Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the Landy...

I have struggled with how best to say this, so like a ripping off a plaster I shall simply say

The Landrover overheated again in the high Pyrenees mountains as we attempted to cross into Spain.

No, this is not the blog from 2 weeks ago. This is indeed a new overheating incident.

We set off today at 10am, looking forward to finally ticking off a 2nd country on this Earth Safari. We are 10 days later than planned heading to Spain, so we were excited and keen to get there. Setting off, we were in great spirits, but as we neared the area of the route that we had trouble with before, I noticed that I was deliberately quiet and Gaz was equally silent. It was like we were both holding our breath. But sure enough, we pushed the old girl too far and she spiked.

Bizarrely we had to pull over at about the same place on the route as before. The difference on this occasion, was that I didn't struggle with stress. Gaz was probably worse this time than I was. He's starting to lose so much faith in the car and it's bothering him.

We took a break for an hour and let her cool down, and talked things through. My logic was that she's an old car now, and we'd been pushing her for an hour and then we hit traffic - she just can't cope with that. Ok so she's a bit cantankerous, but by hook or by crook we had to get her over these f*ckin mountains and into Spain.

Gaz agreed that we'd worry about possible issues and fixes in Spain. We were both weighed down by a desperation to move on. We just couldn't do another 2 weeks treading water waiting for a mechanic to fit us in. France has been great, but it's time to move on. I mean, we're on the verge of being the most unsuccessful travellers ever... making it to France and basically staying there forever.

After an hour's rest, we set off again and made it over the top and through the Aragnouet tunnel.

Beautiful Spain greeted us on the other side; fantastic landscapes passing by as the heat of the day increased and we anxiously kept an eye on the temperature gauge.

After about 90 minutes, we pulled over to take a break and more importantly to give the Landy a chance to breathe.

Turning into the rest area, Gaz noted that the power steering was sluggish again. We couldn't believe it when, after checking, sure enough, for the 2nd time in 2 weeks, the power steering fluid was too low.

Why are these two issues plaguing us this trip?

We sat eating lunch and drinking coffee looking out over the view - a beautiful lake that shone a stunning aqua. Just beautiful. It was just stunning and so so different to the landscape we'd been passing through just a few kms before, where entire lakes were almost completely dry. Northern Spain needs water right now. It's just barren.

We had another 2 hours to get to our hotel for the night. I found a NorAuto shop (like Halfords) nearby the hotel so we made a beeline for that. The rest of the journey was uneventful - we jumped on to the motorway and with wind flowing through the radiator, the risk of overheating dropped away. Once Gaz had topped up the Power Steering fluid, he was happier with the way the car was responding. So we made it to our accommodation in a small town called Utebo near the city of Zaragoza by 5pm.

If you're ever passing by Utebo, I'd largely advise you to give it a wide berth. It's the ugliest spanish town I've ever seen and whilst the hotel we're in is good and the lady on the front desk was great, the surrounding streets are a bit eerie.

Hotel Europa,

Ciudad de Ponce, 4, 50180,

Utebo, Zaragoza, Spain

www.europa-hotel.es

So we are finally in Spain. Success! And we are moving on to Cordoba tomorrow. We've decided to just work with lady Landy and her idiosyncrasies at the moment. If she has a wobble, we'll stop and let her cool down and if it becomes disruptive then we'll need to think again. But for now as the Spaniard sampled his first Spanish beer for a while, we agreed to move ahead with our plans and hope that we don't have any more car curve balls along the way. Watch this space.