In 2007 we decided on our Big African Adventure trip. We had made the decision to put our flat on the market to fund the trip. Dan and I decided that 8 years together, one daughter later and the beginning of a life-changing trip was a good moment to get married. We broke the news to our parents in November of 2007 at Cassie’s birthday. ‘The Big One’ was going to be a sort of familymoon.

Due to unforeseen family issues, we had to pull out of the sale of our flat and postpone our African trip. We decided to still get married and go on another driving holiday as our familymoon. This trip would be in the Summer and we would visit a friend of Dan’s who lived in Iznajar, Spain. We took off 3 weeks, 1 for the wedding, which was to be in Jersey, and 2 for the familymoon.

We still didn’t have Tusky yet and did the holiday in Goldie, the Vauxhall. We wanted to see as much as possible, but to also make it down to Iznajar in the best amount of time so we could spend time with Dan’s friend, Pete. We also earmarked the Picos de Europa as a point to drive through for its beauty. It did not disappoint.

Along the way down to Spain, we met up with Dan’s Sister, Anna and her Partner, Lance. They were with a few of their friends who they meet up with for their Summer camping trips. We met them in La Royan on the West coast of France. We were with them for 3 nights. Their friends had 2 boys Cassie’s age and that gave Cassie much-needed interaction and play. The campsite we joined them at was very popular due to its great amenities. It also had the all-important swimming pool for Cassie.

From here we made our way down to Iznajar through the Picos de Europa and on through the Extremadura. This was a long, windy trip through the mountains and then a hot hot drive, especially with no air conditioning. We stopped in the Picos de Europe in a lovely small camp. It was very quiet and empty. A great change from the hub of a campsite we had left Anna and Lance behind in.

Iznajar is near Cordoba and on a large reservoir. When we arrived the reservoir was very low due to the heat they had been experiencing. We stayed with Pete in the small farmer’s house he owned. It was a lovely Spanish house that he had lovingly restored back from disrepair. We managed to stay with Pete for a good few nights having a lovely rest.

We started back towards France and decided to drive back through the Pyrenees for some more great scenery. We stayed in a lovely little town called Laruns. The campsite was walking distance from town and lovely and quiet despite being full of static caravans.

At one point in Dan’s childhood, his family had a home in the small town of Loches in France and we stopped here on the way back to Calais for our ferry crossing. We ended up spending 2 nights here. The town has amazing pizzas and we explored the châteaux and town. The camp we stayed at was right in town next to a river. It had Cassie’s all-important swimming pool and we enjoyed our stay here very much. We sought out the house Dan remembered which was a funny memory for him.

This holiday showed us that long distances require more time. We spent the holiday camping for only 1 night at each stop. This wasn’t beneficial to us and we never got to explore the places we stayed. We decided that the next trip we would do we would take more time off and spend a minimum of 2 nights in each place.

We also added more items to our list of kits to purchase on return and ended up binning the tent at the last stay as it had a rip and had started leaking. For the price we paid for it, and its inferior quality, the fact that we got 2 years out of it was pretty good.

Time to plan the next holiday!