Not been into Castets for years, spent many weekends in there, downstairs for a shower and back upstairs for a beer and always a good meal.
As for running bent, when I was on the fish run it was Cherbourg to The MercaBilbao in one hit and that was after loading in Fraserborough, an overnight to Torpoint to top out and then to Poole.
I used to love the coast road from Cherbourg to Mont Saint Michael, great sea views then the authorities slowly pushed the trucks away with truck bans and declassification of roads to minor roads , as they built up the toll motorway for transit road haulage routes .
I once did Dieppe to Lisbon in one day and a half by running with a Scouser who only stopped for a number two , coffee and a microwave sleep, never again I said , this journey in the 90’s would legally take four days due to bad roads back then .
Back then the GNR Guardia Nacional de Republica traffic police were corrupt, making up laws as they stopped foreign drivers in Portugal .
Quite a few went to prison as neighbours became suspicious of their swimming pools, jewellery, new cars and holidays on a meagre government wage .
Weigh bridges with false readings, running on a truck ban when there wasn’t and trailer height fines was their game for coffee money and false receipts ie one true receipt book and one false one .
According to Spanish law, but I’m not sure if this is still valid or not but you could get fined for vagrancy or no means of credit to pay , which seems strange as how do you pay a roadside fine with no money or bank cards .
Another bizarre rule was not having a spare tyre or wheel carrier as I got fined for this and went down the vagrancy route which back fired as the copper spent my coffee money on brandy and coffee while laughing at me with his mates in the cafe by Sunbilla truck stop .
I appealed the fine in contest and told the traffic police acted in accordance to the law and I wouldn’t get a refund as I did have credit to pay for breakdowns and tyre blow outs .( As I refused to tell him I had bank cards because I thought he would trump up a fine )
Another odd one was illuminated advertising above the cab windscreen, some Danish drivers fell foul of this and were sat for days awaiting fine money in Miguel’s restaurant.
yourhavingalarf:
If he…Checked every paddywagon going, he’d stop Ireland quicker than Brexit, Bo-Jo or Von der Layen ever could.
Whenever I tip at Pembroke Dock Farmfoods, it’s right next to London Road - so I see a lot of them doing about 55 up to the roundabout (some poetic licence required) before the exit of the town