Ellis Family Blog

San Vicente de la Barquera, Spain As the weather is still a little inclement, we decided to remain active and yesterday spent the day back in Santander. It’s about 40 minutes from our campsite, so we were there by late morning, and following a quick coffee at the Cafe Pombo (quite famous apparently, and we were the worst dressed people in there!) we set off along the coast to find the Palacio de la Magdalena which was built by the town in the early 20th century for the royal family. You can see all of the Bay of Biscay from there apparently, and we couldRead More →

Great day today visiting this beautiful national park. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.Read More →

  Having docked an hour late in Santander due to the weather, we disembarked without incident (apart from not realising that the crew had put the caravan’s handbrake on for us, and I couldn’t work out why we weren’t moving! Fortunately a neighbour spotted what was wrong and released it for us). We followed the sat nav out of Santander, only going round a couple of roundabouts twice, and an hour or so later arrived at our new site at San Vicente de la Barquera, about 35 miles from Santander. The forecast was for rain, but the weather is actually quite good with lots ofRead More →

Woke to heavy rain, which predictably intensified just as we started to pack up. I got soaked, as did everything we were trying to put away. It was also pretty chilly, so much so that my hands and feet were both numb. Bring on the sunshine is all I can say. We hit the ferry port without incident, and once on board found our way to the cabin. Wow! What a fantastic room! We have a lounge, our own balcony with a table and chairs (not likely to get used in this weather though) – even a mini bar with free soft drinks! It’s biggerRead More →

Got away as planned just after 9 with Chris and Danny seeing us off and Chris taking photos. I’d been woken at 4 by the tracker people phoning to say the alarm on the caravan had been triggered (typical – it’s not given a moments trouble for months!). I went outside to check armed with a bloody big torch, but despite the cold and rain, everything was in order, so I popped off back to bed. The journey south was fine despite us nearly forgetting to pay for petrol, we both thought the other had paid! Towing with the Passat is much easier than withRead More →

And now there were 2Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa Today was Richard and Martha’s last day, and as the weather was once agin really lovely they were determined to get a last bit of sunshine before they headed off to the airport. We said our goodbyes in the early afternoon, and then I went back to Skye Ways to meet Lawrence for a trip to the accountants ( I know how to live!) Some good progress on the house, but a tall order to be finished for Christmas! Karol and I then had an impromptu trip back to Kitima, which was greatRead More →

Boys fishing tripCape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa After much anticipation and numerous false starts because of the weather we were off! We had arranged to meet our skipper Roger Bossman at the harbour at 6 o’clock, so we’re all up bright and early to make sure we were ready. Having all taken our sea sickness tablets and packed our provisions we set off, met up with Roger and Lawrence, and sailed out of Hout Bay at six on the dot. We were told we were getting coffee and muffins, but these were now promised for when we arrived at our fishing point,Read More →

Roben Island and Big BayCape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa We all split up today – the Pryor’s and the Staines’s all took the boat to Roben Island whilst Karen and Geoff did their own thing. Karol and I took a ride out to Big Bay which is a beach that overlooks Cape Town from the other side of the bay. We then called in to the Century City shopping centre on the way back. We’d booked a table for that evening at Hout Bay Manor as they were doing their ‘Beer and a Burger’ offer for R99. Lawrence and Amanda joined usRead More →

Picnic at VergelegenCape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa Having been close to home for the last couple of days, we set out to Somerset West today to visit the Vergelegen wine farm and gardens. They do a wonderful picnic under the trees, and Karol had booked us a late lunch there a couple of days earlier. We took two cars with Geoff and I the volunteer drivers, and set off along the N2 past the airport. Karol suggested that we take a small detour up the Helderberg Mountain, from where there are stunning views of False Bay, so this is what we did.Read More →

Lazy day in Hout BayCape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa As it’s Sunday, we decided that we’d like to walk down to the local market first to browse around the stalls there, and then a bunch of us walked to the Harbour market and met the rest there so we could sample the food court once more. Karol was hoping that Katherine would be at the local market, but once again she wasn’t there. Still, we had a good browse and bought a few bits and then set off across the beach to the harbour. Richard had been bragging that he was goingRead More →