24 March 2020 The Lake District

We have gone into lock down in the UK Spain did this on the 14 March 2020 so a little to slow, also the supermarkets in Spain made every one sanitize and put on protective gloves before shopping, how long before we catch up on this?

Shopping was OK today quite not many about and plenty of food we will probably be eating better than in the camping car.. Managed to get some exercise today.

Just received fro Portugal

In compliance with the Order of State Secretary of Tourism, No. 3547/2020, published in Diário da República No. 57 of March 22, considering the state of emergency declaration made by the Decree of the President of the Republic No. 14 -A / 2020 of March 18, as well as the duties provided for in Decree No. 2 – A / 2020 of March 20, which determines the closure of camping and caravan sites, effective at 00:00 (local time) on March 22, it should be noted that the users’ departure from the campsites must take place within five working days starting from the date of publication of the aforementioned order.
For this reason, we request the collaboration of everyone in articulating what is necessary in coordination with the Management in each establishment.
We thank you in advance for your understanding, hoping that the best solutions can be found in the difficult conditions we face.
We want our esteemed customers, our business partners and all our employees, as well as their respective families, to protect themselves in order to overcome in the best possible way the fight against the

Coronavirus (COVID-19).

We are together!

Orbitur Intercâmbio de Turismo SA
Board of Directors

Spent most of yesterday evening relaxing after our epic trip from Calpe Spain. This morning started to exercise again ready for getting back to running we hope its great being in the country side. Got our car from storage and gave it a good wash its looking fab. Lovely weather. Lovely to see the daffodils.

We have just worked out the price of the Travel from Calpe to Keswick

Diesel………. €438.53……… £409.49

Tolls …………. €156.20……… £145.86

This is a small price to pay We did work out the cost of taking a large motor home (Concord) from Manchester to Mar Menor ( Nr Cartegena) and back at approximately £15000 !

22 March 2020 The Lake District

We are now home…We had to drive all the way home today due to Southport campsite informing us that they were closing, another 5 hour drive with a lot of idiot drivers! today, more than normal. After driving across 2 country’s in a couple of days and watching the management of the problem first hand we are astonished at the UK not handling the control faster. The beaches are still full today people queuing for ice cream car parks full?

19 – 21 March 2020 Calpe…..Morton in Marsh

Left Calpe at about 0800 just after the rush had gone, the first police control was at Bennisa but we were waved through with no problems. We realized that this journey in life was going to be tough but we drove 580 miles arriving at Marvejols in France at an Aire for an overnight stop. The journey was through some fabulous country side and some super sights. There was not many cars on the road as travel without permission is banned ? but there was lots of trucks one poor driver had rolled it and was blocking part of the motorway. Crossing the Millau Viaduct was great what a sight.

We left Marvejols at 0700 next morning after having a great night’s sleep and drove through the country side before joining the motorway again. We then drove 580 miles to Folkston via Calais only being stopped by the police once north of Paris to make sure we both had the emergency travel documents.

While passing through Paris it was an unusual sight to see all the trains parked up due to reduced rail transport.

We managed to change our Euro tunnel booking at any time due to having a Flexi + ticket. We originally had the tunnel booked for Monday 23/3/20 but the trains were not running at the weekend we then changed to 2000 hours on the 20/3/20 knowing we could arrive any time that day and we would be given priority on the first train available the train was at 1750 so we arrived at the campsite at 1645 British time WOW. Wish we could have shown you our fly collection on the front of the van but it rained late in the day and removed some.

21 March 2020

Good journey from Folkestone to Moreton in Marsh. Lots of traffic on the road which is unusual to us having travelled two countries fairly rapidly where only essential travel is authorized. Missing our coffee stops! Arrived at Moreton in Marsh at 12.10. Very happy with the way the site is handling this problem. Had a walk down to Aldi purely to see if the stories about supermarkets being empty of goods were true. This Aldi was fine, the only thing you couldn’t buy was toilet rolls.

After lunch we had another into the town and we noticed a lady and pushchair with toilet rolls so we looked in the Tesco Local and were able to buy some.

18 March 2020 Calpe

Things are getting worse in Spain at the moment and so we have decided to leave tomorrow our friends are already up near Orleans to be able to catch a train tomorrow. We will follow their route through central France fingers crossed. We have to travel with a special document saying we are going home as travel in Spain and France is banned. We have heard that the motor ways have only trucks motorhomes and caravans on them. The next time we will update the blog should be Monday from the UK. To all our friends and family stay safe.

17 March 2020 Calpe

Up nice and early to news one of our neighbors (Swiss) who has been away for a week from his caravan had returned last night from a few days in New York (WTF) !!!! but due to everything been closed he returned to Valencia airport where all the staff are wearing white protection suits.

Our friends from Yorkshire have decided to drive back to England via France due to Ferry problems. And just to make things worse it’s raining for the next week Ugh. (arranged by the government to enforce staying indoors Clever!).

16 March 2020 Calpe

Wow this morning is like something out of a movie, we were stopped by police while on the way to the supermarket we said shopping and the reply was only one family member may go! On arrival the staff were asking people to separate by 2 meters. Everyone had to hand sanitize then put on protective gloves. After a few minutes the police left.

15 March 2020 Calpe

Despite all travel and movement in Spain banned we noticed last night that lights in previously none occupied holiday apartments in the surrounding towers have started lighting up ? and people partying on the balconies. Some Germans left the site this morning hoping to get someplace !!! good luck, if you look on the webcams for popular seafront resorts like Benidorm you may get an idea of the problem here. From tomorrow there will be no camper-vans/ caravans allowed to enter or leave the site for 15 days, you are only allowed out of the site for food or medical supplies. At the time the site is usually busy but this evening for our exercise? we walked round the site and counted empty pitches (39).

14 March 2020 Calpe

As from last night all bars and restaurants are closed the beach is closed and The Policia are watching. Our campsite has now lots of pitches available as the French, Germans, Dutch and Belgium’s and of course some British leave in case Macron closes the Border between France and Spain. We have had a case of some Brits with family in Madrid have left to go to a virus hit area. We have people off site in England at the moment for a birthday party! and hopefully will get back before the airports start to close. The supermarkets are just coping with food supplies at the moment.

Had a visitor this afternoon see below.

13 March 2020 Calpe

Hi folks at the moment life goes on although the panic buying has now set in and lots of camping cars are on the move. Where they are going is a bit of a mystery as we are not sure what roads are open or closed. I have never seen a supermarket empty of food so fast. We had a lovely meal out with family that travelled up to see us for the day  (not from a hotspot). As for us we have no need for a few months to get back to the UK so are prepared to sit here for a while trapped in the sun! and wait for developments good or bad.