Watch this video to see what it was like driving in France
during lockdown before the UK knew what that was
Finally out of Portugal into Spain without being stopped!
Mile after mile without seeing another vehicle at times
Shopping mall Saturday morning
Camino De Santiago deserted
Public toilets closed and water locked off
Motorhome aire closed
Only trucks on the motorways of France during lockdown
Introduction
You can read more detail about each day of this motorhome trip through Spain, Portugal and France by clicking on the names of the places we stayed overnight in the table below, or click here to go the the first day.
Day no. |
Miles today |
MPG | Av speed |
Hours driving |
Total miles |
Overnight |
1 | 280 | 27.6 | 43 | 6:28 | Portsmouth | |
2 | 28 hours: Portsmouth to Santander | Ferry cabin | ||||
3 | 77.5 | 27.9 | 26 | 2:58 | 358 | Camaleño |
4 | 98 | 28.8 | 22 | 4:18 | 457 | León |
5 | 71 | 31.9 | 35 | 1:58 | 527 | Molinaseca |
6 | 113 | 31.0 | 34 | 3:20 | 641 | O Moinho, Near Chaves |
7 | 77 | 28.2 | 25 | 3:02 | 718 | Freixo de Numão |
8 | 143 | 24.8 | 28 | 5:00 | 861 | Zamora |
9 | 275 | 27.1 | 49 | 5:35 | 1136 | Hernani |
10 | 121 | 30.5 | 31 | 3:52 | 1257 | Pissos |
11 | 142 | 32.4 | 46 | 3:04 | 1399 | Verteuil-sur-Charente |
12 | 171 | 29.0 | 34 | 5:00 | 1570 | Cloyes-sur-le-Loir |
13 | 160 | 26.2 | 36 | 4:25 | 1731 | Bosc Geffroy |
14 | 97 | 28.5 | 34 | 2:50 | 1828 | Sangatte |
15 | 331 | 33.0 | 47 | 6:58 | 2158 | Home! |
Summary of motorhome journey
Total miles |
mpg | average speed mph |
hours driven |
2158 | 28.8 | 36 | 58:54 |
This should have been a leisurely motorhome trip taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander followed by a pleasant drive through Spain, into Portugal, south to some warmer weather in Portugal as March 2020 proceeded and then back to Santander for the ferry back to the UK. It turned out to be a race against borders closing and lockdown that threatened to strand us in Europe. Read this account of how we escaped from Portugal into Spain by taking a remote mountain farm track that was not wide enough in places and so steep and rough that we never got out of first gear.
Our motorhome holiday to Spain and Portugal began on March 9th, 2020, when we left home and drove 280 miles to Portsmouth, stayed overnight then caught an early ferry operated by Brittany Ferries, from Portsmouth to Santander. No problems along the way. We drove across Spain, taking our time, stopping overnight at Camaleño, Leon and Molinaseca before taking a winding mountain road into Portugal.
Our intention was to drive south through Portugal, where we wanted to visit the port-producing areas and sample Portuguese wines. Generally the UK does drink much Portuguese wine, I don't know why that is because in the past we have had some very good wine from Portugal.
Our first night in Portugal was spent on the car park of a restaurant, beside a fast-flowing river and old mill buildings. The meal was memorable, although we were the only people in the restaurant. I had learned a little Portuguese before this trip, but was surprised that French was more acceptable than English, and of course Spanish is not really welcome in Portugal! I'm not sure why that is, especially when there are similarities between the languages, it's probably something historical.
We kept an eye on the Covid-19 situation, but at this stage were not too concerned, so carried on with our planned journey. We like to stay relaxed about exactly where we are going; Porto was a possibility as was Braga. One plan was to stay outside Porto and take the train into the city, our plan for Braga was to stay on an aire close to the Bom Jesus church. In the end we decided to go first to the Douro valley, then return north via Porto and Brag before returning north into Spain and back to Santander along the coast road. Those plans were of course overtaken by events and we ended up driving all the way to Calais.
Next overnight stop in Portugal was at Freixo de Numão, on an aire at a sports facility. There was one other motorhome there, a Swiss couple, who told us that the aire was to be closed the following morning because of the Covid-19 virus. That was confirmed when the man came to collect the overnight fee that evening. At this point we were the furthest from Santander, when we got a text message from Brittany Ferries to say that our return crossing from Santander was cancelled and to call them to rearrange it. Another motorhome turned up, with a Netherlands registration. The woman spoke very good English but was alarmist in what she related, saying that Spain had closed its borders and there was no way for them to drive back home to The Netherlands and that France had closed its borders too.
We didn't know what to believe, sometimes no news is good news. We had no way to know whether Spain had actually closed the border, so we decided to take no chances and cross back to Spain by a 'challenging route' through the mountains on what can only be described as a dirt track, totally unsuitable to a motorhome.
We made it across into Spain without being stopped, then contacted Brittany Ferries who said we could return to the UK via Caen in France, 4 or 5 days drive away. Not good news, but we did not have many options open, so we booked that and headed for Caen. As you might guess, that booking was also cancelled, so we were running out of choices. Time spent on the internet showed that Eurotunnel was still operating so we booked the first available crossing, and changed our travel plans yet again, heading for Calais by the most direct route.
Driving is generally enjoyable as we pass through rural areas taking in the scenery and different styles of housing and farming. On this occasion it was different, just a matter of covering distance as efficiently as possible. We were amazed by the lack of people and traffic on the roads. At times we drove with no other vehicle in sight or just trucks.
To cut the tale short we reached Calais as planned, Eurotunnel was running - on our train there were about 6 motorhomes and maybe 20 cars, that's VERY low traffic, usually there are lots and lots of motorhomes and other vehicles.
Back in the UK traffic was not really any lighter than 'normal'. We drove the 330 miles from Folkstone to Lancaster in around 7 hours plus stops, which is what we would normally allow.
Glad to be home, not looking forward to 14 days isolation, but as usual we had stocked up on cheese, ham and wine plus a variety of other Spanish and French produce so we would not starve.