Week 29: Gordon's alive!
- Mar 22, 2022
- 15 min read
Our stops this week:
1 nights-Camping Rural Presa La Vinuela (near-ish to Malaga)
1 night-Aire Area Caravanas Home (Near Cartagena)
2 nights-Manolo Hotel Cartagena
3 nights-Camping Mar Menor (near Los Alcazares)
What a week! We embarked on this trip for many reasons: relaxation, to see different places, for an adventure, to have time to do other things-rather than very busy jobs etc. but knew at points there would be stresses and worries. We however didn’t expect these all to be in the one week!!
In Steve’s last blog, he shared some lovely pictures of the lake with sunny blue skies and wrote about the drought. I think that the Sunday was the last time we saw those skies. The expected rain did arrive and was unbelievable. We hardly left the van until we packed up and left the campsite on the Wednesday morning. Being English, we are used to rain and having lived in the motorhome since September we have experienced lots of rain…but this was on a different level. It was more like a tap had been turned on full and left running for days, with no break. In a Mo-Ho rain is very noisy at the best of times. Our pitch at La Vinuela had sunshade netting over it and I naively thought this may soften the sound/strength of the rain. Instead, it created very loud sporadic thumps of rain in addition to the other rain pounding the area. The speed in which the lake filled with water was incredible. The area was normally very peaceful and quiet but the flow of the water from the mountains, was so intense that the water entering the lake roared as it rumbled along, and sections of the normally motionless lake now had fast flowing water. There were also sudden crashing sounds, as large sections of dried mud suddenly gave way and disintegrated into the water due to the rising water levels and force of the water which caused whole sections to tumble. We were worried Bear would not get enough walks due to the weather but when we opened the door, he looked at us like ‘you expect ME to go out in THAT!’ and went back to sleep.
The rain did stop by the Tuesday morning, yay. We had about an hour of being able to see the sky and experiencing dry weather. Then…the Sahara sandstorm crept in! Again, naively, I thought this would be ‘a bit different’, interesting to see and we would have a nice walk, now the rain had gone, but with pretty red skies. In reality, it felt like we were now living on Mars! We tried going for a walk but lasted less than 5 minutes and returned to Gordon, again deciding to not leave the van. It made us realise how much easier it had been in the motorhome since arriving in Spain as we were in and out all day, moving around with windows open and enjoying an ‘inside/outside’ type of living. 2 days of staying in the van all day with the windows closed was creating ‘cabin-fever’. We could no longer see the mountains or lake as the sky turned orange and red and a fog like sky dropped lower and lower and seemed to come closer and closer. When we had been outside for the 5 minutes it made our eyes sting and our throats dry. It felt like we had been covered with a layer of dust. Steve has been reading an on-line Spanish newspaper in English and it said that the rain would return but it would be in the form of mud!!! We haven’t yet been able to teach Bear to use a toilet at times like these we wish we had/could, so later in the day Steve took him out for 5 minutes. I bravely stayed in doors to protect Gordon. Steve and Bear returned, literally after a few minutes, covered in brown and red rain like marks. Steve needed to change all his clothes and Bear needed wiping down.
The really orange one's were sent to Sonja from a friend near Mojacer.
The wonderful red dust!
On Wednesday we woke late after 3 nights of very poor sleep, due to the rain and it was both dry and the skies were beginning to clear. Yes, we are ‘back up and running’. We were due to head towards Malaga and had a few areas we wanted to see over the next 7-10 days before we would turn around and start heading back north, due to our 90-day limitation. Steve was emptying the grey water and filling up the fresh water, I was giving Bear a walk around the campsite and then we were heading off. I arrived back and Steve said ‘Don’t panic…but…the Adblue warning has come back on!’. Grrrr. We decided to head down from the mountains to the nearest big town, where luckily there was an approved Ford dealer. Our tour of approved Spanish Ford dealers continued… The guy who worked in this one spoke very good English and said that because this was the second time the warning had appeared, the sensor may be faulty, but it may also just need another software update? He said he could give us an appointment in 8 days’ time but if we needed a new part, it could be another 2 weeks to wait after this!!! He was going to ring the Ford dealer in Malaga to enquire whether they could see us earlier. They could see us on Monday (5 days) and he booked us an appointment. We needed some food, so I went shopping and Steve was going to see if there were any other Ford dealers, that could see us sooner. I arrived back to the van with Steve saying: ‘I have a plan but it’s time dependent and we need to get moving!’.
We drove 4.5 hours back north towards Cartagena. Due to the 90 day rule, as a result of Brexit, we needed to start heading north to head out of Europe and couldn’t risk being stuck near Malaga for 3 weeks. In a couple of weeks, my mum is also due to visit and will be flying into Alicante-we didn’t want to be in Malaga. The Cartagena garage had said they could see us at 8.30am the following day. Poor Antonio and the Ford Cartgena garage, only if they knew the problems, we were about to cause them…
We got into Cartagena about 5.30pm having travelled through more torrential rain. We travelled most of the way on toll and motorways and they were virtually empty. The rain was helping to wash away the red dust but we stopped in a small town to eat on the way and they had not yet had rain and it was odd and slightly disorientating for everything to be the same but red, including the pavement, trees and grass. Bear was thoroughly fed up. Having been promised that he would finally get a nice walk, having not really walked for 3 days, instead he was back in his travel crate…and there was more rain!
Then the following day, the terrible awful happened. After another poor night’s sleep-due to rain, we got up early to head to the garage. This was about a 20-minute drive away. As usual we used our trusted SatNav (which has European mapping on and knows the size of our van). It took us on a smaller road, rather than a motorway but the road was still fine to drive and Gordon and another vehicle could easily pass each other. At the point we realised the road in front was flooded and unpassable the heavens opened. Annoyingly we could see the next turn, to a bigger road just the other side of the flood. We decided we needed to turn around and find another route. Just as we slowly reversed, the water continued to rise rapidly and Gordon’s back wheels slipped/pushed by the water off the edge of the road. We were in reverse and being very careful, it must have literally been centimetres in it. As with many roads in Spain, the tarmac just finishes and then there is mud, dust or farmland. There is no pavement of kerb. We tried to move forward, and it was just not happening. We were stuck. Gordon’s nose was across the road and his bum/back wheels were in the mud. The water was so powerful and rose so quickly that the side of the road become a ditch with a current of water, a simple situation got worse and more worrying very quickly.
Luckily, as we were expecting to spend the day in Cartagena whilst Gordon was back at another day spa, we had our rucksacks packed already with key paperwork and valuables: laptops, passports, insurance documents etc. Ohh and of course one rucksack was packed with all Bear’s items: snacks, additional snacks, blanket, coat, long lead and additional additional snacks! The next bits were a bit confusing, and we only worked out ourselves the order things had taken place in, at the end of the day when discussing it and putting the sequence of events together. However, the warning triangle was placed in the road and yellow high-vis jackets on (just like taxis at the end of the day for those of you from TIA!!!). Steve then rang the Spanish police as we were blocking part of the road, our phone signal and internet signal were not great and we were not 100% sure what road we were on. I waved down a Spanish man and got him to speak to the police. We left Bear in his crate for now. He knew something was wrong and whimpered a little but he was dry in the van and contained. Steve rang the RAC, we had specifically paid for European cover and insured we were covered for getting a motorhome out of mud etc. if we were stuck. Firstly, none of the numbers on the paperwork worked and we realised that in the UK it was about 7am. Steve finally got through to someone and we were told to ring our vehicle insurance company, the RAC would not come out as they only covered mechanical breakdowns. After furiously ringing all the numbers I could find for our insurance company and getting no answers, I decided to ring the RAC again. Surely this was a recovery situation? After finally getting through to someone I was very clear and direct. ‘We are in Spain. We are in a motorhome. The back of our motorhome is stuck in a ditch. There is a lot of flood water that is rising fast. We need urgent help to be recovered from the ditch.’ Thank goodness, the lady said we can help but needed a few details first. 10 minutes later I was still giving the few details! These included: my name, Steve’s name, the policy holder’s name, the van registration, the policy number, the type of van, the engine size, the length of the van, whether it was petrol or diesel, the day we entered Spain, how many days we had been in Spain and the date of our return to the UK. At this point I lost my temper. The lady would not accept that we had no set date to return to the UK and no return booked. I was very blunt and used some rude words (taught to me by the school kids ) stating again that we were stuck in a ditch with very fast rising water. At this point the police arrived and told us they had called for a recovery truck. I gave the phone to Steve before I said anything else, and he said the police had sorted it. She said she would ring us back in half an hour. I was not happy and knew already that a complaint would be going to the RAC…but not just yet.
I’m not sure of the time frame for any of this part, but some parts seemed to go really fast and others really slow. However, Steve, Bear and I all got out of the van and stood with the police. The van was now at a worse angle, and it felt uncomfortable being inside. One policeman (the shorter one) spoke quite a lot of English and the other (the taller one) very little. We spent quite a long time with them, and I never thought to ask their names or tell them ours? Steve and the tall one seemed to go into planning ways to get the van out, angles to use etc. This also involved Steve realising the tow eye was in the boot of the van and that he needed to jump through the ditch to try and get it. If we had any hope of getting the van out, we needed this. Thank goodness he managed to get it. I know this was essential, but I couldn’t help thinking ‘more wet shoes!’. Steve hates having wet feet but seems to also always find puddles and mud to get his shoes wet. I ended up with the shorter one, directing traffic, telling disgruntled Spanish drivers to turn around due to the flood water and stuck Mo-Ho! We covered many topics: he has two dogs, his cousin is teaching Spanish in Aylesbury and the other in Dublin, he left school at 17 and joined the army, he has been in the police for 20 years, how he learnt English and how to improve my Spanish-he started teaching me phrases. It wasn’t going in-I was too stressed. Steve’s policeman seemed more serious, putting out cones, speaking on the radio and being more ‘police like’. At one point my policeman was holding Bear and looking on Facebook for where his cousin in England lives whilst I was directing the traffic…using some of the Spanish just taught; turn around, no pass. The rain was still pouring down and Bear squeaked when put on the floor, so was constantly held to keep him a little dryer and warmer and to stop the squeaking!
Finally, the recovery truck arrived and thank goodness the rain stopped for a little bit. This was really helpful and the water level started to drop. I couldn’t watch-it all looked horrendous. Steve, the taller policeman and the recovery man tried all kinds of things to get Gordon out and spoke in a mixture of signs, Spanish and English words. All were drenched. The key problem was angles. The recovery truck could not park directly in front of Gordon and use the winch to pull him, as the land on the other side of the road-opposite Gordon’s nose-was also drenched and he didn’t want to get the recovery truck also stuck. The recovery man let Bear and I sit in his cabin to shelter from the rain. Poor Bear was drenched and shaking. They then called a 4x4 truck out which did manage to do this and get Gordon out. Yay! Steve shouted for me and Bear to get in and that we were following the recovery truck to the depot. I was really confused ‘Gordon’s driveable? We can get in him! Isn’t the back of him wet?’. Steve said ‘he’s good and we can drive him, also more good news the Adblue warning has turned off!’. We were now facing the way we had been quite a few hours ago, on the road but facing the flood water. The smaller policeman told us we needed to drive through this and the recovery truck would follow, if we got stuck he’d pull us through. What? Are you all mad, you want us to do what? The water level had reduced a lot but no, I felt this was a bad idea. He was stood my side of the van and I repeated and checked about four times. ‘You want us to go through the water?’ ‘You want us to go forward?’. Bear was sat on my lap and even he looked at the policeman like he was crazy. Steve decided we’re going through. ‘Ok, but I’m closing my eyes and just tell me if we make it’. We did.
We then followed the truck back to the depot, through more torrential rain. We needed to pay for being pulled out. Afterwards, we decided to head straight to the Ford garage to try and sort out the original Adblue issue and get Gordon mechanically checked out, to make sure he was safe. This is where we met Antonio, the manager of the Ford garage. I think he could see that we were a bit shocked, soaked and shattered and he was very kind and patient. Speaking through a mixture of English and Spanish and Google Translate (thank goodness for this technology, can you imagine if we resigned to using a Spanish/English translation dictionary) it was agreed that we would leave Gordon with them for the night, and we would check into a dog friendly hotel about a 15 minute walk down the road. We packed as much as we could, and they called us a taxi.
More rain!!
Bear loved the hotel. We normally have a no dog in bedrooms or on the bed policy-this went completely out the window. Bear thought it was great that he could crawl under the bed and out the other side and that this was an amazing game, especially when a human is chasing you to try and retrieve their shoe. Once a little more organised and drier we started to make some phone calls and emails: AXA vehicle insurance, RAC, motorhome repair companies and so on. Ohh I meant to say, the lady from RAC rang us back when we were at the Ford garage to ask whether we ‘were out of the ditch?’ This was at least a few hours later and I was curt to her, passing the phone to Steve. She asked whether we had paid for the recovery-which we had and said she would email us a form, which we needed to print off, complete and post to them, and they would consider whether they would reimburse us. We’ve got shopping bags with our belongings in, in a hotel with a looney dog and you want us to print and post a form!!!
Bear...your bed is in the middle! I realised on the morning after the accident that my back and arms were so sore because I had spent most of the previous day carrying a 12 kilo oaf! I realised this when carrying the oaf down 3 flights of hotel stairs for him to go to the toilet...Bear is scared of lifts...
AXA were excellent. They listened to the saga and completely understood the van being in the garage and us staying in a hotel-we had decided to book in for two nights as a precaution. They asked for the pictures of the accident (the police and recovery man had What’s App’d us photos for our records) and a photo of the recovery receipt, hotel receipt and taxi receipt and within 30 minutes had authorised a payment for these costs. Once we knew more about Gordon’s damage, we were to let them know how we wished to proceed and they would then work with us to outline how AXA could support with this. I was amazed they paid for the recovery when the expensive European RAC cover we had specifically sourced and paid for couldn’t even send a recovery truck!!!
We didn’t sleep great that night, as we both kept waking up at different points, with different thoughts… plus Bear slept on the bed. (We were given a twin room and Bear seemed to think this meant one of the beds was for him. During the night he moved from one bed to the other after a few hours.) In the middle of the night, Steve suddenly realised there was a hole in our Croatia plan and I realised the van fridge was off and the cheddar cheese was in there!
The next two days involved lots of phone calls and emails trying to get everything sorted. Antonio and Steve tried to converse via phone but this proved difficult with the language barrier so emailed a lot, or Steve walked up to the garage a few times to talk face to face. Antonio kept in regular contact with us and did everything he said he would-he was excellent. He confirmed that there were no mechanical problems with Gordon. The suspension and brakes were all fine. He even put Gordon up on the ramps and took Steve underneath to show him and so that Steve could take more pictures for the insurance company. He confirmed that Gordon needed a new Adblue sensor and that he hoped this would arrive on Monday-he would then need the van for 4 hours to fix and test this. The only issue is that there is a national transport strike on in Spain and he could not be sure the part would arrive on Monday. We picked Gordon up on the Saturday and headed to Mar Menor campsite. It is only about 20 minutes away from the Ford garage and we know it is nice as we stayed here on this trip before. It is the campsite next to the Spanish Red Arrows training ground.
Once we arrived we both spent a few hours carrying out a further inspection of Gordon. Although Ford checked him mechanically, they don’t cover the motorhome aspect. We already knew the bumper section at the back was cracked and would need some work. We had checked and there are no Chausson dealers in Spain (the make of the motorhome). Chasson’s are made in France and we wondered about trying to get this fixed on the way back through France, however do not want to be stuck somewhere for a few weeks for this to happen-due to our 90 days! Steve had been in email contact with Hayes in Birmingham, where we had bought Gordon and he has a yearly service. Again, they had been excellent and provided a list of things for us to check to ensure the motorhome aspects were working and through the pictures provided were able to outline the repair parts we needed and their order numbers. They would also provide us an estimate quote for fixing the damage that we could provide the insurers, we think we would prefer to get the work done in the UK at Hayes. Steve spent a lot of time taping the back of Gordon up-poor Gordon and thankfully the grey water tank isn’t damaged and works, heating works, gas works, and fridge works. All the lights were checked and all still working. We feel very lucky.
On the Monday Antonio rang us at 9.30am, the part was in and could we bring the van in. We were expecting to go in on the Tuesday if the part was in on the Monday but quickly got washed and dressed, packed the rucksacks again and went back to Ford. It was a long day walking around Cartagena and entertaining Bear (remember he is a nightmare in busy places) but by 5pm Gordon was fixed. He is a bit sad about his damaged bum and never wants to go swimming again but at least the Adblue alarm should stop sounding every 2 miles and hopefully we can lay that aspect to rest.
Bear in a department store in Cartagena and ever hopeful for some ice cream.
Thank goodness. We were all shattered and we need to decide exactly what we will do next… but for now we just want a few lazy days. Although it wasn’t the best week, we have met some brilliant and helpful people and were incredibly grateful for the support from AXA, the police, the recovery man and of course Antonio…who I thought was going to hug us both but didn’t quite know if to or not, he kept rubbing Steve’s shoulder.
What an adventure. Thanks for recounting as I’m sure there were bits that were uncomfortable to revisit. Well done to you both.