Maybe Tomorrow ?

I think it would be fair to say, if we were to do a comparison between Groundhog Days and ‘Open Prison’ environments between Spain and the UK, our current incarceration location here in the UK would not score very highly, apart from the most obvious and biggest difference between the two locations, that of course being the sunshine and warmer temperatures we had in Southern Spain, the exercise walks were also far more scenic and, the access and availability to the wide selection of Cafe/Bars to partake of our daily Anti-Covid Vaccines were a real bonus too 🍷 However, it is not doing either of us any good reflecting on those things and I am finding that my usual very optimistic outlook is certainly being put to the test to the full right now and I have to admit that even I have had a couple of days recently where I was beginning to wonder what was the point in even getting out of bed in the morning 🤔 Although, thankfully, things are beginning to look up a bit now, the sight of some rare sunshine may have some bearing on that, even if it is not guaranteed on a regular daily basis, and accompanied with the icy chill carried on a strong and continually blowing wind does take the edge off any real warmth from those brief glimpses of sunshine. It is very much like having one of those images of a fireplace with burning logs projected on the TV Screen, whilst it may create a nice ambience, you do not actually get any heat from it.

A break in the daily monotony came every 4-5 days, even if that only entailed walking back and forth several times, between the water tap on the side of the house to the van fill point with the the watering can, as my hosepipe was not quite long enough to reach between the two points, but the task was not particulary mundane, although even if it had of been, it was one of those essential tasks that required doing, as was the emptying of the chemical toilet cassette and I guess the bonus was not having to drive around searching for the required services, as we would have to do if we were free-camping somewhere. Fortunately we also had access to a grey waste drain so we had our extension pipe fitted from the external drain pipe on the van directly into the drain point in Shazza’s mums garden and of course, we were lucky to have access to an external domestic electricity socket. As I stood waiting for each of the ten litre loads to empty from the watering can and into the van’s internal tank, I started to eye up all the dirty panels and windows on the exterior of the van and, for one brief moment, I even contemplated making a start on giving it the wash that it so very much needed. However, after the last watering can load of water emptied and I felt the coldness on my exposed skin, making my fingers and face start to go numb, I thought better of that idea, perhaps I can find something else to do inside the van, where the warmth of the sun at least did penetrate through the skylights and side windows, yes something inside in the warmth would be far more enjoyable, although, having now completed all of my internal DIY jobs, there were not too many options, I could get stuck in to learning any one of the three language courses I had on my ‘Duo Lingo’ App, or I could get back into playing my guitar, but I really could not summon up enough enthusiasm to do either, so I added those options to my rapidly growing ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ list.

After only two weeks of this current incarceration I had already started to allow myself to become lethargic and lazy, now when we were in Spain we would actually force ourselves out of our dangerous lethargic modes and made ourselves go out on an exercise walk, especially if the inclement weather had forced us to remain indoors even for as short a period as forty eight hours. Now although back here in the UK we could not ‘officially’ go out anywhere for our first ten days, due to our self-isolation period, that having now been completed and us being declared ‘Virus Free’, we did now at least have some freedom to go out for an exercise walk or, go out and do our own shopping, rather than have a home delivery and never believed that I would ever find that an enjoyable experience !! There had been nothing, except the extreme cold weather, to prevent me from at least making a start on providing the ‘Little Fokker’ with some much deserved and needed TLC, but I just lacked any real enthusiasm or motivation, this really was not good, I kept telling myself, I needed to give myself a bloody hard kick up the backside so, ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ I will make a start on washing the van 🤔

Even after a first full day spent up in Leeds with my Mum, there were still a few outstanding jobs that she needed us to do that she was unable to do herself. Her recent surgical procedure had left her seriously bruised from her shoulder and right down the full length of her arm, I was shocked when she showed me the extent of it, her whole arm was actually Black and she had lost any feeling in three of her fingers, which the doctors had told her would return over a period of time, but with no indication on how long that period of time would be ? So we decided that whilst we still had the hire car that we would take another drive up to see her just a couple of days after our initial visit, and as it was Mother’s day here in the UK we thought that that would be nice for her, Shazza’s mum would not be left on her own as she had been invited across to one of her son’s houses for the day, she was already in their particular family bubble. Just in case any of you are wondering, now that we have completed our mandated period of self-isolation, we are still living in our van on Shazza’s mums drive and have not moved into her house, it provides us both with our own space and independence. Although I do have to say that these family restrictions, on how many people can mix, does still all seem very contradictory and even unfair in my opinion, especially as Sportsmen, and women, can travel all over the Globe to compete in team events, they can hug each other in celebration or consolation, depending on the results of their sporting activities, they can shake hands with opposition team members, who lets face it are total strangers, none of whom they have any family connection with, and this is deemed both acceptable and permissable. Just watching a large group burly Rugby players in the recent Six Nations Rugby tournament, piling in on each other, sweating, grunting, spitting and all in very close maskless proximity of each other, makes me realise why some people may challenge the Scientists and Governments on wether the danger of Covid is as real, or as infectious, as we are led to believe that it is. I would certainly be interested to know just which Scientific Advisor’s are actually advising the respective Governments that this freedom to play close contact sports is really Covid Safe behaviour when, being in the company of closer related family members is not considered to be safe, how can that be justified 🤔

Now that I have started on this subject it has really got me thinking about other things, which we, the normal Covid restriction ‘compliant’ members of the public, now see happening happening all around us ? Thousands of protesters can gather shoulder to shoulder, the majority being complete strangers, and march for several hours of a day together, probably having travelled together in buses and coaches or on trains when everyone else is mandated to ‘Stay At Home’ or risk being fined, just exactly what am I missing here when it is only a handful of the more extremist members of the group that actually get arrested or fined, surely the ‘Stay At Home’ rule applies to everybody, wether extremist or non-extremist protesters, they shouldn’t be out at all regardless ? I was watching one of my favourite regular weekly Nature programmes on the television, filmed very recently and not pre-recorded prior to Covid, and the presenter walks up to a guest on the programme to within inches of each other, neither of them wearing a face mask, they shake hands, no social distancing whatsoever and then they both climb into the back of a small VW Camper Van and are sat, again within inches of each other where they then conduct an interview, so can someone please tell me why this is perfectly acceptable when we are not permitted to meet with our own families ? Governments wonder why normal law abiding citizens are beginning to get really fed up of being locked down and having their own personal liberties restricted whilst watching others blatently flouting the ‘Rules’ and being seen to get away scot free with it. It makes no sense whatsoever and although I consider myself to be a responsible and law abiding individual, I can certainly understand why their is an ever increasing rise in frustration levels in those, like myself, who are generally law abiding citizens, increasingly beginning to become weary of the contradictions that we are now seeing happening before our very eyes and on a daily basis. Okay, mild rant over, now where was I in these current rambles……😁

I am not sure just how many ‘tomorrows’ actually came and went before I actually mustered up sufficient enthusiasm to at least make a start on giving the exterior of the ‘Little Fokker’ some of the TLC it very much deserved, the front of the van was looking terrible with all the insects splattered over it and the longer I left it the harder it would be to get them off so I made a start, although it was not the full monty, the icy wind and rain filled threatening sky was a sufficient enough excuse for me to stop, I would continue with the rest of it……………‘Maybe Tomorrow’. I try to instil some positivity by telling myself that when the new Windscreen has been put in place, and then I have fitted the new set of windscreen wipers that this will provide me with the enthusuasm that I am currently lacking, although I am not sure that I am really convincing myself here, let alone anyone else. 

The days are currently just all merging into one, and I guess that like everybody else in these current long periods of incarceration, we find ourselves in a monotonous circle of same old daily routines, there is just nowhere really to go for a walk, except the same old wet and muddy canal towpath which inevitably involves running the gauntlet of meeting potentially infected, unmasked and un-vaccinated people along with their four legged friends. The canal towpath isn’t that wide, just a combination of a narrow strip of well worn mud track with long grass and bushes to one side and the canal on the other, we are constantly jumping into the prickly hedgerow bushes, as nobody else ever seems to want to yield their ground and the only other option is taking a cold swim in the not so inviting murky canal water, it really is just becoming all too much of an effort, it never felt this depressing when we were in the warmth of the sunshine in Spain, I feel myself wishing that we had just bitten the bullet and applied for permanent residency when we had the chance, but we hadn’t, so that was all there is to it. What advantages are there really, to living permanently in Spain ? We really should not have re-opened that comparison subject, it was never going to end well, so okay their is the much warmer weather throughout the majority of the year, currently 8-9 degrees(c) here and 22 degrees(c) over there ? We already owned, mortgage free, a very nice ‘Bolt Hole’ which is conveniently located close to a number of beaches and only a short drive up into the Andalusian mountain ranges, this would make a perfect permanent home, we had nice freindly and helpful Spanish neighbours, our South facing balcony overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean Sea with glorious views to the mountains on the coast of Africa, the relatively cheap cost of everyday living, a decent cup of coffee only costing €1 and a large glass of Anti Covid Vaccine €2.50, there would be no 90 day travel restrictions in either Spain or the rest of Europe, no having to rely on Ferry journeys or the Euro Tunnel before gaining access to the rest of Europe and, quite literally, from our ‘Bolt Hole’, we were only a short hop on a ferry across to Morocco 🤔 Surely it is a ‘no brainer’, we should just go for it. But, then we do have to think of the negative aspects to that decision, albeit their are not that many actual negative aspects, however, they are quite important and decisive factors. We could no longer just exchange our UK driving licences for a Spanish one as we could have done pre-Brexit, so we would now have to take driving lessons, sit a theory test and take a Spanish driving test, there is also a little matter of the cost of Private Medical Insurance, approximately £2.8k a year as it currently stands, then, and for us, the most important factor, we may not be able to get the ‘Little Fokker’ registered on Spanish Plates (Metriculation), these are the only negative aspects, the first may not be so restrictive, if we apply ourselves and pass our driving tests, but if we were not able to register the van on Spanish Plates …….🤔 So we have decided, for the time being at least, that we do still have good options just remaining the ‘free agents’ as we are, after all this Covid rubbish is over we will have the opportunity to tour the UK in our van, to do 90 day tours of the EU and even longer extended tours beyond those travel restrictions, simply by combining our trips within other non-Schengen Countries and of course, not forgetting that we still also have the ‘Bolt Hole’ as and when we want a break from the van, so it isn’t really that much of a dilemma really, once all Countries can get control of this current inconvenient Pandemic situation, there you go, we now feel very optimistic again and, remaining on the positive theme, being back here in the UK we have now already commenced eating into the 90 day period that we have to be here, soon we will be able to return to the EU, so we continue to try to maintain a Positive Mental Attitude where optimism defeats pessemism yet again 😄

The day of going to get our first Covid vaccination dose arrived and I have to admit that we still felt a little aggrieved that this was something that we were being pressured to get done rather than it being a voluntary decision. This was also the last day that we would have use of the hire car, with still no information on when we could expect to get our own little ‘Wuxly’ back, repaired and ready to run around in when the first of the restriction levels are eased on the 29th March. So, we had managed to arrange to have our ‘jabs’ done in Leeds which meant, quite conveniently, that we could also go and visit my mum again, the third time in a week !! The vaccination centre was right outside the Leeds United Football Stadium at Elland Road, being born in Leeds although never having actually lived there since being a baby and returning only occasionally to visit relatives, but I have always been an avid Leeds United supporter, and armchair critic, so this would be like being on Hallowed ground, even though we would not be allowed into the stadium itself, but this would be the first time since being a young boy that I would have returned to this ground and I was very much looking forward to it.

It was all so very straightforward, quite literally straight off the Motorway and we were at the stadium, the signage to the vaccination centre was well signposted and their were numerous orange coated staff guiding us to where we needed to be. We had misjudged the travel timings and so arrived over an hour early for our scheduled appointments, we just decided to try our luck and made our way to the entrance, there were no queues of people, in fact we appeared to be the only one’s there, outnumbered only by the large presence of more orange high-vis jacketed staff members who asked us to produce our confirmation of appointments, then we were permitted to enter the large brightly lit facility. A bit of Admin once inside, just a short form to complete, and then we were directed to a Nurse who checked over our paperwork and asked us relevant questions about our general health, we were advised that we would be getting the ‘Astra Zenica’ vaccine, which didn’t bother us one way or the other, irrespective of all the current holabaloo going on about it in Europe, as one Scientific Advisor quite eloquently put it, if it is being unused and stockpiled inside a fridge then it isn’t immunising people and saving lives, personally I believe he made a very good point, so come on Europe do the right thing, stop complaining that you do not have enough vaccines to immunise your populations when actually you have fridges full of the stuff, this is no time for you Politicians to be playing with peoples health and even lives for the sake of Politics. Now I am not unsympathetic with their overall plight, and even though the UK, for once, sensibly went their own way in negotiating their own contractual supplies, at the end of the day this is a Global Pandemic and so we should be working together towards a Global solution, if that means Countries with higher volumes sharing some of their supplies, so that other Countries with lower volumes can speed up their roll out process then, surely, that is the humanitarian thing to do ? What I do not agree with is Brussels turning this into a UK Government bashing opportunity when it has nothing to do with our Government, their issue is with the Company and now, had they not created a ‘shitstorm’ in the first place over the use of the Astra Zenica vaccine then people in Europe would have been willing to have it, now it is being stockpiled in European Fridges whilst they continue to claim that they do not have enough vaccines, and although every Medical Expert in the World, including their own European Medical Authority, have been saying it is completely safe, Brussels and other associated EU Countries have created a situation where people are now fearful of it, so this is yet another problem of their own making. By going public in the media trying to blame the UK Government for not sending vaccines that are destined for Europe not actually being true and just being used as an excuse for Brussels to deflect their own incompetencies in being too slow, or lack the foresight, to order supplies in advance, instead choosing to hedge their bets on which vaccine would get certified for use first. But even so and at the end of the day, let us hope that Boris does not get drawn into their Political blame game as, at last, he is showing ‘some’ signs of decent leadership for a change so I sincerely hope that he does the right thing, that he will offer an olive branch and let Europe have some of the vaccine that is contracted for supply to the UK, it is after all in everbody’s best interests 👍 and yes okay, rather selfishly it would have a certain personal travel benefit for Shazza and I too 🙄 But yet again I digress, I generally attempt to steer clear of politics in my ramblings but have failed miserably on this occasion.

We were directed towards individual cubicles, where staff were waiting, with broad grins on their faces, to practice their dart throwing skills, with our upper arms being the target. It was actually all quite painless really, literally, not just the administrative process, I didn’t even feel the needle pierce my skin and then that was it, we were guided towards the exit and that was it, job done, or should that be ‘jab done’ 😁 Now yes, I know that we have had reservations about wanting to have these vaccinations, mainly due to the speed that these vaccinations have been produced, and yes we do still have those same reservations but, if having the jabs means that we can get access to a travel passport scheme and start our travelling in Europe again, sooner rather than later, then I guess so be it, what is the worst that can happen……….🤔 well if I am still here, ask me in another ten years when any devastating side effects may have surfaced !! But before our travels have any hope of happening again, we do still need the second vaccination and that is not scheduled for us until the 3rd June, if of course Brussels don’t blockade our contracted supplies in the meantime 🙄

Then it was across to my Mum’s, only a short fifteen minutes drive across the other side of the City. On our last visit she mentioned that she had wanted a new iPad as her current one was so old, and out of date, that she could no longer update her gaming ‘Apps’ 😂 We had ordered one for her and had it delivered to Shazza’s mums address, so we took it up with us and got her all set-up on it, we had backed up her old one to the ‘Cloud’ so it was easy enough to just get all her information, photo’s and Apps downloaded again and on to her new device. We had also picked up some more shopping for her so she was again re-stocked with some essentials and we completed her mandatory 2021 Census form on-line for her. We were however a little concerned, as we did not know when we would be able to get back to see her again, I was not that comfortable in bringing the van up here as there was nowhere to park it, the street was narrow enough as it was, even for a car, and to make it worse most people double parked on either side of the road but, unless we got ‘Wuxly’ back from the garage soon, there would be no alternative and we would have to go up in the van. This had been our third visit in a week, although we have planned to try and make a weekly visit until we commence our Wales tour in mid-April, subject to the lifting of the Covid restrictions of course, by then we hope she would have recovered sufficiently to get on with her normal life, to be able to do her own weekly shop again, her neighbours take her in their car when they go and do their shop, she could also partake of her much shorter walk to the local shop to get her newspaper and TV listings magazine and also be able to get to her local hairdresser, once they re-opened from the Covid restrictions that is. On each of the three visits we have made we can see a distinct improvement in her, and, under the circumstances, she remains in good spirits and quite cheerful, albeit a little impatient at times on the speed of her overall recovery, but at least I am not as concerned as I was when I first heard about her heart attack, she now just has to take an even larger daily quantity of her cocktail of Pills for the rest of her life, a bit too late I think to convince her of the benefits of a Plant Based Diet !! 😂

On our drive back from Leeds we got into talking about ‘Wuxly’, about what a good car it had been over the last eleven years, for a small ‘hairdressers’ car that is, as I affectionately refer to it, but it had certainly gone above and beyond what it was built for, but now the old gal was beginning to suffer from all the exertions and punishment that we had placed upon her over the years. We had really hoped to get another year out of her, but now, after this latest incident coming just six months after a clutch replacement, and before that, replacement brake calipers, we were both not feeling overly confident that it would make another long and arduous journey to Spain, and then back again, although to be honest it may well last another three or four years with all the work now having been done on her ? But another factor in this was both the driver and passenger confidence, this was important to us in considering the sort of long trips that we now do, when we take the car to Spain and not the van, so it is time to decide wether we should really be seriously thinking about another retirement in our family, sooner rather than later. The hire car was a small Vauxhall Corsa, to be truthful we could have just been sat in ‘Wuxly’, the external colour was the same and the physical dimensions were the same but, the new modern technologies were a clear reminder that we were not in our own car, it certainly made us realise just how old ‘Wuxly’ really was, no luxuries in her like a fitted ‘Infotainment’ system with Apple iPlay or Android auto play, no front and rear parking sensors, no rear view parking camera, no dual control climate control or automatic headlights blimey, this hire car was like being in the cockpit of some fighter jet and even this was just a ‘basic’ model !! Would we even know how to operate this kind of technology, we were just accustomed to turning a key in the ignition, putting the car into gear and driving, using our own eyes and ears to navigate our way along roads and between other vehicles and we had just about got used to using Satelite Navigation and Mobile Phone Apps !! Okay, we were probably not quite as ancient and decrepit as that, but new cars now had so many technological features, did people actually have to drive the things themselves these days or was the era of driverless cars already upon us ? We had always agreed that our next car purchase would be a model that had four passenger doors, ‘Wuxly’ was fine for just the two of us but not ideal when catering for passengers, we do tend to provide a collect and return service for all our visitors to and from the respective airports. As ‘Wuxly’ sat so low on the road, it always felt as though I could reach out and re-paint the lines on the road whilst driving and, when driving in the rain, through what other vehicles only considered as ‘puddles’, to us it was like forcing our way through a ‘tsunami’, so we also agreed that our next purchase would be something that offered a slightly higher driving position, yes I think it really is time to start looking at what is on offer these days, although it will have to be witihin an already agreed pre-defined budget ?

It had been just over three weeks since we last re-filled our onboard ‘Gaslow’ cylinders in Spain, we have been using gas everyday for Cooking, Heating the water and quite a lot for the Habitation heating first thing in the mornings and during the evenings, although we do not leave it on at night, we just rely on that well known survival technique the ‘buddy buddy’ system 😄 So, although the gas monitor light inside the van was still showing ‘Green’, indicating that we still had gas in our bottles, I knew from my estimated usage calculations that we must be getting somewhere close to needing a refill. We drove to what had always been our local service station for refilling with ‘Autogas’ but was disappointed to discover that they no longer provided this service, although they did direct us to another local service station, at a supermarket fuel station in the local town about twenty-minutes drive away. Being unfamiliar with this fuel service location, and with it being positioned opposite the main large grocery store itself, it was busy and so we had to try and visually locate the ‘Autogas’ dispensing pump, without holding up the queue of traffic building up behind us on the forecourt entrance. Of course it would just have to be on the dispensing pumps farthest away, but at least it was positioned alongside the other main Petrol and Diesel pumps so I decided to take the opportunity to fill both the gas and diesel. The price was pretty decent as well with the Autogas at only £0.55p a litre, which put it on a par with Spanish prices, if not actually a little cheaper. We have the capacity to hold 44 litres and it took 35, so we would still have had enough gas in the tanks for around a further five days, but at least now we were good again for another three weeks or so, a bit longer if the morning and night-time external temperatures were to rise and we no longer needed the internal habitation heating on. This short trip out had also given the van a bit of a run, it got the wheels turning after having been stood on the same flat areas of rubber for a while and also got the lubricants circulating around the engine, hopefully, after only another three weeks, we will be out on our much awaited and longer 60-70 day road trip, if Wales will let us back in, as currently they have closed their borders.

After our return from Leeds and having handed the hire car back, we telephoned the garage to seek an update on ‘Wuxly’, we were told that it still was not fixed and that the delay was in them waiting for a part they had ordered from the main dealership. We were hoping that it was not a matter of it being shipped from overseas, what with the Brexit complications and delays in getting stuff through Customs 😲 Fortunately, at the beginning of the following week we were advised that the part had arrived, had been fitted and that the car was ready for collection and although it was a three mile walk to the garage, we actually enjoyed the exercise and getting to see some different scenery, albeit mainly roadside traffic, houses and closed retail outlets. As I expected, on the drive back, Shazza was still a little anxious and not convinced that the clutch pedal felt right so I said that I would take it out for a run myself over the next day or two and see how it went.

Wednesday evening I received a text from Auto-Glass stating that they would be with me between 08:00am and 17:00pm the folllowing day, so that meant no leisurely coffee in the morning just in case they arrived early and caught me in my PJ’s and Grandad slippers, as it turned out they did not arrive until 15:30pm 🙄 It only took them around thirty minutes and the old cracked windscreen was out and replaced with a nice new shiny one, they didn’t mind me watching their every move, I was quite interested in how they did it, but I did keep a safe distance from them. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but this was only the second windscreen that I have ever needed replacing on a vehicle in the 46 years that I have been driving. They sanitised all the touch points inside the van before they started and again afterwards when they had installed the replacement windscreen, they were very professional but extremely friendly and they even helped me change the wiper blades, so that was another two jobs to cross off my now shortening ‘To Do’ list 👍 They told me not to wash the van for at least 24 hours in order for the sealant around the new windscreen to fully set, that’s a shame, I thought to myself, I was just going to get a bucket of soapy water to make a start on it 🤔 🤥

I took ‘Wuxly’ out for a good drive, along a route that I knew would entail a lot of going up and down all of the gears, it felt perfectly fine to me and so I have no concerns, but Shazza still has reservations, so I think that she will not be totally comfortable with it until we have completed the next, hopefully uneventful trip, to Leeds early next week. By then the next stage of easing the restrictions will be in force which means that the ‘Stay At Home’ rule will be lifted and we can go out for day trips a bit further afield, although we cannot stay out overnight so we will give ‘Wuxly’ a few more runs out, which will hopefully reinforce Shazza’s confidence in its reliability again. But before any of that I have a van that needs a long overdue wash and wax…….. ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ as fortunately it has just started to rain 😂

Wherever you may be in the world right now, I hope that if not already received, that your supplies of vaccines will arrive very soon and that we can ALL start to get back to at least some sort of normality very soon, but until then please continue to STAY SAFE and also, for those of you, where it is relevant, do not forget to put your timepieces forward on Saturday night because apparently, on Sunday, Summertime commences 🌞😎

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Freedom May Have Finally Arrived, But At What Cost ?

So, the truth is that in my haste to get my last ramblings published I realised, after publication, that I had not quite finished writing the story of our return travels, they were not completely incident free ? Whilst we had been in Spain in the van, the rubber blade on the passenger side windscreen had split and had started to gradually peel off, but with the restrictions in place we could not get to an accessory shop to purchase a new one, at the time that was no real problem, as we had planned, when those restrictions were finally lifted, that we would go and get a new set, but of course who could have known that we would end up finding ourselves having to do a mad dash back to the UK ? So we drove all the way back with just one good wiper, at least the good one was on the driver’s side and even better than that, it did not rain during the whole journey, well apart from the day we left the ‘bolt hole’ but that didn’t last long and it didn’t rain on the UK side of the channel on the whole 245 mile journey back up North, although I have to say that the customary British weather has made up for it since !! A bit more of an issue was the stone that was thrown up from a lorry that cracked our windscreen, now it isn’t as bad as it sounds, the noise from the unseen projectile was more alarming than the actual damage it caused, the cracked part of the window is on the passenger side and way down in the bottom right hand corner so it does not obscure our vision, but it has started to get bigger and so does mean that we now have to arrange to have a new windscreen fitted, but as we were in self-isolation and going nowhere it didn’t really matter, so whilst we have some time on our hands and once we have completed our isolation period we shall get a new one ordered and get the mobile windscreen fitting service to come to us to do the replacement. I have already acquired two new wiper blades, thanks to good old ‘Amazon’, but will not fit them until after the new windscreen is installed. So that was enough excitement at the time and not the best ending to our trip so I guess the ‘Dark Forces’ still managed to have a bit of a giggle at our expense.

As we have been living in this particular van fulltime for close on to four years now, there were a few other jobs that also needed looking at, we had developed a problem with our washroom shower hose, which also acts as the tap to our bathroom sink unit, it was not fully extending out of its enclosed sealed housing unit so would not stretch far enough to clip into the raised shower head holder. I suspected that over time the hose had got twisted and probably had a ‘kink’ in the hose preventing it from feeding through, but the problem was that there was no obvious means to get inside the sealed holding unit to sort the issue. I had also discovered another issue in our washroom, this time with the folding sink unit, behind the drop down unit is a pipe that connects from the drain hole in the sink down to the drain hole into the grey waste tank, however, when I pulled the plug out of the sink I could hear the water running quite fast, more like the sound of a cascading waterfall rather than the usual gurgling sound of water going down a pipe, it required investigating. However, the only way to access the rear pipework was to dismantle the drop down sink unit which, in such a limited space, was not going to be easy and the way in which they build these factory production vehicles these days means that DIY maintenance is not always as simple and straightforward as one would like it to be. There is certainly a lot to be said for people who do their own self-build vans, knowing where plumbing and electrical components are and having easy access to them for maintenance which has got to be a major advantage.

After having exhausted all possible places to get access to the shower hose, internal lockers and cupboards near to the washroom and even outside the van in external lockers, I gave up and resorted to raising the question on a Hymer motorhome forum, the initial responses did not sound positive and were looking like it would have to be a partial deconstruction of the washroom just to gain access to a shower hose 😲 this would be too big a job for me to take on as I did not have a garage or workshop and there was certainly no space inside the van to temporarily place any parts that I may have to remove, let alone the thought of having to re-assemble it all and then re-seal all the seams to make it waterproof again, no, this was looking like an expensive dealer repair job. I emailed a Hymer dealership but they said that due to Covid, and the subsequent backlog of work, it would be November before they could get me booked in !! Fortunately, the following morning when I again checked the forum, someone who had previously had a similar internal layout to the ‘Little Fokker’ suggested I look for a hidden panel down by the rear fixed bed, below the mattress line. Lo and behold, and I will be forever eternally grateful to that forum member, I discovered the aforementioned hidden panel and found the problem with the hose, part of it had got ‘pinched’ in a small recess, I would never have released it in a month of Sundays just by pulling at it, as we had been doing on numerous occasions which probably just made the situation worse, but in a matter of no more than a couple of minutes, if that, I was able to release the hose and all was good again so now, if it happens again, I will know how to get access and resolve the issue 👍 So, now filled with renewed vigour and confidence, I once again put on my ‘Super Mario’ DIY Plumbers hat and decided to have a go at dismantling the sink, I knew that it would come apart easy enough, that’s the good thing about using lump hammers ? One good swing and everything conveniently falls apart !! Only joking 😂 the problem would be trying not to drop screws down plug holes, or small gaps that fingers cannot get into, in order to retrieve them, and then to re-assemble the whole thing without making more issues !! So the first part of the job was fairly easy, even working in such a compact space with very little elbow room and a Thetford toilet bowl in the way and then even more reduced working space once the sink unit was in an insecure drop down position. But once dismantled the issue became immediately apparent, the rather flimsy plastic waste pipe had a big hole in it almost around the whole circumference of the plastic pipe, how that had happened had to be to do with when the sink was dropped for use and then raised again in to its storage position, the pipe had to have been continuously getting squashed or pinched somehow ? Fortunately, being a bit of a collector and hoarder of all things that one day ‘may’ come in useful, I had been carrying a length of unused washing machine hosepipe and as it so conveniently happened, it was the same diameter as the sink wastepipe. It was too complicated to remove the whole of the old pipe due to the way it had been sealed on both the sink outlet and the out of reach joint down at where it drains into the underfloor grey waste tank, but it was a simple matter of just cutting away the broken piece and making a temporary joint with the good washing machine hose, which I have to say is much sturdier. A bit of lateral thinking and hey presto the hose was repaired, the temporary joint secured with some plumbers heavy duty tape and a jubilee clip,  then the sink unit was re-assembled, although it did take a little more time than it had to dis-assemble it, with much head scratching and sucking off the teeth and, I have to confess, with the addition of one or two more colourful expletives 🤬 but in the end, two DIY tasks undertaken succesfully in the space of just a morning, with the added bonus of having just saved myself a fortune in the process.

We were still in our isolation period so could still not get the windscreen repair undertaken, another task, before our next big trip, would be to get the van its annual habitation check, gas and damp check which, under normal circumstances I would have done at a Dealership at the same time that I had the mechanical Service and MOT stuff done. That was always a bit of a pain because for the habitation check we have to empty every single storage locker and cupboard, but as their are no local dealerships to get to and from in one day this has always created issues as to where we could store all our possessions whilst this work was being conducted ? We were fortunate that for our last habitation check we were still working as Campsite Managers so we had somewhere to store all of our possessions on site and the dealership conducting the work was within just an hours drive. However, this year we have decided to use an authorised, and recommended, mobile habitation service, so they will come to us and carry out the work, but once again we cannot arrange that until after our isolation period.

The next internal job was to replace a reading lamp and of course it was never going to be as simple as just replacing a bulb, the producers of these factory produced vans plan well ahead and ensure that long after you have paid the Kings Ransom to acquire the vehicle, they construct these vans with specific branded parts that you also end up having to spend a fortune on when ordering replacements. So the whole light unit needed to be replaced and after looking at the appropriate type required for my particular model of van on the Hymer parts website, and feeling the blood drain from my veins when looking at the cost, I then went to my old and trusted friend, yes ‘Amazon’, where I am sure that you will not be surprised to learn that I found, not just the right product replacement at a much lower cost but actually an even better replacement, the new replacement lamp unit also had a USB socket which the original, in our van at least, did not have. I just wish that, in today’s modern world, that things like this would come with pre-installed simple ‘plug ‘n’ play’ wiring connectors, you know, just unplug the old unit and replace with new unit, but no, this too was not going to be that simple, although, even with my lack of DIY proficiency, that is not actually an accurate statement. The job itself just required some wires on the old unit to be snipped and the one’s on the replacement lamp unit to be shortened and then the wires from the new unit spliced together with the vans existing wiring, so that bit was pretty straightforward, the hard bit was once again getting in to the actual physical location of the lamp that needed replacing, in the corner of a side wall underneath an upper locker to which it was attached, trying to get hands, fingers and a screwdriver into the tiniest of work spaces. So the job itself, in theory, was simple enough but the actual physical removal and re-fitting was a little more cumbersome, but again, it was done, and of course tested, and now Shazza has a functioning reading light once again, with a nice dimmer function and the additional bonus of having a handy USB port so that she can now charge her Kindle whilst still reading it, or charge her phone, iPad etc. Although having a list of all these DIY tasks to do was, for me, a little concerning as I do lack a lot of confidence when it comes to DIY stuff, fortunately with our current travel restrictions we have had lots of time on our hands so it kind of forced my hand into attempting to do these jobs and more importantly, now that I have completed them, and to a good standard even if I do say so myself, it has provided me with more confidence in my own abilities to do stuff and to not be afraid of attempting minor repairs and maintenance. If we were somewhere in the van on our travels, away from convenient repair facilities I would have to do these sort of maintenance tasks myself, rather than sit there with unserviceable facilities, although not sure how easy Amazon would find it to enable them to deliver any spare parts to me 🤔😁

The weather since we have been back in the UK has, to put it mildly, been absolutely horrendous, strong winds, rain and bloody freezing 💨 ☔️ 🥶 so, although the ‘Little Fokker’ could do with a damn good wash, probably two washes to remove the millions of suicidal bugs that have embedded themselves into our paintwork and every other nook and cranny on the van, and then given it a thoroughly good waxing, cleaned and lubricated all rubber seals on windows and doors, but all of that will just have to wait until I can get a decent weather window, hopefully between now and the 29th March as even after our ten day isolation period is finished on 11th March, England is still under a ‘Stay At Home’ restriction. But we still had some other Administrative things to get sorted, our now defunct EHIC Cards needed replacing with the new UK GHIC cards, so, as we had nothing better to do with our time now that all of our outsatnding immediate DIY tasks had been completed, we applied for them on-line and I have to say that we were mightily impressed when we received them back within just seven days of submitting our application, and with them being valid for 5 years that is something else that will not have to be done again for some time. In the meantime I had finally received a message from my GP inviting me to now go and have my first Covid Vaccination, unfortunately I had to decline this offer, as it was scheduled to be whilst we were still in our isolation period and probably more importantly, the appointment was actually hundreds of miles away at a local hospital in Devon !! However, we have since managed to book both our appointments more locally for after we are released from our current period of incarceration. We were offered three choices of venue, although a lot closer than Devon, we would still have to do a round trip of 80 miles. But this was going to work in our favour as we were able to book both our first and our second jabs at the same place and we had selected a vaccination centre in Leeds, which meant that we would be able to kill two birds with one stone as my Mum was in Leeds, so we could have our jabs and also visit her on the same day, bonus 👍 Before our first jab we still had to get up to see my Mum, she was back at home after being discharged from the hospital but was still poorly, although I had been in contact with her on a daily basis so that was good.

Day Eleven of our self-isolation period arrived, the day we could finally leave our van and go out and exercise and do our own shopping instead of relying on Home Delivery groceries and, although officially the ‘Stay At Home’ travel restriction was still in force within the whole of England, our visit to Leeds could be justified, under the circumstances, as an ‘Essential’ journey. It was good to be able to just get out in the car, it also served as a good opportunity to give ‘Wuxly’, our little car, a good run as it had been stood idle for six months on Shazza’s mums drive albeit that her brothers and a neighbour had been turning the engine over for us at regular intervals. We were surprised at just how much traffic there was on the roads, we knew that there would still be a lot of freight trucks moving up and down the Country but we had not expected to see so many cars 🤔 It was nice to just be out and although the views on British motorways are not exactly scenic, it was a joy to just be looking at something different to that which we had been looking out upon for the last ten mornings, afternoons and evenings, oh if only we were still at our ‘bolt hole’, in warmer temperatures, wonderful mountain and sea views and the ability to go out and have our walks and perhaps the odd portion of ‘Belgian Frites’ 🙄

We pulled off the motorway and just as we got to the bottom of the exit slip road, only around half an hour away from our destination, at a roundabout, Shazza said “It’s gone again” !! Now some of you may remember from one of my previous ramblings last year that, in October, when we were leaving our Campsite in Devon for the final time, the clutch on Shazza’s car went on our return trip up to her Mum’s. We had a new clutch fitted at a small back street garage and had then completed one return journey to Leeds to see my mum before we left on our Winter trip to Spain, but now the same problem had arisen. We called the RAC breakdown service and I have to say that I cannot fault the service, they were in attendance within half an hour, upon inspection they identified the problem and, although he could get us going again, he told us that it would need to be looked at as it would be a recurring issue. We decided to take it back to the garage where the new clutch had been fitted and the RAC man followed us back to ensure that we got there without breaking down again, which is fortunate as we did have another issue before we reached the garage in question. Once there the RAC man departed and we went and spoke to the Garage owner, explained the issue, reminding him that it was his garage that fitted the new clutch and we left the car with him to look at, not knowing how long this would take to resolve. I had rung my Mother when we had broken down and explained that we would not be arriving as anticipated but would call her once we had sorted something out. I was concerned as she needed some food, her neighbours would normally have done a shop for her, they have been really good like that, but she had told them not to bother this week as we were coming up and would do a big shop for her.

Not knowing what the issue was with the car, or how soon we would get it back, we needed to think about a hire car, we not only had to think about the initial trip up to see my mum but we had also already pre-booked our first Covid vaccination for the following week and of course a second visit to see my mum so would need a car do her some more shopping, so we needed to book a car at short notice and for a full week, whether this was even possible during the Pandemic we just didn’t know ? Typical advertising on all the websites, they lure you in with their ‘From Only’ headliner, but when you look into it further the cheapest thing on the list was no longer available and even all the electric bicycles were already booked !! The other issue was getting one locally which it appeared was not going to be an option, if we are in this supposedly strict ‘Stay at Home’ lockdown, with none but essential travel only, then how come all the bloody hire car companies have no vehicles available 😲 Eventually we found a hire company that could provide us with a car and although it was based in Sheffield, they would deliver and collect, so as beggars cannot be choosers we booked the car for delivery the following morning and a full week’s hire, but my goodness, I only wanted to hire the thing not put a deposit down with a view to purchasing it !! Our last six months in Spain under Covid restrictions may have saved us some money on our financial budget but since returning, what with a new windscreen, new wiper blades, new internal reading light, unknown costs of the car repair bill and now the costs of a hire car we were left asking ourselves, “Freedom May Have Finally Arrived, But At What Cost ?”

We managed to get back up to Leeds to visit my mother, albeit twenty-four hours later than planned and it was good to actually see her in person, rather than just a voice on the end of a phone. I think it was also good for her to have some company and to be able to talk face to face with someone, thankfully she had been Covid tested every day she had been in the hospital and had obviously not been outside or mixed with other’s since her return home and we knew that we were both negative, so inside her small flat we felt safe enough to go mask free. My mum was still not fit enough to come shopping with us so she had prepared us a list, we still applied the Spanish routine of continuing to wear our masks at all times when we were outside, not just inside the shops, as is the more relaxed rules over here in the UK, but apart from the shopping trip we remained inside my mum’s flat.

We still tend to continually monitor the daily Covid infection rates around the whole of Europe, as we still have plans to do an extended tour when we believe it will be safe to do so. The UK appears to be doing quite well, in combination with the ongoing movement restrictions and the roll out of the vaccination programme, but it will be more interesting to see how things develop once these restrictions start to be lifted, personally, although like everybody else we are looking forward to getting back out on the road in our van, we hope that Boris sticks with his plan to open up slowly and not bow to pressures from other political parties or those on his own Government back benches. Spain, although it has not yet got access to all the vaccines it needs to do a mass roll out, is doing exceptionally well and at a level that is similar to the UK, perhaps their tighter movement restrictions tell a story. For some other’s the outlook is not good, France daily rates are growing substantially and we have watched as they have increased from 23,000 to 27,000 new infections a day, but still Macron’s Government stubbornly refuse to implement a National Lockdown. Italy are having similar issues and are looking at implementing another major lockdown in two thirds of the Country and to be honest, Poland, Chezch and Turkey are all on the upward trend, so although some Countries are shouting about opening up Tourism and allowing Travel Passports as early as May, even if the English Government were to once again permit International travel from May 27th, I am not sure that I would want to be travelling to, or through, some of those Countries, although I would risk a ferry back to Spain and the comfort and safety of our bolt hole, however, the reality of that is, we cannot actually return for another ninety day extended period before the end of June due to the Schengen travel restrictions. So until then, we will wait patiently, hopefully we will be permitted a little more freedom as from the 29th March and if all goes to plan we can look forward to Campsites opening in April and we will be able to get out and have our planned Wales road trip 👍

So, until my next rambles, please remember, wherever you may be in this World of our’s right now, continue to remain patient a little while longer, stay strong, stay disciplined but more importantly please Stay Safe 😉

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Run For Home, Run As Fast As I Can……….

It was the morning of Thursday the 25th February, as we reluctantly pulled away from our ‘bolt hole’ not really knowing if, or when we would return, although after recent announcements from both the Spanish and UK Governments, on the potential lifting of International travel restrictions, we were hopeful that our ‘original’ plans for returning in July for our first ever Summer in the ‘bolt hole’ may still yet come to fruition. Although it was a warm morning, the grey overcast sky, and the rain, was probably a more appropriate farewell to our ‘bolt hole’ as it reflected our sombre moods. But we had resigned ourselves to returning to the UK sooner than we would have liked, it was an emergency after all, and to be honest, even if this departure had been three weeks later, when we would have been leaving as scheduled anyway, we would still have been feeling exactly the same, as we are always reluctant when it comes to leaving, perhaps though, if, like last year’s return trip, we had been able to take a week or so to meander back up through Spain and explore some previously unvisited locations along our route, before catching the ferry, then it may have felt less of a disappointment, however the last minute events combined with the time limits on the mandatory pre-departure Covid Tests and the other travel related restrictions prevented a much more leisurely amble on this occasion.

I know that after reading my last ramblings you are probably a little confused and perhaps left wondering as to wether I had actually published a further blog post which you may have missed, but don’t worry, you haven’t. So let me explain what has happened since my last rambles where I did mention that we had to re-book our original return ferry crossing, due to Brittany Ferries suddenly cancelling our 28th March passage, and yes, we did mention in those same rambles that we had managed to re-book another return passage, albeit for a week earlier, on 20th March. But just when you think that you have had enough excitement for one week, those damn ‘Dark Forces’ decide to make another unwanted appearance and so, the night after we had made that amended booking I then recieved a text, advising me that my 84 year old mother was in hospital suffering with chest pains and high blood pressure. It came as a bit of a shock as Shazza had only telephoned her earlier that same day and they both had had a good old chat as usual, with no indications that she had been feeling unwell, so it was totally unexpected. However, it was not until the following morning that we were to discover that she had actually suffered a heart attack so, without waiting for any further information, we made the instant decision to get back to the UK as quickly as possible.

Now at one point in my past life some 30 years ago, when I must only have been around 10 years old 🙄 🤥 for a period of around two years, I spent a very enjoyable time as a Radio Presenter, on a Saturday and Sunday morning breakfast show, this was on a Voluntary basis for the Canadian Forces (CFNB) Radio Network, whilst I was serving in the Military at a NATO Base in the Netherlands. I often used to remark to my International listeners during those radio shows that there was always a song lyric for every conceivable occasion or event in our lives, and so it is, that I now find myself singing some appropriate Lyrics from a 1978 ‘Lindisfarne’ hit……… “Run for home, run as fast as I can, Oh-oh running man, running for home”……

Of course, would getting back to the UK, at short notice and, in the current climate, be straightforward ? Of course it wouldn’t and we still did not know wether Boris would also announce, in his ‘Road Map Out Of Covid’, later that evening, the inclusion of any further Countries being placed on to the ‘Red List’, with the particular fear that Spain would in fact quite possibly be one of those countries as it had already been mentioned as being on top of the hit list along with the USA. We needed to try and get a ferry crossing booked as quickly as possible, but also our mandatory ‘PCR’ Tests which had to be conducted before we departed. Fortunately we managed to secure a ferry crossing for the coming Saturday, 27th February, and with the same grade of Cabin as previously booked so we could remain isolated even on board, with the same departure time from Santander. Next was to try and arrange our PCR tests and again, whilst we were not on the ‘Red List’ we could get an ‘Antigen Test’ with results delivered within 15 minutes whilst we waited, although, if we were to be put on the ‘Red List’ in the meantime, then we would need the full PCR Test and those results take 48 hours 😲 Fortunately there was a private Clinic in Estepona that would provide these tests for us and they booked us both in for the Thursday morning at a cost of €50 each for the ‘Antigen’ Tests. Now although Estepona is currently ‘Out of Bounds’ to us, as it is a different Municipality, we felt certain that they, ‘they’ being the Police, would, if we were to be stopped, consider this as an ‘Essential’ journey. It is also very likely that as both our own Municipality and our neighbours across the unmarked border in Estepona, were now seeing the infection rates fall to below the 500/1,000k mark, that the Municipal borders would at long last be re-opened, although that would not be announced officially until the Thursday evening and would not come into effect until the Saturday, too late to be of any benefit to us, but hey, you just do what you have to do under such circumstances but it was good to see the infection rates dropping so quickly.

So we spent the rest of the Monday in making our plans of action, we needed to physically transfer a lot of personal stuff from the ‘bolt hole’ back into the ‘Little Fokker’, that would take several trips, then clean the apartment, which is a normal routine anyway when we are leaving it stood empty for several months, just not usually having to do it at such short notice. We had made the decision to start heading to the Port on the Thursday, leaving as soon as we had received the hopefully ‘Negative’ Antigen test results and then we could enjoy two separate one-night breaks along our 680+ mile route, this would make the journey far less of a rush and certainly less stressful than doing it all in one go which would undoubtedly have involved us forever watching the clock to make sure that we would make it to the ferry on time. We would do our first refuel with Diesel at a service station that we were familiar with along our route and only about a half hour drive from the ‘bolt hole’ which, quite fortunately, also had ‘Autogas’, as we had not filled up on gas for around four months when we were on our original mini-trip down here. The gauges on the actual bottles are useless, which I dare say I have commented on several times before in my rambles, however, even with limited number of mini-trips that we have managed to undertake on this Winter trip, in between the Covid restrictions, we were certain that we would not have used that much, but with our trip back up with night temperatures getting much cooler and then, ten days in isolation once we returned, we wanted to ensure that we had sufficient to see us through, as we knew, with the much cooler temperatures back in the UK, especially after being here in Spain, the space heater, water boiler and cooker would be getting a lot more use. So all we now had to do was to look for two quiet and relatively secluded nightstop locations, and this, fortunately, is where our previous travel experiences came in extremely useful, as we already knew of two perfect night stop locations, very discreet, and very safe and we also knew of a very convenient last fuel stop around 11 miles before we reached the ferry terminal in Santander, this would ensure that we had sufficient fuel to drive straight to our destination in South Yorkshire without needing to stop when we disembarked the ferry in Portsmouth at around 8pm on the Sunday night, although after waiting to be disembarked, which can take over an hour and then queing to get through Immigration, it could be as late as 10pm before we even left the terminal for our four or five hour drive North. It could of course be a lot worse, we could be getting off the ferry and having to take a short trip to a Quarantine Hotel for 10 nights 😲 many a true word spoken in jest Eric M’lad, so I best be careful about what I say out aloud, as you never know when those ‘Dark Forces’ may just be listening !!

Now we should really have known better than to be so organised, for yes we of course had forgotten all about those damn ‘Dark Forces’ being back out of their lair and still lurking !! They had already ambushed us on so many previous occasions over the last seven years which, fortunately, we had successfully managed to step up to the challenges they threw at us and had come out the other side unscathed, but it appears that they were not going to allow us to rest on our laurels !! Although things were pretty hectic we were managing to plough through our tasks, thinking ahead, of what needed to be done, not just with the cleaning of the ‘bolt hole’ and re-packing the van but Shazza had a load of washing and ironing she needed to do, we also had to think about provisions for on the road, we wanted to stay away from people and the need to go into shops once we commenced our journey, we also needed to think about what clothes we needed to have at hand and packed into rucksacks for when we left the van to go into our cabin on the ferry, we needed to ensure that all our gadgets were fully charged and of course, we had to remember that we needed to complete our on-line Passenger Locator Forms 48 hours before our departure from Spain, and also complete an advance order for the manadatory testing kits that were required to be posted on to us for further Covid Testing on Day 2 & 8 of our quarantine period back in the UK. But we had everything on our ‘To Do Lists’ and we ticked them off as we completed each one as the time rapidly began to run away from us, it was more of a rush than we would have liked but we were getting there. Shazza’s phone buzzed, a text from Brittany Ferries, our hearts were in our mouths and we began to dread the worst but fortunately the ferry was not cancelled again, but, they were now changing the departure Port from Santander to Bilbao !! Damn it, back to the drawing board as this could mean now taking a different route to the one that we had planned, and potentially different night stops and a different final re-fuel location. We knew that there was a fuel station right near the Bilbao ferry terminal which we have used on several occasions to re-fill the car just before boarding the ferry, however, after our incident last year with the ‘Little Fokker’ breaking down, due to filling with ‘cheap’ low grade diesel, we preferred now to stick to the main branded fuel suppliers like ‘Repsol’, ‘CEPSA’, ‘Shell’ or ‘BP’. So I went back to look at our route and with only a little bit of ‘jiggling’ here and there, and again using our memories of previous travels we managed to remember the locations of two quiet and isolated park-ups for both nights, the second conveniently having all the Motorhome Services we would need in order to empty and fill our onboard tanks as appropriate, that is of course if they were operational, some have been shut down due to Covid. With the aid of ‘Google Maps’ I also managed to locate a ‘CEPSA’ fuel station without having to deviate from our route and which was still on our final approach into Bilbao, so ‘Dark Forces’, once again, stick that where the sun don’t shine 😁

Neither of us had slept that well on our last night in the ‘bolt hole’, there were several different things spinning around in our heads, I ended up being in and out of bed on several occasions and finally went to bed, and remained there, at 3:00am before being back up again at 7:00am. We completed the final moving and covering of the furniture with dust covers, security blinds all closed, final checks, Electricity turned off at the mains, water supply valves turned off and that was it. We were ahead of schedule and so we managed to get to Shazza’s favourite Supermarket just as it was opening, which of course meant that the store was virtually empty of any other customers. As for our Covid Tests in Estepona, there was no parking, suitable for even the smallest van, within close proximity of the Clinic so we parked at the opposite end of the town in the Marina car park, where we normally park, and walked the thirty-minutes along the promenade to the Clinic. We had never used this ‘Private Clinic’ before, although we had passed it numerous times, so we were not sure where the reception was located or what the procedures would be, it was typical Spanish beaurocracy, one reception location to confirm our pre-booked appointments, then we were sent to another building and reception to pay and get issued with our receipt, which we then had to take to another portacabin style unit to present our receipt and then wait for the tests to be conducted. However, in all fairness, it was all extremely efficient and everyone that we dealt with was very friendly and helpful which I think was ‘partially’ due to our efforts to explain ourselves using our limited vocabulary of Spanglish, rather than relying on the medical staff to converse in our own native tongue. Within ten minutes of being tested we were handed our certificates, we nervously checked them and then sighed with relief when we read the word ‘Negativo’ against the result. Another half hour walk back to the van and then we were on our way. The next stop, 33 miles later was the Repsol fuel station, a quick check of all four tyre pressures, the ‘Air’ surprisingly provided free of charge, unlike many service stations these days that charge for this service. Next was the ‘Autogas’ and as I had suspected we had actually only used 20 Litres out of our 44 Litre capacity, but at least we were full again, then a top up of Diesel and we were on our way again. The wind was mightily strong and the rain kept coming and going until we got closer to the West side of the country when the sun decided to make a brief appearance and the temperature rose by 3 degrees(c) to a rather pleasant 18 degrees(c). Do I need to mention that the roads were relatively quiet, this is usual anyway under ‘normal’ circumstances but with Covid travel restrictions still very much in place the traffic was even less. We had not eaten breakfast before we left the ‘Bolt Hole’, that would have entailed washing and drying pots and cutlery again, with everything having already been cleaned and put away neatly in cupboards and drawers so that was never going to be a realistic option, we opted to wait and would pull over somehwere convenient later. It was a little after One Thirty when we finally found a convenient pull in, we had forgotten that there were very few ‘Picnic Stops’ on the main road that cut across from the Costa del Sol on the East coast towards the Cadiz coastlines on the West Coast. So we were just outside of ‘Seville’ when we decided, or rather our grumbling stomaches decided, to just pull off the road and have lunch in the van, so we parked up in a small fuel station car park.

We had two choices of route up to Santander or Bilbao, either the ‘Madrid’ route or this ‘Seville’ route, both were virtually all ‘Toll Free’ motorways, we can travel almost all the way from the Southern tip of Spain up to the Northern Coast on Motorways without any charges, the only exception to that being the last 40 miles as we approach Bilbao on the A68 Motorway, but even that stretch is only €16 so it wouldn’t break the budget and it is certainly much cheaper than using the Toll Roads in France, although we have not driven through France for a number of years now so I do wonder how much it would cost for us to travel the equivalent 686 miles ? In recent years, on both legs of our journey’s we have generally travelled via the Madrid route, not that there is much difference in either mileage or travel time, but we  were becoming bored with that route so we opted for some different scenery and chose to use the Western route which we had used in the earlier years of our travels. Now I know that I often state in my rambles that the Spanish roads are excellent and exceptionally quiet, the only exception to that is when you are circumventing large Cities, and then, even those city areas can vary on how busy the traffic is, dependent on the time you hit them. We did not time it right and we found ourselves for a period in extremely slow moving three lane queues of traffic, although to be honest, we have on previous trips hit both Madrid and Seville at peak rush hour’s, so this today was relatively calm compared to that and we were soon clear of the City and it’s suburbs and back into a more leisurely driving experience. We saw several overhead warning messages reminding drivers that the Country was still currently in a ‘State of Alert’ and then a message asking, “Is your Journey Justified ?”. There were a few warning messages stating that Police were carrying out road block ‘Checks’ but we did not come across one such roadblock and only saw one ‘Guardia Civil’ police vehicle throughout our whole journey, which overtook us but just sailed on by 🤔 In fact, to say that the ‘Andalusia’ regional border is still supposedly closed is a bit of a mystery to us, as we had driven right across the most Southern part of the Region, East to West and then driven North, out of Andalusia into another region, but again, being totally honest, we were grateful that on this occasion the rather poor Covid movement control measures have worked in our favour and prevented us from having to plead our case for travelling if we were to have been stopped.

We arrived at our first scheduled night stop location at 5pm, close to the Motorway but far enough away to not be disturbed by any night traffic, although, as far as we are aware, Curfews are still in place so there should be ‘No Movement’, of any description, after 10pm, although on the evidence of today’s movement restrictions who was checking 🤔 Although it would have been nice to have just put our feet up and relaxed, as we were both pretty much exhausted, there was still some outstanding Covid administration to take care of before we reached the ferry port and we had to get it completed ‘before’ we would be permitted to board our ferry to the UK on Saturday afternoon. We had completed the first stage, getting the ‘Negative’ Covid Tests, so now it was on to the second stage, we now had to pre-book, and pay in advance, for the two additional Covid Tests that we would be required to conduct during our ten day quarantine period back in the UK, if these were not booked in advance and confirmed on the Passenger Locator Form, by way of a unique reference number supplied via Email, then again, we would be denied boarding onto the ferry. It was a straightforward on-line procedure process and the Email with our Unique Reference Numbers were returned to us within seconds of having made the payment of £210 each !! It reminded me of why we built an ‘Emergency Fund’ into our travel budgets, although that had been envisaged to be to cater for unforeseen or unscheduled repairs or maintenance to the van, but I guess this fund is there to cover any additional expenses that had not been covered within our normal ‘On The Road’ budgets and this additional £520 had certainly not been anticipated when we originally planned our budgets !! We cannot complete the Passenger Locator Form itself, which has to be done on-line, as it will only permit us to submit the form within 48 hours of our arrival in the UK, and as that it is not until 8pm on Sunday night then that is a job to do tomorrow evening whilst we are at our second nightstop. We settled for a quick evening meal of ‘Beyond Burgers’, yes we are still on the ‘Plant Based Diet’, although I have still been eating Fish and Chicken, and after washing up and tidying away we were both ready for an early night, although there would be no alarm clocks being set on this particular night as we were in no particular hurry to get to our next destination the following day.

Unusually for me, for I am a night owl and often do not go to bed until gone midnight, however, I was in bed by 10pm and I think asleep before my head touched the pillow, I slept right through and awoke refreshed at 7am. It was going to be a slightly longer drive than the previous day’s 230 miles, by another 40 miles, and ‘Snoopy’ informed us that it would take just over 5 hours, but again the journey would be on all ‘toll free’ Motorway and we would stop somewhere en-route for lunch just to break up the monotony of the journey. As we progressed up through Spain we only saw another two Motorhomes, but these were both travelling South, however, as a change from the previous day, we started to see a lot more ‘Guardia Civil’ police patrols, although again, these had all been travelling in the opposite direction to us. The scenery on our journey was very familiar, when we thought about it we realised that we had travelled up and down both routes (Madrid and Seville) on numerous occasions over the past seven years, although that was not really a positive thought under the circumstances, as when we saw certain names of Villages or Towns, or recognised speficic landmarks, it made us realise just how far we still had to travel. Shazza had already commented, on more than one occasion already on this short trip, that she actually felt more at home here in Spain than she did in the UK, I was waiting for her to start up the ‘Permanent Residency’ conversation again, but she didn’t.

Although we still had a good half a tank of Diesel left I knew that it would take most of that to get to our next nightstop, so we pulled in and filled up, then I would just need to top up again just before we arrived at the Ferry Port in Bilbao the following day. Our next stop was for lunch at a ‘Picnic Stop’ overlooking a Reservoir, signposted just off the Motorway and one which we had stopped at on previous occasions on our way North, although, on another occasion, on a lot less time critical journey, it would actually make for a good overnight stop, the Motorway traffic is pretty light during the day so at night I would imagine even less, the picnic area itself is elevated above the main Motorway so traffic noise would not be an issue and the view was quite nice. Once back on the road it was much of a muchness, virtually empty roads, stunning scenery and although it was 14 degrees(c) at our altitude, we could see the snow quite clearly on the mountain peaks in front of us. We saw a sign that indicated that our Motorway lanes were being reduced down to one lane, with the traffic cones all stretched out in their usual uniform manner, we just assumed that it was roadworks, that assumption was swiftly proved to be wrong when we saw in the distance but rapidly getting closer, at least six Guardia Civil police vehicles and ten or more Officers stood along the carriageway, it was a Covid Control Check-Point !! We approached slowly and an Officer pointed his finger directing us to pull over to one side, however, he then glanced down at our registration plate and then just waved us through, we smiled and mouthed ‘Mucho Gracias’, and as we passed the other Officers we gave them a freindly wave too, so it would appear that they are not too interested in UK registered vehicles heading North, although to be honest, we could have been travelling elsewhere in Spain, which may not have been classed as ‘Essential’ !! I had read on a Motorhome Forum, a few days before we departed our ‘bolt hole’, that a chap attempting to leave Spain via France had been turned back at the French Border because he did not have a confirmed reservation on a Ferry or the Tunnel, at least if we had have been stopped and checked, we had all our paperwork in order.

We arrived at our second night stop a little before 3pm, now we had stopped at this location almost a year ago to the day when we were once again on our way back to the UK, so it was still very familiar to us, however, the Motorhome Service Point that we had hoped to use before we departed was not operational, there were two workman who looked as though they were refreshing, or updating it, but we were still able to park up for the night on one of the four hardstanding bays on the outskirts of this sleepy little village, which we had all to ourselves for the remainder of the afternoon and early evening, although we did hear another Motorhome join us after dark. There was one more Covid administrative task to complete, the on-line Passenger Locator Form which cannot be submitted any earlier than 48 hours before arrival in the UK, I did attempt to submit the form within 52 hours of our arrival but to no avail, although it does ‘save’ the information that you have submitted so no need to re-enter all the details again. Now for anyone reading this who has not as yet gone through the process be aware that before you can submit the Passenger Locator Form form you will have had to  either have pre-booked your ‘Hotel Quarantine Accommodation’, if applicable or, pre-booked your Covid Self-Test Kit for Day 2 and Day 8 to be posted out to you at the address where you will be conducting your ten day self-isolation period. Once you have done this you will be given a ‘Reference No.’ which you have to quote on the Passenger Locator Form or, once again, it will not be accepted.

We awoke early again and just got on with getting the van sorted, turning it from ‘Home Mode’ back into ‘Travel Mode’, we had until 13:30pm to check in for our 15:00 sailing so we had plenty of time to just meander, our next and final fuel stop was another ninety minutes drive away and then we would only have a further 66 miles to drive. We felt exactly the same as we did on every other holiday, no matter how long it had been, two weeks or six months, we were just not ready to return to the UK, although to be perfectly honest I do not think that we will ever be ready to return to ‘road works’ Britain, the roads are always congested, the Motorways always make you feel hemmed in with trees, or hedgerows, lining them on either side for miles and miles and restricting any views of the surrounding countryside and a Country that is so van unfreindly, unlike the majority of Europe.

On our approach into Bilbao we came across another Police checkpoint, we approached slowly in readiness to be stopped but once again the group of half a dozen Guardia Civil officers just waved us through, we gave them a wave and they smiled and waved back and that was that, we found ourselves arriving at the ferry terminal much sooner than we had anticipated. We pulled up to the check in desk and handed over our passports and ferry booking reference number, the girl asked us for our ‘Negative’ Covid Test certificates and checked them and then asked if we had completed our ‘Passenger Locator Forms’, we said that we had but she did ask to see the copies of them. Normally there would be lanes and lanes of cars, vans, caravans and Motorhomes but not on this occasion, in fact we only saw one caravan and, including ourselves, only sixteen motorhomes, of varying sizes and probably no more than forty cars, we wondered how many more there would have been had we have been returning on our original date nearer to the end of the Ninety day Schengen period ? Again, normally we would have been held here for quite some time before being moved into the secure area and so Shazza had put the kettle on and had started to prepare some sandwiches and just as she did so our traffic lane started to move !! We rushed to get everything secured, gas turned off and hot kettle stood on the carpet on the floor, half prepared sandwiches delicately balanced on the table. We approached the Immigration desk and handed over our passports, no further documentation was requested, no questions asked, our passports were scanned and then ‘Wet Stamped’ with our ‘Exit’ stamp and we were then told where to park ready for boarding. The ferry was already moored up and as we had not seen any vehicles coming off it had obviously arrived some time ago, but there was no evidence of anything being loaded so we had our lunch.

Once on the ferry we parked up, it was like a ghost ship, very few people, no hoards trying to race up the stairways and so we felt quite safe, we were wearing our masks and made sure that we did not touch any hand rails or walls. Their were lots of Covid signage and hand sanitiser stations all over the ferry, the public areas were closed so no bars open, everyone just found their way to their cabins. As part of our cabin package we had access to a ‘Commodore Lounge’ where all drinks and snacks were ‘complimentary’, we had expected it to be Coffee, tea and soft drinks and perhaps biscuits or peanuts or similar. What a surprise when we went to check it out, primarily just to get access to the free WiFi, the lounge stretched the full width of the front of the boat from Port to starboard with floor to ceiling panoramic windows and lovely comfortable seating with tables, all spaced out and Covid safe. But snacks were not just snacks, their were salads and selection of meats and cheeses, desserts, cakes and pastries and Wine and Beer, with no limits as to how much you could have. There were very few people taking advantage of this facility, probably less than twenty per cent of it’s potential capacity so we felt exceptionally safe and it was a relief to be able to sit down and relax without having to wear our masks, although as soon as we left the table we had to put them back on. Being high up on the 8th deck the views were magnificent and once we got out into open water were were rewarded with the sight of dozens and dozens of baby porpoises around the Bow of the boat. In all the years we have been doing this route, sometimes four sailings in one year, the Bay of Biscay has lived up to its awesome reputation on the largest majority of thos crossings where we have spent the majority of the time laying prostrate on our beds staving off sea sickness, but not on this crossing, it has to be one of the calmest sea conditions that we have experienced and as a consequence we spent much more time in the rather splendid luxury of the lounge area and even chose to take our Continental breakfast the following morning in their as well. Now normally, around forty minutes before docking we are asked to vacate our cabins to enable the crew to start cleaning them ready for the next guests, but on this occasion, we were permitted to remain in our cabins until the ferry had tied up and then a crew member knocked on our door and told us that we could go to the garage area and get into our vehicle, obviously a very good Covid Safety procedure as their were some people already in their vehicles who must have been called down earlier and some who then arrived after us.

We wondered how long we would be held up at Immigration, it is usually a long drawn out process under normal conditions when all they are checking is passports, but now under Covid conditions we anticipated much longer waits. We still had to wait but not for very long, the Immigration official was very polite and friendly and went through all our documentation, Passports, ‘Negative’ Covid Test Certificates, Passenger Locator Forms and confirmation that we had pre-booked our self-Test Kits for use during our isolation period. They asked us lots of questions, When did we leave the UK ? What Countries had we travelled or transited through ? Had we been in any ‘Red List’ Country during the last ten days ? Now of course, had we have been in Portugal we could have lied, how would they have proven otherwise ? But we did not have to lie. The whole check process cannot have taken more than ten minutes, and that included a check inside our vehicle for stowaways.

Snoopy advised us that our journey would take us close to five and a half hours, 245 miles, although, as we would be crossing many County Boundaries in the current ‘Stay At Home’ Covid restrictions, it did not take into account how many times we may be pulled over by the different Police Patrols. Although the roads were not totally devoid of vehicles, they were, compared to the normal congestion we would have encountered, pretty quiet. We were totally gobsmacked, we managed to do the whole journey without stopping in just a little over four hours and that was not speeding either, but to our utter surprise we had not seen one police patrol vehicle along the whole of our route and we pulled up outside of Shazza’s mums house at a little before 1:30am. We had told her mum not to unlock the gates as that would have left her property insecure and so we slept in the van on the side of the road, we would pull the van into the driveway at a more reasonable hour of the morning and commence Day 1 of our ten day isolation period.

 

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