aire is on the top of a little hill just down from a pretty church and village comprising of old buff coloured sandstone buildings. On the sloping fields below are assorted small vineyards. The road, lane would be a better word, up to the village is narrow but doable even in large motorhomes.  This is a small agricultural community and rather quaint. But, cold air rolls down the slopes and gets trapped in the Aire!

On our way out, at the T junction with the main road back to the motorway, Maggie gets excited by a 6’ high glass wine bottle – the real thing but 6’ high. She had missed it yesterday when we turned off the road! She’s keen to start ‘searching’ the draws for a large a straw but hey time is pressing on and we have a seven-hour long journey south and more potential farmer blockades to contend with.

Away by 0820 then but with a new twist to our journey. Fog! Visibility less than 50m. The A63 has lots of lorries. They drift in and out of view as thick swirling blankets and tendrils of deep grey fog obscure the landscape. It sits like a dull grey fleece blanket across the top of the pine forests either side. And it stays with us until around 11.00.

Now I don’t know how other motorhomers travel but we have a ‘routine’ and assigned roles. Maggie is chief navigator and she is awesome at it. Probably the best navigator I know and I’m a geographer and ex outdoor pursuits instructor! She juggles google maps, an atlas and occasionally a sat nav as well. We rarely get lost. She is also chief ‘have we checked…..’ because, let’s face it, I’m absent minded and forgetful. There is a reason why the family nicknamed me ’10-second Steve’! She also has responsibility for choosing radio stations and selecting good local music channels as we travel, although as driver in chief, I get the final say when her choices are ‘dubious’!

I am driver in chief, chief mechanic, principal washer upper and the only toilet cassette changer. I am also responsible for choosing Aires and campsites.  Also I am responsible for liaising with the motorhome bed fairy. Maggie steps into the bathroom at night. When she comes back out, the bed is assembled, as if by magic. In the morning, Maggie steps into the bathroom and when she emerges, there is a coffee waiting and bed fairy has magically disappeared the bed and the lounge is ready once more. So there we have it, a division of labour that so far has served us well!

A few coffee stops and soon we are in Spain where the roads start to steepen and twist and turn through the various tunnel systems. And there are a lot of tunnels! We leave the coastal road and periodic sea views and climb. And climb. And climb! Eventually we reach the plateau lands – vast open spaces of tilled fields and glorious sunshine. The external thermometer on the dash screen even says 16C. We will take all that thank you very much!

Eventually we edge our way into the pretty resort town of Riaza around 1700. With its stunning circular meeting area (The Plaza Mayor) outside the town hall and its old buildings with covered walkways, it is one of our favourite little stops on our journeys south. The old town has been designated ‘Property of cultural interest’ and it grabs your attention immediately. A combination of an ellipse space, stone steps, cast iron railings, porticos and continuous balconies. Irregular height buildings and the imposing renaissance style church ‘Nuestra Senora Del Manto’ with its 33m high bell tower complete the architectural scene.

Tonight is busy – twenty vans of different sizes in. The car park has quite a slope and you need ramps. Early birds get the pick of the spaces and can park lengthways across the slope.

We had hoped to get to Segovia but hey we did well. It was an ambitious journey south today. Being a weekend, we stroll the three minutes into the little town centre. It is busy – most of the cafes and restaurants have plenty of customers sat out having pre-evening drinks. Families are gathered. The sun is setting, casting a warm golden glow across the neighbouring mountains. Shadows are lengthening.  The sky is clear. It’s going to be another cold night.

Distance covered  - 382 miles

Costs: fuel 80 euros. Aire – free

Route: 670 – A630 – N1010 – A63 – A8 – AP1 – A1 – N110

https://www.spain.info/en/destination/riaza/

Day four – Riaza to Puerto Latrice via Segovia

Starting mileage 15887 

We have filled up with water, offloaded black and grey waste and left Riaza early. An hour or so later, 0950, and we are in Segovia, parked up on the Aire adjacent to the bull ring.

A twenty-minute stroll down the side of an old Roman aqueduct in the backstreets sees us arriving under the truly impressive, monstrously high aqueduct in the town centre. It is genuinely very impressive.  As a former history teacher, I am in awe at the engineering skills on display but also bothered by ‘at what cost’ – to slaves, locals?

This is a quick stop off but we instantly decide to stop in Segovia overnight on the way back. We stroll the town’s streets, do some window shopping, find the Alcazar gardens and marvel at the storks nesting in the pine trees. Of course, we have a coffee and pastry. It would be rude not to! All to the accompaniment of, well I thought it was gunfire practice on the military school ranges. Maggie thought they were doing drumming parades. One of us was wrong! And come the revolution, I am not trusting her instincts when it comes to judging what is and is not revolutionary gunfire!

The city was designated a world heritage site in the late 1980’s and we found it came with lots of old world charm permeating its narrow cobbled streets and fairy tale looking Alcazar castle. We depart Segovia reluctantly at 1330 and head on down the A4 to Puerto Latrice. It is a small Aire, tucked up a side residential street. It is a tight turn into the Aire and if someone parks opposite getting out would be tricky/nigh impossible! It’s free and there are all the basic services except electricity. You can overlook a small hill with three windmills on the top and olive groves. Rather charming, as is the actual town. Space for round 10 vans. All I will say is there is a lot of road noise all night from the nearby A4 – but since we are sound sleepers – it didn’t affect us at all!

Distance: 91 miles

Costs: Aire free

Route: N110 – A1 – N110 – AP61 – A6 – A50 – A4

Day five – Heading for Cordoba!

Starting mileage 16078 

Away by 0830 and we call in at a Carrefour somewhere. I can’t remember where – it’s been a blur really. We have driven hard for four days now to get down to Cordoba. Why not go on the Santander ferry I hear you ask? Because the sailor in the family, the boat builder and boat owner – well that person – wait for it – gets terribly, terribly sea sick. End of story. Hilarious is it not! The Bay of Biscay is not for that person. I’ll leave you work out which one of us it is!

At the Carrefour we get 80 euros of fuel and 4 euros of gas. This comes as a surprise to us because for the last four days we have been under the assumption that we have a dodgy gas tank. We are sure we filled it up after our last trip to the Pennines but early on day two, the tank gauge showed four lights and then dropped to three. So really it was telling us we were half empty – around 10 litres or so left. So, we should have been putting in 8 euros not 4!  I hate that gas indicator gauge. It has the same uselessness as our dodgy waste water tank gauge, the alarm of which is always going off, telling us it is full when we drained it an hour ago! Ah, the quirks of owning an Autosleeper Broadway, eh?

Our journey south today crosses the high plains and plateaus of Spain with transitions from tilled fields to olive plantations as far as the eye can see. And then back to plains of arable crops before rolling past orange groves. Throw in almond and cherry tree plantations as well and the agricultural landscape is varied and rather interesting. All irrigated of course, which leaves me, as a geographer asking several questions; primarily based around – “Where is all this water coming from? And what are the implications of it for other water users and how do they manage given they are in the middle  of a three-year drought period?”

I muse on these questions further at a rather interesting Moroccan themed services stop on the A4! Great coffee, lovely croissants and near empty!

Our Aire for tonight is outside Cordoba. You drive between some warehouses in El Higueron and discover a large gravel car park area which has been turned into a motorhome Aire site. Grass pitches in the middle, gravel on the outsides. All normal facilities but just one clean toilet for the whole site. And it is a popular site. I counted around thirty-five vans when we arrived and we got one of the last plots, a corner pitch with EHU. The other side of the hedge, sheep and a noisy cockerel!  16 euros per night with EHU.  Bus stop to Cordoba 300m up the road and a 30-minute journey in to the centre.

 We spend the afternoon having showers onboard Bryony; there are no showers at this site. I clean her out – I am after all – chief cleaner (Maggie is chief cook, it seems fair) and generally catching up on reading and planning the next few days exploring Cordoba.  We are here. We have arrived. Finally, the start of our western Andalucian tour!

Costs: fuel 80 euros; campsite x 3 nights 48 euros

Distance: 175 miles or so

Route: A4