February in France? That's going to be cold!

We're route planning for our next trip which is mostly on familiar ground between Valencia and Norfolk in England.

It's an exciting trip as we plan to arrive around the time our fifth grandchild is born.

We have a vets appointment booked for next week so that Digger gets his annual rabies shot and anything else he needs before entering the UK.

So all that's left is to finalise our route. Its not a great time of year to be travelling up through France and we expect that we will find water taps turned off where frost is a problem but we'll manage.

We're going to take a couple of weeks en-route using some coastal wildcamping for a few days to make the most of the sunshine before actually heading north.

Our first stop will be a campsite that we used last time on the way down at Huesca in northern Spain, we have to time it right as they only open at weekends at this time of year. From there we'll head around the Pyrenees (likely to be too icy and snowy to consider going over the top) and into the Aire at Hendaye Plage. Next is a short hop north to Mimizan Plage where we'll hang around a few days if the weather is kind.

There's a handy little village called Chaunay for our next stop where there is official paking in the centre, even has free electricity - or at least it did last time we were there a couple of years ago.

Next stop on our provisional list is Brezolles where we will have an appointment for Digger to receive the relevant meds to keep Customs happy.

Our last planned stop is Le Crotoy where we'll probably just stay one night before our prebooked crossing via Eurotunnel.

So that's it, all very changeable between now and then or even while we travel. Isn't that just the greatest thing about motorhoming?

Home and dry

From Morella we headed south to our favourite wildcamping spot just off the beach and not too far from our Spanish base.

The weather was not on our side though and we were treated to huge thunderstorms and constant rain for the next couple of days.

Staying by a beach is not so much fun in these conditions so we decided to finish the trip.

So back at base we will be able to catch up on all those jobs that have been mounting up while we've been away.

I doubt that it will be long before we're off on another excursion.......... :)

Across Spain

We found the wifi..... well on one laptop but strangely not the other? Anyway we were delighted to catch up with Downton Abbey at last :)

Huesca is a nice place to stop and we dined out for a change and had the best entrecote that either of us could remember, Digger was very pleased that we brought home a doggy bag for him. He really has settled into this life and seems very content in the van when we have to leave him, he must be more sure that we always come back to him.

From Huesca we moved on via more stopover research to Morella and were really pleased to find the new A22 Autovia has made much progress and now has many sections open to speed us on our way.

We arrived at dusk at Morella and were the only occupants at the Aire. The low cloud was swirling around the hilltop castle and once illuminated looked very eerie and almost like it was on fire.

A very peaceful night and ready for the next leg of the journey which is across to the Mediterranean and to a lovely wildcamping spot that we know ;)

Atlantic France

After 3 days of walking on the beach and generally relaxing at Mimizan we moved south inspecting various Aires along the way and stopped overnight at Capbreton (another lovely beachside Aire) and then Hendaye Plage before crossing into Spain.

Scenic views in all directions as we passed through the Province of Aragon and into Zaragossa, our destination for the night being a campsite in Huesca that was mentioned in MMM magazine.

On arrival it all seems a bit dead but at least the gates were open, so we drove in and parked up. Suposed to be wifi here but haven't found it yet so still typing on the very frustrating Kindle.....

Mimizan Plage

We moved on today to one our favourite beachside Aires - Mimizan Plage.

Miles of fantastic and very uncrowded beach makes this place so popular with motorhomers. Its a great place to bring a dog too, Digger has already made some new friends :)

We'll spend a couple of days here at least.

Details of the Aire ae on Club Motorhome.

By way of an update

We are making our way from the UK to Spain following an unexpected and very sad family visit.

We crossed the Channel via the Tunnel to keep Digger the dog happy and spent the next couple of nights on the Aire at Gravelines. From there we have made our way south staying Aires all along the way. Le Crotoy was next followed by St Valery en Caux, Gace, Villaines Les Rochers, a couple of nights at Niort, Parentis en Born and today we are by the lake at the lovely Aire at Gastes.

As usual wifi availability has been sporadic and communication via Club Motrhome's Facebook page, Twitter page and now our blog has been via our trusty 3G Kindle. Painstaking to type on but reliable!

Unfortunately uploading photos and adding more stopovers to Club Motorhome will have to wait until proper internet access makes it possible )

Back to base and a catchup.

After Cares Gorge we returned to Cangas for a another night before planning our trip back to home via a dozen stopover locations to research for Club Motorhome.

5 days later and we arrived back at our base, unloaded and parked the motorhome back in its secure storage all ready for our next trip in about 6 weeks - MOT and service time in the UK, Oh well.... one has to pay for the pleasure eventually! :)

PHOTO Map showing general route and the majority of the stops we made during the trip.

Conclusions? Galicia is STUNNING! Asturias less so but still lovely - the northern coastline is not a patch of the western Galician coast. The Asturias does however have the Picos de Europa which are magnificent - especially on clear days when you can see them! All in our humble opinion anyway :)

Right, where's the maps? Which way shall we head to the UK? Planning has started!