Well I dont know where the time has gone but at least 3 weeks has passed since the last update. It's strange but whilst I have definately learnt to slow things down living this lifestyle the time just still seems to fly by.
A lot has happened over this period and again I have been to some amazing places, too many to write about so will just include the highlights.
On leaving the Cote D Azure area I started heading West toward Spain following the coast as much as I could. The weather was definatley getting warmer and I tried not to do more than around 2-300 kms a day giving me plenty of time for stopping. I passed South of Montpellier and then slighly inland down to Narbonne.
From there it was only another day and I crossed the border into Spain, down the very winding coast road which was spectactular to a place called Llanca. I immediately noticed how much cheaper Spain was for food, diesel and official overnight camper parks.
My 2nd stop in Spain included a visit to the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya in Llanca. Walking around the ruins of the Greek City built 4th Century BC was amazing especially as they are still uncovering it and you could watch the archeologists at work.
Continuing on down the coast I aimed for Barcelona always a favoutite city where I had visited before a few times, once by sailing many years ago. Walking the Les Ramblas and visiting the La Sagrada Familia which is still being built (started in the1880s) always a highlight.
It was here I picked up a hitchhiker, daughter Rosie joined me for a week whilst she was between her jobs. It was great to see her and have some company and she made a great navigator finding us more interesting paces to visit.
Together we headed to Valencia to visit family, sister in law Sarah and her family live there. We had not seen them in over 8 years and it was great for Rosie to reconnect with her Spanish cousins. We had a fabulous time with them and a highlight was Sarah's husband Rueben had a friend who worked as a body guard in the Presidential Palace. So we got a private tour of the palace that is not open to the public. There are some photos in the slide show below.
After several days in Valencia with our wonderful family hosts, Rosie and I carried on South down the coast to Benidorm the famous tourist resort. It was at this point that my first problem with the van occurred. The DPF filter was blocked and caused the van to go into limp mode (slow speed). Its a system thats supposed to clear itself but I now know that about once every 100k miles it is best to have them removed and cleaned professionally. Getting this done in Benidorm proved a challenge so we made the descision to end as far South as I was going to get on this trip. We limped back to Valencia, It was the right descision as here Rueben was able to help us find a great garage. We got the filter removed and cleaned in record time and an oil change for good measure.
At this point it was time to say goodbye to Rosie as she headed for her Aupair job in France. But we will all meet up for xmas.
As December is almost upon us I have now made the descision to start heading back North. The plan was always to spend Christmas and New Year with the family in Scotland. Something not done in over 20 years.
So as I write this up I am one day North of Valencia and the temperature has already dropped 10c. I'm planning a differnet slow route back up over the Pyrenees to Bordeaux and up the West side of France. The days will get shorter and colder as I head North but I am already pleased with adding all the extra insulation to the van. To be continued..
As usual sample of photos below, apologies for a few marks in some of the first photos I had not noticed some dust inside the lens.
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