And now we are 3!

We just had 3 weeks wild camping by the beach here in Spain, I chose not to blog while we were away as I fancied a proper break from website stuff and having to find wifi to upload updates etc.

Anyway we're back at our home base so how did it go?

We found a great spot along with a lot of other motorhomes from many other places in Europe but the reason for the title of this blog entry we also found ourselves a dog!

He had been living rough around the area for at least the last couple of months and through the kindness of the motorhomers already on site had been fed and watered and loved. He had apparently been a very poor old thing when first seen looking very old and weak.

His playful character had endeared him to the folks from the UK, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Ireland and he made many new doggie friends too. This is when we first saw him.

He was mainly being looked after by Paddy who gave him a little of what he ate at each meal so, he was getting bacon sandwiches for breakfast, pork ribs etc for dinner - bliss he may have thought but he was still sleeping rough and had an uncertain future once the motorhomes had inevitably moved on.

We took the time while Paddy was still there to get to know him and observe his behaviour with people and other dogs. He seemed to sense our interest and often came to us for a fuss. We put water out for him and fed him more tit-bits and by the time Paddy was ready to head off for his home in Ireland we had decided to take him in permanently.

The word soon spread around our neighbours and everyone seemed so relieved that the dog was going to be saved. When Paddy set off it was heartbreaking to see the dog chase off after him obviously believing that he had, once again, been abandoned  :(  I went off up the road to find him but there was no sign so I returned sadly to the site without him, one lady was in tears at the scene.

A few minutes later the 'little sod' came strutting back and seemed to wonder what all the fuss was about!

We parked in Paddy's spot to give the dog (now known as Digger) some continuity and encouraged him into the van. he seemed so comfortable that we made a place for him under the dinette table and he stayed the whole night, albeit I did get up a couple of times to make sure he had a chance to do anything outside   ;) . But he behaved perfectly and continued for the next week or so while we were still there.

He had a trip into town with us to experience the ride, which although a bit fretful to start was no problem at all. We bought him some worming tablets and flea treatment, a lead and a squeaky toy, he already had a collar which was supplied by a couple of Germans to make sure he wasn't impounded by the authorities.

We've brought him home to our Spanish house now and he's getting used to his new surroundings. He's been to the vets with us and had a microchip fitted as well as vaccinations for rabies and distemper etc, and he is now the proud holder of a Pet Passport - he won't be able to travel to the UK for another 7 months though as he'll need a clean blood test result.

So there we have it, our lives have pretty well turned upside down and we absolutely love it and of course we absolutely love Digger. I am sure that we are likely to become complete dog bores!

Digger

Our next planned motorhome trip with him will be to Denia in Spain in April to meet up with a group of UK motorhomers. He'll be making many new friends there!  :D

Just a few of the very kind folks who kept him going


This blog can also be read on the Club Motorhome website

Time to move our blog across to our main website

We have installed some software on Club Motorhome for members to write their own blogs so we thought we'd better be loyal to ourselves (and test the software) and continue 'Motorhoming with NEILMAC' there.

Its just a few days now until we start our new 3 month adventure (always seems like an adventure anyway!). Our approximate route is planned and we're going to be heading up through eastern Spain, into southern France and will be spending time in the Rhone-Alps and Burgundy before northern France and a visit to the UK.

For those who have been following our travels please click this link to take you to our new location.

Busy planning....

While we're busy planning our next trip our 'retro' blog is running at This time last year - with NEILMAC

Its a blog of our travels (funnily enough) this time last year :-)

Epiblog - Mission Accomplished!

Well, home again and mission accomplished! More of that in a moment...

If you have been following this blog you will already know that we have had a great little journey, been to some fab places and enjoyed some great company with new friends. Our trip to Portugal did however have other aims and in addition to the ubiquitous researching along the way for new sites or aires for 'Club Motorhome' we were looking to complete the journey within the following guidelines:

- the first to spend no more per day than our 'home' budget
- the second to limit our diesel to our 'home' energy costs which includes electric, wood, gas, and water etc.
- to have fun and experience what the southern areas of Spain and, fingers crossed Portugal, have to offer us.

This is of course without spending over 'budget' and unless you are a math genius my bumbling with numbers of what I had and hadn't in the purse will be meaningless in terms of figures. I hope you will have gleaned however that with my 'mastery' (ahem) of budgeting and economical cooking we have managed to live within the 'home' budget. Contrary to finding Portugal expensive I found it to be similar to Spain.

Typically we ate well and healthily, obviously the slip-ups we had in the way of cheese and biscuit 'dinners' resulted out of meeting some good company on our journey. We say shame on them for leading us astray! Using aires and free / wild camping meant that our 'stopping fees' were kept to a minimum although that is quite normal for us when travelling.

The end result is that we have come in under budget by a princely 22 euros which is actually not bad at all. Our biggest extravagances along the way were a tank full of premium diesel by mistake (him) and keeping the water fired up with gas when we had electric hook up at the campsite (me).


We have also added some 13 new places to stay in a motorhome to our steadily growing website database which can be viewed here

Finally I mentioned that I wanted to stay on the weight loss trail. It was a close thing but I returned home a couple of pounds lighter than when I left. RESULT!

Saturday 24th April - This journey's end...

She says...

A good clean and pack up before we leave Ibi and we get on the way arriving back home at lunchtime. A bit of shopping and a wash of MH at the local 'lavado' leaves us with 25 euro's and time to count up, see if we have succeeded in our aims of the trip!

He says...

To recap, we set out to holiday in our motorhome across Spain and into Portugal without spending more money than we would have by staying at home for the same period. The calculator is out and the results are due shortly.

She says...

We did for sure relax and enjoy but what about the other bits???

Friday 23rd April - Distant fireworks and local lightning!!!

Yet another long trip and this time to Ibi in the Alicante region. Expecting it to be fairly busy we are surprised to find oursleves alone once again. Electric storms close in and we are absolutely tippled on and very nearly get rocked over by the thunderbolts which seemed to be surrounding us. Is this the time to be seeking assurance that we are safe in our little exposed MH?. Anhow rain over and the ladies are out collecting snails - tea' s up! 

As the day is St Georges and the neaby town of Alcoy is enjoying the big battle day between the Moors and Christians we are further amazed when no one turns up after the show. This is a UNESCO interest event and yes it is spectacular as we have witnessed before. Put it this way, we heard it in Ibi some 20 km away from Alcoi!!! Oh, by the way I stopped off and got some steak for tonights dinner - special treat, well you've got to, havent you?

Thursday 22nd April - Gas in the night, the van that is!

Not sure if this should start today or finish yesterday it being only four(ish) in the morning when we are awoken by the sound of the fridge ignition ticking - we've run out of gas. Oh well a quick step outside and cylinders changed over and we soon got snuggled down again despite my offer of an early breakfast. He said 'I don't think so! Or something similar.

After breakfast we spend a hour or so wandering the town getting a few shots and finding a very convenient Cepsa gas cylinder seller - brilliant!

On our way again we know we are heading off to Venta Del Peral one of our outward stops. All we have to do is find a supermarket. This we manage to do 14 km from our destination. I guess we must have missed some on our 190 km or so journey!

We spend around fifteen euro for our meals that will last until until we get home and a couple of drinks in the cafe, leaving us with 51 euro until Monday.

As the evening draws on we have neighbours turn up so from being the only MHers there to start with we become one of five all very suddenly and all very late. I wonder if we will ever have the confidence of risking not getting a space by arriving somewhere so late. Usually we are arriving quite early and then sit and watch the place fill up around us. I think of late we are becoming a bit more confident but I still like to get settled before dark.