We had a really great night’s sleep at Peña de Hierro. There were two other vans in the end and it was incredibly peaceful. All we could hear when we woke up was beautiful bird song. We had a fairly early start because we had a long journey ahead to get to Ciudad Rodrigo.
This basically meant that we were retracing part of the route that we had taken on the way to Lagos. When we needed a break we just happened to be near Monasterio where we had stopped on the way down. This time however, instead of a hotel bar, we managed to find a nice parking space by a really lovely square and had some jamón serrano toast with olive oil and tomato followed by a visit to a very nice looking local bakery. We bought some rye bread and very delicious looking biscuits which no doubt tasted great because they had been made with lard!!
The scenery as we drove along was absolutely spectacular. We drove through beautiful mountains and there were sheep, cows and goats along the route. Lots of the businesses we passed were for meat related products as a result. The weather had really brightened up so everything looked really beautiful.
We were very pleased to hear that Marco had today made it as far as Almerimar with his two new crew, who joined him yesterday. They had made a lot of progress by doing a night time sail. Here is a picture he sent where he can see snow capped mountains from the sea.
We eventually got to Ciudad Rodrigo at about 3 o’clock. The good news was that there was plenty of space in the campsite. The bad news was that their washing machine was broken and we desperately needed to do the laundry! We got directions to the nearest laundrette, which was a really long way away so we needed to go there in the van. Luckily it was really nice and clean, there was no queue and we’d saved up enough euros in change to do the washing and drying.
Once that was out of the way we went back to the campsite, chose the pitch and reorganised the van. It was a real luxury not only to have a nearby shower block after the last two nights, but also nice washing up facilities, limitless hot water, a campsite bar and electricity. (Dave here) I was also keen to test my cork out in the fresh water tank. I had to borrow an adaptor from another English guy near us and started to fill the tank, but then the hose split, right near the nozzle. After getting liberally sprayed I managed to cut that piece of hose off and then fix it back into the nozzle. I then managed to fill the tank up and we have freshwater back in the van. This may well be a permanent solution as all I need to do is take it out with a corkscrew when I want to refresh the water tank, then stick a new one in. Or maybe get a new water tank.
We went to the campsite bar for a rum and coke and some nice almonds. Dinner in the van was another of Mercadona cans of Spanish goodies, this time a lentil stew with added chorizo and some of the rye bread. This was all washed down with a very classy €3 bottle of wine.
All in all this was quite a chilled day and we’re really looking forward to exploring Ciudad Rodrigo tomorrow.
