{"id":3304,"date":"2022-04-15T11:11:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T11:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3304"},"modified":"2026-08-16T21:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T21:44:12","slug":"spain-18-heading-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3304","title":{"rendered":"SPAIN 18. HEADING NORTH."},"content":{"rendered":"

Somehow, I had managed to hurt my back and for a day or two I could be seen walking in a very not-upright position.\u00a0 Positively bent, even.\u00a0 So driving and long distance hikes were limited.\u00a0 But we did manage to get out to the local reservoir near where we had encountered our mongoose.\u00a0 I need the practice before our 360 mile trip to Santander!<\/p>\n

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This time, the animal interest was limited to amorous carp spawning in shallow water at the very edge of the lake.\u00a0 Glenda thought they were upwards of 60 cm in length.\u00a0 My estimate was rather less, but there were lots of them (maybe 40 or 50) splashing about in the shallows.\u00a0 Ironically, on the far bank there was an angler actively not catching a sausage!<\/p>\n

The next day we re-visited the lakeside walk along the Embalse de Plasencia.\u00a0 This time from the northerly, extremely well camouflaged end of the path.\u00a0 Passing the ruins of a huge square building, we speculated on it’s original purpose.\u00a0 Had it been a fortress, a prison, a monastery or an early McCarthy Stone retirement home?\u00a0 I’m sure we have had this discussion before.\u00a0 I must check my earlier blog from 2019 when last we visited the area!<\/p>\n

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After a four mile walk, we decided that we were hungry.\u00a0 The Restaurante Las Habazas, about five minutes walk from our campsite closes for new orders at 3.45 pm.\u00a0 We were 20 km away!\u00a0 We arrived at 3.41.\u00a0 Would they serve us?\u00a0 Would there be a reluctance?\u00a0 Yes and no respectively!\u00a0 “Come in, sit down, delighted to see you for our \u20ac11.50 lunch.\u00a0 Do you want wine or water?”\u00a0 “Come on, get real!\u00a0 Vino tinto for me and vino rosada secco for Glenda.”<\/p>\n

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By the time we were finished, we were alone of course.\u00a0 But the meal was very good!<\/p>\n

On the subject of restaurants…\u00a0 we have now been in Spain for seven weeks.\u00a0 We have eaten in dozens of restaurants and caf\u00e9-bars.\u00a0 EVERY single menu we have seen has featured pork in one form or another – often three or four forms (including “secret” and “lizard”)!\u00a0 But in seven weeks, we have seen no single Spanish pig.\u00a0 Lots of cows, sheep, chickens and goats but no pigs. Rumour has it that all pork is imported from The Netherlands.\u00a0 A bit like all the cod (which also features almost universally in Spain as bacalau) coming from Norway.<\/p>\n

On a completely different topic, Spain has mastered the art of attempted speed control on the roads.\u00a0\u00a0 I say attempted because speed is only temporarily kept within legal limits.\u00a0 First there is the dreaded speed bump.\u00a0 The worst ones will actually launch you into the stratosphere if taken at the posted speed limit.\u00a0 And it takes a lot of energy to get a car and caravan off the ground!\u00a0 These are often placed at strategic points like the entrance to roundabouts – usually in conjunction with pedestrian crossings.\u00a0 So, full attention is on not killing people on foot and keeping the car’s undercarriage intact.\u00a0 Never mind the car approaching on the roundabout which is probably indicating right but fully intent on keeping left.\u00a0 Not very safe.<\/p>\n

Local youngsters appear to have worked out the optimum speed at which to hit the leading edge of the speed bumps so that they land on the trailing down slopes.\u00a0 The southern bypass of Placencia and the road towards C\u00f3rdoba were particularly fine examples of the speed bump strategy.\u00a0 There are even large notices beside the road at Plasencia advertising cheap suspension repairs!<\/p>\n

Spain has also caught the Portuguese habit of the speed-controlled traffic lights.\u00a0 These turn red as you approach while your speed is calculated.\u00a0 They then turn amber if you are being good.\u00a0 Usually at the very last second, by which time you have hit the brakes in case they don’t change!\u00a0 Psychological traffic warfare!<\/p>\n

Continuous strings of roundabouts are also used as a deterrent to forward motion.\u00a0 C\u00e1ceres was a great example of this.\u00a0 Our trips to the caravan repair place involved 48 such impediments.\u00a0 I know – we drove that route six times!<\/p>\n

Finally, if all else fails (as it usually does!) they have helicopters patrolling the auto-routes with speed cameras.\u00a0 On some routes they probably only see two cars for each kilometre of road inspected.<\/p>\n

So now it’s time to turn our thinking about heading north into practice.\u00a0 Looking at the weather up north we decided to delay our departure till the Saturday morning.\u00a0 This proved a very bad mistake.<\/p>\n

On the Friday evening our peaceful corner of the campsite was invaded by a hundred Spanish weekend campers.\u00a0 Caravans started arriving at 9pm.\u00a0 By 10.30 we were surrounded by four tents, three caravans and ten cars.\u00a0 The socialising continued until 3 am when mercifully there was a short shower of rain.\u00a0 That shut ’em up!<\/p>\n

At 7 am it was tempting to slam a few doors and rattle the stuff as we finished packing to leave at 8am.\u00a0 But where to?\u00a0 Salamanca is nowhere near close enough to the ferry.\u00a0 Tordesillas and\u00a0 Valladolid have unhappy memories!\u00a0 The reviews of the site at Burgos are not too exciting and the site I had suggested was an unknown and expensive option…<\/p>\n

We’ll just have to wing it!<\/p>\n

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We arranged to meet Pia and Grant at Salamanca for a walk (to see the Cetti’s warblers on the river bank)…<\/p>\n

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(Not my picture, obviously!)\u00a0 … and lunch.\u00a0 We admired their BBQ (in it’s box) – identical to ours which is neatly stored in it’s own box at home for everyone’s convenience!\u00a0 We also admired their store of dates…<\/p>\n

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… a nine kilo box of them!\u00a0 We had lunch in the campsite restaurant and headed north after a three hour break.\u00a0 Still no idea of our destination, but there are limited options as there are very few sites on our route.\u00a0 By the time we were passing Palencia, near where we were attacked on the outward journey, we still had no clear plan.\u00a0 After that, we really had no option but to go all the way to the north coast.\u00a0 So we did!\u00a0 560 kms.\u00a0 Too far for a day after only four hours sleep!<\/p>\n

Arriving at Camping El Heluegro, we were alarmed at the huge number of Spanish caravans.\u00a0 However we were directed to the section reserved (largely) for “tourists” who don’t enjoy all night parties.<\/p>\n

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And very peaceful that end of the site turned out to be!\u00a0 It also had neatly mowed green stuff on the ground and no mud.\u00a0 Two more bonuses!\u00a0 It makes you wonder why we hauled ourselves all the way from the NE corner of the country to to the SW corner!<\/p>\n

The view of the Picos mountains from the road to Comillas was spectacular (although better seen from a distance than driving through them in heavy snowfall – ask Grant and Pia!).<\/p>\n

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And on the beach, we asked a local to take a photo of us – but he took a selfie…<\/p>\n

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… before taking us!<\/p>\n

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We nearly had Sunday lunch at the Hotel Josein, overlooking the beach. However, they were more or less full – no window seats – and the food being served looked pretty ordinary.\u00a0 A lovely beach and clifftop walk was followed by a drive through Comillas to remind ourselves where the Gaudi house, El Capricho, is located.\u00a0 Then back for lunch at the site restaurant.\u00a0 A really good choice involving steaks and a bottle of wine.<\/p>\n

Later that afternoon, Glenda discovered she had lost a shoe.\u00a0 It must have fallen out of the car when she changed into her walking shoes in Comillas five hours earlier!\u00a0 I got blamed for this because I’d insisted she changed on the pavement side of the car.\u00a0 Despite a bit of alcoholic haze, we managed to drive back to Comillas, where we found the offending article in the middle of what had been our parking space!<\/p>\n

So that was Spain really!\u00a0 Our first outdoor breakfast of the trip on the last morning!\u00a0 The hotest day of the trip reaching 29\u00b0C!\u00a0 A quick stop at Mercadona to top up on wine supplies and off to Santander about 50 km away.\u00a0 Arriving in plenty of time for the ferry, we gradually worked our way to the back of the queue until we were the last to board!\u00a0 Why does that almost always happen to us?<\/p>\n

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At least we get to be near the front of the queue for offloading in Plymouth!<\/p>\n

Fabulous cabin with proper beds, a lounge and private balcony…<\/p>\n

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It has been a “challenging” trip.\u00a0 Virtually everything that could have gone wrong with the caravan, has gone wrong!\u00a0 We’ve visited five major cities, stayed on ten different sites we’ve smelled the orange blossom in Seville and seen the cherries in full flower in the Jerte Valley.\u00a0 It’s rained a lot and been generally cold.\u00a0 We have carried half a ton of Sahara dust back home on the roof of the caravan, but we did get to meet brother John and his wife, Kirsty. We’ve travelled a total of 3065 miles (4904 km) of which 1743 miles (2788 km) were towing.\u00a0 We managed to avoid all but 85 cents worth of toll roads.<\/p>\n

Would we do it again?\u00a0 That’s a leading question!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somehow, I had managed to hurt my back and for a day or two I could be seen walking in a very not-upright position.\u00a0 Positively bent, even.\u00a0 So driving and long distance hikes were limited.\u00a0 But we did manage to… <\/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":[31,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-22","category-travels-in-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3304","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=3304"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8079,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3304\/revisions\/8079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}