The Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

Lockdown eases on July the 3rd in Scotland. Is it the light at the end of the tunnel? Or just a train carrying a great big second spike? Time will tell.

One early sign of the return to some kind of normality is that I’ve had this year’s call from Mossyard. It looks like I’ll be working for a few days over each of the next couple of weeks helping the owners get our favourite caravan park ready for the expected flood of staycationers. It’ll be good to talk to somebody (anybody!) new. I love Gill to bits, I really do but three months stuck at home…?

So how have you been? Untouched by the worst aspects of this pandemic I really hope. We have family members who’ve contracted the virus but thankfully they’ve all managed to shake it off. In isolation here in rural Dumfries & Galloway we seem to have escaped the worst of it. So far anyway. 

A little lighter at the end of the tunnel!
A little lighter at the end of the tunnel! We might as well paint the house ourselves. It’s not like we’re going anywhere soon…

Vince is starting to get a bit impatient to get off on his travels again. He’s seen a bit of use during the good weather but as he’s untaxed (have you seen how much the road tax is on a motorhome?) we’ve stuck to sunny driveway barbecues or rainy reading coffee afternoons here and there. Our neighbours must think we’re mad! 

It’s a double-edged sword using him this way. While it’s wonderful to spend time with the big fella, we can’t help reminiscing about our travels as we sit there in our comfy chairs listening to the rain on his roof. We really miss the adventures, the sunsets, the disasters and all the laughs that make up a good trip.

We miss chatting with you all too! As the restrictions ease here in Scotland our first priority will be to catch up with family in Yorkshire, Liverpool and Fife. I suspect this will be in our car – we sometimes call him Juan Tiguan, but not often – one named vehicle in the household is quite enough. After that round of visits we’ll see which sites are open and hopefully take Vince on a wee Scottish tour for a bit more blogging practice.

Driveway BBQ
Waiting for the clouds to pass before our driveway barbecue

It occurs to me that maybe we’re not the only ones missing sunsets, laughs and disasters. All that reminiscing above gave us the idea of sharing links to a few of those adventures 😀 Hopefully, new subscribers and old friends alike can put the kettle on, then while away a lockdown hour or two laughing at our mishaps.

As you might expect, selecting our favourite places is an impossible task but we do have a soft spot for our early getting-to-know-Vince travels. This cove was a lucky find in Brittany on our first trip abroad. We toasted it with a vino overlooking the beach. We didn’t see a soul until Monsieur Le French Bloke turned up and parked right beside us d’oh!

That first exciting trip abroad was where we realised how extensive our wildlife knowledge was. Or wasn’t, as our Nature Notes described. We also had our fist inklings of the mishaps and mayhem on trips to come, when we ran out of gas for the first time too!

A sure sign of a firm favourite is if you return there a second (or third!) time. This little-known beach in Portugal was stunning. Our first visit was with new friends made on our travels, and the second one was on our way home when we were blessed with the sight of a pod of whales. We can’t keep away from San Sebastian in northern Spain either. It’s probably our favourite Spanish town, and handy if you’ve just driven over the border from France, or if you’re on the way to the ferry port in Bilbao.

San Sebastian
Stunning view over San Sebastian

If you enjoy a sunset or two, Travels With Vince is the blog to follow! Tonel Beach in Portugal is one of Europe’s most westerly surfing meccas and unbelievably photogenic. As long as you – ahem – aren’t suffering third degree sunburn on your feet… A little further up the coast at Vila Chã we had another lovely evening walk marvelling at the free light show.

We love getting comments and messages from anyone daft enough to waste time reading our tosh, but the posts which seem to inspire more feedback than any other, are our disasters. Maybe you folks need to take a long hard look at yourselves… Our French Pizza Pandemonium proved popular and getting lost (for example in Seville or Madrid) is a perennial favourite. Getting stuck in tight spots like Zahara in Spain, or reversing all the way out of a village in France can be guaranteed to get the sympathetic emails pinging 😀

Finally, there are some places you just don’t want to leave, but have to. Empty tanks – or worse, certain full ones, mean that Vince has to move on. But that’s what it’s all about with motorhoming adventures. Feraguddo in Portugal was one place we didn’t want to leave; landing on a free aire in Algodonales was another. Especially as their annual battle re-enactment was taking place that weekend. Occasionally though, it’s just about the view:

Park up in the middle of nowhere, pour an early evening sharpener, and relaaaaax.

I hope you too can see some light at the end of the tunnel. Fingers crossed we’ll all be back to a new kind of normal soon when we can look forward to travels – albeit a different kind of travels – getting underway again.

Until next time, take care 🙂

xx

About Ken Tomlinson 217 Articles
Semi-retired biker, blogger and world’s best grandad. Doesn’t take life too seriously. Discovered motorhoming in 2015, sold up and downsized to fund more travels. Now with added Yorkshire.

8 Comments on The Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

  1. Wondered what you think the reception will be to Motorhomes when the guidance changes? We’ve had our holiday booked for the year but it happens to coincide with the change on 3rd July – were desperate to go but a little nervous at our reception!!
    Look forward to watching Vince on his future travels

    • Hi Caroline, thanks for getting in touch 🙂
      I know what you mean, I’ve heard of folks getting rude gestures and abuse whilst driving their motorhomes over the lockdown period. I’m not sure the public gets the fact that some people actually live in theirs! Others use them as their only means of travel too. I’m sure if you’re heading straight to a site you should be fine; for the moment we’ll be sticking to caravan parks rather than risking going off grid. Hopefully it’ll all settle down soon. Facebook posts from European travellers all seem to say it’s working great over there. Time to think about ferry bookings!
      Let us know how you get on, or send a Facebook/Instagram link to our email ken@vincentvangone.co.uk and we’ll catch up with you there.
      Enjoy your travels!

  2. Hi Ken
    Nice to see you back.
    We too are looking to blow the cobwebs off our touring van in a couple of weeks.
    Off to stay at st David’s in welsh wales – once the taffy government agree on a date for Wales to be open again.
    Enjoy your next trip.

  3. Hello Dear Cousin
    All well at the McHawes house, in lockdown of course , but hey how the sun has been shining and during our contemplations in the garden we talked about having a Vince cousin ! – watch this space .
    All Children and grandchildren are well ( no covid ) so we sassenachs are hunky dory thanks – glad all is well with you

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