Wednesday 14 January 2015

An earlier start as I wanted to check with Carlos, the ticket agent, before collecting in the paperwork to see what he needed. Also, along with nearly everybody else, we also wanted to top up with LPG. The garage attendant must have been quite bemused when half a dozen motorhomes turned up and proceeded to top up with tiny amounts of gas – one was only 35 cents, although we managed €2.10!

Then back to “Lidl” at Algeciras. This is a bit confusing because we don’t actually need to go to Lidl, but as Carlos used to have his office there, and everybody parked in their car-park, it’s become a point of reference. His office has now moved about 500m along the road and most motorhomes now park round the corner in a little used section of the massive parking area for the Centre Commerciale.

Got our info then joined up with the others, some of whom had already arrived, including the four we had yet to meet, and relieved them all of €200 apiece and their V5, which is all that was needed. Delivered them all back to Carlos (well his daughter actually) then went shopping. There are several different supermarkets here and everybody uses the stop to stock up before taking the ferry.

Returning at 18.00 as promised Carlos went through every bit of paper (he’s a bit of a worrier, but see later) then sent us on our way together with a bag of goodies for each van. Distribute to everybody, then finally a late tea!

But that wasn't the end. About 9.45 pm, Carlos came knocking, looking for “le chef”, i.e. me. “There is a problem, come, come” and loaded me into his car. Everybody else thought I was being abducted whilst I thought that perhaps there was a problem with the tickets. It turned out, however, that there had been a fatal accident in the tunnel approaching the docks and the road was closed. He wanted to show me an alternate route in case it wasn't clear by the morning. His “10 minutes” turned into well over an hour and Bren, and the others, were getting concerned because they had no idea what was going on!

However, eventually Carlos delivered me safely back to the group and I was able to explain. How many other travel agents would go to that length? That’s why everybody goes to Carlos for their tickets. Must send him a thankyou note.