Couple “relieved to be back home” after being on lockdown in Spain due to Coronavirus

Pauline and Ron at the campsite in El Berro. PICTURE: Contributed (Image: Archant)

A couple from St Neots have said that are “relieved to be home” after they were forced to cut their retirement road trip short due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Pauline and Ron Eastoe, from Eaton Socon, had planned to go on a retirement motorhome road trip around Europe for a month, but were forced to come home nine days early due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The trip, which included a month-long trip around France and Spain was cut short when the pair arrived at a campsite in El Berro in Spain, to be told that they would be in lock down, and not allowed to leave.

Pauline, 64, said that she was “terrified” when the campsite they were staying on would not allow anyone to leave.

Pauline relaxing in El Berro campsite before lockdown occured. PICTURE: Contributed (Image: Archant)

“We were on lockdown and told we cannot leave for 14 days, there was a tiny shop for the whole site where you could only get essential items. Our sons called us and told us that we must come home, so we made the decision to come back. The worst part was that there was a guard and a barrier, and we had to go and explain that we needed to leave.

“I made a sign for our window so that we could explain to anyone what we were doing, it was really scary.”

When Pauline and Ron finally left the campsite, they ended up driving 2,000km in three days.

“We just wanted to get back. So many officials were stopping us and we had to just hope that they would let us get home. We were really really scared and just weren’t sure if we could get back.

We finally made our getaway on Tuesday . We just drove and drove until we had to stop to sleep. We arrived at le Shuttle yesterday after driving 2000 kilometres in three days. The route home was both dangerous and frightening, but we are relieved to have made it back to England.

The pair returned home yesterday; nine days earlier than they had planned.

“We are obviously so gutted that we had to cut it short, we had planned out everything and were really looking forward to it,” Pauline said.

“We get it, we would much rather be safe at home than stuck in Europe, it has just been a panic. I went to the shops this morning as we haven’t got any food in our house, and everything was empty. I can’t believe how people are behaving.”