Where’s Colin? He’s sitting in an immaculate car park at the Sanctuary of Santa Eulalia, at N37º48.004, W1º 33. 507.
After the microlights ceased their flights overhead at sundown, and after the local boys playing with powerful-sounding remote controlled cars (yep, I did want to have a go), a silent night was had in our car park, which gained even more vans as darkness fell. By nine thirty this morinng they were starting to roll and we weren’t far behind the front runners. Pulling in at a supermarket only a few kilometres later (something we seem to be doing on a daily basis; we really ought to start food planning a little bit better!) it was amusing to see a few of our night-time neighbours already there and even more join the row of vans whilst we were inside. They must have been heading in a different direction, though (probably sticking to the coast, whereas we were going inland) as once we left we saw not another motorhome all day.
For us, we were off to the hills north of Totana, of which this is a little snapshot…
…and arriving at the position I had noted as a car park where it was possible to stay overnight, we found a ‘recreation area’ full of substantial stone picnic benches and even more substantial barbecues. Immediately off for a look around we went, finding across the road at the Sanctuary of Santa Eulalia an immaculate block-paved car park (there are twelve bins visible from Colin), complete with a man sweeping the greenery and making it even more immaculate. As the car park also houses an information sign about two walks which start from here, we thought we may as well move over into the nicer car park, at least for the day.
A good chunk of the day was spent on the two walks (more of which at gayleybird.blogspot.com), followed by a look around the church. It’s a small one, with a wooden vaulted ceiling, and may not be that remarkable if it wasn’t for the internal walls, of which every inch is covered in painted scenes. This is an awful photo, but it’s the only one I took and hopefully gives some sort of an impression of it:
We’ve only seen a couple of other cars sharing our car park throughout the day, but this place must be popular at some times of year – a statement I make based purely on the extent of the toilet facilities (also immaculate). There is also a restaurant and a hotel, currently shut up. Remarkably, the whole place is graffiti-free too.
Here's a snap of the Sanctuary...
Taken on our way to visit this:
Having walked past four different dirt car parks in recreation areas today, we should perhaps have moved to one of them for the night, but it feels nicer being in this pretty car park, even if at the same time it feels like we shouldn’t really be here. At least if we do have to move later we know of plenty of other local options.
After the microlights ceased their flights overhead at sundown, and after the local boys playing with powerful-sounding remote controlled cars (yep, I did want to have a go), a silent night was had in our car park, which gained even more vans as darkness fell. By nine thirty this morinng they were starting to roll and we weren’t far behind the front runners. Pulling in at a supermarket only a few kilometres later (something we seem to be doing on a daily basis; we really ought to start food planning a little bit better!) it was amusing to see a few of our night-time neighbours already there and even more join the row of vans whilst we were inside. They must have been heading in a different direction, though (probably sticking to the coast, whereas we were going inland) as once we left we saw not another motorhome all day.
For us, we were off to the hills north of Totana, of which this is a little snapshot…
…and arriving at the position I had noted as a car park where it was possible to stay overnight, we found a ‘recreation area’ full of substantial stone picnic benches and even more substantial barbecues. Immediately off for a look around we went, finding across the road at the Sanctuary of Santa Eulalia an immaculate block-paved car park (there are twelve bins visible from Colin), complete with a man sweeping the greenery and making it even more immaculate. As the car park also houses an information sign about two walks which start from here, we thought we may as well move over into the nicer car park, at least for the day.
A good chunk of the day was spent on the two walks (more of which at gayleybird.blogspot.com), followed by a look around the church. It’s a small one, with a wooden vaulted ceiling, and may not be that remarkable if it wasn’t for the internal walls, of which every inch is covered in painted scenes. This is an awful photo, but it’s the only one I took and hopefully gives some sort of an impression of it:
We’ve only seen a couple of other cars sharing our car park throughout the day, but this place must be popular at some times of year – a statement I make based purely on the extent of the toilet facilities (also immaculate). There is also a restaurant and a hotel, currently shut up. Remarkably, the whole place is graffiti-free too.
Here's a snap of the Sanctuary...
Taken on our way to visit this:
Having walked past four different dirt car parks in recreation areas today, we should perhaps have moved to one of them for the night, but it feels nicer being in this pretty car park, even if at the same time it feels like we shouldn’t really be here. At least if we do have to move later we know of plenty of other local options.
No comments:
Post a Comment