On the road again

We ended up having 11 nights “off” travelling for want of a better term, based at Rio de Arosa campsite. This was set up to be a base for us to have a parcel sent out from England and to give us respite from continual motion (this is our first long holiday, and there were a lot of elements we weren’t sure about…being a bit anxious about the unknown and wondering if we’d like it).

This started off with great weather and a few days of warm sunshine, great for chilling and a bit of exploring. Then we realised that we needed to nail down an adaptor for the gas tank to be sent from England – so parcel number two was a telephone order set in motion, and bound to take a few more days. The campsite was quite out of the way, and the receptionist told us that the postman only delivered when it was worth him coming out!

With the end of our week approaching we saw the weather forecast (and then the actual weather) deteriorate…to heavy, thundery showers for several days with weather system after system rolling in from the Atlantic.  Combine this with the attraction of the wifi….and Crufts being streamed live on Youtube and we decided to sit tight over the weekend and while away the time. With electric hookup despite getting repeatedly wet walking the Tollers we weren’t exactly uncomfortable…but it’s the first spell of inclement weather we’ve had while we’ve been away, and we’ve got out of the habit!

That brought us to last weekend, when our next entertainment arrived in the form of a Porsche gathering at the campsite. Amusingly the  15+ cars turned out to belong to the owners son and his friends! Clearly the youngsters are making money somehow! We were still waiting for our second parcel to arrive…. By Tuesday morning we were champing at the bit and waiting for the postman. Thankfully he did come out and deliver our adaptor – and even better it fits!

The other thing that has cropped up in the last few days which has distracted us from this blog….well, how to put it ….we’re now really homeless! With a huge amount of regret we’ve pulled out of building a new house at the plot near Scalloway. As more pieces of the jigsaw were coming together the whole thing was periously close to blowing our budget and becoming a potential black hole with money flowing into it and no hope of ever being a reasonably safe financial equation. The tipping point came when there was a “ransom” request for an unspecified amount to gain access to utility connections which formed part of the planning consent. As we hadn’t reached a “point of no return” on it, we decided it was prudent to cut our losses and not follow on blindly up a path which was disappearing with £ signs underfoot.

Net result is that we’ve spent an inordinate amount of time over the last few days trawling the internet to try and find/decide on what to do next! The one thing we can be certain of at this point ….is that we’re cash buyers and will have to get something underway this summer! So, if we’re a bit distracted, well……we have an excuse!

Having left Galacia and driven to A Rua yesterday to spend a night on the aire beside the lake, we awoke this morning to snow covered hills around the town….which was a bit of a shock. Even with the showers at the campsite it hadn’t been cold….Today’s drive has been following the motorways eastwards….and with sunshine we thought, Yay, we’ve escaped the Atlantic fronts….only to find the motorway led up over the Mountains of Leon and the pass was at 4000ft….and snow on the ground!

And as I sit and write this on our pitch at Haro campsite....there's snow falling.....we weren't expecting this....and have now looked at the weather forecast again....and will be sticking to the motorways for driving for the next couple of days....as they are doing a really great job of keeping them completely free of snow!