Thursday 17 September 2015

Barcelona run - UK, France, Catalonia - The Plan

The plan is to drive to Barcelona, attend a conference for work, then drive back.
The Zero has spent a lot of time on the north south run with various events so the draw of a similar milage run except across Europe was too hard to resist.

Work is happy provided I turn up at the conference and of course fund the trip myself.
Overall around 1000 miles each way, with a nice pause in company paid for hotels in the middle while working.

Alternate routes selected for outbound and return, SatNav set to avoid motorways. 
The intention is to stick to A roads (a.k.a. D roads in France) as much as possible, see villages towns etc, and the major attraction being a couple of days driving through the Pyrenees.



The major waypoints are marked in blue on the Drives page.
I will also start editing and posting video on the YouTube Channel.

Out

Overnight stops, save those to meet the Ferry, selected as roughly 300 miles apart which on D roads is approx. 5-6 hours driving each day. I took a little care to find some especially winding/zig-zag roads thorugh the Pyrenees but really intended to wing the rest of the route - take a road that looked interesting or just rely on the satnav to keep me moving the right direction.

Date Location Description
17/9/15 Maidstone Start
18/9/15 Beddingham Overnight
Newhaven - Dieppe Channel Ferry
19/9/15 Anet Overnight
20/9/15 Libourne Overnight
Gan
Gourette Interesting looking hairpins
Luz-Saint-Sauveur
21/9/15 Arreau Overnight
Bossost Border Crossing via interesting hairpins
Sort
Tremp
Gualter
Riu Negre
Barcelona Destination

Excursion

Originally unplanned, but midweek I also took a run with a colleague from Barcelona up to MontSerrat. Just an alternative to a city tour bus, and a chance to check the car was still in working order before the return trip.



Return

Less preparation on the route back with a couple of likely looking locations for overnight - again the optimal 300 miles/6 hours driving apart.
Happened to pass Millau (for a look at the bridge), some advice en-route from another RhoCar member to go through the gorges near St Enemie and a chance to drop in on Beauvais Cathederal (a personal favourite)

Date Location Description
25/9/15 Barcelona Start
26/9/15 Verges Overnight

MillauThe Bridge to view

St Enemie Tip from Ian (RhoCar) good Gorge Run
27/9/15 Puy-en-Velay Overnight
28/9/15 Vougrey
Beauvais Favourite Cathedral
Dieppe - NewhavenChannel Ferry

Maidstone Destination


When starting out - I thought I could do it, i.e. two Scotland RhoCar runs behind me which clock up similar milage across a week (including the north/south runs),  so why not...  the pull of Pyrenees in the south & the unknown. 

Lots of variables though; the car was running well, cooling issues all behind me, and a recent run with SKCC acted as a shake down. If something did fail I would have limited capability to fix it - worst case would be to ship the car back home on a breakdown van and carry on by train - whatever happened I DID have to arrive in Barcelona by 22nd September.



...more to follow...

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