Bilbao

We are parked up this afternoon in glorious sunshine at the ferry port in Bilbao in preparation for our 10.30am sailing tomorrow. It's the end of the journey, almost. We left Burgos this morning and stopped to brim the diesel tank and gas cylinders before calling at Lidl for some wine and beer and a couple of pies for lunch! The ferry port is about twenty kilometres from Bilbao so there's no chance of us doing any sightseeing other than watching the seemingly endless stream of Motorhomes and caravans arriving for tomorrow's ferry. There are probably about a hundred here already and we don't sail for another eighteen hours! Mind, nothing like being early eh? After our experience at Tangier Med returning from Morocco I was dreading the guy here giving me a ticket for bay 7. In fact I think I would have begged him for any other bay, as it turned out we are in bay 10 so all should be good, I suspect the organisation here will be a little better than in Morocco. We've been steadily eating our way through the fridge and freezer contents over the last few days as we dont want to leave the fridge switched on during the crossing and we hate throwing food away. We've judged it pretty well and apart from the remains of a curry I made in Morocco and half a lettuce they're won't be too much for the bin.

Since we left home we've travelled 4,737 mile, 2,889 in Europe and 1,846 in Morocco. We've been away for 80 days and stopped at 37 campsites or parking spaces. I stopped recording the diesel used some time ago and I'm not even contemplating trying to work out what we've spent but it's probably not much more than if we had stayed at home in Yorkshire. At least that's what we're telling ourselves! We've met some wonderful people on this journey, both fellow travellers and some lovely Spanish and Moroccan folk. The van hasn't let us down, in fact considering some of the roads we've been on I'm more than impressed. We've had a leaking rooflight now, hopefully, repaired and the near side mirror has the glass cracked. All in all we're more than satisfied with the choice of vehicle we made a year ago.

So that's it really. Our next trip will probably be to the west coast of Scotland during May and June, before the midges get too ferocious. Thanks to everybody who has followed our adventure and found the time to post comments, they're much appreciated. Thanks also to Paul and Chris, our travelling companions in Morocco, it wouldn't have been half as much fun without you.

Meanwhile I'll leave you with a few pictures:

Dover at sunset:

Bitterly cold on our second morning in France:

Sprucing the van in France before setting off:

Great view of the bridge at Millau:

Spectacular sunset at Cambrils:

Bizarre rock formations at Bolnuevo:

Enjoying the easy life in La Garrofa:

View of Granada from the Alhambra:

The Alhambra:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving Algeciras for Morocco:

Rabat, looking across to Sale:

Boat building in El Jadida:

The Palmerie at Agdz:

The dunes at El Chigaga:

Sunday morning souk at Midelt:

Chefchaouen:

The Alcazar in Seville:

Iglesia de San Fransico Javier, Caceres:

Waiting for the ferry at Bilbao:

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy