Blog 1.19: Days 15 and 16

October 6th and 7th

A couple of days on that campsite sure helped us relax, no doubt about that. Feet up, washing done, long hot showers. Lovely.

Yesterday, Thursday, though, turned into a day when we couldn't relax quite so much for fear of the awning blowing away! That was some 'gentle sea breeze' BBC Weather... Coupled with a few showers, it was a day for sitting tight and planning the next day.

There was an empty pitch beside us, initially. A very tight access to it as well, and I remarked that it'd be OK for a T5 or similar, but nothing like our wagon. And then, lo, a T5 turns up. Interesting guy too. He was from Dortmund (many Germans here) and on a buying trip - for Land Rovers. Seems he has a workshop back home that specializes in gentle restoration and resale of them, and he'd got an appointment to view a Series 3. As it happened, he turned it down, but he'd already bought a couple in Barcelona, so not a wasted trip. He also told us he had a Mini Cooper (original, of course) in his workshop, gift-wrapped ready to give to his girlfriend for her birthday, as she so missed the one she used to have. Not poor then? 😉

He also had the most beautiful French Shepherd dog. Head and feet the size of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight but gentle as can be; until you approached the van. I stopped, sharpish.

Lovely morning

Friday came in with a whisper as the wind had died to next-to-nothing, and the sun had his bandolero (of course, what I meant to put was bandana. I don't think there were too many Spanish bandits around at the time. Oops) on.

Breakfasted and packed away, we just had to wait for one of the site staff to turn up and free our hook-up cable from the adjacent power box, which they'd attached us to the previous day. What an odd system to our way of thinking, being used to hooking up and disconnecting at will. I can only assume they'd suffered abuse of it previously.

Eventually all was sorted though, and off we sailed looking for another fill of diesel in Sagunto, and then set the satnav for Requena.

Compare and contrast. Requena 'New Town'

It's a place we'd visited before, for a few hours, and wanted to have a longer look at the old town area before spending the night on the free Aire just 15 minutes walk away.

It was much as we remembered it, and very much worth a visit to its narrow higgledy-piggledy streets, even if the rain caught up with us again. Still, it remained warm even though the run to the town from the coastal plain is relentlessly uphill (and caned the freshly-replenished fuel tank), but we were rewarded with a lovely rainbow on our walk 'home'.

All Requena Old Town

Our next door neighbour here had a tale to tell as well. He's travelling in a Portuguese-registered motorhome, but it turns out he's Brazilian and comes over to tour the Iberian peninsula in his van, that he keeps in Portugal, each winter. And there I was thinking he was Portuguese...

Well, darkness is slowly closing in around us, so here's hoping for a peaceful night.

Tomorrow? Maybe a bimble around the local backroads and a look at some of the towns and villages before locating a suitable park-up. Who knows?

Mileage so far: 1407