Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in the village of Cabáceno (Exact location: 43.35809, -3.81895)
Weather: Overcast. Heavy showers after 2pm, with some thunder.
"Have you been to the elephant place?" asked a chap yesterday.
"We're heading there next." I replied, knowing exactly where he meant. The previous day when asked if we had been to Cabáceno, we had no idea that was the name of the village in question.
Why "the elephant place"? It was some years ago that I read about this Aire, which borders a large wild animal park, and from where one used to be able to see elephants. According to the latest edition of the 'All the Aires' guide, the park has now been redeveloped and the elephant enclosure is now not within sight, so we didn't expect to see the magnificent beasts.
With the focus being so much on elephants, I don't recall anyone ever having mentioned that the Aire is also on the edge of a lake (or, at least, a large pond), so that was a surprise when we arrived.
Bertie is the second van from the left
View from Bertie's windscreen (although it's so filthy that I stood the other side of it for this snap). Lovely autumn colours between us and the water.
It was also a surprise to find we had entered what felt like a British Enclave. So many British registered vans! I guess the proximity to the port at Santander means that it's a favourite stop for people on the first and last nights of their trips. We know there's a ferry to the UK tonight, so it's probable that there was a ferry arrived last night.
With rain forecast to start around 1pm, we made a bit of an effort to get out not long after arriving, and took a stroll around the lake and through the village. Despite initial favourable impressions, there's not much here! There's a lake, some hills behind the animal park and, of course, the animal park itself, although with its advertised price of €30 a head we weren't enticed to go in*.
A view from the main street through the village
A zoom in on the above.
As the snaps above show, one can still see the elephants from outside the park. Indeed, you can see them from within ten metres of the Aire, although we didn't discover that until later. Our first sighting of them (thirteen, including one teeny-tiny baby) was from the main street.
The walking routes I downloaded on arrival look to be a bit dubious. I deleted the one that goes around the lake after a bit of a foray suggested that it didn't exist. We later found that it did, but it's such a small, informal, dodgy path that we only walked it halfway before backtracking. The other route, I came to notice, involves a walk through the animal park. I subsequently Google Translated the description to see what it said about that, and it refers to entering via the rear, free entrance, and exiting through the payment barriers. Perhaps that is perfectly feasible and legal, but I'm not sure I want to walk 4 miles over the hills to risk then having to backtrack - particularly with the weather that is forecast during our stay here.
We managed to dodge the rain today (and it didn't half come down hard this afternoon), but it looks like it will be harder to do that tomorrow. By the middle of next week it is forecast that we will be experiencing temperatures just a couple of degrees higher than at home. Time to break that winter duvet back out of the cupboard!
(*I looked on their website this afternoon and it's possible to get an afternoon ticket to the animal park for €14.40. Assuming that includes use of the four cable cars which take visitors around to the various areas of the park (a 50 minute journey in total - it is a huge area), I would be tempted ... but not in tomorrow's weather, and we can only stay here for two nights.)
Weather: Overcast. Heavy showers after 2pm, with some thunder.
"Have you been to the elephant place?" asked a chap yesterday.
"We're heading there next." I replied, knowing exactly where he meant. The previous day when asked if we had been to Cabáceno, we had no idea that was the name of the village in question.
Why "the elephant place"? It was some years ago that I read about this Aire, which borders a large wild animal park, and from where one used to be able to see elephants. According to the latest edition of the 'All the Aires' guide, the park has now been redeveloped and the elephant enclosure is now not within sight, so we didn't expect to see the magnificent beasts.
With the focus being so much on elephants, I don't recall anyone ever having mentioned that the Aire is also on the edge of a lake (or, at least, a large pond), so that was a surprise when we arrived.
Bertie is the second van from the left
View from Bertie's windscreen (although it's so filthy that I stood the other side of it for this snap). Lovely autumn colours between us and the water.
It was also a surprise to find we had entered what felt like a British Enclave. So many British registered vans! I guess the proximity to the port at Santander means that it's a favourite stop for people on the first and last nights of their trips. We know there's a ferry to the UK tonight, so it's probable that there was a ferry arrived last night.
With rain forecast to start around 1pm, we made a bit of an effort to get out not long after arriving, and took a stroll around the lake and through the village. Despite initial favourable impressions, there's not much here! There's a lake, some hills behind the animal park and, of course, the animal park itself, although with its advertised price of €30 a head we weren't enticed to go in*.
A view from the main street through the village
A zoom in on the above.
As the snaps above show, one can still see the elephants from outside the park. Indeed, you can see them from within ten metres of the Aire, although we didn't discover that until later. Our first sighting of them (thirteen, including one teeny-tiny baby) was from the main street.
The walking routes I downloaded on arrival look to be a bit dubious. I deleted the one that goes around the lake after a bit of a foray suggested that it didn't exist. We later found that it did, but it's such a small, informal, dodgy path that we only walked it halfway before backtracking. The other route, I came to notice, involves a walk through the animal park. I subsequently Google Translated the description to see what it said about that, and it refers to entering via the rear, free entrance, and exiting through the payment barriers. Perhaps that is perfectly feasible and legal, but I'm not sure I want to walk 4 miles over the hills to risk then having to backtrack - particularly with the weather that is forecast during our stay here.
We managed to dodge the rain today (and it didn't half come down hard this afternoon), but it looks like it will be harder to do that tomorrow. By the middle of next week it is forecast that we will be experiencing temperatures just a couple of degrees higher than at home. Time to break that winter duvet back out of the cupboard!
(*I looked on their website this afternoon and it's possible to get an afternoon ticket to the animal park for €14.40. Assuming that includes use of the four cable cars which take visitors around to the various areas of the park (a 50 minute journey in total - it is a huge area), I would be tempted ... but not in tomorrow's weather, and we can only stay here for two nights.)
No comments:
Post a Comment