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Hi, here's a few pics of our just completed road-trip of a little over six weeks, in our 110 300 TDI with Alucab roof. We used the ferry from Plymouth to / from Santander which is 20-22 hours and a great way to travel. The ferry's all-in weight is about 40,000 T so it's a reasonably big beast.

Most of the time was on tarmac but we did do some tracks and found some good hide-away spots for 'away-from-it-all nights'.

We are self contained with a small toilet and a 20 litre waste container that is used for black water if the toilet gets full, or grey water if it is needed. We have a compressor fridge and a 100W solar panel.

In all it was about 3,400 miles and achieved 29.5 miles per gallon (imperial). Weight is 2,560Kg according to a weigh-bridge somewhere in Spain. We had just three niggles.

First was the leak-off pipe at #1 which split at the injector and made quite a mess considering.

Second was an o-ring on the steering pump to steering box pipe, pump end. This was more of a problem as I had already replaced the O-ring before we left. It started to leak again on the way to Plymouth but on day 1 in Spain it poured out. I had a spare but due to the mess I called in at a village garage and they swapped it (I provided the ATF). This leaked immediately and they eventually used a seal off an old BMW pipe but I didn't see it. It is still leaking a very tiny amount but not enough to top up.

Third is that after some very bumpy off-roading in the Sierra Nevada I have now got a 55 - 65 mph wobble. This didn't cause much trouble as I was rarely at those speeds but it was a pain coming up the M5 etc once back in the UK. On the last morning I got the front wheels balanced but it didn't help. Something has got loose but I haven't got underneath yet to investigate.

I can thoroughly recommend the Spanish mainland for stupendous mountains, gorges, canyons, drop-offs, lakes, rivers and empty roads. This was our third tour there and the best yet.

Our route was anti-clockwise from Santander.

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Just now, Peaklander said:

No it's called Roping the Bull. It's in various villages. This one is Grazalema in the south. It's a similar mad idea though but only one bull is involved.

Ah OK

Was at pamplona years ago went for the festival thought it was crackers mad but loved it all the same, was touring on motorbike regards Stephen 

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That’s a dream right there !! 
 

Fantastic ! 
 

I’ve a plan/ambition to use the same ferry - but head across the Pyrenees to Andorra, and then over and up through France from there.

If you have any more details or pics to share on your trip - I’d love to read more !?

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2 minutes ago, Anderzander said:

I’ve a plan/ambition to use the same ferry - but head across the Pyrenees to Andorra, and then over and up through France from there.

If you have any more details or pics to share on your trip - I’d love to read more !?

Ha! If you have time to read it, I can send you a link to my blog if you want, via PM (don't want to push it here)

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By the way, there are ferries from Portsmouth to Bilbao but they take about 30 hours. This is the first time we tried Plymouth and coming from "the north" it's only an hour longer to get there.

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1 minute ago, Peaklander said:

Ha! If you have time to read it, I can send you a link to my blog if you want, via PM (don't want to push it here)

Hardly pushing it your travels fit right in to the out and about section regards Stephen 

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7 minutes ago, Anderzander said:

What do you do for your toilet then - do you have one of those tiny ‘out house’ tents ?

No the toilet is in the 2nd row footwell. It slides under the fridge which is behind the driver's seat.

With the roof up there's loads of vertical space but with the bed down there is still just enough room to use it - but not everyone would think that there is! So we don't need to go outside at all if the weather is bad.

We have found that having an on-board toilet has transformed where we can stay - away from campsites.

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10 hours ago, Nonimouse said:

Wherabouts did you go in the sierra Nevada?  And did you get far in to the Sierra De La Nieves?

We went along the south side, in the Alpujarras and visited Orgiva (again) which seemed to be a little run-down. We stopped in Laroles and then went over Puerto de la Ragua. On the way up there we turned west off the road and drove a track for about 12Km. I hadn't done any homework and there appeared to be no way over to the north, only back down to the south side.

We really only drove through the Sierra de la Nieves I think. We had been to Olvera and that area a week earlier and we drove back through the area to get to El Churro where we did the Caminito del Rey gorge walk.

Don't be too disappointed.

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Ok, here's a few more pics. We used a combo of Wikiloc and park4night for a lot of our 'locations'. Wikiloc was useful for walking up into the mountains too.

 

Using the back road into a village...

 

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Happened upon this overnight spot just a couple of km off the road, north of Merida. Didn't see a soul.
 

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Postres course in an €8.50 menu del dia in Olvera and yes, the beer was included.

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Some of the loops going up Puerto de las Palomas in Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema, which is a spectacular area.

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A lovely valley accessed on gravel from both directions.

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12 hours ago, Peaklander said:

We went along the south side, in the Alpujarras and visited Orgiva (again) which seemed to be a little run-down. We stopped in Laroles and then went over Puerto de la Ragua. On the way up there we turned west off the road and drove a track for about 12Km. I hadn't done any homework and there appeared to be no way over to the north, only back down to the south side.

We really only drove through the Sierra de la Nieves I think. We had been to Olvera and that area a week earlier and we drove back through the area to get to El Churro where we did the Caminito del Rey gorge walk.

Don't be too disappointed.

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I've been going down to the Alpujarra for 20 odd years and I find that Orgiva and Lanjaron are like the arms of a set of scales. One is tip top and bristol fasion and the other is getting a bit run down, then all change. I know Orgiva is throwing money at a civic works as I write. I wish Lanjaron would tidy up the castle though.

I must let you have some routes. There's a road out of Lanjaron east that goes up into the Sierra. Just to get up the south escarpment, there are 108 hairpins that take you up higher than Ben Nevis. You can Almaria one way and Malaga the other...  Theres another stonking route to Malaga over the high passes, through the Sierras de Tejeda.

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@Nonimouse, I will look at my tracker waypoints a little more closely, as we did go very near to Sierras de Tejeda, camping just underneath on the Malaga side. I think we then drove over the top to the north.

I should have spent more time researching tracks and you did talk about them but too many things happened before we left and I ran out of time.

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34 minutes ago, Peaklander said:

@Nonimouse, I will look at my tracker waypoints a little more closely, as we did go very near to Sierras de Tejeda, camping just underneath on the Malaga side. I think we then drove over the top to the north.

I should have spent more time researching tracks and you did talk about them but too many things happened before we left and I ran out of time.

There's always next time. I won't be getting my fix of Spanish travel this year, as I'm off to Denmark, then hopefully a few days into Sweden

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like a great trip!

We're doing Spain and Morocco in September, only spending 5 days in Spain though.

So far we've looked at the Picos de Europa National Park to the west of Santander to visit so any tips/thoughts after that would be great.

 

We're sailing to Morocco from Almeria

 

 

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