Back to Spain - post Covid-19 trip

The first leg on our third tour of Spain would be home to Plymouth on 24th April for a 16:45 sailing on the 20 hour crossing to Santander.

All went well save for a continued annoying leak of power steering oil from a previously replaced O ring. We made good time sitting at 65mph without the overdrive fitted, as it still needs to be rebuilt.

The first stop was at Gloucester services which was developed by the Tebay people and so is completely different to all other services except Tebay. It’s like walking into an artisan market with crusty breads and pastries in front of the main doorway. We bought live yogurts for later.

Just before reaching Plymouth we stopped for picnic lunch at a parking spot in a village school sports field.

At the Brittany Ferries terminal we already felt ‘late’ even though we were early. It’s amazing to see the varied vehicles and people all ‘off to Spain’. There was a small group travelling in Aston Martin DBs, a new Defender (Pretender) towing a nice RIB on a trailer, an empty minibus (maybe the passengers needed to walk on). One vehicle was towing an empty transporter trailer. Of course there were plenty of bikers, caravans, motorhomes and campervans. The majority of people  seemed to be all around our age. Certainly there were no kids.

Rather surprisingly, just in front was another Defender 110 with the same Icarus roof as us. They had driven from north of Loch Lomond and were planning to swing east and then spend a month in France. That’s before they drive, in August when the 90 days restriction has elapsed, to the north of Denmark to get the ferry to Iceland. “it’s our third trip there”.

Check-in was easy for us but not for two bikers in front. I realised they had a problem when one eventually started to make a phone call. Somehow you just knew that they were going to be turned around. We presented our printed Covid-19 vaccination record, much easier for them to glance at than handing a phone over. They didn’t scan the QR codes.

Inevitably we were selected by ‘security’ for a customs check. A nice guy and gal asked questions that they had rehearsed, “are you carrying any drugs that aren’t medically prescribed?” “have you anything explosive?” and “can we look in the roof box?”. I climbed (impressively) up my side steps to open it and the guy used a stick with a tiny mirror to look inside. I’m sorry but that isn’t very thorough. Good job I’m not a smuggler. Meanwhile the gal looked in the back saying “ooh it’s so comfy in there”.

In the chat that ensued the guy said he likes Land Rovers and was “brought up around them” before then asking, “ is this a 110?” 🙄 I honestly think they just wanted to look at in interesting vehicle.

Then we boarded and I think, in all the years of using ferries, this was as tight as it gets.

It doesn’t look much but they wanted me to drive along the second lane to the left but all the vehicle doors were open and so I moved over until we were nearly in the right place. By the time we were loaded you could hardly walk between the vehicles.

Then we were off and accelerated to 22 knots. What an awesome ship this is. We soon passed the Eddystone Rocks with the fourth lighthouse to be built there. This one is surviving far longer than the others.

What a great smooth crossing was had, the sea was calm and it was hard to discern any roll. Also 20 hours from Plymouth is much shorter than 30 from Portsmouth. Tomorrow came quickly and we were soon getting our passports stamped - what a treat!

Unfortunately a smelly Land Rover meant for a distracted drive south to a suitable aire where I could have a look at what I thought was oil but decided would be diesel. It was. Lots of it coming from a leak-off pipe.

I hope I have fixed it!