Some winter sun- a diary to Tenerife

[jacko22]

It all started on the 22nd Dec when i loaded 3 collections around London & Essex,John the other lad on this trip also loaded 3 pickups then it’s home for Xmas & Boxing day-keep the wife happy i suppose!

27th Dec
It’s a 10 start from the yard straight down to Dover to do customs to open the carnet!

For those that don’t know an ATA Carnet is used for the temporary export of equipment outside of the EU where the client or customer must put up a bond to customs & excise for the value of the said goods.
Half n hour & £8 lighter we head to P&O for the early afternoon sailing to Calais

Diesel in Calais then it’s a steady run to the Total at Dreux & as it’s the festive season find we are the only 2 trucks there!

28th Dec
An easy run to Chartes then down the N10 to Tours onto the motorway

then back onto the N10 at Poitiers for an afternoon stop at Barbezieux

The place is desserted & only the shop is open! After 45 it’s off again & round Bordeaux onto the “forest road”

This road is boring enough without the no overtaking & the 80k limit-what’s that all about?
Anyway we end up at Castets for the night which is also closed(not another pot noodle)

29th Dec
An early rise & a straight forward run through the border

Climbing Miguels in the rain heading for La Brujula in the hope of a shower. we are in luck the hotel is open- a lone Carr Bros sits outside with no driver to be seen.

Victors is shut!
Heading now for Vallodollid

& our first traffic congestion for the trip so far

another fuel stop & some lunch then it’s down to salamanca & off torwards Caceres where we park for the night
Part 2 to follow! Must have over 80 pictures to post so gonna do it in 7 or 8 parts! sorry!!!

[kerbdog]

Interesting read !

[jacko22]

Be patient!! For some reason my laptop won’t play ball so it may take a while to get it all posted

[chilistrucker]

the forest road is a pain in the ■■■■ these days.

[jacko22]

30th Dec
The sun finally starts to shine as we head south hopefuly the temperature will rise too

the roads are still empty in fact it is 2 hours before we get the chance to overtake someone

Late morning stop at km730 Hotel Campejo Leo south of Merida

Free wifi avaliable inside so out come the laptops for the first time this trip. dos Carrillejo & red tube before lunch-nice!

The big climb before Seville & at last the temperature gauge reaches double figures

then its head for Huelva where we will catch the ferry to Tenerife

Welcome to Huelva. we follow signs for ferry,after what seems like ages driving first through massive oil terminals then into “no mans land” we finally reach the dock. A police gate & a portakabin is the best way to describe the place & as there is no parking allowed in the dock itself overnight they kindly provide some wasteland & a portaloo outside the gate for us!

31st New Years Eve
What a fun morning this one is! The Naviera Armas Lines ferry leaves at 13 00hrs & entry into the port is allowed at 10am so loads of time to do your things, Wrong!!! The tickets for the boat take 30 minutes then its over to customs for the carnet.When we opened the carnet in Dover the customs completed the first “yellow exportation page” & removed it then filled out the front counterfoil. All our Spanish cousins need to do is to stamp this same counterfoil showing our point of exit from the EU. Our friendly customs man politely points out to us that it is in fact his colleage not him who completes carnets but as it is new years eve he is on holiday today & will not be back into the office until the 2nd of January. Also he takes the official customs stamp with him in his briefcase so there is no way the carnet can be stamped! Is this a problem? he asks. Not really mate the ferry only sails once a week- we will sit here no problem mister! Anyway after much shouting-swearing & arm waving a solution is found. A customs stamp can be found but 70 euros will be needed to sweeten the Guarda Civil who have one in their office so with 15 minutes to go before the ferry sails we get our stamp! I do get an official receipt for the money though

The wasteland that is Naviera Armas ferry terminal

John on the linkspan-the last 2 onto the ferry

On board looking back at the Armas lines portakabin. Time to relax-time for a cerveza

Our home for the next 34 hours. For a ferry with 150 odd cabins there is all but 40 passengers on board this trip so the boat is like a ghost town. The resident team of entertainers have trouble finding anyone to take part in their fun & games.
We sit in the bar that night whilst the Spanish celebrate their new year. We join in when we realise they are handing out free cava & what we at first think are tinned olives but turn out to be tinned grapes. Supposedly they eat a grape for each chime for new year!
We celebrate ouselves again one hour later with another bottle of free cava, none of the spanish join in

[jacko22]

1st Jan New Years day
We spend the morning wandering the deserted ship, at least the wifi is free. They announce a film wil be showing on the screens very soon then we have to spend 5 hours suffering “Mr Bean”. The spanish find it hilarious!

Late evening the ferry reaches Las Palmas

Nearly everyone gets of here then it’s onwards to Santa Cruz de Tenerife arriving about 11 pm. We disembark & park up to await customs in the morning.

2nd Jan
After a couple of “bum steers” we finaly find the right place

& it takes 5 minutes for the carnet to gain another stamp! Afer a spot of lunch it’s off out the docks & south torwards Playas des las Americas & our destination “The Magma Arts & Congress centre”

Driving down the coastline & it’s +25 degrees

By mid afternoon we have arrived & park up. Time to find our hotel for the next 13 nights then & perhaps a visit to a bar or two!

3rd Jan
Back to the venue for a 10am start. All that is needed today is the production kit off my trailer & we are finished by 11am. We all agree it’s too warm to do anything else so off to our new local!

4th Jan
Let’s get serious today & tip all of Johns trailer! So the show crew & the locals unload the kit

We then park up! My trailer is to be tipped on the 7th Jan so for now it’s more relaxation time

I go for the T cut. John takes in a thriller!
The 6th Jan is a holiday so the Magma is closed for the day

7th Jan
The kit on my trailer is for the “breakout Hotels” but we have already been told there is no way an artic can get anywhere near these places so a transit & a minibus for the locals to ferry the stuff from here at Magma to the various resorts

Understandably this takes all bloody day. One van load to the Gran Melia over 40 minutes away- 3 to the Abama resort 30 minutes away- 1 to the Mirador-3 to the Sheraton & 7 to the Bahia Del Duque Hotels, we deserve a beer that night!

8th-9th-10th-11th Jan
After the trailers are done the production throw us the keys to the minibus & we go off to enjoy ourselves! The odd favour may be needed- an odd airport transfer or the odd box from A to B. We ourselves checkout these breakout hotels & agree that we can get my artic in or much closer for the getout to save time. The weather is still warm never dipping during the day under +26 so it’s fun time for us.

to be continued

[lycanthrope]

are you sure this is called a “job” ?
beats my night trunk to Brumland anytime

[pimmer73]

exellant read mate

[sir]

Yes,really enjoyed that sitting here in the cold and wet Looking forward to the next instalment though

[redbob]

I wont bother now then with my trip from Wigan - Nuneaton - Wigan today

Seriously, good read nice one!

[selby_newcomer]

enjoyed reading your diary, very interesting

[jacko22]

Here we go again!

12th Jan
What you expect us to do some work? Today the “breakout” Hotels are finished so at lunchtime i drive out to the furthest Hotel the Abama resort so the van can collect the kit & instead of driving all the way to Magma we can save some serious time!

amongst the banana plantations stands 5 star luxury

Truth be told the reason they said we could’nt get here with an artic was the usual "Oh we don’t want that bloody horrible thing in here-people pay thousands to stay here-don’t want to upset them do we!

Well bollox to em! After collecting the Abama the van went to the Gran Melia as it was nearby & collected the kit from there then it’s back to Adeje

more bananas. I noticed that all the truck drivers flash or wave mnd you i doubt they see to many foreign motors

Outside the Sheraton in Adeje we load more

this is as close as we can get to the Bahia del Duque but it looks very nice!We finish around 7pm saving everyone at least 4 hours then head back to Magma

Sunset on the way out of Adeje!

13th Jan
The main loadout today from Magma

We take our time loadin. Now unfortunatley ( or fortunatley) as previously stated the fery back to spain only sails once a week, on a thursday & today is friday! So here we are friday afternoon & the back doors are shut & padlocked, loadout over. We are now officially on holiday for the next 6 days then!
Friday night is the last with the crew as they fly home tomorrow so again it’s “beer oclock”

[jacko22]

14th Jan

We have to checkout the Hotel & move back into the trucks but Magma allow us to stay onsite & give us free use of the dressing rooms for showers etc! So what now

down veronicas then- gotta be done

Our one and only visit to Linekers that saturday afternoon to catch the premiership.26 plasmas showing every game that afternoon.
The place is full of lobster red english guys in footy shirts all drinking orange juice obviously still recovering from the night before!
As they shout & scream at the plasmas i can’t help but notice the young english barmaid with what must be the biggest knockers i’ve ever seen! missed nearly every goal that afternoon

15th-16th & 17th Jan
We spend the days grabbing full english breakfasts for 2 50 euros then roaming around grabbing the odd pint here or there. Truth be told it is starting to drag a little now. It’s still bloody hot though!

Even repaint the rims on the spare trailer i am stuck with for this trip

The free internet does keep us going though!

Taking pictures of reflections now! I want to go home

On the evening of the 17th we wander down for one last look

one last ice cream

& one last beer!

[jacko22]

18th Jan

At last we say goodbye to Playa des las Blackpool & head back torwards Santa cruz

Heading home at last. By the way our boss is due out the next day to Playa des las Americas for a golf holiday, he flys in at 11, our boat sails at 12, he timed that one well!

Welcome to Santa Cruz

Into the town

& enter the docks, we park at the Armas terminal
QUESTION---- Where have all the old pigs ■■■■■■■■■ gone?

ANSWER---- Naviera Armas Lines have em all! We must have counted at least 20 of these old Pegasos, it seems instead of useing tugs for their unnocompanied trailers that go on & off the island hopping ferries they just hook up an old unit to each trailer & drive it on

Plenty of old Man’s too, Daf’s, Iveco’s & at least six

Old 142’s. Notice the english rentco

& as each ferry came & went, more & more of these classics appeared

[jacko22]

I doubt any of them are road legal

Good for a few more thousand

The Fred Olsen island hopper is in & out every 2 hours

19th Jan
Our last day on Tenerife. We collect our ferry tickets first then we must go to customs

The re exportation page the customs take

& with the counterfoil stamped we are done in 5 minutes ( wish all customs were like this)

Nearly time just waiting for the boat to arrive.We sail at 12 noon, it arrives at 11

Our home for the next day & half

Leaving the port & the warm weather behind we settle down for the crossing. The same Mr Bean film is showing!

20th Jan
For some reason John has come down with a cold so stays in bed all day! The ferry is even quieter than on the way out-30 people max

so when it is time to disembark we are raring to go! After the episode with the customs at Huelva on the way in we don’t bother with them & zoom straight out the gate. The carnet can be closed in Dover no problem. I’m not giving them another 70 euros
We do 4 n half hours ending up north of Merida. We realise that in that one shift we have done more driving than in the whole of the last 3 weeks

Last bit to come!

[green456]

this bloke is a ■■■■■ tells us about a barmaid with nice knockers and then shows us pics of wagon wheels, what a ■■■■

[dadsretired]

This thread is useless without pictures of barmaids.

[northern_boy]

Great diary mate did you not get to the water park ? it was on the other side of the motoway.

[toowise]

You learn something everyday…I thought Tenerife and the rest of the Canaries were part of Spain and therefore in the EU, Didnt realise they were still subject to customs.

P.S. I am extremely jealous and really looking forward to my run to Cardigan on monday…not

Excellent diary BTW Cheers

[jacko22]

21st Jan

Saturday morning at the Restuarant Las Herrerias Montanchoz. Not used to this, it’s 9am & only +2 degrees, the night heater was needed last night but at least the sun is still with us! John still feels like crap but nothing is going to stop us doin a full hit today

The weather soon changes though, fog over Rio Taja, at least the rain stays away until we are through Burgos in the afternoon & into France by early evening.
With the sunday ban fast approaching we make it to Castets

22nd Jan
Another day parked up. John again stays in bed whilst the drizzle never stops. The highlight of the day is the in cab breakfast

Ham omelette

& if i may say so myself it was fantastic! Had no choice really as Castets remainded closed all day

Once John appears we decide to leave at 10pm that evening to clear Bordeaux. Surely in the dark the no overtaking & 80ks don’t count!

23rd Jan
After the 4 hours last night we are well within striking distance of Calais. An easy time spent on the motorways today up Le Mans to Rouen & soon reach the train ariving back in the UK at 9pm.

We drive back to Dover to finish the ATA Carnet which takes all of 2 minutes then a short run to Ashford truckstop

24th Jan

£26 to park they are having a joke anyway the breakfast wasn’t bad. It’s only a short run into Sarf London from here for me first drop

then one more drop in the afternoon finishing me last drop on the 25th
A few days off now then it’s of to Amstedam for a week
Enjoy!