We are presently enjoying the cold wet rain at La Marina on the Costa Blanca. The fact that we have had the van heating on more or less non stop since leaving the train at Calais a fortnight ago has totally thrown our gas calculations out of the Heki. One cylinder down and one full one left with still a month before we need to set off home we decided to buy a 'Repsol' and 'do the regulator conversion' on the van. I can hear some of you in the know having a chuckle at our naivety. We were told that we couldn't buy a Spanish cylinder without a gas check certificate. A gas check, what's that all about then? We huffed and puffed, all we wanted was a wretched gas bottle. A Repsol station wouldn't sell us a cylinder and all the local black market ones had been snapped up. We had to bite the bullet and put our names on the list for the 'inspection' Well, a very charming young man duly arrived this morning did his checks on our van, converted our French regulator, gave us our gas certificate and was on his way all for 18 euros. We were surprised to learn that the gas certificate would be required by the police if we were stopped at a checkup point. Does anyone have experience of these checks? Is it yet another way for the tourists to be fleeced. Presumably if you don't have a certificate you get a hefty on the spot fine. What a difference to Portugal where we got our French bottle refilled by a little old lady at a GPL station in the middle of nowhere!!.