Jan 25, 2021 - Gran Canarias

Left the anchorage just before sunrise. Very little wind so we hoisted the spinnaker and headed for Gran Canaria. Got a really good sail in – good speed. We could see the other two boats behind us and were cheekily listening on the VHF whilst in range, to their conversation. Both had caught fish but Moonlight Shadow caught a barracuda as well as a tuna (we later saw the photos and these fish were huge, well over 1.5 metres long). In the last hour and a bit the wind picked up (we took the spinnaker down (took nearly half an hour to do so –...

Dec 27, 2020 - Lanzarote

Canary Islands – Lanzarote……. Been in the marina in Arricife on Lanzarote now for over a week. The marina is clean and the staff courteous. It’s close to the city centre which is good. It’s near the port and there have been several cruise ships coming and going. There’s also quite a number of chandlers and hardware stores close by. Needless to say they were visited within hours of us arriving. The town itself is mostly a resort with lots of restaurants, souvenir shops and expensive boutiques. Lots of Christmas decorations around and there...

Feb 12, 2020 - Wild Camping

Day 32 - Wed 12th Feb Well it looks like the fine sunny weather has ended at last. This morning was a bit dull & cloudy at last & although we did get a few drops of rain later it did brighten up. We continued Northward up the coast towards Barcelona but turned off inland before we got that far. We are heading up to Andorra, the tiny country in the North of Spain in the Pyranees. Not sure if we will be able to go through the mountains there & into France it will depend on whether the roads are closed by snow. We won’t know till we get there....

Feb 9, 2020 - Back On The Coast

Day 29 - Sun 9th Feb Another sunny day, lovely! Made our way back down from the cliff top & headed up the coast. Stopped off along the prom road on the North of Valencia for our morning coffee break. Very popular area on a Sunday with lots of African men directing cars into the roadside parking spots. Pretty sure that these were all unofficial wardens but they were accepting money from some drivers. Needless to say we didn’t pay but they never approached us anyway. We carried on up the coast a bit further to a small town called Berenguer....

Feb 8, 2020 - WOW Location

Day 28 - Sat 8th Feb I found us a WOW spot today. We moved on from Murcia past Alicante & Benidorm to a little parking spot on top of a very promontory with thousand foot drops on either side. Viv wouldn’t even open her eyes at first she was so scared but I persuaded her that it was safe & she eventually relaxed. We had quit our crowded car park at Murcia after filling up our fresh water tank & carried on down from the mountains towards the coast. We did stop to top up the diesel at one garage at €1.12/ltr but as I started to pump I spotted...

Feb 7, 2020 - Murcia Return

Day 27 - Fri 7th Feb Bit chilly & foggy to start with, must be because we are higher up in the mountains. Stayed on motorway nearly all the way across to Murcia where we stopped at an Aire with about 150 other motorhomes, they’re everywhere. Didn’t realise we’d been to Murcia before till we checked on the geocache map & saw that we had logged a cache here. Turned out we had stayed at a camp site nearby on our trip in 2014 & come in to Murcia on our scooter for a look round & logged just the one cache. The Aire here is close to an IKEA store...

Feb 6, 2020 - Up In The Mountains

Day 26 - Thu 6th Feb The wind spoilt the night, it kept blasting us with gusts that shook the motorhome & rattled the rooflights every so often which disturbed our sleep. It was still blowing strongly in the morning so we were right to move on from the Caminito Del Rey as it was certain to be closed again today with this wind. We took some washing down to a nearby Washeteria that I found last night. Nice modern washers & dryers & I got to watch the drum going round while Viv popped off to a nearby supermarket. I even managed to transfer the...

Feb 5, 2020 - Moving On Again

Day 26 - Wed 5th Feb The dust cart picking up rubbish right beside us at 6am brought the nights sleep to an end. The wind had got up a bit during the night & cleared the fog & there had been no calls to prayer from the nearby mosque so it hadn’t been too bad. But the sunshine had to end eventually & today it is dull & a bit colder. I chickened out of trying to drive down the West side of the Rock & through the city. The bus rides we took yesterday convinced me to go down the East side past the old Catchments & the Caleta Palace Hotel. We...

Feb 4, 2020 - Gibraltar Here We Come, Again!

Day 25 - Tue 4th Feb Pretty boring, but nice, it’s another lovely warm & sunny day. Headed off bypassing Jerez & Cadiz. Picked up some supplies at Lidl’s in El Puerto de SantaMaria plus a couple of gallons of diesel to get us to the cheaper stuff in Gibraltar. Passed a big naval base with miles of security fences on the perimeter, saw a helicopter & a war ship in the distance but not much else. Lots of water around Cadiz but we wanted to call in to a place called Bolonia down the coast near Tarifa. We had fond memories of visiting it back...

Feb 3, 2020 - Heading South

Day 24 - Mon 3rd Feb Off again heading down towards Gibraltar. Sun again, it’s like mid summer these days. Temperature hit 76°F today as we had North for a few miles before we could turn East across towards the outskirts of Seville & then turn South. A bit of a bind but we were in the middle of the Donana Nature Park, a huge expanse of flat wetland with lots of bird & animal life. We saw signs warning of Lynx & a leopard type cat but we didn’t see any. We did see a dead cow in a field we passed. As usual I took the scenic route avoiding...

Feb 2, 2020 - Back Into Spain

Day 23 - Sun 2nd Feb Another glorious sunny & hot day, clear blue skies & temperature up in the 70s. Headed North through the nearby town, stopping to empty the waste water & toilet cassette in the Aire there before crossing the smart road bridge over the river & into Spain. After cutting South around Huelva we headed down the road through a National Park area all down the coast. Lots of trees & loads of storks up on their high nests above power poles. There was a trail of geocaches all alongside the road on a cycle track with a cache every...

Jan 23, 2020 - Santiago de Compestela

Day 13 - Thur 23rd Jan We have turned a corner, so to speak, having gone round the North West corner of Spain. Now we head South down through Portugal & then back into Spain at the bottom. After that it will be around to Gibraltar & probably up the coast towards Barcelona. No real plans as to where to go other than Fatima in Portugal & then Gibraltar. Today we headed from our spot on the West coast inland back to Santiago to visit the famous Cathedral where the remains of Saint James are kept. He was apparently beheaded by Herod back in...