WINTERING AWAY 2005

Don Madge
2005

Thanks to veteran motorhomer and MMM Travel Consultant, Don Madge, who wrote the following useful notes for other motorhomers thinking about wintering away from the UK safely and in comfort. Here are some good ideas. 

The image on the left shows Don and Maureen's Timberland next to our Four Winds motorhome waiting in Brindisi to board the ferry for Greece. On the right, we are in  Igoumenitsa, having just landed in Greece at the beginning of 2006. The Madges were again heading for Turkey.

Don writes:

It is very difficult to give advice on such a wide subject but here goes, we usually spend seven or eight months away in the van each year. This is what we usually do on a winter trip, but first a bit about us.

We are loners isolationist in our early seventies, who hate to be hemmed in by other campers. We started our winter trips 15 years ago in Portugal and it was reasonably peaceful, sites in the popular areas weren't over run. That lasted 3 years when Portugal got very popular all of a sudden. We then went to Morocco and we just loved it. Two years later and the place was overwhelmed with motorhomes.

Next we tried the Canary Islands again it was great, weather was good we toured five of the 7 islands in four months. On the whole sites were horrendous, a gas bottle exploded on one site as a Spaniard was welding his Motorhome, fortunately we had just left the site. Nobody was injured but a few motorhomes were damaged or destroyed. Free camping was never a problem as long as you were reasonably discreet. The big down side was the £1200 ferry fare, nice boat , plenty of food but £1200 is a lot of money.

Then came Turkey, we loved it straight away, the people are very friendly, free camping is not a problem, often you will be given tea when you stop on a picnic area, the Turks usually send the children across with it. A small kit kat in return works wonders for PR.

We spend three months in Turkey on the Aegean/Med coastline. We have three sites were we usually stop at, Kusadasi, Oludeniz and Antalya. We usually have a month each at the first two and a week in Antalya. We also have a few places were we free camp, mainly small harbour's (Kalkan/Kas/Finike) and small village beaches out in the wilds. We have never felt threatened in Turkey, we feel safer in Turkey than we ever did in Spain.

We usually take the direct route down to Italy, ferry to Greece and drive across northern Greece into Turkey. On the return trip we try and vary it. We've taken the ferry from Marmaris to Rhodes with our A Class Laika 400i which only just fitted on the ferry, it's not a crossing for the faint hearted. We then took the ferry from Rhodes to Piraeus (Athens) then ferry (Camper deck) from Patras to Venice. This is a must, sailing past the Grand Canal in Venice on a spring morning is out of this world.

Last year (April 2004) on our return trip we toured Sardinia and Corsica both highly recommended

We don't plan the return trip in advance, we buy a single trip ticket on the way out and when in Turkey decide which way to return home. Next year we have two ideas for the homeward trip, overland via the Balkans or ferry to Rhodes and Crete then tour the Peloponnese.

If you plan to visit a country's that you never visited before i.e. The Balkans, Turkey or Morocco I suggest you get a Lonely Planet Guide or such like for the country and read up on their customs, practices & traditions this could save you a fine at a later date. There are some traditions that are not in any book. i.e. In Greece they always have and always will drive on the hard shoulder, even on a three/four lane motorway. If you choose to ignore this practice the Greeks will let you know in no uncertain terms.

If you plan to visit Morocco or Turkey check when Ramadan (October 4 this year) starts because it could put a big damper on your holiday.

We always take a photo copy of "all" documents. If you venture outside the EU take a full inventory of everything in the van. If visiting Turkey and Morocco the driver of the vehicle will not be able to leave the country without the vehicle in which they entered. So no parking up for a couple of weeks and flying home for Christmas.