I hate flies and bugs.

Late evening in Portsmouth

The ferry leaves England at 2200 hours and we now have to amuse ourselves for the next 32 hours. Read a book, watch a DVD on the laptop or anything else to pass away the time. Our destination is Bilbao, Spain. Unfortunately, this boat has to change its French crew and at 0800 hours the next day, the boat stops in Brittany, France. It is the reason that the journey takes so long. Normally, it can be done in 24 hours.
But the view from the deck of the boat is quite pleasant as we watch trawlers unloading their previous nights catch of fish. A very small boat, with one man aboard, is pulling up his crab pots from the water and seeing what he has caught. I see him take 7 large crab from one pot and he shouts his good fortune to the departing crew members. I have given up eating crab, fish and other seafood after some very severe food poisoning. And still I had to do the car testing with the team that I worked for. Being sick in the world of motor sport is not really an option. We all rely on each other, so much, and when a team member cannot work, it just makes more work for everyone else. You have to start losing an arm or a leg before you have a good excuse not to work.

Roscoff in Brittany,France

The weather at sea is nice and the water is quite calm so that will make the journey a bit more comfortable until we reach Spain at 0630 hours on Tuesday. The boat was full with camper vans, and caravans but not too many trucks. Luckily we were at the front of the boat and we drive up onto the ramp and straight to the passport control without having to queue for a long time. Once again, great care is taken as we drive up the ramp onto the dock. These race trailers are so easy to damage as I mentioned in an earlier post on this blog. The port of Bilbao has been made much bigger, in the last few years, and it is now much easier to come out of the port and go straight on to the Spanish motorway system. The 480 horsepower truck, pulls us easily up the steep hills and we head towards Burgos. From there, it is a very straight forward journey towards Portugal. We pass through Valladolid, Salamanca and finally reach Merida which is where we decide to stop for the night. Several other teams were on the same boat as us and everyone has a different plan of how and when they need to be in Portugal.

A comic book character from the 1950,s is making his comeback appearance at the WTCC race of Portugal. One of the Chevrolet drivers is going to play the part in real life. The car, the race truck and the pit garage will be be painted and and covered with sticker graphics to help recreate this comic book hero, Michel Vaillant. The race truck was in Spain when we spotted it.

Comic book hero race truck in Spain

The following day and we are up very early so that we can get to get through Spain and reach our final destination, Autodromo do Algarve, Portimao, Portugal. We are not looking forward to washing the truck when we arrive. The amount of dead flies and bugs, covering the front of the truck, will mean that we have to get the pressure washer and the chemical cleaner to remove all traces of them. And to make matters worse, the temperature is 29 Celsius. I hate washing trucks when it is so hot. It is so difficult to remove all traces of the water and you end up with a clean truck which is covered in water marks and smears. This just means that we will have to polish the truck by hand to make it look good.

Turn off at junction 3 to get to the circuit

The circuit is a few kilometres from the motorway and as we arrive, we are greeted by Claudio from the organisers of WTCC, and we follow him through the tunnel and up the steep ramp into the paddock. Only a few teams have got there before us and we locate our garage and park up the truck and start getting the wash equipment out.
Several hours later and we know have a clean truck, BUT IT LOOKS TERRIBLE. Now where did we put the polish???????

The view as you arrive at the circuit

The ramp up to the paddock

The question of road tolls has reared its ugly head again and confusion has taken over. Trucks, cars and even motorcycles, now have to pay to use the roads. Portugal is struggling with its economy and have decided that to raise money, to pay for the maintenance of the roads, they have introduced a toll charge for all vehicles. But they have rushed it into operation, very quickly, and caused a right mess. Locals are refusing to pay. The purchase of a vignette or automatic toll box for trucks and cars is very difficult as not many petrol stations have the necessary equipment installed. The Portuguese website which explains the system, is written in Portuguese and if you do not understand Portuguese, how are foreign drivers expected to understand it?
And the European Union government have said that Portugal cannot charge a toll on sections of motorway that were built using money from the European Union fund. Therefore, it is illegal to make people pay tolls. This is all being sorted out in the law courts now and will probably continue for months and months.

As the world becomes more accessible by plane or car, the cost to travel and move goods seems to be higher and higher. If your truck or car is old and is not very Eco friendly, it will cost you more than a newer vehicle. If the goods that you want to import or export are not Eco friendly, it will cost you more. All of the governments in different countries just seem to want to make money out of everything. Where will it all end???????????

Camera gantries in Portugal. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY