When I was on the road I very rarely had the urge to get home, I have never had the homing instinct and unless there was a vey good reason, I didn’t chase the next available ferry. More often than not I would park up on the last services in Belgium or France and poodle in to Zeebrugge or Calais next morning. I would still be home that evening.
Fast forward 40 odd years and I haven’t changed one bit. At present I am sitting here in the sun in a little place called ‘Los Lobos’ just up the road from ‘San Juan de Terreos’ in southern Spain. Temperature is about 21C and very pleasant but I must admit its the worst March we have experienced in the 12 winters we have been here. Been some heavy rain recently so you may find a shortage of lettuce on your supermarket shelves to go with the other shortages I hear you have. I went to the Mercadona Supermarket yesterday and it was almost fully stocked. Even though the lockdown here is more onerous than you have back in the UK theres not the panic buying seen on the scale you are experiencing.
Unfortunately we have to head north tomorrow as many other winter sun lovers have done in the past few weeks. But I shan’t be hurrying. I’ve allowed six days which allows me to amble along towing my trailer which weighs about 1,500kg. But there are others that are panicking. Those who must get home at all cost. A dutch friend of mine drove 1,000km the first day heading home and 760km the next. And that was towing a caravan. An elderly couple left here 3 days ago, again towing a caravan, and are on the train this afternoon and home in Cirencester tonight. Thats just 3 days. And he’s 80 and she is only a year or so behind him. Another couple we know did an 18 hour journey from central France to deep down in Cornwall getting home at 2 o’clock this morning. Why? We are in an area in Spain that is relevantly safe from coronavirus. I feel a lot safer here than back in the UK were coronavirus is still looked upon as a joke. Especially by the young.
So why are we coming home? Only because there is a serious illness in our immediate family. But its no different than forty years ago. I won’t be joining the herd driving at breakout speed or going without sleep. I shall arrive a few days after them and feel comfortable with my performance. I’m looking forward to the trip, as I did forty years ago but would much prefer sitting out the pandemic here with a glass of Spanish red in my hand.
