Speedometer: 126,676 km's

Sunday 16th November
After crossing the border from France we headed along the C38 before turning left onto the N260 until we came to a place called Ripoll. Here we spent the afternoon visiting the Santa Maria church and walking around the town. It was freezing cold but the church was definitely worth a visit. We ended up finding an Aire in town where we stayed for the night. The tourist info place next door had good wifi and good toilets which was an added bonus.

Monday 17th November

After we thawed out in the morning, we snaked our way along the N260 through Ribes De Freser, Urtx, Believer de Cerdanya, la Seu d'Urgell before stopping at Sort for lunch. The scenery was amazing. The road twisted and turned up the sides of these amazing snow-topped mountains. Our timing couldn't have been better either as the yellows, reds and oranges the tree leaves provided just added to the already beautiful scenery.

After lunch we continued south through La Pobla de Segur and finally stopped at Tremp for the night. Today we drove probably the best 207 kilometres we'd ever driven. We took heaps of GoPro footage along this stretch, there is no other way to capture it really, the camera doesn't do it justice.

Tuesday 18th November
This morning we could hardly see anything due to the fog, it didn't clear until nearly midday. It was also -1 outside the van overnight. Thankfully for us Hugo is well insulated as the temperature inside only dropped to 8. Enough to be uncomfortable but nothing our blanket couldn't fix. The fog was a blessing as we ended up getting talking to our camper van neighbours as we noticed they had an Australian flag sticker on their van. They were a couple named De'anna and Mark from Melbourne, who parked next to us for the night. They'd been on the road for a good 6 months so we got heaps of tips from them. We exchanged contact details and then got back on the road.

From Tremp we headed North turning left at La Pobla De Segur and back onto the N260 through el Pont de Suert until we reached Ainsa where we had a late lunch. The parking was so good here with great views over the town below and a huge mountain range behind we decided to stay the night. Again another day of beautiful mountains, valleys, rivers and scenery.

Wednesday 19th November
The day started with a small load of washing before driving the final stretch of the N260 through Boltana, Fiscal before finishing at Sabinanigo. This stretch was amazing with the highlight being the drive through a gorge with 200m+ high cliffs above us and a beautiful river below us dodging trucks and other cars on what should have been a 1 lane road. We're so glad David told us about this road and we understand why a lot of people say it's their favourite road in Europe. We're also glad we had our GoPro to capture a lot of it as most of the places you simply can't stop for a photo.

From Sabinanigo we headed West through Jaca and Puente La Reina de Jaca along the N240 and then parallel to a dam. The plan was drive on the North side of the lake but we hit a dead end about half way down and had to turn around driving back to the A1601. This road was f***ed. We were down to 20 or 30 k'ms due to the pot holes. We were about 2 weeks early as they were constructing a brand new road parallel to us that looked so much nicer.

We ended up staying the night at Sos Del Rey Catolico, a picturesque little village on the top of a hill. The Aire we stayed at was at the back of a sports complex that had free water and we were the only ones there so that was nice.

Thursday 20th November
Another cold morning but the sunrise was amazing. Jodi stayed in bed avoiding the cold but Brenden managed to get some nice photos. The day before we started seeing all the 'Camino de Santiago' signs along the side of the road. For those of you that don't know Brenden's sisters walked the Camino (about 800km's) a few years earlier. We sent them a text message asking if those signs meant anything to them. The response we got from Jasmine was "it means you have to get out and walk you lazy b******!' Yeah well we won't be doing that. We'll do the Camino in the van, it will be heaps easier.

After breakfast we headed north meeting up with A21 briefly before turning right onto the NA150. We then turned left just before Lumbier and headed along the NA2400 until we turned right onto the NA234 and then left back onto the NA150 at Urroz Villa. From here we headed West into Pamplona.

Although it's on Brenden's bucket list, our timing did not align with the 'running of the bulls'. We managed to find an Aire on the outskirts of town and then caught the bus into the centre. We spent a good couple of hours walking the city, around the bull ring, the Cathedral of Saint Mary and also Toconera Park that was strangely full of farmyard animals plus some deer. We also spent some time at the Citadel which is worth a visit. After a beer and tapas we jumped back on the bus and back to Hugo. We promise to return to Pamplona for the running of the bulls at some stage but not this trip.

Friday 21st November
Turn the key - nothing. Try again - nothing. f***!!! The battery was dead flat. The day prior Jodi had driven into Pamplona passing through a tunnel and turning the lights on as we're supposed to do. Then Brenden ended up taking over the driving through the city and didn't realise the lights were on when we finally pulled up at the Aire. Who's to blame? Jury is still out. Thankfully right across the road from the Aire was a community garden. With a series of hand gestures we managed to finally explain that our battery was flat and we needed a jump start from one of the gentlemen tending to their garden. Luckily he also had a set of jumper leads as we hadn't got around to purchasing ours yet. We'll do that today hey.

After finally getting Hugo started and thanking the gentlemen who'd helped us, we headed north along the N121A turning left at Narrate and then right at Doneztebe/Santesteban. We headed along here for a while until we saw a nice windy road on the map that looked interesting. So we exited left to Lesaka and went up over the mountain on the NA4000;GI3420. We put the GoPro on at the bottom of the hill but about 3/4 of the way up the memory card filled whilst it was filming. When it does this it doesn't write the final file properly and you lose what ever you've just filmed. Damn it. So we stopped at the top, copied what was on the memory card onto the computer and then filmed the road on the way down towards San Sebastian.

We navigated our way through Pasaia and the beautiful but confusing streets of San Sebastian until we reached the top of the lookout of the hill that looks back over San Sebastian. And what a view. The bay is absolutely beautiful. We had a nice sunny day as well so that was an added bonus. We understand why San Sebastian is such a tourist haven.

After having lunch at the top of the hill we headed down and found a park at one end of the beach and the proceeded to walk the entire length of the beach, around the point on the other side and then all the way back. In total it took about 3 hours and we didn't get back to the car until after 6pm. Turned the key - nothing. f***!!! We'd completely f***ed the battery and now it wasn't holding charge. Hugo had started at the top of the hill because we had only been there a bit over an hour but the 3 hour walk was obviously too long. So we were parked on this one-way street with one side designated for parking so there is no way for anyone to jump us as we'd be blocking a fairly busy road. So Brenden unhooked the leisure battery and then we jumped the car from that with the help from the guy in the camper van in front of us who leant us some jumper leads (yeah we didn't buy any today). Thankfully the parking inspector showed us some compassion and didn't make us pay for more parking as our time had run out. By the time we'd hooked everything back up it was nearly 8pm and we still hadn't found anywhere to camp for the night. We found an Aire up in the hills near Utzabaleta that was fairly close but it took us ages to get there due to the small, windy roads we had to drive on. When we finally parked we didn't even bother with dinner and just crashed for the night.

Saturday 22nd November
So the battery was completely dead again in the morning, so dead the ignition lights wouldn't even come on. We spent ages flagging down people to help jump us but no one had jumper leads (yes we know we should have bought them the day before). Finally at about 11am Brenden walked down a side road and there just happened to be a camper van parked there. Knocked on the door and woke the poor woman up but thankfully she leant us the jumper cables. We flagged the next car down and he jumped us. He also spoke good English and gave us directions to the nearest shop where we could get a new battery, and some jumper leads. Unfortunately his directions weren't has good as his English as he sent us in completely the wrong direction. When we finally made our way back we found a service station and bought a new battery and jumper leads, which came to $123 Euros, about $180 AUD. That pretty demolished our budget for the week. But now that we have jumper leads we'll never need them again for the entirety of the trip.

Once we'd gotten over the shock of the cost of the battery and jumper leads, we got back on with our trip. We jumped on the N-634 and made our way to Zarautz, stopping for lunch at the top of a beautiful hill overlooking the bay. After eating we headed down to an old iron ore port that they'd made into a museum. Interesting but all in Spanish so we didn't really understand any of it. From here we walked along the the beach to the other side the bay just enjoying the nice warm weather and clearing our heads from the battery fiasco. We also managed to score a free Zumba show in the town square. It was good eye candy with the majority of the participants being young, fit women. Oh Jodi - behave yourself…….

Sunday 23rd November

The place where we'd decided to park for the night happened to be right outside a church. We didn't realise this until the morning as we'd found the spot after dark the night before. So being a Sunday and all we high-tailed it out of there real quick and headed for the coast to watch the sunrise but it was a cloud-rise so it wasn't really worth it.

From Zarautz we followed the N-634 along the beautiful coastline through to Zumaia, a beautiful little village where we spent an hour or so walking out to the end of the break wall. We continued on until Deba where we turned right onto the GI-638 following the coast through Mutriku and Ondarroa. At Ondarroa we turned right onto the BI-3438 and followed the coast until we reached Lekeitio where we had lunch in the carpark of a beautiful sandy beach. We even managed to find time to walk out to the small island, Isla de San Nicolas, as the tide was out. Not much out here but nice to get some exercise.

From Lekeitio we headed west along the BI-2238 until we reached Zelaieta. Here we turned right onto the BI-3234 and followed the road around until we found a little beach called Laga. There is a huge rock/mountain that towers over the beach that looks quite impressive. Was too cold for a swim and the weather wasn't brilliant but the area was nice so we decided to stay here for the night, the sounds of waves crashing onto the beach sending us to sleep.

Monday 24th November
Feeling rejuvenated we got up early and headed south, first taking the BI-2238 until Gernika-Lumo and then the BI-635 to Larrea and then along the N-634 into Bilbao and towards the Guggenheim Museum. We should really do our research a bit better as when we arrived we quickly learnt that the Guggenheim is shut on a Monday. Damn it. So we were in desperate need of a shower, our dirty clothes bag was over flowing and our sheets were starting to smell so we decided to find a camping ground to stay the night and make ourselves somewhat respectable for the rest of the human race. We ended up driving through Bilbao onto the BI-2704 and the zig-zagging our way through the windy roads until we reached Sopela and a camping ground. A hot shower had never felt so good.

Whilst at the campground our gas bottle ran out. Not a big deal until we realised that this particular gas bottle cannot be exchanged any where else but France. WTF!!!! So we did some research and found out that we probably needed to change our system to a CampinGaz system as they are readily available throughout Europe, except Spain where Respol has the monopoly. And what country are we in at the moment - Spain. Great!!!! So we looked up all the stores that supplied CampinGaz in Bilbao in hope of finding some gas in the morning.

That night Brenden got pretty drunk on wine. He needed the release.

Tuesday 25th November
After cleaning up the drunken mess from the night before and nursing a fairly bad hangover, we headed back into Bilbao firstly looking for gas based on the information we'd researched the night before. Turns out that the store that is listed on the CampinGaz website as a retailer doesn't sell CampinGaz at all. We couldn't even find the f***ing store, we had to get a lady from a shop to ring them to get directions, not that there was any point after we found out they didn't sell gas.

So we've got this sound in the car. It sort of sounds like a wheel bearing. It's part of the running gear and not the motor. In our search for gas we just happened to pull over to look at the map right outside a mechanic so we decided to see how busy they were to see if they had time to look at our car. Turns out they had time. So they had a look at the car, told us it wasn't the wheel bearing but told us we needed our brake pads replaced, which we sort of knew but were procrastinating on getting fixed. So they replaced the brake pads, air filter, which was black, and let some crap out of the bottom of the fuel filter and we left about $100 Euros poorer on dusk, still with the sound in the running gear. f*** it, it's not getting worse and we can't hear if we turn the radio up.

On the advice of someone that day we headed over a place called Megapark in search of gas. They didn't have any either. On the idea that Brenden may have seen some gas at a Repsol the day prior but wasn't sure if was CampinGaz, we headed back towards Sopela stopping at Getxo and to our relief found the gas we were looking for. Only problem was the Repsol was shut by this time so we found a park in a residential area and crashed for the night.

Wednesday 26th November
Upon starting the car in the morning, it ran for a bit then coughed and spluttered and stalled. That was weird, never done that before. Started it again and went fine. Oh well, off to get gas. So CampinGaz must be the most expensive gas in the world. It cost us nearly $100 Euros to buy 2 small 2kg bottles of gas. OK we had to buy the bottles, which were about $30, but that means 2kg of gas is $20 Euros. f***, this is going to cost us a fortune to get across Europe. Oh well, not much we can do it about it now.

From Gexto we headed back into Bilbao and finally to the Guggenheim, only 3 days later than what we had expected. Being in the buildings profession, Brenden really appreciated the complexity of the building but at the same time glad he wasn't the person that had to draw it, let alone build it. There is nothing straight in the building and the way in which the walls twist and curve is enough to send you dizzy. It truly is an amazing building. We spent about 3 hours inside the museum before leaving and walking around the outside. Unfortunately the day was crap for taking photos.

After the Guggenheim we headed back to Megapark to find an adaptor for the campingaz regulator we had to purchase earlier in the day so we could hook it up to our existing pipework without cutting into our French system. Turns out the Spain gas threads are opposite to, well, the rest of Europe. So it was impossible to get what we needed. f*** it, we'll cut into our French system and then get the part we need when we get back to France.

By now, as you can probably tell from all the 'f***s', our patience and moral was at an all time low. The past week of issues including the battery, the brake pads, the f***ing gas and now the fuel playing up in Hugo had got the better of us. So we got the hell out of Bilbao hoping to break the cycle. We took the N-634 west from Bilbao up through Onton, Santullan, Laredo and finally stopping at Santona for the night. The coastline, as we thought, was beautiful and was a welcome change from the streets of Bilbao and the madness we'd hopefully left behind. Was a quiet night tonight, we spent most of it watching 'House of Cards' trying to forget the issues we'd had over the past week.

Thursday 27th November
Start, run, cough, splutter, stall. f***, the car is still doing this. There was still something wrong with the fuel filter or the fuel. Alright, we'll change the fuel filter and see if that fixes it. We drove back to Laredo and to a Renault store where they kindly sent me to another store as they didn't stock our particular filter. Not to worry, the other store did and they were only a kilometre down the road. Success!!! Changed the fuel filter down some little side road spilling diesel everywhere. Let's see if that fixes the issue.

From Laredo we continued west following the N-634 bypassing Santader, through Torrelavega until we turned left on the CA-180 at Cabezon de la Sal. We followed this road for a bit then turned right onto the CA-182 at Sopena, made our way to Puentenansa where we turned right onto the CA-181. From here we headed north-west until turning left onto the CA-855 at Puente El Arrudo. Followed this road until we met the N-621 and turned left. Shortly after that we turned right onto the AS-114 (see if you can follow that on a map). We snaked our way through the mountains until we found a spot beside the road just after Trescares. It was a beside this little beautiful, crystal clear stream surrounded by mountains and a stone, arch bridge you could cross over. It was gorgeous!!!

Friday 28th November

Start, run, cough, splutter, stall. Changing the fuel filter still didn't fix the issue. Oh well. The plan today was to visit the Picos De Europa National Park, weather permitting and do some hiking. We followed the AS-114 west until we turned left at Arenas de Cabrales and onto the windy AS-264. Such a beautiful road. We followed this steep windy side road up to a place called Camarmena where we had beautiful views of the mountains. Brenden spent some time phoning Darryl, his mechanic uncle, who provided some support in fixing the fuel issue.

From here we headed east along the CA-1 to Sotres, a small village way up in the mountains where we had lunch. The weather was miserable though, cold, wet and rainy, not the sort of weather to be hiking in. Let's head back to the coast and hopefully some better weather. On the way back we took heaps of GoPro footage of the road and scenery. As we came down the mountain the weather cleared up a bit so hopefully the footage comes out well.

Turning left back onto the AS-114, we went through a town called Poo and then all the way through to Cangas de Onis where we turned right onto the N-625. After we reached Arriondas, we turned left onto the N-634 and continued our way past L'Infiestu until we turned right onto the AS-255 and headed north to Villaviciosa. At Villaviciosa we turned left onto the N-632 and headed into Gijon. The small villages and windy roads were beautiful. We ended up staying just West of Gijon at an Aire on the beach where we had this amazing sunset over the water. Nice way to finish the day and so much warmer than up in the mountains.

Brenden also managed to fix the fuel issue with the car sometime today as well. Turns out the seal at the top of the fuel primer is a bit worn so when the car would sit for a long time (over night) the fuel would drain out of the top fuel filter back into the fuel tank. That's why the car would start, run, cough, splutter than stall. Brenden put his ear up to it and could hear the air running in. Positioning the primer in a certain way would stop the air rushing in. Well OK, it's not a complete fix but at least it's stopped the car from stalling in the morning.

Saturday 29th November
About 1/2 hrs drive north west of Gijon we finally reached Cabo De Penas, the most northern tip of Spain, which provides amazing views looking onto the Cantabric Ocean. Well it would have at another time but when we were there it was cold, windy, wet and miserable. The weather had followed us from the mountains. Oh well, that wasn't going to deter us. We clambered up and over the rocks, taking our shoes off and walking/climbing in our socks as the rocks were too slippery for our shoes, took a couple of photos, then headed back to the warmth of the car. Done!

The coastal road west of Gijon was amazing apart from the weather. After jumping back on the N-632 at Aviles, we followed the coast all the way to Navia where we stopped and had lunch at an Aire. We also stayed for the night as we got hooked on watching 'House of Cards' on the laptop all afternoon as the weather was s***. We did manage a walk through the village but that was the extent of our day.

Sunday 30th November

From Navia it was a short drive along the coast until we reach 'the beach of cathedrals'. An amazing stretch of coastline where the pounding surf and wind has created all these small little inlets and openings into the rocky cliffside. We decided our smell was getting a bit too much so we showered in an empty carpark before setting off on a good 2 hour walk along the cliffside taking a million photos.

After having lunch in the carpark we went back to the cliff. By this time the tide had gone out far enough to get onto the sand below. We spent an hour exploring the nooks and crannies. There is a particular spot where a lot of the 'tourist information' photos are taken that is only accessible at the very lowest point of the tide. Well Brenden wasn't going to wait this long and took it upon himself to find a way round the cliff, trying to stay high enough to keep the camera and himself relatively dry. So as expected, literally within seconds of Jodi turning back and saying good luck and Brenden setting off on his little adventure he slipped on a rock and ended drenched from head to toe, including the camera bag. Luckily the bag kept the camera from getting wet but Brenden was a drowned rat. Oh well, looks like he doesn't have to worry about getting wet now and he set off waist deep on his adventure again. It was worth it. The reason why it's called 'the beach of cathedrals' is there is a series of 3 arches that you can line up with your eye one after the other. You can only do that from the spot Brenden was trying to get to.

After drying off and warming Brenden up, we continued west until we reached Foz where we stayed at an Aire for the night. The Aire was located next to an inlet and was quite picturesque.

Monday 1st December
After buying a load of groceries in the morning, we headed south along the N-640 to Lugo. The road headed up in elevation thus the visibility dropped significantly due to the fog. There was a bit where we couldn't see 30 metres in front of us. We made it safely to Lugo and found a carpark within the old city walls. We had lunch and then spent the next few hours exploring the cathedral, looking at Roman baths, visited a museum and walking the perimeter of the Roman walls. Quite a nice little town actually and worth the visit. We then spent the afternoon trying to find one of the Aires listed in the book with no success so we decided on the carpark of the football stadium to sleep for the night.

Tuesday 2nd December
A nice walk in the morning started our day, which was not a bad way to start it really. We might try and do this a bit more often. We then set off in the direction of Santiago along the N-547 through Palas de Rei, Melide and Arzua. It took us ages to find a park in the city and ended up having to walk a good 1.5k's to get to our destination. This destination also happens to be the destination or one of the final stops for walkers/pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago, the Cathedral de Santiago. We explored the cathedral, which is probably worth the money and watched pilgrims arriving and slumping their bags and themselves onto the stone paving. We were going to take a tour ride around the city in one of those tourist trains but we were going to be the only ones on it so we dodged that embarrassment. On the way back to the car we detoured through a park. We were going to walk to the top but it started to rain so we quickly darted into a bar and had a caprioska instead. Much better idea.

We left Santiago in the afternoon and headed west towards Fisterra along the AC-441. We found a picnic spot on the side of the road to camp for the night.

Wednesday 3rd December
Known as the alternative end to the Camino de Santiago, Fisterra is a small little village on the coast which is commonly mistaken for the most western point of Europe. There is a bar at the point but it wasn't open when we were there in the morning. We did however take photos next to the final Camino marker to prove to Rochelle and Jasmine that we did in fact finish the Camino. They'll never believe us.

From Fisterra we zig-zagged our way down the coast line through Carnota, Muros, Serra de Outes, noia, Porto do Son before having lunch on the beach near Orellana. This stretch of coast is stunningly beautiful, some of the best we'd seen so far. And the weather was perfect.

After lunch we followed the inlet around until we found a spot beside the road at O'Grove to stay for the night. It was really nice and we had the place to ourselves. Perfect!!!

Thursday 4th December
Our idea to start the day with walking didn't eventuate. Instead we followed the coast road around O'Grove until we found the ruins of an old Roman factory that processed marine products. Not a lot left of the factory but interesting nonetheless. Jodi was hoping for oysters but no luck.

From here we headed down through Sanxenxo following the coast until we reached the N-550 where we headed south, bypassing Vigo and stopping for lunch at Tui. Tui is a beautiful little village right on the Spanish/Portugal border along the banks of the Rio Minho. We ate our lunch and spent an hour walking the streets of the village. We were going to go to the cathedral but it was closed so we got back in the car, jumped on the N-551 and across to Portugal.

Spain you were beautiful but you tested us. Bilbao has become our new low point. Whenever something goes wrong, when our future children won't sleep at night or when things aren't going the way we want, we'll always say to each other, "well it's not as bad as Bilbao". We will return and hopefully our experience will be a better one. For now we continue south into Portugal.

Speedometer: 129,082 km's