Spain and Portugal 2012

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martinjdover
Posts: 103
Joined: September 28th, 2014, 8:57 pm
Location: Poole, Dorset

Spain and Portugal 2012

Post: # 1403Post martinjdover
October 8th, 2014, 11:01 pm

Spain and Portugal (and France) by Defender Camper - October 2012

Well, it all started so well. I managed to get three weeks leave, arranged the ferry tickets between Portsmouth and Bilbao and contacted Jose Almeida of “Dream Land Rover” who constructed a route of GPS co-ordinates for me from the mountains in the northeast Portugal down the border between Spain and Portugal to the coast in the southwest corner of the Algarve.
The first spanner in the works was just prior to our departure with an internal dispute within Brittany Ferries – they cancelled all routes and ceased operations for an indefinite period. I managed to get onto the Condor ferry from Poole to St Malo, via Jersey the day after we should have set off. At almost 3.1m we were the highest vehicle they had ever carried and made general manoeuvring on, and off, the ferry rather interesting particularly with my Defender’s rather large turning circle!
So, we arrived in St Malo about four hours later than we would have arrived at Bilbao in Spain on our intended ferry. We drove to a camping-car aire right on the beach near the port for our first night on French soil. We then had a 600 mile trip across France to northern Spain and, due to dog walking duties, this was split into two and a half days. Our second night was spent in an aire on the Gironde where we had stayed before – again at the side of the beach, and our third on the Spanish border at beside of a lovely lake. The upshot of this was that we were three days behind schedule as we traversed the coast of Spain and drove past Bilbao.
A friend had suggested we visited the Picos de Europa mountains on our way south so we stayed our next night at a Spanish aire at Cervera De Pisuerga before dropping down an awesome hairpined road to Potes the next morning.

Picos de Europa
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Potes is at the centre of the national park and we were able to drive a superb steep greenlane into the mountains to the west of the town. That evening we parked up at a nice campsite on the outskirts of the town and had a lovely meal in a bar. The next day we turned our wheels south and headed for northeast Portugal and the start of our Portugese adventure.

Potes
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On the long climb up to the saddle over the mountains our temperature gauge soared and our expansion tank split due to excess pressure. After allowing the engine to cool down I topped her up with water and managed to coax the truck over the pass and then took it really easy on the downhill stretch to Leon. The heater was giving out hot air and all seemed, relatively, well. I therefore, misguidedly, thought I could push on to Portugal where Jose would be able to help me out. On the motorway about ten miles south of Leon my normally incredibly reliable engine dumped all her coolant out of the expansion tank. We allowed her to cool down again and refilled the system but as soon as I started the engine all the coolant came out again. I managed to drive carefully off the motorway into a service area.
I rang AA Europe assistance and within 90 mins we were loaded onto a breakdown truck and taken to Benavente, a small town 40 miles south of Leon. The following day the car was inspected by the local DAF agent and they diagnosed head gasket failure (no surprise there then) and they told us the repair could be done that day. We wandered back later and found that the engine had been stripped but not reassembled. The estimate for the time to undertake the repairs had extended to four days!!! AA assistance arranged a hire car and hotel accommodation (at no cost to us) and we explored the area, even venturing into Portugal. We had to off-road the hire car one day when a lorry overturned blocking the road and we realised that a Seat Leon has definitely not got the ground clearance of a Defender!!!
After three days we returned to the garage and they had started to reassemble the engine but they informed me they had been unable to source an expansion tank in Spain and one would have to be ordered from the UK – which would take four more days. What really annoyed me was that they knew I needed an expansion tank from day one and yet the part had not even been ordered. I rang Jose, who had been doing much of the translating for me, and asked if he could help. He located the part in Portugal and had it express delivered to Benavente.
Five days after the breakdown we were on the road again – but we decided that we had better miss out the most northern part of the Portuguese route and rejoin it at Guarda. By shortening the route, and with the time we had available, we would then still be able to get down as far as the Algarve.
The mountains around Guarda were fantastic and the route provided by Jose was superb. We left the tarmac and after resetting the Garmin to off-road mode we wound up and over some fantastic tracks over mountains and through forests. Our first night was intended to be spent in the Serra da Estrela national park campsite but low cloud forced us to descend to Covilha where we found a handy car park. We find that this is one of the benefits of the camper as you can pull down the blinds and park up almost anywhere.

Low cloud over Serra da Estrela national park

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Next day, after the customary dog walk and due to the persisting low cloud on the high mountains, we rejoined our route at a lower altitude. Our first track took us up and over a mountain range before dropping down into Castilo Novo via a very steep and rocky track with a hairpin bend so tight we needed to perform a five point turn. Heading out the other side of the village we encountered one of the very few vehicles we saw on any of the tracks in Portugal – a yellow Portuguese fire service Defender 130 - the crew took great interest in our vehicle.

The mountains above Covilha

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Dropping down into Castilo Novo

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As we moved further south the areas became less mountainous, however, the mileage of tracks driven each day stayed very high. Rather than rugged countryside we were now driving along tracks through olive groves and vineyards and on one rather notable day a working marble quarry with massive excavations several hundred feet deep which was a truly incredible experience!

Marble quarry

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We stayed at a mixture of aires and campsites with one aire being on the battlements of a wonderful fortified hilltop town called Monsaraz which overlooks the largest lake in Portugal. One track did prove problematic for the large rear overhang of the camper and we had to fill in a depression with rocks so we didn’t bottom out – this track had to be driven both ways as we found a locked gate at the far end of the lane with no possible detour.

The double-driven track

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Towards the south of the country the terrain flattened even more and we were travelling through savannah-like areas which could have been used for the filming of spaghetti westerns. The only downsides were that many of the tracks were like wash-boards with a corrugated surface – not very comfortable to drive on.

The Savannah

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As we entered the Algarve region we headed to the Atlantic coast and were now driving on sand amongst the sand dunes. The look on people’s faces as this “motorhome” appeared through the dunes was priceless.

Behind the dunes

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At one aire just east of the most south western point on the European mainland we drove past all the other motorhomes and parked right on the beach. My only fear was that I would end up with egg on my face if I was unable to rejoin the hard-standing the next morning. I did have an exit strategy though as there was a telegraph pole that, hopefully, I would have been able to winch off. With the diff-lock engaged and in low box I was very relieved to reverse back off the beach the way I had gone in.

Chilling out on the beach


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Due to the time lost we did not spend as much time in the south as anticipated and all too soon it was time to head north again, the weather too was turning against us with forecasted rain all across Portugal and Spain. We mainly used the motorways heading home and in Portugal, due to the tolls, these roads are hardly used. Mile after mile we drove without seeing any other vehicles. If they halved the expensive tolls they would likely more than double their usage and subsequently take more revenue. Each day we would drive for two hours then stop for coffee or lunch and a doggy walk before moving on again – this allowed us to cover about 250 miles per day. On the afternoon of the first day heading north it started to rain and it then rained continuously for 30 hours.

Portuguese Motorways

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On the evening of the second day we crossed the border back into Spain and arrived in Salamanca in the dark during the evening rush-hour. Finding our aire for the night proved difficult and stressful – especially as we went to the wrong “Avendia de Salamanca” address in the town centre. Due to the rain it was impossible to make out the road markings and I got into the wrong traffic lane on two occasions and was forced by the heavy traffic to head off in the wrong direction. At 8:30 at night we eventually found the aire and pulled in for well-earned rest.
The dispute within Brittany Ferries had been resolved just a few days after our outbound leg and we were, therefore, able to return home on the Bilbao to Portsmouth ferry. Poor Anya had to stay in a kennel overnight, which she didn’t really seem to mind, but Jan spent most of the daylight hours sitting with her in a chair on the doggy-deck and also smuggled her into our cabin for a while.
As an off-roading destination within Europe Portugal must be hard to beat. The country is largely uncongested and has a relatively low population density compared with our crowded isle. There is a huge variation in the type of tracks available and most are accessible to off-roaders – many of these are not shown on any maps. A lot of the tracks are no-through routes so getting an itinerary before you go pays dividends http://www.dreamlandrover.com prepared my itinerary and it was such a shame we had to miss out so much due to our problems – still it does mean I’ve already got lots to drive when I go back again in a future year.

Total distance travelled: 2545 miles
Jose’s route: Totalled 860 miles of which we actually did only about 450 miles
Average fuel consumption: 25.2 mpg
Highest Altitude reached: 1609 metres

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zildjian
Site Admin
Posts: 22062
Joined: September 8th, 2013, 3:30 pm

Re: Spain and Portugal 2012

Post: # 1404Post zildjian
October 9th, 2014, 12:41 pm

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I draw your attention to the sites scoring on travelogues, and award you (on this occasion) 9/10 :D

martinjdover
Posts: 103
Joined: September 28th, 2014, 8:57 pm
Location: Poole, Dorset

Re: Spain and Portugal 2012

Post: # 1410Post martinjdover
October 9th, 2014, 8:22 pm

Well thank you Sir!

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zildjian
Site Admin
Posts: 22062
Joined: September 8th, 2013, 3:30 pm

Re: Spain and Portugal 2012

Post: # 1411Post zildjian
October 9th, 2014, 8:30 pm

Must be fun travelling across country up until you encounter a locked gate as you did,
what started you on the European aspect?

martinjdover
Posts: 103
Joined: September 28th, 2014, 8:57 pm
Location: Poole, Dorset

Re: Spain and Portugal 2012

Post: # 1416Post martinjdover
October 9th, 2014, 11:08 pm

This was the only place the route that was provided let us down. We went along this track at a weekend when the farmer was away and had locked up the gate from the road to prevent theft. When the route had been checked by Jose it was on a weekday.
We looked at all possibilities to get around the locked gate but the only way was by crossing a ploughed field and a ditch (which I would have had to winch myself across) back-tracking about five miles was the preferred option!

In the UK my truck is used for a variety of uses - its payload is a lot higher than a normal doublecab at 1.5 tonnes. It carries garden materials and arisings, building materials, tows boats, is used for green-laning and also at pay and play sites, as well as being an adventure camper.

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