Canalsman
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Well I'm safely back home in Cheshire now and I've had a chance to reflect on the past four months, three and a half of which were spent in Spain and Portugal.
First some stats to whet the appetite ...
Distances travelled:
Door-to-door 6,271 miles, but I used the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao (excellent if pricey)
In Spain and Portugal 4,984 miles (I only used toll roads twice - once when it was dark and I wanted to get more quickly to my overnight stop, and the other occasion to access a POI when the local roads were too narrow)
In France 695 miles
Fuel purchased 1,279 litres costing £1,327
Average mpg 22.38
One breakdown and one repair - a loose injector lead on arrival in Spain, and a failed ball joint replaced in Santander. This I think was the victim of the roads in Portugal, see below. (Those who wonder about tyre life, I had new Michelin Camping tyres fitted on my 'van two years ago. The front tyres have now done 15,000 miles and will soon need replacing.)
I used two satnav apps - CoPilot Caravan to start till I found it routing me along stupidly narrow roads, then TomTom Mobile which was better though not perfect. Poor route choices are more likely to be due to poor map data. I noted that CoPilot had roads that didn't exist at all or were closed. TomTom didn't seem to have this problem.
The purpose of the trip was to check existing POIs and add new POI locations around the coasts of Spain and Portugal. This was my first trip to these countries ...
I headed from Bilbao across to the Med electing to start the journey at Cambrils to the south west of Tarragona then heading clockwise around the coast. Although not a complete coastal trip it took in the vast majority of the coastline that people visit.
Rarely did I spend more than one night in a location. The one big exception was an enforced stay of eight nights at Simat when the weather turned prodigiously foul and wintery - one morning was notable for the snowman on a car's bonnet!
Most days I found myself driving for between four and five hours. I used the nearest significant coast road all the way round. Significant doesn't mean fast or wide, especially in Portugal where such roads are often very poorly surfaced, or many miles of cobbles!
Hairy moments? Fewer than you might think ...
During some of these tricky manoeuvres I discovered that car drivers like to take chances, whizzing past me whilst I was reversing and turning!
My motorhome, by the way, is an Auto Trail Dakota - 4.25 tonnes and 7.75 metres - so all the locations I checked are accessible by large vehicles.
So what did I actually achieve?
Well in total I visited 992 POI locations
Of these 566 were new locations which have been added to the database progressively, the final batch to be added to the May POI release.
To wrap this up some observations.
Yes there are many motorhomes that visit Spain and Portugal during the Winter months. And there were locations that were heavily oversubscribed. But I didn't find many, and found plenty that had only a handful of 'vans parked up. I think it's less of a problem than is generally perceived.
I was not moved on once.
Which part did I enjoy most? North west and north Spain are stunningly beautiful and not many motorhomes seem to go there. But it won't be good in Winter - too cold, wet and windy. Now Spring and Summer is a completely different prospect.
So if you're thinking of heading south next Winter, do so. And use our locations as the basis of your plans. They're uniquely well researched!
First some stats to whet the appetite ...
Distances travelled:
Door-to-door 6,271 miles, but I used the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao (excellent if pricey)
In Spain and Portugal 4,984 miles (I only used toll roads twice - once when it was dark and I wanted to get more quickly to my overnight stop, and the other occasion to access a POI when the local roads were too narrow)
In France 695 miles
Fuel purchased 1,279 litres costing £1,327
Average mpg 22.38
One breakdown and one repair - a loose injector lead on arrival in Spain, and a failed ball joint replaced in Santander. This I think was the victim of the roads in Portugal, see below. (Those who wonder about tyre life, I had new Michelin Camping tyres fitted on my 'van two years ago. The front tyres have now done 15,000 miles and will soon need replacing.)
I used two satnav apps - CoPilot Caravan to start till I found it routing me along stupidly narrow roads, then TomTom Mobile which was better though not perfect. Poor route choices are more likely to be due to poor map data. I noted that CoPilot had roads that didn't exist at all or were closed. TomTom didn't seem to have this problem.
The purpose of the trip was to check existing POIs and add new POI locations around the coasts of Spain and Portugal. This was my first trip to these countries ...
I headed from Bilbao across to the Med electing to start the journey at Cambrils to the south west of Tarragona then heading clockwise around the coast. Although not a complete coastal trip it took in the vast majority of the coastline that people visit.
Rarely did I spend more than one night in a location. The one big exception was an enforced stay of eight nights at Simat when the weather turned prodigiously foul and wintery - one morning was notable for the snowman on a car's bonnet!
Most days I found myself driving for between four and five hours. I used the nearest significant coast road all the way round. Significant doesn't mean fast or wide, especially in Portugal where such roads are often very poorly surfaced, or many miles of cobbles!
Hairy moments? Fewer than you might think ...
- Two uphill hairpin bends I couldn't negotiate due to gradient and loss of traction
- One right hand turn with a sudden gradient change which was not possible when I grounded
- One lane that became so narrow I couldn't continue but thankfully could exit after a 19 point turn
- One side street parked up with vehicles requiring a long and tortuous reverse
- One unsigned bridge that was too low
- And best of all a signed route to a tourist attraction on a road that started wide, then narrowed, then had a tight turn with soft ground on one side and rocks on the other which I only just cleared; after all this I emerged onto a steeply side sloping patch of bare earth ... thankfully I had enough traction to turn and escape!
During some of these tricky manoeuvres I discovered that car drivers like to take chances, whizzing past me whilst I was reversing and turning!
My motorhome, by the way, is an Auto Trail Dakota - 4.25 tonnes and 7.75 metres - so all the locations I checked are accessible by large vehicles.
So what did I actually achieve?
Well in total I visited 992 POI locations
Of these 566 were new locations which have been added to the database progressively, the final batch to be added to the May POI release.
To wrap this up some observations.
Yes there are many motorhomes that visit Spain and Portugal during the Winter months. And there were locations that were heavily oversubscribed. But I didn't find many, and found plenty that had only a handful of 'vans parked up. I think it's less of a problem than is generally perceived.
I was not moved on once.
Which part did I enjoy most? North west and north Spain are stunningly beautiful and not many motorhomes seem to go there. But it won't be good in Winter - too cold, wet and windy. Now Spring and Summer is a completely different prospect.
So if you're thinking of heading south next Winter, do so. And use our locations as the basis of your plans. They're uniquely well researched!