Where's Bertie? He's sitting in an elevated parking area next to the River Guadiana a couple of kilometres north of the village of Montinho das Laranjeiras. Exact location: 37.42242, -7.45474.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and very pleasantly warm, with barely a breath of wind.
I didn't properly think through the order of things this morning. First I decided to delay my run until we had moved to our new location (in the hope it would be flatter!), then a while later I remembered there was a mains-water shower at our disposal and that it would be rude to forego the opportunity to use it one last time before we left the Aire that has hosted us for three nights.
It was a relatively short, but very scenic drive to get here, mainly following a nice flat road along the river. It was only right at the end of our journey that we started to climb, which I suppose I should have anticipated given that the description of this car park included reference to panoramic views.
It is a stunning, and very quiet spot. This is the view from in front of Bertie, looking over the river to Spain (where it's an hour later than it is here):
After coffee (the new stove-top percolator is working out well, incidentally), I didn't grasp the opportunity to use the 'I've already showered, I can't run' excuse, but bit the bullet and headed out. The surroundings were lovely...
... but the descent/reascent was tough in both directions. At 200' over a 4-mile run, it would have been negligible, if it hadn't all occurred within such a short distance at the beginning and end.
Making Bertie smell all fishy by cooking salmon for lunch (hopefully eating oranges this afternoon will have cancelled it out), we suddenly found our quiet little parking area to be proving popular, with a dribble of small, new-looking cars, most of them carrying more people than can comfortably fit in such small models. The English, American, German and French accents/languages confirmed that these were all tourists in hire cars. We passed the time of day with a Canadian couple who are just coming to the end of a seven-week trip, unfortunately timing their return home to British Columbia just a bit too soon to miss the coldest bit of winter.
As evening has snuck up, the stream of view-snappers has dried up, leaving us, for the moment at least, all on our own. So, it seems you don't have to venture too far inland to find somewhere that's not completely overrun with motorhomes.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and very pleasantly warm, with barely a breath of wind.
I didn't properly think through the order of things this morning. First I decided to delay my run until we had moved to our new location (in the hope it would be flatter!), then a while later I remembered there was a mains-water shower at our disposal and that it would be rude to forego the opportunity to use it one last time before we left the Aire that has hosted us for three nights.
It was a relatively short, but very scenic drive to get here, mainly following a nice flat road along the river. It was only right at the end of our journey that we started to climb, which I suppose I should have anticipated given that the description of this car park included reference to panoramic views.
It is a stunning, and very quiet spot. This is the view from in front of Bertie, looking over the river to Spain (where it's an hour later than it is here):
After coffee (the new stove-top percolator is working out well, incidentally), I didn't grasp the opportunity to use the 'I've already showered, I can't run' excuse, but bit the bullet and headed out. The surroundings were lovely...
Making Bertie smell all fishy by cooking salmon for lunch (hopefully eating oranges this afternoon will have cancelled it out), we suddenly found our quiet little parking area to be proving popular, with a dribble of small, new-looking cars, most of them carrying more people than can comfortably fit in such small models. The English, American, German and French accents/languages confirmed that these were all tourists in hire cars. We passed the time of day with a Canadian couple who are just coming to the end of a seven-week trip, unfortunately timing their return home to British Columbia just a bit too soon to miss the coldest bit of winter.
As evening has snuck up, the stream of view-snappers has dried up, leaving us, for the moment at least, all on our own. So, it seems you don't have to venture too far inland to find somewhere that's not completely overrun with motorhomes.
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