‘Barcelona Reus’ Airport, it’s called. It’s over an hour away from the city – still that’s budget airlines for you. This was the point where I had to say goodbye to my wife. It was a shame that she couldn’t stay for longer but I’m glad she shared the middle part of this epic journey and experienced everything from Austria to Spain.

The next part of my trip proved the most complicated, long-winded and – at times – frustrating. But it’s these sorts of things that can mean finally achieving the thing is more rewarding and it was great to finally reach Andorra, another nation all by itself – closely connected with Spain and France (who have joint responsibility for defending it) but not part of the EU and therefore duty free. The fuel prices were much, much lower here (about 30-40c per LITRE cheaper) – just one example of why Andorra is such a popular destination for people who dare to make the pilgrimage.

Andorra is not the most easily accessible place. It’s in the Pyrenees, another stunning mountain range. I decided to go a slightly longer way round by driving up the Mediterranean coast, just a few km back into France and then along the main road directly to Andorra. Although I’ve written ‘directly’, it’s definitely not a straight line. It goes on for three hours as it works its way into the Pyrenees. By the time I’d finished, I was above the clouds. I was actually looking down on some clouds in the mountains.

Once inside the nation I made my way through another long, winding road to the main city. It’s clear that this is very popular for skiing and climbing holidays as well as fuel buying ones.

The city centre itself is like a typical mountain resort town. It was about 4.30pm and I knew I had quite a journey ahead of me. I didn’t stay for long. Unfortunately although I needed to head north-west, there are only two exits – east (to France) and south (to Spain). The France exit was for me, as I had to head north to get on to the motorway network.

Because Andorra isn’t part of the EU, there is a customs station a third of the way down the mountain back into France – and the queue for it was long. It’s such a strange place to have it, but of course it needs to be before the first point that cars can turn off to another road – and so I think it must count was one of the most picturesque passport control areas on the trip, if not globally.

The next seven and a half hours were spent firstly slowly working my way back to the motorway network (not helped by a two hour queue for a tiny roundabout and pedestrian crossing), then motorway driving through France back into Spain and finally finding my hotel. I arrived at midnight in Bilbao on the northern coast of Spain and not surprisingly, checked in and went to bed after breaking my record for the longest distance travelled – but again, the mountains kept me overawed as well as busy.

KM TRAVELLED TODAY: 1088 km TOTAL: 7490 km