ManWomanDogVan: June 2020

Having said our goodbyes to our friends in Arcos, we headed to Jimena de la Frontera, a small, historical town in the Los Alcornocales Natural Park of Spain. The town is on a hill, with steep and very narrow streets that we had to navigate around twice, as we have missed the turn to our parking in the first round. I was not always sure if we can actually get past the cars parked on the side of the streets. I think there were sometimes only cm-s to spare…but Hamish got the job done! (Our van is 7.5 m long and 2.2 m wide + wing mirrors - I was impressed, but don’t tell him that!)

To stretch our legs, we walked up to the ruins of the medieval castle on the top of the hill. Unfortunately it seems that the castle is not really looked after any more, but the views are far reaching all around. Strangely, the entrance to the town’s cemetery is here too, right on the castle ground. Hmm.

It seemed that the carpark where we stayed became the training ground for the evening for the 70+ ladies. They kept turning up and marching up and down the carpark for 15 -20 min at the time before leaving again. And there were a couple people on horseback too…in the carpark.

The following day we drove to Ronda. We parked on the edge of town, then walked into the historical centre. Ronda is also built on a hill, with impressive bridges and arches and far reaching views. It was really hot and to spare Harley (😉) we have decided to go back to the van and drive rather then walk down a narrow bendy gravel road to look at the tallest arches ever. Our intention was to carry on and come out the other end of the road, but soon it became clear that this is not a good idea. We turned around and drove back up the way we came breathing a sigh of relief once we made it…

We carried onto Sillon del Rey, a beautiful reservoir. It was a lovely evening. Hamish has decided to go for a swim, and all was well, until he busted his foot while trying to get hold of Harley, who, for some reason, took off fast. (Why would he take Harley with him I have no idea – Harley does not like water, but anyway…) So nurse Zsuzsi, has cleaned and dressed the foot, made cups of tea, and said there, there dear… (Actually, I think it was really quite painful for a while.)

So the next day, as if there was no foot injury, we carried on to Caminito del Rey, put on our walking boots and set off to the hills. Camonito del Ray is actually a boardwalk, hanging about 100 m high over the river below, thru the narrow Gaitanes Gorge. It is 2 km long, and was originally built over a 100 years ago to facilitate work on the nearby hydro-electric plant. It was closed for a while and only reopened to the public 5 years ago. Except it was closed due to the virus. Although we would have really liked to do it, it was probably just as well that we could not, as the dressing on Hamish’s foot was soak thru by the time we made it back to the van anyway. I hope we will come back here one day and do the deed…

As Hamish’s foot was not up to much walking, we have decided to make progress driving more during the following few days. (We are planning to reach Grenoble in France by mid-July).

First we went to Tabernas in the Spanish desert. We were hoping to visit the Spanish “Hollywood”. Many well-known films were made here such as “A Fistfull of dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, as well as some of the Game of Thrones series, just to mention a few. But again, thanks to Covid 19, it was closed. We ended up going to town, which was kinda bare of greenery (not a surprise there I suppose, after all it was in the desert…) and having a less than super lunch in a bar. We chalked it up to supporting the local economy.

Then we drove some more.

We spent the night by the reservoir above Alhama de Murcia (an exceptional view!), and the next night by the Monastery de Sancti Spiritu near Gillet.

Our next stop was Morella. A very beautiful town, with a superb castle on the top that is built into the rocks. It was good to see that there was quite a bit of restoration work going on. We spent the night in a parking lot below the town with a fantastic view of the lit up castle above.

The following day after a short stop in Alcaniz we have arrived in Zaragoza. I was hoping to visit the Aljaferia Palace, but at the moment, a visit must be pre-booked. We went to the cathedral and the old town instead. I called to book my visit to the Palace the following morning, but the guy at the other end of the phone did not speak English and I do not speak Spanish, so no deal…(I say this very quietly: I was surprised. I really thought that since we are talking about a booking a visit to a main tourist attraction in a main town, that I would be able to do it in English. But no.)

The next day we went to Aguarales de Valpalmas. These are interesting geological formations – very much like the ones we saw in Thailand a few years ago. These were practically on a farmland, right next to a crop of wheat. As these formations are dynamic, (created by water flowing into poorly resistant material), I do wonder how long before a tractor or a combine harvester ends up in a hole.

The highlight of the day was a visit to the Castle of Loarre. It is one of the oldest castles in Spain, and remains in remarkably good condition.

We have stayed in Huesca for the night and visited the town in the morning before continuing to Embalse de Barasona Joaquin Costa and ending up at the Base Nautica Graus. This was 23^rd of June, which is the day to celebrate “St Juan” (summer solstice) if you are in Spain.

Here, for the first time since we started travelling, the local police came by in the morning to say that we were not allowed to stay for the night. This was not an issue thought, we have already stayed the night and was going to move on anyway.

We went to Lleida, a sizable town in need of a bit of a bit of TLC, then continued to Camarasa, which turned out to be a small town with very few attractions. As a storm was also brewing there, we have made our escape to Artesa de Segre. Not so much for the tourist attractions, but for the solid tarmacked parking lot where we were not likely to get stuck.

June 2020 - Part 2 Map