France & Spain 2020

England to the Costa del Sol via Eurotunnel

Leicestershire, England to Monda, Malaga, Spain and back!

October – December 2020

We have traditionally flown to Malaga from East Midlands, but with the Covid-19 pandemic we had decided that 2020 was the year we would finally buy and use our motorhome.  Having talked for years about buying one, now seemed the right time.  So after a couple of practice nights in Leicestershire, we set off driving KEN down from the East Midlands, towards Kent, to take the Eurotunnel onto France.  We would then continue through France to Spain to make our way to our Spanish home, Casa Goodwin in the Malaga province of Andalusia.

Total Journey details:
  • On the road for 9 days
  • A total of 3,428 miles
  • Toll charges were €293.78
  • Fuel £666.00 (24.65 mpg)
  • Campsite charges – €37 (for 3 nights, the other sites were free)
  • Eurotunnel fare – £378 return (with refundable tickets)
Driving off the Eurotunnel
Housekeeping for the trip:
  • Electric hook up on 4 nights
  • Gas – used 2/3rds of a cylinder
  • Water and waste refills every other day
Food for the journey
  • On both journeys I made some home cooked meals in advance ready for microwaving (this only worked when we were on hook up) 
  • Cooked potatoes and other vegetables prepared in advance, ready to warm up in frying pan/saucepan
  • Plenty of hard boiled eggs, sausages, pork pie, carrot baton, sausage rolls, crisps, chocolate bars and biscuits for snacking
  • Ham, Cheese, Salad, Bread Rolls (or cobs) for lunches
  • Fruit & yoghurts for breakfast (I did the occasional cooked breakfast!)
  • Milk
  • Lots of frozen water bottles, which acted as food chillers in the cool bag and box we used in addition to the fridge (we took a lot of food as we did not want to stop anywhere for food due to Covid and wanted to make sure we had food for when we arrived at our destinations on both journeys)
  • Some large bottles of water

What we would do differently next time …

  • Try to not drive at night and take in more of the scenery. Stop to sightsee as we pass places (but that is Covid dependent)
  • Be more confident in the free parking facilities
  • Probably need to stock up on food in France, because I will be unable to take food into the EU, so will need to allow more time to cook meals en-route
  • Ensure we have a way of connecting/using our Spanish gas bottles (we only had English bottles on board and would not have been able to replace these in Spain)

Outward journey: Leicestershire, England to Monda, Spain

Outward Journey details:
  • On the road for 5 days
  • A total of 1650 miles
  • Toll charges were €167,82
  • Fuel £320 on diesel (24.7 to the gallon).
  • Our total driving time was approximately 35 hours, but for us this was at a leisurely pace.
Housekeeping for the trip:
  • Electric hook up on 2 nights
  • Gas – used approximately 1/3rd of a cylinder
  • Water and waster refills every other day

Return journey: Monda, Spain to Leicestershire, England  

Homeward Journey details:
  • On the road for 4 days
  • A total of 1,778 miles
  • Toll charges were €125.96
  • Fuel £346 (24.6 mpg)
Housekeeping for the trip:
  • Electric hook up on 2 nights
  • Gas – used approximately 1/3rd of a cylinder 
  • Water and waste refills approximately every other day ???

Wonder when or where our next adventure with KEN will be …

But for now my hat lays in Leicestershire and that’s my home

Take care

Ax

Me in my hat!!  Photo taken along the Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park in USA

Below are the photos from the France & Spain 2020 trip!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *