After a long and cold winter in Blighty and a miserable husband, the ferry is now booked and we are once again packing up Bessie to head to the sun! Neil has been counting down the days until we are back on the road and doing what we love most.
since our return home last June we have had some problems with my mums health and we have finally, after four months of tests and appointments now have a diagnosis for her.
My Dear Mum X
She has a rare form of Alzheimers called Posterior Cortical Atrophy. There isn't a lot of information on this particular illness so all we really know is that the sight and speech deteriate slowly. Mum has some medication now and is doing well. Well enough that I am happy to leave her for a while so that
we can continue our lives, all be it for a short while. My blog has had a change of name for obvious
reasons so our new logo for Bessie is One Life.....Live It!
Our plan was to catch the ferry on March 1st from Newhaven to Dieppe ( Neils Christmas present to cheer him up) and then head straight through Neils favourite country picking up Desperados and cheaper diesel on the way and head down to Portugal. All being well we will stay along the Algarve until May and then head up the West coast of Portugal and North of Porto this time then on to explore the Northern coast of Spain before returning home.
February 28th 2017
What started off to be a 2 and a half hour journey to Newhaven turned out to be 4 and a half hours but that is nothing unusual in the UK! We stayed alongside another motorhomer in Newhaven Port for the night, a very wet and cold night and we were definitely ready to leave Blighty in search of some warmth and sunshine.
The next morning we were delayed once again boarding the ferry but once on board we snuggled into our cabin with a picnic from Bessie.
Our first stop from Dieppe was just south of Rouen. A pretty little Aire next to a medieval town called Pont De L'Arche overlooking the River Seine. water and waste drop of €2 didn't work.
 |
| Pont De L'Arche Aire |
Neil was keen to move on and wanted to do a full days driving the next day so we were up at a reasonable hour to head to our next stopover 8 hours away. We headed south through Evreux, Chartres,Tours Poitiers and just to the south of Angloueme is an Aire very conveneiently just off N10 called Les Glamots at Roullet St Estephe. The Aire has free water and waste drop and is situated next to a large park.
 |
| Les Glamots Aire |
 |
| Queues of lorries heading for the spanish border! |
We travelled 693 miles so far on one tank of Diesel so Bessie was doing well.
Spain
The next day the weather was slowly warming up and South of Bordeaux into Bayonne the temperature reached 22 for a short while. Neil was keen to reach Spain so our next stopover was at an Aire on the seafront at Hondaribia, Spain.
We arrived to a closed Aire but we could see in the distance a few motorhomes parked up in the beachfront carpark so decided to join them. The police did the rounds several times but we were all well behaved. The heavens opened that night so we were glad to be on hardstanding.
 |
| Hondaribia beach front parking |
 |
| Hondaribia beach |
We headed north once again through the snow capped mountains and the temperature dropped to 6 degrees.
 |
| Sierra De La Demanda mountains |
 |
| Sierra De Gata mountains |
 |
| Camping Caceres. |
 |
| Private ensuite on every pitch! |
 |
| For anyone wanting compact and bijou! |
After a relaxing evening and recharging everything in Bessie and my hair feeling normal again we headed for Portugal. We decided to stop at Ayamonte on the Spanish/Portugal border as it was getting late and Neil wanted crates of San Miguel before we left Spain. But it was Sunday!! no supermarkets open and we had forgot! so the nearest Aire was in Ayamonte on the Port. Well we headed into the town centre and thought it looked busy lots of people in fancy dress etc. Well it turned out we were we heading straight into a Carnival!! we were stuck! Luckily the carnival was coming to an end and after half an hour we were set free only to find out the Aire was closed! Neil managed to squeeze through a one way street with cars parked everywhere to get out. That was our experience of Ayamonte!
It was getting late so we decided to just head straight into Portugal and Neil would have to have forfeit his San Miguel. Portugal beer not bad!
Our first stop was an Aire at Manta Rota we have previously called dead mans shoes as it is always busy and people cram in to get the front row by the beach. Well we didn't even get past the barrier it was so full there was inches between the vans! We moved along the coast towards Lagos another Aire right beside a football stadium but that was also full. We phoned ahead to Turiscampo, Lagos our stop for 2 days time to see if we could get in there and although they were busy they had room. So parked up in the dark thankful we had finally stopped after another 7 hours of being on the move.
Our old friends Janice and Don whom we had met in Barcelona the year before were staying on site and we had arranged to meet up with them again. Janice as usual made us a very welcomed cuppa and we then tucked in for the night.
 |
| Turiscampo Lagos |
Next morning we found a pitch with a lovely view so we spent the day unpacking and setting up for our months stay. The weather was 24 degrees and sunny. We had gone from 6 degrees to 24 degrees in 5 days covering 1686 miles and all worth it!
 |
| An awning with a view |
 |
| The Traditional Campers Fry Up! |
 |
| View from Bessies window |
 |
| Praia Da Luz beach |
| Local Sardines |
 |
| An evening with Janice and Don |
 |
| So good to be back! x |
We hired a car for the rest of our stay at Turiscampo this time of year you can pick up some bargains for hiring cars. 4 weeks cost £99!
The weather has been kind to us since our arrival on the Algarve but occasionally we have a downpour! This time Neil was my Bob the Builder and had to dig a trench around the awning to divert the rain that was flooding in!
We are all living the dream!
We drove back to Portimao and Ferragudo one day mainly to see the Aire that we stayed on last time. It is now closed for a building works, it has been a big blow to local businesses that relied on the several hundred campers that stayed here so it was quite sad to see the place deserted. There are much more Motorhomes on the Algarve this year and some places are completely full. The Aire closing at Portimao has moved a lot of people on and the choice of where to stay now is limited.
 |
| Lagos Aire |
 |
| Portimao Aire 2017 |
 |
| Portimao Aire 2016 |
We drove along the coast just east of Carveiro to a very small resort called Baragil.
My friends know Im not the best at culinary delights and really isn't my forte but this garlic prawn dish was made for us by my lovely friend and fellow camper Steph last year and it was so delicious I
decided to have a go myself. Result: Neil ate it!
