Car Quest

Back in December, my Osita had an altercation with a lamp post in her Ford Focus. Luckily, she was ok but the car was totaled. So, we set about to find a suitable replacement though Osita fancied herself in a Mercedes rather than a boring old Ford. Fair enough but the problem was that the insurance payout was never going to get anywhere near what a half decent Mercedes was going to cost. What’s more, anything German in Spain holds its value so I spent several weeks trawling the internet to see what could be afforded.


Happily, I found one on Spanish registration, left hand drive and just about in budget but, it was sat in the U.K. 2500 kilometers away. A few phone calls later and deal was struck, a cheap flight and a free weekend saw yours truly jetting off to the far reaches of Buckinghamshire in England to collect said vehicle and drive it back to Spain over the weekend. All sounds simple enough except the weekend in question was the worst on record for winter snow since records began apparently.

I landed in the snow in London, picked up the car in Snow, drove around the London Orbital M25 in snow and traversed the M20 down to Kent for the ferry in several blizzards. Got to the hotel in Dover just after 10 Friday and then slid on foot on the ice all the way to the pub (a rare chance to get a pint of strange warm brown English beer) and slipped back to the hotel again an hour later at closing time. Ferry was late Saturday morning due to the weather, finally drove the car aboard Saturday afternoon, had a wild crossing to Calais (big waves and high winds), arrived France late Saturday evening, started snowing, then blizzards from Calais to Normandy, arrived Le Mans midnight, stopped snowing, dog tired but kept going because it was way too late to get a hotel and then spent the rest of the night taking 30 minute cat naps in the car followed by a one hour drive to the next cat nap to keep warm.

Arrived San Sebastian 10:30 Sunday Morning, thankfully the snow stopped and the sky was brilliant sunshine but roads Icy. After a coffee break, drove through stunning snow covered countryside towards Vitoria-Gastiez, then Valladolid and finally Salamanca. As I got to Salamanca, the weather closed and the blizzards started again and then all traffic ground to a halt. The Guardia Civil did their upmost to keep everyone safe but as always there were a few idiots hell bent on driving fast and I saw more wrecked cars that ever. What a laugh though, I tip-toed from Salamanca to Caceres but gradually got confidence in the roads and they began to clear but it was still snowing with ice and sleet all the way to Seville. From then on it was just torrential rain. Got home 1:30 am Monday morning.

I'd done 2200 Kilometers in 30 hours (Calais to Algeciras) in the worst winter weather Europe has seen for who knows how many years. Quite an adventure but not one I wish to repeat in a hurry.