Friday 24 March 2017

Ampudia to San Sebastion - 221 miles

As we went to bed last night it was snowing heavily, so this morning we awoke to – nothing. All gone although it was very cold. So put the heating on and the gas bottle ran out; no problem, just had to get up and dressed to change it. Had to clear some snow off the screens before putting them away then after usual chores set off, target San Sebastion, or Donostia as it is known in Basque, the area we're now just entering.

Although we said we'd use the toll roads it wasn't necessary as the ordinary roads were fine, if a little busy. The weather gradually brightened up so by the time we stopped for lunch near Vittoria it was a pleasant day. Onwards and the roads started to become very busy, especially after we'd negotiated the long, long steep hill that brought us off the 2500 ft plateau down to sea level. Spotted a garage advertising LPG, but they wouldn't let us refill, only for the motor not cooking. This has happened in France quite a lot but it's the first we've heard of it in Spain.

Don't see many of these on the main roads!

TomTom was programmed for what we thought was the aire we've usually used but, after a missed turn, we ended up miles away on a huge and almost empty carpark where motorhome parking is apparently tolerated. Not being too happy with this we reprogrammed the satnav for the correct place, but possibly because Terry was beginning to tire we missed a couple more turns. However TomTom never gets tired and was on the ball; we soon found ourselves at the proper motorhome aire and managed to grab one of the last few spaces. Although there's room for 50 motorhomes it is a popular spot which soon was full; it didn't stop people trying all evening though.

So our last night in Spain, a little planning to sort out which way we're going this time. After making excellent progress over the last few days we've built in a bit of a buffer so we can afford to take it easy again and as the weather is forecast to improve hopefully we can finish our trip in the sun.