The entire journey including the ferry crossing from Dover to Calais took just over three and a half days, bearing in mind we were pulling a heavily laden caravan with everything we owned inside it (except several boxes which got lost in Barcelona - more later). Getting used to driving on "the wrong side of the road" as soon as you come off the ferry is a bit strange too and this also means that the passenger has to hand over the money at the toll roads - (which will cost you a minimum of 80 euros to get to Andalucia)
We spent 2 nights in France in caravan sites and this is when the dog escaped....my mum opened the caravan door at 3am and the dog did a runner, looking around a French campsite in the pitch black in nothing but my underwear shouting for a dog is not the best situation to be in! Anyway he was found next to the shower block and suitably restrained. We crossed the French/Spanish border with passports and documentation all prepared but found ourselves in Spain quite suddenly after driving through what looked like it had been a checkpoint long ago. Further into Spain we go and its getting dark and time for petrol. Service stations in Spain are not the most desireable places, especialy at night. The whole establishment at first glance appears to be a huge meeting place for travellers of all kinds and the religions that they follow, people are asleep on the verges, congregations smoking openly, and everyone seems to be praying in all different ways. Petrol however can be purchased and the quicker the better.
We did well not to get lost on our 2000 mile one way trip although we did get separated once or twice, the first time was in France when my friend driving the other car with my mum decided to head off to dunkirk for reasons known only to himself, the second time was near the border - get lost and add 2 hours onto your journey time! All in all though we didnt do to bad at all, the AA route finder was superb - planned from Newcastle to our village in Andalucia with only one glitch which was partialy our fault anyway. I would recommend the AA route finder to anyone driving to southern Spain (www.aa.co.uk)
The long drive through Spain was, well long - very long about 18 hours in total but eventualy we arrived in front of our cave at 05.30am on a Monday morning. We had made it.
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