On the Road Again... Again

With there still being 4 months until we set off for Plymouth and the long ferry to Spain, I have been thinking about some more routes and places to visit. The first two nights after arrival are booked at Caravanning Oyambre and then we start the touring part of the trip. I don't want to be driving everyday nor do I want to be doing huge mileages each day. I have a rough plan to take in some of the Roman places etc between León and the coast. Letting Google Maps plan a route from Oyambre to Potes and then Ayamonte on the Mediterranean. From Zamora it zig zagged into Portugal and then back into Spain. A bit of tweaking, adding a few places of interest and it came up with this. Why Ayamonte? We have seen it a few times in vlogs and it looks a nice place to have a few days rest and recuperation. This will be the end of the first part of the trip. Between C and D there are other places to see.  It's only an idea though.

Since moving to this Blogger template it isn't as obvious to display various information, such as a blog list of this followed  Clicking on the three lines on the top left? I tend to follow other motorcycle and campervan bloggers. If you are one, then let me know.

Quite often when we are away we don't want or need a lot of water in the fresh water tank. So I use a watering can. The can is kept in the van and only ever used for  potable water. The idea of this funnel is to make it easier to fill and have less water running down the outside of the van. Does it work. Yes. It has three lugs on the back to lock into the filler hole, in the same way the cap fits. From new it was very tight and wouldn't fit until one of the lugs sheered off. Then it fitted and locks into place. Was it worth the money from a UK eBay seller? Probably. It will make the job easier as long as no other lugs break off!!

I opted for the blue one in the end. It looks good on the phone. Hopefully it will look good when 50 of them arrive..... They are made in Sweden!

Dell Latitude 5400 After the last 15 years of the old Dell I have finally decided to invest some of my pension in a new laptop. The old one was originally made for Windows 7 and when it started to wheeze we threw some RAM at it and the techs at work installed Windows 10.  But once again it's decided to slow down and become unreliable. Luckily, I was able to get it to work and backup everything to a 500gb Samsung portable hard drive.  It was a surprise that the iTunes folder was 60gb alone! The drive has been used a few times and I simply create a folder with the date and then copy what I need into sub folders. So, the new one. Another Dell. Another Latitude. This time with Windows 11 Pro.  I opted for 32gb RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Hopefully a little future proof.  Before making up my mind I asked both Gemini and ChatGPT on my phone to suggest the best option with Windows 11 Pro, large amount of RAM and hard drive. Perhaps a little oddly, or not, they both came up wi...

In the four years since we became "Vanners" we have been to some interesting places. I prefer the monicker to some of the others we get called. We have seen some of Europe's beauty and made some exciting purchases... We have met a lot of nice people that share a common interest.  Be they full time "vanlifers" or like us, "weekend warriors", as a vanlifer called us,  that live in a house or apartment, and travel when possible. But. Whether you are Vanlifer or Vanner. There's always that not "amazing" or "stunning"* stopover or purchase. This week mine has been.... It's an essential at some aires. Not all come with a threaded tap. We have been caught out a couple of times only, but for a few pounds this is a solution. It's not "stunning" but useful. * stunning - a very over used descriptor on vanlife and vanner vlogs. 

We have booked the van in to have its habitation check for the first week of February.  It's the start of the camping season for us and so we need the can checked over and ready for another year of trips away, home and abroad, as well as some rallies with the Motor Caravanners' Club. The company doing it also have a mobile service where they come to your house. It's easier that way and we can quickly empty it and refill once it's over.

I have signed up. It's only a fortnight after we get back from our Autumn holiday. I will look for somewhere to stay over the night before, Halloween, so we can make it that early in the morning to the meet. If we can't make it, then the tenner is a good donation to the Arboretum.

What could be better than a Cornish Cream Tea? A scone with strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream... Maybe two scones would be better! I have ordered a few cream teas over the last few years but usually for special occasions only. https://thecornishcompany.com/ The next special occasion will be Claire's birthday in February.....

Today at Greyhound Rescue I got to play with Bandit. It's a case of having to play as he makes sure that he gets a cuddle and loves to jump up for his idea of fun, licking my spectacles! I took the Sony Cybershot today and took a couple of videos and some stills.... He's a young dog, housetrained and more energetic than the average greyhound. Once he has had a few zoomies and something to eat he settles down with a toy to play with.

January 25th is Burns Night . This year we have the Simon Howie haggis.  Claire decided not have any as she is watching her calorie intake. A haggis is not ideal if you are watching your weight. 😜 So I decided I couldn't eat a whole one in one sitting, so I cut it in half. The traditional haggis should come in a sheep's stomach but nowadays it's the plastic bag. No more boiling for ages, the modern haggis can be microwaved. This one is cut into chunks and then done on full power for three minutes. Mash with a fork and then finish off for two minutes. It's usually served with potatoes and swede. I decided to forego spuds and had mashed swede. Then filled that space in, with baked beans. It was lovely. Until Wednesday when we eat the other half!!!!

With the weather looking grey and overcast we decided to take the van for a run out.  Whilst out we could fill up the LPG at the BP. In the end we gave up with £5 at £0.99 a litre. The pump rushed to just over £2 then slowed to a penny a second ... Once over the White Cliffs we found a park up in the alloted space with two other vans. They were more vanlife than us.  I had taken the Bluetti with us to use the Tassimo for a coffee rather than buy one.  We parked on the next to end space. Whoever marked the spaces must have not realised that anything bigger than a VW would overhang the bays lengthwise.  The end, leftmost, space has the corner cut off making it unsuitable for anything longer and wider than an Astra van! A quick walk up the hill was thwarted when Reggie needed his relieve himself and we needed find the bin. There are no bins along the path and along the cliffs.  We put Reggie in the van and walked over to the shop and café. A cheese and onion pasty ...

More ChatGPT and Gemini updates to the Devall Travels logo. This one adds the Red Rose of Lancashire for part of my heritage. I really like the last one with the Union Flag and the Invicta horse from where we live in Kent.

The current decals are a bit boring. Grey.... So a bit of tweaking, not twerking as auto correct is suggesting, I have come up with something more colourful but tasteful. Which is best for a decal? I am leaning towards the sky blue background....

Although not a Scot, or at least not part Scots for around 150 years, I still love a bit of haggis. Usually reserved for Burns Night around the 25th January.  But other times in the year at home, and if course in Scotland. We've been up that way since 2015. We went up in the Insignia and stayed in a wooden lodge thing near Drumnadrochit by Loch Ness. Before that my brother and I took my Mum's ashes to Loch an Eilean near Aviemore. She was a Shaw and we think, not certain, her family came to England from that way a long long time ago. One evening we had haggis for dinner and again with the "full Scottish breakfast". This year we will have a Simon Howie haggis again.

The van is fitted with two port hole windows at the rear on both sides. On the left side, driver's side, they two rear windows open. On the other, as they are above the Truma heating exhaust, they sealed shut. As the Remis blind covers both, and is only an inch or so above the level of the mattress on the transverse bed, we have to be careful not to damage them. They are expensive to replace and repair. For over a year we have looked for a solution, to cover the windows, so we can have the blinds up. My temporary measure was a piece of foam that fits in the groove in the frame used by the blind. It works. The blinds are only half way up, and enough to stop feet and pillows touching. I think I have found a better solution. The internal diameter of the windows is 36cms. Someone suggested for their, albeit square windows. they use thin cushion covers fixed in place, but with suction cups. I Googled and found IKEA setting thin chair covers, 36cms in diameter. In the end only plain blac...

What is the NAR ? Who are the Legion Riders? The NAR is the non-attendance rally and it runs every year. It's a motorcycle rally with a different place every year. It's a way to raise money for the Royal British Legion  (RBL) The Legion Riders  (RBLR) are one of the branches in the Royal British Legion. You can join the Legion and usually attend your local branch. Choosing the RBLR is a choice and generally not dependent on where you live.  My RBL membership ran out a couple of years ago. I tried to join online and the website was rubbish. I tried to call and was bounced around. I support the Poppy Appeal and obviously the NAR. For £5 with £2 to cover the certificate and postage, and the badge.

Sadly cancelled for 2026. Campers & Coffee Announcement

Today Reggie and I had a walk around Fisherman's Beach in Hythe. There aren't that many boats left and developers have put some apartment blocks on the the back of the beach . The white house is a Martello Tower that has been converted into a house.  The red flag was flying and so we couldn't walk along the ranges we went as far as we could and turned around. Walking along the edge as the waves rumbled in, revealed the number of Cuttlefish washed up beyond the tendrils of the waves. Too many to count. Very sad but they will provide food for the gulls.

We called it "big boy" as it weighs an awful amount. Basically it's a huge lithium battery in a case with some electronics. We also have a smaller one from Allpowers that's really just for charging stuff and boiling the low power kettle. Allpowers also makes the solar panel we have.  Big Boy has been in the van for three weeks and when it went away it was 100% charged. It's down to 92% just by sitting. It's been very cold with temps down to -6°C a couple of times. I thought lithium was less susceptible to cold than conventional lead-acid batteries. Anyway, I charged it up today. I have had a problem connecting to it by Bluetooth from my phone. The VPN shouldn't affect Bluetooth but once I turned it off, the phone and big boy found each other. We have to decide whether to take both power banks to Spain with us. We also need space for the solar panel.