A Little Birthday trip to Spain - article by Richard "Tank" Turner
Saturday, 21 February 2009 - Sunday, 1 March 2009
Getting lost in Kent is an unusual experience for me as I've lived here all my life but I had to ask Chris Moore to talk me down to his place in Linton near Maidstone, my memory just failed me.
Any road up, the reason I was headed out Maidstone way was to spend the night at Chris and Kaye's place so as to get an early start to catch the 9.00am ferry to Calais from Dover. Kaye had bought three track days at the Circuit d'Alcarras (A new race circuit in Spain) for Chris's birthday, me and Keith Procter had volunteered to tag along as pit crew. Chris's bike was being sent ahead in a container and would hopefully be waiting for him at the track.
After Chris had successfully directed me to "Chez Moore" we got a phone call from Keith Procter who had used his sat nav and was also lost; Chris did his talking down job again and the four of us sat down over nibbles to plan the week ahead. Chris and Keith settled down to some serious planning over a bottle of single malt.
It all started off well, we loaded up the Camper Van and were soon in Dover getting loaded onto the Sea France ferry.
A short hop across the Channel and we were on our way to Spain, Kaye had asked our sat nav "Daniel" to direct us to the Spanish border via Paris and Clermont Ferrand and so off we went with Chris taking the wheel for the first stage of the trip.
We stopped for meal at a roadside restaurant and I took a turn at the wheel, unfortunately "Daniel" had plotted a route via the outskirts of Paris, the roads became steadily more congested and the numbers of wrong turnings ("recalculating") increased but soon Paris was behind us and we were enjoying the French roads. Kaye had checked out the location of most Formula 1 and Premiere Class motels on the route down to Spain so that when we needed to stop; we would have the address of a nearby motel and "Daniel" could direct us there. At about 10.00pm we found ourselves at an apparently unmanned "Premiere Class" motel in Clermont Ferrand, after trying unsuccessfully to book in by use of our credit cards and external computer screen and keypad, a French guy appears and with a Gallic shrug opens up the motel reception, reboots the computer and everything starts working. Great relief, book in and off to our rooms.
After a standard "as much French bread and cornflakes as you can eat" breakfast, we regrouped and set off towards Spain. We had made good time and so Kaye ordered "Daniel" to avoid toll roads in order to keep down costs. We followed the E11/A75 route down and, with the Camper Van flat out at 70 climbed over lower slopes of the Alps along a snow free dual carriageway after bowling along for miles making good time "Daniel" instructed us to turn off at the next exit.
Dutifully, we turned off and "Daniel" directed us down a series of hairpin bends and into a small village through the village and up a further series of hairpin bends.
When I saw, in the distance, the beautiful Norman Foster designed Millau Viaduct crossing the valley I suddenly twigged that "Daniel" had directed us though the village of Millau in order to avoid the toll! Reading the blurb about the viaduct on the web I discovered that by using the 2,460m long, 343m tall viaduct, we could have saved 100Km, and possibly 4 hours in time all for an off-season toll of 4.6 Euros.
I somehow think that we might have chosen to pay the toll if we had realised.
Any road up, back on the toll free A75 we realised that we were getting behind time and that we should bite the bullet and take the fasted route to our hotel in Spain, toll or no toll, "Daniel" received new orders and we headed towards Barcelona.
And so it was that at kilometre post 142 from Barcelona, 999 miles from Maidstone, I pulled the camper van into the AS Hotel near Lleida in Spain.
We checked in found our rooms and had a meal in the unfortunately named Ars service station/café/restaurant next to the hotel where the restaurant was closed.
In the morning we were given a map and directions to the racetrack which was located at the end of a 5 mile dirt track! Well we followed the directions, the road was only part dirt track; the rest of it was roadworks! Anyway, we found the "Circuit d'Alcarras" and what a superb race circuit it is with a long uphill straight and sweeping downhill bends. Chris's Honda Firestorm was waiting for him in one of the pit garages and soon Chris was togged up in leathers and helmet and off on his first lap.
The Hottrak organisers had arranged for the bikes to go out in three sessions each of 20 minutes; first the blue group (fast) second the red group (intermediate) and finally the green group (beginners).
Chris went out in the intermediate group and seemed to fit in well although it soon became clear that Chris's bike was the only bike wearing number plates and the rest of the group appeared to be professional or semi professional road racers who were there to get some pre season practice in. One rider who stood out was a young lady called Jenny Tynemouth who was lapping within seconds of the lap record and passing most of the guys in the blue group. Apparently Jenny is going to be racing at the TT in June.
Kaye, Keith and I spent the time exploring the outfield of the track and taking photos; none of us were that keen to subject the camper van to more of the dirt track than was necessary or to leave Chris circulating on his own.
After three days on the track, it was time to depart and having travelled to Spain via the long motorway route, we decided to return over the Pyrenees via Andorra. Setting off in the early morning mist we climbed steadily North towards the Pyrenees eventually we climbed out of the mist and into bright sunshine albeit, gradually with more snow on the ground.
As we pulled into Andorra we were flagged down by a young policeman (they all look young nowadays) who interviewed us for five minutes about the purpose of our visit, I'm not sure whether they were looking for drugs, illegal immigrants or what but they let us in. Andorra gave the impression of being a shanty town with snow, we stopped in the main shopping centre and bought some cheap booze; I couldn't resist buying two bottles of "Glen Turner" for my sons.
Setting off again we approached the highest part of the mountains and had to make a choice, whether to pay the toll to go through a tunnel under the peak or go over the high pass and use our snow chains? We paid the toll.
Back in France we needed to head for a place to stay the night and after a little discussion agreed to head for the mediaeval walled city of Carcasonne. Again a handy Premiere Classe hotel was programmed into "Daniel" and soon we were getting unpacked.
We drove into Carcasonne that evening and were lucky enough to find a small restaurant open (and a cash point) so that we could eat. After a lovely meal we wandered around the old town which, together with the old bridge, squares, walls and buildings were floodlit at night.
Setting off the following day, as we were heading for central France and had no accommodation booked, we thought get in touch with ex-members Malcolm and Edward who run a B&B near Limoges. Kaye phoned Julie to get their phone number and I called Edward; we were in luck, they had two spare rooms that night.
Daniel was reprogrammed with the details of Appletons B&B and as the night drew in we slowly closed in, it was my turn at the wheel and after overshooting the entrance to the drive, I slowly pulled up outside, Malcolm and Edward greeted us at the gate and I parked the van in the barn. Malcolm and Edward have transformed over the last 4 years an old semi derelict farmhouse with no sanitation or mains water supply into a modern cosy B&B with four bedrooms.
We had a lovely evening meal and all too soon it was time to be on our way again. After lots of photos and farewells we set off to Abbeville where we would spend our final night dans la belle France.
Now we hadn't watched much telly on the trip so far but both Keith and I are rugby fans, it was Saturday and England were playing Ireland in the Six Nations Championships. We pulled into Abbeville at about 3.00pm, Chris found a place to park and Keith and I ran into Abbeville looking for a Sports Bar which was showing the rugby on a big TV. Well, we found a bar, told the bemused barman that we would be back and rushed off back to the camper van. Next job was finding some where to stay, a Formula One motel did the job and so now unpacked, we returned to the Sports Bar where over a nice meal we watched England being beaten by the Irish, Keith was well pleased. We went out to celebrate that night in Abbeville again it was difficult to find places open but we found one in the end.
The next day we called back into Abbeville to visit a Chocolatiere which we had spotted the previous evening and stocked up on chocolates for home. The drive back to Calais passed all too quickly and soon we were on the boat for home. Thank you Chris & Kaye for inviting me along for what was an unforgettable experience.