Monday 9 February - Peñíscola

Where's Bertie? He's at Camping Los Pinos on the edge of Peñíscola, at a cost of €15 per night including electricity, wifi and all campsite facilities. The price is up €2 on last year, but it's still a bit of a bargain for what you get here. 

Weather: Sunny and warm, after a cool night with some overnight rain. 

There was a feral cat feeding station next to last night's Aire, which was nice from the point of view of watching the cats, particularly at feeding time, but not so good when they started climbing into Bertie's engine bay - I'm sure they must do it in all vehicles, but in Bertie's A-class motorhome body, you really hear them moving around in there. Mick went out to scare one out at one point; on another occasion some sharp raps on the dashboard did the trick. 

The short period of dawn rain had abated by the time we were ready to leave, which was good for me as I ran a quick errand, nipping to the bakery just up the road. I've not made any bread since we left home, so a loaf of some description was what we needed, and an impulsive purchase of a large Palmera occurred too.

Less than two hours later, we arrived in Peñíscola, heading for the campsite where we spent 3 weeks last year, hoping they would have a pitch for us. We got an actual pitch this time (last year we spent all of our 3 weeks in the concrete car park area), although arguably the worst one on the site, being the only one outside of the entrance/exit barriers, and nearest to the road. However, it's also one of the few real pitches (grit surface, hedges on two sides, a wall on the other) where its orientation means that we could position Bertie's nose towards the sun for maximum solar gain. It doesn't matter if the general temperature at this time of year is mid-teens: as long as it's sunny, we are toasty warm inside. As it goes, it's forecast to be 20+ for the next couple of days.

After elevenses, a crossword and lunch, I headed out into the Sierra d'Irta hills, just for a 1.5hr out-and-back, rather than one of the many circuits I did through those hills last year (I considered a circuit but was wearing brand new cropped leggings and knew that if I ventured further I would encounter seriously spikey undergrowth that would likely snag the fabric. I'll wear shorts next time, so it's my legs that suffer rather than my clothes). It may be a tad unexciting to return to the same place as we visited last year, to do the same routes through the same hills, but for the next couple of weeks we will be happy with the repetition. Mick was mainly working whilst we were here last year, so can explore more of the hills, and for me I'll have the benefit of mainly knowing where I am and where I'm going. Hopefully our favourite bar (for coffee and tostada) and restaurant (for lunch) will remain largely unchanged too.

 

Snaps from the local hills