Driving Murvi

Trip Start Oct 30, 2007

Trip End Dec 11, 2007

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Flag of Portugal Mirandela, Portugal
Friday, November 2, 2007

It was bitterly cold when we woke up, so didn't really fancy wandering around Leon. We hit the road again heading towards Portugal. We had difficulty finding our way out of Leon (bad signposts), but after driving around the city several times we finally found the right road. The scenery was very different to yesterdays journey through the Picos. We drove for hours across a vast expanse of flat, dry land, through tiny villages with crumbling brick houses and old men on donkeys. We managed to get lost in one of these villages; the road we wanted had miraculously vanished, or maybe the signpost to it had (damn signposts, absolutely nothing to do with my navigating!)

We were in desperate need of filling our water tank, so stopped at a garage and started to fill up. At which point we realized that it wasn't drinking water, so then had to sterilize our tank. We found somewhere else where we could fill up and as we were waiting to do so, we watched an Italian man struggling with his hose and getting completely soaked. We were laughing at him, until it came to our turn and exactly the same happened to us!

I drove Murvi for the first time. It's a complete monster to drive! The clutch is so heavy that changing gear is a work out. The handbrake is even worse, if only I could use both hands to put it on. The steering wheel is gigantic, nevermind the size of the rest of the vehicle. It's so wide that I was petrified of falling off the road or hitting oncoming traffic. Luckily the road was very straight with hardly any traffic. It was fun and scary at the same time. Hopefully it will get easier with practice.

We drove over the border into Portugal just north of Braganca. The road before the crossing was a scenic route over rolling hills. The roads were narrow and windy, climbing up and down hill. At the border all that is left of passport control is a derelict building and you are free to drive straight through.

We had planned to stop at Braganca, but it looked unappealing (lots of ugly modern buildings with no charm) so we drove on to Mirandela. We found a campsite 2km outside the city centre. Most of the facilities were closed (i.e pool and shop) because we are out of season, but it was fine for an overnight stop, basic but clean. We went into Mirandlea in the early evening, but after wandering the streets we couldn't find much action, so we spent the evening at our campsite drinking cheap red wine (which wasn't too bad) and eating chestnuts (which were nice until I started to find insects in them).