The reason for visiting Millau was twofold. Firstly to experience the recently opened nearby viaduct built to carry the A75 road over the deep and wide Tarn valley and designed by Norman Foster. Secondly to drive along the 75k of the Gorges du Tarn with its many precipitous sides. Both were equally impressive. We then had a long and sometimes spectacular drive over several passes, down the Ardeche valley and along several motorways leading to Chapelle d’Abondance in the Alps to visit Dick and Angie Anderson whose chalet we used during our winter’s season skiing two years ago. We arrived after nine in the evening. ... read more

We left Barcelona and moved north east to Montserrat an impressive craggy mountain with a delightful road running along its side. Then onwards in increasingly windy and cold conditions to the Pyrenees and into Andorra. Andorra is a small duty free principality which we didn’t take to because of all the commercial development maximising the shopping opportunities for the French and Spanish. We crossed over the Port d’Envalira at 2,408m, the highest point we shall reach on the trip. As usual the van had no difficulty climbing up to the pass. We dropped down into France where we were delayed for 45 minutes at the border while the customs checked all the duty free Sunday shoppers. Our campsite was at Mérens about 20k over the border 1,250m. The weather had become increasingly cold, wet and ... read more

We drove over 400 kilometres north today, first hugging the coast as far as Valencia and then taking the motorway to Barcelona. As usual with a big city, we had some fairly hairy times and a few wrong turns on the motorway system finding the site but eventually did. It promises a good bus connection into the centre but is situated adjacent to a busy road and the airport so sleep was disturbed a little. ... read more

After managing to ascend the steep hairpin track from the finca, we started our long trip up the east coast of Spain. The south east corner of the country is very arid with the mountains cascading into the sea. This meant we drove on some very interesting roads. Large areas of the country are covered in polythene to maximise the growing season for the crops the farmers cultivate. We spent the night at Puerto de Mazarrón at a pleasant spot although midges bothered us. ... read more

We had the first rain today for over a week but the whether still remained quite warm. The wind had dropped in Tarifa so there were no surfers, but we did drive as far south as we could. The southern point is inaccessible as it is a military zone. The afternoon was spent driving along the Costa del Sol which is as depressingly built up as we expected with continuous development for the 120 kilometre stretch of coast between Gibraltar and Malagar. We couln’t imagine where all the people who own property in this area come from. After Malager we were able to escape into the peace of the hills for a two day visit to the Puttergill Finca. ... read more