Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire in Archena.
Weather: Just a few little fluffy clouds around. Nice and warm in the sun.
When we arrived here on Monday I posted a photo of the hill that can be seen out of Bertie's windscreen:
I was talking to a chap the other day who referred to this and the nearby lumps as mountains, but as the top of this one stands just 400' above the town, it's more of a pimple than a mountain.
Having downloaded a route from Wikiloc.com, our first activity today was to go and visit its summit. This was only semi successful.
After a false start, we located the path (rather than the less enticing concrete trackway on the other side of the hill)...
...and it didn't take much gaining of height for excellent views that gave a much better understanding of the local topography (unfortunately, not well demonstrated in these snaps!)
I don't know how visible it is in this snap, but nestled in the bowl between those hills over there is a large cemetery. Both of us, and another chap we talked to later, originally mistook it for a village.
Odd place for a cafe/bar/restuarant, which presumably this heavily grafittied shell once was. Our summit is now only just above us.
A bit of trouble locating the final path to the summit (had to duck under some trees), then we got to a scrambly bit...
The final few metres to the summit was a scramble too far for me. Getting up would have been easy, but getting back down would have terrified me, so Mick went on his own (he failed to take a selfie next to the cross and once down in the town he declined to reascend to put right the omission).
First thing this morning my legs hadn't protested too much about yesterday's long run. By the time they had negotiated a steep, scrambly descent, those quads were making their feelings known!
Elevenses seemed a suitable activity to follow our (admittedly minor) exertions, so we hunted out the bar from which a lively hubbub had been heard when we passed by a couple of days ago.
The objective of this snap wasn't really our coffee and toast. I was trying surreptitiously to capture the table of 4 police officers, in uniform, enjoying their coffees and liqueurs before, presumably, going back on duty.
With a couple of hours before it was a reasonable time to go out for lunch we headed back to Bertie, where we had a visit from a chap called Dave, new to motorhoming and on his first trip. Before retirement he was an international HGV driver. He now hopes to visit the places he used to drive straight past.
With 2pm approaching, we threw Dave out and headed off across town to the only place we had found, on previous outings, displaying a Menu del Dia. Oooh, it was good!
My starter was an excellent bean and clam stew. Mick's main (to which this snap does not do justice) was a fabulous slow roasted lamb shoulder. Both puddings were devine. All of this, including Mick's half-bottle of wine and two coffees came in at €10 a head.
We were stuffed as we moseyed back to the river, to follow it back to Bertie and (understandably, I think) have done nothing active since.
I'm sure we could manage to spend another day or two here, but we've already stayed a day longer than we feel is reasonable in a free Aire, even when there's not a time limit displayed (we would have left today, if we hadn't lost Tuesday to the grey weather). So, we'll be on the move again tomorrow, although I wouldn't discount a revisit on our way back north.
Weather: Just a few little fluffy clouds around. Nice and warm in the sun.
When we arrived here on Monday I posted a photo of the hill that can be seen out of Bertie's windscreen:
Having downloaded a route from Wikiloc.com, our first activity today was to go and visit its summit. This was only semi successful.
First thing this morning my legs hadn't protested too much about yesterday's long run. By the time they had negotiated a steep, scrambly descent, those quads were making their feelings known!
Elevenses seemed a suitable activity to follow our (admittedly minor) exertions, so we hunted out the bar from which a lively hubbub had been heard when we passed by a couple of days ago.
With a couple of hours before it was a reasonable time to go out for lunch we headed back to Bertie, where we had a visit from a chap called Dave, new to motorhoming and on his first trip. Before retirement he was an international HGV driver. He now hopes to visit the places he used to drive straight past.
With 2pm approaching, we threw Dave out and headed off across town to the only place we had found, on previous outings, displaying a Menu del Dia. Oooh, it was good!
My starter was an excellent bean and clam stew. Mick's main (to which this snap does not do justice) was a fabulous slow roasted lamb shoulder. Both puddings were devine. All of this, including Mick's half-bottle of wine and two coffees came in at €10 a head.
We were stuffed as we moseyed back to the river, to follow it back to Bertie and (understandably, I think) have done nothing active since.
I'm sure we could manage to spend another day or two here, but we've already stayed a day longer than we feel is reasonable in a free Aire, even when there's not a time limit displayed (we would have left today, if we hadn't lost Tuesday to the grey weather). So, we'll be on the move again tomorrow, although I wouldn't discount a revisit on our way back north.
Good to see you doing a hill. No shame in knowing when not to proceed, better that than something to regret. I did the same on Stac Polly a few years ago. None-stop rain, cold, high winds and flooded roads are preventing much activity here at the moment.
ReplyDeleteMy 'when not to proceed' bar is lower for a hill that doesn't merit a tick on any list and whilst I would have liked to have stood on the top, I was perfectly happy with my decision to stop a few metres short.
DeleteLet's hope you get some calm weather, accompanied by crisp blue skied days, followed swiftly by the onset of spring.