BULAS ADVENTURES – LEG 1 (France, Spain & Portugal)

Route: - High Wycombe, England to Bordeira, Portugal
Dates: - Friday 12th – Thursday 18th January 07
Total Miles: - 1,549
No. Nights: - 6

At last we are finally on our way and have successfully negotiated the channel crossing, 3 countries and arrived in Portugal. The departure weekend was certainly not without incident both pleasant and concerning but boy it’s a good feeling to have finally set off and be under way!
Having decided to undertake the trip back in November 2005, the past 14 months have been both slow and quick, wanting to get on with it but still not having enough time to prepare every thing! Final vehicle modifications were completed 5 days before D Day, along with our passports, complete with Visas! Along side these final trip preparations we were packing up the house for storage and saying very emotional goodbyes to Mitzi, Family and friends and tying to ensure all the loose ends were tied up, all in all a pretty stressful, though it made a very nice change from flying to Hong Kong and getting ready for Toy Fair!

Anyway enough about the preparations and onto the trip itself! Thankfully the first leg down to Portugal has been a doddle, though we did have a minor panic on the Sunday prior to our ferry crossing when we discovered that the alternator was playing up; after various tests and conversations with James (the man who has re-built Bula) it was decided to crack on and try our luck as the thought of delaying our departure any longer was to daunting! This incident aside we had a wonderful weekend starting with a fantastic surprise lunch at Cliveden House thanks to Susan, Sally and the Rateys, followed by a curry in Windsor with more close friends. Sunday included more food with a pub lunch (for Clare) and a roast dinner with Clare’s sister and brother in-law before collapsing in bed exhausted, a little fatter but very excited!


Monday was an early start to catch the 08:45 ferry from Portsmouth and thankfully everything ran like clockwork. The nearly 6-hour crossing was smooth as could be and we took the chance to catch up on some sleep, watch the film DeJaVu and generally tried to relax. On arrival in Caen we only had a 2 hour drive to Rennes where we were booked into an Campanile Hotel (French equivalent to Travel Lodge), as too cold for camping!

The next 3 days were spent meandering south through France, & Spain with stops at La Rochelle (for lunch), Bordeaux and Madrid. Bula behaved impeccably and happily cruised at 60 mph causing us no problems; we finally arrived in Bordeira, Portugal to be greeted by Graham’s folks with cold wine and beer and in time for a Birthday supper!
Since arriving in Portugal we have taken the opportunity to relax, enjoy the warmer weather and complete the final preparations. Bula’s alternator has been replaced (thanks to Peter @ Dingocroft and Roberto @ Escapes), we have re-charged our personal batteries and Graham even managed to squeeze some golf in! We are hoping to set off on Leg 2 this Friday (26th ), heading west back through Spain and France to Italy