End of Sept 2010 - There was a two week turnaround time for me after the Islantilla holiday to get ready for setting off to England. For the first time in my life I was driving 1,500 miles through Portugal, Spain & France on my own(ish) ..... I had 3 active & energetic dogs with me so I did have them for back up, protection & moral support. If I said I was sh_tting bricks at the thought of traveling that distance it was an understatement. What if my sat nav died on me & I ended up in Italy? I guess the wine & pasta would be nice but I would definitely miss the ferry!
With my heart in my mouth, Mona & Ben's cheery waves & assurances that everything would be ok ..... I set off. And what fun I had.
My plan was to enjoy the journey & log it in my set of life experiences & achievements. Not stress about it (ha ha), take my time & learn something along the way. I wanted to avoid hotels etc & make the journey as cheap as possible by sleeping in my van. The dogs had plenty of space (my van is more like a dog hotel!) & I had a ledge. Yes, you read correctly ... a ledge. It is functional, comfortable & practical but there is no space for sitting upright to drink wine & read. But a happy oversight resolved that problem for me (more about that later).
First stop over was with another Helpx host who was Mr. Hospitality himself. My plan was to meet one or two other Helpx hosts for the chat & simply park up on their drive way. I was a tad wary of being in my van just parked up randomly somewhere.
Sat Nav actually took me to a dot in the middle of no-where which wasn't a great start to my adventure. I just kept on going & eventually got to the town where I was supposed to be. BUT I didn't speak Spanish so in my best Portuguesey Englishey Spanish I accosted the nearest person who looked ok (he was walking a dog on a lead so that gave him some credibility). I had a vague address & Mr. H's name & figured that he must be known locally. Mr. Dog Walker said it was close by (I think) & so I followed but then got twitchty as I had left my passport & money in the van. Mr DW assured me & not to worry as he was the local Policeman Chief!! He was also rather pissed & it totally escaped him that being with me wasn't exactly protecting my passport & van. Mr. DW then proceeded to pop into various shops asking if they knew where Mr. H lived - go figure. Eventually someone did, we found him thank goodness & Mr.H escorted me back to the van explaining that getting to his place was going to be a challenge because of various road works & narrow streets. Great.
Mr. H is definitely one of life's more interesting characters & insisted on cooking me a meal & that I could have a spare room. He gave me a grand tour of the 15 Century palace that he bought & is lovingly renovating, slowly but surely with the bits & pieces he recovers from his daily searches at the local skips. His building has the most spectacular original door that is straight out of a Harry Potter book. It is HUGE with a smaller door set inside it for us regular mortals to use. On a full size billiard table in the restaurant-to-be are all the treasures he has found whilst checking out UK charity shops. A lesson learnt as to the bargains & treasures that can be found if you are persistent. I had planned for an early night but it was not to be. Mr. H likes a good debate & discussion. I had to keep my wits about me - he is someone you don't want on the opposing debate team!
But I had obviously made an impression & he later emailed to say his mate Antonio was interested in my Dancing in Portugal quest.
After a long day driving I got onto a campsite for my next over night stay. I felt I deserved a glass of El Vinho but couldn't find my bottle opener. Well, to be honest I didn't look THAT hard. I'd spotted some friendly campers nearby who had a comfy looking caravan. "Maybe if I go over with my bottle of wine, explain my predicament they might let me sit inside for a while whilst we all partake?" And that is indeed what happened. A very pleasant & comfortable evening was had by all & ...... wait for it ........ the other guests were Lindy Hop dancers & would be passing my way on their travels through Portugal in April 2011. Now there's a happy coincidence. Addresses duly swopped.
The "I can't find my bottle opener" trick was successfully repeated for the next few nights as I happily trundled along the roads to Calais. Arriving in Dover & then having to negotiate UK traffic was 'pants' as they say. Drove for several hours & then pulled up for a sleep in a service station. My lesson learnt there was that you do indeed get a fine if you overstay the 2 hour parking time limit & drive off. Luckily I did find out that it was better to pay the excessive parking fee rather than get the fine. Welcome back to the UK. xx
