Motorhome & Caravan holiday Blog

Just after 1am I was rudely awoken by Ingrid saying there was someone knocking on the motorhome, I got up and checked without going outside and couldn’t see anything and said it may have been the wind knocking a tree branch into the motorhome. I went back to bed, a few minutes later Ingrid was convinced that she heard something else and went out to investigate and found to young teenagers hiding under the rear of the motorhome, I went out and as I opened the door they ran off. I stayed with the motorhome and Ingrid went to tell the security guard, he searched around the site but could not find them. We both had a restless sleep for the rest of the night and got up early to a bright sunrise with clear skies but it was very windy. We completed packing up and left just after 10am but found that the campsite reception did not open until 11am and so we were unable to pay our campsite fees.

We left the campsite and retraced our route back towards Leon on the A231 and on the outskirts of Leon we turned onto the A66 heading south towards Zamora. Soon after we joined the A66 we passed a huge breakers yard, but it wasn’t a normal one for cars but had hundreds of cranes, JCB’s, diggers, tractors and other plant machinery, I have never seen anything like it before. We stopped for coffee along the A66 and then continued to Zamora leaving the motorway to head into the Lidl for some food shopping. After the shopping we followed the satnav back through the centre of Zamora and then back on to the A66. We continued along the A66 until we reached the outskirts of Salamanca and then followed the satnav direct to the campsite. We checked in and were told to find a pitch that we liked.

For an ACSI site we were not impressed with Camping Ruta de la Plata, the site looked generally tired and uncared for. The trees needed pruning as they were very low and scraped the side and the top of the motorhome, there was only one water tap for the entire site and the grey waste disposal point was at the bottom of the site and not easy to manoeuvre into with a 7.5m motorhome. The toilet block was tired and needed some work, there was no soap by the basins and the washing machine and pots and pans washing area was also unloved and old. The pitches were earth partially covered in weeds that needed cutting back. To top the lot the bar was only open for coffee and croissant for breakfast and the wifi only worked in the bar area. We tried to sit outside but there were lots of small flying bugs that were annoying but not biting thank goodness. As a result we decided to stay here just for the one night and head on.

An eventful 24 hours all in all and not one we want to repeat. I emailed Camping Pedro Ponce about leaving without paying and am waiting to hear back from them.

Today’s route

As we went to bed last night there was thunder and lightning which then stopped and a little later there was some light rain. This morning we woke to a brilliant sunrise and clear skies but found that the light rain had in fact been much heavier after we were asleep and I had not put enough fall on the awning and so there was a puddle in the roof canvas. I drained it all off, it and the windblockers dried fairly quickly in the sunshine. Looking at the forecast we are due more rain later today and so once the windblockers were dry we folded them and put them away and I put a lot more fall on the awning as we still needed it for protection from the sun.

I got the folding bike out to go into town for some milk and cold meats for today. I found that the road to the town was more uphill than I realised when we had walked it before. After doing the shopping I coasted 3/4 of the way back without pedalling. After lunch I watched the grand prix qualifying and saw the England result on the BBC website. Who would have expected England to make the semi finals. About 6pm the thunder started again. There was some small amount of rain during the evening and there was an unusual sunset.

Unusual sunset

We decided to go back up to the town today to do some shopping for food and other bits and pieces. As we left the campsite we saw a large flock of sheep walking along the pilgrims route in the direction of the town. They were lead by the shepherd and his dogs and were all happily following without the dogs encouraging them.

We went up to the main square and got some bits there and then back to the Dia supermarket where we spent longer in the checkout queue than we did shopping for food. It was a good job that we had ‘grannies trolley’ with us otherwise my arm would ahve dropped off with what we ended up buying. We returned to the campsite and had lunch. We then spent the afternoon pottering and reading and then for dinner we had a bbq of the entrecôte steaks that we bought earlier.

We decided to go into Sahagun this morning to explore some of the sites and to find a bank and the supermarket. Just as we were about to leave our Irish neighbours wanted to chat about satnav’s, leveling ramps and windblockers, we gave them the information wanted and had a general chat about motorhoming. They then packed up and left and we grabbed our stuff and set off to walk into the town. We walked along the main road and then across the polisportu car park and over a pedestrian bridge across the river. We continued into town and stopped at the first bar we found for coffee.

After coffee we crossed the road and entered the small church which housed the tomb of King Alfonso IV and a separate tomb for his six wives. The church was very luxurious and there was a local guide to give us some information about the church. The archway across the main street as well as a couple of the church towers had storks in their nests on. We explored the town and found the Dia supermarket which was much larger than we expected. We walked back to the main square and looked at the menus at some of the restaurants but settled for a small one on the main street in the end and had an excellent mushroom risotto and drinks for lunch.

After lunch we walked back through the town and crossed the old stone bridge across the river and then back to the campsite. After Ingrid did a bit of hand washing we read and pottered for the rest of the afternoon.

A quiet day at the campsite today, a lot of people left early this morning and we are now the only British couple left along with few Spanish families. The weather forecast for the afternoon was for rain and the clouds became very heavy and black after lunch and at Ingrid’s prompting we put the awning, chairs and groundsheet away before it started.. The wifi at the site was good enough for streaming and I settled down to watch the F1 grand prix from Austria, shortly after it started the rain started and it got progressively heavier. There was even hail stones mixed in with the rain and the wind picked up and then the wifi died along with the sites computers and so I missed the last half of the grand prix. See the video below for an example of what we had to put up with. The rain was that heavy and with the wind blowing as hard as it was it pushed some rain into the bottom vent of the fridge which then came out onto the floor of the motorhome.

Using our 4G wifi box we looked at the weather forecast for our next two planned stops of Barreiros and Covelo and found that they were both showing rain and cool temperatures every day for the next week. As a result we then started looking for places to go not too far away that didn’t have any rain in the forecast for the next week. We found that we needed to go at least 150km away from the north or west coasts of Spain. We researched the campsites available looking at user reviews online and in the ACSI book and eventually settled on a municipal site in Sahagun about 200km south of Cullidero. The rain let up for about an hour in the early evening and then started again.