The Dark Forces Were to Strike Once Again !

There are times when I really do wish that I could look into the future, although on this occasion, just having the ability to look forward over the next 5-6 weeks would have done for me 🤷‍♂️ Would the ‘Works of Fiction’ have got their forecasts wrong and allowed us to have a decent drive and exploration through France ? Would the ‘Strait of Hormuz’ re-open and start to at least ease the global fuel crisis ? Unfortunately I was not given the luxury of having time in which to make a decision on which direction the next leg of our journey would take. Then of course, I had another irritation to contend with, that being my OCD Buddy who was insisting, no, let’s be truthful about this, he was definitely demanding, that he had an input on any decision that I was considering, whether I wanted him to or not 😲 I knew it was a mistake to have allowed him to accompany us on this trip 🙄

However, in truth, it was not my OCD Buddy that was to be my biggest issue on this particular occasion, it was the clock that was against me, usually I can make advance, considered, decisions but, on this occasion if I didn’t make a decision soon, then the freedom to do so would almost certainly be taken out of my hands. Part of me wanted to just say ‘Go with the flow and stick with the original plan’, for in the past fate has always looked out for us and been on our side so, perhaps we should just let fate play our hand for us once again 🤷‍♂️ However, something was nagging irritatingly inside my brain, telling me that this was one decision that we really had to make for ourselves and soon, as time was not on my side. Now, if I elected to choose the ‘head over heart’ practical decision, that being to postpone the French adventure and just return to Spain, then we would need to amend our existing pre-booked ferry and that was the one thing that would pre-determine our fate, for if we were unable to amend that booking, irrespective of what the weather was like in France, or even the availability of fuel, then regardless we would be going to France as originally planned 🤷‍♂️

Personally speaking, apart from seeing our Grandchildren, which was actually only for three days, out of the nine that we had scheduled to be in the UK, we also had other family members to visit whilst we were in the UK so, I never really consider our visits to the UK as being an actual holiday, well not in the true sense of the word, as we always have a lot of travelling to do up and down the country and in a short space of time which gets to be quite tiring. To be completely truthful, I would have much preferred to have just driven up through Spain and straight across the border into France and not bothered with going to the UK, after all, our Son, Daughter-in-Law and three grandchildren had already pre-booked their usual annual two week Summer holiday, coming to stay with us in August, so it wasn’t as if we would be sacrificing seeing them, provided the Airlines had sufficient fuel and didn’t have to cancel flights. With our short stopover in Northern Spain, before catching the ferry to the UK, we had now been away from home for very nearly two weeks already and it was looking increasing likely that we may not even get to do any part of France 🤷‍♂️

The weather in France was one consideration, although it had gone from being a total washout at one stage, to there being several dry periods here and there, but the ‘Works of Fiction’ were changing their forecasts on a daily basis, at home in Spain we just go with the flow, but when you are away on a trip you just want it to be a bit more reliable so that you can plan on what you do and where you choose to go 🤷‍♂️ The temperatures even in France were still remaining on the much cooler side and, apart from experiencing a very short two day mini-heatwave in the UK, primarily with the wind chill factor, it had been bitterly cold and we were certainly hoping to get to go somewhere a lot warmer. The other quite important consideration was of course the fuel situation, for whilst there had been reports of a ‘potential agreement’, on a two week ceasefire in the Iran – USA conflict, that hadn’t actually materialised and therefore the fuel situation in Europe was deepening. We had seen prices for Diesel, within the UK, increase, during the short period of time we had been there, it went from £1.85 per litre when we had first arrived to £2.06 and we were now seeing some fuel stations ‘purportedly’ running out of both Petrol and Diesel. I had of course been keeping an eye on the fuel situation in France and had seen much the same issues being reported over there, although the Diesel prices there were being reported at being currently at €2.50 per litre (£2.17) and many of the smaller independent fuel stations were actually beginning to close down 😳 Although, I do have to say that what you read in the media, and the real situation, can very often be two quite different things. In Spain however, it was being reported that the fuel situation was stable and prices remained at around €1.87 (£1.63) 🤷‍♂️ although, to be fair the Spanish Government were still subsidising the cost, but for how long was the overriding question 🤷‍♂️

So, with time rapidly running out, my decision, based on everything that I was reading on a daily basis, had to be a common sense one, the last thing we wanted was to find ourselves stranded somewhere in France unable to get enough fuel to get us back home. Additionally, apart from the fuel issue, being stranded, for who knows how long, would have meant additional costs for food and accommodation, and if the weather was not good, being confined, unable to enjoy getting out and about would have driven us both mad. So, both my OCD Buddy and Shazza agreed with my reasoning, albeit reluctantly, for I had been looking forward to this France trip so much. Although I had made the decision, and before Shazza got back on to the Brittany Website to try to amend our ferry booking from France to Spain, we still tried to counter that decision with all of the ‘But what ifs’. However, we agreed to first try to see if we could amend our ferry booking, if we could, then that was it, we would be heading back to Spain but, if we couldn’t, then we would be forced to stick with our original ‘Plan A’ and, come what may, France it would be. As it was, Shazza, even at such very short notice, had no problems whatsoever with amending our booking, that told its own story, as we had no issues with booking the cabin accommodation that we wanted, and we even managed to book for use of the VIP Lounge again, which is generally severely restricted in its numbers and is often fully booked, so perhaps lots of other’s were now cancelling their holiday trips due to the fuel situation 🤷‍♂️ I had mixed feelings once Shazza had made the amendments, were we lucky to manage to change our booking ?or were we unlucky that we had been able to 🤔

So, we would now be heading on a 32 hour ferry journey back to Santander in Spain, as opposed to a much shorter 9 hour crossing to Caen/Oustreheim in France. I have to confess that, personally speaking, I had mixed feelings about it, although I think that Shazza was more relieved that we would be going back to Spain and had felt a certain sense of relief that I had at least come to a decision. I felt more disappointment, and a big part of me wished that I had just said let’s risk it and head to France as planned. However, as if to confirm that I had probably made the correct and logical decision, that same day, after amending our travel arrangements, when I did my rounds of the European ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts I saw this……………..

That thought of a rough crossing was tempered when I was looking at the Spanish News Media publications, and then a rather large smile returned to my face, okay it wasn’t France, but at least we would be returning to sunshine and much hotter temperatures😎

In our original plan, once we had finished the French part of the trip, we had planned to also do some sightseeing in Northern Spain and then down the Eastern Coastline before returning home, Donastia, Pamplona and Zaragoza and although we may not have packed too many shorts and tee-shirts in our suitcases on this trip, we had both brought swimwear and flip flops and it was looking likely that they would get to be worn quite a lot, if not on a beach then in a hotel pool, the holiday excitement started to return 🤗

As we would be arriving in Spain a lot further West than originally planned, I got back to doing some amendments to our original route planning, so instead of Donostia and Pamplona we agreed on travelling from Santander to Logrono, Zaragoza, Valencia, and then either Murcia or Toledo, dependent on how we felt, or more likely how many clean clothes we had left 😂

After having spent some time with Shazza’s mum, and also seeing her three brother’s and their families, and a couple of her Aunts and Uncles, it was time to head South again, so we spent another long day travelling back down to Swindon to spend a final day with our Grandchildren. We had travelled down the previous evening so that we could spend the following full day with them, as on that same day, in the early evening, we would be travelling back down to Portsmouth to get our ferry for our crossing back to Spain, we would depart Portsmouth at 10pm on the Friday night and arrive in Santander at 08:00am on the Sunday morning. Now I had planned to celebrate Shazza’s Birthday (17 April) in the French seaside resort town of La Rochelle, so that was a little disappointing that it wouldn’t come to fruition, but we could still celebrate it somewhere else in Spain, I just wasn’t sure where ?

When we turned up at our Son’s house early on the Friday morning, they were ready for us and Chris had Baked Shazza a Birthday Cake and the Grandchildren had decorated it, they had got a load of Birthday Balloons and they had also hand-made her some Birthday Cards, so although her Birthday wasn’t actually until the following week, it was a nice surprise for her, and a very nice way to end our visit with them.

We had a good, incident free journey, down to Portsmouth that evening after saying our farewells, which is always a lengthy process and one that I always have to allocate additional time for on my travel itinerary, when we visit them 😂 We had refuelled in Swindon at a supermarket fuel station (£1.87 per litre), just before going to our overnight hotel, knowing that we would have enough fuel to get down to the ferry and still have sufficient to at least start our road travels in Spain. However, I still made a stop at a Supermarket fuel station again, just a couple of miles from the Port, it is one that we usually use to top up when we are returning from the UK, although it only took 10 Litres and was still priced at €1.87, but at least now I was confident that we had a full tank, just in case things had changed in Spain when we got there.

In previous rambles over the year’s, I have made regular mention of the ‘Dark Forces’ that tended to plague us, more so when we were living full-time on our Motorhome adventures but they had kept paying us irregular visits since living in Spain, although their unwanted sudden appearances had been getting fewer. However, I should have known better than to rest on our laurels, for that is when they are at their most mischievous, and just as we were feeling rather smug with ourselves that we had managed to turn a ‘Negative’ into a ‘Positive’, in respect of our revised travel plans, they had been in the shadows watching us and we were to discover that ‘The Dark Forces Were To Strike Once Again’.

The ferry crossing was not as bad as the Weather and Wind Apps had forecasted, although I have to confess that it was a little more than what I had considered ‘Lumpy’ on our crossing from Bilbao to the UK. We certainly needed our sea legs this time and walking anywhere on the ferry, during the long passage, made it look as if ‘everyone’ had had one too many alcoholic beverages as we all involuntarily zig zagged our way to wherever it was that we were going 🙄 However, it didn’t prevent us from making our way, several times throughout the journey, to the VIP Lounge to eat our meals, not even Shazza suffered with any sea-sickness so it cannot have been all that bad, although she couldn’t read her ‘Kindle’, choosing instead to keep her gaze firmly fixed on the horizon outside of the large glass windows. Although I discovered that consuming several large glasses of Anti-Covid Vaccine, at every possible opportunity, had physical, not just medical attributes, as they appeared to counter the zig zagging effect, or then again, perhaps I just didn’t feel it when I bounced off the walls when returning to the cabin 😂

I was looking at the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts for the period when we got off the ferry, just casually looking to where we may be on Shazza’s actual Birthday. I was hoping to try and surprise her by pre-booking, without her knowledge, a nice luxury hotel for perhaps a 3-4 night stay, with either an outdoor swimming pool with a bar, or one that was beachfront, just so that she could totally relax and unwind a bit after all our travelling. But to our horror the original ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast had changed completely, and now the Spanish Media and ‘Works of Fiction’ were in cahoots with each other and had updated their last sunny predictions to this.

Let me ask you, have you ever wondered what it is that you must have done in your life that was so bad to have so much ‘bad luck’ rain on your parade 🤔 If it wasn’t ‘Brexshit’, a Pandemic, or a war somewhere in the world that impact globally, then it was the bloody weather, and yes of course, it could all change once again at a moments notice, I mean we all know how inaccurate, or just completely wrong, the ‘Works of Fiction’ often are. However, Fate certainly didn’t appear to be smiling upon us this time around, perhaps we have already had more than our fair share over the year’s and simply just used up all of our allowance 🤷‍♂️ However, I couldn’t be doing with anymore of this trying to second guess it all, “Perhaps we are not supposed to take extended holidays anymore, for this is the third consecutive one, that we have had to cut short” I said to Shazza in, I have to admit, quite a frustrated manner. Now she knew that normally I would just be quite passive about it, saying ‘Oh well, it is what it is, it is totally out of our control so I am not going to worry about it”, but on this occasion she knew that not only had I been quite excited at the prospect of touring several areas of France, and that I was extremely disappointed about having to make the decision to postpone it. However, although it wouldn’t be quite the same experience for me, I had cheered up at the thought that we would at least get some sort of a holiday before returning home, just the two of us spending time together, somewhere new just doing what we do and making more memories in the process. However, I had felt under time pressure to come to a reluctant decision over France, and now it was looking very much like our amended Spain trip was in jeopardy. We decided to wait until we arrived in Santander, if it was raining and the forecast hadn’t changed then we would just head straight back home, if they had changed the forecast yet again, back to a much dryer and warm outlook, then we would continue with ‘Plan B’ 🤷‍♂️ “Just out of interest” she said, “What is the weather like back at home”. But I had a grumpy head on by that time, which I have to say, is unusual for me “I haven’t looked and does it matter anyway, for what it may show now, or tomorrow or the next day, it could say the complete opposite a day later” I responded, so okay, perhaps I had not quite got over my disappointment of France completely 🤔 But she looked anyway, “Just out of curiosity” she said. I knew then that she had made her mind up on what she wanted to do and there was a certain joy in her voice when she showed me the forecast for the next ten days.

We arrived in Santander as scheduled at 08:00am, the sky was grey and cloudy and it was wet, not raining hard, just spits and spots as they say. We were one of the last to be offloaded as we had not pre-booked ‘Priority Disembarkation’ so we were in a queue to get through Immigration Checks. Now I had expected to just sail through (Excuse the pun), after all we were EU Residents and would not have to go through the EES procedure of facial recognition and fingerprints, but no, their were no separate lanes and we had to queue with all the British vehicles who did have to go through it, although once we got to the checkpoint we didn’t have to do all the EES stuff, which was lucky for the vehicle behind us who didn’t have to wait very long before getting processed themselves. “Well they haven’t got this very well organised” I said to Shazza, but our delay was only going to get worse as we were then stopped at the Customs Check Area, where they wanted to do a search of our vehicle for non-authorised products being brought into Spain, not weapons, explosives or drugs no, much more important than that, Meat or Dairy products 🤷‍♂️ Thank goodness I had eaten my ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast before departing the ferry that morning, otherwise my day may just have got even worse 😳 Whilst I was stood at the rear of the car watching them rummage through the boot contents, it was both wet and cold, it was only 10 degrees(c) and I had chosen to travel, in the anticipated sunshine, in a bloody tee-shirt 😡

It was 09:15 before we finally pulled away from the Port, whilst Shazza elected to do the first bit of the drive I double checked the weather forecast for both Logrono and Zaragoza , “Let’s just go home, to hopefully some dryer and warmer weather” I said, “Still wet then ?” she responded, although it was more of a rhetorical question. The ‘Dark Forces’ had won this particular battle I conceded 🙄

It would, the Sat Nav informed us, take 9 hours and 22 minutes, to complete the 1034 Kilometre journey (643 miles) to get home, and that was without a re-fuel or comfort stops, so I had estimated that it would be around 9pm when we arrived. The grey wet weather stayed with us until almost the half way point, with temperatures dropping, in the mountains, to -3 degrees(c) and an ice and frost warning displayed on the dashboard, it barely managed to reach double figures and we had the heating full on. Shazza drove for around two and a half hours before needing a ‘Comfort Stop’, so we took the opportunity to top up with fuel (€1.87) and make it a ‘Brunch stop. I then drove for five hours and gradually, as we got beyond half way we saw the temperature rise to 15 degrees(c) and started to see some blue sky and sunshine. We were just a few Kilometres North of Seville when I started to get tired, well it was more a case of monotony really, the scenery was, as usual, beautiful, but the roads were straight and long and I had been driving with the ‘Cruise Control’ on as there was very little traffic on the roads. We decided to make it our last fuel stop before getting home and also using it as a ‘Comfort Stop’, but without stopping for a coffee or anything to eat on this occasion, we were both still full from our earlier ‘Brunch’, although we did buy a bottle each of nice cold water. Fuel was still €1.87, not bad for motorway service stations, although I only needed 21 Litres, but the temperature was now 24 degrees(c) and the Air-con was set to ‘Cool’ and Shazza drove us home, although we stopped for something to eat just half an hour from home, realising that there was nothing in the fridge or freezer and we had no bread. Even so, we arrived home at exactly 7:15pm, spot on 10 hours and that had included three stops, “Someone was obviously not adhering to all the speed limits” I said to my little Luis Hamilton, but she responded with, “Well, let me see, who was doing most of the driving this time”, 😳 It was windy when we got out of the car, but still 21 degrees(c) and sunny, it doesn’t get dark here now until 9pm. However, although tired from our long drive, we still had to unload the car, that took three trips from the car park, up and down the stairs to the apartment, but we were glad to be home, in our own surroundings and no longer having to live out of a suitcase.

On our long journey home we had discussed all the disappointments of this trip, apart from seeing our Grandchildren, which is of course always nice, but we agreed that we probably have to admit that, as we are both getting more senior in year’s, long road trips are beginning to take their toll on the both of us. We tend now to enjoy shorter holiday trips, one’s where we go away for maybe just five or six days at a time, allowing two days for travelling to and from whichever destination we choose and then, three or four days exploring that location. We would probably enjoy doing two or three trips of that sort in a year, rather than one long extended one. That is probably the way we will now go in the future, no more extended trips, sticking to Spain, Portugal and possibly even the Southern parts of France on our road trips, but taking flights to the UK in the future, and then short City Breaks to some European destinations.

As I now sit on my balcony, rested from our previous days travels and enjoying my first morning coffee back at home, whilst looking out on the blue Mediterranean Sea, the blue sky, even freighters and cargo ships passing to and from the Strait of Gibraltar, at least there are still some vessels moving I think to myself, but I find myself questioning, once again, why we actually feel the need to travel anywhere else, when we already have everything we enjoy and need right here 🤷‍♂️ I then start to read the main headlines on the World Media pages and it doesn’t look like the World is going to get any better, anywhere, in the near future with all the conflicts going on, impacting and causing so much chaos, not just the current fuel crisis, the cost of living, the general economies, the environment and even disruptions to global travel and yes, not even the ‘Works of Fiction’. I am not surprised at why there is a lot of depression and despair these days, but this morning I elect to put on my much more positive head once again. I accept that no, I cannot control or influence any of what is going on in the outside world, but yes, I can control and influence what is going on in our own lives, and that is all that matters, so here we are, back at home in our own little bubble of tranquility, back to normal everyday routines and yes, there is certainly something good to be said for that 😉

Sorry to disappoint all my reader’s who were looking forward to reading all about our French adventures, but I guess there will, at some point in the future, and perhaps even before the official start of our Summer, still be some to read about, albeit perhaps only much shorter mini-adventures, for now though, I have to say that it feels really good to be back in the safety and comforts of our happy place, that is of course unless Donald Trump decides to continue with his MAGA campaign and invades, or goes to war, with someone else, perhaps now that his mate in Turkey has been dethroned it may be them next, or even the whole of Europe, after all, he likes to go Large, and not just at McDonalds 😂

Until the next ramble…………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena