The 20 hour crossing was completely smooth and the morning weather in Santander was sunny and warm. Mark quickly adapted to driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and we paused by Sardinero beach to collect our thoughts and plan where we might go; left? right? Actually we knew the general area we were heading, Picos de Europa national park.

Following the coast westwards we stopped briefly in the inland medieval town of Santillana del Mar which has a recommended campsite and might be somewhere to stop on our way back. Down by the sea Comillas was a very sunny lunch spot. The van was the centre of attention on the sea-front car-park with locals coming from a bar to point and a family stopping for photographs! We haven’t seen any other bay or split window VW campers so far, which might explain the apparent novelty.

Within clear sight of the coast are the Picos de Europa mountains where we headed next. The views from the winding road are spectacular and we’ll be surprised if we find a driving road to better it anywhere on our trip. The temperature cooled and we climbed higher and when we reached our first site Camping Picos de Europa at Avin it was misty. Inside the bar of the site an open fire kept it cosy and we had a beer and used the free wifi.

The next morning was drizzly and misty but atmospheric. Onwards and upwards in to the mountains our first stop was the shrine at Covadonga. Wedged in to a cave crevice the shrine to the Virgin Mary hangs over the waterfall filled pool below. Beyond Covadonga the road climbs precipitously 12kms to two lakes. We decided to risk the strain on the engine going up and the brakes coming down but need not have bothered as it was a white-out when we reached the plateau. The van fared well, but Mark’s nerves less so!

Lunch in Cangas was a typically Spanish late one and came in at a very good value €10 for three courses and a bottle of vino tinto; more like that please! Flagging a little after lunch we set out to find a coastal campsite between Ribadesella and LLanes. Noting lots of tent symbols on the map we had hoped to find our kind of low key campsite, but they were all filled with statics and tourers that had not toured anywhere in years. We decided to turn to the Alan Rogers best sites guide that we found the Picos site in and it turned out to be a good move. With a little help from the iPhone maps we found Camping La Paz across a railway and through a half constructed new motorway junction. Doesn’t sound like a great approach but once there the site is one of the most picturesque we’ve seen. Laid out on man made terraces with views from the Picos mountains down to it’s own sandy beach, it’s a remarkable spot.

So that’s where we find ourselves today relaxing and enjoying the panoramic views perched high up on the cliffside. We’ll stay another night and then start our journey back east to Bilboa and San Sebastian in time for Easter.

For our extended trip we’ll need a bit more storage capacity in our van, or more accurately on top of the van. Which is why the bus is now sporting a nice new retro style roof-rack. All we need now are some shiny chrome GB letters and we’ll be set for Europe. Actually I lie, there’s a whole lot more we need sort out before we head off in just over a week and a half!

Our biggest adventure yet is all set for April and May. We’ll be spending two months on a grand tour of Western Europe.

The ferry is booked from Plymouth to Santander and we will work our way through Spain and France to Mark’s ancestral family home, Lucca in northern Italy. The return journey will see us cross the Alps and head for the English Channel. We expect to travel well over 3000 km.

It’s been our ambition for the last decade to take the Devon21 on a long road trip like this and to think we are going finally do it is very exciting!

If you’d like to follow along with our trip subscribe to one of our social feeds now and you’ll get our updates. Tips about where to camp and what to see would be welcome.

From time to time I see pictures online of VW transporters from the 1950s through to the 80s and they’re always great to see. But this time the glimpse of a bus very similar to ours on the streets of London just a year before our own hit the road, made me want to post it here.

The picture above was taken by Klaus Hiltscher in 1976 and is part of several sets he took on trips to London. I’ll embed a couple of those sets below because for anyone who knows London as it is today, it’s a fascinating look back to 35 years ago.

Here’s another bus spotted in a 1978 set of Camden Town where we now live. It looks a lot different now and you wouldn’t be able to take this same picture because of all the tourists who’d be in the way! But we still have police officers on horses… especially when there are riots

1976 – London – 35 Years Ago – In a hot and dry August 1976!- Part 2

London – 1976 – Part 3

London – Camden – May 1978

We are currently on the road from London to Devon where we’ll be staying in the heart of Dartmoor at Cockingford Farm campsite. Mark’s family have been going to this same small site for the last 30 years and now have season pitches for their caravans. It’ll be a great base to explore Dartmoor and we have a couple of trips planned. Mobile Internet permitting we’ll update this post with our progress.

Update: Tuesday 9th August

Here’s a few pictures….

Update: Thursday 11th August 

We are currently on the road home, just passing Stonehenge once more, and we’re back in the land of mobile Internet. So following are some highlights of our trip to Dartmoor and Devon. Pictures will be added to flickr and will appear in the set above once we get home.

Saturday 6 August, Stonehenge, Wiltshire

Stuck in slow traffic passing Stonehenge at  lunch time we glanced at Google Maps to find a detour for a lunch stop. We hit lucky with the village of Berwick St. James. The Boot Inn (High Street, Berwick St. James, Wiltshire, SP3 4TN, BootAtBerwick.co.uk) is close to Stonehenge  and just along the road from Stonehenge campsite, which from a passing glance seemed ok as an overnight stop for visiting Stonehenge, about 7 minutes away. Berwick made a great lunch stop. Nice food with local/regional ingredients, outdoor picnic bench beer garden in a very quiet village. And the coffee was good too! One minor downside was the handful of annoying flies buzzing about indoors. Still, highly recommended.

Tuesday 9th August, Northam Burrows near Bideford, North Devon

It was a lovely up hill and down dale journey from Widecombe-in-the-Moor to the north coast of Devon. We hadn’t planned exactly where we would go and by chance we stopped at Marshford organic shop by the road on the way to Appledore. Being a sunny day we stocked up with ingredients to cook fajitas by the sea and were recommended Northam Burrows as a nearby destination of natural beauty. The guy in the shop wasn’t wrong.  We paid the £4.50 fee gladly as we could see the low grassy headland with 360 degree beautiful views was exactly the place for cooking up a tasty lunch. The pictures tell the rest of the story. As a side note, there are two parts to the Burrows, the side we stopped is popular with birdwatchers and dog walkers, whereas the other side, close to the small seaside resort town of Westward Ho! is more popular with beach goers and surfers.

Wednesday 10th August, Riverford Field Kitchen

Riverford are known for their doorstep organic vegetable delivery service in many parts of the UK. Here at one of their farms they offer tours and, of more interest to foodies like us, a farmhouse kitchen set menu. For £ per person each table of 8 adults, is given a selection of large plates with seasonal and mainly local ingredients. On the menu for our visit were roast beetroot with orange and pistachio, chickpeas and spinach with almond, lamb tagine, new potatoes with saffron. For desert each table is invited to the kitchen bench to choose one of a eight or so options like lemon tart, sticky toffee sponge pudding, red fruit crumble. They have a good selection of Devon made drinks including juices, cider and ale from down the road.

River Dart road near Buckland-in-the-Moor

This could be one of Britain’s best short drives. Started or ended from a single track road next to the Buckland-in-the-Moor church that looks like the private driveway of the  vicar. The road winds precipitously down through woodland to meet the Dart River. On a sunny Summer day like today picnickers and pleasure boaters dot the tree shaded river side and pools. After a pretty bridge and a short distance more there’s a car park. Combined with a longer drive on to Widecombe and over the high moor to Moretonhampstead, this could well be one of Britain’s best drives of any length.

We’ll update this post later with our slightly eerie video of the trip, but for now there’s a set of photos and below, some of the pros and cons of early season camping.

Pros

• You get your pick of the pitches
• Fewer annoyances – The place to yourself.
• Quieter attractions and beauty spots
• No booking required
• No queue for facilities
• Early nights!
• Cheaper off-peak rates

Cons

• Site maintenance work – Earth movers and tractors are noisy!
• Early sunset – Cooking in the dark.
• Colder
• Fewer sites to choose from – Many sites don’t open until spring has sprung.
• More mud in and on your van – Wet roads and soggy campsites.
• Cooped up under each others feet
• Early nights

Our successful tour to West Wales in September 2009 gave us confidence that the van could handle reasonable distances with no problem. So we crossed the channel for nine days in Brittany, but was the weather as good? And did the van run smoothly on it’s first foreign trip?

Saturday 26 June

We packed the van at 3pm and drove on to Portsmouth via the M25 and A3, stopping briefly at The Devil’s Punchbowl to admire the view and stand in the glorious sunshine.
In Portsmouth we had an hour to kill so we found a back street chippy and had fish and chips on Southsea promenade where we saw the ferry arriving from St Malo. After boarding we watched the sun set on the deck of the MV Bretagne. Our cabin with a window was fine but wasn’t as nice as the ones pictured in the promotional images, which are from another ship. As the Isle of Wight passed by and the red sun disappeared behind it we had a bottle of wine and played iPad scrabble on the Yacht bar’s outside deck.

Sunday 27 June

A beautiful morning in St Malo. Mark was chanting “drive on the right” to remind himself. We drove on to St Briac to have a morning coffee on the promenade above the beach. A couple of different middle-aged French couples wished us “Bon cafe!” as we sat taking in the idyllic view of the chateau and moored yachts. What an utterly perfect start to the day and our trip. Tearing ourselves away we drove the coastal road towards St Brieuc, with a stop at Cap Fréhel to look at the historic lighthouse towers on the cliffs.
St Brieuc seems unappealing as you approach on the expressway but in the heart of the town is a dark, solid and cool cathedral. The attractive half timbered houses on the hilly streets north of the cathedral were worth a look.
After an unintended detour the wrong way out of town we got back on the main road up the coast to Binic. We’d read a Just Kampers thread that mentioned the municipal site in Binic was a great spot to stop, and how right they were. Our full site review explains the details but it was everything we were looking for; wonderful views, not too big, simple facilities and very peaceful. The continuing gorgeous weather helped with all round feelings of happiness.
Before dinner we took a walk down in to town and bought some Breton cider. The town wasn’t quite a traditional and rustic as we might have liked but it was being enjoyed by plenty of holiday makers. Back at the van we had some packet food we’d brought from home as being a Sunday, there weren’t any grocery shops open in the town.

Monday 28 June

We decided to stay another night at Les Fauvettes and officially booked in. Yesterday we just chose a pitch that we fancied as the managers were not working. They came by later and said we could check in on Monday. The manager was a lovely and informative lady who recommended a good beach and tide times for swimming.
In the morning Mark took a walk to the more distant Plage du Corps de Garde. Apparently it’s cleaner and quieter than the main town beaches. David lounged around he van and wrote the campsite review.

Tuesday 29 June

We were reluctant to leave Binic but knew there was more to see on the Cote de Granit Rose. So at noon we set off north and made our first stop shortly in Saint-Quay Portrieux. Dave had a swim in the seawater pool and then we climbed the steps to have lunch overlooking the beach at Cote Resto.
After lunch we pressed on to Abbaye de Beauport, near Paimpol, which is a lovely semi-ruined abbey surrounded trees and meadows of wild flowers. We didn’t go in as we felt we’d seen the best of the place and had further to go.
Passing through nearby Paimpol we arrived at Tour de Kerroc’h over looking Paimpol.
Our next stop Perros Guirec was a nice and well-to-do place. We stopped to shop for bread, veggies and some delicious macaroons in three small shops.
We considered staying at Trestrou Camping near one of the town’s beaches and while it seemed nice and leafy, it didn’t have the kind of view our favourite sites have had, so we pressed on towards Tregastel.
The coast road passed a lovely lookout point over the pink granite of Ploumanach. Just beyond Tregastel we first tried Camping du Port with it’s beach side pitches, but they were all booked up. Getting a bit concerned we made one last try and our perseverance was rewarded with a fantastic spot in the nearby Landrellec Municipal. Pitch 64 on the site’s hillside has a great view over the boulder strewn bay and across to Ile Grande.
The site is wonderfully peaceful with just the sound of waves and birds. It seems like great time of year to be visiting France, before the July/August peak season.

Wednesday 30 June

The day started cool but soon warmed up. Mark took a run and picked up croissants for breakfast. A non-driving day, our first activity was a short walk along the coast towards Tregastel. On our return we continued in to Landrellec village and went to the creperie Mark had seen earlier, only to find it closes on Wednesdays! How do they make money?
Fortunately Le Macareaux restaurant by the beach was open. As you will see from the photos, it was a great three course meal.
They specialise in local lobster and seafood, but have a small a la carte selection too. We didn’t have lobster and seeing other diner’s plates, were glad we didn’t as they were pretty small. Prices are currently the same numbers you might see in a nice London restaurant, but in Euro, so depending on the current exchange rate, they’re relatively expensive. The food was very well presented and apart from the over cooked and salted vegetables, tasted great. Our very relaxed and sunny three course lunch left us feeling extremely content and for that, it was worth every penny.
After a rest we wandered down to the beach at low tide. Dave went for a swim in his wetsuit which felt a bit tighter than it used to be in Cornwall 2003!
Our gas bottle is nearly empty so we had a simple dinner of bread, cheese and meats. While we ate there was a late burst of sun so we hung our second wind break over the guy ropes of the canopy for shade. It worked surprisingly well!

Thursday 1 July

We realised last night that we were almost out of gas, so this morning we could only just boil a kettle for coffee. We decided to explore west of Landrellec today but first headed in to Tregastel for a coffee at the cafe next to the patisserie where we had bought an almond croissant. The gas situation was resolved with two new camping-gaz bottles at Mr Bricomarche and we also stocked up on groceries at Super U.
The first real destination of the day was Ile Grande. It’s more of a headland than an island but has the feel of an island with one road on and off. Our first stop was a prehistoric ’stone table’ or covered passage. We knew there would be a quiet spot for lunch somewhere and after a bit of driving we found the perfect spot at end of a road out into a tidal bay. We cooked up a fantastic three course lunch by the dunes.
In the afternoon we pressed on west to Lannion driving up to Brélévenez church and looking down the picturesque stairs. We took another route back towards Landrellec via Pleumeur-Bodu, where we took a picture in front of the giant white ball of the Cite de Telecomunication and visited the interesting living archeology site Le Village Gaulois. Down a winding country back road we found the Menhir de St Uzec. Originally a giant neolithic standing stone it was Christianised with carvings when paganism was being campaigned against.
For dinner we got a couple of pizzas from a van which parked up by the site gates and went by the name Tonypizz.
Later in the evening we packed the canopy and wind-break ready for a long drive back to St-Malo tomorrow and in preparation for expected rain in the morning.

Friday 2 July

As predicted it was a rainy morning, but our preparations last night made it little hassle to get on the road. Breakfast was a cup of coffee and a couple of muesli brioche.
It was a smooth and trouble free drive 90 miles cross-country to the fantastically preserved medieval city of Dinan. We parked in Place du Champ near a pale blue and white tin-top early bay, one of just a few VWs we’ve seen this trip. We walked past the bell tower and into the maze of streets in search of a restaurant for lunch. However because it was 2pm most places had stopped serving lunch! It worked out fine though as we had our first crepes of the trip in the shadow of the bell tower at Creperie Anha (Lunch served until 2.30pm). It was one suggested in the Lonely Planet and we’d recommend it too. Mark had a sausage and potatoe galette while David had a mushroom, smoked lardon and cream. Both were very good and a lot less sloppy than some we saw on peoples plates outside the dozens of creperies in the town.
The steep street down to the port is hard to believe with it’s continual medieval loveliness. The long climb back up to the town required a break for a carafe of wine at an empty creperie.
Back at the van we were approached by a nice couple of Brits who it turned out were the owners of the early bay. We had a good chat about traveling with a bus.
The short trip to St-Malo wasn’t picturesque but we were soon at Cite d’Alet municipal campsite on the site of the original settlement of St Malo. It’s a wooded headland overlooking both the St Malo ville and Dinard. Adjoining the site is the fort which shows clear signs of the World War II wounds wrought on the city by the Allies in their liberation of France.
We walked around Alet and got some wine, cake and groceries for our dinner.

Saturday 3 July

We were woken at 6.45am by birds cawing and distant announcements from the ferry port, but managed to snooze until 9.30am. Mark took a run to the edge of the city walls and back before a fried egg sandwich breakfast.
We walked around the fort and half way around the walls before cutting through back streets to find somewhere to eat. It was busy but we found a quieter place for a salad in the sunshine. By the time we left we were pretty sure it was a gay cafe.
We continued our walk around the walls and bought ice creams on the way back around the bay to Alet. There was an unwelcome surprise back at the campsite. Our pitch had been blocked in by teenagers, their tents and their parent’s car parked right up to the van. Over a blaring radio we explained they would need to move their tents so we could get our van out and quickly decided to move to a new pitch there and then. It was a shame as we liked our spot in the trees, but it was better than being bothered by noisy kids and their apparently inconsiderate parents.

Sunday 4 July

Another clear blue sky this morning. The ferry departed at 10.30am on a flat sea. Ahead of us a 9 hour voyage between the Cherbourg peninsula and the Channel Islands to Portsmouth. The day passed easily and the drive back to London was straight forward. Our first foreign trip has gone even better than we had hoped it would. We wish that instead of heading home we could head on to another stop on a grand tour. One day we will.

Martin Dorey had been blogging for a while partly to promote his book ‘The Camper Van Cookbook: Life on 4 Wheels, Cooking on 2 Rings’. Last Summer the BBC commissioned a series that would feature him eating his way around Britain. For the series Martin swapped his trusty wedge for more photogenic bay-window and set off with a film crew. We kept tabs on his progress through his blog and tweets over the Summer and the results are now being screened on BBC 2 and the iPlayer.

We’ve so far seen the first episode of ten, and it has a nice balance of travelogue, food and camper van flavour. It reflects well our own food driven campervan adventures, so we’re looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes. Maybe we’ll get some inspiration for trips of our own in 2011.

The weekend before last we took a last minute opportunity to spend a few days at Westley Farm’s Sapperton Yurt. It’s hidden in a woodland dell across the field from a farm track.

In the cool early Autumn it was great to have a wood burning stove to keep us warm in the evening. The roll-top bath with steaming hot water in a horse trailer is a unique feature of an all round peaceful experience.

On our first full day we took a hike down through the woods and then up to Oakridge before striking out across the fields to Frampton Mansell where we stopped for an excellent lunch at The Crown Inn.

In the daytime the woods around the yurt were full of singing birds and at night owls hooted.

A couple of tips, if you stay in September when the days are shorter you might want to take a bright gas or battery lamp to read by, or more brightly illuminate the horse-box and kitchen. Also you’ll find split logs catch light more easily than whole logs, even if they small.

The farm also has two other yurts in a different area which sleep more people than the Sapperton which is for two.

This past weekend we took the bus to our first big music festival. Although we usually like to use the campervan to get away from people we thought we should give the festival thing a go. So we joined thirty-five thousand people in the rolling grounds at Henham Park in Suffolk for Latitude.

We chose Latitude as it has a reputation for being a more relaxed and friendly festival. It’s also known for its arts programme and as such, for being quite middle-class and liberal. As Russell Kane called it his stand-up set… Latte-tude.

Thursday 15 July

The arrival at the festival site was a bit of a drag. We were put in a holding pen full of hundreds of campervans and made to wait for two hours for our turn at a ten second process of handing over tickets and getting a wristband in return. On the positive side the predicted rain had turned out to be sunshine and strong breezes, and there were worse places to be stuck. A note to organizers, if you can’t get enough ticket collectors then at least provide more than one Portaloo for those thousand people who’ve had a long journey. The overall quality of the festival facilities is an issue I might as well get out of the way now. They were worse than even the poor level I was expecting. I won’t go in to too much detail but suffice it to say than the rusting wartime era design of an open cesspit would have had the Romans running in horror. For the benefit of the organisers here’s a link to the level of facilities easily available in the 21st century… http://www.portakabin.co.uk/portaloo.html

After the challenge of pitching our side canopy in the strong wind we wandered down to the arenas and explored. They’re set around a small lake facing the festival’s somewhat iconic standing sign and dyed sheep. You can see how it was in the video so I won’t bore you. What isn’t in the video was the end of the evening up in the woods where we waited an hour for Tom Jones’ midnight gig. In the end we decided that given how tired we were and a technical delay that we’d pass on Tom. I probably shouldn’t admit that we’ve actually seen him live before. But he’s ironically cool now though, right? Apparently thousands of people who had wanted to see him were unable to because of the woods being filled to capacity.

Friday 16 July

Friday was the best day of the festival for us. We started the day with a tour of the cabaret and comedy tents. Russell Kane did a very funny standup set. In the cabaret tent we caught the second half of an excellent double act sketch show, Cardinal Burns. They had several memorable routines including a French potatoe shop and some sleazy mini-cab drivers.

We had lunch outside at the Giant Robot restaurant. It was a bit of an adventure with the strong breeze. One gust of wind sent both of our drinks flying off the table!

In the early evening we headed back down to the arenas for Empire of the Sun followed by Florence and the Machine. The music used on the trip video above is an Empire track. It was good to hear them live though we expect they be better to see in a smaller indoor venue. They needed some lasers and pyrotechnics. Florence however had no problem filling the whole stage and arena. Our fears that she would bellow and screech were unfounded. She was a pleasure to hear and see.

Saturday 17 July

We were in no hurry to get back down to the arenas on Saturday but when we did we were greeted by thousands of toddlers, push-chairs and harrassed looking parents. We thought they must be day visitors or perhaps later arriving campers. Either way it made for a hectic and stressful experience. After standing outside some over filled tents and finding nowhere to enjoy we decided to turn tail back to the van and return later when the day visitors had gone home. It was beautifully quiet in the camping area and we relaxed in the sunshine. We never did make it back down to the arenas as we decided just to chill at the van and try to recover from our festival fatigue.

Sunday 18 July

With another two days of the trip ahead we made the choice to tour the arenas and if nothing grabbed us then we’d either spend the day off site in Southwold or head off home along the coast. We quickly admitted defeat and decided there were lots of useful things we could do at home the next day! It was a beautiful day to tour down the coast of Suffolk and we felt happy to be on the road again. Southwold was our first destination. We motored down to the pier and turned back into town. That was when we heard a scrapping crunch. Mark slammed on the breaks and pulled over to the side of the road. What had we hit?! David lept out of the van to see a Renault Clio reversed out in the middle of the road with its bumper ripped off. Thankfully the van had very little damage. Just some black plastic smeared on the bumper and and tiny chip on the paint. How had it happened? Had we drifted over and caught the side of the car? A passing pedestrian helpfully called out that he had reversed back out towards us as we passed and that was how he ended up close enough for our extended bumper to catch his rear valance and pull it half off. A quick exchange of details later and with our heart rates slowly returning to normal, we found a quiet beachside car-park at the far end of town. It was near the campsite we had stayed at on our previous trips to Southwold and we cooked up some lunch.

The rest of our journey back towards London was thankfully less eventful and just exactly what we like to do. Aldeburgh was a nice late afternoon stop. The run into London had very heavy traffic approaching the M25 but once past it it was simple run down in to our new place in Camden.

Our first mainstream music festival had some great moments, but overall it’s probably not something we’ll rush to repeat. It also brought to mind the problem of the increased popularity of camping, which according to some newspaper articles I’ve read, could be due to young people’s happy experiences camping at festivals such as Latitude. The problem we’ve found is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find campsites in the south of England with plenty of space to relax, or at bank holidays, any space at all. Can books like Cool Camping and the proliferation of festivals be blamed for drawing crowds to the quiet places we discovered for ourselves years back? Whatever the answer, it’s an issue we’ll continue to face, and might only be solved by more trips to continental Europe or the less populated fringes of Britain.