turnrightoutofportsmouth

Back in the UK

It’s now Monday 3rd April and we have been back in the UK since Friday. It’s nice to know that I still know how to drive and to notice the things from home that we should really all appreciate (more of that in a later post…)

It wasn’t rough in the Bay of Biscay but there was a 2m swell and, as I don’t always travel well, this meant I ended up laying down for 14 hours of the trip… (didn’t do my fitbit challenges any good either!) In this time Calv saw a school of dolphins (on the other side of the ferry to where the Orca watch co-ordinators were leading the search for them..), had some dinner and almost fell asleep in his pint. At which point he returned to the cabin to go to bed. At 8pm!!

Since we drove off the ferry we’ve hardly stopped. Don’t get me wrong it’s lovely to see everybody but we’re exhausted!! Much as I’m looking forward to seeing people that I haven’t caught up with yet I’m also looking forward, very much, to Thursday when we have no plans 🙂

I do have to catch up with writing up campsite reviews and an overview of our trip so far. I also have to write up a couple more ‘condensed’ versions (my son’s might read them then!)

Today I have upgraded my computer and we’ve got ourselves mobile internet (which we wish we’d done before we left…). I’m hoping that this will mean a less frustrating process when I update the blog.

Whilst I’m here can I just say thank you so much for reading and for your interest and support. As this was started as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends it’s lovely to see that it’s proving interesting to others. So, welcome to everybody and please feel free to comment on your own experiences on where we’ve visited.

The featured image btw is taken from our pitch at our ‘home’ campsite, Kia Ora in Nutbourne near Chichester. The view at any time rivals any that we’ve experienced in Spain (except perhaps the last where we could see snow-capped mountains from our pitch).

Kia Ora is a small site in an old nursery. It’s wonderful to see the daffodils bobbing in the sun and also the owner’s own lovely garden. We’ll be very comfortable here until we move on to Rye next week for the start of our UK adventures.

Beautiful Picos de Europa – a slightly hairy drive…!

We left Don Quijote on Saturday having had to decide to travel further than we normally would, 206 miles (apparently..) as we were struggling to find any campsites open at our preferred distance, which is about 150 miles.

So I input the co-ordinates for Camping Picos de Europa in Avin-Onis. I was a little surprised at the way the satnav took us, but thought ‘she’s not let us down yet..’. So we found ourselves heading towards Valladolid and then Palencia and Fromista, a town on the map surrounded by a green box, so we decided to stop there for lunch. What an interesting place, 4 churches and most properties seemed to be made from wattle and daub (we could see the straw in the very fabric of most of them, though many had been rendered and so looked much newer). Unfortunately we couldn’t visit any of the churches so we moved on after a short walk.

Fromista, on the way to Picos de Europa

Fromista, on the way to Picos de Europa

We then found ourselves heading towards the mountains and very soon it started to snow. This was great fun at first, we kept stopping to take photos as the scenery was spectacular (and Calv still had his shorts on..).

The roads remained clear at first but it stopped being fun when we were negotiating the narrow, windy roads high in the mountains and suddenly the roads weren’t clear. When Calv swears when he sees the road ahead – I start to worry. I told him that I loved him and kept my mouth shut until we cleared the snowy roads.

However our woes weren’t over! Having gone through a very pretty town, Potes, from where several walks into the mountains start, we thought we were just 2 miles from our destination. It wasn’t to be as, it would appear, that I’d managed to feed the wrong co-ordinates into the SatNav (I still don’t know how 😦 ) and we were actually still 40 miles (still through the mountains and gorges – beautiful, but time was now getting on..) away.

We arrived at about 6.15 (8 hours after leaving Don Quijote) and the campsite, Picos de Europa, was perfectly acceptable with a very warm welcome.

The next day we went for a walk towards the small town of Avin. There were plenty of old, abandoned houses again, but also an attraction, the Glacial Fauna Museum, unfortunately closed until July (and then only open to September). This is a series of caves with skeletons, including of woolly mammoths and rhinoceri dating back to the paleolithic age.

This walk didn’t take too long so we decided to head up the hill/mountain behind the campsite. There was a road going almost to the top and, steep as it was in places, we saw a Mitsubishi Shogun pulling a cattle trailer making light work of it! Very impressive as we were, both, struggling to walk up it! There were also cattle roaming free, going wherever they wanted – you could of course hear them coming though as they were wearing bells.

There were some beautiful views from up there. We went off piste though and along muddy narrow paths, finding yet more abandoned buildings on route. We ended up having to come down an extremely steep section, with me holding on to Calv’s shoulders, to get back to the road.

Taking a short cut back down to the campsite at Avin, Picos de Europa

We then ate in the campsite bar together with a couple of other couples – all on different tables but chatting to each other of course!

Time to move on though the next day – a much shorter journey though at just about 40 miles, bringing us to our final, and possibly our favourite of all, site – Caravanning Oyambre

This site is situated about halfway between San Vincente de la Barquera and Comillas. We visited both in the 2 full days we had there, cycling to San Vincente the 1st day (and being stopped by the Guardia Civil for not wearing our cycle helmets. He also gave Calv a hard time for visiting Spain yet not speaking Spanish… ) So once Calv had returned to the campsite to collect our helmets, and thereby avoiding a fine of 100 Euros each, we carried on to San Vincente de la Barquera, an old town with a castle and church and fishing harbour. It also has a nice beach and another one on the estuary, where we sat for a couple of hours before returning to the van. We cycled 11 miles in total (Calv a little more).

(The cycle helmet law in Spain allows you to go helmetless in towns and cities, but you have to wear them on any urban road where the speed limit is 50kmph or more ).

On our final day in Spain we decided to cycle the other way to Comillas. Unusually there was a decent pathway the majority of the way, and we chose to use this as it was devoid of pedestrians. Our ride took us along the estuary

and past a couple of viewing points until we came across Comillas and immediately could see a palace, Palacio de Sobrellano and a university pontificia. We tried to visit the palace but you could only visit by the tour and there wasn’t another starting for 20 minutes. So we had a look around the outside of the palace and the church next to it before moving on through a different park entrance to the town proper.

Here we had our 1st sight of a house by Antoni Gaudi, El Capricho. We found a tree to tie the bikes to in the square where the Town Hall is situated (there is a severe lack of places to lock up to, we have found anyway, in Northern Spain). We then wandered a little and found the historic square and the church before settling down for some lunch. I actually had Chocolate and churros and, this time, I was served nice fresh churros and I ordered a Spanish hot chocolate to dip them into – I have to say I really enjoyed them!

Now it was time to visit El Capricho 🙂 At 5 Euros each it is definitely worth it; small but perfectly formed! Created by Gaudi it has everything you would expect, little details such as a bee playing a guitar in a stained glass window, and ceramic sunflowers adorning the exterior.

But Comillas hadn’t finished with us yet. Instead of going back the way we’d come we cycled straight across at the traffic lights (rather than go left). We found a beautiful house that seemed empty and abandoned (it wasn’t falling down though, so there’s still time for it to be saved) and then we spotted the cemetery up on the hill. Now this was a cemetery like no other we have seen. It was actually built in and around the original church and was really rather amazing.

We then carried on along the coast and cycled through another ancient village up in the hills, Trasvia, before returning to the main road.

We then spent a couple of hours on the beach as our last hurrah in Spain.

Our visit to Spain and Portugal therefore finished on a real high and in the evening we started getting ready for leaving in the morning for the ferry. We are now back at home – well on our chosen campsite anyway, catching up with friends and family before leaving on our UK adventure just before Easter.

Salamanca – what a wonderful surprise

I finished my last post by noting that we were expecting rain the following day and so would be van bound.

To a certain extent this is what happened. I went out for a walk in the morning to try to find the Mercadona that, I thought, was a mile and a half up the road somewhere. I was trying to get there and back before the rain was due to hit. Halfway there I still had over a mile to go – google maps has a habit of giving you the distance ‘as the crow flies’ and then giving you the real distance when you press the start button – or so it seems to me anyway!

So I decided to turn back after popping into the local garage (where I discovered the diesel was priced at 1.08 per litre), as I thought I probably wouldn’t avoid the rain otherwise. As it happened I was right, but that didn’t stop Calv from giving me a really hard time for not making it to the shop!!

Calv was keen to cycle on the tracks that we’d found the previous day, so he donned his wet gear and went off. I got on with some chores (and had a bit of a read of my book) and he cycled about 25km and came back really happy (and really wet).

The rain, once it started, was unrelenting, and then we had a real surprise when it turned to snow and started laying. When we woke in the morning it was to a carpet of white!

We therefore changed our original plan – to cycle into the city along the river (there is a very good path along the river from the campsite), and decided to catch the bus instead. The bus stop is about 3/4 mile from the campsite and the cost was 1.40 each, each way. The bus drops you on the Gran Via (and to return you get on exactly where you’re dropped off) and from there it is easy to find the sites.

It’s probably best to head for Plaza Mayor first as this is where the Tourist Information is situated. We didn’t we kept walking along the Gran Via and came across our first monument, the Convento de San Estaban. We weren’t sure it was open at first as there was some sort of emergency services exercise going on. It cost 3 Euros each to get in and was definitely worth it, with the cloisters, staircase, confessionals and, of course, the church to see.

Cloister at San Estaban

Stairs with the sculpture of Mary Magdalene

Te church at San Estaban

On leaving San Estaban we headed up past the cathedral(s) and one of the many university/college buildings. Then right up towards the Plaza Mayor where there were numerous eateries and bars to choose from.

We then wandered fairly aimlessly wondering at all the amazing buildings that we saw at every turn – literally! We found a church, Vera Cruz, that looked nothing extra special really from the outside, but when you went in it was amazing (we didn’t get any pictures as there were people in there praying).

Walking back down from here we came across a house inscribed ‘Casa de Muerte’, or ‘House of the Dead’. Under the window sills there were skulls (not real ones; well I don’t think so anyway…!) Calv had wandered off to take some more photos while I was looking at this and a Spanish guy started talking to him (he thought he was scared of his dog). This gent, Antonio Grande, was a very interesting man; a former English and History teacher he had spent a lot of time in the UK, including Portsmouth, our home town, and Swansea, my dad’s birthplace.

He told us the best places to visit and a very brief history and I decided to ask him about the ‘House of the Dead”’ – he told us that apparently a woman married and lived with 3 husbands in this house. All 3 of them were murdered and apparently sealed in the walls, where they were found hundreds of years later when renovations were made…. There are other legends detailed in the link that I’ve included above.

Thank you Antonio Grande for bringing our visit to Salamanca to life 🙂

We then wandered a little more and headed to the Scala Coeli (3 euros each), 200 steps up 2 towers from which the views are amazing. You can also visit the Papal university here, but unfortunately this didn’t open until 5pm. The views were indeed amazing and we could also see into ‘the shell house’ opposite (unfortunately closed at the moment due to renovations), but so-called as the outer walls are covered in about 300 shells.

View across the rooftops in Salamanca

Finally it was time to visit the cathedral, or rather cathedrals. There is a new cathedral, started in 1513, and the old cathedral, started in the 12th century. They are actually connected and you can pay 4.75Euros each to visit both.

The new cathedral is beautiful and has several chapters ranged around the outer walls and 2 organs, 1 considerably older than the other. It is much larger than the old cathedral, which also has 2 extremely old organs of it’s own. It was also severely damaged in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and has undergone some re-building following this. For me this was a more interesting visit.

Organ in the old Gothic Cathedral, Salamanca

(Apologies for the quality of the photos – Calv was taking so many photos that the battery on his camera ran out. Before we got to the cathedral…)

We then visited the cathedral towers, more steps! As we emerged out into the open at the top it had just started snowing again. Again there were amazing views from the bell tower – I lost Calv when he went into the ‘clock workings’ room and I didn’t see him so carried on down to the bottom. I had to employ my limited German to ask the 3 girls who he’d taken a photo for earlier if they’d seen him! ‘Yes, he’s looking for you!’

We were now pretty tired so decided to head back to the bus – we definitely slept well!!

We also only saw about a quarter of what there is to see in Salamanca. It wasn’t on our radar in any way before visiting – it definitely is now 🙂

More details of the city can be found here:- Salamanca history

Last 2 days in Portugal – then a little gem – Ciudad Rodrigo :)

We had considered staying an extra night at the Orbitur Guincho, but decided against it when they wanted 28Euros for the night.

So we used the extra night to just go a few hours up the road to a site near Figuera de Foz, Orbitur Gala in Vila de Sao Pedro. This site wasn’t as nice as the one at Guincho although many aspects were the same.

We set up and then went off for a walk down to the beach, which is just about 1/4 mile from the back gate of the park. When you arrive at the beach there is a steep dune to negotiate to get down to it! It is another beautiful beach though.

It was, as ever on the West Coast, very windy and 1 minute you think you’re paddling in the shallows and the next a wave has rolled in much further than the last and you’re running to keep from getting your shorts wet! Continue reading “Last 2 days in Portugal – then a little gem – Ciudad Rodrigo :)”

Sintra – a magical day (topped off with a ride in Tuk Tuk)

Another wonderful day out on our travels! We had been looking forward to Sintra having been advised to go there by a couple that we met in Alicante. We didn’t manage to see everything that they told us about, and were gutted to have missed the gardens – Quinta da Regaleira which looked absolutely amazing.

First things first – how to get there. We were staying in Guincho, near to Cascais. To get to Sintra we needed to get a bus to Cascais, 2 miles away, at a cost of 3.60 Euros each, one way, then a bus to Sintra, at least 10 miles from Cascais – I don’t know the cost but would guess it must be at least 10 Euros each, each way, and then the tourist bus (5.50 Euros each) or a tuk tuk (5 Euros each) up to the Pena Palace (a must see).

So quite expensive to go by bus then (remember that’s one way for one person shown above…) We took a taxi with another couple, Jenny and Graeme, on the site at a cost of 26 Euros all the way up to the Pena Palace and 18 Euros back from the centre of Sintra at the bottom of the hill (between 4 people). We also took a tuk tuk down the hill, but this was on our -to-do- list anyway so was a cost we were actively seeking!

So my point is even if there’s just 2 of you going it’s cheaper to take a taxi! We were talking to a taxi driver before we went back to the campsite who told us that taxis are much cheaper but they’re not allowed to advertise the fact – I can’t for the life of me think why that would be the case….

Anyway, back to Sintra itself. The absolute must do is The Pena Palace Continue reading “Sintra – a magical day (topped off with a ride in Tuk Tuk)”

Zumbejeira to Guincho, Cascais – Wednesday 15th March 2017

As I said in my last post we were sad to leave this site after just the 1 night, but we had actually booked our next site, and with only 2 weeks to get back to Bilbao we feel under a bit of pressure now!

When we left we headed back to the town in order to follow the road to find the Historic fishing port, that we had seen signposted from the town centre. It turned out that Calv was right when he said he didn’t think we’d be able to walk it!

It was actually a good 3 to 4 miles along a back road (although there was a cycle path a good portion of the way). When we found it we parked outside what we think was a coastguard station. When we got out though we found out that the road did go to a parking area where there was also a restaurant (closed though).

We have no idea what the fishing port was called but it was absolutely charming. The harbour must be quite something to navigate into with the waves that we saw! Calv noticed that the fishing boats themselves had metal skids and he’s thinking that perhaps they haul them up onto the slipway – although he then noticed that they were all tied up so maybe the tide does come all the way up the slipway!

Homes in the Historic Fishing port

The Historic Fishing port near Zumbejeira

There were numerous cages of varying sizes, from which we deduced they were fishing for crab, langoustine, lobsters and perhaps even octopus!

In any event we were glad we made the detour. Not least because we saw a pair of nesting birds, Continue reading “Zumbejeira to Guincho, Cascais – Wednesday 15th March 2017”

1st Few Days in Portugal

Sunday 12^th March 2017

Finally the day arrived that we were to move on into Portugal.

We’d looked into the toll system and it appeared that all tolls were now electronic. Having investigated signing up online we decided to wait until we crossed the border, as we’d read that tourists simply pulled over to the side and put their credit card into a reader while their number plate is read and the two details are linked.

This is exactly what happened. However, we’ve since discovered that not all the tolls are electronic (on the A2 on the way to Cascais yesterday) and that the tolls are pretty expensive…

Anyway, back to Sunday.

We decided to go the scenic route when we left El Rocio, meaning that we headed down towards Matascalana on the coast. This was a very pretty little town/resort with a lovely beach. It was very busy, as is usual in Spain on a Sunday, but even more so as there was a running race going on that was starting/finishing on the beach.

We carried on along the coast towards Huelva. This road has a cycle path pretty much all the way along it so is good if you decide to camp down there. We did see a campsite and went to have a quick look round. It was massive! And it was very much a live-in site. It took us more than 5 minutes to get less than 1/3 of the way through the site towards the sea – definitely not for us!!

I mentioned Huelva, which you can’t really avoid if you’re driving this way into Portugal. It’s full of oil refineries and gas – think of Fawley, only bigger.

We needed to fill up with diesel and were really glad that we did so before crossing the border (even though it was a Repsol, which tend to be the most expensive fuel stops). Fuel is way more expensive in Portugal, so we’re glad that we’ll only have to fill up once whilst here.

We also made the decision to come off the motorway as soon as possible and take the coast road. Not such a good idea (apart from the fact of not paying the tolls – I’ve yet to look at my credit card statement to see how much we were charged for the short time we were actually on the motorway… I’m not looking forward to it!!)

The road wasn’t brilliant but we continued heading towards Tavira where we intended to stop for lunch. There was a big parking area for motorhomes and we tried to have a wander round but were beaten back by the wind!

Calv decided to then take the road even closer to the coast, so we found ourselves driving through Santa Luzia, which looked lovely and did have a motorhome parking area, and spotting the tourist train (that runs all along the coast from Lagos back to Villa Real de St. Antonio near the border) before deciding that enough was enough and heading back up to the A22 (the toll road), where we struggled to make sense of the ‘cost information’ signs or to work out how much we would be paying!

We eventually arrived in our destination of Alvor, a lovely little town just past Portimao (shown in the main photo to this post). Whilst the town and the beach are lovely, particularly the beach, the campsite left a lot to be desired. We were originally going to stay for 3 nights but decided to make that 2 and do an overnighter elsewhere on our way to Lisbon (which turned out to be another good call as it still took us 5 hours to get to Lisbon on the following day).

In Alvor we chatted to our neighbours who, it turned out, hailed from the Isle of Wight! Calv and Trevor spent the 2^nd evening in the bar – in fact I was getting a little worried when he wasn’t back by midnight!

On our full day there we cycled down to Alvor and along the boardwalk (there is a very good boardwalk here that goes from 1 end of the beach to the other, pretty much, and takes in a nature reserve). There’s an ‘inland sea’ leading to the harbour, along which there are several bars and restaurants. There is a maze of narrow streets filled with shops, bars, cafes and restaurants – we very nearly got lost (highly unusual for us…)

Alvor South Beach

Waves crashing on Alvor South beach

Fishing boat on the ‘inland’ sea

The beach is beautiful. There are dunes protecting you from the worst of the wind, and it is very windy, and you can sit for hours just watching, and listening to, the waves crashing on the beach. Idyllic. It helped me to understand why people come to Portugal year after year.

We ate in one of the harbourside restaurants. Calv had a club sandwich, which was perfect. I chose garlic mushrooms – unfortunately we think they must have been cooked in old oil as there was a very strange taste to them – neither of us could finish them!

When we got back to the site we nipped to the nearby supermarket, called Pingo Doce – great name, for a few essentials. Later still we went back out on our bikes to investigate a mysterious footpath that we could see ran by the site. We cycled out into the country a bit but couldn’t find the source and then headed back up past the supermarket and turned left a couple of times where we found it. We also found this little gem that we thought could be our 1^st ‘doer-upper’?!!

We had managed to find a nice spot at the campsite but we were quite happy to be moving on after 2 nights and had identified a site near Vila Nova de Milfontes for our overnighter.

For the 1^st time on this trip though we changed our mind mid-journey. I spotted another site that I thought might suit us better and was a little nearer in Zambujeira do Mar. As Calv says, often, ‘everything happens for a reason’, and what a gem of a site this was! I was even prepared to forgive the fact that the toilets had no paper, hand-soap, driers or, indeed, toilet seats!

If we come back to Portugal we will 100% return to Villa Park Zumbejeira J

We wandered down to the little town in the afternoon, went down to the beach – down a number of steps, and took a walk along the clifftop. Another charming little town. All the houses have window frames edged in either blue or yellow paint (except for the rebels who have edged in a sea-green or lilac or purple – we saw 1 of each. I can imagine people writing in to the local paper to complain about them…)

Little church in Zumbejeira

Beach at Zumbejeira

Unfortunately, as with everywhere so far in Portugal, people drive too fast, even through little towns like this. We watched a lorry approaching the 90 degree right hander at the end of the road at a ridiculous speed. But it seems to be how they drive as it’s not the first, or the last, time that we’ve stopped and stared after a driver going way too fast – even on the campsites themselves they drive as though they’re out on the open road L

So we were sorry to leave Zumbejeira after just 1 night and I’ll update you with our journey and 1^st day in Cascais, near Lisbon, in my next post.

3 days around Camino del Rey (which will have it’s own post!)

So, let’s get up to date.

Sunday dawned a little brighter than Saturday (to be honest that really wasn’t difficult as it rained most of the day on Saturday…). We took the opportunity to sit and relax a little outside and Calv gave the van a clean – he can’t bear it dirty!

We then agreed to meet up with Elaine and Chris to walk up to a cake shop that they know in La Cala. They came to get us and then we left their car where they’re staying, Dona Lola, and set off on foot along the boardwalk. The boardwalk then takes you miles along the coast but we were only going just over 2 1/2 miles to La Canasta, the cake shop. Calv had 2 pasties (empanadas) and then a little later a massive slice of carrot cake. I had a slice of cheesecake and very nice it was too!

Being a Sunday there was some sort of festival going on in the park behind us; we think there was maybe a fancy dress competition involved.

We then walked up to a little square on the seafront and then headed back along the boardwalk to Chris and Elaine’s apartment for a cup of tea.

Chris offered us a lift home but we decided to walk – another 2 1/2 miles 🙂

On Monday morning I finally got my bike out and we went to do a bit of shopping in the Supersol – it was a bit of a faff and I’m surprised we managed to get back with no accidents as Calv decided to buy a 6 pack of 1ltr, glass, bottles of San Miguel which he had to strap to the back of his bike – funny how he’d magically managed to bring some bungee cords with him….

We then relaxed for a while, then just as we were thinking about moving and heading down to the beach for a couple of hours Chris and Elaine arrived, running! So we had a cup of tea before heading down to the beach together. I finally got all the way into the sea and swam. Chris did too, but he went in too soon and couldn’t stay in for very long. In the evening we walked back to Dona Lola to meet up with them to do a quiz (I love a quiz!) We came 3rd (with 2 other couples….) and then went for a Chinese.

We decided not to walk home after all and got a taxi. However, we were surprised at how much it cost to go just a couple of miles – 8 euros! So we wouldn’t do that again.

And then it was Tuesday 🙂 (See Camino del Rey for what we did on Tuesday!)

Camino del Rey – a must see….

Back at the end of last year Elaine and Chris told us they were going to be in Calahonda in early March and had booked to visit the Camino del Rey. When they told us what it was we asked if we could join them. Within minutes Chris came back and said ‘All booked’, and we’ve been looking forward to the trip ever since.

Little did we know just what a treat this was to be! Trust me, if you are visiting the Costa del Sol and get the opportunity to go on an excursion here then do it – hang the cost!! If not, hire a car and go yourself. It would probably be a good idea to book though as numbers are limited to ensure the walkway is not over-loaded (or should I say ‘over-weight’??)

Anyway Tuesday 7th March finally arrived. Chris and Elaine were picking us up at 8am (!!) – well the Ty were meant to….! We took along our trusty SatNav which expertly guided us towards our destination. All was going swimmingly until within sight of our goal, and a good way up the side of a mountain, the road was suddenly, and completely, closed. No way round, no diversion and no warning.

We realised that we needed to re-direct towards Ardales but I was having trouble getting the SatNav to re-route (not helped that I was suddenly feeling pretty nauseous and had to hand over to Calv. So we decided to head for Alora first. Once re-programmed the SatNav took over again.

Okay. This is where the fun started! The town was very small and the roads very narrow. We tried to follow the 1st instruction which was to go up a very steep hill, which our little Seat Mii was having none of. So to the smell of burning rubber we freewheeled back down the few metres covered and kept going up the ‘main’ road. I think we missed a couple of instructions and found ourselves in narrower and narrower roads, all with cars parked alongside. Calv was itching to have a go at driving and in the end Chris let him. At this stage we were at the top this time of a steep hill, at the bottom of which we had to take a right. There were cars parked at the bottom and we couldn’t even see the right turn….

But we made it, and continued following the instructions, or at least thinking we were, until we ended up at the top of the hill at the castle. Ordinarily we would have liked to visit and explore but we were booked for 11am for the Camino del Rey, so we couldn’t.

We finally found our way towards Ardales and pretty soon we saw signs – you need to follow signs to the North Access. The scenery was already breathtaking before we even parked up and started towards the trail.

You can choose to take a walk, initially through a, very dark, tunnel which is 1.5km to the beginning of the trail, or a little further up by the restaurant a 2.7km walk.

There is 1 toilet before you go through to collect your helmet (obligatory). The thin papery thing inside is your hair net! We were a little late but at this time of year it wasn’t a problem – I suspect it will be later in the season though. We saw a British man turning away when he found out it cost 10 Euros, plus 1.50 for the bus back. Fool! His wife looked suitably embarrassed. We felt a bit sorry for her.

They let you go on in groups – I think it’s at 15 minute intervals. You don’t have a guide and don’t have to stay in the groups, it’s just a way of managing the flow and ensuring that the walkway isn’t overloaded! There were 3 guides at different sections along the way – although they were a bit miserable…

You don’t go straight onto the boardwalk; you join that after a couple of km. But even before then the scenery is spectacular. However, all our pictures on here are from the boardwalk as we just can’t post them all!

The Camino del Rey was originally build for the king so that he can visit the works where a reservoir was being built. You can see it beneath your feet as you walk along (and also the gaps where it has collapsed). People used to walk this before the new boardwalk was put in until it was closed in 2000 when 3 climbers died whilst navigating it. 2 had also died the previous year.

Read more about it in this Guardian article (which includes a pretty scary video!)

There are many ‘wow’ moments as you turn corners, or simply look down to the river below! You can also see small sections of walkway on the opposite side of the gorge.

There is a glass floor for you to walk on (no more than 4 people at a time please)!

On the glass floor – well done Elaine x

Can you see how far down it is??

We think that about 3 later groups overtook us but that was fine as we were just trying to take it all in! At regular intervals we watched the trains going past on the other side of the gorge, and wondered at the view they were getting on their commute from Malaga to Seville!

There is lots of wildlife around but we only saw griffon vultures.

Finally, after about 5km, I think, we came to the final section, which involved crossing the gorge on, what turned out to be, a rather wobbly bridge.

The bridge across the gorge

Me and Elaine at the beginning of the wobbly bridge

The final section is quite spectacular and the green bridge you can see here was in the film Von Ryan’s Express (with Frank Sinatra) – Chris told us that!

We then had a quick drink at the café at El Churro train station before boarding the bus to go back to the start. This in itself was an experience. I did take a video for a few minutes but couldn’t upload it unfortunately.

When we got back we had an ice cream before taking in some more of the scenery from the beach by the lake. I forgot to mention the colour of the water everywhere – it was just a beautiful green glistening in the sun. I’m not sure we’ve captured it properly in these photos. Just after I took my feet out of the water I saw a snake poke it’s head up! Nobody believed me – but it was definitely a snake 🙂

All in all a rather wonderful day, the best experience of our trip thus far – hands down. Don’t miss it if you ever get the opportunity – you’ll be missing a treat if you do. And don’t let a fear of heights put you off – Elaine didn’t; in fact she went back and did it all again on Friday!

El Rocio – another WOW!

First off, this post is out of sync as I haven’t yet managed to get my thoughts about Camino del Rey down in words. Also the WiFi here is pretty bad and I’m having trouble uploading photos. I’ve managed a couple so I’ll put these on, but will add more to the gallery at a later date.

After El Camino del Rey we didn’t think we’d have many more ‘wow’ moments on this trip. But we were wrong…

Some other travellers told us about El Rocio weeks ago and we were quite keen to visit, so were very happy to find there was a site right at the entrance to the village, Camping La Aldea.

The day after we visited El Camino del Rey we relaxed at the van for much of the day, did a wash, started packing up, I made a chicken and bacon pie for tea (well I made 2 actually, 1 ready for another day – today, Friday, as it happens!) We also spent an hour or so at the beach and in the evening met Chris and Elaine halfway between us and them at Luna Beach, which turned out to be a very nice little bar with nice views. On the walk there, along the beach, we could clearly see Africa (as we had been able to all day). We also said goodbye to Roger (aka ‘Good Looking’) as we knew he wouldn’t be up by the time we left in the morning.

For once we were ready to leave quite early, and so were saying goodbye to Jill (Good Looking’s wife) before 9am and then on our way by 9.

We had to head back towards Malaga before going north and then west towards Seville. From what we could see of Seville as we bypassed it (we went the wrong way onto the ring road, but it didn’t matter as going north or south was much of a muchness), it looked like rather a lovely city. As we drove through the outskirts we saw a temperature gauge reading 32degrees! We had a good run and no toll roads were needed!

We finally made it to our new campsite at about 3.15pm (we had stopped on the way for breakfast and then lunch and a spot of grocery shopping). There was plenty of space and we could see that we were indeed right on the edge of the village. Unfortunately the swimming pool doesn’t open until Easter, otherwise we would have been straight in there!

After a dirty burger for tea we decided to go and have a quick look, via the site bar, before it got too dark. It was still warm enough to be out walking in a vest top (and we had eaten outside as well). In the bar we met the young couple who were pitched next to us – they have a 5 month old baby and are taking their parental leave as 5 months travelling in their motorhome. How wonderful is that?!

We walked around the village for a while. It’s all sand roads and you can see that all the houses have ‘bars’ outside to tie the horses up to (sorry, I don’t know what they’re called). We also saw many, many lodgings for particular ‘Hermandads’ – these are the brotherhoods from different provinces who come here on a pilgrimage at Pentecost (50 days after Easter) – apparently up to 1million people descend on this tiny village for the weekend of festivities.

On the way back to the van we walked along to a serenade of crickets and frogs. In the mornings we are waking up to cockerels crowing, donkeys braying and beautiful birdsong.

Friday morning, once we’d properly woken up, we set off to explore the village properly and this time we found the main square containing the Ermitas and where no cars are supposed to enter… We saw many horses and horses and carts (we’ll take a trip tomorrow) and also found out that the nature reserve starts immediately in front of the main area.

This is a horse village, many of the bars have high counters outside so that people can stay on their horses to have a drink! We were told this morning, by a British man, that apparently Americans still come over here to buy horses that have a gene going all the way back to the original wild horses, and that the breed, Mustang, originated here.

The high point of the pilgrimage is on the Monday when the statue of the Virgin Mary is taken out of the church and paraded through the village to visit every 1 of the Hermandads (brotherhoods) – there were 106 of them shown on a sign we saw in the village. Apparently the campsite charges 50Euros a night during the week of the pilgrimage (we’re paying 17…) We saw the statue in the Ermitas and it’s huge. We have no photos as individuals make pilgrimages here throughout the year and there were several people in there who were clearly on their own personal pilgrimage.

At lunchtime we sat in 1 of the bars at the top of the main square and had some tapas. We tried patata Ali Oli (garlic potato) – which I would have liked if it had been hot, but it was straight out of the fridge and I’m not keen on cold potato – and Pimiento asados con atun (peppers with tuna), also cold, but I really liked it (sometimes I surprise myself!)

While we ate we watched the swallows flying around the Ermitas and into the eaves. There were hundreds of them!

There was also a fenced off grove of Olive trees nearby. These were fenced off as they’re all over 100 years old and 1 of them is over 600 years old. It seems that those attending the pilgrimage used to touch them (maybe hug them??) and they needed to be protected. It would be interesting to see if fencing them off actually had the desired effect!

By 2pm we were beginning to flag as it was so hot so we headed back to the campsite to relax for a while.

But by about 4.30 Calv was getting bored! So we got the bikes out and headed for the lakes to see what birds we could spot.

This gave us another view of the main square and we also saw horses grazing in the shallows. Calv made a friend of a stray dog that seemed to want to play, but I was a bit concerned that he was going to bite him – he just wouldn’t leave him alone…! He got some good photos of the birds (including flamingos, spoonbills and black kites), but nowhere near as good as our Swedish neighbour next door, who visits us regularly and brought over some of his photos to show us this evening – truly amazing (mind you he has rather an impressive lens!)

Tomorrow we will go back into the village and hopefully take a trip in a horse and cart, and perhaps visit the ornithological centre to find out what some of the birds that we’ve seen are. We might even get closer to the flamingos and get a better picture of them 🙂

It’s now tomorrow and we’ve had a lazy morning before walking back into the village. It was hot again today and we were hoping to get some got pictures of the various wildlife. I think Calv did get some pretty got shots, but we’re having trouble uploading at the moment so I can’t put them on here.

It’s Saturday today and there were, as expected, more horses around. Naively we thought that perhaps there would be fewer cars in the village, but there were many more + many coaches… Before we came here I had a daft idea that there would be no cars in the village. In fact they’re only barred from the area around the Ermitas – however, being in Spain, this rule is regularly flouted…

We took a 25 minute trip, just the 2 of us, in a horse and cart, at a cost of 20 Euros, which we were happy with. The driver spoke to us in Spanish, and we managed to communicate in some small way. We now know there’s a famous singer living in El Rocio and he knows we also visited the village yesterday! Also that El Rocio is pronounced El RoSio – I thought it was either El RoKio or El RoTHio. (they also say GraSiaS here, rather than grathia…)

The Spanish love to come out to play at the weekend which is great to see. We saw them having picnics, family gatherings, a wedding party in full swing, ladies practising playing their castanets and their flamenco moves by the water. It was all very uplifting! (Actually that’s another thing that’s big here, flamenco. There are several shops dedicated to selling flamenco outfits – and they’re not cheap….. There was also a show in 1 of the bars, but we missed it!

We also now have a party of scouts, or equivalent, here on the campsite – we could hear them this morning before they set out for the day, playing games and singing.

We saw horses at the bar – raised counters so that riders don’t have to dismount in order to have a drink. People sitting in their carts outside bars drinking.

We saw several different species of birds plus frogs and a couple of lizards. All in all we were pleased that we stayed an extra day.

Horses grazing in the water at El Rocio

The Ermitas at El Rocio

‘Horse Bars’ in El Rocio

Hasta manana 🙂