Wild Camping Spot Thursday 28th and Friday 29th September

Eventually found a beautiful spot for a couple of days. The oceans a bit wild but it's an impressive spot.
Slightly challenging to get to but got to test the Sprinter in soft sand. Very impressed, no real drama and it was very soft and pretty deep, enough for the sump guard to be dragging at times. We're just North of a town called Sines.
Just got given some home brew brandy by some guys fishing on the beach. Remarkably good😁
Probably heading south a few Kim's tomorrow.
My Position

Location: geo:37.992195,-8.853456

Europe Autumn 2017

So this is another retrospective start / post.

In fact over 3 weeks late. I think meeting a couple who parked up to us for a couple of days at Praia da Lagoa Praia da Lagoa de Santo André

Location: geo:38.11464,-8.798343

May have spurred me into action again, thanks to Dan and Verity and their blog beastcreations.com

We spent a great couple of days here. A great beach bar, fresh water (more about that later) and toilets. Quite a few motor homes parked up including some Brits but Dan and Verify were the only sociable ones.

Ah water. So the water pumps running continuously, seems like there must be an airlock. We couldn't have used 80 litres in 3 or 4 days surely, and the gauge is saying 100%. So I start dismantling the water system, until it dawns on me. Yep the tanks empty, doh!

We move on early'ish, for us anyway. Work men starting to resurface the car park at 7:30am helps. Breakfast in Santiago do Cacém

Location: geo:38.01826,-8.69437

And found an Aldi and a waste point, happy days.

Then back to the coast, just a few kms south of where we had been the night before. Aim today. Not to spend the night on a car park, even though as car parks go it was pretty good.

So we follow a few tracks down to promising looking beaches. First one is pretty perfect. But a hire camper van has bagged the prime spot. Try again.

This time we end up on a track with deep and VERY soft sand. At times deep enough for the sump guard to be dragging. Rather than risk driving for maybe nothing Russ walks the final km. Decision. Not worth the risk.

3rd time lucky, we find a pretty perfect spot. Down a slightly challenging track but directly on the beach. Nice, we'll stay a couple of nights before moving south of Sines. Apparently a town that’s just industrial so worth by passing.

So, the retrospective bit.

We’d stopped off at Camping Pelinos-Tomar

Pelinos 77

2300-093 Casa das Abobreiras

Portugal

GPS: N 39°38'17" W 8°20'12" 

Plan was just 1 night but we ended up staying 4. Great place, lovely owners, great bar and lots to see and do in the surrounding area.

Best excursion:

https://m.facebook.com/pages/Restaurante-O-El%C3%A9ctrico/300511373424435

Otherwise known as the Happy Hippy. Loved it. To be honest the food wasn't the greatest but the experience and the wonderful lady who greeted us and looked after us made it very special. It's a  truly weird place, but in a good way.

Prior to that we stopped off at the Venice of Portugal 

Aveiro

Location: geo:40.6405,-8.653793

We liked it, not so much the camperstop. Rammed full of French motor homes under a fly over, smelling faintly of piss.

So what is it with motor homer's? 

They spend North of £60k and then seem determined to spend their time parked up on refugee camps. They’re determined to never spend a penny on sites but are too scared to venture anywhere away from their fellow cheap skates. Case in point:

We’re parked up on a huge car park outside a prettified tourist village in Spain. No one else there, very rural and safe.

Next thing 2 German motor homes park up either side of us. Maybe within 2 metres away. They’re actually together but for comfort want to stay close to use. Rather than the 2 or 3 hectares available. Just weird.

From what I can tell most see  to wear the cheap skate as a badge of honour. Don't get me wrong, we like free camping, or even better wild camping (there is a big difference, and most who free camp like to claim they're wild camping) but car parks/refugee Camps!!??

We do like to mix it up with sites as well. Around here usually less than €17 a night.

There are of course exceptions to the above observations, people who like to get off the beaten track. This being their primary motivation, over and above saving a few euro's. You know who you are😎

Post Trip Plans / Thoughts

So considering that this was our first trip apart from 4 days in Devon it went remarkably well. This was very much a trial or reconnaissance trip. A road trip rather than an overland trip in the conventional context. But then again what is the definition of "overland"? OK it's built to go off road but so what.

6,971 miles later.....

Our only firm plans were to get as far as Corfu, and that was only decided about a week before we left.
But we ended up going to:
France
Italy
Greece
Albania
Macedonia
Montenegro
Croatia
Slovenia

We're so glad we turned right rather than left straight away when we got to the Greek mainland. The Peloponnese was probably our favourite, but we barely scratched the surface. We will definitely return.

We probably didn't do Albania justice, we missed the coast pretty much completely.

The van performed great, apart from a failed battery it didn’t miss a beat.

We still struggle a little with the entire free camping concept in built up or semi urban areas, but we're getting it. Following people like http://ourbumble.com/ has been great. Even if their blogg does make my efforts look like a 5yr olds😀

Considering that we've been cooped up in such close quarters for close on 3 months we've  only had the odd falling out, Marie has only wanted to kill me 4 or 5 times but fortunately she doesn't like driving so I have a get out of jail card😎

It's an addictive life style for sure, we're already planning 2017.

Before then a few modifications to the van:
Sprinter To Do.
Maxxvent or Fiamma vent.
Truma vent through bulkhead
Additional storage:
• Seat base by sliding door
• Shelving above kitchen
• Shelving in rear?
• Convert cupboard to 2 drawers
Curtain between cab and rear for free camping
Table. Centre or swivel mount?
Drawer unit rear passenger side?
Additional solar panels
More efficient solar controller
Invertor switch by bed
Cassette toilet
Additional ventilation for fridge/freezer
Not too bad considering this was my first attempt. Fortunately I had some expert help from Stuart and Chris http://www.ama-transporters.co.uk/

Africa Prep. Probably Spring 2017
Racor fuel filter and water separation
Recovery points
Sand ladders
Tirfor
EGR / DPF delete

Heading Home

Yep the day has arrived and it's a case of "let's get it over with".

Quickest route is through Switzerland, and um not sure actually. Switzerland doesn't appeal and I fancy going through the Mont Blanc tunnel so we head West.

Maybe I should have checked the cost of the tunnel?? 58€. Ouch.

The cruise is set to 75ish, we certainly eat through the miles but stopping for diesel every 10 minutes messes up our average speed😂
It's doing 19mpg ish at this sort of pace. Down from the usual 22 to 26mpg. The DPF and EGR are going to be deleted when we get home.  Oddly even driving it like this it still does a couple of active DPF re generations.

At one point I convince myself that we could make Calais or Dunkirk in one go but by Dijon we've both had enough.

A remarkably good nights sleep at an Aires.

Tomorrow 4.5 hrs to Calais.

Hit the M25 just in time for rush hour, how does anyone do this every day of their working lives!?

Home by 8pm. I think anyway, I've lost the plot by now😁

Lake Como

Another slight detour. Partly because, well Lake Como sounds good and partly because there's a campsite open.
We may not stay on one now until we're home so the lure of a hot shower and other facilities sounds good.

The campsite is OK,  nice hotel showers, beautiful setting but somehow the rest of it leaves us unimpressed.

Maybe we're stunning viewed out? Maybe it's going home blues?

Tonelle Passe

So I found a wiggly road on the map that seemed to be sort of on the way home. Not much of a detour. I really am a slow learner when it comes to believing travel times on the sat nav🤔

Upside we found some snow and the scenery is stunning.

Our stop for the night, very peaceful apart from a couple of locals having some fun doing doughnuts in the car park at 1:30am😀

Woke to around -10C. The van was really toasty though. I'm really pleased with the truma combi heater. Very efficient, quiet and the temperature control is quite sophisticated. It isn't just an on / off control. It varies the air throughput as well as the temperature.
I'm quite impressed, the van was never built for this. We said that we would never go anywhere cold or wet or eat inside the van🤔

Venice

To be honest this isn't my thing so I wasn't looking forward to Venice to much. But in the end you can't help but get hooked by the place. A really full day but we both loved it (well apart from me leading us astray. I'd read a rave review online about Lido, so after 33€ on a ferry and a cold grey walk through suburbia we returned to Venice. So don't believe Wikitravel🤔)

Although it was a little grey and chilly November is a great time to visit, no vigorous crowds. We got into conversation with a local. Apparently 27 million people visit Venice each year. The average tourist stays 3hrs (and according to the local) doesn't even buy a bottle of water.