We had a lie in, did a bit of planning and realised that we did not want to get to Cuenca on Monday as a lot of things shut on Mondays. A Tuesday arrival in Cuenca meant an extra stop off in a more rural place on the way, as we planned to do walks and self-cater for the next few days. We opted for Génave as it was a good midpoint on our route and seemed to have a good caravan and campervan area.
Our first task for the day was to restock in the local supermarket. We went to Mercadona and got enough food to see us through the next few days if necessary. We then headed to Génave and we were absolutely amazed to find such a gorgeous stop off area in a place which is estimated to have a population of only 565 people! As you can see from the photos, the views were great, there were picnic tables and drinking water available, each plot was clearly delineated and they had even planted lavender and roses on the approach to the parking. All of this was free! It was literally better than some actual campsites we have been to! There were quite a few people already here – cyclists and walkers, who all seemed to be Spanish. We had a nice lunch of ham sandwiches and gazpacho outside on the picnic table and soaked up some sunshine.
There were quite a few walking routes on a board on the entrance to the van area. We opted for a circular route up through the olive groves and headed off after a siesta. This was one of the hottest days since the start of our trip and it soon became apparent that I was going to struggle to get up that hill!! Dave was keen to carry on so I decided to retrace my route while he continued to the top. From the top he had some nice views down over the town.
It had been a fairly hot and sweaty afternoon and we had been plagued by buzzing flies – Dave had even used my beach cover-up to make a fly net while he was reading! – so we went back to the van and had a good wash. Dave shaved his beard off because it was getting a bit long, we changed our clothes and headed out into the town.
It had been so quiet earlier, plus I had failed to get through on the restaurant phone number, that we were not confident that anything was going to be open. On the ‘rules for people in camper vans and caravans’ board by our parking area, it said that you should try to spend money in the local economy – this was our excuse to go out for another meal. 🤣 As we walked through the square, there were various gaggles of people out for their evening walk and we saw a lady clock our presence and run across the square to the restaurant. We were slightly early by Spanish standards, but there were a couple of other tables already full. We chose a table with a prime view of the televised bullfight . By the end of our meal the place (Mesón Herrador – Farrier’s Inn) was buzzing. This was mainly with groups of blokes watching the football! We had a kind of Spanish version of fish and chips – this was small pieces of battered cod and Patatas alioli – tiny pieces of roast potato with copious amounts of garlic mayonnaise. As always, portions were generous, so we had a slow walk back to the van and this time mainly slept on top of the quilt!!
