Portugal and Back
Well we are back after a great shake down trip to Portugal. Calling it a shake down trip seems a little unfair as it was a great trip in its own right, but we did learn tonnes from it. It case you haven't really been following the blog recently we have spent the last two weeks going firstly to a Wedding in Carlisle, and then traveling back down to Southampton, picking up Dino and then getting the ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre, and then onwards to Portugal.
The Happy Couple V1 - Matt and LeighSo we started off by traveling up to Carlisle on a Friday afternoon, in terrible driving conditions. Not much fun, but we made it. At this point we were driving the Fiesta, rather than Dino, as we thought the quick hit and run up to Carlisle was not really suited to Dino's slow but steady pace. Even though we got held up in non stop traffic jams, we still arrived in good enough time to get nicely drunk with a lot of old friends. The wedding itself was a fantastic affair, at the haunted castle of Dalston Hall, although the only spirits seen were the type served in glasses! Leigh, of course, looked fantastic, but for once the groom deserves a mention, as Matt walked down the aisle to the James Bond theme tune wearing a Gold Jacket and top hat. The evening had everything, including Masks for everyone to wear in the evening. So, thanks to Matt and Leigh for a great time and wishing you both the best for the future.
Off to the Continent
So, after retiring slightly early from the wedding celebrations we drove back to Southampton, aiming for our overnight ferry to Le Havre. Catching the ferry was a pure delight, not only was the boarding process painless (once we were warned that we shouldn't really be taking our axe with us!) but the sleeper chairs that we had booked were fantastic. OK you do have to put up with the odd snore from you fellow sleepers (nothing new for Jenny), but we got a great nights sleep, leaving us nicely rested for the two days driving we had ahead of us. We'd definitely recommend this option on the ferry to anyone who has a long drive in front of them.
So, this was where our big test was to begin. Driving on the right hand side of the road, navigating through Europe - how were we going to cope. Was Dino in good shape? Ollie took to the road first of all, nervous, but excited by what lay in front of him. Well, to start with our GPS decided the best route to Portugal was to get right back on the ferry we had just got off! So a couple of circuits of Le Havre's backstreets followed, but soon we heading in the right direction.
We have been contemplating our GPS for the last few months, with the major decision being should we utilise our laptop for navigation, or should we use some sort of PDA? We had effectively ruled out most of the usual GPS solutions sold by leading suppliers as once out of Europe there are no maps to help. The only company that could be used is Garmin, as they provide a WorldMap, which although not detailed, certainly would be helpful. It is also possible to use other peoples maps with Garmin, for example Wanderlust mapping. We have an old Garmin V device, which can be hooked up to the laptop, so thought we could test them out at some point on our trip, but decided we would like to use a PDA in the main. we bought the cheapest one you can get on ebay, mainly to test the theory out - a DEll Axim X5. This came with TomTom loaded and a GPS mouse. Well we found that this worked perfectly, except in the Pyrenees, where the signal seems to get bounced of the mountains. We are not sure if this is because the GPS mouse was poor quality or whether this is normal.
To cut a long story short, we found this was the best way to navigate in the cab, a laptop being just to bulky and hot. But, before we had got home the X5 seemed to die a slow and undignified death. In a way this was a good thing, as we got to try navigating with the laptop, which was fine (apart form the issues mentioned above). I think it was because the version of Tom Tom being used was too much for the 300MHz processor of the X5.
One last thing regarding the GPS - just before leaving Ollie had been playing about with the celebrity voices that you can download. Only thing is he forgot to leave the original one there, so when first turning the GPS on JollyFollies found out that they had the choice of Ozzy Osbourse - stuttering and swearing, but never really helping - or Tony Blair. Tony Blair won the day purely because he actually told you were to go.
Onwards to Portugal
The first day we drove for nearly 12 hours, in about 3 hour shifts, which was a bit longer than we had planned. This was mainly due to the fact that Tom Tom would tell us that there was, say, 2 hours to our destination, but this would actually take us 3 hours to drive it! We had Dino time that did not correlate to the time outside! So, after a hard days driving we reached the campsite we had hoped to stay at. It was only 10 Euros, and provided us with everything we needed. We didn't stay long, getting away for about 10:30 the next morning. By the time we had got into central Spain the temperature had risen sharply and we were in full holiday mode. For the next leg of our trip we had booked a Villa with 8 of our friends and we couldn't wait to get there.
We new that once we were in Portugal we were only an hour or so away, and we started getting very excited. But Portugal and Tom Tom still had a couple of surprises to throw at us. Firstly, as soon as we came off the motorway we were straight away on dirt tracks. Not just dirt tracks but mountain side dirt tracks. By this time Ollie was driving and he loved it - although it was never stated whether Jenny enjoyed it so much! After about 90 minutes on these roads Tom Tom decided that Dino could fly over a valley. This left us a bit stuck, but luckily for us we were only a few miles from our destination and we were soon joined by Julia and Catherine, also lost. Within minutes we were at our luxury villa.
One Week of Luxury
So we arrived on Tuesday night, with the wedding on Saturday. Plenty of time to take advantage of the pool, tennis courts and pool table. Slowly the others who we staying at the villa arrived. Thursday night was to be Massey's stag do. Nothing major had been planned, so the lads went into the local village of Resende to see what was happening. In traditional British style, was made to don a Scooby Doo outfit. This seemed appropriate, as the first 'bar' we stopped in turned out to be a family ice cream parlour!
Quickly we found a bar that was more to our liking, one that sold Absinthe! Oh dear. The rest of the night is hazy, and involves the stag falling down a cliff and Ollie turning into Smeagol from the Lord of the Rings. Hmmm.
So, hangovers all round on Friday, with very little sympathy from the ladies. A trip into Peso de Regua for some local delicacies didn't help, especially as those delicacies resembled parts of the male anatomy...eurgh!
Saturday was the day of the wedding. this time round it was Massey and Bella. Bella is half Portuguese and half Indian, and made a stunning bride. Massey was just about sober by this point.
The Happy Couple V2 - Massey and Bella
The wedding was a spectacular affair, the church having a romance to it that no church in the UK could have. The service was in both Portuguese and English, given by a priest who had come back especially from Africa to help out.
From there everyone took a bus to the an amazing wine yard where the reception took place. We partied until late, with the food and drinks setting a challenge for even hardened wedding goers! Another great night, thanks to you both. We know you will both be very happy together in the future.
So another couple of days drinking and then we were to leave our little bit of luxury behind. First of all it was off to the Portuguese lake district where we spent to very pleasant days enjoying the scenery and generally relaxing after the rather hectic days surrounding the wedding. The campsite we found was ideal, virtually empty when we arrived, with all the basic amenities that are needed to make you comfortable, but not too much to make it feel like home :)
Entre Ambos-Os-Rios Campsite
For anyone who may follow us here there is a very pleasant 7km walk, that leaves from the nearby church and takes in the beautiful river valley - but be warned that the route seems to bear no resemblance to the simple map that is given away by the tourist information. We followed a series of markings that seemed to cross the river many times, whereas the map always had you on one side of the river. Either way it is a lovely walk.
Quick Sprint to the Atlantic Coast and Onwards
We decided that after two days it was time to get some more miles under our belt, and so found a campsite on the northern Spanish coast, on the beach. We noticed that this was a large campsite, with lots of static caravans and tour operators, so prepared ourselves for the worst. We thought that we could always use it as a stopover on the way to the Dordogne and this turned out to be the case. The campsite was pretty much as we imagined, large and sprawling, but not too unpleasant. We spent the night there, then a very pleasant couple of hours on the beach before heading on for our favorite camping find, Camping La Riviere Fleurie in the Dordogne.
This campsite is set in a small hamlet by the Dordogne, and although it has plenty of facilities including a pool, feels remote and quiet. We arrived on the Friday evening, and on Saturday there was a traditional market in St Foy Le Grande where we found some lovely smelly cheese and sauscison. We also found a company doing canoe trips on the river which we signed up for, eager to become proper tourists. We camp back to head our cheese with some lovely whites and managed to get giggly drunk quite quickly. We went to bed that night still giggling, only to be woken at 4am by the biggest electrical storm either of us have witnessed, well certainly witnessed under canvass. Although not really in the game plan, it tested out our newly waterproofed tent, which didn't let a drop of the torrential rain through. Great.In the morning the thunder was still ringing all round the valley, and we decided that discretion would be the better part of valor and cancelled our canoe trip. A shame really, but this meant we could spend the rainy day on the road, heading for Normandy.
Normandy and then Home
We headed to Normandy on the advice of our weather forecasters in the U.K. Don't give up the day job is all we can say really :) It rained almost non stop whilst we were there. This did mean we could finally do some tourist activities, including seeing the Bayeaux Tapestry, Mont St Michel, the cider route and some of the D-D beaches. Here we stayed in an average campsite in amazing surroundings of a Chateau. Although they seemed to specialize more for mobile homes, but they do have a lovely crepe restaurant that also serves the local cider. MMMMM
Before I finish I should point out that in Normandy we did get a bit casual and ran out of Diesel! Luckily we had managed to get to within half a kilometer of a garage. Ollie was sent to pick up the diesel, whist Jenny looked after Dino. No harm done, and Dino started with a splutter and carried on.
For all the Overlanders reading this, we will update the blog with a lessons learnt summary, perhaps later this week.
