Santander to Portugal
We’ve been well and truly bitten by the road trip bug following our vanlife adventure in France – so much so that before we’d even unpacked our van after returning to the UK we’d already booked the ferry crossing for our next continental road trip…..
In the blink of an eye twelve months passed and there we were, sailing across the Bay of Biscay towards the Cantabrian Atlantic Coast of Northern Spain!
At the time our local ferry port at Plymouth only offered Sunday outbound and Wednesday inbound sailings which would have shortened our trip by several days, so our best option was the early morning sailing from Portsmouth. We left home at 11pm the night before and arrived bleary-eyed at the port at 3am Saturday morning where we managed to snatch a couple of hours sleep in the van before we began boarding at 7:30am.
Our outbound sailing was on the Baie de Seine, the ‘no frills’ economé service by Brittany Ferries. After having to confirm our understanding of how basic the service would be we were a bit apprehensive as to what we’d let ourselves in for. But from the moment we boarded we were surprised at how good the ship was! Yes ok, it was basic but perfectly comfortable, clean and had everything we needed all within easy reach.
The notoriously choppy Bay of Biscay was as flat and glassy as a lake on a still summers day, so thankfully we weren’t tossed around like lettuce in a salad spinner as the horror stories from previous travellers seemed all too keen to share with us. The stillness of the ocean also made it easy to catch glimpses of playful dolphins, keeping us entertained for a large portion of the journey.
We cruised into Santander at around 2pm on Sunday. The air already felt much warmer and drier as we slipped into the summer clothes we’d optimistically packed into our overnight bags. We were struck by how the landscape in Northern Spain is such a contrast to the landscape we’re accustomed to in the south of the UK. The hazy mountains rolling into the distance had us in awe and we couldn’t wait to be reunited with our van to set off on the next stage of our adventure.
Santander was busy, very busy! We escaped the hustle and bustle as quickly as we could and settled into the drive, with the city in our rear view mirror the landscape ahead widened and the road suddenly became much quieter. We were amazed by how little traffic there was on the roads and how each road led seamlessly into the next.
We took the A-67 through the Cantabrian mountains, along lengthly 3rd and sometimes 2nd, gear inclines, dizzyingly high bridges and through long dark tunnels….. driving this route was so much fun, next time we’ll spend more time exploring the mountains and small villages nestled in the valleys!
The breathtaking landscape eventually gave way to an uninspiring sun-scorched open plain, which now stretched along the majority of our route towards the Portuguese border.
Miranda do Douro, a beautifully rustic town in the Bragança district of northeastern Portugal, was a welcoming sight and confirmation that we’d completed the exhausting 250 mile drive to our first overnight stop. We found a parking spot among a scattering of other campervans and rustled up a well earned supper. The sun’s hazy orange glow cast long shadows into the warm evening breeze and we relaxed to a chorus of Cicadas playing their evening soundtrack as the sun slipped slowly into the mountains.
The sun set beautifully on our first day, a perfect start to the epic adventure that lay ahead of us….