GO DRIVE:Fancy a spin to Spain? John Cassidytakes the ferry to Cherbourg, then heads for Murcia, on the country's southeast coast, a drive of 1,800km
CAPTIVE IN a stuffy, 1980s classroom. Exact year and location undisclosed. The words of Robert Louis Stevenson impinge on my consciousness: "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."
For once I'm paying attention and am in total agreement. Even way back then the phrase made perfect sense, a satori moment.
Now, as myself and my wife, Helen, bowl along an empty stretch of French motorway, roof down, evening sun shining, the still-warm breeze and the happy burble of the engine tickling our ear lobes, those words strike home.
We have decided to take the car to Spain, taking the ferry from Rosslare to Cherbourg. Our final destination is Mazarrón, in Murcia on Spain's southeast coast, a total distance of 1,809km (1,124m) from the ferry port.
We are often asked why we take the car on holiday rather than hop on a flight and hire at the other end. Our response is that driving is still an enjoyable experience on the Continent. There are fewer half-wit drivers.
Another factor in favour of a sea crossing is the increasingly stressful nature of air travel. Baggage charges and limits, time-sapping security checks, lost luggage, increased check-in times, interminable hanging around terminals, lack of leg room, the threat of thrombosis, narrower berths along with wider girths - you name it.
We booked a small villa in Mazarrón online weeks beforehand, through www.holiday lettings.co.uk. Thanks to the recent property-buying splurge in Spain there is a wealth of choice. Our two-bedroom villa cost €552 for 19 days and boasted a satellite TV, DVD player, cooker, microwave, washing machine, parking and rooftop sun terrace.
Our crossing from Rosslare to Cherbourg took about 18 hours (including an hour's delay), but once ensconced in our cosy cabin we relaxed and were effectively on holiday. (Our Roscoff-to-Rosslare return was quicker, at about 14 hours.)
We arrived in Cherbourg at 6pm, then drove 416km to our stopover, the Campanile hotel in the French town of La Roche sur Yon.
At first the road from Cherbourg is a slow single carriageway. Once on the A84 dual carriageway to Rennes, however, progress is swift, as it is on the N137, its continuation to Nantes. Speed limits are 110km/h, but both roads are toll-free. In fact, the first toll we encounter is on the A83 south of Nantes, which connects to Bordeaux and the south via the A10.
After a good night's rest in the Campanile (see panel) we set off early the next morning in the direction of Zaragoza, which involves skirting Bayonne-Biarritz and Irun before bearing southeast by San Sebastián, in the Basque Country.
The spectacular roller-coaster roads looping around these conurbations are, unfortunately, punctuated by a cluster of toll stops that spoil the experience somewhat.
Having said that, there were still some stunning views on offer when you get time to look up from your coin tray, as the motorway twists and turns around the shoulders of the Pyrenees.
The AP68 to Zaragoza is a quiet, sweeping motorway that lifts you over the back of Spain's northern interior and sets you down again for the descent to the Mediterranean.
Spectacular mountain views and bridges over deep ravines compete with the road ahead for your attention, and you need to concentrate to take the A2 south towards Madrid, before striking off southeast via the N234 and around Valencia on to the A7.
Finally, and with some stops to restore feeling and circulation to our compressed behinds, we circled Alicante and Murcia, and arrived in Mazarrón that night.
"The Region of Murcia, home of the sun" said our tourist map, but we'd never have guessed it as we arrived at the villa. Unfortunately, this is a recurring theme for us, our last two Spanish trips having been accompanied by downpours that even Shakespeare might have baulked at. On both occasions we were assured that Spain had never seen such inclement weather.
Before emerging from the car we wondered how long it would be before somebody spun the unusually-bad-weather line. It took two minutes for the nice woman with the key to say: "We've had lovely weather until today . . ."
We nodded ruefully, entered the villa, turned on our satellite TV in the hope of a promising forecast and were treated to images of Spain under a mass of black-cloud symbols while Ireland basked under clear skies.
Weather aside - and it did get a bit better - the beauty of this sort of holiday is that you can make it to measure. You can book two, or even three, villas in different regions if you want.
We chose this spot because we had been here in our younger days, when comfort meant finding a rockless bit of ground to pitch a tent on. That's some 16 years ago, but a cursory look around shows that a lot of development has taken place since then.
All in all, this holiday was a mixed bag. The weather was a let-down, but there were some nice sunny days. The area we stayed in was very heavily developed, but what part of the southern Spanish coast is not?
The better beaches were pleasant and well kept but busy; relatively secluded ones tended to be stony. There were some marked walks and trails but not as many as we've seen in the south of France.
At the end it was time to climb back into the car and get some serious kilometres under us. For the return journey we were taking the ferry from Roscoff to Rosslare. The journey to Roscoff was 33km shorter overall than to Cherbourg, overnighting in Niort, 465km from Roscoff.
Ah, yes. As Robert L pointed out, sometimes to move really is the great affair.
Clocking up the kilometres
A large chunk of your budget goes on fuel. Getting to our destination cost €300. Petrol and diesel are expensive in France (we paid €1.60 per litre for unleaded in one filling station), but we only had to make one fuel stop before reaching Spain, where €1.19 a litre was the average we paid.
Be warned, too, that tolls can add up on a long journey - we paid a total of €47.33 to get to Mazarrón - but they are a must if you plan to cover any distance.
French toll roads have a speed limit of 130km/h in the dry - Spanish equivalents are 120km/h - but you can cover considerable distances quickly. The roads can be very busy around the city orbitals, on which it pays to be vigilant to avoid missing your turn-off. Road tolls come in two guises: the kind where you take a ticket and pay as you leave the road, depending on distance travelled, and those around some towns and cities with one-off payment. They are easy to use, and you can opt for a manned booth, cash basket or credit-card gate. The latter is particularly efficient: ticket in one slot, credit card in the other, barrier up.
Be careful if you exceed the speed limit. You cannot get points on your licence, but you are liable to a stiff fine, a court appearance or both. Your car can even be impounded in France, in the most extreme cases. French drivers are quick to flash their lights at each other in the vicinity of checks. Spanish police tend to conduct checks at roundabouts with a 40km/h limit at their approach.
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go on the way to Murcia
Where to stay
Campanile La Roche sur Yon Hôtel. Route de Nantes,
ZI Les Bazinières, La Roche-sur-Yon, 00-33-2- 51240400, www.campanile-la- roche-sur-yon.fr. Campanile hotels are ideal for motorists who are not fussed about stars, features and frills. A nice room here cost us €66. A fine evening meal for two, with a bottle of wine, costs less than €40, and a good buffet breakfast to set you up the following morning is €8 per person.
Formule 1 (www.hotel formule1.com) and Première Classe (www.premiereclasse. com) hotels are similar options. They have a certain functional charm, and our Première Classe (in Niort, on the return) cost €47, including two buffet breakfasts. It also offered the advantage of electronic check-in for our pre-booked room - useful when you are disembarking an evening ferry and aren't quite sure when you'll arrive.
Hotel Villa de Castejón. Ctra N-232, Km 83,400, Castejón, Navarra, 00-34-948-842012, www.villacastejon.com. Double rooms from €74.90, and the restaurant has an all-you-can-eat buffet, including a bottle of wine, for an incredible €13 per person. This kind of value does not go unnoticed by the many truckers who frequent the restaurant, and are immune to the rather hectoring manner of waiting staff who direct affairs with military gusto. Whatever you do, don't pick up a dessert fork with your dinner plate, or staff will shout at you. They seemed unperturbed by diners lighting up under No Fumar signs.
What to see
Mar Menor, a large lagoon, is well worth a visit. La Manga (the Sleeve), a 21km-long sliver of sand, makes up its eastern boundary. It is a long-established holiday location for Spaniards, and there is an air of faded grandeur in places, but its situation is stunning. We took a spin along the palm-tree-lined roads to its northern extremity, Punta del Pudrimel, which offered beautiful views west towards San Javier. The lagoon offers shallow, sheltered waters for swimmers and watersports enthusiasts alike, and it has lots of clean, sandy beaches. Sadly, most are overlooked by large-scale developments.
Calblanque Regional Park, which lies just south, and contains some marked treks for walkers and hikers where you can enjoy spectacular cliff scenery. You can start at Cala Reona, and head for the hills, or follow the track hugging the cliffs leading to several kilometres of beaches and coves. If you are looking for a truly secluded beach, forget it. Car parks fed by rough roads in what seem like isolated stretches crop up on every headland you negotiate.
Exercise caution when walking in the hills. The area was extensively mined for lead, copper and zinc in the not-too-distant past, and there are still deep shafts in evidence - plastic mesh barriers being the only thing between you and a potentially fatal plunge.
Puerto de Mazarrón, near where we stayed, has some pleasant coastal frontage, but the town itself holds few attractions.
La Azohia lies a few minutes east, with a pretty harbour, small restaurants and a paved walk that runs along the seafront towards Isla Plana.
If cities are your thing, the regional capital, Murcia, is definitely worth a jaunt. You can wander along Paseo del Malecón, a flood barrier built in the 18th century that has a fine park along its northern perimeter, before exploring the commercial centre, which offers plentiful spending opportunities, including upmarket department stores.
Despite our self-confessed status as philistines and heathens, we were most impressed by the city's elaborate cathedral, which contains, according to the blurb, Gothic, baroque and Renaissance elements in its architecture.
Where to shop
Try Cartagena. Parque Mediterráneo contains a good variety of outlets and a large Carrefour to stock up on necessary items, such as wine, spirits and beer, at a fraction of the price in Ireland. Cartagena is not pretty, but there is a pleasant marina area where you can see Isaac Peral's 1888 prototype submarine.
Health warning
Unfortunately for us, we also had an opportunity to sample Cartagena's healthcare facilities. An incident involving a slippery nonslip shower mat resulted in us paying an unplanned visit to a hospital, Emphasising the importance of having your E111 card when holidaying within the EU.
Go there: Irish Ferries (www.irish ferries.com) sails from Rosslare to Cherbourg and Roscoff. Brittany Ferries (www.brittanyferries.ie) sails from Cork to Roscoff.