NATIONAL PARKS AND RIP-OFF TOURISM

THURSDAY 31st.MARCH

A pleasant Saturday at HORCAJO, apart from having to listen to England being ejected from the One-Day World Cup quarter final by Sri Lanka, and a nice stroll down to the village to explore its charms....which were few as it was shut and in the usual state of being unfinished. It boasts a hotel and is the gateway to the National Park and once tried to smarten itself up but gave up halfway through.
Left on Sunday for TOLEDO and drove across the Park with low cloud obscuring the hills and despite the deteriorating road were rewarded with the sight of a magnificent golden eagle swooping across in front of us to land in a field of cows...obviously looking for a nice calf for lunch.
TOLEDO campsite by lunch time and immediately caught bus to town 10mins away and looking great on hilltop. We agreed that TOLEDO is Top Town and cathedral is Top Cathedral. The GF rates it as the best Church ever but I still like the Mezquita as Top Church. The cathedral is Awesome and has a definite WOW factor everywhere you look...the stained glass is magnifcent, the carved choir stalls are the best ever, the altar blows your mind as it soars to the ceiling with its gothic artistry,the Treasury with its El GReco collection ( not to mention Rubens,Rafael et al) and there are over 20 chapels round the walls some of which are bigger than other churches.
After the cathedral, the tourist office map lists another 27 churches and buildings worth a visit, of which we did 2............BECAUSE TOLEDO IS ALSO
RIP-OFF TOURIST TOWN.......where to begin
Firstly, our intention was to spend 4 nights in Toledo in order to have plenty of time to see the sights but the first problem was the El Greco campsite.Maybe we have been spoilt by ACSI to expect €15 a night so to find them asking €28.70 was a blow to the pursestrings....and unsurprisingly only 3 other units were in residence. We decided to stay only 2 nights at that price and went into town.
Ok, we know that some (not all)cathedrals charge admission but this was €7 each and the audio guide (with headphones that could only be used by one person at a time)was €10........Evora town audio guide was €2 each and is a very representative price.
And then the 27 other minor churches ALL charged a minimum of €2.30 each admission...and nowhere offered an over-65 discount unlike anywhere else.
Nowhere else has charged admission to minor churches. To spend 2 days and see the lot would cost over €150 for 2 people.
And lastly, the Rough Guide's rating of a 'disappointment' due to the 'extraordinary number of day-trippers' taking 'the edge' off the experience was spot on, especially on the Sunday we were there.
So when we got back to the van we decided to move on the following day and did a quick internet search on the weather for likely destinations.
The plan A was to slowly move up to towards Biaritz to follow the same route home as we had taken last year but the forecast for Mon-Thurs was for heavy rain in that region. Plan B was to go over to Valencia where the weather was good, call in to see Terry & Jackie at last, then go up the coast near Figueres before heading home more or less on the plan A route but by a more roundabout way......
So we left TOLEDO on Monday morning but over breakfast I spotted another campsite that looked interesting in another National Park on the way to Valencia but still left room to then drive up to Pamplona-St.Jean de Luz-Biaritz and save a few hundred miles whilst also avoiding Barcelona.
And that's how we came to be at KikoPark (sister site of the one down on the med where the GF nearly came to blows with a surly swiss gnome) at VILLARGORDO DEL CABRIEL......forget the town, it was closed and might reopen next century if the one horse returns....The campsite was ace, out in the wilds on a headland overlooking a huge flooded-valleys reservoir with magnificent scenery. Campsite facilities excellent; even got the bikes out for a ride around. THe only noise was birdsong and the occasional whoosh of the Madrid-Valencia High Speed bullet train as it passed 500m away....the line apparently going straight through the national park 'Hoces de Cabriel'.
Fortunately it is electric,continuous rail,only ran between 7.25-22.30 scarcely hourly and only made a noise like a sudden gust of wind...otherwise it was very pleasant-if isolated-spot.
Like the site at Horcajo, it had lots of bungalows and I suspect that these would,like there, be busy at the weekend. However, on Monday and Tuesday we only there with 2 other vans and by wednesday the Gf had had enough isolation so we set off for PAMPLONA.
We had stayed at a pretty poor site there on the way down so decided to try the site 25kms south.
A terrific drive up there with some great scenery between UTIEL and TERUEL where we crossed great gorges-a mini grand canyon- and passed through an area of Aragon called Rincon de Ademuz, famous for being unheard of. It's the only part of Spain where deaths outnumber births and it has the hardest winters in the country. Teruel looked v.interesting but we couldn't stop and I would like to go back to spend some time among the best Mudejar architecture in Spain.
Finally arrived MENDIGORRIA, which turns out to be a splendid campsite on the Rio Arga nestling beneath a hilltop village with a splendid church of San Pedro and wonderful views across the surrounding hills and valleys,which we explored the following day (the village,not the surroundings).
Plan C now is to go to St.Jean De Luz and stay at the Aire in the town for 2 nights, then find a campsite for another 2 nights to stock up for 3 nights of Aires across France.
nb.....Mendigorria was site of a battle in the Carlist wars

nb2.....have seen Hoopoe on 3 occasions

SATURDAY 26TH.MARCH 2011

Before leaving Fuzeta we had a great lunch at a restaurant we had passed several times on the bikes and it was always busy....in the middle of nowhere at a hamlet called Aire de Torres And we were not disappointed. Mainly fresh fish grilled on an open barbecue but also steaming tureens of eel stew and fish stewed with rice. We both had a whole grilled sole which were delicious.
The Portuguese gentleman next to us very nicely kept us informed about all the various dishes we could see around us and even insisted that the GF taste his stewed Cuttlefish eggs..apparently a delicacy..which she pronounced delicious and like scallops. After a litre of wine and a large brandy it was necessary to take a walk before attempting the cycle back.....

So on Sunday 20th we headed inland to EVORA, leaving the Algarve behind,and meeting up with D&M and their outward travelling companions, Brian & Rita on the Orbitur campsite, who provided a most delicious BBQ on Sunday night for all of us, along with a litre bottle of brandy that was nearly empty by 9pm......which was when I went to bed apparently, although I have no recollection. The whole episode prompted the GF to try and teach the rest of us the phrase 'No thank you, I've had enough' but with no obvious sign of success.

On Monday we walked into EVORA, a pleasant & interesting town and hired audio guides for a mere 2€ each to enhance the walk through the old town and met up in the evening for drinks...........

On Tuesday we headed to CACERES and an Aire just 10 mins walk from the centre. Brian & Rita don't like Aires so headed for a campsite out of town and then went off on their own.....
We stayed 2 nights. THe Aire was incredibly busy and the designated area for 10 vans already oversubscribed when we got there but another 12 vans were parked in the area for coaches so we joined them and had drinks.........
First thing in the morning the local police arrived and very politely told us all that we couldn't park in the coach area. As we wanted to go & look round the town and stay the night this was a bit of a blow but as luck would have it we not only managed to whip into 2 slots recently vacated in the Aire proper but also connected to the free electric point courtesy of a frenchman with a vast array of cables and adaptors he was only too pleased to share with us. CACERES has a delightful old town, wonderfully preserved.....the main square is undergoing a major reconstruction which rather spoilt things but we shall come back next year to see the results. When we returned to the parking area, the coach park was again full of motorhomes who then stayed overnight with no more visits from the police so who knows what that was all about. More drinks were then taken......this is worse than having Pates around.....And as we were leaving Paul & Marianne appeared, having spent the night in the coach park and now looking for a slot, so they were lucky. Small world again.

On Thursday a lovely drive through the countryside and up into the hills to a campsite at a village called
HORCAJO de los MONTES in the Cabaneros National Park after stopping at CIUDAD REAL to stock up with wine...
The Campsite is perched on a terraced hillside above the village below with great views and as we were the only visitors (it did get busy on the weekend) we had 2 great pitches on the terraces. The GF & I love the site, it is so quiet ..... the only noises are birds and sheep bells and the sound of corks being drawn from bottles. Margaret had bought a kilo of fresh prawns at the supermarket in Cuidad Real which we had for lunch on friday with enough wine to ensure we all had to go to sleep until dinnertime when the GF produced a wonderful meal for all of Gaspacho followed by boeuf bourguignon followed by fresh strawberries & icecream and accompanied by lots more red wine and finished off with tawny port..........

My liver was again waving a white flag. D&M have itchy feet and want to keep moving....we have 2 weeks to go and don't want to get too far north too quickly so are staying here another night before moving up to TOLEDO which is not very far away, over the hills. So they left this morning for RIAZZA in the mountains above Madrid
before heading through France at a leisurely pace. We shall stay in Spain and whizz through France stopping only at Saintes & La Suze sur Sarthe where we may catch up with them again....hope so as the last week has been a great time with a lot of laughs and we are 5€ better off after the daily card games which nowhere near covers the cost of the red wine, even at 1€64 a bottle!!!!!!!!..................only joking if you are reading
this.

SATURDAY 26TH.MARCH 2011

Before leaving Fuzeta we had a great lunch at a restaurant we had passed several times on the bikes and it was always busy....in the middle of nowhere at a hamlet called Aire de Torres And we were not disappointed. Mainly fresh fish grilled on an open barbecue but also steaming tureens of eel stew and fish stewed with rice. We both had a whole grilled sole which were delicious.
The Portuguese gentleman next to us very nicely kept us informed about all the various dishes we could see around us and even insisted that the GF taste his stewed Cuttlefish eggs..apparently a delicacy..which she pronounced delicious and like scallops. After a litre of wine and a large brandy it was necessary to take a walk before attempting the cycle back.....

So on Sunday 20th we headed inland to EVORA, leaving the Algarve behind,and meeting up with D&M and their outward travelling companions, Brian & Rita on the Orbitur campsite, who provided a most delicious BBQ on Sunday night for all of us, along with a litre bottle of brandy that was nearly empty by 9pm......which was when I went to bed apparently, although I have no recollection. The whole episode prompted the GF to try and teach the rest of us the phrase 'No thank you, I've had enough' but with no obvious sign of success.

On Monday we walked into EVORA, a pleasant & interesting town and hired audio guides for a mere 2€ each to enhance the walk through the old town and met up in the evening for drinks...........

On Tuesday we headed to CACERES and an Aire just 10 mins walk from the centre. Brian & Rita don't like Aires so headed for a campsite out of town and then went off on their own.....
We stayed 2 nights. THe Aire was incredibly busy and the designated area for 10 vans already oversubscribed when we got there but another 12 vans were parked in the area for coaches so we joined them and had drinks.........
First thing in the morning the local police arrived and very politely told us all that we couldn't park in the coach area. As we wanted to go & look round the town and stay the night this was a bit of a blow but as luck would have it we not only managed to whip into 2 slots recently vacated in the Aire proper but also connected to the free electric point courtesy of a frenchman with a vast array of cables and adaptors he was only too pleased to share with us. CACERES has a delightful old town, wonderfully preserved.....the main square is undergoing a major reconstruction which rather spoilt things but we shall come back next year to see the results. When we returned to the parking area, the coach park was again full of motorhomes who then stayed overnight with no more visits from the police so who knows what that was all about. More drinks were then taken......this is worse than having Pates around.....And as we were leaving Paul & Marianne appeared, having spent the night in the coach park and now looking for a slot, so they were lucky. Small world again.

On Thursday a lovely drive through the countryside and up into the hills to a campsite at a village called
HORCAJO de los MONTES in the Cabaneros National Park after stopping at CIUDAD REAL to stock up with wine...
The Campsite is perched on a terraced hillside above the village below with great views and as we were the only visitors (it did get busy on the weekend) we had 2 great pitches on the terraces. The GF & I love the site, it is so quiet ..... the only noises are birds and sheep bells and the sound of corks being drawn from bottles. Margaret had bought a kilo of fresh prawns at the supermarket in Cuidad Real which we had for lunch on friday with enough wine to ensure we all had to go to sleep until dinnertime when the GF produced a wonderful meal for all of Gaspacho followed by boeuf bourguignon followed by fresh strawberries & icecream and accompanied by lots more red wine and finished off with tawny port..........

My liver was again waving a white flag. D&M have itchy feet and want to keep moving....we have 2 weeks to go and don't want to get too far north too quickly so are staying here another night before moving up to TOLEDO which is not very far away, over the hills. So they left this morning for RIAZZA in the mountains above Madrid
before heading through France at a leisurely pace. We shall stay in Spain and whizz through France stopping only at Saintes & La Suze sur Sarthe where we may catch up with them again....hope so as the last week has been a great time with a lot of laughs and we are 5€ better off after the daily card games which nowhere near covers the cost of the red wine, even at 1€64 a bottle!!!!!!!!..................only joking if you are reading
this.

SMALL WORLDS

Thursday 17th.March 2011

So the weekend's bad weather continued into Monday with the forecast not improving until later in week. D&M decided to move on to OLHAO on Tuesday morning which actually dawned bright,sunny & warm - thus reinforcing the impression that this spell of rain is all their fault and that they didn't leave their little God of rain back in the Uk as they are supposed to. Although Olhao is only 8 miles or so down the road they were hoping to find some friends they met on the Greek trip who often winter at the campsite. The plan was to stay 1 or 2 nights depending on whether they found them, then head on to Lagos and Sagres to see the Algarve and eventually meeting up with us again at EVORA where we will be going on sunday at the start of a 3 week long slow journey home via CACERES,TOLEDO & SEGOVIA.
Paul & Marianne sent a text suggesting a lunch on wednesday in Olhao with them which sounded good.
Tuesday afternoon we cycled out on to the marshes and finally tracked down the beaches at PEDRAS DEL REI which we have searched for before in vain........everybody knows them but nobody could actually tell us how to find them....Down a tiny lane we found the narrow pontoon bridge that crossed the inlets to the outer Isle of Tavira where a tiny train ferried us to the old tuna fishing community a mile away on the beach. The train is a relic of the tuna fishing industry, now converted to taking paying passengers out to the village for 1€20 where the old stone cottages have been turned into a cafe, restaurant,gift shop and picture gallery museum.. The beach is immense and the views must stretch well down the Algarve and back to Spain. There is also the curiosity of the Graveyard of Anchors where hundreds of anchors, once used to weigh down the tuna nets, are half buried on the sand dunes. The pictures show graphically how the fishing boats were circled, the nets raised and men jumped down into them to gaff the enormous tuna that had been hauled to the surface. It all seemed a bit barbaric but very hard and dangerous. The community finally gave up the struggle to survive in 1966. A fascinating glimpse of a former way of life.

So wednesday dawned sunny & bright so we set off for Olhao to meet Paul & Marianne....and this is the small world bit...
They had asked another couple to join us, Frank & Glenys. Frank & Glenys said they had just met some up with some friends, could they bring them along as well ? Frank & Glenys told the friends that they would be joining Paul & Marianne, whereupon the friends said that they had heard that name mentioned recently.... and yes of course they turned out to be D&M..........they had intended to surprise us by turning up at the restaurant after the rest of us got there, but since their van was parked near the entrance to the campsite and we had to pass it, we stopped and called in, not having really expected to see them until sunday. As I explained that P&M had booked a table for lunch that did not include them they responded by saying oh yes they had been included....how we all laughed when all was revealed.!!!!!!! Gosh we know how to have fun out here........
So lunch was a table of 8 at Sergio's, (which we had missed trying last year as it was closed the day we went) where after a magnificent repast with much wine the bill came to 68€ !!!!!
Lunch lasted until 4 pm, then back to the site for a few beers before the GF decided I was in grave danger of being drunk in possession of a bicycle and we ought to make for home. Nicely, the earlier breeze had abated and we a very pleasant cycle back...only 30 mins by electric bike and the wonderful sight of a large flock of flamingoes.
Next few days look set fair so we shall remain at Fuzeta and leave on sunday for Evora

Monday 7th March 2011

Pottered up the road and found a nice site at SAGRES, close to the town and overlooking the beach with lovely views. 6 vans parked there with another 20 or so parked up above on the cliffs and more exposed to the rather worsening weather to come. Walked over the fort on the headland in the afternoon and spent and enjoyable hour or two walking on the cliffs and reading about the exploits of Henry the Navigator who taught the Portuguese how to sail into the wind and navigate when out of sight of land without falling off the end of the world as this place was widely held to be. Tremendous thunderstorms overnight but Sunday was bright so we drove along to the beach at CARAPATEIRA with intention of staying there overnight. Terrific views from the carpark but as there were only a few surfing dudes in beat-up campervans and the inevitable germans in a WW2 panzerwaggen ( at least the swastikas were painted out) who looked like staying we headed back to Sagres and parked by the fort this time along with 34 other motorhomes.

Weather forecast very iffy for next week and we heard from Derek & Margaret who were heading for CONIL and intending to then make for Portugal, so we decided to head back along the Algarve and settle down in a campsite and wait for them. As we had liked FUZETA it seemed the right place to go.
Site still busy, mainly french and ok if not exactly topnotch but the location is great as you can walk out of the door onto the sands. LIke Tavira, the village and fishing port nestle behind islands of sandbanks and and you can get water taxis to take you over to them...which we will try to do if the weather improves. We had some horrendous rain storms (and the site manager insisted we change pitch at one stage as we were surrounded by water) but some lovely sunny days as well when we managed to cycle out along the saltpans and saw flocks of Avocets, Spoonbills, Flamingoes, Godwits and goodness knows what else.......there is an amazing variety of birdlife all around here and we have a Crested Lark thathops around the pitch and something as yet unidentified which may be a Firecrest or Goldcrest.
Took the van into OLHAO to stock up at the Intermarche and ran into Paul & Marianne who at still at the site there. Arranged to meet for lunch in Olhao one day but weather has not let that happen yet.

Saturday 12th. March

Derek & Margaret suddenly arrived having decided to leave Conil when the sun was shining. We had expected them on sunday and had bought food at the local market in preparation so we had a very jolly evening chez nous catching up on the news and drinking so much wine that certain people were very inebriated. And the same thing happened on Sunday night in their van.
Unfortunately the weather is very rainy.

And of course we have been and still are concerned at the earthquake in Japan. We had news from Julian at first that Justin had sent an email saying all ok...we have no wifi here....and then I turned the phone's data roaming on to connect to the internet and pick up Justin's facebook page.
By Saturday we managed to speak to him by, phone after they had got home after spending Friday night sleeping at the school, and heard the story of their adventures which whilst worrying are nothing like the horrors from the tsunami victims up north. Tokyo will now have rolling power blackouts and we wait anxiously for news about the failures at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Worrying times and we watch Sky news constantly. Spoke to Justin a second time and they are ok so far.

THE B-TEAM DOES THE ALGARVE

Saturday 5th March

The Pates duly arrived looking pale and pasty from the long English winter and revelling in the sunny climes of Portugal. We entered them to dinner and after the requisit beers and wines I introduced them to the delights of Tawny port which must have been a success as I soon had none left.
Saturday morning was spent locating a bar showing the 6 Nations Rugby as I could not guarantee getting a satellite picture on Stream ..we were pitched near some trees and as the breeze swayed the top branches the picture could break up...despite dire predictions that our dish was too small for this part of the Algarve I solved the problem on Sunday by moving lower down in front of the trees and had a perfect picture for the rest of the week. Anyway I digress. We found a bar, then had a snack lunch at another before returning to watch Wales-Scotland and England-France which was a cracker. Unfortunately we had chosen an horrendous ex-pat bar run by Denise (50 - looked 60-drinking vodka by the 1/2 pint) with about the saddest collection of alcoholics you could meet outside of an AA meeting. But we had fun. Dinner at the Valverde Restaurant opp. the campsite was very good indeed - the Gf & I shared a Cataplana, the local variant of a Bouillabasse. Sunday saw us watch the Italy-Ireland game chez nous as the reception was now ok and D&B entertained us to dinner in their roundhouse chalet with garden furniture...apart from not being able to light the oven so we had to cook the chicken in our oven (Dave announced that their oven was unconnected to anything, thus demonstrating his grasp of gas installations as the manager showed him how to light it the next day....and the Gf showed him again later in the week when he failed to hold the gas nob in until the burners had ignited fully). The evening was further enlivened by Dave's patio plastic chair disintergrating under him, smashing one of OUR wine glasses and covering me with red wine. ( not funny really as he banged his head on the glass door panel and if it had broken.......).
The rest of the week maintained a highly enjoyable level of alcohol, sun, sightseeing and eating. WE showed them Lagos, MOnchique, Cape St.Vincent, the beaches of Saleema, Figueras, Luz, Port du Mos and Carapaterra and the grottoes of Lagos and enjoyed convivial evenings.....and even won the Quiz night at the Dukes where we had been recommended to sample the wednesday evening €8.50 buffet .. how the bill got to €110 was still a mystery on Thursday. We even had time for an afternoon barbecue of fish bought from the Lagos fish market......7 sardines the size of mackerel cost €0.66 and a lot of other unidentified fish only cost a few €s.
The fine weather finally broke on Friday night and instead of going into Luz for a classy meal at Mrs. Miggins we opted to just cross the road again to save messing around with taxis in the rain.
So my liver needs time to recuperate so we are going up the coast for a couple of days of wild camping........