Tue 21 Nov
As I look at a blank screen, we are on the Brittany Ferries ship Cap Finistere crossing what is, at the moment, a benign Bay of Biscay. This is the moment when I have to think about the ending of a blog that stretches back over almost three months.
The blog entries are very important to us and, as before, they will be reset in Blurb and we’ll produce one book which will sit on our sideboard at home. The problem when travelling onwards almost every day or two is remembering the detail of the places we have visited. It’s a game Marleen and I play. ‘Was it an aire or a campsite in Lisbon?’ ‘What was it like?’ With my memory, Marleen’s better at that game than I am but with minimal reminders it’s amazing what recall we have!
We expected that we would seldom be in areas with suitable wifi so the blog has been prepared and posted using 3G & 4G mobile telephone data almost exclusively. We have also listened to the radio the same way and, of course, the Raah software was transmitting our position every ten seconds when on the move so we have a detailed record of our journey. This has required 50Gb of data each month which, at £30 a month with O2, has been an absolute bargain 🙂 The issues between marginal reception and the infuriating peculiarities of WordPress (the blog software) never seemed to lessen throughout the period; I just became more patient and determined as time went on 🙂
It has been another lovely adventure which has flown by. My gout was only two short bursts and we’ve had no other illness or injury. The van has given us no problems at all. No punctures or breakdowns and the internals like gas, electric, fridge, heating, satellite TV & Aerial and loo have worked perfectly throughout. That counts for a lot.
This journey has been different to the others in one important respect. We have used campsites very seldom, relying on (mainly) free or low-cost motorhome parking areas which have always (or nearly always) had other vans on them so security has never felt to be an issue. Prior to our departure we were introduced to Searchforsites.co.uk (thanks Laurie 🙂 and I think, without exception, all the sites we stayed at were found through this first class piece of software. With the use of co-ordinates rather than post codes, we were always accurately delivered to the locations.
The weaknesses in our setup were, with this form of travel, the increased use of gas and the issues we had finding suitable additional supplies. The other issue was the pull on the two large leisure batteries without long distances in between stops to recharge them sufficiently. So electricity on a campsite was a necessity from time-to-time. The serious geezers have rechargeable LPG cylinders they can fill up at a suitable gas station and an array of photo-voltaic cells on the roof of the van to additionally charge the batteries either on the move or when stationary.
But at the very heart of it is not where we’ve been, what we’ve seen and what we’ve done but what we’ve been. Two people living, eating and sleeping in the same 10’ x 7’ space for almost three months without break. What a wonderful companion Marleen has been; in addition she did nearly all the planning of where we went and what we saw. She chooses not to write directly into the blog but she has been a thoughtful critic before we have published and some of the photos are hers as well. She has all my love and gratitude for another wonderful trip.
À bientôt.
Marleen's & Mike's Iberian(ish) Meander 