Bongo Fury

briwy wrote:I came back from France about thirty ago on the hovercraft.
Big scramble for window seats on boarding, as soon as it left the concrete couldn't see a thing, water and sand everywhere. Horrible thing, noisy, rough, only advantage was the speed of the crossing.
Brilliant technology though.

I had exactly the same experience - quick, but very boring, especially when they screwed up the loading and failed to put us on the one we'd booked for. Life is in the travelling, not how quick you get there. Never truer than with the SRN4 hovercraft. I see in Wikipedia that:

The SR.N4s operated services across the English Channel between 1968 and 2000, until the abolition of duty-free made their service unprofitable.

mikeonb4c wrote:

The SR.N4s operated services across the English Channel between 1968 and 2000, until the abolition of duty-free made their service unprofitable.

Ain't that the sad truth though, that they made their money from duty-free sales, not the crossing itself. In the months before SpeedFerries went under (running a catamaran car-ferry from Dover to Boulogne-sur-Mer) their staff seemed more keen on flogging beam-benders, hi-viz jackets & spare bulb kits. But they ultimately failed in the face of big competition from the likes of DFDS, P&O and EuroTunnel that even saw Sea France off

Seems all too common at the moment for ferry services to be packing up.
LD/DFDS no longer running to Le Havre and Spain, just leaves Brittany Ferries with their horrendous costs.

Just stumbled across this and All I can say is you lucky sods! Brilliant trip and it beats anything I've watched on TV over Christmas , if we ever plan a trip I will be in touch for any tips and wine recomendations (in fact half way through a echo falls California at mo) I am on limited mileage on my insurance 5000 miles would have to check with them for extra cost on doing a trip like yours hope 2015 brings you as many trips
Chris

Cheers Chris, just finishing off the first bottle of Rioja for the day, no doubt we'll progress to some of the Châteauneuf du Pape we brought back which is just about the nicest red (2010 Château Cabrières) I've ever had. You may get a good deal on the insurance as a 1-trip deal associated with a green card. Technically you don't need a green card as your UK insurance guarantees to provide the minimum cover required in the EU countries you visit but only the minimum (most likely third party only), so a green card increases the cover to match what you get in the UK.

Happy to provide any advice if you plan a trip. All I'll say at this point is that we did a lot of planning, particularly exact GPS coordinates for places we planned to go, and the same for places we planned to sleep including many alternatives should our progress not be to plan or our first choice places be full. Of course, the route we finally took wasn't to plan either due to time constraints, the Burgos section should have come earlier (before Portugal) but due to the Galician weather we managed to throw that in at the end and add León, Pamplona & Bilbao as well.

Overall it was the best trip we've done (so far ) and we've got plans for 2015

You could save a thousand or so miles by missing the French section, just sail to Bilbao or Santander and do Spain & Portugal. St Malo was chosen as I wanted to see Mont Saint Michel and then the Millau viaduct and Marseilles, and Mrs Muz wanted to go to Roquefort, but you could probably skip France altogether. Skip Andorra too, it nearly killed Bongy!

¡feliz año nuevo to all our readers from Equipo Muz!

Thanks muz what insurance company are you with and what mileage do they allow annually mine is due for renewal in March and think next year will defo do a trip over seas
Thanks chris

Ah, mine's still technically a works car so I never get to see the invoices

But it's Blue Fin underwritten by QBE Insurance (Europe)

Well I've done 95,000 miles over last 4years but not on the mot's but if I had a accident 3,000 miles from home insurance company could be awkward will check on renewal in March

Muzorewa wrote:

BongoGog wrote:Thanks again, here's to next venture Espana!

Hey amigo, if you need any tips for that, let me know but in the meantime whet your appetite with this... http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 37&t=67347

Thanks for the offer Ill take you up on that. So you've got Spanish connections or just love it there? Is your avatar a give away?

Thanks for the link to your photos - wow impressive and all done in just 3 weeks all wild camp and no awning tent - where do you put all your gear? No trailer either.

Our plan is to get ferry to Santander and out (not my plan the missus reckons the drive up through France would be too much for our 3 year old - doh - not to mention the extra expense!!). Plan to explore the Picos / Pyrennes / Andorra and Montserrat and Barcelona. Interesing to note you took the train to the cities due to lack of bongo parking.... mm probably do the same, as hoping to get a campsite close to centre?? Not done any research yet. I like your stop off suggestions for wines and food - will also check some of those - definitely La Rioja area as a big fan.

Muchas gracias

No, we just love the place. It took me a while to get Mrs Muz to agree to going there, she was convinced the whole place was like Benidorm

For the wine & food stopovers, see http://www.espana-discovery.es/en
For wild-camping suggestions, see http://www.furgovw.org/mapa_furgoperfecto/

There was definitely no Bongo-parking in Marseille, plenty of parking but all underground height-barrier places, so the TGV from Avignon seemed a civilised alternative. The train into Barcelona we've done before on other tours, and also into Valencia, Madrid and Lisbon, much better than cooking your Bongo in traffic.

Andorra was a disappointment I'd have to say, but worth going to tick it off the list. Montserrat and Barcelona definitely worth making the effort for. You can get a train from Barcelona to Castellbell i el Vilar - Monistrol de Montserrat on the R5 line, from there there's a rack & pinion train up to the Monastery. We took the cablecar instead as there's wild-camping in the cablecar carpark.

You need to plan. Do some research, particularly timetables of places you want to go and trains if you're going to use them, and potential places of interest along the way. Be realistic (I'm a fine one to be preaching that ) on what you can do in a day, and the holiday will be so much more of an achievement.

I'd also challenge the view on your child being ok driving through France, they'll probably be asleep most of the way. You can get any number of ferries or the tunnel to France and then hit Andorra, then from Barcelona drift west towards Cantabria When possible I like to use different routes, different operators too if possible, to add to the overall experience. You're stuck with Britanny Ferries for Santander but for France you can use Condor Ferries from Weymouth or Poole to Saint Malo, DFDS from Dover to Dunkerque, EuroTunnel from Folkestone to Calais (the tunnel is an experience if you haven't used it and don't have LPG power), LD Lines from Newhaven to Dieppe or P&O from Dover to Calais. From North Wales any of those would do and you can tie in places en route in Wales, England & France to suit. Weigh up the cost of your Santander crossing (including cabin) against the fuel and much cheaper crossing from France. I'd recommend doing Santander one-way only and drive through France for the other leg The LD Lines Gijón to Poole service is now abandoned.

One last thought, being able to speak a bit of Spanish is a big help. In Benidorm they all speak English but inland they don't. Sure, in Barcelona they'd rather you spoke Catalan but a bit of Spanish will get you a long way

Any questions, ask away

I'm with Muz on the ferries. We regularly travel down to the Pyrenees and the trip down is doable in long day or just take a break half way. The Brittany Ferries are a complete rip off IMHO.
Have a look at the DFDS Newhaven to Dieppe route, this saves about 100 miles rather than from Calais. I've just booked a couple of trips down, one in mid July for £90 overnight with a cabin. Even if you use the motorways with tolls it won't be anywhere near the cost of the Santander/Bilbao ferry.

BongoGog wrote:wow impressive and all done in just 3 weeks all wild camp and no awning tent - where do you put all your gear? No trailer either.

In my experience you should decide beforehand how much money you're going to need and how many clothes you're going to need. Then take twice as much money and half as many clothes. You'll find you've got about half the money you need and still about twice the amount of clothes you need.

Travel light

Oh yeah, something else we bought whilst at Graham’s Port Lodge, but we can only reveal a photo today. A 1994 bottle of vintage port for Jr’s 21st – Happy Birthday Muz Jr, we were thinking about you at work while we were quaffing all that shampoo!!

Happy 21st Muz Jr. Good to know the old folks are starting you off on the right track. Important to know your Port from your starboard

I wish Mike. Sadly, like most students, the most he knows about port is that it gets you drunk quicker than wine