Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire within the car park for a sports ground on the edge of the town of Monesterio (exact location: 38.09380, -6.27721).
Weather: Variously sunny or overcast, but dry. Windy this evening (and maybe all day - it's a northerly, so if it was windy then it explains the good MPG we achieved today).
Today's main observation was that it's a *really* long drive from Belgium to the south coast of Spain. I feel like we've been in transit for weeks, although there is now light at the end of the tunnel as, after another big driving day today, we should arrive there tomorrow.
Another observation was that there's a whole lot of nothing within sight of the motorways we drove for around 550km today. Towns were few and large towns even fewer. Even farm buildings were scarce. That perhaps explains today's third observation: that the motorway that runs north/south through this region is far from busy.
At one point we pulled onto the hard shoulder, when Bertie's fuel filler flap came adrift from its mooring and started flapping around. Mick exited through Bertie's nearside door, walked round to the offside, securely fastened the flap, walked back around, climbed back in, fastened himself into his seat, left the hard shoulder and regained cruising speed, all without a single other vehicle passing us.
We finally reached Monesterio just before 1630 and didn't tarry long once Bertie was settled into a parking slot before heading off to look around the town.
We didn't find anything of great interest, although the church does look like it has been thrown together from whatever came to hand first from a large heap of mixed materials.
The other thing we didn't find was the Tourist Office, and we did search hard for it. There is electricity provided at this Aire, but a notice on the front of the distribution box requests that you visit the Tourist Office if you want to use it. A bit of electricity, just to charge our window vac (used to clear condensation from the windscreen in the morning), would have been useful, but as we have found to be common, Spanish towns do tend to hide their tourist offices away. There are directional signs in the town, they are entirely unhelpful. I'm not sure whether you can make out the detail in the photo below, but the signpost nearest to me says that when heading UP the road, the TIO is on the right, whereas the signpost visible across the road says that when heading DOWN the road, it is straight ahead.
Weather: Variously sunny or overcast, but dry. Windy this evening (and maybe all day - it's a northerly, so if it was windy then it explains the good MPG we achieved today).
Today's main observation was that it's a *really* long drive from Belgium to the south coast of Spain. I feel like we've been in transit for weeks, although there is now light at the end of the tunnel as, after another big driving day today, we should arrive there tomorrow.
Another observation was that there's a whole lot of nothing within sight of the motorways we drove for around 550km today. Towns were few and large towns even fewer. Even farm buildings were scarce. That perhaps explains today's third observation: that the motorway that runs north/south through this region is far from busy.
At one point we pulled onto the hard shoulder, when Bertie's fuel filler flap came adrift from its mooring and started flapping around. Mick exited through Bertie's nearside door, walked round to the offside, securely fastened the flap, walked back around, climbed back in, fastened himself into his seat, left the hard shoulder and regained cruising speed, all without a single other vehicle passing us.
We finally reached Monesterio just before 1630 and didn't tarry long once Bertie was settled into a parking slot before heading off to look around the town.
We didn't find anything of great interest, although the church does look like it has been thrown together from whatever came to hand first from a large heap of mixed materials.
The other thing we didn't find was the Tourist Office, and we did search hard for it. There is electricity provided at this Aire, but a notice on the front of the distribution box requests that you visit the Tourist Office if you want to use it. A bit of electricity, just to charge our window vac (used to clear condensation from the windscreen in the morning), would have been useful, but as we have found to be common, Spanish towns do tend to hide their tourist offices away. There are directional signs in the town, they are entirely unhelpful. I'm not sure whether you can make out the detail in the photo below, but the signpost nearest to me says that when heading UP the road, the TIO is on the right, whereas the signpost visible across the road says that when heading DOWN the road, it is straight ahead.
If you've the time and/or inclination then there's a spectacular cave system in the centre of the town of Aracena , about an hour or so SW of Monesterio. Details here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.andalucia.com/province/huelva/aracena/gruta-de-las-maravillas.htm
Further south, the Parque Nacional de Doñana is a World Heritage Site with phenomenal wildlife:
http://www.andalucia.com/environment/protect/donana.htm
Best beach south of Cadiz (old town well worth a visit, tho could be tricky for Bertie ..) is Bolonia - you should have this all to yrselves mid-week :
https://blog.fuertehoteles.com/en/destinations/bolonia-beach/
Thank you for the tips, and sorry that we haven't put them to use on this trip. Aracena, in particular, will be noted for next time we're passing through this area.
DeleteWe've been to the fringes of Parque Nacional de Doñana on a previous trip. You would have thought that we'd have visited Cadiz on the same trip, and I have no idea why we omitted it - I can only guess it was because we were running out of time, having dawdled our way far more slowly around the south from Alicante.
Oops! I meant the old town of Cadiz. There's zippo in Bolonia apart from the magnificent beach. And there's motorhome/capervan site 5km inland:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.campercontact.com/en/spain/andalusia-04-11-14-18-21-23-29-41/bolonia/62517/areas-autocaravanes-bolonia-tarifa
Tourist Office appears to be in the pig museum :-) USEO DEL JAMÓN DE MONESTERIO - OFICINA DE TURISMO
ReplyDeleteWe didn't stumble across the ham museum either, and reviewing my photo of the signposts, it doesn't seem to get a single mention, even though it's apparently the biggest attraction in the town.
Delete