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Like horses out of the starting gate we were up, packed and launching Oliver onto the road to get the earliest start we could.
Woolly says – I hadn’t even opened my eyes and we were on the move, no breakfast, no nothing.
With a promise of breakfast on route Woolly stared dolefully at the grey clouds as we sped along the N1. With a starting temperature of 3 degrees we needed to get closer to the sun and the 458KM seemed a small price to pay.
Woolly says – We flashed past fields of cows and the lush greenness we have started to associate with Spain, I kept my eyes peeled for somewhere to pull in, kilometre after kilometre went by, do the Spanish never need to eat on their travels? Being Sunday I didn’t expect much to be open but there wasn’t even a closed snack bar in sight. The snowy mountain peaks were fading into the distance and the temperature was steadily increasing, up to 8 degrees and still climbing. The views started to change, less green and more rugged terrain, we started to lose the windy roads and
found ourselves being able to see for miles in front of us and then I spotted La Travenia, deep joy as Ian reined Oliver in and we stumbled inside for the first coffee of the day. A lovely, smiley young lady managed to serve us with lots of mime on both parts and before we knew it we had steaming coffee in front of us and cured pork sandwiches for me and Ian while Jo happily demolished a smoked salmon and cream cheese baguette. Grabbing a loaf of bread we had even more smiles and the bill presented, 6.30 Euro (approximately £5.10 GBP) for all of that, mega value for money.
With tummies full, Oliver roared on down the roads, travelling music for the day was led by the Yeah Yous (wonder if Dancing Dave has come across them?), as the miles passed we saw more and more arid countryside, bracken ruled and trees became Olive groves. With 87 kilometres to go we were shedding sweatshirts and winding down windows as the temperature crept up to 16 degrees.
Woolly says – the scenery was becoming so different and the windier roads were back, I
saw the sign first, 1KM to Portugal. Oliver dropped into a cruise and we sailed over the border into our next country. The last few kilometres passed quickly as we admired our new horizons, with goats and sheep chomping in the fields, grass yellow from lack of rain, a LACK of rain, oh heaven. Picking up the signs for the camp site we rounded the corner to the most beautiful view of Barrage de Idanha, the lake on the outskirts of Idanha a Nova, it reminded me of the lakes we had seen in Britain with its Swallows and Amazons island except the sun was shining and the temperature had reached 18 degrees. We knew that this would be a ‘back to Nature’ camp for the night and pretty basic, Jo went and paid our 10 Euros (approximately £8.70 GBP), 12 for Motorhomes and we were told to find our pitch. This should have proved easy as there were hundreds of small pitches to choose from, we placed ourselves near to the facilities and set about pitching. Close to nature is one thing but the ants were bigger than my a…
That’s enough of that Woolly!!
With Woolly eyeballing the mammoth ants Ian drove Oliver while I walked and checked pitch by pitch until we found one that didn’t appear to be part of the film set for Bugs Life. Finally sorted we checked out our surroundings at Parque de Camismo de Idanha a Nova, it’s a bit of a dump! With some caravans that looked as though they arrived ten years ago and have never been visited since, an over grown pool, a shop with no food in and cold showers to contemplate in the morning we can enjoy the peace and quiet being one of only 4 campers on the whole site.
Woolly says – I won’t sleep a wink tonight, I don’t trust those ants one little bit, roll on morning as we head ever nearer to the coast.
P.S – after tea we went for a long walk round the 8 Hectares sight, then returned and got cameras. The location is outstanding and everything you could need is here but no one seems to have cleaned, mowed, weeded or painted. We found lovely wooden chalets behind temporary netting being left to rot, a pool
that was fit for frogs, bar, restaurant and shop empty and dusty. It made us feel really sad that a campsite like this could be neglected so badly. In an attempt to see if something can be done we are going to contact the AA (site book we found it in) and ACIS for which it holds a recommendation in the hope that someone might bring it back to life and give it the business that it would then truly justify (this would probably mean that in a years time it is really noisy and not the place for us!)
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