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Tuesday 9th January 2024

After saying our farewells to Alison and Peter we left Capbreton and drove north towards Bordeaux most of it in motorway conditions and several sections were peage, thankfully we eventually turned off and took the Bergerac road which led to tonights stopover.

This village is just outside Sainte Foy La Grande and I have over the past 30 odd years driven through the village numerous times but had never noticed this aire.

This image was taken mid afternoon, later on three more motorhomes arrived the one next to us is British.

Homer was full of sand and things weren’t in their correct places as we have moved so much in the past 6 days so Michelle enjoyed an hour or so doing housework. Layla wasn’t well last night we think she had swallowed loads of sea water but thankfully as we arrived at this stopover she perked up. After a coffee we went for a walk around the village it didn’t take long there is very little here.

Both Peter and Alison and ourselves have commented that as soon as we crossed the border into France we immediately felt at home, everything is so familiar, we can understand what is written and have a reasonable attempt to hold a conversation.

In the information above it does have an English explanation about the bell but unfortunately I can’t enlarge it. From memory it went along the lines that approx 100 years ago it was decreed it shouldn’t be rung unless it was remounted on a church and then only rung for one time.

I had sent Alison a WhatsApp message to say we had arrived and she responded with a message to say they had found an aire and had been to a boulangerie for bread and cakes, well when we discovered the above I couldn’t resist going in and buying us a treat to have after our evening meal.

Very nice they were too.

Sunday 7th and Monday 8th January 2024.

It was quite a long drive on Sunday through some amazing scenery.

We stopped in the town of Java for lunch but didn’t explore, for Michelle and I felt we needed to cover a large distance as quickly as possible as we retreated from the snow in the Pyrenees.

After lunch we drove on an eventually reached an enormous lake, as we drove alongside it we realised we had been there before about 5 years ago in August whilst Layla was still much of a puppy and she enjoyed a swim in it.

We eventually reached our Sunday night stopover in a town called Sarriguren near Pamplona, it was a very modern town and looking it up on Google I found out that it is a pioneer design committed to bio climatic architecture and urban design. It’s designed to create open shared areas, pedestrianised walkways with nature all around the new dwellings. They aim to reduce the levels of energy consumption by influencing energy demand and the use of renewable energy sources. It couldn’t have been any more different from last nights medieval town which was in existence when Catherine of Aragon grew up in the area.

Today we drove from Spain into France, the road again took us through some high areas and there was evidence of snow to the sides of the roads etc.

Sometimes you entered a tunnel and when you emerged some time later the climate appeared to have changed.

Tonight’s parking aire couldn’t be any more different, we are about 3 metres from a sand dune and 100m from a gorgeous sandy beach, it is however the Atlantic and not the Mediterranean sea. After arrival we walked into Capbreton which is a sea side resort, as is quite common in these resorts the majority of shops were closed for the winter and not opening until March.

One shop sadly not open had some wonderful chocolates in the window.

Of course I was terribly disappointed that the shops weren’t open and Michelle couldn’t spend time browsing. Instead we headed back to Homer and went to explore the beach which is extremely popular with surfers.

Layla had a wonderful time on the beach she ran round almost non stop for an hour carrying a large pebble, burying it, digging it back up and then running on again.

My camera isn’t quite good enough for some shots but there were quite a few surfers in the sea.

Of course there’s always time for a pose.

We walked quite some distance along the beach and then turned back and went in the other direction , we came to what appeared to be a large rock but I think it may have been a second world war defence building.

There was quite a lot of large drift wood on the beach and the surfers had been quite inventive in building with it. I would imagine this beach must be crowded in the summer, but for us today it made a pleasant change to walk on it after being in the mountains over the past five days.

Sat 6th/Sunday 7th January 2024.

Friday night the rain stopped at approx 8 pm and today was as wonderfully sunny as normal, everything felt proper. As usual there were lots of points of interest.

We had a good drive here to Ainsa which is located where rivers Ara and Cinca come together the old town seems frozen in the middle ages.

We paid to go into a wildlife centre dedicated to reintroducing the bearded eagle back to the wild, we walked round the displays and then watched a 15 minute video of the wild life on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees.

Outside they had a pair of eagles that had been rescued from the wild and couldn’t be re introduced to the wild, the female had laid an egg and the parents were taking it in turn to sit on it.

After our evening meal we walked back into town to see it in its evening glory, it was very cold but people were still sitting outside the bars.

Over the past week I have been monitoring the road we intended to take over the Pyrenees and everything seemed fine, however over the past two days it has snowed heavily on the French side of the mountains, vans are driving in here with lots of snow on their roofs. Peter accessed a live video feed at the end of the tunnel we had to go through and it showed the road covered in snow and it is forecast to snow heavily in the coming days.

So rather than risk that route that had steep downhill sections with many bends we have decided to head west along the foothills of the Pyrenees and head back to Pamplona. From there we can skirt the mountains and head back into France.

Friday 5th January 2024.

Last nights aire was at 1,000m above sea level, the night stayed relatively mild but we did have a few drops of rain, today we had a few light showers as we drove along, but now this evening where we are only 80 m above sea level it is raining heavily. Now, we aren’t used to this, we haven’t seen any rain for over 3 weeks, will we cope😂 we are aware that most of the rest of Europe has experienced lots of rain.

We drove this morning firstly to a town called Alcaniz where we topped up with LPG and shopped at Lidl, the sat nav directed us on our onwards journey but sadly it didn’t know the road we needed to take was closed, every redirection it suggested took us back to the closed road so I drove off into the distance until it decided it had a new route for us. Alcaniz was very busy, we would have liked to have stopped as it looked quite interesting, Michelle took a few shots as we zig zagged around the town.

Again today the roads we drove on were often virtually empty, the scenery was rugged as we drove over numerous ranges of hills, there is very little mixed farming we have only seen the odd flock of sheep and a few cows, the agriculture is based on fruit growing.

We looked for ages for somewhere to pull over to have lunch, there were numerous places where the views were fantastic but nowhere to stop. Eventually I saw a space at the side of the road overlooking the Rio Ebro a huge river flowing beneath us.

Whilst Michelle was putting away our shopping and getting out the lunch I took Layla for a walk up the hill behind Homer, I couldn’t get too high as there was a railway line traversing the hill. As I walked back I was amused to see that Alison and Peter had pulled up behind us.

We drove on towards our destination and a view of the river and a bridge we had to cross opened up in front of us.

A few miles further on we pulled onto the aire where we staying the night, it is provided free by the town with a small fee of 1 euro to fill with water and 2 euros if you want electricity.

The town isn’t at all touristy it is a normal every day country town. I was amused to find on the narrow street we walked in on, a tractor parked outside someone’s house and a few feet away a garage for servicing tractors.

In the town square near the church someone was setting up a sound system as tonight is a festival night and tomorrow a national holiday, I hope the heavy rain and now strong wind doesn’t spoil it for everyone.

I’ve added the photo below of a sign in the town explains the importance of the rivers here.

Thursday 4th January 2024.

Today has been a day with a range of changes. We started off by driving to Onda, the route was a bit of a maze and following the route wasn’t easy. The route wasn’t scenic as both side of the road was lined with factories many of them producing ceramics. Finding parking also wasn’t easy but we eventually found a spot on a piece of waste ground not far from the castle which was our aim for the visit.

As we walked to the castle there was plenty of evidence of the local industry.

Onda Castle known as the Castle of 300 Towers is of Muslim origin and built in the 10th and 11th centuries and in the 12th/13th century was the most important enclave in the north of Islamic Valencia. At the beginning of the 14th century under Christian rule it was still a very impressive fortress and it was then it became known as the “ Castle of 300 Towers”.

As usual Layla wasn’t allowed in so Michelle and I took it in turns to visit the interior grounds, sadly no buildings were open. We noticed some strange brightly covered birds flying around and whilst in the castle I came across a man feeding a flock of pigeons that looked as though he dyed their feathers.

I wanted to travel to our next stop of Morella by taking small roads through the mountains, it wasn’t easy at first but Michelle guided us superbly. The road took us from countryside with oranges growing everywhere to areas where there were hectare upon hectare of olive groves. The road at times twisted and turned up and down steep inclines but Homer never struggled and I found it enjoyable driving, eventually we popped out onto a main road not too far from Morella.

Morella is an ancient walled city located on a hill top in the province of Castellon in the Valencia district. As you approach the town it is visible from a long way away as it sits atop a hill with massive walls and imposing towers.

The town was well supplied with shops for the tourists and I could imagine it being very busy in the summer.

You could walk up a steep path towards the castle but we wended our way through the streets of the town gradually gaining height, we passed some impressive buildings and wonderful views.

When we reached the entrance to the castle it was still a haul to get to the top and we took the decision not try. and we walked slowly back to Homer and then drove about a mile to where we are stopping tonight.

Wednesday 3rd January 2024

This morning we left our resting place of the last 14 days and are beginning our slow journey north, after a small hiccup with the satnav that meant we followed the “scenic route” for a while, we drove non stop 108 miles to our stopover for tonight.

Where we are parked is a few metres from the golden sands of the beach which go on for miles.

After lunch Michelle took Layla for a long walk in one direction along the sea front and after she returned we both walked in the opposite direction.

The walk took us along to a small beach and rocky area where miraculously Layla was allowed on the beach where she enjoyed herself in the water.

The temperature was hovering around 20 degrees C and we got quite warm walking along and had to take on emergency liquid rations.

On the way back we saw this bird fishing.

We had intended to go for an evening walk but after a rather large meal and a couple of reds we decided to chill out instead.

Sunday 31st December 2023

We drove here this morning, this is one of the spellings of the town’s name it has two others.

We drove to this town to visit Bodegas Xalo a wine merchants, it had a large range of wines plus some other food delicacies as Michelle found when she selected a jar of blue cheese and truffle cream. Alison and Peter bought red wine as we did, sadly you couldn’t taste the wine before hand so it was a bit of pot luck, so far we haven’t been disappointed.

After we had left the Bodega we walked into town, it was very quiet and most shops were shut, there was an interesting church off the town square.

Beginning to feel hungry, Peter drove us to Javea where we had been a few days before and we went straight to the same restaurant we ate at last time. It is 22.50 euro for the fixed menu of three courses, with a bottle of wine between two, there are about 8 choices for each course so we selected different food to last time. When we had finished and were in the process of paying I asked for a cork for the half bottle of wine left, the waitress took it away and emerged a few minutes later with a fresh bottle for us to take away, that’s never happened to me in the UK.

After the meal we walked along the sea front to the harbour which appeared to still be an active fishing port, the sun was beginning to go lower in the sky and gave a good effect.

High up above the town on the sky line you can see a series of old windmills, Los Molinos de la Plana de Javea. In total there are 11 windmills shaped like large cylinders approx 7 metres high and 6 metres in diameter, some are now privately owned and converted to holiday homes others are open and you can walk into them. Peter had done some pre research and fancied looking at them, so we plotted a route up out of the town and eventually after bumping along a rough track we managed to park approx 100m away from them.

The view from the windmills looking back down at Javea was quite stunning.

Eventually we wound our way back to Calp and later that evening we joined Alison and Peter for a few drinks and then at 11.40 p we walked down to the sea front to see in the New Year on a beach, a new experience for all of us.

Sadly we had to leave the beach quite quickly as most of the fireworks were getting louder and louder and Layla was getting distressed, it didn’t spoil a magical celebration of the New Year.

Saturday 30th December 2023

After spending time again at the local market we all decided to spend the afternoon taking a trip to Castell de Guadalest.

We stopped en route just short of our destination at what turned out to be a motorbike museum.

We didn’t feel inclined to pay the entrance fee but it was a good stopover to take a few photos.

Next door to the museum was a shop selling local artefacts and foodstuffs, wine, nuts,oranges, lemons. honey being just a few of the items. They had for sale pottery and also cotton rugs, Michelle took a liking to two to replace the ones in Homer that recently had a bath in pineapple juice😵‍💫 they had a lot of wine for sale and I found a bottle of port from Oporto which was also purchased. We drove on from there stopping on occasion for photo opportunities.

The road twisted and turned its way gradually climbing higher and higher and the outline of The Castell became more apparent as we got closer.

There were problems with the car park payment barriers but a council attendant ran back and forth to the car park entrances to collect the 2 euro fee. Below our car park was another large one where motorhomes could stay overnight for 6 euros.

The route to the upper level was via the village streets, I didn’t make it to the top but Alison and Peter did.

Below the castle in the valley is a huge reservoir which currently has very little water in it, we have been told it hasn’t rained for months in this region. The reservoir supplies the tourist towns on the coast with its drinking water.

You had to pay a small fee and climb more steep steps to get to the very top, sadly my legs aren’t up to it so we wandered around the lower level instead.

Michelle and I walked slowly back down hill and explored the shops meeting up with Alison and Peter in the car park, we drove back in the twilight with it being dark when we returned home, it was interesting to see the lights of houses appearing on the hills.

Friday 29th December 2023

Just over a week ago as we drove to the campsite we passed through Gate de Gorgos and commented it looked like a place to visit.

This small town was like many in the area Muslim by origin and dates back to around 1030. In the 16-18th century it was an important raisin producing area, its fortunes have risen and fallen since that time and it is now known for having one of the highest number of bars per capita in the region. However what caught our eye was a number of shops selling wicker work items something the town is now well known for.

From Gata de Gatos we drove on to Denia where we found free parking on the Marina (courtesy I think of it being out of season)

Denia is a port city on the Mediterranean coast, it is dominated by the ruins of the castle high up on the hill top above the marina. It is known for its mild climate averaging 3,000 hours of sunshine per year with an average daily temperature of 20 degrees. The ferry to Ibiza and other Balearic Islands depart daily from it’s port.

Thursday 28th December 2023

A town to divide one and all, I think it’s a place you either love or hate with very few leaning towards it being a place to tolerate.

We drove in at approx midday and found an underground car park with lots of available spaces, the exit from the car park lead us more or less into one of the main shopping street and it was very busy.

As shopping wasn’t on our to do list we cut off down a side street and headed to the sea front, after a quick conversation we decided to split up and get back together 90 minutes later. Peter and Alison headed for the old quarter whilst we walked along the length of the sea front.

As we walked along the sea front you become aware the the place is devoid of anything Spanish.

It appears that a strange paralysis hits many of the people in Benidorm and literally tens of double seated disability scooters are zooming everywhere.

It’s an interesting obversation that it is always the man driving, some of these scooters were bedecked with Christmas tinsel and several had a small dog travelling in a basket at the front.

The temperature was around 17 degrees celsius and quite pleasant, it was interesting to see how different people reacted to the weather, some young women wore very little more than a bikini as they walked along, whereas other people were in hats, scarves and thick coats.

At the allotted time we met up with Alison and Peter and it took seconds for an unanimous decision was made to leave Benidorm and head back up the coast to find somewhere for lunch. I think from that you can ascertain which camp we fall into when it comes to Benidorm.

We drove back to Altea where we had a three course lunch for 12.50 euros.