First day in Continental Europe - Spain

12/02 We depart a very cold UK, and on the massive ferry for about 24 hours. Excited, and not having done the car ferry thing before, we find our tiny cabin and head upstairs for a VERY dodgy meal...

Departing Portsmouth on Brittany Ferries - It's D-Day

13/02 Wake up and we are in another time zone. The coast of Spain looms into view and it’s all very exciting. Can’t wait to try that driving on the other side of the road lark, NOT. Initially turns out to be not too bad as long as there is other traffic to follow. Purdy is a great help as she can keep an eye out on the traffic coming at you from the roundabouts. Weird…

Rolling off the ferry, first time for RHDriving for us is about to start...

 

In a nutshell, driving on the right is fine! I am able to keep closer to the kerb on my side, therefore leaving a bigger gap between us and the oncoming traffic. Overtaking is hard, and Purds needs to spot for me if and when we need to. Also roundabouts can be a pain, as often the cars coming around are in the blindspot, but again the Ninja is onto it.

Arrive in Perlora and after a very scary moment where a security guard who could speak English as good as my Spanish tells us that the place we are after is definitely closed for winter and there is nothing else anywhere around… 1km away we find the amazing campground that we wanted. Setup overlooking the bay and have the place pretty much to ourselves. Thanks for that advice mate…

First campsite in Spain. Nice view and quiet at this time of year. Not cheap at 30 Euro though...

14/02 Day 2 Camping Perlora Spain. It is really stunning and we walk into town to get shopping and have a look around. Seems to be very sleepy at this time of year, maybe they are all asleep? First go at speaking a different language out of a phrasebook is pretty funny. Purdy has a better grasp of Spanish thanks to the Fillo connection. Still, it takes us a while to find the shop, let alone buy our food! End up with a 6 pack of beer and 2 bottles of red as well, scratching our heads at how cheap it is...

We liked it so much we stayed 2 nights...

 

15/02 Depart Perlora and drive to Portugal. If you’d have told me that we would get 3 flat tyres in one day I’d have said get off the gear. But… First one is flat after we leave the campsite. Find a tyre place right near us and get a second hand tyre same brand and all, and the rest of the pressures etc checked for 15 euro.  3 hours later, in the middle of Spain on a motorway miles from BFI, Purdy hears a noise and I can feel the rig start to wobble a bit. I look into the mirror to see the casing of the rear trailer tyre go sailing into the bush. Tops. The only place to pull in is the middle of the road in a small bay. Not only have we destroyed a tyre, but the second hand one we got this morning is pissing out air. Seriously? Within minutes the highway patrol guys stop, radio a local mechanic (as I stupidly don’t have a wheel brace to get the spare off) and we are sorted within 30 minutes. Don’t get that in Australia… So pump up the leaker and put on the spare (different size, grrrr!!!) and creep into the next little town. The local mechanics turns out to be a massive tractor joint with John Deere’s all over the place. After a lot of hand signals and struggling we get a really dodgy second hand tyre for the spare, a pretty good repair on the leaker and we are on the road again 115 down for the day and we pretty much still need 4 new tyres. Stoopido… This is the price you pay for driving around with a 911 on the trailer like proper cocks. $$$$...

Pass through mountains in central Spain, and it's still snowing!

We're still fascinated by snow, silly Aussies...

Entering rural Portugal from Spain is just driving past a sign on the road. No border crossing control, police, gaurds etc. How easy is this Europe malarky?  

Welcome to Portugal!

Roll into the Portugese town where we are looking for a campsite much after dark (again) … Arrive at one of the free camp spots that I found on the net. Even though there are Motorhome parking signs etc, it looks proper dodgy and I spend a restless night’s sleep listening for car thieves outside… Trailer chained to a pole and to Bessy so I should just go to sleep…