7. Sep, 2021

TUESDAY 07-09-21

Well that was a good night's sleep given that we were on a supermarket car park and located fairly close to the main road.

This morning we scrubbed up and then went shopping. Firstly to Lidl next door, then in to Eroski's for some more bits before topping up the fuel tank.

Then it was off to Cathedrals Beach (GPS: N43.552486° W7.151101°) though typically not without problems as for some reason the satnav was insisting on being given a road name even though it had been given GPS co-ordinates. We've never had that problem before. In the end I gave it the details of a campsite further down the road.

We didn't have far to go and managed to find ourselves a parking space at the far end of the main car park. We arrived just at low tide, but given the huge numbers of vehicles in the car parks we thought we'd leave it for a while and had an early lunch instead.

First we walked in the opposite direction to everybody else in the hope  that we'd get to look along the beach from the far end for a view and to see how many people were actually down there. No chance, walkers were banned from the higher part of the cliff at that point leaving us to do a circular tour, ending up a stone's throw from the motorhome. This left us with no option but to walk on the road towards the public access point to the beach, the narrow path being taken up by walkers coming the other way.

Oh joy of joy's. When we arrived at the top of the steps we were met by two females with high viz jackets checking everybody's pre-booked tickets on QR codes. Yup we had to book ahead. So I took a couple of pictures and we made our way back 'home' where by now the sun had come out and we sat outside in our reclining chairs. Running right past us is a narrow-gauge railway line. I believe this track featured in one of the 'Great Railway Journey's of the World'. It starts out further south, travels through the mountains until it gets to the coast where you change trains and then run west alongside the coastline. All I managed to photograph was a single unit which had already passed us due to the fact that I had the camera on the wrong setting and the lens cap on.

I can't begin to explain the grief I've had in trying to get us two passes down on to the beach tomorrow whilst bashing away on the laptop. Eventually I got the form filled in correctly and sent it off for a QR code to bounce back at me on my mobile phone. Then I had to sort one out for The Chef.

Again I did it on the laptop, back it bounced with a QR code. The only trouble was the new Smartphone I'd bought The Chef before we came away for just such occasions wouldn't receive emails. So she had to go on to the laptop and forward her QR code on to my email address from where I can then show hers on my phone. All we have to do now is take the Mi-fi down to the beach with us tomorrow just to make sure we can receive the emails and present them. What I desperately need is a ten year old kid who could sort out all this tech stuff for me. I did try to print off hard copies of the codes on my new portable printer but that wasn't playing ball either. All I ever get on the screen are options to change things etc, never anything that says 'Exit and press print'.

There are now only five motorhomes left on this car park. Clearly we're all here for the night all being well, though the local police did cruise by a while ago and take a look at us all individually but didn't actually stop and say we couldn't stay, so fingers crossed.

Just before our evening meal we had a very threatening cloud formation behind us which eventually resulted in very heavy rain for a while.

Today has been another sh*t one and I am now questioning if I want to continue doing this. It costs a lot of money to get the vehicle kitted out for each trip and a lot of work in preparing the vehicle and planning the trip. Frankly I'm getting nothing out of this, nothing at all except grief, and I'm sure The Chef must be feeling pretty much the same. I feel that Brexit and the Pandemic have change things too much. It just isn't fun anymore. Maybe things will pick up again, who knows.

Tomorrow we are walking down to the beach steps in the hope that we can get on there, after which we'll be off heading for A Coruna.

Oh, did I mention that a few days before we came away I had the motorhome Mot'd as well as new brake pads on the rear as I'd has an advisory on them at the last service, and a re-gassing of the air-conditioning? Yesterday afternoon, because it was really quite warm I asked The Chef to switch on the air-conditioning. Nothing, nothing but warm air. I'm going to give the workshops a ring tomorrow but there's nothing they can do to sort it whilst we're out here.

6. Sep, 2021

6. Sep, 2021

6. Sep, 2021

6. Sep, 2021