Peniscola - Monday 10th to Sunday 16th

Monday 10th

Neither of us was running; neither of us was working – we had a whole day free to do stuff together!

“Let’s go to the castle” Mick said. Once my first reaction (“It’s Monday, so it won’t be open.”) was disproved, off we went down the hill.

It’s hungry and thirsty work walking to a castle that’s 3km away. We had to stop for coffee and toast on the way. Then we came upon the weekly market, so we took a wander around that (unsuccessful in terms of finding the item I was after). By the time we’d done that we’d decided it was a bit too cool to enjoy a walk around a castle, and even though the forecast said it was only going to be overcast, not wet, it was looking ominously like rain. So, we fell into another bar for more coffee/tea. By then it was lunchtime, and a ten minute walk took us to our favoured eatery.

A single course plus drinks came in at only €10 less than three courses, including drinks and bread, followed by coffee.

Tuesday

Having now sampled so many of the paths through the Sierra d'Irta, I’d convinced myself that the first route I did, a couple of weeks ago, wasn’t as overgrown and scratchy on the legs as I remembered, so was worthy of repetition. I also decided it was more runnable than I remembered. Turns out I was wrong on both counts. My legs were smarting by the time I got back to Bertie!

With the weather having returned to sunshine, I noted that my legs are getting their usual ‘shorts and ankle socks’ tan. Such a good look…

Wednesday

There was a birthday to be celebrated and we’d thought we’d do a repeat of Monday, but this time (in the absence of the market) we would be successful in our mission to see the castle, in between morning coffee and a big lunch.

We woke up to rain. When rain is very much the exception, we felt no inclination to walk around in it.

So, we pottered until lunchtime, before walking down to town for lunch.

Failed to take a photo of the starter, failed to ask for birthday candles in the pudding, so here’s the main course.

By then the day was brightening up and it turned out to be much warmer (and more humid) than I’d expected. So sunny was it over lunch that we probably would have gone to the castle this afternoon, had we not been so stuffed full of food.

Thursday

I managed to find a couple of nearby paths in the Sierra d’Irta hills, on the N side of the range, that I’d not yet trodden, so I went off to tread them. Absolutely lovely it was – nice paths (not too scratchy, except through a few sections of stunted holly bushes) under a clear sky.

Gorgeous! You can see my onwards path over the next lump.

The only fly in the ointment was the realisation that I had in fact been on the path involved in the return leg of the loop, and it was the steep/slow/plates of ball bearings path that I used last weekend. Realising that before I made the turn allowed a quick replan on the hoof – the longer distance of my revised route was certainly much quicker than the steep/slow/ball-bearings path would have been.

Friday

Valentines day, and being the romantic couple we are, we decided to celebrate by going out for coffee, tostada & a crossword … exactly as we do most weeks of the year. This time we beelined for the same bar as we’d found on Monday – it’s our usual sort of a tostada location, being full of old men and workmen (we must have spent 2.5 hours in there this week and the only other women present have been the serving staff).

Our elevenses, but also a surreptitious snap (actually taken on Monday) of old geezers, having spirits with their breakfasts and putting the world to rights

A small indication of how busy it was on Friday

The bar was full to the gunwales when we arrived. By the time we left they were sweeping up around us – by then the only customers - in the lull between breakfasts and lunch, which we took as our cue to leave.

Saturday

We’ve had more than our fair share of cloud this week, and today was another overcast one, although reasonably warm.

Leaving the campsite together at around 9am, I soon left Mick behind as he set out for a 5k run and I set out for a differently-paced 20k. Out of Peniscola, into Benicarlo and out the other side before I ran out of coastal pavement and turned back.

Murky weather with poor air quality

As I sit and type this on Saturday afternoon, it’s raining. I might have to put in a complaint about this weather!

Current plan: we are leaving the campsite tomorrow. We’ve had that plan quite a few times before. Let’s see if we can extract ourselves from the vortex this time!

Sunday

As I failed to post this in a timely manner, I may as well retrospectively add a note about Sunday. Goodness, once you get sucked into the vortex of a campsite in Peniscola, the pull is strong! That is to say, that once again we failed to leave as planned.

I had a need to use the campsite wifi to do a particular task before it ground to a halt (which generally happened at around 8am, as too many other people came online), so we got up at 0630. I used the wifi for as long as possible, then continued offline until lunchtime. With more computer work to do in the afternoon, it didn’t make sense to leave, but we resolved that we absolutely, definitely, without any doubt, were going to leave on Monday...

Saturday 8 February - Still Peñíscola

Where's Bertie? Is it surprising or entirely predictable that he's still not moved?

Weather: There's been a bit of cloud around over the sea the last couple of days, but it's soon cleared up to give gloriously sunny days. 16 degrees today.

The sight that greeted me when I arose this morning. This is what happens when, in a warm climate, you forget to put your (sourdough) bread dough, that has been proving all day, in the fridge overnight.

Against expectations, we still ended up with a good loaf.

We had good intentions to move on yesterday morning. As I'd done quite a few times before, I started the day by considering where we may go next, but I came upon the perennial problem: I want to go slightly inland, into the hills, but I also want the good weather and warmth of the coast.

A particular consideration this time was that I was down for a long run this morning, so wherever we went, it needed to be a location where I would have a decent, relatively flat route. One option was somewhere near Valencia, so I could jump on the Via Verde. Another option was half an hour north, where there's another Via Verde - but I'm hesitating to go north for fear of losing a degree or two of temperature.

My final, considered opinion was that we could stay here and I could run laps from the campsite.

That wouldn't just put our departure back by one day, but by two, as with Mick working Sunday, it makes sense to stay so he can use the big screen and have unlimited power.

Then came the slight curve ball: Mick saw that a couple of pitches had come up in the middle of the main section of the campsite and we decided that if we could move onto one of them, then we would stay another couple of weeks (thus getting the 'one month stay' special rate).

We haven't moved. Why? Because even though all the pitches cost exactly the same, apparently Bertie can't have one of those pitches because he's too small. Hmmm. So, we've been on a concrete car park for two weeks, paying the same as everyone on proper pitches, but he now can't have a proper pitch because someone in a bigger motorhome may come along (even in our area, 8m vans comfortably fit). We walked back through later and there were small vans on those pitches - the only difference between them and us being that they are new arrivals. (I'm making it sound like I'm disgruntled about being in the concrete car park area whereas actually there are some benefits to being here, like catching the morning sun and not treading grit into Bertie. The only real downsides of being where we are is the slope that even the ramps can't quite iron out, and occasionally annoying neighbours, although none of them has stayed long.)

So, we are still here and don't currently know whether we'll be staying until Monday or for another two weeks.

I can think of worse places to be at this time of year!

Back to this morning, I went and ran three laps of 11-12k each, in glorious sunshine, but my goodness, it was windy. I got blown sideways at times on the prom, and was stopped in my tracks coming back up the hill, but even in the wind I was plenty warm enough in shorts and t-shirt. Locals were, of course, wrapped up warm, and lots of locals there were. It being Saturday, the prom was positively bustling, making me curious as to what it's like here in summer when the hotels, flats and holiday homes are full - most are sitting empty at this time of year. 

Thursday 6 February - Campsite Occurrences

Weather: Still wall-to-wall sunshine with mid-teens highs.

With the intention to leave the campsite tomorrow, I thought I'd take the opportunity to do a final load of laundry before we left.

As is the norm, once I'd put my load on, I left my bag on top of the machine for use when it had ended. I duly returned 33 minutes* later to find that someone had nicked off with my carrier bag! Why would you do that? The value is inconsequential (I replaced it this afternoon for 65c), which perhaps makes it even more annoying. I am, of course, now watching out for someone walking around the site with a heavy-duty Morrison's bag! (*As an aside, why do washing machines lie as to time remaining? It told me 33 minutes when I left and I set an alarm on my phone accordingly; when I returned it still had 7 minutes to go.)

Given how seldom we have historically stayed on campsites outside of the UK, this is not making for a good track record. In Silves, in Portugal, someone nicked my sports bra off the communal washing line.

With laundry hung out to dry, off I went to take a look at the coast to the S of Peniscola. As soon as I turned right at the bottom of the road, rather than left along the prom, I was out of the resort and the coast was rugged. However, there was also no pavement alongside the wiggly, undulating road, and whilst it wasn't overly trafficked, there were enough cars to make me think it wasn't the best choice for a running route.

Today's other campsite peeve came late this afternoon, when someone came and took the final pitch available today, right next to us. It seems they were confounded by the pitch markings and thought they needed to squeeze between the red and blue lines on the ground - failing to notice the really big hint of the pitch number being marked adjacent to each of the red lines, tellling them that they can ignore the blue line. That means that their door almost reaches to Bertie's flank when it is open. They've just nipped out and it would be quite amusing if we were to move over whilst they were gone, right to the edge of our pitch (most people position themselves thus; not sure why we didn't), which would mean they wouldn't be able to open their door. Of course, I'm neither petty nor cruel enough to do that (as much as it would amuse me).

So, tomorrow morning we are due to be away from here. To where, though, that's the question?

A procession of processionary caterpillars. Seen loads of nests in various places, but don't think I've seen any in motion before.

Tuesday 4 February - Sierra d'Irta & Lunch

Where's Bertie? He's still at Camping Los Pinos in Peniscola. We booked in for 7 nights the Saturday before last, then in the middle of last week said we wanted to extend until today. The campsite said to stay as long as we like, and just pay when we want to leave ... and here we still are. Current plan is to leave on Friday.

Weather: Still wall-to-wall sunshine. 16 degree max today, which feels pleasantly warm when out of the wind.

We were minutes away from setting out for lunch today when I heard Bertie's fridge fire up on gas. That shouldn't happen, as he's plugged into the mains, and a quick glance at his control panel confirmed that he no longer had electricity. It was soon confirmed that our neighbours also had no power, and after a bit of faffing with the control panel in the hook up cabinet, Mick went off to reception to report the issue. 

It turned out that one of our neighbours was not just tripping the local cabinet, but blowing the power for the whole site*. All of the faffing delayed our departure by about half an hour.

Even so, we stuck with the plan and rather than walking 3km down the road, we walked 8.5km with 325m of ascent through the hills. Quite an appetite had been built up by the time we got to our lunch establishment (the same one as last Friday), and thus my plan to only have a main course morphed into having the Menu del Dia.

Snaps from our walk to lunch

We went sharsies on the first courses - so fried anchovy & salad

Not sure this snap does justice to how big these portions were. I was defeated, although...

I still managed to find room for a flan for pudding (I would say 'washed down' with a coffee, but as I went for an espresso, that may be something of an exaggeration).

We returned to Bertie via a more direct route than the outward leg, but not the most direct. Only the final stretch was on a road, where we passed a number of other people. The standard greeting hereabouts seems to be 'bonjour' mainly because most people you pass are French, and seem to assume that everyone else is. One couple must have been somewhat amused by Mick's response today when he got a bit confused within the right language (it's pretty standard for one of us to just get the wrong language) and responded to 'bonjour' with 'au revoir'. (I don't know quite why I found it quite so hilarious, but I was crying with laughter and am still tittering as I write this). 

  

(*That neighbour had, curiously, moved pitch this morning from opposite us to next to us - I wonder if they did that because they'd started to have an electrical problem over there and thought it was the hook up point, rather than their equipment? They also, curiously, opted to park with their door right on the demarcation line between their pitch and the next, leaving all the spare room on the pitch on the non-door side. Fortunately, when I say they were our neighbour, there was at the time, a spare space between us and them (since taken), so it wasn't going to be our pitch that they stepped onto every time they exited/entered their van.)

Sunday 2 February - Sierra d'Irta & Castell de Polpis

Weather: wall-to-wall sunshine and pleasantly warm when out of the breeze (or when moving through the hills)

What a thoroughly enjoyable outing I had today, in superb conditions - as the photos show. Not easy, taking me an hour longer than anticipated (the slowest bits were downhill; there were some incredibly steep sections on the descent with plates of ballbearings underfoot).

Here are some snaps:

I took the track the whole way up to the hillside Ermita today, rather than the shorter footpath, as the route I'd plotted was coming up a bit short and this seemed like a good way of adding a little on.

An unspoilt landscape and a seaview

First view of Castell de Polpis. This was the out-and-back spur off the circuit part of my route and involved a steep descent and associated reascent.

Closer to. The dirt track I'd walked in on is a public road. I'd not thought anything of meeting a group of four walking down to the castle, but it turned out they'd driven in; their car was just over the rise.

A tiny extra detour - I'd spotted what looked like a trig point as I'd passed on my way to the castle and as it was atop a summit, and there was a track leading to it, I visited it on my way back.

Plenty of signposts.

This was the start of the slowest going section, hemmed in by pokey bushes, but I'd not yet hit the steep stuff.

I think it was about here that I sent Mick a message saying I only had 5km to go. Thirty-three minutes later I sent another message saying it was the longest 5k of my life; I still had 2.5km to go! Yep, as descents go, it was a slow one. It did, however, push me to run everything even vaguely runnable once it got back to a more acceptable gradient. Incidentally, I'm sure this circuit involved three times more descent than ascent.

So many abandoned terraces. All that work to build them, and now they sit unused

I'll be revisiting parts of this route again in a couple of days time, this time taking Mick with me. 

22.5km, 750m

Saturday 1 February - A productive day in Peñíscola

Weather: Cool with lots of light showers, but not as cold, overcast or wet as forecast.

We've just started on a string of what are forecast to be cold nights (2-3 degrees) which didn't cause either of us to leap with enthusiasm out of bed this morning. By and by, I came to realise that I had a 10k run to do (having deferred my long outing until tomorrow, for the better weather), and that if I didn't get on with it, I was likely to be doing it in the rain. As it went, there were patches of blue in the sky as we stepped out the door and I caught some nice warming rays as I trundled down to the seafront. I'd plotted a circuit for myself today and it was incredible how soon after turning inland from the smart promenade, I hit what felt like remote rural Spain.

Back at Bertie, it was a working day for Mick, and being in a lull of TGO Challenge related tasks myself, I had a day of complete leisure. I put it to good use.

First, the Spanish Grammar book that travelled around Germany in the summer has finally been cracked open. I'm not sure I'll ever get to grips with the subjunctive...

That ribbon that I bought a week ago has now been attached to the driver's seat cover and, with no small amount of faffing, anchored to the seat base.

Sourdough discard* American pancakes were made (should have taken a photo - they're good!). Only one was eaten; the other two were cut up for me to take with me on my longer runs. (*The sourdough method I use doesn't result in much excess starter, so I intentionally build it up to give extra for pancakes.)

Then, after a trip to Aldi in the rain earlier in the day, after lunch I set to making tea. A few days ago, whilst perusing the meat fridges, I spotted a pack of rabbit. It not being a meat that's generally available in the supermarket in the UK, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss - and in the intervening days I'd realised my first thought of 'If only I had a slow cooker with me' was a bit silly - the hotplate on low would perform the same service.

So, armed with a pack of chopped-up rabbit meat (on the bone) and a stew-pack of vegetables, we've had a pan full (and I mean FULL*!) of rabbit stew on the stove all afternoon. There's still half a rabbit in the freezer for another day too. (*Two years ago I removed from Bertie the big saucepan that we'd carried around for over a decade because it so seldom got used; I swear that I've wanted it more since I removed it than I ever used it when we had it available!)

Managed to find time to cast on and start the second sleeve of a cardi I'm knitting too.

The forecast is back to sunshine again tomorrow, so I'll be heading back out into the hills.

Of all the productive things I did today, this was the only photo taken (and then only because Mick prompted me). 

Friday 31 January - Peniscola

Weather: The weather pattern until now has been clear mornings, with cloud building around lunchtime and the odd short, light shower. Today there's not a cloud in the sky and, when out of the northerly wind, it feels warmer than the advertised 17 degrees.

I headed back into the hills on Wednesday, starting with a 3km run down the road almost to the sea, before looping around to pick up a PR route, taking in the elevated and isolated Ermita de Sant Antoni. The paths were much better (wider, without scratchy bushes clawing at my legs and arms) on that side of the hills, and the views of the sea and the lumpy-bumpiness all around me were superb. On Alta de Vistahermosa I joined my route from the previous day, from where it was back onto the narrow paths through scratchy stuff, but only for a few kilometres.

The white building is Ermita de Sant Antoni

Looking seawards from next to the Ermita's chapel

Selfie (obvs)

Good paths

Waymarks and signposts

Yesterday morning I found myself lacking energy and enthusiasm, so decided to go for the 'get it done quickly' approach, heading down to the seafront promenade and running to the next resort along and back. I'd joined Mick for the first five minutes, but he's running shorter intervals and distances than me, so I soon went on ahead of him.

Back at Bertie, the forecast of rain seemed so unlikely that I considered doing laundry. I went and checked out the facilities, but then spotted the big dark cloud behind us. It was a good call to defer until today, as whilst the rain didn't last too long, it was the heaviest shower we've had yet. 

The laundry thus got done first thing this morning, and it was all dried outside and put away by noon, when we headed down to the seafront for lunch. Today's eatery was another I'd chosen in advance based on reviews, and it was a good choice. 

A lot of food (and drink) for €17 a head. There was an incredible amount of seafood in that paella. 

It's unusual for an eatery in Spain to be busy at 1pm, but this one is frequented mainly by foreign tourists  and was busy. Almost everyone around us was French (unsurprising as it's the main nationality on the campsite too), which explains the popularity of what would locally be considered an early lunch. I was sitting facing inwards, but Mick got the sea view under a glouriously blue, cloud-free sky. I feel no need now to try any other restaurant - that one has a big enough menu for a return visit. It's a decent bit of exercise to go there too (today it was 3km there and 4km back).

Once again, we opted for the longer walk back, cutting across between castle and town, along the seafront and up through the nature reserve. 

We walked up there and around the old town a couple of years ago, so felt justified in bypassing it today.