Where's Bertie? He's in a municipal Aire on the edge of a park in the town of Lorqui. Exact location: 38.07905, -1.25935.
Weather: Some cloud around periodically, but mainly sunny with the temperature just creeping up into the twenties.
It wasn't yet daylight as we availed ourselves of the service point in Murcia this morning before taking a long way around to the petrol station that was only about 100m away from where we had started. There we accidentally asked the attendant for the most expensive diesel, but (at €1.27/litre; today's exchange rate €1.20:£1) still cheaper than supermarket diesel at home.
Traffic was crawling on the A7 heading west, making the short hop to a car park by Javalí Nuevo take longer than it should. Within minutes of installing Bertie into the car park there, I was off for a run along the river.
On paper it looked a good route: a cycle route and the GR127 walking route through a nature reserve then continuing alongside the river as it wends its way towards Murcia. On the ground the going was good with the choice of the concrete cycle path or the adjacent grit-surfaced track. The surroundings, however, were surprisingly uninteresting, which probably contributed to my mental struggle in completing the distance (13 miles today). A bit of distraction via nice surroundings is always a bonus.
Mick is a star and had a pint of water and an omelette in front of me within minutes of my return. A quick shower and we were on the road again for another short (15km) hop up to Lorquí.
We arrived to a strong smell of diesel and peering under Bertie I saw it dripping from his fuel tank. We either have a worrying problem or (more likely, is our current thinking) we are suffering the effects of having had 88 litres of diesel put into Bertie's 85 litre tank in the cool of the early morning, then not driving very far to use much up, followed by the day warming up considerably. I've since crawled under Bertie and wiped off as much as I can from his underside. A bit gutting to be leaking expensive stuff!
We had hoped that Lorquí would have enough about it to keep us amused here for two or three nights, but our wanderings around the town this afternoon has made us think that we'll be moving on again tomorrow. It's a bit of a sad place, with little to see.
The main church square is well presented...
...but go just around the corner and view it from a different angle and the grafitti that plagues the town is plain to see.
Glances down side streets reveal buildings in disrepair (or incomplete, long abandoned building projects)
The river I ran along this morning runs past the end of the road housing the Aire. The surroundings (including views of three separate sets of hills) are much nicer up here.
It's one of those places that makes us wonder why the town has invested in an Aire when it is not a remotely pretty or touristy place. The answer to that perhaps lies in the fact that there are 15 vans here right now and, if that is typical, and if only half of those people go and spend a few Euros in either the bar in the park* that abuts the Aire, or elsewhere in the town, then there's a commerce boost. (*The park itself is a sad looking place, also plagued by grafitti on every vertical surface, with empty fountains and dusty paths, but it's undeniably nicer than a retail park car park! The bar in the park is a popular place and has an al-fresco sound system, currently churning out a stream of early 1990s pop.)
Weather: Some cloud around periodically, but mainly sunny with the temperature just creeping up into the twenties.
It wasn't yet daylight as we availed ourselves of the service point in Murcia this morning before taking a long way around to the petrol station that was only about 100m away from where we had started. There we accidentally asked the attendant for the most expensive diesel, but (at €1.27/litre; today's exchange rate €1.20:£1) still cheaper than supermarket diesel at home.
Traffic was crawling on the A7 heading west, making the short hop to a car park by Javalí Nuevo take longer than it should. Within minutes of installing Bertie into the car park there, I was off for a run along the river.
On paper it looked a good route: a cycle route and the GR127 walking route through a nature reserve then continuing alongside the river as it wends its way towards Murcia. On the ground the going was good with the choice of the concrete cycle path or the adjacent grit-surfaced track. The surroundings, however, were surprisingly uninteresting, which probably contributed to my mental struggle in completing the distance (13 miles today). A bit of distraction via nice surroundings is always a bonus.
Mick is a star and had a pint of water and an omelette in front of me within minutes of my return. A quick shower and we were on the road again for another short (15km) hop up to Lorquí.
We arrived to a strong smell of diesel and peering under Bertie I saw it dripping from his fuel tank. We either have a worrying problem or (more likely, is our current thinking) we are suffering the effects of having had 88 litres of diesel put into Bertie's 85 litre tank in the cool of the early morning, then not driving very far to use much up, followed by the day warming up considerably. I've since crawled under Bertie and wiped off as much as I can from his underside. A bit gutting to be leaking expensive stuff!
We had hoped that Lorquí would have enough about it to keep us amused here for two or three nights, but our wanderings around the town this afternoon has made us think that we'll be moving on again tomorrow. It's a bit of a sad place, with little to see.
It's one of those places that makes us wonder why the town has invested in an Aire when it is not a remotely pretty or touristy place. The answer to that perhaps lies in the fact that there are 15 vans here right now and, if that is typical, and if only half of those people go and spend a few Euros in either the bar in the park* that abuts the Aire, or elsewhere in the town, then there's a commerce boost. (*The park itself is a sad looking place, also plagued by grafitti on every vertical surface, with empty fountains and dusty paths, but it's undeniably nicer than a retail park car park! The bar in the park is a popular place and has an al-fresco sound system, currently churning out a stream of early 1990s pop.)
Bonus snap for my sister:
Big house on huge plot for €175k
See, it's just wonderful that you continue to put in yr exact locations - I can then kick straight in to Google StreetView and take a gander. And oh, another thing - you probably have come across this B4, but the speciality of the region you're in is Horchata - a beyond delicious (and non-alcoholic) drink made from tiger-nuts. I simply adore it. You'll even come across dedicated Horchaterias- often serving up scrumptious artisanal ice-cream on the side. Not to be missed!
ReplyDeleteGlad to know that the lat/longs are being used :-).
DeleteWe'll be on the lookout for some horchata and will report back if we find some.