Van Life Spain - Roadtrip from Portugal to the Pyrenees | Europe Travel Ep 8

We're Tani and Adam and we moved into our tiny home on wheels Jitters almost a year ago and what a year it's been. We explored Ireland and Scotland before being stopped in our tracks halfway through Portugal by Covid-19. After spending three months of lockdown on a Portuguese farm, borders were beginning to reopen. We began preparing to move on from the farm we'd come to know as home and our host Rao, who we'd come to know as family. But leaving the safe haven was easier said than done. In this film, we finally peel ourselves away from our Portuguese home and make our way up through Spain. Subscribe to join us on our journey. One, two, three, jump! During our last couple of weeks on the farm, we spent so much time with Rao and family cooking up vegan treats. Yay! Very, very, very, very, very, very, very good. Captain Rao took us on a boat for the day and we anchored on a sand island, which we basically had to ourselves. In return for Rao's hospitality, we made him a short film to promote the guest houses on his farm. Before leaving, everyone had to say goodbye to Jitters too. Just lie down, this is so comfortable. Hello. Are you excited or sad? Both. This is the last water top up. I think it's full actually. I didn't even get to wear. Adam, look, you got to wear. Maybe a little bit. Oh no, poor Jitters. I'm sad. Yeah, I'm sad. So today is a very sad day. We're finally moving on from the farm. We've been here for about a quarter of a year, which is ridiculous. I feel like we can really say that we have lived in Portugal. We ended up really getting to know Rao and the kids and having just a great time with them. So it's even, it's made it that bit more sad to actually be leaving. But I am itching to get back on the road again. Honestly, I just like, I feel like we've been putting it off. We were supposed to leave yesterday, and then we were supposed to leave the day before. We were supposed to leave two weeks ago as well. Well, yeah, we were supposed to leave two, we just, we've kept putting it off. While keen to make up on lost time, we wanted to explore the beautiful area we were in, Arabida, which until now had been just out of reach due to lockdown restrictions. Where we exist is beautiful. Here we go. What a view. Just a 10 minute drive from the farm is the Monastery of Arabida. Founded in 1542, it consists of two monasteries, the old and the new. The old monastery stands on the highest point of the Arabida hills. It is said that this beautiful building was built by monks who constructed it in complete silence. Perhaps that's why it's so higgledy-piggledy. After lunch, we settled a mere 10 minutes up the road at a panoramic viewpoint. So we're still trying to say goodbye to João. He keeps coming and visiting because he doesn't want us to go and we don't want to say goodbye. Yeah, so we'll just say até já. Até já, which is see you later in Portuguese. After finally peeling ourselves away from the farm and Arabida, we covered a lot of ground, stopping only to admire the light. We originally wanted to drive along the coast, but once we got to the Algarve, although beautiful, it was very busy. And now, more than ever, we were keen to avoid crowds as COVID-19 is still very present. So we drove and we drove. So we've decided that in order to just catch up on ourselves, we're going to drive to Spain today. We went north through the center of Spain, covering over 1,000 kilometers in three days, making it to Cuenca. I think we were both worried that after Portugal, we were going to find it really hard to find places in Spain that were going to be as epic and just not full of tourists. That was definitely one of our worries. But seeing this place now, we'll have to see if it gets busy, maybe tomorrow. But right now, we have this place to ourselves. The view is incredible. Look at it. We have a little bench. Well done, Jits. That was a long drive. How long did we drive for? 12 hours. Well done, you. And Jits. Good job, Jits. Jits has worked harder than the rest of us today. Yes. Oh, and the bed's still made. Yes. It's full of stuff, but at least it's made. Oh, well done. We have been maybe about half an hour. We're only about five minutes away from Jits. But we've spent the last half hour taking pictures of butterflies because there are so many beautiful butterflies around here. All along this wall, it's just lined with these gorgeous flowers. And so that is how we've been spending our time. And see if I can see Jits. Jits is there. We took a small walk along the cliff overlooking the old town. From afar, it looked really spectacular. So we couldn't wait to go and walk around it. And there is Jits waiting for us to get home. Okay, so loyal. So loyal. We are in the old town of Cuenca, right in the middle of it. And it is beautiful. It's just a classic European old town. And I love European old towns. Yeah, it's beautiful. But this is just amazing. And apparently this is high season and it's always really quiet. So I think it's a bit of a hidden gem. Quiet, except for the local kids who are very loud. The historic old town of Cuenca. An unusually well-preserved medieval fortified city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's home to Spain's first Gothic cathedral and the famous casas colgadas, hanging houses. Suspended from sheer cliffs overlooking the Hueca River. What tree are we on? Mother of God. Ireland 2019. We found ourselves broken down at Schliefli Cliffs. A blessing in disguise as we met Marissa and Alejandro. They live in Cuenca and offered to take us on a special hike known mostly just to locals. We're not even halfway and it's already stunning. The natural park of Serrania de Cuenca is home to some of the most important dinosaur sites in Europe. The region has left numerous traces of the largest inhabitants that our planet has had and our hike took us through the impressive landscapes of the Jurassic and Cretaceous times dating as far back as 145 million years ago. This is so cool. So this tap is in the tiny little town of Uña which directly translates to fingernail. We spent some time around Uña. We parked up next to a beautiful misty lake and then found an office with a view overlooking the cliffs we hiked. I don't want to leave. Every time we park up in a new spot like I just don't want to leave. Look at this. But eventually we did leave to do some van life admin. We headed north. The best things about traveling by van is the not knowing. Driving the roads you wouldn't otherwise see. Often we've stumbled across places we didn't even know existed. Sleeping in a place that we don't know the name of. Not knowing where we'll stop the next night. We don't know exactly where we're going to stay tonight. We're just driving and looking out for potential spots for us to wild camp. To use a cliche it's not the destination it's the journey. They see me rolling very slowly. Very slowly. Often when we park somewhere new Adam will go on a little run to scout the area. Well done. That is so idyllic down there. My god it's so idyllic. You can get right to the water. Wow. I'll show you. We have to go there in a minute. I need some orange juice. We were very happy to be in the Pyrenees. The air was cool and there was a fresh breeze. A short walk from our park up was a meadow in a valley with a cold river. This place is so beautiful. The water is really cold so I'm not brave enough just yet to get in. But Adam's gotten in on both of our behalf. It is amazing. Honestly once you get in it just it feels cold to begin with. Even I thought it was going to be cold but then when I was in there it's just the most fresh clean water that you could imagine. Oh so good. The Pyrenees mountain range stretches more than 430 kilometers between Spain and France. It is covered with hiking trails and ski resorts and known for its outstanding natural beauty. The endless mountains are a sight to behold. Okay so we are driving to a place that we have found on Park4night which looks like it could have the perfect view high enough above the mountains but still looking at mountains to be able to see near wise. So fingers crossed we're going to be able to get the shot that we want there. But we won't know till we get there. But we've been going up so it looks good. Whoa look at this guys. Goats. Sheep. Sheep right there. Hello guys. Do you know a good place around here to shoot near wise? That is where the photo is. It's a bit obstructed here but basically that is where the comet is going to come up. Wow. So one of the great things about living in a van is you just get to park up in the places you want to shoot and then you can just set the tripod up outside your front garden. It's the only way that you can get to these places and be at home whilst shooting in different locations all the time. Brilliant. And you're getting spaghetti bolognese made for you. And I'm getting spaghetti bolognese made for me whilst I'm out here keeping an eye on the time lapse which as everybody knows is very important. You can't take your eye off the time lapse. What are you doing now? I am setting up the camera to get on the tripod to try and shoot the near wise comet. That's really frustrating actually. Unfortunately there was some light pollution from the town in the valley so the near wise shot didn't come out as we'd hoped. But when we turned around we were faced with the Milky Way. So the night shooting was a success as I did manage to get a really nice shot that I'm pleased with. But we didn't get the shot that we were hoping for of the near wise comet. Spain was amazing and it far exceeded our expectations. Yeah we were originally going to go up the coast because that was our plan from the very beginning. But the coast when we got there was just so busy along the beaches and we just thought you know what it's not worth it. We decided right let's drive up the centre even if we're going to miss out on all the amazing coast. But we don't actually feel like we've missed out on anything because we stumbled across so many amazing places that we otherwise would have missed. And yeah it was amazing. So many little hidden gems. Yeah just driving through the dusty roads, the towns, there was castles everywhere. Yeah there was no shortage of just the history and the landscape as well. Yeah yeah so really good. Really glad that we had a different experience of Spain than we were expecting. And yeah what a place to finish it. Up in the Pyrenees shooting some stars. I know it was amazing. A huge thank you to all of our subscribers for taking the time to tune into our films and leave us such lovely comments here and on Instagram and Facebook. We are so grateful and proud to have grown our community to 12,000 and just wanted to say a big big thank you. Join us next time as we travel through France.