Red sky at night ….

Thursday 18 January 2024

Tonight is the first night we haven’t parked up in an ‘official’ parking place for campervans. We have a lovely view of the large estuary in Galicia that the River Tambre flows into. In the distance we can hear the waves lapping on the rocks and the sun has just set.

On previous roadtrips we found that in France almost every village and definitely every town has an ‘Aire’ where at least one car park is set aside solely for campervans and motorhomes. There are about 4000 Aires across France and most are free to use and many also provide water, waste disposal and electric either free or for a nominal charge.

It’s been great to find that Spain is also well set up with ‘Area de Autocaravanas’ in many towns, and we’ve been stopping overnight in these up until now. All the ones we’ve stayed in have been free to use and provide the basics - water, rubbish bins and waste water disposal. They are generally located on the outskirts of a town but within walking distance of bars, cafes, restaurants and small supermarkets. That way the community gets the tourists €’s but avoid having them driving through in their large vans clogging up the towns. Last nights stop for us was on the outskirts of a village in the middle of nowhere but had toilets and hot showers. Amazing facilities provided by the local community, for free, to encourage visitors to the area.

No worries about upsetting the neighbours here!

In general in Britain parking ‘off grid’ is massively discouraged. The thinking is that we should use campsites - but many people in campervans and motorhomes don’t travel like that. We often only want to stay for one night and many campsites have a minimum stay of 2, 3 or even 7 nights. Many of us don’t need electric hook ups, showers and toilets, and all the other services campsites provide. We basically need a level parking space with sufficient room to park your vehicle whatever length it is, close enough to places we can eat or drink out. Slowly some councils are waking up to this, like Northumberland where we stayed last summer. But it’s a huge faff having to book online months in advance to guarantee one of the limited number of spaces available.

Anyway back to Spain - we’re not alone in our little car park at the end of the road, there’s a large motorhome from the Netherlands (who’s nabbed the best sea view spot) and a smaller van with Spanish plates. No one is bothering anyone, we’re not parked up in front of anyone’s houses and we have nothing outside of the van (chairs/tables/washing etc!) which is a huge no-no and the easiest way to be fined or moved on by the police.

Best of all the forecast for tomorrow is for it to be sunny with a fresh breeze. “Red sky at night, shepherd’s (or sailors!) delight…..”