{"id":2045,"date":"2019-06-16T16:22:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T16:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2045"},"modified":"2019-06-18T06:14:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T06:14:19","slug":"08-plasencia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2045","title":{"rendered":"08. PLASENCIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were happy to leave the “snow” in Segovia.\u00a0 It was two inches deep in places under the poplar trees – which should be renamed un-poplar at this time of year.\u00a0 The stuff gets everywhere and is very sticky when wet.\u00a0 So Segovia gets positive scores for the Roman structures, cathedral, the churches and the town in general.\u00a0 It loses marks for the campsite and the snow!<\/p>\n

The drive to Plasencia is easy.\u00a0 Find the N110 and follow it.\u00a0 The first part presents no problems.\u00a0 The road is straight and wide.\u00a0 Until about 15 kms beyond El Barco de \u00c1vila.\u00a0 As the road enters the province of Extramadura it dives over the mountains and into the Jerte Valley.\u00a0 It becomes a tortuous, narrow, mountain byway.\u00a0 Fortunately we are going down hill.\u00a0 Gradually (I’m going pretty slowly) the mountain scrubs bushes and holm oak trees give way to cherry orchards.<\/p>\n

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The valley is plastered with them.\u00a0 It must be fabulous at blossom time – normally in the second fortnight of March.\u00a0 The flowering period only lasts around ten days, while its start and duration can vary according to the previous winter’s weather.\u00a0 The lower mountain slopes are covered in swathes of white “snow”.\u00a0 Apparently fabulous!\u00a0 Not my picture (obviously!).<\/p>\n

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The Cherry Blossom Fiesta is held in the valley during the flowering time to celebrate this spectacular event. During the fiesta there are exhibitions, tasting sessions for typical produce, music performances and guided routes exploring the Los Infiernos Nature Reserve (you can read a bit about our (un-guided) visit to this reserve below!) and the Cherry Museum.<\/p>\n

We were lucky to get the last available pitch at Camping Monfrag\u00fce with a view out over the field with horses.\u00a0 We had to manoeuvre under one of the permanent sun shades.\u00a0 There was so little space that I had to remove the radio aerial!<\/p>\n

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One day – it was a Saturday – we decided to visit Los Infiernos Reserve.\u00a0 We have already discovered what happens on campsites at weekends – now we were reminded about restaurants and tourist attractions on the Spaniards’ days off.\u00a0 The locals (and, indeed, the not-so-locals) all get in their cars or on buses and coaches and head for the hills.\u00a0 They jam the car parks, they crowd out the attractions and they saturate the restaurants.\u00a0 One look at the park’s carpark was enough.\u00a0 We are off to find a peaceful walk in the cherry orchards.\u00a0 We parked in the back streets of Jerte next to a target lunch spot.\u00a0 Confirmed we couldn’t get a meal there till the following Monday, and went for our walk.\u00a0 The area is covered with a network of “vias pecuarias” – old drovers trails.\u00a0 These are generally wide pathways which meander through the countryside.\u00a0 And, of course there’s one leading up the valley.\u00a0 All we had to do was find a bridge and turn left.\u00a0 We followed the trail, past a shady riverside rest …<\/p>\n

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… past thousands of cherry trees (some of which just had to be scrumped – if that’s a word – delicious!), past a trout hatchery and on up into the hills.\u00a0 In fact we only turned round when the path took a sudden and severe downward turn.\u00a0 We decided the return up hill later would be a bit of a challenge in the heat.<\/p>\n

In this area at this time of year every man, woman, child and dog are picking cherries – or sorting them – or packing them or transporting them or selling them!\u00a0 Every white-van-man has a set of steps on the roof rack – or has them deployed under a tree.\u00a0 Often, apparently, very precariously!<\/p>\n

It’s a mono-culture area and a huge percentage of business premises are linked to the cherry crop.\u00a0 The vast majority of the cash flow must occur during a five or six week period.\u00a0 There can only be a small amount of money to be made mending step ladders and such like out of season.<\/p>\n

After our walk, we found a couple of ladies sorting tons of cherries by hand in their garage.\u00a0 I decided to help the economy and asked to buy a kilo of fruit.\u00a0 At least that’s what I thought I’d requested.\u00a0 Lots of fluent jabbering seemed to indicate that their smallest, standard offering was a two kilo box.\u00a0 Glenda doesn’t like cherries so I’m on my own here – so I hold out for a one kilo purchase.\u00a0 \u00a0Bagged up and weighed for \u20ac3.\u00a0 Bargain!\u00a0 Except I didn’t have enough shrapnel and they couldn’t change a \u20ac20 note.\u00a0 In the end with much laughter, they accepted all my change – \u20ac1.65 – in payment.\u00a0 A REAL\u00a0 bargain!\u00a0 I later discovered just how many cherries you get in a kilo!!!<\/p>\n

So, the Saturday expedition to the park and restaurant failed on both counts.<\/p>\n

On Monday we try again.\u00a0 Lunch first at the Hospederia del Valle Jerte – just a couple of days later than planned…<\/p>\n

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Very civilised.\u00a0 This is the fourth in a chain of eight such rural hotels we have visited – and indeed the third at which we eaten their \u20ac15 lunches!<\/p>\n

Now for the Garganta de Los Infiernos Actividades.\u00a0 Just a few kms back down the N110 from Jerte.\u00a0 We hadn’t much clue about the place but we parked outside the “carpark payant” and walked to the Interpretation Centre – which was conveniently closed for their long lunch\/siesta.\u00a0 The map indicated that we had a 3 km walk to Los Pilones.\u00a0 It was less clear about the topography of the expedition.\u00a0 However, this became rapidly apparent as we climbed 150 or so uneven steps in the first 250 metres of the path.<\/p>\n

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We should have given up at this point and gone looking for the 4×4 taxis which are supposed to be available for the sensible seniors.\u00a0 But Glenda is nothing if not a little “determined” (some might say “stubborn”) – so we did a lot of this…<\/p>\n

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… while admiring (in a concerned sort of way) the view of our target area…<\/p>\n

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But persistence paid off and we were pleased to find these Pilones.\u00a0 Quite remarkable.\u00a0 A long series of rock pools carved out of the granite bedrock with the river cascading down through them.<\/p>\n

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Weird and wonderful!<\/p>\n

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We chose to walk back down the 4×4 track which was a few hundred metres longer but much easier underfoot!<\/p>\n

We went to Plasencia for four days and stayed twelve!\u00a0 So there are more adventures to be reported …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were happy to leave the “snow” in Segovia.\u00a0 It was two inches deep in places under the poplar trees – which should be renamed un-poplar at this time of year.\u00a0 The stuff gets everywhere and is very sticky when… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-may-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}