Monday 3^rd March 2025

The idea of a campervan is that you can pack up and move on relatively easily, certainly easier than a large motorhome or caravan but the reality is that it is still a time consuming effort. Aside from battening down everything inside the van, externally you have to detach your electricity supply, detach your washing line, remove the external windscreen cover and remove everything from under the van. You also have to pack up your outdoor chairs and table and ‘patio’ mat. When you think you are ready you then need to double-check the inside: Are all the windows closed? Are the skylight windows closed? Is the glass cover to the gas hob padded? Has the glass plate in the microwave been stored away? Is the toilet closed? Is the basin in the bathroom in the open position? Are all of the drawer latches closed? The front seats need to be turned to face the front and Google Maps needs to be set for our route. One final walk around the outside and we are set to go. We just make a quick stop at the Motorhome Service zone and empty our black water (toilet) and our grey water (any other water) and whilst we are here we may as well empty our rubbish bag. We finally leave the site at 12noon!

Our first stop was at a Repsol garage to fill up our Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG). This was not without incident even though Paul had bought the EU LPG Conversion Kit. Basically, you need a different convertor for each country in Europe and none of ours would fit our van! Whilst washing up the previous evening I had arranged to loan the correct convertor from a lovely chap called Rupert (from Devon) but when our next door neighbour, Peter (also from Devon) heard, he insisted we take his. With a little help from the Repsol man, we were soon on our way with a full tank of LPG . By now it was nearly 1pm.

We had  a lovely drive down to Almeria which is the nearest big town. We drove around the town searching for campervan parking and eventually found a car park on the east side of the town. There are car parks here but the ones we found were all underground. We had a lovely stroll along the promenade in the sunshine and stopped for a coffee and a chocolate unmentionable!

Best: Surviving the hairpin bends in the mountains.

Worst: Finding out that our LPG tank can only hold 12 litres of gas!