Back home now we are looking forward to another trek but a little uncertain how the fuel situation will play out because of the war in the Middle East. We were stranded in Portugal at the start of Lockdown which meant a long trek back after our ferry was cancelled. Maybe we will just hold off booking anything until the situation becomes a little clearer.

On our last motorhome trek through France and Spain I used Gaia, better know as a GPS and tracking app for hiking. The biggest problem I had was forgetting to start recording the track each day and then pausing the recording and finishing the track each day.

Results from Gaia are very good, the tracking is much more detailed than Google Timeline, representation on the map is very detailed, the statistics for the track are more comprehensive too.

I will prepare a more detailed assessment of Gaia for tracking motorhome journeys and post it as a full article here on ourtreks.uk. It will be linked from here when available.

Which apps use the most data when roaming and how can you find out?

While on the ferry returning from Santander to the UK I was surprised how many people were receiving messages and phone calls on their mobile phones. I wondered if they knew how much those calls were costing and whether they cared. I began to doubt whether I really needed to have put my phone onto aircraft mode so when I got back I checked call and data charges.

I was right to put my phone on aircraft mode, I was shocked to discover how much my mobile provider charges when on a ferry, here’s a snapshot of the prices charged by ID Mobile (October 2025) for Sea Roaming.

These charges are not set by ID Mobile, but by the company that operates the satellite service used by the ship or ferry company.

I was shocked when I saw these prices, most of us don’t think about data use, but we should, web pages have become larger as time progresses, in 2022 the average size of a page was about 2MB, which means a cost of around £20 to view it when using mobile phone data on a ferry.

I’ve collected real use statistics that are available in a web page, it makes interesting reading.

We have tried to use Camping-Car Park in the past, sat outside one of their campsites for about an hour trying to register and book. What stopped us was all the add on fees, so the overnight cost went from something like €14 to €56 – admittedly that included the €5 card fee, some compulsory insurance and an annual subscription, so we moved on.

Is Camping-Car Park for us? That’s hard to know, we’re independent travellers and read the websites carefully before going. The wording on the Camping-Car Park website is not clear, you have to read it, then read it again, and then read it again and still you are not absolutely sure what it means.

Same with the Camping-Car Park app on iPhone, what do you actually have to pay in order to use the Camping-Car Park sites?

Here’s my understanding at the time of writing (Aug 2025).

• You need an account to be able to use the website or app on your phone. This part is free.
• Next you need to pay €5 for a Pass ‘Etapes access card, this is needed to enter Camping-Car Park sites and use the facilities. You only pay the €5 once, it lasts a lifetime.
• What happens next depends on whether or not you purchase the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack for €29. 
  • without the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack:
  • You turn up at a site and if there are available spaces you can book a 24 hour stay. Your stay is just that, up to 24 hours as long as you stay on the site during that time and don’t leave. When you leave your time ends. If you overstay you will have to pay for another 24 hours to be able to leave the site.
  • You can not book in advance.
  • with the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack:
  • You can book your stay from 72 hours (3 days) in advance, to 6 months in advance.
  • You can cancel without charge up to 48 hours before the start of your stay.
  • You can leave and re-enter the Camping-Car Park site during your stay.
  • Your reservation guarantees your spot for a 24 hour period.

For us, the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack seems like a waste of money, we don’t know where we will be in 3 days, so having to book at least 3 days in advance is not helpful, all we want to be able to do is check whether or not there is a pitch available when we are a couple of hours drive away. It seems that we can do that with the Camping-Car Park app without the Privilege Pack.

Whether the Camping-Car Park system with the Privilege Pack works for you really depends on what kind of motorhome trek or trip you are making. If like us you set off with only a vague idea of where you are going and even less idea where you will stay then don’t buy the Privilege Pack. If you like to know exactly where you will stay and know that your reservation is fixed and accepted then buy it because it will give you the peace of mind and security that you want. For us, that’s just not how we travel, we often turn up and there’s no space, or we don’t like the look of the place, so we move on – sometimes that’s not convenient, but it’s how we travel and it’s what makes us independent travellers.

Our preferred way to reach Spain is by Ferry from Portsmouth to Santander or Bilbao, however, Brittany Ferries has jumped on the green bandwagon and is now using what it describes as GREENER SHIPS. There are now several of these greener ships, but despite being capable of very similar speeds to the former ferries, they take more than one and half times as long for the crossing. How can this be?

The car ferry Galicia has a service speed of 22 knots and the older ferry Pont Aven has a service speed of 23 knots. So why does Pont Aven take 20.5 hours to travel Plymouth to Santander, while Galicia takes 33.5 hours to travel Portsmouth to Santander, there is almost no difference in the distance.

An extra 13 hours on the ferry, for what? Although the ferry is capable of 22 knots it is being held back which means that as a passenger you have to spend two nights on the ferry instead of one. There are other irritations, but if you are travelling with children or pets that extra time is very important.

We sailed on Galicia last year and were bored stiff even though we purchased the lounge pass which gave us access to snacks and coffee etc most of the time. Two nights is simply too long. This year we planned to use the older Pont Aven ferry, no problem booking our return journey at the end of September from Santander to Plymouth, but the outward sailings were completely booked from the day I looked until our return date with just two exceptions and on those sailings there were no cabins, only reserved seats. I’m of an age now where I want a cabin, not a seat.

The message is clear, people want the faster crossings, so Brittany Ferries why are you holding back your ships?

Outward we decided to travel through Denmark using the bridges – the most expensive bridges in Europe. For our return to Germany we opted for the Trellborg to Travemunde ferry operated by TT-Line.

The problem with bridges and road tolls in Scandinavia is the length of our motorhome, 6.52 metres, and the maximum gross weight is over 3,500 kilos. In Scandinavia anything over 6 metres OR over 3,500 kg immediately doubles the bridge tolls, which seems punitive. I spoke to a French camping carist who complained that although the motorhome was less than 6 metres the storage box on the back took their length over 6 metres so the bridge tolls were doubled.

That’s worth keeping in mind.

If you like a glass of wine with your meals remember that drinks over 3.5% alcohol can only be purchased from government shops in Scandinavia. Denmark and Sweden are EU, so you can take in as much wine etc as you want, but Norway in NOT EU and has very low allowances. In the end we decided not to enter Norway and this was one of the many reasons.

Looking ahead to warmer weather there are some long tours that we would like to plan, as always it’s a case of deciding which is going to happen. Here’s a flavour of our thoughts . . .

• Finland to experience the midnight sun
• Overland to Greece, possibly via Italy
• Herculanium and Pompeii
• Wine tasting through the Spanish areas of Rioja and Priorat
• North through Sweden and Norway

Obviously there’s too much there for one year, so how are we going to decide?

One of the major factors thinking about Spain is that Brittany Ferries have replaced their ships with so-called ‘greener’ ferries. That’s all very nice and signals lots of virtue, but the journey time has almost doubled which means you spend 2 nights aboard the ferry between Portsmouth and Santander or Bilbao. We tried it and did not like it. Our ferry sailed late evening so we had all the next day at sea, sailing at what felt like a slow speed. A whole day that felt like confinement, nowhere to go except walking around the vessel and not a lot to do. Poor internet access at a price. After our second night aboard we were so glad to get off the ferry and drive out of Santander.

Since then I have been looking at alternatives, for our September 2023 motorhome tour we planned to go to Spain, travelling via Eurotunnel then intended to take the Peage where necessary through France so that we avoided Brittany Ferries. When we arrived in France the weather was much hotter than expected so we had a change of plan and stayed in Northern France. We had a good tour, but really missed Spain, so Spain is high on the agenda for 2024.

I’ll add more as our thoughts solidify and we decide where we will go next.

The hot weather at the beginning of September was very debilitating, so we changed our plans and stayed in the northern part of France. We revisited Mittelbergheim and purchased crémants and still wines too. By the end of September we were cold at night although that’s easier to deal with than being too hot.

Our motorhome trip report will be here as soon as possible, here’s the route.

Motorhome route through Northern France

To recap the story of our water problems . . . our Hymer B544 came equipped with a Reich Twin motor pump; that pump worked until August 2022, 6 years, so we had no real complaints about how long it worked. We spend a lot of time in our motorhome, so the water pump gets a lot of use.

We replaced the pump by another Reich pump because the first had given good service, although I did consider changing from a submersible pump to a Shurflo diaphragm pump. One of the reasons to stay with the Reich submersible pump was that we had a long trip to Spain and Portugal booked and I would have had to make the changes to the water system before we went. With all that in mind we ordered a new Reich pump from Caratech at Lincoln, it arrived quickly and was fitted very easily. The flow and pressure were much better than the original Reich water pump so we were very happy.

Unfortunately that happiness did not last long, 6 weeks later while we were at Sanxenxo in northern Spain the pump stopped working, I could not believe that it failed in such a short time. I contacted Caratech immediately and they were very helpful, advising that we should return the failed Reich pump for a refund when we returned home, but in the meantime we should do whatever was needed to acquire a new pump.

My first task was to find the appropriate Spanish words to add to my vocabulary and then go to speak with the site owner. I explained that nuestra bomba de aqua (water pump) no funcionaba (was not working).  He was most accommodating and said he could order a replacement via Amazon and it would be delivered quickly (Prime). We were planning to move on, but stayed at Sanxenxo extra nights until the new Reich pump arrived. A second pump in only 6 weeks, that was hard to believe. However, that pump worked and we continued our holiday trek returning home in early October 2022.

Caratech refunded the cost of the Reich pump and the long months of shrinking day-length began. We had short motorhome stays parked on the driveways of our children to provide childcare and enjoy Christmas. As the day-length started to increase we wanted to get back into the Hymer, so at the end of February we booked a short break in Worcestershire at Clay Farm Motorhome and Caravan Site. Imagine our predicament when on the first night the water pump failed to deliver any water.

I checked the fuse, it was not the cause. Next I listened carefully, no sound from the pump. I lifted the pump out of the water tank, still no sound. The impeller was jammed, so I carefully tried to turn it and the pump sprang into life, but that was short-lived. The Reich pump did work, but only in a horizontal position, as soon as it was returned to vertical in the water tank it stopped, and after a couple of times even that brief activity stopped.

So there we were, our first night away but no water for food preparation, no hot water for washing etc. Yes, we managed with a watering can and heating water in a kettle on the stove top, but it’s not convenient. We stayed two nights then abandoned the holiday and went home.

I have contacted Reich pumps via their website to explain the problem. The pump has failed but I don’t have an invoice that I can show to demonstrate when it was purchased. Will Reich believe my account of what has happened?

The original Reich pump failure

Click any photo to enlarge

[See image gallery at ourtreks.uk] I like to know what has gone wrong with anything that fails, in the case of the water pump I cut it open and discovered that water had got into the motors and corroded them.

The Third Reich pump to fail

Reich submersible pump lifted out of the water tank

Close up of the pump

As this pump is likely to go back to the maker I don’t want to cut it open to find out what has gone wrong. However, I can report that some of the water that came out of it was dirty, so I suspect that water has gone into the pump and caused corrosion.

This could be a manufacturing problem.

Looking back at locations where we stayed I see some interesting temperatures . . .

• 13° Granada
•  4° Segovia
• 14° Barcelona
•  6° Reims
•  8° Penne-d’Agenais
• 10° Moyau
• 11° Sanxenxo

Sanxenxo looks the most exciting, located on the Spanish coast, what surprised me most was that sunset is 1827, that’s more than two hours later than Lancaster. Keeping warm has become much more expensive too. Emails are coming in from the ferry companies but there’s nothing there to tempt a motorhome owner, the offers are for cars only and short breaks, there doesn’t seem a lot of fun in driving 300 miles to the south coast to take a weekend away in Europe. If the ferry was free it would still make an expensive weekend away.

So it’s back to dreaming of warmer weather and sitting beside the Hymer of some far-away aire, sipping a glass of crémant or cava with a plate of crevettes or Serrano ham.