Day 11 – Madrid to Bilbao (340 miles)
The site we stayed at last night near Madrid worked out to be very good actually and definitely a place to think about for the summer time. During the depths of winter, however, it’s not much to shout about really; nothing more than an expensive safe haven and a shower block. As the last few days have been very warm and sunny, it was odd watching the kids throwing snowballs at each other across the frozen swimming pools now that we have moved north and beyond 1000m above sea level.
As we left, we realised that we had managed to use the electric hook up without actually paying for it. Even though we had paid more than 50 euros for just one night, it was an extra 4 Euros for electricity. They had initially escorted us to a pitch without lekky, but after driving around town for a bit, we returned to a more level pitch that happened to have a power supply. It wasn’t much cop though because it kept tripping out if we used more than just one heavy watted item at a time.
The Tom Tom was instructed to take us to the next site north east of Bilbao which it did very well. The owner of the site had told us to arrive before 5pm or face parking in the car park for the night. As became customary during this trip, we arrived with just one minute before closing time and after struggling to found the reception area (it was just a buzzer on a wall) we were given the freedom to berth anywhere we liked. Three pitches drew our attention and one after the other we bowled up only to find that the electricity wasn’t working. Another down side to travelling low season. We returned to the main field (10 yards from the car park) and got the hook up working fine. Fine for a minute anyway.
The electricity kept tripping out so, after a couple of tries, I changed the port I was plugging into and not only did the lekky survive the abuse we gave it, but the buzzing from the meter box also stopped. This, as I will explain, brings me on to that list of things I should have bought with me.
Four weeks ago I wouldn’t have had a clue about reverse polarity. I’m not that much of an expert now it has to be said, but I do know what it is. Unfortunately, I don’t know when it exists because I didn’t bring a reverse polarity tester with me. To make me look even sillier, I nevertheless bought with me a European plug wired for a reversed polarity supply. How I thought this reversed wired applicator could be used when I was never to know when it needed to be used is beyond me now but that’s where I’m at. Der brain.
Anyway, in my defence, I tried very, oh ok, quite hard to buy one, but Barrons were out of stock and the camping shops I subsequently went in didn’t have any either so I was forced to travel and take my chances. Up until last night I thought reverse polarity was a bit of a hyped up propaganda in the same category dreamt up by the campsites when warning of the ‘gassing and robbery’ at the Aires. However, in the same way I have had [second hand] experience of camper vans being gassed and robbed, I now think I have had first hand experience of reverse polarity. The first clue was with the hoover not working anymore. The second clue was with the extreme buzzing from the fuse box. I think I have managed to pogger the [Sir] Dyson by charging it on a reversed circuit. Also, when I changed the buzzing plug points, the tolerance of the burden on the circuit significantly increased. So, although now it’s too late, I have learned that you can tell if your hook up is incorrectly wired if it buzzes loudly. I suppose, however, that I could have learned that too if I had managed to get a reverse polarity tester and bought it with me. If I had managed to get one of those before I left, I might still have a hoover that works which would have been really handy today when Mrs.F accidentally threw an entire packet of Rice Crispies everywhere.
The drive up to Bilbao was dominated by the last 30 miles or so heading north east to where the campsite was. The roads resembled those seen on the Italian Job (the Michael Cain one). Dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah, de dah dah dah. Jeez, up up, down down. Hairpins, cliffe edges. Everything. To top it all, the final 500 metres up to the site was so steep that the van nearly didn’t make it. It was at least a one in 15. Then, of course, we had to do it all over again in the morning on our way to the port, but this time with me being on the cliffe side and with the disadvantage of a very strong wind that had whipped up during the night. I remembered the tip about parking facing the breeze, but there was no breeze when we arrived yet by the morning the wind was full on our beam at about force 6. This meant most of us had had weird wind related dreams mostly involving rolling down the edge of a cliffe and crashing.
I deliberately chose the site a Lekeitio because it meant we wouldn’t have any trouble plodding off into Bilbao to get the ferry the next day at 12’ish. Yeah right! First of all, we had the 30k of loopy lanes to navigate then the very poor street signs pointing out the ferry port to miss. It seemed to me that there was literally just one sign saying ‘ferry this way’ and it came too late for me. I had long since committed to follow the truck in front which went straight into some kind of customs area I quickly did an illegal U-turn and proudly lied to my confused family that ‘I forgot to fill up on cheap fuel before heading back’. I then got back on the motorway and headed for the next exit where a fuel station saved my blushes. Looking at the video, I can now see that the exit was clearly signed so it must have just been me that missed it, probably distracted by the map on the Tom Tom.
Next time round, I followed the signs and got on the waiting boat no trouble. The weather is a bit desperate so it looks like we are in for a well dodgy crossing. The captain has already extended the crossing time by an hour and that’s before we have even left.
Shortly before boarding the ferry, we topped over 2,000 driving miles in the van. Without a doubt the longest drive I have ever been on. Apart from one forced spell, I have done all of those 2,000 miles behind the wheel. I will document my full views later, but it is suffice to say that I am massively impressed with the van and how it has performed. When fully loaded, it is a bit slow off the blocks, but once it’s off, it just keeps going and going so that on the whole, we have been cruising between 70 and 85 mph. Very little fatigue and absolutely no quibbles whatsoever. I couldn’t have asked for more. It definitely gets a 10 out of 10 for the driveability aspect and the habitation side doesn’t come far behind either.
We are now on our way home and on reflection this trip has been more of a roadtrip than a Christmas adventure. We’re all glad to be going home, but we’ll all be a bit sad to have effectively lost a Christmas because no matter how you dress it up, unless you are at home, Christmas just isn’t Christmas…
The site we stayed at last night near Madrid worked out to be very good actually and definitely a place to think about for the summer time. During the depths of winter, however, it’s not much to shout about really; nothing more than an expensive safe haven and a shower block. As the last few days have been very warm and sunny, it was odd watching the kids throwing snowballs at each other across the frozen swimming pools now that we have moved north and beyond 1000m above sea level.
As we left, we realised that we had managed to use the electric hook up without actually paying for it. Even though we had paid more than 50 euros for just one night, it was an extra 4 Euros for electricity. They had initially escorted us to a pitch without lekky, but after driving around town for a bit, we returned to a more level pitch that happened to have a power supply. It wasn’t much cop though because it kept tripping out if we used more than just one heavy watted item at a time.
The Tom Tom was instructed to take us to the next site north east of Bilbao which it did very well. The owner of the site had told us to arrive before 5pm or face parking in the car park for the night. As became customary during this trip, we arrived with just one minute before closing time and after struggling to found the reception area (it was just a buzzer on a wall) we were given the freedom to berth anywhere we liked. Three pitches drew our attention and one after the other we bowled up only to find that the electricity wasn’t working. Another down side to travelling low season. We returned to the main field (10 yards from the car park) and got the hook up working fine. Fine for a minute anyway.
The electricity kept tripping out so, after a couple of tries, I changed the port I was plugging into and not only did the lekky survive the abuse we gave it, but the buzzing from the meter box also stopped. This, as I will explain, brings me on to that list of things I should have bought with me.
Four weeks ago I wouldn’t have had a clue about reverse polarity. I’m not that much of an expert now it has to be said, but I do know what it is. Unfortunately, I don’t know when it exists because I didn’t bring a reverse polarity tester with me. To make me look even sillier, I nevertheless bought with me a European plug wired for a reversed polarity supply. How I thought this reversed wired applicator could be used when I was never to know when it needed to be used is beyond me now but that’s where I’m at. Der brain.
Anyway, in my defence, I tried very, oh ok, quite hard to buy one, but Barrons were out of stock and the camping shops I subsequently went in didn’t have any either so I was forced to travel and take my chances. Up until last night I thought reverse polarity was a bit of a hyped up propaganda in the same category dreamt up by the campsites when warning of the ‘gassing and robbery’ at the Aires. However, in the same way I have had [second hand] experience of camper vans being gassed and robbed, I now think I have had first hand experience of reverse polarity. The first clue was with the hoover not working anymore. The second clue was with the extreme buzzing from the fuse box. I think I have managed to pogger the [Sir] Dyson by charging it on a reversed circuit. Also, when I changed the buzzing plug points, the tolerance of the burden on the circuit significantly increased. So, although now it’s too late, I have learned that you can tell if your hook up is incorrectly wired if it buzzes loudly. I suppose, however, that I could have learned that too if I had managed to get a reverse polarity tester and bought it with me. If I had managed to get one of those before I left, I might still have a hoover that works which would have been really handy today when Mrs.F accidentally threw an entire packet of Rice Crispies everywhere.
The drive up to Bilbao was dominated by the last 30 miles or so heading north east to where the campsite was. The roads resembled those seen on the Italian Job (the Michael Cain one). Dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah, de dah dah dah. Jeez, up up, down down. Hairpins, cliffe edges. Everything. To top it all, the final 500 metres up to the site was so steep that the van nearly didn’t make it. It was at least a one in 15. Then, of course, we had to do it all over again in the morning on our way to the port, but this time with me being on the cliffe side and with the disadvantage of a very strong wind that had whipped up during the night. I remembered the tip about parking facing the breeze, but there was no breeze when we arrived yet by the morning the wind was full on our beam at about force 6. This meant most of us had had weird wind related dreams mostly involving rolling down the edge of a cliffe and crashing.
I deliberately chose the site a Lekeitio because it meant we wouldn’t have any trouble plodding off into Bilbao to get the ferry the next day at 12’ish. Yeah right! First of all, we had the 30k of loopy lanes to navigate then the very poor street signs pointing out the ferry port to miss. It seemed to me that there was literally just one sign saying ‘ferry this way’ and it came too late for me. I had long since committed to follow the truck in front which went straight into some kind of customs area I quickly did an illegal U-turn and proudly lied to my confused family that ‘I forgot to fill up on cheap fuel before heading back’. I then got back on the motorway and headed for the next exit where a fuel station saved my blushes. Looking at the video, I can now see that the exit was clearly signed so it must have just been me that missed it, probably distracted by the map on the Tom Tom.
Next time round, I followed the signs and got on the waiting boat no trouble. The weather is a bit desperate so it looks like we are in for a well dodgy crossing. The captain has already extended the crossing time by an hour and that’s before we have even left.
Shortly before boarding the ferry, we topped over 2,000 driving miles in the van. Without a doubt the longest drive I have ever been on. Apart from one forced spell, I have done all of those 2,000 miles behind the wheel. I will document my full views later, but it is suffice to say that I am massively impressed with the van and how it has performed. When fully loaded, it is a bit slow off the blocks, but once it’s off, it just keeps going and going so that on the whole, we have been cruising between 70 and 85 mph. Very little fatigue and absolutely no quibbles whatsoever. I couldn’t have asked for more. It definitely gets a 10 out of 10 for the driveability aspect and the habitation side doesn’t come far behind either.
We are now on our way home and on reflection this trip has been more of a roadtrip than a Christmas adventure. We’re all glad to be going home, but we’ll all be a bit sad to have effectively lost a Christmas because no matter how you dress it up, unless you are at home, Christmas just isn’t Christmas…
click here if video fails to load for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment