# Hampshireman's Holiday in Spain and France



## Hampshireman

Holiday Journal 2007.
(Subtitled - A/ Any idea where the supermarket is? B/ Is this site on reverse polarity? C? Forgot the toilet paper. D/ We should have packed a sink plug and E/ This toilet has no seat)

After a lovely warm week we set off in high anticipation on Sunday June 10th 2007 for Plymouth on a really nice day, making good time and had our sandwich lunch in the ferry queue, noting a huge US made motorhome alongside. It’s always fascinating if not frustrating on how they load these boats with their various decks and although we were early, we were still in the later batch going on, having seen the US version drift past in all it’s majesty. The owners had been knocked up by the operators, just when they were thinking of cooking up a 3-course meal in the queue (I found that out when talking to the owners on board later).
As we approached the ramp we passed the Yankee model, put to one side to wait until the loaders could figure out what to do with it.
We had a tip that once the mandatory cabin had been established, we needed to book in the best restaurant for dinner which is extremely good, therefore popular. However on finding our cabin in the labyrinth of ships corridors, I had to ask a passing steward where was the 2nd bed. Talk about innocents abroad – well, we hadn’t done this 20-hour crossing before. He kindly and Frenchly demonstrated the pull down bed, which materialised from a flush ceiling.
We sauntered up several deck levels to the restaurant just as the booking were opened, so I got our G&T aperitifs while Carole queued – good thinking Robin, as Batman would say, although my name is Derek.
Lovely meal and service then a wander round the various bars and catching some of the entertainment and some people watching…Harley bikers and blonde chicks for example. We slept well, showered in the excellent ensuite and took breakfast a la continental, then sat up near the pointy end on a flat calm sea watching dolphins play in brilliant warm sunshine. This augurs well we thought. 

Santander port was a long winding route to exit, but soon we were on the road west, but Carole got us into a suburb very quickly, following my route but confused by the myriad of road numbers on the overhead signs. We got sorted and drove to Llanes looking for a Supermercado before going to Camping La Paz near Vidiago, which we had passed…purposely. Said S/Mercado proved elusive, so we had a beer, I asked around, drove around once more, then we walked around and still didn’t find it, but we had enough stuff on board in our 2 berth VW Caravelle campervan so onto campsite.

It’s in the Alan Rogers Guide (ARG) and the description is very accurate although it doesn’t mention the lack of sink plugs, but I had one in my wash bag, having learned this from camping over the years. We had no problem, but big caravans must be towed up the very steep track by the site Land Rover. However it’s well worth it for the superb views. That’s us on the left with the back doors wide open and the roof up. I guess the site was maybe 20% occupied, if that and that proved to be the pattern for most of the next three weeks. The weather was great and I had a swim in the sea and Carole made us an omelette. Later we walked to the bar, which is that red roof on the right and met a Brit B**l Sh****r, but it was a nice place to sit and listen to his spiel. No one else in the place and surly staff, nice for the mass of people they are going to see very soon. 


AAH! Here's where I should announce that photos meant to be inserted in this text at stages - aren't! You can see them in my album.

I will follow this with more stuff later.


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## Grizzly

Keep it coming Hampshireman and thanks for sharing the trip so far.

The next best thing to doing it yourself is reading someone else's trip.

I suppose that's what Vicarious Books chose their name for...!

G


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## Hampshireman

Thanks G, will do when I get home. I have put all the pics in an album now, so it may be best to refer everyone there rather than adding attachments each time. What do you think as an expert?


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## Grizzly

Hampshireman said:


> . I have put all the pics in an album now, so it may be best to refer everyone there rather than adding attachments each time. What do you think as an expert?


The last thing I am is an expert but I think I'd put the photos in an album so everyone can go look at them all of a piece - and you can look back at them.

I'm so much of an expert at this that it was only about a week ago that I realised that I could access my album on the website via the PHOTOS
button at the bottom of my posts rather than going all the way through Main page, Motorhome albums, page 6 and so on ! Doh ! I didn't put it there so assume you get one automatically when you start an album.

Love the sunflower picture.

G


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## Hampshireman

Further on

On Tuesday we backtracked a little and drove in land to Potes at the foothills of the Picos de Europa mountain range. Nice little town and had a coffee then found the campsite La Viorna only about 2K up the road. Another in the ARG and a great spot. A Short Toed Eagle circled above and we soon found other birders including an English coupe and a Dutch bloke. Black Kites were around too. We walked up the road beside the campsite to the monastery at Toribio and wandered some level tracks and found an old hermitage where we took in the views. It was downhill all the way and then some aperitifs and nibbles and we met the same English couple going into the site restaurant so we shared a table for dinner and had a real good chat. They told us about the cable car at Fuenta De up to 1900 mtrs and how to find the haunt of the rare Wallcreeper, amongst the snow we were told – gulp! The lady also told us to watch out for and buy bottles of wine on small supermarket shelves with one tiny label at the bottom and only one euro a bottle.

Wednesday saw us driving to the cable car and we parked in a deserted CP and shared the car with one Brit couple that were walking down to Espinama where their car was parked. It was a cool, grey but bright day, but at the summit, my wind was cold. After a brisk 30-minute walk we found the snowfield, not much really, almost slush in gullies but there was the unmistakeable rock face of the Wallcreeper domain. We huddled with binoculars behind a suitably large boulder for 15 minutes until it got too cold so we walked another 30 minutes on up until the cold was too much and we returned to bird watch but having it terminated for the day by hordes of Spanish school kids being led up the same path and making one hell of a noise. There must have been 100 of them. We had to fight for a place in the car down with more kids and a busload of Spanish pensioners and it was even noisier. But being purposely last in and against the windows, we were rewarded with sightings of an Egyptian Vulture and a Griffon Vulture circling on the thermals round us. Instead of returning to La Viorna, we decided to move onwards and drove to Riano on a big lake.

It’s a seedy dump. Modern blocks of flats built for holidays on a nice setting yet eerily deserted, as it was not the season. I reckon its Euro money badly spent. We wandered round waiting for a butcher to open and a small supermercado at about 5pm and bought chicken and stuff, then we hightailed it to a mountain campsite at Sta Marina de Valdeon. This too was virtually deserted and then the first rain fell and it bucketed down right through the night and morning. I think this is where I forgot to retrieve my own personal sink plug

On Thursday we aimed for Luarca to another ARG site. The van needed a drink and we came off the motorway at a filling station and while paying, these most delish smells were wafting around. I suggested we lunched there and Carole initially turned her nose up, obviously due to the industrial type of setting, but I had peeped into the restaurant and persuaded her that hordes of truckers, builders, reps and deliverymen couldn’t be wrong and the place was spotless. We had a superb 8 euro 3 course lunch Inc wine and bread off the menu of the day. Families were eating in the slightly less crowded room with proper tablecloths instead of the big white sheets of paper, but we were happy and the buzz was tremendous. 
Los Cantiles is a lovely site overlooking the sea and we picked our spot more or less as we did all the tour. After dinner we walked steeply downhill into town and explored it and found a nice bar, then were shown to the Café Colon because I had asked for the oldest genuine original bar in town. We took the patrons and locals (not many) by surprise, but it was OK in the place, jazz CDs on and jazz posters on the walls. Carole’s white wine was served oddly in a squat wide glass and not much of it. We people watched and then went to the quayside and found another bar for a further bout of people, several who were drinking cidre from pressurised mock barrels and then got the waiter to call us a taxi to counter the totally uphill trip back to the site. The following morning, Friday, our kettle tripped the hookup, which only happened twice over the whole trip. The German lady in the office scoffed and said “of course the kettle”, but it was indeed a rare occurrence and deepened the colour of grey that surrounds electricity supplies on campsite and the theory of reverse polarity. 3, 6 or 10 amp is the variation of supply. Sometimes you get a choice, but I used a reversed cable every time and never had a problem, although I loaned a non reverse cable to a chap on another site and that worked too. You tell me!

We hit the road to Santiago de Compostela and drove to the sound of Chris Rea’s “Road to Hell’ album at full volume. Must have scared some of the many pilgrims marching along the roadside. We tried to visit Lugo but couldn’t park, much as the lady who recommended it found. We lunched on the way, also at her suggestion at Casa Fidalgo in Guntin and even tried her choice of Pimientos de Padron which were not as hot as we thought but very nice. As Cantelas campsite in the suburbs of Santiago, ARG listed, was not easy to find and we got a bit lost then spotted a sign. It’s one gripe I have about that guide, the poor directional info. The site is big, well shaded, well worn, no toilet paper ( a common trend together with missing sink plugs) and tiered but once again we could choose our spot. It rained really heavily that afternoon and all night. I managed some internet access in the bar while Carole made a snack.

We caught the local bus into the city on Saturday morning, still drizzling and dull weather. I spotted a big market before the city centre so we got off an explored. It’s just the thing for buying your fresh provisions, but we didn’t want to lug it all round all day. Of course it would be shut when we wanted it later in the afternoon so we opted to try a tapas lunch. Not a big decision to make really! We stumbled on the cathedral and did it. A mega mass was going in the midst of hordes of tourists and of course pilgrims of all shapes, sizes and weariness abounded. It’s quite spectacular with lots of gold and a novel pulley system to lower the incense burner, but not as attractive as Leon with its gorgeous stained glass we thought.
We strolled a nearby park for a vista of the city rooftops and then found a great busy with locals bar and had a super tapas lunch helped by a really friendly waiter. We walked back to site in about 40 minutes and it was cool, grey and dull. Carole said for two pins she would leave and I agreed, so we upped sticks about 4.30 and drove south, initially still following plan A.
I didn’t want to go far at that time of the day and the weather worsened considerably so Carole tried to navigate us to the coast. In absolutely torrential rain we got lost west of Pontevedra and ended up on a deserted site in Cambados.

Carole made us some food and we read for the evening and bedded down in a fairly depressed mood. The toilet block on this site was almost palatial and actually had sink plugs so I unhooked one and put it in my washbag. By morning and the rain still pelting down, we had decided plan B would be activated and we would turn tail and head due east away from the Atlantic coast, missing out Portugal, Salamanca, Toledo and Monfrague, just to get some sun and warmth. My evening reading had been road maps and it also had dawned on me that those places were really a bit too far.

There is a complete album of my pics to this trip in the Photo Albums, funny that......


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## Hampshireman

A bit further

We hit the toll roads where necessary and got some mileage and spent a a great Sunday night at a site at Hospital de Orbigo just west of Leon. Given a pitch on a popular locals site and to be honest we weren’t enamoured with our immediate neighbours, so immediate that the wall of their awning was no more than two feet from the van. Loud music banged from their radio and they looked rough. Anyway we blocked their view and sauntered into the village for dinner. We found a little bar/restaurant catering for pilgrims, just like us! and enjoyed the menu and chat with some of them with sore feet, blisters, bent knees and other ailments walking from Holland and Germany to Santiago. We went through to the bar to find it full and smoky (of course) ‘cos the soccer match between Real and Mallorca was on to decided the league champs. It was good atmosphere, met some more pilgrims, Italian and Czech and had a few beers. We took a turn round Leon the following day and thought it nice, especially the cathedral, then onwards east in search of sun.
Camping at Monumento al Pastor site at Miranda de Ebro we found a near deserted site until a Harley bike rumbled in. Real nice Manchester bloke and we had dinner with him in the upmarket restaurant. Next morning we explored Vitoria and parked under the cathedral but didn’t look in. It’s a very nice town and found a Carrefour before heading coast wise to Bermeo via the industrial horror of Durango, east of Bilbao. We actually took a wrong turning and ended up doing it all again. It is dreadful.
Carole cooked up a storm and we had a noisy disturbed night with lots of students on site after we walked into Mundaka and enjoyed the estuary scene. Now in Basque country of course, with a strange language and everywhere named twice like Wales.
Local bus service was an hour into Bilbao the next morning and we did the city properly including the Guggenheim. It’s a superb building but disappointing stuff inside. Just huge installations by a German bloke and no paintings as such. We took the cable car to get the views then a nice tapas lunch sat on a bench in the bar then back to site.
The coast road east from Bermeo clings to the sea and is pretty if a formidable route due to the strange incidence of lone men walking roadside. We must have seen a dozen. Where from? Where to? Why?
I remembered reading a review of lunch time sardines at Getaria, so we parked up and researched menus, chose our spot for lunch later then explored. Wrong!! Taking our seat we were informed sardines were off, sold out, so we decamped to another place and felt ripped off by the ambiguous menu, but the sardines were superb. At night we camped at Orio on a very basic site overshadowed by the motorway and a building site on an estuary, but it served a purpose. We met an English bloke who had forgotten his reverse polarity hook-up lead and borrowed my non reversed and found it worked. The mystery of reverse polarity deepens.
It was short drive into San Sebastian the following day, Friday 22nd June. We parked quite well and did the city and liked it a lot. Lovely tapas lunch and then we moved into France for St Jean de Luz having it recommended to us. Finding the campsite wasn’t a doddle but it was worth persevering and we lazed the remainder of the afternoon including a stroll down to the nearby beach. We walked via a coastal path into the pretty town and had a very good meal and discovered that it was the first night of a week long festival of St Jean. The town was awash with people in black and red clothing, singing groups, big choirs, marching bands, fiddle/accordion band in the plaza, local dancing and lots of drinking. It was fun.
The next day, having found I had somehow lost the sink plug I stole back at Cambados we did something unusual for us and spent some hours on the beach, then we went back into town for another evening of festive fun. We found more bands, choirs, street singing, local dancing, a different fiddle type band in the plaza and everyone waiting to set fire to a tree! This duly happened at about 10.30pm, with the local fire brigade carrying torches and a procession led by the current mayor who is also the new Minister of the Interior. After a couple of drinks and still in Spanish mode we set off to find a restaurant, after all they eat late round here. Wrong!! The streets were solid with bodies, that’s no problem, we’re Hashers, but all the restaurants had stopped serving so we ended with Panini and chips from a stall and they were good. Well we were hungry.


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## Hampshireman

Final chapter, breathe again...

The drive north next morning was very boring. Easy driving through massive areas of pine forest, but we finally found the site recommended to us by a chap at work. The Panorama du Pyla, right on the biggest sand dune in Europe. It is spectacular and the weather was perfect as it had been since crossing into France, although we had good warmth right from Bilbao. Huge informal site layout and pitch where you want. We chose a spot with sea view through the pines
and explored. It is simply amazing when you see the dune. It’s ginormous and goes on for miles. It was about a minutes walk from our van and on a Sunday afternoon there were lots of paragliders in the air. It was extremely colourful and I wanted to have a go and booked a place.

Then we saw a very bad landing and Carole forbade me to try, but I had already made that decision due to last years back problem. The instructor was convinced he could get me in softlysaying the landing we viewed was not one of his blokes, but I wimped out – rightly I think. We sat for more than an hour entranced with the action and antics and I’m afraid my pic doesn’t illustrate the number of people in the air.
This was one of the sites we were surprised by the lack of toilet seats and then discovered on about our 3rd toilet visit there were dispensers scattered about loaded with the paper variety. We stocked up with a few of them for future needs and needed them. We enjoyed some aperitif outside and the rather surreal experience of seeing these huge multi coloured chutes gliding past in silence just beyond the pines, some below, some level and some high above our sight lines. It rained heavily over night as we watched a Belgian couple trying to erect a tent in darkness and driving rain with a fair wind off the sea. On Monday morning, after I helped the couple put their tent up we went for a walk in the surrounding forest and then spent some hours by the magnificent pool complex until the rain started once more. Some Brit newcomers were having a row about the weather and camping having just arrived and I helped them with a hook up lead. I loaned my battery cables to a French bloke with a flat one. We had a disappointing meal on site apart from the entertainment of watching swallows feeding their chicks in the restaurant rafters. It rained all night and next morning and after feeling very self-righteous about my comradely helpfulness, we moved on, only to get lost in Arcachon looking for a Carrefour.
Aiming for near but not into Bordeaux we took a wrong turning driving through pretty but uninspiring agri land commenting that we thought we would have seen vineyards by now. Of course we didn’t know at the time we were driving away from Bordeaux. Chief navi officer Carole soon got us back on track and soon were had vineyards coming out of our ears. All the big chateaux names were passed, mainly ‘cos we weren’t in the market to buy cases and to sample the odd glass here and there just isn’t on. Also we like to swallow! We arrived in the estuary port of Pauillac and camped at the municipal. A pleasant walk and dinner, originally a bbq of 4 huge brochettes until the drizzle started saw the evening off nicely.
More vineyards stretched away on the road north to catch the ferry across to Royan. We found a lovely if expensive site in hot sun. Beached all afternoon, then moule/oyster dinner on the seafront.
On Thursday 28th June we drove further up the west coast of France and lunched in van at St Gille Croix, then onto Ile de Noirmoutier to find the municipal campsite and opting for about as far out in the Atlantic we could pitch. It was bright but cool and Carole stayed indoors while I went for a sketching ramble, not finding much except sussing out the restaurants only 5 minutes away for dinner. A very good dinner at La Tusant, then we battened down the hatches as it blew a gale all night but we stayed in one piece. We left the Ile via the low tide Gois causeway, amused by literally hundreds of people cockling in the mud. Not much else to do, to be honest. It’s a very flat and not particularly pretty place, but a favourite holiday area for the French.

We had a fair distance to cover to get to Caen (Ouistreham) ferry port by Saturday night, aiming for Alencon. We went off track to find the banks of the Loire and hoped for a nice restaurant and we found one, Tavern du Prieure at Possonniere although it’s not quite river bank. Really busy with all the locals, builders and truckers, typically **** everywhere. Ate from the menu including wine for 8 euros each, it was excellent. 
Expecting to find a site at Alencon we were caught in rush hour on a wet Friday evening and got side tracked into about the roughest area in the town. Urghh! We hightailed it out of there and town and just up the road in Sees we found a really nice little campsite. A stroll round showed how nice its bars were and on arriving back at the site found the site manager hosting a cider party for all his Brit campers, as the site is a useful stopover for Channel ferry campers. After a light snack we ventured back in town and aimed for the favourite bar we found earlier to find it was very full and not a bar anymore, just a restaurant. We had pondered a notice on the bar earlier, now we understood it. For a bar/restaurant in France not to mix drinkers and eaters was strange we felt.
We found a locals bar round the corner and had a laugh there.
Saturday 30th June, our last day and Carole said “shopping”. We parked in Caen and enjoyed the city and the Saturday crowds, did some toy shopping (what else?) and then found the supermarket to stock up on wine (there is something else). A light Galette lunch, trip round the castle and then on to Ouistreham and the usual site for ferry people. It’s enormous but good. Toilet seats still missing, but we had stock!
We walked along to canal and found the recommended Relais restaurant where a couple of coppers were eating. Then three more joined them. Then four more took a table, then the bar was filled by about a dozen more, all drinking several beers, in full black street gear and armed to the teeth. They all went to the dining room, but we felt safe!
That night was very humid and we didn’t sleep well and managed to provide a meal for several mossies which made their marks on us, Carole more than me.
The ferry was on time, we were on it and home in Otterbourne by 2.30 Sunday afternoon.


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## Grizzly

I enjoyed that ! Thanks Hampshireman.

Where are your photos ? I can't find them in the gallery and you don't have a Photos button at the bottom of your posts.

( I assume this comes automatically when you put up an album. I didn't do anything that I'm aware of to get my button)

G


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## Hampshireman

Thanks G. The pics are are in the photo albums as far as I can see. Ain't got time to lead you there right at this moment, but will have a look when home.


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## johng1974

very good HM

what is hashing? being a hasher?
John


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## Grizzly

Hampshireman said:


> Thanks G. The pics are are in the photo albums as far as I can see. Ain't got time to lead you there right at this moment, but will have a look when home.


Thanks Derek - got them. I was looking alphabetically not at the end.

Good photos. You did have more than your fair share of rain !

G


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## Hampshireman

Thanks G.
Thanks John. Being a Hasher is being "a drinker with a running problem!"
It's a form of social exercise practiced the world over by approximately 250,000 nutters of all shapes, sizes, religions and ages. My whole family are Hashers for instance and my eldest grandosn now two and a half was out hashing on his dad's back at 9 weeks.

For instance, the Winchester chapter of which I am GM (Grandmaster) or chairman in laymans terms, meet at a pre arranged pub every Monday night through the year at 6.45 and go off running. We have to find a trail in flour laid by the hares, follow it at our own pace until we meet a mark which denotes the trail could be in any of 2, 3, 4 etc ways. One of which will be true the others false but all must be checked by the front (fast) runners. While that's being done, the rest of the pack have caught up. The strategy is to keep everyone together and in our case that means on average 45 Hashers every Monday going up to 60 + sometimes.

At the end of the run, which could be as long or as short as the hares decree, we arrive back at the pub and have a few bevvies or whatever, maybe something to eat and disperse. Very social, very family orientated in our case and loads of spin off events, parties both local , national and international. In fact this years EuroHash is taking place in Kingston Surrey this weekend with approx 400 Hashers present, starting with a red dress run tonight, that means EVERYONE in a red dress. Quite a spectacle and laugh of course. INterHash is at Perth Australia next feb and that will attract about 5000.

We in Winchester hosted the UK Nash Hash in August BH 2001 and had 850 present, as much booze as you could drink non stop 24hrs, 7 meals, caberet, Bad Manners lead band, othe bands, DJs, 8 different runs, 16 buses, camping all for £70 if you booked early and max £150 if late. Cardiff hosted Interhash in 2004 with 4500 taking over the Millenium Stdium for 4 days.

Hope that describes some of the feel of Hashing. Google HHH or Hash House Harriers and see the fund of info. Join in. No age or proficiency limits. No time trials, no distance measured, you can walk it, short cut it or even stay in the pub and wait till the rest come back.


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## johng1974

yikes ! had no idea 

thanks HM


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## 88870

You stole a plug?!  Camp site fees will have doubled next time you visit! :lol: 

Good read, kept me entertained over lunch ... now I am feeling the pull of the road again .....


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## Hampshireman

Well get up and go. Thanks


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## 88870

Not so simple! When I go, I truly go ... 4/5 months at a time! Work the rest of the year :lol: I am attempting to save for a bigger van so short trips are off the menu at present .. did I mention I live in the van? 

If I went for a weekend, it'd turn into several weeks as i'd resist turning back! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Hampshireman

Oh thats interesting. Where do you park up when working? Nice sort of life.


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