{"id":378,"date":"2018-10-05T16:17:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T16:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=378"},"modified":"2026-08-18T08:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T08:04:43","slug":"euro-travellers-2018-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=378","title":{"rendered":"EURO-TRAVELLERS 2018. 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

5\u00a0 PLACENSIA AND MONFRAGUE PARK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Storks must really have welcomed the discovery of electricity.\u00a0 And, in particular, the need to get electrons from A to B.\u00a0 Every pylon we saw on the way South had at least one stork nest in the upper levels.\u00a0 Most with residents large and small.\u00a0 It must have been a real relief not to have had to rely on the chimneys of houses.\u00a0 Because, for mile after mile, there weren’t any houses – certainly none with chimneys!<\/p>\n

Anyway, with more hogging of the fast lane we reached the town of Placensia.\u00a0 A last minute change of plans took us into the centre of town looking for our second choice of campsite.\u00a0 One which we hadn’t got in the sat nav.\u00a0 We can tell you that this town has more roundabouts than Basingstoke – and that’s saying something!\u00a0 We found the site by following written instructions and road signs.\u00a0 Another novelty!\u00a0 It was located right by the river with a nice cycle path into town. But the site had dozens of long-term resident caravans and attendant awnings, tents, gazebos and tarpaulins – but no people.\u00a0 This gave the site an eerie atmosphere – and there were no views. So back to plan A.\u00a0 Switch the sat nav back on and find the site Glenda had really wanted to go to all the time!<\/p>\n

Great decision.\u00a0 About 6 kms from town, out in the country more or less on the edge of the Parque Montfrague.\u00a0 Very close to the Rio Tajo which I guess is the River Tagus of Lisbon fame.\u00a0 We solve the rain and hail problem by parking under a permanent (well, I hope it’s permanent) shelter.<\/p>\n

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We have a magnificent view out over rolling meadows full of wild flowers. White, purple, blue and yellow. Plus the occasional horse.<\/p>\n

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There are lots of Iberian magpies about…<\/p>\n

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… and good sunsets too!<\/p>\n

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The best pitch we’ve had this trip!\u00a0 By a long chalk!\u00a0 (I put that expression in especially for Hetty – I know how much she enjoys trying to fathom out my use of English!)<\/p>\n

However – and there’s always a “however” – and it sort of involves Hetty… and John and Thea, of course.\u00a0 Our pitch is next to a Dutch campervan.\u00a0 They were really annoyed with us for parking beside them. They refused to acknowledge us and when we said hello in our best Dutch they actually turned their chairs round so they could look at the side of their vehicle rather than make eye contact with two invaders of Dutch territory (news travels fast in these parts!).<\/p>\n

We are, it must be said in our defence, completely on our own designated space this time – and at a fair distance from them (I’ll measure it when they go out for a cycle ride and let you know!) Anyway that’s two sets of Netherlanders we’ve managed to really annoy in less than 24 hours.\u00a0 “Chips!” (and there are only three of you that will get that comment!)\u00a0 But at least this lot say grace before they eat their meals while watching the side of their van \u2013 we’ve been watching!\u00a0 So they can\u2019t be ALL bad!<\/p>\n

Now the good news – we’ve managed to dry everything out and repack the car so it looks less like the transport vehicle for the Spanish scuba diving team.\u00a0 We’ve also done 10 days worth of washing (I know it’s 10 days – one pair each a day each – I counted 20!)<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the site has an excellent restaurant which caters for locals as much as for campers.\u00a0 A three course menu del dia complete with a whole bottle of vino tinto, a large bottle of water and bread (about one baguette’s worth) comes in at a favourable \u20ac9 a head.\u00a0 If they can do it, why does the Slug and Lettuce (and other similar pubs in England) charge almost that much for a single glass of wine? You have to wonder.<\/p>\n

We wandered into the National Park of Montfrague.\u00a0 The new visitor centre has been built immediately adjacent to our campsite (a convenient 14 kms outside the actual park).\u00a0 It is a state of the art exhibition and information centre (it must have cost a fortune – EU funding?). Absolutely fabulous.\u00a0 Bran new – only opened two weeks ago.\u00a0 Loads of info on the region, it’s history, it’s agriculture and it’s natural resources.\u00a0 But, sadly for us, not a word in English.\u00a0 However there were QR barcodes everywhere leading to websites with the appropriate text in English – but again, sadly, no telephone coverage or wifi.\u00a0 I think that’s coming next week along with map hand-outs in English!<\/p>\n

So, as I say, we meandered into the park and found the old visitor centre (in the park).\u00a0 Also a very up-market sort of place but space-limited.\u00a0 No new buildings are allowed in the protected zone.\u00a0 But they did have loos – again, very posh.<\/p>\n

We drove to El Santo de Gitano – “The Gypsy’s Leap”.\u00a0 And that’s a long story in itself involving a bandit (gypsy) the local police and some fantastical leap of escape over the River Tagus. The said gypsy immediately turning into a huge rocky outcrop.\u00a0 Well, that just shows I’m not the only person to make things up!<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Leap with Griffon Vultures circling.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rocky cliffs were home to about 180 pairs of Griffon Vultures, at least one pair of black storks, maybe a pair of eagle owls and possibly an Imperial Eagle or two.\u00a0 Well we saw the common jobs and one pair of black storks circling the buttress.\u00a0 No eagle and no owls.<\/p>\n

Parking at the next stop for a walk to the castle on top of the mountain ridge, we were hailed in fluent Spanish by the driver of a mini-bus.\u00a0 He either said “It’s early closing in Madrid today” or “Get your rears in gear, the free bus up the hill is leaving three minutes ago”.\u00a0 Turned out it was the latter and it was indeed free.\u00a0 And he’d seen us arriving and was waiting for us.\u00a0 Our local number 12 bus wouldn’t wait for an errant passenger – and you have to pay for the privilege (or be old enough for a bus pass!)<\/p>\n

Just as well the first kilometre of hill was by bus.\u00a0 That just left 5457 steps to the top of the castle with panoramic views of the area.\u00a0 Actually, only 180 or so steps.\u00a0 Just felt like more.\u00a0 And now we were above the vultures circling the “Leap”.<\/p>\n

By this time Glenda was vultured-out, not to mention stepped-out!\u00a0 So we headed south out of the park.\u00a0 Just before the village of Torrejon el Rubio, we chanced on a rather up-market hotel – the Hostelrie de Extramedura.\u00a0 It looked very pricey but we are on holiday so, what the hell, we decided to stop for coffee.\u00a0 We ended up staying for lunch on account of their three course menu which was attractively priced at just \u20ac15.\u00a0 And not a paper napkin in sight!\u00a0 Very plush.\u00a0 We hid ourselves in a corner because of our (in truth, mainly my) sartorial inelegance.\u00a0 We were dressed for the country.\u00a0 Another little gem.\u00a0 I’m totally converted – Spain, a least what we have seen of it on this trip, far exceeds our pre-conceived expectations!\u00a0 We must do it again – and anyway we aren’t leaving for France any time soon.<\/p>\n

After lunch, we headed a further 40 kms South to Trujillo, another beautiful town with storks nesting on all possible ledges and chimneys.\u00a0 These were the traditional, pre-pylon storks.\u00a0 Superb.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Trujillo – main square and<\/span> church roof with 12 stork nests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to base via the scenic route which took in a section of the old main road to Madrid – now a totally deserted three-lane road.\u00a0 Obviously not quite totally, cos we were on it.\u00a0 Over little rivers and past fields of pumpkins, pepper and tobacco plants.\u00a0 Very rural, but well tended countryside just outside the park.<\/p>\n

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Old bridge over the River Tagus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coffee, well a beer actually, with Bente (Oslo-wegian) and Michael (Ozzie from Perth).\u00a0 Great company.\u00a0 But that was Friday and I have to stop this for now…<\/p>\n

[As promised I measured the caravan separation from the religious Dutchfolk\u2026\u00a0 It had been 27 feet – over 8 metres – by the way.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5\u00a0 PLACENSIA AND MONFRAGUE PARK Storks must really have welcomed the discovery of electricity.\u00a0 And, in particular, the need to get electrons from A to B.\u00a0 Every pylon we saw on the way South had at least one stork nest… <\/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":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-portugal-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","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=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8105,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/8105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}