Week 1- Bilbao in Spain to Alcacer do Sal in Portugal

What can we say about our first week except it’s been a bit of a roller coaster. From elated due to being on our adventure, to tense, very tense when wild camping, to miserable when wet and cold due to the weather.

The ferry crossing was a bit rough, both Ant and I felt pretty sick so most of it was spent asleep. Left Bilbao to a beautiful morning and the old road to Santander was really wiggly through some fantastic countryside. We stopped in Torrelavega to find it is All Saints Day and Spain is shut!

Decided to go south to try and find some warmer weather and found rain instead. 1st nights wild camping was behind a stack of pallets at the back of a water treatment works. I don’t think either of us got much sleep that night! The following day after riding through about 6 hours of rain we caved in and got a hotel. We had a handy wardrobe/ drying cupboard and managed to dry out all our gear for the next morning.

We watched the Spanish weather forcast and the announcer was being quite animated about the amount of rain and the strenth of the winds. Although that could have been normal Spanish. It looked like our only option was to battle it out till Saturday when the weather should return to scorchio.

The rain kept on coming so we pushed on south west through Spain. In one village we found this statue of a man fighting a big crocodile with what appears to be a spoon. Not sure what it was all about as there was no plaque or anything.

Wet and soggy we crossed the border into Portugal on Friday afternoon. We tried to make it to the coast, but were worn out by the time we got to Alcacer do Sal. Then a heavenly choir sang and a campsite sign appeared out of the gloom. We pulled into the municipal Parque de Campism fully expecting it to be shut, but it wasn’t and it was almost full of campervans.

Hot showers, flat ground, free internet and then the sun came out. It’s so nice we decided to stay for the weekend. Maybe this travelling malarkey isn’t so bad after all.