Chapter 9: The Rain in Spain

I had an early start the next morning. The boat was due to arrive at 8am local time. I had a quick breakfast then got back to my car. The masking tape was now dry and was still hanging on. I figured best just to leave it be, rather than use duck tape. It wouldn't remain dry for very long. As I drove off the boat, I could see it was raining heavily in Bilbao, and very overcast. I may as well not have left Scotland!

Bilbao looks a lovely place - but I never saw it.

At first I wasn't sure where I was going, as I left the harbour. So I just followed the car in front. I tried to keep an eye on the speed limits, now thankfully in kilometres per hour. In no time at all I was on the motorway doing 120kph. Every time I got above 100kph, a warning beep in the car told me to check my tyre pressure. I just hoped it would hold until I got to Gibraltar.

I needed to watch my speed.

I checked off my route against the towns I had memorised. At various intervals the sun would come out, then I'd move into cloud and rain again. I broke my journey at various service stations, so it was late afternoon by the time I reached my hotel in Cáceres (my stopping point for the night). The sun was shining as I went into the hotel, so I thought I'd go and explore the town before dinner. First though I returned a missed call from my Mum. She and Nick had arrived in Gibraltar. It was now Saturday, a day later than planned, as their flight from Edinburgh to London had been delayed, so they missed their connecting flight. It had been a bad week for UK airlines, with many flights being delayed or cancelled. They were lucky to get out to Gib at all. By the time I had spoken to them and unpacked some of my stuff, the rain had come on. I forgot about exploring, and went to the nearest restaurant for dinner.

Cáceres - my overnight stop.

I woke up early on Sunday morning, my internal clock obviously anticipating another train or boat arrival. My time in Spain had been a washout so far, and my travel in general had been a bit of a disaster. I had by this point been travelling for the best part of a week, and I was getting tired of it. I looked out the window and saw it was dry. So I set off early to complete my journey.

For me it was Ferries, Trains and Automobiles.

There was a petrol station just outside my hotel, so I took the opportunity to fill up. Unlike the self service petrol stations of the UK, this one had an attendant who filled it up for you. Like in a 1950s car movie. Unfortunately, also like the '50s, it was cash only, of which I had very little. I filled up about 15 euros, and noted that I would need to fill up again later, at a larger petrol station that took cards. As I got going the rain started again. It was going to be one of these days!

Service and cash only!

I moved through a variety of weather systems every 20 minutes or so. At some points visibility got so poor I could hardly see the road in front of me. So I just tried to sit behind a brightly coloured car as I went through the storm, and kept a firm grip on the steering wheel with my driving gloves.

These gloves kept me safe!

As one of the storm fronts cleared, I noticed I was running low on petrol. I could see a sign for what I thought was a service station, so I turned off. Maybe I'd get something to eat here too. It turned out to be just a tiny Spanish town where nothing was open. There was a petrol station, but again they only accepted cash. I got all the euros I had, which amounted to 4 euros, and asked the grumpy attendant girl (in broken Spanish) to fill it up for that amount. I got back on the motorway and kept my eyes glued for another petrol station. However before any signs appeared for a petrol station, another weather system hit me, and then another one. The tank was getting very empty when I saw a sign for a service station. I pulled off, hoping this wasn't taking me to another one horse town. As I approached it, it looked big. I asked the attendant if they took cards and the attendant said yes. I got him to fill up the tank as much as it would go. I had avoided danger for now!

I was running on empty.

However, Spain hadn't finished with me yet. The next few weather systems were awful. Not only was it very dark, and visibility poor, but it was like someone was aiming a firehose at my windscreen. Speed was reduced considerably, and I just tried to follow the tail lights of the cars in front. I soon noticed out my left window, a van in the inside lane getting closer and closer to the left hand side of my car. At one point I thought he was going to collide with me! So I gave him a wide berth and sped up to get away from him. I would later find out on the news that this weekend Spain had experienced the worst floods for decades, and that 3 people had been killed in them. I guess I was lucky to get through the drive in one piece!

The floods were reported on the news.

It was well after Saville that the storms started to clear. I had had to reduce my speed considerably at some points due to the weather, so the journey took me longer than expected. I had also not had a chance to stop and eat much. So I was very relieved when I saw the rock of Gibraltar in the distance. However, this turned out to be one of the weekends where the Spanish (as they periodically do), made it more awkward to cross the border between Spain and Gib. I ended up waiting in a queue of cars crossing the border for almost an hour. When I finally got into Gibraltar, I was stopped by customs, who asked about my car. I was extremely tired, hungry and fed up, and I didn't fancy going through the car import procedure now. However, I explained to customs staff that I had come to study at the university, that I didn't have any residence permit yet, and I was happy to follow any procedures necessary. After a bit discussion among themselves, they gave me a number to call, and let me pass.

There are often long queues at the border.

I pulled into the airport car park (just after customs), and met my Mum there. The sun had come out and I couldn't believe I had made it!

I was relieved to finally make it.