Full Steam Ahead

In my last post, I was concerned about the challenges I/we would face in getting this tour to float. I am able to report, happily, that not only are we afloat but we seem to be sailing through calm waters!

The Cork ferry route times & costs were released in March and it very soon became clear that that wasn't really going to be a suitable option for Grizzly. He therefore decided that he will come across to Portsmouth and that we'll sail across together.

Given the route I had already mapped out, it also became clear that our best option out to Spain, was to Bilbao and not Santander, the Bilbao sailing arriving just after noon and thus allowing us the time to hit the road and get to our first overnight stop up in the Picos. Going to Santander would have pretty much meant us getting off the ferry and finding a hotel.

With my route already mapped out and arrival times known, the next step was to plot the fuel stops and subsequent overnight stops. I had imagined that this would be a fairly leisurely exercise over the next 2-3 months but Grizzly got some intel from Brittany Ferries, saying that ferry booking for 2019 would be available from the middle of this week. It's vague intel, I'll grant you but I didn't want to get caught with my pants down, so I put all my efforts into getting the fuel and hotel stops identified and plotted. It wouldn't surprise me if the bookings are only for the first few months in 2019 but I'm ready now regardless.

With a couple of little tweaks, to take into account of the ferry sailing back, which WILL be from Santander, I had the entire route/trip mapped out. Wishing to strike whilst the iron was hot, I also booked the hotels for the trip too. With a few exceptions, the ones I first identified were all available. Those that weren't (they could be later on) I replaced with other options in the same region. I'll definitely look to go back and book those first options at some point in the future but for now I am happy that all I need to do now, is to get the ferries booked.

This is one serious blockbuster of a tour, my most ambitious yet and will see us away together for 32 nights, so make sure you are signed up to receive email updates, else you'll miss out on an amazing trip.