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Scotland to Portugal in September


Malo37

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September is probably far to soon for the Border from Scotland to England (or N Ireland to the Republic) to have been closed but the pace at which things have been changing recently I suppose you never know.

 

If you are happy with driving through France (which many find enjoyable,low traffic density, easy stopovers etc) then you can use any of the short Channel crossings with a dog easily.  The Tunnel has the advantage of allowing your dog to stay with you but our dog seems to take ferry crossings in her stride and just goes to sleep for the couple of hours she spends alone in the MH.  DFDS crossings to Dunkirk are cheaper and probably safer (re migrants) than Calais, even though the main migrant camp is now at Grand Synthe, near Dunkirk Town.  (The Ferry Port is further West, well out of Dunkirk Town.)

 

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We are travelling to Portugal in Aug/Sept , ferry to Santander , down through Spain and then hanging a right to Evora , then Lisbon then to the Algarve , three weeks in total , let me know if you want me to flesh the bones out for you .
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We're heading the same way for 6 weeks starting 1st. September. Will be driving down through France stopping for perhaps a week in the Pyrenees (my favourite part of the World so far), then on through the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, Gallicia and finally to Portugal. And then back again....

 

Won't be doing much if any planning in advance as we prefer to take things as they come.

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Hi Adiebt, sorry that wasn't meant as a reply to your post in particular, rather just a contribution to the Scotland-Portugal thread and the OP, as we're starting from Scotland and heading to Portugal.

 

Hope your trip goes well too.

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Thanks for all the replies. I will probably pm some of you for further info.

We are not really time constrained and plan to take say 6 weeks in total. Was assuming to use the tunnel but will have a look ferry options. I thought dogs were not allowed on some ferries ?

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Malo37 - 2016-07-13 6:47 PM....I thought dogs were not allowed on some ferries ?

Not a problem on the Dover - Calais/Dunkirk route.  The dog stays in the MH on the car deck and the MH gets a "Pet" sticker to indicate that there's one on board the vehicle.  They charge £15 each way for the dog.  No special checks outbound but they do check the dog's passport carefully coming back, to make sure your dog has had all necessary jabs and has been seen a vet and given worming treatment within 24-120 hours of departure.

 

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Malo37 - 2016-07-13 7:06 PM

 

Just had a look at the Santander ferry. At approx £1000 return I think I would rather go by tunnel.

 

We go by ferry each year to Santander, just booked for September 2017 at just under £700 return for 6.3m PVC. Add to that the BF club fee of £100 that gives £800 total. That is for two people in a 4 berth cabin, breakfast and 10% off all food bought. We did compare the cost of tunnel and fuel with the cost and decided that the difference was marginal, (and not keen on the French). Another factor is that from the North of England it is a better drive to Plymouth than Dover.

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Another issue is that I have a 13k Calor propane bottle which takes up all available space in the gas locker.

In my van the gas users are the hob and fridge.

What options for gas supply do I have in France/Spain/Portugal ?

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Malo37 - 2016-07-26 12:30 PM

 

Another issue is that I have a 13k Calor propane bottle which takes up all available space in the gas locker.

In my van the gas users are the hob and fridge.

What options for gas supply do I have in France/Spain/Portugal ?

 

Change it for a refillable cylinder, Gaslow or similar, then you can refill with LPG as you pass through the various countries.

 

There are loads of outlets in France and Portugal, not so many in Spain, you can find most of these in various publications, such as Vicarious Books based in Folkstone. Budget for using 1 litre of gas/day, your bottle should give you at least 3 weeks usage, as long as you are not too heavy on heating water.

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Afternoon folks,

 

 

Mrs Goldi and I have taken our little dog about 20 times now thru France and we now travel thru the tunnel for convenience. We usually go for about 5 weeks and after using aires to get there we usuaaly stay on campsites with hookup. Our 13 kg cylinder is only then used for cooking and will last at least 3 months, staying on aires and wild camping will golllop up the gas. We shall be setting off again for a month at the end of August and take about 7 kg of gas.

 

norm

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Malo37 - 2016-07-26 12:30 PM

 

Another issue is that I have a 13k Calor propane bottle which takes up all available space in the gas locker.

In my van the gas users are the hob and fridge.

What options for gas supply do I have in France/Spain/Portugal ?

John, it may help a bit to say what van you have. Are you really saying that your gas locker will only hold a single 13kg cylinder, with no provision for a second cylinder of any size? If so, and your use is literally only for hob and fridge, if you start with a full cylinder you should be OK. However, when will you return? Evenings begin to get much cooler as the season progresses, as you gain altitude, and as you travel back north. You may find you need heating for comfort in mornings and/or evenings if sitting in your van. Even so, providing you are reasonably careful you should still be OK with your 13kg.

 

However, what you will not be able to do is swap an empty UK cylinder outside the UK (or for that matter a French cylinder outside France, and so on). There may be an exception with Repsol cylinders just into the South west of France, where I understand there are some Repsol outlets, but I'm not sure if these French outlets would swap a Spanish Repsol cylinder and vice versa. Worth checking, but I'd expect you not to need to exchange the empty Repsol en route on this trip.

 

This will leave you needing to transport a full UK spare, or taking a chance on how long the one cylinder might last and either travelling without gas on your last leg, or getting a local cylinder and either abandoning, or transporting home, the empty UK cylinder. Whether full or empty, the standard advice on transporting a spare is that it must be secured and carried upright.

 

There are some outlets in Spain and Portugal that will refill foreign cylinders. Others will doubtless be able to tell you where.

 

However, for simplicity (though not the cheapest option initially), if you can only carry a single cylinder, a refillable does seem the best option. There are no problems generally in getting autogas throughout Europe, though some countries and some locations are better than others. Still, if you get a 10/11kg cylinder (I don't think you can get 13kg refillables) you'll only need to top-up a couple of times (more probably only once) to give you the same endurance as your existing 13kg exchange cylinder. All you'll need to verify is that whatever cylinder you get has a reliable level gauge, so that you know when to start looking. Others will be able to fill you in on whose cylinders have the most reliable gauges, as it seems some are much more reliable than others.

 

As to routes, once away from the UK the going gets much easier. Unless you are time constrained, bumbling across France on non-autoroute roads is a breeze, with much lower traffic levels than UK. Ditto Spain. As anywhere, the obvious exceptions are the major cities. I'd simply look for places that appeal to you as stopovers (guide books?), then seek out nearby campsites or whatever (maybe get the ACSI DVD of sites, which has a quite reasonable search facility, but there are various other guides available), and then string them together into a route. That way, you you can sightsee as you go (afternoon/evening stroll?), relieving the stress/monotony of end to end driving days, and get a bit of pleasure from the journey. As it'll be a first trip, you'll probably need to work yourself into driving on the right, so a few easy days at the beginning will get you acclimatised and feeling confident to progress.

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Thanks for the information. Yes there is only room for one 13kg cylinder in the locker and I wouldn't fancy carrying another as a full spare. In any case they are quite chunky and I don't really have anywhere to put it. Also I believe may not be allowed in the tunnel.

My heating system runs on diesel so thats no problem.

I'm looking into fitting a refillable cylinder but not clear on availability of places to refill in the UK.

The van is a Burster Aerovan.

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Malo37 - 2016-07-26 8:23 PMThanks for the information. Yes there is only room for one 13kg cylinder in the locker and I wouldn't fancy carrying another as a full spare. In any case they are quite chunky and I don't really have anywhere to put it. Also I believe may not be allowed in the tunnel.My heating system runs on diesel so thats no problem.I'm looking into fitting a refillable cylinder but not clear on availability of places to refill in the UK.The van is a Burster Aerovan.

Refilling a loose re-fillable cylinder is getting more difficult in UK (and possibly abroad) because of the widespread reluctance of garage forecourts to allow them to be re-filled, because their staff are not trained to check whether loose cylinders are of a properly re-fillable type.  There have also been reports of difficulties filling any domestic LPG system at Morrisons forecourts and BP are de-installing theor Autogas pumps altogether.  Having said that, I've not had any difficulty re-filling my refillable LPG setup so far.

 

As long as you buy a proper refillable cylinder (like a Gaslow) and install a refilling fitting on the skin of the MH (so it makes a permanent installation to which you simply hook up the Autogas nozzle) you should have no difficulty refilling in UK or abroad.  Garage forecourts in France occasionally put their autogas pumps in awkward places for MH access but I've never been told I wasn't allowed to refill with LPG in France.

 

The large size refillables hold 11kg of LPG, which has always been enough to last several weeks in France for us.  I usually top up with LPG at the last services on the M20 (just before the Tunnel exit) where they have an Autogas pump, then I don't need to bother checking the gas level until we return to UK.  But then I have two refillables with automatic switchover; with only one 11kg bottle you would need to check the level occasionally - or alternatively just top up the LPG once a fortnight when you buy diesel.

 

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