We set the alarm for 6:30 so we had plenty of time to get ready before our 7.30 hotel breakfast. The breakfast had very good reviews so we decided to have it today so we wouldn’t need to eat until much later. We had a big cooked breakfast, yoghurt and fruit and some cakes and coffee so that should set us up well for the day. We then settled our bill and got a taxi to the coach pickup point on the other side of Seville at the main station.
The coach journey south was relatively smooth and it wasn’t really overcrowded. Most people were still wearing masks so it was a relatively comfortable journey. The weather was pretty bad with very grey skies and a lot of rain, so a good day to be travelling. Dave was able to work on Ben’s mushroom farm drawings as we went along after his visit with the builders this week.
Dave messaged Miguel to reconfirm our arrival time and he offered to come and fetch us which was really kind. We sent him our location when we got to the airport coach stop and he popped round and got us and waited with us so that we could be sure that the van was going to restart. All in all, it was an excellent service!
So we headed off on our way for the next part of the adventure in the pine forests north of Minas de Rio Tinto. This should have been a 2 1/2 hour drive but it took us a bit longer as we stopped off at a Mercadona en route (in a place famed for leather cowboy boots called Valverde del Camino) to stock up with provisions and it was so rainy we had to go slowly along the twisty mountain roads.
We sat in the car in the rain and had a chicken and mushroom empanada for lunch – in stark contrast to yesterdays’ lunch in the buzzing heart of Seville!
When we finally made it to the campsite El Madroñal, through a deluge of rain, we found a pitch and tried to put the ramps on to level up the van. Unfortunately one sunk in the mud, flipped on its end and sheared off the plug to the water tank, so we are now reliant on the bathrooms or water bags for the foreseeable.
We saw someone head off with a foraging basket in very good wet weather gear, but were not tempted to join them! Instead, we had a night in the van, unpacked, had a dinner of bread, cheese and chorizo washed down with some red wine, then read, sewed and slept, hopefully with the promise of better weather tomorrow.
Guess what, I lost the blinking comments again.
All I will say is ‘ow r e me ‘handsome’s’. Jx🦋
Love reading your blog and looking at the wonderful photos. What an adventure, we had no idea you were planning this. Xx
I guess there was so much else to talk about at the anniversary celeration. Glad you are liking the blog. So much happens we like to record it else we will forget it.