'Pont Avon' The Friendly New Giant
Adrian French takes to the waves.
We all toddle backwards and forwards over that piece of water that in the past has protected us from unfriendly hordes and again, in the past, made our island race what it was.
Man’s dream for at least the last hundred years has been to connect mainland Europe with England, and a few years ago that dream became reality with the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
That tunnel is now in desperate financial trouble due of lack of passengers. The real answer would be to put down the fares but this rather obvious solution seems to escape the corporate organisation which runs it.
This, of course, leaves the field clear for the ferry companies to attract the holidaymakers aboard their ships.
It seems that our ferry fares are also some of the highest in the world.
Brittany Ferries seems to be at least trying to give the passenger something for his money and have just launched a super ferry called the ‘Pont Aven’.
We were privileged to be able to take a trip to Santander with Eurocamp Independent on the Pont Aven to sample the ship and to have a short break on a Spanish campsite.
This too was a new experience having never caravanned in Spain before, always preferring France.
Our trip began on Easter Sunday from our Warwickshire home, making the longish haul to Plymouth for our departure.
We had thought that on the middle day of the Bank holiday the traffic would be fairly light and so it proved.
Towing our faithful Bailey behind the magnificent Kia Sorento we made good time, covering the fairly traffic free 195 miles in just over four hours. We only used half a tank of diesel!
We had never sailed from Plymouth before so followed the signs to the Ferryport. Just as well as we had no idea where were going.
The ‘Pont Aven’ docked not long after, from Roscoff we believe, and floated there rather like a huge building.
The ship was buililt in Germany at the shipyard of Meyer Werft in Papenburg.
Founded in 1795 Meyer Werft were building wooden ships until 1874 when the yard switched amid huge local protest, to building ‘new fangled iron ships’.
To prepare for the arrival of the ‘Pont Aven’ Associated British Ports have invested over 4 million in major construction work at Millbay Docks, the ferryport at Plymouth.
Before embarking we were subjected to quite a stringent search, including the caravan.
The rather pleasant lady looked just about everywhere and the way she handled the cupboards showed that she was familiar with caravans.
On boarding we found that we were one of the first on the lower deck and to see the size of this deck was simply breathtaking.
From here we took a lift to deck five where we had a cabin and decided to settle in. We were on board at least an hour before sailing time.
The twin berth standard cabin is, shall we say somewhat restricted in size and would be no good for someone who suffered from claustrophobia.
Hence they have been able to build 650 cabins in all. Mind you, we looked enviously into a Club Class cabin which was wonderful with tea making facilities and flat screen television.
The ‘Pont Aven’ is 184.6 metres (600 feet) long 30.19 metres (100 feet) wide, and has a draught when under way of around 7.5 metes at 27 knots.
The four twelve cylinder diesel engines run two propellers and at the service speed of 27 knots are turning over at 500 rpm, the propellers run through reduction gears and are turning at 150 rpm.
At this service speed the crossing now takes only 18 hours and gives one time to have a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant.
The ship can run on one, two, three, and of course, four engines. The engine room is noisy but not overpowering, with all the controls in a fairly sound proof room and run from there.
The public areas are quite unlike the traditional ferry, cattle class is obviously a thing of the past.
Panoramic lifts group four floors into an Atrium, the lounges are huge and quite spectacular and the eating areas are large and well laid out.
The Flora restaurant is quiet and the food excellent, in fact very similar to the Mont St Michel
The overall colour scheme aboard, was to our eyes, rather too garish but this, naturally, is a totally personal view.
On each voyage there is a full programme of entertainment, live acts, lots of things to keep children happy, and eight films in two cinemas, surely enough to satisfy virtually everyone’s tastes.
There is a small swimming pool too with pleasant lounge area surrounding it.
For the animal lovers who travel with their pets there is a kennel room on deck 10 with stainless steel cages of various sizes, and a disinfectant area.
We actually saw a Great Dane in there! Exercising is allowed on the helicopter pad as long as the necessary cleaning up is done.
We were treated to a visit to the bridge for the departure from Plymouth and quite frankly it was not at all how we had imagined it would be.
The bridge is a huge room 38 metres wide, eight metres wider than the ship, by around 12 metres deep, deathly quiet and certainly no hive of activity.
This great vessel is controlled by a few little levers sticking out from three consoles, one at each side of the bridge and one in the centre.
A helmsman mans a small wheel around 15 inches in diameter and has a huge read out screen in front of him.
There are screens at each console showing the position of the ship in relation to any land and radar screens also showing any obstructions.
The bridge is 22 metres above water level and several transparent floor panels enable one to look down and get a better impression of the speed at which you are travelling. Very, very, impressive.
What was no so impressive was landing at Santander on a Bank Holiday Monday morning – gridlock is the word, and not for the faint hearted.
Having finally left the gridlock behind we made our way to Camping Playa de Joyel at Noja, just 30 miles from Santander.
A huge site used by Eurocamp and Eurocamp Independent.
Adjacent to a sandy beach, the site has about 1000 pitches – well you try to count them - with some Holiday Caravans, about 70 in total. In addition both Eurocamp and Keycamp had some ready erected tents, which were being put up while we were on site.
We have to say that the team of young people assembling the tents and putting in all the equipment needed to make the Eurocamp clients happy, were working in a very cheerful, orderly and professional manner.
Although we were pitched very close to all this activity it was never obtrusive and did not disturb us.
This site is very comprehensively equipped with just about everything that any holiday maker would require.
Apart from some obviously seasonal Spanish caravans, the site was almost empty so was fairly quiet. In the height of the season we though that it might be a touch frenetic.
The pitches are typically Spanish, so we were told, very tight to access with trees exactly where they impeded the swing of the reversing tow vehicle.
Talking of tow vehicles, Kia had kindly loaned us a diesel Sorento and we have to repeat, what a superb vehicle this is and incredible value for money.
We know that our Bailey is comparatively small, 15ft 6in, but apart from a very slight loss of performance the ’van could not be detected on the hook.
As we write this on our second day on site, the only thing that disappoints is the weather.
Not that different from our own climate, a little warmer perhaps but it teemed overnight.
The campsite is very tidy and well kept. The toilets are reputed to be some of the cleanest in Spain and we would heartily agree with this.
Whilst exploring the area, and to save any parking hassle we took a small ferry from Pedrena over the bay to Santander, saving about 10 miles driving and landing virtually next to the ‘Pont Aven’.
Amazingly snow covered mountains could be seen all around, very picturesque.
So to see the snow at closer quarters we took a trip to the ski resort called Altoo Camp in the Picos Mountains, about 60 miles from Santander.
As we climbed the thermometer in the Kia crept down and down until it read 1°C from a sea level temperature of about 22°C.
One road that we tried was blocked by snow and we had to turn back and go to the ski resort proper.
Two ski lifts and a draglift were in use and there were literally hundreds of people there.
The café we dropped into for a cup of tea was crowded out and the ski equipment hire shop had shelves drooping with all the various ski paraphernalia.
As our site was not too far from the famous wine producing region of La Rioja, we made another day out and travelled down to Haro, the main town in the region.
This proved to be a very straight forward run, about 110 miles, on two very good motorways. We selected one of the many bodegas at random and did purchase a case or two of the regional specialities.
As is our wont we also visited a Saturday market close the site, supposedly the largest in the region, but were a little disappointed at the quality, especially compared with the French equivalent.
The food and regional products were however, looked very appetising.
Never having been to that part of Spain before, we found the area very rugged and mountainous, but not that touristy, as most people seem to head south.
Having said that, our campsite had 78 Eurocamp caravans and around 24 tents so obviously later in the season there must be a fair number of visitors.
All in all we found the ‘Pont Aven’ to be beautiful ship, and our only disappointment was the lack of space in a standard cabin, a view voiced by several others in our hearing.
Our grateful thanks must go to Eurocamp Independent for allowing us to participate yet again, in one of their excellent holidays, to Brittany Ferries for allowing us to ‘sample’ a voyage on the ‘Pont Aven’ and to their crew for taking the time to show us over this state of the art ship.
Lastly our thanks and appreciation must go to Kia for lending us the superb Sorento which behaved beautifully throughout.
For further details contact Eurocamp Independent on 01606 787666 and
Brittany Ferries, Reservations and Enquries on 08705 360360.
Adrian French
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Brittany Ferries - Super Ferry