2 MID-LIFE CYCLISTS IN A MOTORHOME: March 2015

Winning ninot from 1970

March started as busy as February ended with lots of friends to catch up with, my son's birthday to celebrate and Herman to get ready. Anyone who knows Glynn knows he has OCD and is always finding things to clean, tidy, sort out or bin as he gets bored if he has nothing to do. This worked in our favour on this occasion as he decided to check everything over on Herman 10 days before we were due to leave. Every time he tried to switch the fridge on to electric it tripped the mains switch. Never a good sign!! He then tried it on gas and again it wouldn't light. Oh dear, more expense!! We phoned our Motorhome mechanic Adam and owing to the urgency of our situation he advised us to drop it to his workshop and he would do his best to fit us in. He called us the following day to say the fridge was working on gas so it may have been just an airlock and it looked like we needed a new element. Great news as it meant less expense than we had been fearing!! Adam said he would order the element and do his best to get it fitted in time for our departure in 9 days. The problem I had now was that Glynn had nothing to do to occupy him and was getting under my feet. We have friends who recently bought some farmland and are in the process of adding buildings and enclosures so I sent them a message to see if they needed a spare pair of hands. I breathed a sigh of relief when the reply came straight back saying yes. Glynn spent the next 2 days helping out at the farm leaving me free to get on with route planning etc. To add pressure to our situation the supplier of the element sent it to the wrong place so had to send another one out.

16th March 2015. Several days passed with no news but just as we had resigned ourselves to having to postpone our crossing on Eurotunnel Adam called to say the element had arrived so he hoped to have Herman ready for us to collect the following day. Fingers crossed it was just the element at fault!!

 17th March 2015. Today was my son Darryl's birthday and he had requested his favourite spicy tiffin eggs and chicken Xacuti for dinner so I had been busy in the kitchen all morning cooking. Adam called at lunchtime to say everything was sorted and we now had a fully functioning fridge. Great news!! We immediately went to collect Herman as we now only had a little over 24hrs to get everything checked and loaded.

 19th March 2015. At last the day of departure was here, the last 2 days had been manic but we had managed to get everything done. Darryl had offered to take us out for a Carvery for our last night as he remembered me saying I had been looking forward to a roast dinner when we got back from Goa and we had a great last evening together. We were excited about leaving and they were excited about having the house to themselves again! We crept out of bed at 3.30am trying not to wake them. I was like a kid at Christmas and barely felt the lack of sleep. As we left I put a tub of Haribo sweets on our pillow as an Easter gift for them to find. After an easy journey we were able to board the train 90 minutes ahead of schedule and 35 minutes later we were in France. We programmed the sat nav to take us to Nonancourt for our first overnight stop and after a quick stop to re-fuel we hit the road.

 22nd March 2015. After the stopover at Nonancourt we did a 6 hour drive to Fontaines to visit our friends Peter and Carole where we have spent the last 2 days. They are finishing renovating their house so we got stuck in and gave them a hand during the day and then shared wine and gossip over dinner in the evenings. I also took advantage of the fact that Carole is my hairdresser and got her to trim my hair. If you read my blog post from September 2014 you will understand my reluctance to visit another hairdressing salon where they don't speak English!! 

Ken, Alan, Steph and Linda

I may opt for the shaggy look until I see Carole again in October!! We had checked the weather forecast in Spain and it wasn't looking good for the next few days so we weren't in any hurry to get there. After bidding Peter and Carole farewell this morning we set off for Parc Verger in Champagnac la Rivière to see our friends Ken and Steph, fellow members of Motorhome Fun who we had met when we visited Parc Verger last year. They invited us to spend the evening with them, joined by 2 other "Funsters", Alan and Linda. As they had just got back from a winter in Spain and Portugal we went equipped with notebook and pen to record their favourite places and "must see" recommendations. We had a great evening chatting and enjoying a glass or 3 of finest French Merlot!!

23rd March 2015.

Is that Linda sneaking up for more paella?



The weather decided to be kind to us today and after after all the recent rain the day dawned bright and clear albeit cold. We donned our winter cycling clothes and set off for our first ride of this trip. We only did 18kms but it was nice to be out on the bikes. By lunchtime the temperature had risen steadily and we were now in shorts and t-shirts, a welcome change after the recent cold weather. We had invited Ken, Steph, Alan and Linda to join us for paella so I was relieved the weather was being kind. We set up the giant paella pan and burner connected to our new external BBQ point and spent a very enjoyable afternoon eating paella followed by a pear and chocolate tart courtesy of Steph and all washed down with red wine.

26th March 2015. After 2 nights at Parc Verger we headed

En route to the Pyrenees

south ready to cross into Spain. We spent a night at Casteljaloux and then took a very scenic route to Oleron St Marie when we hadn't noticed the sat nav had decided to have a fit and took us on a very roundabout route which ended up 60 miles longer than necessary. Note to self, always check the overview of the route to ensure the sat nav is working properly. The annoyance at spending an extra 90 minutes driving was somewhat tempered by the fact that we would be crossing in to Spain the next morning and also by the stunning scenery as we got closer to the Pyrenees. We had driven through a heavy sleet storm where everything was turned white by a thick layer of icy snow making it look very Christmasy.
This morning we got up bright and early and set off for the Somport Tunnel.

Snow capped mountains in the Pyrenees

The view of the snow capped mountains was spectacular but even more so when we emerged from the tunnel into Spain and were greeted by clear blue skies and more beautiful mountains, although this time there was a distinct lack of snow. The difference was incredible and the temperature seemed to rise by 10 degrees in the space of a few minutes. Our first planned stopover was Zaragoza but as we reached there by lunchtime we decided to carry on towards Valencia. As it was all motorway to Valencia I offered to do some driving as this seemed the best time to try rather than trying to get used

Spanish side of the Pyrenees

to handling Herman on more minor roads. I was incredibly nervous and my brain was struggling with the gearstick being on the opposite side. Every time I went to change gear my left hand reached for the gearstick before I realised it was on the right. I drove for 70kms before the tension in my neck became unbearable because I was gripping the steering wheel so hard. I can't say it was a pleasurable experience. It was quite scary being overtaken by juggernauts while I was desperately trying to keep a good position on the road. I didn't find the size a problem it was just being a left hand drive that my brain struggled to get used to. For some reason my brain thought that as the gear stick was on the wrong side the pedals were also reversed which made for some interesting moments when I got confused about which pedal was the clutch!! I had a new found respect for how well Glynn had done when he had to drive Herman all round France and Germany last year when he had never driven anything bigger than a car before. I was pleased I had finally contributed to the drive but was very happy to hand control back to Glynn and go back to map reading!! I checked through the Aires book and found a lovely site at Navajas set in the mountains before Valencia so that is where we headed.

Sunset at Navajas

We arrived there shortly after 4pm and breathed a sigh of relief as we parked up. It had been a long but worthwhile day's travelling and we were finally in Spain. Now to chill for the evening!!

28th March 2015. We spent yesterday exploring the stunning scenery around Navajas. Although it is a very hilly area there is an old railway track that had been tarmaced over to create a cycle path so apart from when we left the path to explore the local villages the majority of our ride was on fairly even terrain. The area was stunning with incredible views of snow-capped mountains and when we cycled around Navajas village and followed the river there were a series of small waterfalls which culminated in a much larger

The waterfall at Navajas

waterfall at the end of the track. This is definitely a place we would come back to but today we set off again and headed to Betera, just outside Valencia. As it was only 56kms we were parked up by 10am. The Aire at Betera was beautifully laid out with spacious pitches and they even had an immaculate shower block and free wifi. The lady on reception spoke great English and was incredibly helpful with explanations of how to catch the Metro to Valencia from the nearby station, explaining about verifying the ticket and how it all worked. Barely an hour after arriving we were on the Metro to the city centre. We had a great day exploring the city, visiting the indoor market with incredible displays of cured sausages, cheeses and piles of oversized fruit and vegetables at very good prices. I purchased a smaller paella pan that was perfect for 2-4 people as my giant paella pan was designed to feed up to 12 people although the 6 of us made light work of it at Parc Verger after everyone kept returning for more!! There were many lovely buildings and churches to photograph and the city seemed very clean and well-maintained.

City of Arts and Sciences

We walked along the former riverbed of the Rio Turia which runs for 9kms close to the city centre and is now a mix of cycling, walking and jogging paths alongside fountains, playgrounds and sports pitches. We stopped to eat our lunch here and then followed its course until we got to the spectacular contemporary buildings that make up the City of Arts and Sciences. 22 years ago on my first trip to Spain I had visited the Fallas Museum in Valencia with my dear friend Katrine whom I have since sadly lost contact with. The Fallas festival takes place in March every year and at the base of each Falla (huge statues made of paper-mâché and polystyrene) there is a near life-sized ninot and each year only the best one is saved for the museum whilst the rest are burned as part of the final ceremony. The museum is a short distance from the City of Arts and Sciences and I was excited to be visiting it again. We spent a very

enjoyable hour admiring decades of ninots and Glynn, who is not normally a fan of museums said

The winning ninot from 1995

he had thoroughly enjoyed it and it was nothing like he'd expected. After a bit more shopping we caught the Metro back and spent the evening relaxing and reading our Kindles. Tomorrow we were going to catch the Metro again and go and explore the beach and harbour area.

 31st March 2015. After spending 2 lovely days exploring Valencia we left Betera yesterday to head to Calpe where we plan on spending anything up to a month before moving on. Clive and Mary, whom we met in Goa, arrived today for a holiday to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. After spending the morning exploring the beaches and town on our bikes we cycled over to meet them at a bar in the town

Rendezvous with Clive and Mary

and it was great to catch up again. After only 2 brandies I felt a bit squiffy as the measures were clearly more generous than the standard measure in the UK. We are not good with daytime drinking so it was no surprise to us when we ended up retiring to bed early to read but fell asleep instead.

It has only been 12 days since we left the UK but we have experienced all four seasons weather wise. We had rain in Fontaines, sunshine in Champagnac La Riviere and freezing temperatures and sleet storms en route to the Pyrenees. The temperature shot up to 29 degrees in Valencia and has now settled to a more normal 24 degrees in Calpe. We are excited about doing lots of cycling as we explore the areas we visit. We have left our road bikes at home this time and just bought our mountain bikes as we invariably want to explore our destinations which is not easy when wearing cycle shoes with cleats that clip in to your pedals. We have hybrid tyres so they pretty much deal with most terrains that we are likely to cycle on, my days of off-roading are long since over, if indeed they were ever on!! I can still remember the pain of hitting my ankle bone on my rear sprocket in Narbonne last year when we tried to traverse a VTT route thinking it would all be nicely tarmaced when in reality the smooth Tarmac path at the start of the route quickly gave way to gravel before I found myself trying to traverse small rocks like a teenage mountain biker. When I reminded Glynn of this as I was writing this paragraph his response was " Oooh yes I remember that, we'll do it again this year." I won't print my reply!! With all the travelling we haven't had much time for cycling but we have managed to make a start with 66kms recorded so far in March. I wonder what our total will be this year, hopefully a lot more than the 2000kms we did on last year's tour.

City of Arts and Sciences

Winning ninot from 2005