Breaking Down in Spain
OUR EXPERIENCE OF BREAKING DOWN!
It's 8pm on a Friday night in December. The weather is cold, windy but for the moment dry. We were just returning from Baza to Castril via Pozo Alcon.
My husband noticed the temperature going up in the car, so decide to try and find somewhere to pull over. However, within seconds we could not see the road for the vast amount of smoke coming out from under the bonnet….
Fortunately we found somewhere to pull over safely off the road. All we had to do now was call the breakdown services and they would come and get us!
The road was pitch black so first thing was light! We had no interior light working but luckily I had tidied the car out a few days before and the girls remembered I had put a torch underneath the drivers seat. I jumped out of the car and put my reflective jacket on, then put the triangles out in front of the car kept blowing away in the wind so I ended up putting that one back in the car (illegal I know).
We got the breakdown details out and put the torch on to find the number and make the call but the torch was running out of battery so it kept dying on us. We tried to make the call to the Breakdown services but it came up with that woman saying my credit was running low! I could not believe it, we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, with virtually no credit. If I made the call and we ran out of credit it would be a long walk to find a phone and getting colder outside as the temperature dropped.
I decided the only thing to do was call my friend Grace and see if she could make the call on my behalf so I could save the little credit I had for absolute emergency! I called Grace, who was fantastic and quickly called the Breakdown services for us. She said they would be there within 30 minutes. All we had to do was sit tight and they would be with us shortly….
If only it was that simple! 30 minutes came and went, then getting on for an hour. During which time, we played I-spy in the dark! However, Grace called to say they were having problems finding us. She said we needed to find a KM marker on the side of the road which were set every 300 metres. So my husband got out of the car and walked in each direction but unfortunately there were no markers. We then gave instructions again as clear as possible and eventually after approximately 2 hours the Calvary arrived!
My husband suspected the radiator had blown so knew it would be a tow job. The driver of the breakdown truck said he would arrange for us to have a taxi home and the car would be taken to the garage for repair.
The breakdown driver was very kind and concerned that the children and I were by this time, extremely cold – so blasted the heating out to warm us up….He drove us back into Baza where we met the taxi. We were then driven back to Castril with the Breakdown truck following behind.
We pulled into the garage. Emptied the car and got the keys then the taxi took us home. The Breakdown truck followed to ensure we were home safely….
My husband has been to the garage this morning and we await to find out the exact problem with the car.
However, we wanted to pass on our experience and point out some useful tips – especially at this time of year.
1. Take out breakdown cover with your car insurance. If we had not had this we would have had a real problem.
2. Ensure you have a working torch in the car – our batteries were low and we had to use it wisely!
3. Put a blanket in the car. We couldn’t keep the car running and it was bitterly cold.
4. Keep some food in the car for energy and some water to drink. Cold maybe in the winter, but it will keep the hunger pangs away.
5. And finally - ensure your mobile is topped up before setting out on a journey, whether long or short, as you never know when you are going to have to use it.