29th September to 3rd October 2017

Oct 052017
 

After having the teething problems with the Adria Sonic corrected by Caravanas Cruz we decided to have a few days away to ensure that there were no additional problems with the motorhome. As a result we arranged to go back to Bonterra Park in Benicassim with Mike and Sue and to meet Peter and Mary there. Mike & Sue had to pop into Gandia first so we arranged to meet them at the service area on the A7 / E15 just south of Valencia for coffee at 11am.  We left home just before 10am and refuelled at the Ondara Shopping Centre and then joined the motorway and headed north. After an uneventful journey we arrived at the service area at 11 and Mike & Sue had just beaten us there by a few minutes.

motorhomes

At the service area

After coffee we continued on the A7 and skirted arounf Valencia which was busy with lots of lorries and carried on north passing Sagunto and Castellon on the AP7 and then turned off onto the N340 to Benicassim and once in the town we pulled into the Lidl supermarket to top off with supplies before continuing to Bonterra Park. We checked in and found that the campsite was very busy with very few pitches available. We did, however, find two adjacent pitches on the ‘green area’ 3 pitches away from Peter & Mary and so we chose those, unfortunately there was no water or grey waste disposal on these pitches. We settled down and set the vans up with awnings adjoining.

On the first night we had a meal in the onsite restaurant but it wasn’t very good, nowhere near as good as when we were here earlier in the year. Maybe it was just an ‘off day’ or due to the site being virtually full. Over the next 3 days we did the usual shopping locally, had a couple of BBQ’s and ate at a restaurant in town. We walked along the beach which was much more pleasant than last time as the sun was out and it was warm.

Whilst walking round the site we spotted this home conversion, a little unusual to say the least a caravan permanently mounted on the back of a recovery lorry.

Unusual conversion

Unusual conversion

I had my first ever game of petanque with Mike on the new courts using a set of balls loaned by Peter. Needless to say Mike beat me on both games but I gave him a run for his money in the second game. Unfortunately Mary wasn’t feeling very well and so they left for home on Monday morning. Within an hour of them leaving there was someone else on their pitch. One of the jobs I did whilst we were here was to try the wind blocker that we kept from the caravan. It will need to be modified as the motorhome is much taller than the caravan so I will be seeking someone who can modify them for me.

Mike & Sue left about 10am on Tuesday morning and headed home. We took our time packing up and left at 11am and headed home. We arrived just after 1pm after a painless journey with just the usual lots of lorries around Valencia.

Motorhome

The boss sitting in her seat ready to leave.

 

23rd September 2017

Sep 232017
 

We all slept much better on the second night in our new motorhomes, even still we were all up early. We had planned to leave at about 11am but in the end we were all packed up and ready to go by 10am. We headed off in convoy along the N340 and rather than following the sat nav route onto the A7 motorway we stayed on the N340 all the way into Elche. There were several roundabouts to negotiate and one slight wrong turn later we arrived at Caravanas Cruz in Elche. I completed the paperwork for the warranty work on our motorhome we joined Mike and Sue in theirs for the trip back home. We had an uneventful journey and I continued to play with Mikes sat nav to try and get it working in English rather than Spanish but I failed and even though I had chosen the English voice it still spoke in Spanish. Mike will have to take it back to Gandia to get it looked at when he has the support legs fitted to his motorhome. We dropped Sue off at home and Mike kindly brought Ingrid and me home in his car in time for lunch.

Hopefully I will be able to collect the repaired Adria on Tuesday afternoon so that we can head off on a longer trip next weekend. Thanks to Mike & Sue for bringing us home, otherwise we would have been stuck or had to come home collect the car and then return all the way to Elche.

motorhome

22nd September 2017

Sep 222017
 
Day 2 at Crevillente.

After breakfast we decided to have a walk up into the town to explore the shops and buy a few bits and pieces. I found a bricolage and bought a new gas regulator hoping that this would fix the problem with connection to the gas bottle. The girls had a look round a couple of the Moroccan shops but didn’t find anything to buy. After coffee we headed back to the campsite stopping at another couple of shops and finally at the supermarket. There was only one checkout open and we bought our few bits for lunch and were waiting for Mike and Sue. An elderly Spanish lady had a trolley full and was in front of them, at the checkout she decided that she wanted some additional items and so not once but twice the till assistant went off to get the additional items for her. Only in Spain would this happen good customer service for her but frustrating for the queue of five people behind her.

After lunch I fitted the new gas regulator and it slotted straight onto the bottle with and the hot water promptly fired up and so at least we had some of that. During the afternoon I took the radio / sat nav out of the dashboard to see if the fuse had blown but it was OK and still would not work. Did a few other little jobs and then settled down and read and chatted. I also emailed Peter & Mary and got a reply back that he had exactly the same issue with his new Hymer and the hot water when he bought it last year and the fault was found to be that the mains plug had not been connected to the boiler unit. I checked and ther was too much disassembly to be done to check the mains connection to our boiler. I will leave that for the dealer to resolve.

After a couple of pre-dinner drinks we all adjourned to the hotel restaurant and had an even better meal than the previous night and tonight as we already had wine left over from yesterday it was only 48€ for the four of us. Definitely a restaurant and campsite to be recommended. We had post dinner drinks in the warm evening outside the motorhomes and the girls suddenly smelt burning. We checked and there was no problem with either van and after discussion with some other visitors it was decided that the smell was blowing in from outside the site. Shortly afterwards we heard the sound of fire engine sirens and the smell soon disappeared. As the temperature dropped we went to bed.

21st September 2017

Sep 212017
 

As Mike and Sue had also collected their new Carado T447 motorhome this week, we decided to take a short trip together to make sure everything was working properly and we knew how to work everything. Yesterday I rang Kiko Park in Oliva to book us in but they only had one pitch available so we decided to go to Las Palmeras in Crevillente where Mike and Sue had been before. It was a good job that we did, more on this later.

We loaded the Adria first thing this morning and found that the fridge was not cold even though it had been plugged in to 220v since 10am yesterday.We left home just before 11am and met Mike and Sue at the petrol station at the Ondara shopping centre having found that the Parrot Asteroid radio / sat nav / reversing camera display was not working. It was a good job that I had put the untrustworthy Garmin Camper 760 in the van as I wanted to compare the two. We set off down the motorway towards Alicante and hadn’t gone far before the door to the cupboard above the fridge sprung open. We stopped at the service area at Benidorm for coffee and I tried to ring Caravanas Cruz to let them know that we were stopping on the way to Crevillente to get them to check out the problems. It was a good job we went south rather than north otherwise it would have been a special trip to Elche to get the problems with the van sorted.

Two motorhomes

Girls posing with the new vans

After coffee we continued on to Elche and Caravanas Cruz arriving there just before 1pm. They had a quick look at the problems and decided that they would need the motorhome for a day to sort them all out. We have therefore booked it in for service and will drop it off on Saturday on our way home and collect it next week when they have corrected the faults. We continued to Las Palmeras at Crevillente. On arrival we were told to choose a pitch and then let them know in reception later which ones we had chosen. We parked up and connected to electricity and got the ground sheet out and table and chairs and then adjourned to the hotel bar for a boccadillo and cold drink for late lunch.

After lunch we checked in and confirmed our pitches and were charged 30€ for two nights to be paid when we leave, it does help having an ACSI card. Back in the Adria I found that the gas bottle regulator would not connect to the gas bottle and also the Truma hot water / heating system was stuck on gas as the fuel source and would not change to electricity so no hot water. All this little issues are annoying to say the least.

We cracked a bottle of cava to celebrate the new motorhomes. At 8pm we adjourned to the hotel restaurant for dinner and had an excellent menu del dia for 12€ a head and including the extra wine and coffees it ended up costing us 13.50€ a head and we still had 3 half bottles of wine to finish with dinner tomorrow. After dinner we went back to the vans and settled down for the night.

17th September 2017

Sep 172017
 

Well Friday the 15th finally arrived and this was the day to collect our new Adria Sonic+ 700SC from Caravanas Cruz in Elche. Unfortunately Ingrid wasn’t feeling very well and so a friend came with me to drive the car back. We left at 9am and arrived in Elche at 10.15am but as we were a bit early they weren’t quite ready for us. As a result we spent about half an hour browsing in the accessories shop and spending some money on accessories for the new motorhome. We then had a comprehensive run through of all the equipment on the motorhome. Unfortunately one additional mains socket and one additional usb socket had not been fitted in the places I wanted and so they offered to change move them when I bring it back for service, I think whilst not being the ideal locations I will leave them where they are.

We left at about 12.15pm to head home in brilliant sunshine. We followed the Elche ring road back to the A7 motorway and stopped at the service area near Alicante airport for a coffee and a snack.

Adria 700SC

Parked in the service area

Back onto the motorway and then onto the AP7 toll road heading north. Once we passed through the Altea tunnel it became cloudy but it was still warm enough to have the cab air conditioning on. We left the motorway as usual at Ondara and looking inland towards Orba it was very grey. As we approached Benedoleig it started spitting with rain and then by the time we passed Orba Garden Centre there was heavy rain. As a result I just parked the motorhome outside and jumped in the car to take Mike home. Later in the afternoon there was a brief respite in the rain and so I parked the Adria on my next door neighbours drive, luckily they are away on holiday for a month.

Parked on the drive

Over the weekend we have slowly but surely been loading our bits and pieces from the caravan on board. We have used this as an excuse to downsize exactly what we carry as some of the items we had on board had never been used. I now have a shopping list for tomorrow for a few minor bits and bobs and then we can go away later in the week to make sure everything works and we know how to work it.

Some interior photos

9th August 2017

Aug 092017
 

Well today we said goodbye to our Adria Adora 593UP caravan. We really enjoyed our time with it but came to realize that it was very large for some of the routes we had taken and also for some of the campsites that we had visited. The surging that you get when towing as you cross road expansion joints, rough roads etc was causing some issues for Ingrid and her back. So it was time to take it back to Caravanas Cruz in Elche and choose a motorhome.

Back at Caravanas Cruz

We have decided to replace it with a new Adria Sonic Plus 700SC with comfort pack that Caravanas Cruz had in stock. They did us an excellent deal, giving us the price we paid for the caravan minus the VAT, the price of the motorhome was already reduced. They have however, agreed to add for no additional charge:

  • air-conditioning
  • Radio, CD, Sat Nav, media centre, reversing camera
  • Solar panel charger
  • Awning
  • 24″ television and aerial
  • Safe doors
  • Additional mains and USB sockets internally and externally

We will take delivery in September this year.

22nd July 2017

Jul 242017
 

This post covers are trip back home and then comments and costs about our holiday.

We left the campsite at about 10.30am and had an uneventful trip through the village and back onto the A3 towards Valencia. There was a small queue at the junction with the A7 motorway and we made our way south, the motorway was much busier than normal presumably because it is ‘tourist season’. We left the A7 at Ondara and drove back to Parking El Vergel where we left the caravan as usual. A nice lunch in the ‘Chicken Shack’ a quick shop in Lidl and then home to Orba.

The first thing we found on arrival home was water flowing down the stairs from the tap outside the underbuild, the gardener had left the tap on and in the sun and with the pressure the hose burst at the joint with the tap and water was pouring out of the tap. Probably for more than 24 hours. We then went inside and found the the hot water pipe had also burst in our bathroom and that was flooded with the cabinet ruined along with medicines and toiletries stored in the cabinet. The next few hours were spent mopping up everywhere. A call to our insurers and it turns out we are fully covered for water damage so now waiting for the plumber and then quotes for the new cabinet.

To summarise our holiday:

25 Days away
6 Campsites visited
€753.20 in Campsite fees
2,776 Kilometers travelled
€348.03 for fuel
€31.32 in motorway tolls
€156 Cattery bill for Mika

A review of our campsites:

1: Las Corralizas near Bronchales, this is the highest campsite in Spain at 1727m. A lovely site set amongst trees with vaguely marked plots with friendly helpful staff. A long electricity lead and long hose for water are required. Nice modern wash rooms. Excellent restaurant. If we were in the area we would definitely stop there again.

2: Camping Entrerrobles near Valdeavellano de Tera not far from Soria. This was a nice grass site with large plots and electricity but no water or grey water disposal on plot. The restaurant is superb with a menu using lots of the local wild mushrooms. Very friendly helpful laid back staff. Unfortunately no wifi coverage. We will definitely visit here again.

3: Igueldo near San Sebastian. This was a terrible site, how it gets such a high rating from ACSI I don’t know. The office staff and security guards were disinterested and unhelpful, however, the site workers were friendly and helpful so this made up for it to a limited extent. The pitches are exceptionally small even though we had booked a large one our pitch could only just accommodate our caravan with no room for our car. Wifi patchy, restaurant reasonable. We would definitely not stay here again.

4: Caravanning Oyambre near San Vincente de la Barquera about 40km from Santander. An excellent site with large grass pitches with water, electricity and waste on pitch. Very helpful friendly staff but a bit of a walk to the central washrooms. Very good reasonably priced restaurant, wifi coverage good but need to login every hour.

5: Monte Holiday near Gargantilla del Lozoya a nice site with grass pitches for larger caravans and motorhomes. Staff are welcoming, friendly and very helpful. Very busy at weekends but deserted during the week. Poor internet reception on the grass pitches due to the distance from reception. Can be a long walk uphill to the central washrooms. Very good restaurant with cheap lunches but more expensive evening meals. A well stocked on-site shop. We will definitely stop here again.

6: Kiko Park Rural near Villargordo del Cabriel a nice site with large gravel pitches about 8km from the centre of the village set in a restored tiny village which is now the entire campsite. Very pleasant helpful staff, choose your own plot was what we were told, close to a large lake and the high speed rail line to Madrid but that didn’t disturb us. Very good wifi coverage. Excellent reasonably priced restaurant. We will definitely stop here again.

Total route

21st July 2017

Jul 212017
 

Well the final day of our summer holiday 2017, it was supposed to be raining but luckily it didn’t. We have had a lazy day with a lie in this morning followed by reading and slowly but surely tidying, packing and cleaning. Not much left to put away in the morning and then we can head back home, it should only be about 2 hours from here. No photos today as you don’t want to see us lolling about.

I will do a final post of this trip over the weekend with details of mileage, comments about the campsites and a synopsis of highs and lows as well as costs.

20th July 2017

Jul 202017
 

A bright hot and sunny day today. We decided to drive in to Utiel for a bit of food shopping but first we would drive down to the lake and take a look and some photos. We turned right out of the gate and followed the rough tarmac campo road in the direction of the lake and we slowly made our way down and then the road turned to pot holes and gravel so we decided to stop and walk down as far as we wanted to. We got a fabulous view of the lake but it was obviously very much lower than normal probably nearer 20 meters rather than the 15 I originally thought. The photos don’t do the turquoise colour justice.

We turned around and drove back towards the campsite and then on into Villargordo, rather than joining the A3 motorway I decided to use the N111. This road was incredible with one lane in each direction and completely straight for about 10 kilometers but it did undulate so from the tops of the hills you could see a long way in each direction. We drove into Utiel and looked for the Mercadona supermarket but even with directions from a local bar owner where we had a coffee we didn’t find it but we did find a large Consum instead. After doing our shopping there we went looking for a Tabacos for Ingrid, a very nice lady lead us through the back streets to the main square and there was a Tabacos opposite the large church. The church was inaccessible as it was undergoing building works, the lady explained that it needed a new roof. After finding that Ingrid was out of luck we made our way back to the car and headed back down the N111 which had large fields of grapevines on both sides of the road and the high speed rail line ran alongside the road too. Back at the campsite we had lunch and settled for a quiet afternoon reading.

I walked around the campsite late afternoon and took some photos of the area. As an old village it was picturesque with the old village houses being turned into rental chalets.

Wasp enjoying leftovers

For dinner we had a BBQ of fillet steak that we bought from Consum. It was excellent and even the wasp who joined us when we had finished enjoyed it.

The last two night we have been treated to spectacular sunsets and here are some examples.

19th July 2017

Jul 192017
 

After breakfast we completed packing up and paid our bill at Monte Holiday. The receptionist said that she would sort me out a deal on the price when we changed pitches, and true to her word she had given us a discount. We left at about 10.15am and made our way back to junction 69 on the A1 and headed in the direction of Madrid. We still couldn’t see junction 67 as we headed south although there was a small unmarked turning on the entry slip road from junction 68 so maybe that was it. The campsite was at 1100 meters and according to the sat nav we climbed quickly to 1200 meters and then crept back down to around 800 meters and throughout the rest of the journey today we varied in height between just under 600 meters to about 850 meters. We left with a temperature of 26 degrees with a little cloud.

On the outskirts of Madrid we turned off onto the M50 ring road, if only the M25 in the UK was as quiet. We followed this around Madrid and stopped briefly for coffee and a comfort break. We rejoined the M50 and then turned onto the R3 toll road to cut off a big chunk of M50 and A3 and then onto the A3 in the direction of Valencia. We stopped for lunch about an hour before arrival at our next campsite and had a quick snack before rejoining the A3. We passed field after field of yellow sunflowers, and also several rows of windmills for electricity generation. The whole of the journey today was subject to some gusty winds which were quite noticeable at times.

The A3 was undulating with some long but not too steep climbs in most cases. We dropped down from Castilla La Mancha to Valencia provinces and crossed over the wonderful turquoise lake that we were due to stop next too. The colour of the water was incredible but the water level was at least 15 meters below where it should have been looking at the marks on the rocks. Through a tunnel and then turn off the A3 onto a side road for the campsite passing through Villargordo del Cabriel, the sat nav played its usual trick and took us through the village roads to save 100 meters instead of following the main road, Garmin does really need to sort its caravan routing out. We followed a twisting  rural road down hill towards the lake and then passed alongside the high speed rail line from Valencia to Madrid. We turned into the campsite up a wide road to what turned out to be a quaint old village which was now the campsite. We checked in and were told to choose our pitch and let reception know which one we had chosen.

We chose a large plot which was made of compacted gravel, which all of them were, unlike the lush grass we had had at the previous two campsites. We set up and chilled with a beer in 37 degree heat and working wifi which made a pleasant change. We had an excellent meal in the campsite restaurant in what was the old village church and returned to the caravan for a quick drink before bed and were treated to a lovely sunset.

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