{"id":2068,"date":"2019-06-18T15:31:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T15:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2068"},"modified":"2019-06-22T19:18:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T19:18:05","slug":"09-still-at-plasencia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2068","title":{"rendered":"09. STILL AT PLASENCIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, as I write this we aren’t still at Plasecia.\u00a0 \u00a0But that’s another story.\u00a0 We went to Monfrag\u00fce for four nights and stayed twelve!\u00a0 For a rather scruffy, unkempt sort of a place it has certain attractions.\u00a0 Not the least of which are the large showers with copious – torrential even – amazingly hot water.\u00a0 The bar\/restaurant serving meals at \u20ac9 is another feature of interest!<\/p>\n

Although fairly remote, there are lots of places to go from the site.\u00a0 Some of these, in random order, are featured here.<\/p>\n

The Embalse de Plasencia, about 4 km up the Jerte Valley, has a 10 km walking and cycling trail along the East bank.\u00a0 This makes for a great (if rather hot) walk.\u00a0 We have done the bottom half before and again this time.\u00a0 But we have failed to find the Northern entry point.\u00a0 It’s weird.\u00a0 The path is laid out in 4 \u00d7 3 m sections with a white line along the whole length to “separate” the cyclists from us pedestrians.\u00a0 (We didn’t see another person on foot and only about six bikes in a 5.5 mile walk.\u00a0 It has pairs of seats and rubbish bins at about 500 m intervals.\u00a0 It has mile markers “well, km markers obviously” all the way and neat cattle grids at imtervals.\u00a0 But everything suddenly stops about 100 m from where the path re-joins civilisation.\u00a0 There are no signs to show where to go as a gravel track winds to the lake’s shore where it suddenly becomes the concrete pathway of delight. it’s like they got an EU grant but just miscalculated the total distance and hence the budget!\u00a0 By about 0.0001%!\u00a0 We spent a long time looking for it and in the end had to resort to Google Maps in satellite mode.\u00a0 Even then, when we were parked less than 20 m from the entry point, we still couldn’t see it.\u00a0 It just looked like someone’s drive!<\/p>\n

On a different day we walked up the Western bank as far as we could before the path became the entrance to a private finca.\u00a0 This is a lovely open space with lots of easy access paths to the lake shoreline.<\/p>\n

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Sadly, the visiting Spaniards seem to take delight in going to pretty places and then leaving their drinks cans, bottles and food wrappers for the next set of visitors to admire.\u00a0 While we’ve been away, we have heard of a scheme at home where anyone out walking by water courses should pick up just one piece of rubbish and dispose of it properly.\u00a0 I think this was an initiative to prevent plastic waste being washed out to sea.\u00a0 If the scheme is adopted in Spain, people should be encouraged to collect a sackfull of rubbish – not just one measly plastic bag.<\/p>\n

Anyway this must have been the Sunday because after our lake-side walk, we went further up the valley and turned up a mountain road to the cherry-oriented village of El Torno.\u00a0 Well named because it was one of the very few places on this road where it’s possible to do a 47 point turn without sliding off down the mountain-side.\u00a0 After safely re-orientating the car we hit a bar with a stunning view of the valley below.\u00a0 The beer I was served was actually a pre-mixed shandy.\u00a0 Direct from a pump.\u00a0 Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.\u00a0 Anyway, it came with an un-requested hunk of bread and a slice of potato tortilla.\u00a0 Very tasty too!<\/p>\n

On the way up to El Torno we hesitated at some statues commemorating the “Forgotten of the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent Franco regime”\u00a0 The Mirador de la Memoria.\u00a0 Installed in 2008 it’s a haunting memorial to the thousands who “Disappeared” in those times.<\/p>\n

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The reason I know it must have been Sunday was that we called in on spec at the only restaurant in El Torno, the Sabores del Jerte, and it was packed.\u00a0 Completo.\u00a0 Full.\u00a0 Try Tuesday!\u00a0 The coach parked precariously at the entrance to the village should have given us a clue!<\/p>\n

Another day we walked five miles on a via pecuaria which runs right past the campsite.\u00a0 \u00a0We joined it about five miles away as it lurched away from the road, past a reservoir.\u00a0 (We are amazed at just how many dams and reservoirs there are in this part of Spain.\u00a0 I guess catching and storing what little rain that falls around here is vital)<\/p>\n

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Glenda has set an average of three miles a day walking.\u00a0 That’s fine until we miss a couple of days while travelling or just enjoying reading a book beside a reservoir somewhere.\u00a0 Then we have a problem!\u00a0 I know to seasoned walkers three miles is a walk in the park.\u00a0 But to us, with slightly dodgy knees and backs etc, its quite enough!\u00a0 And anyway in 8 weeks we will have walked the equivalent of tramping from Brixham to Bristol and half way back again!<\/p>\n

During our stay, we have had the usual array of caravan difficulties.\u00a0 The water heater failed (again) – but this time we are prepared with the correct sized star-driver, the replacement fuse and, most importantly, the knowledge of how to find the fuse which is inside the heater housing, out of sight behind and under the heater.\u00a0 The only way to do it involves Glenda holding the seat up through a window and me using the camera screen in selfie mode.\u00a0 Wonderful caravan design work!\u00a0 The water pump started to fail, as it had last time we were at this campsite.\u00a0 Again, once bitten, we knew there was no replacement filter to be had in Spain.\u00a0 So we carry a spare.\u00a0 And that fixed it.\u00a0 The kitchen sink tap worked loose and it took some serious contortions to get into the cupboard with a spanner to find something to tighten.\u00a0 Finally, we had an ant infestation.\u00a0 Blooming hundreds of the tiny little critters.\u00a0 The physical approach followed by chemical weapons of mass destruction and two days of effort cleared the little b*****s out.<\/p>\n

Apart from that and one evening with far too many mosquitos sharing our bedroom, it’s been plain sailing in a terrestrial sort of way.<\/p>\n

Now call me grumpy if you want, but Glenda pointed out that none of the Spanish campsites has had water in their pools – well one did but it remained closed until 10 am on the morning of our departure.\u00a0 One day I’ll get a swim!<\/p>\n

Well as far as this record is concerned we are still at Plasencia with things to do.\u00a0 More to follow …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, as I write this we aren’t still at Plasecia.\u00a0 \u00a0But that’s another story.\u00a0 We went to Monfrag\u00fce for four nights and stayed twelve!\u00a0 For a rather scruffy, unkempt sort of a place it has certain attractions.\u00a0 Not the least… <\/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-2068","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\/2068","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=2068"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2081,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/revisions\/2081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}