Spain 24 - Here comes the rain again , ghost town and it's not the M6/M1

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After our western adventure with plywood cut out Clint Eastwoods and faded photos of long dead movie stars we stayed the night at Camping Kiko Park laughing off our strange day. Sometimes things are so bad they are almost good. We will still laugh at it for years to come .



Today we are travelling from Kiko Park over the Via de Mudejar heading for the capital of Aragon Zaragoza. We got up early. The fulltimers still in bed having gone to bed late and were waking up late. Our hopes of seeing another hoopoe were dashed but then there were no orange or lemon sellers nor prostitutes out at that early part of the day. We were travelling before the sun got up and temperature was cool enough to drive.



The journey took us over old ground as we passed by Segunt, Navajos and Teruel but before long we hit a new part of the road. The Mudejar highway (a toll road) goes on forever through desolate countryside. We dont know costs yet as we have a ViaT box from our usual German company Tolltickets clocking our tolls up for us as we travel.







We were back to the open road with not a car on it. Nothing like the M6 or M1 we thought. In fact all the villages looked empty to either sides of the road. It didn’t look an appealing place to have a puncture or a breakdown. In the middle of nowhere with nothing but endless copper coloured fields going far into the distance. We could not see life anywhere and everywhere felt like a ghost town. Had depopulation taken place and everyone had left for the city? . I don’t suppose we will ever find out.



After many miles the landscape scenery changed again from copper coloured fields to wheat fields. . Green as far you could see. It was muted on the eye after such rich vibrant earthy hues. A lonely shepherd herded his flock of very long legged sheep. The first sign of life. Red poppies filled the verges of the roadway. A real jolt of colour after the pure white poppies growing at the side of the roads in Toledo.



Our night stop was to be Camping Municipal Cuidad de Zaragoza. A city run site in the Rosales del Canal area of the city. Around 10 km out it is the nearest campsite to the city and is on a decent bus route. The area around Rosales has been in parts redeveloped. But our first thoughts were that it looked like Hiroshima. It was as if a bomb had been dropped on a massive area flattening everything in its path. Leaving only the outlines and traces of what was there before. Roads appeared to have been partially constructed and ended abruptly . Going nowhere. Large scale drainage work was left incomplete. It was as if money had run out even though this part of Spain is considered prosperous. A couple of high rise flats stood in the middle of this nothingness. At first we thought they were abandoned but around them were cars and washing lines so life was going on in them. They were like islands in the middle of a barren sea. The campsite is set in the middle of another large scale housing development near to a busy main road and the airport. We hadn’t realised the airport was just around the corner until we had settled in and heard the most loudest noise we have ever heard. Overhead an aeroplane was just taking off. To be fair not many went over so we not disturbed by them too much. And you get used to it after a while.





The campsite cost 25 euros 68 cents a night. It is not an ACSI site and rather expensive for the facilities on offer. Reception was friendly and efficient, we were given a plot and a map. The plot was sandy and the site a little scruffy but it had a supermarket – one shelf of goods just behind reception, clean and serviceable toilets, washing machines, a tennis court and a restaurant and a very clean and large swimming pool. . There were some full timers here in scruffy vans and mostly Dutch, German and French motorhomers. Other facilities might be open in high season of July and August .



To our horror it began to rain. According to our information Zaragoza gets an average of 6 days of rain in May. We got one of them.



Accident number 2 happened with Suzy. For some unknown reason I must have spilt coffee and hadn’t noticed it. It ran down the back of the seats, along the top staining the velour and on to the curtains. Why is it that when bread and butter falls on the floor it always falls butter side down? It is the same with the stain. It had three surfaces to stain. The other two wouldn’t have shown so badly. The one it picked is the plain velour and no matter how muchwater I throw on it it just looks worse each time. Perhaps when I get home I can clean it off properly. Until then I shall have to look at it and park it and move on.



We slept reasonably well despite the noises at 2 am when some men came down the site shouting and bawling loudly followed a few minutes later by a group of women. The rain pounded down all night so that’s two days of rain we have had since we arrived . We had planned to visit the city but then because of the rain and the site we decided to move on through the Somport tunnel to France.



Perhaps tomorrow we will find some sun and more importantly a Mr Le Clerc supermarket . The credit card will take a heavy hit as the fridge is restocked and we hit the french restuarants .

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