The day we left Dos Moinhos for Spain was just one of those days. Nothing seemed to go right. And some things went badly wrong. I suppose every caravanning holiday has a couple of days a bit like that!
First up was the motorway. We had paid our €10 for the electronic tolls, but all the motorways we used today were manual pay-as-you-go jobs… so we’ve left Portugal in credit. But I guess that balances the books from last year when, as I recall, we left with a probable debt! Then at one automatic toll booth we were charged as a class 3 vehicle. In Portugal, unlike France, they don’t charge for caravans! Usually! A long conversation in Portuguese/English revealed the fact that staff on duty at the toll plaza had no authority to give refunds – nor even help fill in the form for a refund… Not happy!
We had chosen a campsite which came with good reviews and pitches with direct views over the sea.
This was on the Spanish coast road some 20 miles out from the rather large and sprawling town of Pontevedra. The map said we should take the N550 along the coast, but the sat nav said don’t. It said go 500 miles (well, a long way) North on the motorway then cut diagonally back to our target. At first we thought this was a joint marketing effort for the Spanish toll roads. Later we discovered that the 20 miles around the coast was basically a tiny, twisty road through a conurbation of small seaside towns which had all overgrown and joined up
A continuous, overcrowded, busy stretch of coast with a million visitors all trying hard to force a British caravan off the road! On arrival at our “chosen” site, we found what I suppose we should have expected, not what we had hoped for! The site did indeed have sea views – but they would be shared with a lot of (mainly) Spaniards in a tightly packed space. After a discussion lasting about one minute we both decided that we needed to move on. Our back-up plan was, we discovered, another 80 miles further North.
We abandoned our coastal road and did the diagonal thing our car had previously recommended to get to our now “un-chosen” site. This time going NE not SW. Still not the fastest of roads. However, we did see trees and green fields instead of apartment blocks.
Muros and the adjacent village of Louros, which are quite close to Finisterre, have three ACSI listed sites within five miles each other. We had chosen the furthest one. But, just to be certain, we stopped at the first one first!
Bad mistake – on three counts. First it was stupidly expensive; second it was over-crowded with small pitches. And thirdly because while negotiating in the packed carpark outside I misjudged my turn and caught the back corner of the van on a parked car.
Bad news! I now have a dent in the caravan about one mm deep by one mm wide. And a bit of blue paint. Almost invisible. … but you should have seen Carmen’s car! It was undriveable. The whole of the front end had fallen off. Lights on the deck – the works. Exchange of telephone numbers. Insurance company involvement. Police officer 007 (yes, really!) inspected the caravan and said where was the damage. He couldn’t believe it – and neither can I! First moving car accident I’ve ever had. Enough said. Too much said. Sorry again, Carmen! And thanks for being so understanding about the whole thing. I hope I’d be equally nice if something like that happened to us. I can always hope!
Moving on, which we did still a little shocked I think, we settled in the second campsite – Camping San Francisco, in Louros. It was OK. Better than we first thought. But we did venture the last two miles later that evening to check out our first choice site – Anchoradoira. This was what we had been looking for. Right on the coast between two beautiful mile-long beaches with it’s own little cove two minutes walk from our caravan.
True it would be very exposed in heavy weather, but we had several days of calm sunshine predicted.
So, after a bit of indecision, we moved the next morning and took up residence on pitch P5. Fabulous sunset views.
(That’s the view from the loo!) Fabulous views all day long actually!
Everything to do with caravanning appears to be a bit of a compromise. The sites with the best views might have dodgy washroom facilities. Friendly sites can have tiny pitches. Great sites can come with expensive restaurants or surly staff. Anchoradoira had nice big pitches with fab views, but the hot water was a joke and the manager so surly and rude it was a real shame. He should have listened to his careers adviser at school (about 50 years ago) when he must have been recommended to stay away from anything remotely connected to the hospitality industry! But the site, on balance, was brilliant. Adequately quiet for us but still connected to the populated world so there was plenty to do for the time we stayed. I bet we go back one day!
One of the things we had wanted to do was visit Finisterre – or Fisterra as it’s called locally. Cape Finisterre is the most westerly part of mainland Spain and is named after our oldest grandson, who is known as Finn for short Actually, I think the cape was named a while before Finn was born. But who’s counting?
The town of Fisterra was obviously a compact village grown up around a fishing port.
Now attracting a lot of tourists and Camino walkers. Yes, we are back on The Trail yet again! At Finisterre lighthouse we found a sign saying Camino Trail 0.000 km.
Must be a starting point for the collection of pilgrims coming from the Cape. They’d be the lighthouse keepers I suppose – originally.
The Cape was a slightly sinister place. Vertiginous cliffs wreathed in a faint, salty haze.
Pictures taken and sent to Finn. He didn’t seem overly concerned!
We have suffered from a total lack of internet access. The owner of our wonderful site switches off wifi for the summer visitors at the same time as doubling his prices! For everyone’s convenience! So I’m getting behind again. Now we have things to do at home! Especially the cricket, Wimbledon and the British grand prix. Just have to work out how to get the TV switched on – it’s been a long time!
But there is still one more episode to come!