Gibbs Gap Year

No, Matt hasn't soiled himself again, but we are both wet, cold, hungry, and not completely sure we're actually in Spain. It's been raining for nearly a week now, and we're fed up. Not because we wanted Spain to provide us with much needed relaxing sunshine, though that is true, but because the van has proven itself STILL not to be watertight, despite all the hard work and money that went into attempting to make it drier than the Sahara inside. Neither of us have slept in 2 nights. The first night we didn't sleep we had been up watching a film (Pursuit of Happyness for those who are wondering), along with all it's special features that the leisure battery could handle. We decided to have a little snack and a cigarette (I'm giving up after my birthday, I swear!), and just as we were shining the torch around to make sure we had the blankets straight and the crumbs out of the bed, Matt thought he saw a drip from the ceiling. So we watched, we waited, a...

Well, goodness gracious me, we lucked out with this one! We've just crossed the border from France into Spain, and it's felt like quite a long week. We went from Le Dune Du Pilat, to Mimizan, to Anglet, to Biarritz  (where you can pretty much smell the money everybody who lives there is rolling in!) to Urrugne and FINALLY, into Spain and parked up at San Sebastián. We did all that in 5 days, and had been struggling a little with the journey, both physically and mentally.  Matt was looking for somewhere we could park up the night after sleeping in an old arena car park just outside of San Sebastián. He showed me an image of the parking, and it was another paved over car park, looking a little baron, but it had a water and waste facility, so I agreed. A little while later, Matt turned to me and said "ooohhhh, there's a spa nearby". I was sold, and couldn't wait to get there. I didn't care how much it cost, or what was on offer, I needed a wash and a...

One of the most daunting things about travelling off-grid in a converted campervan, is wondering where you'll stay at night. We mostly use an app on our phone called Park4Night, which shows various places to park on a map. This saved us a lot of time and worry, so we highly recommend it. It's worth noting that (according to the law) when you park outside of a campsite, that's exactly what it is - parking. As soon as you pitch some tables or chairs outside, extend an awning, or hang out washing, then you are considered to be camping, which should only be done at actual paid campsites (or discretely).  As we made our way down south-west France, free camping/parking spots became harder to find, so that began to dictate our route. Also, we had previously found it easy to find free parking for a few hours close to city centres, but we found ourselves limited further south by the majority of parking being underground. We continue our journey from La Rochelle ... ...

We awoke to the view of the sunny shores of Grand Lac Sud in Biscarrosse, after an unsettled night listening to the pouring rain. Our usual routine began, we made breakfast and cups of tea, opened up the side door to let Bailey out and let the fresh air in, while soaking up the serenity.  No sooner had we began to open the Park4Night app on our phones, did Bailey make her usual squeak to let us know that another dog had approached and she was on her back declaring that she means to harm. That's when we looked out of the van to see a beautiful Australian Cattle dog trying desperately to play with Bailey, who was still on her 5 metre lead to stop her from getting into trouble. The dogs' owner appeared a little way away, and asked us something in French. Of course, we are trying to understand French better, but when spoken quickly, and also from far away, we haven't got a chance. She came a little closer, and Matt managed to communicate that we are English, etc (it...

We arrived in a town called Blayè on our way to Bordeaux. We decided that we'd do our first night of not quite wild camping, as we found a tractor on Park4Night. For those who don't know, there are a few different icons on the app, and you can filter it down to only show you certain parking types. I've filtered it down to only show us spots in nature, so no services or paid campsites. This leaves is camper approved parking run by the local Mairie, unofficial parking places in nature, and tractors, which are places of interest or businesses which allow campers to stay for free, often with an expectation you will buy some produce.  The tractor I decided we should go to was a vineyard called Chateau Marquis De Vauban, which allows up to 48 hours free parking, electric hookup, water refill (though this was out of order when we stayed), and a toilet block. The Chateau was absolutely beautiful, there were two black swans and a bunch of the most elaborate beautiful ducks ...