Tuesday 15 January 2013

As expected, it was a cold night and we awoke to a sharp frost – but the sun was shining out of a clear blue sky and the frost quickly disappeared, as did most of the motorhomes, allowing the area to revert to a car park.

Having looked at the maps again, we decided to keep heading south on the Spanish autovias on the basis that they were efficient, quiet and free, rather than cross over into Portugal and do battle with the unknown new toll roads. After all, the purpose of this holiday is to get some warm sun – we can do the touristy bits another time (and will).

So, we headed for Valladolid then Salamanca, the autovia taking us round the conurbations. But the real bonus was that the sun was now shining and it was warming up. At this point we were crossing the high Spanish plains with great views for miles to distant mountains, some of which got closer with snow on them and which we started to climb, peaking at 4000ft before threading through the passes. The land was also becoming quite agricultural with mile upon mile of prepared and sometimes sown huge fields. Large areas of trees seemed to have been cultivated and we speculated as to the crop – some form of nuts we thought but could have been olives. Livestock also became apparent.

But one of the most interesting sights were the storks nests, built on the non-conductors of the electricity pylons; indeed we saw platforms attached to some of them apparently just for that purpose. Of the birds themselves, however, there was no sign although we thought we spotted an eagle, several kites and an occasional hawk.

We pulled off the autovia onto the adjacent N630 to look for somewhere to stop for lunch, there being no rest areas and the truck pull-ins did not look very inviting. A quiet space just off the road in full sunshine was found to be most acceptable – then it was windows open and woollies off to enjoy at last what we’d come for!

The time had come to plan our next stop, and indeed our next few days as we were arriving in our target area. For tonight an aire at Caceres seemed just about the right distance as there was little else until well into Portugal, so the satnav was programmed and we jumped back onto the autovia. Yet again the directions in the Aires book didn't appear to make sense, until we realised that whoever wrote them had obviously been travelling in the opposite direction to us! Mystery solved but the satnav coordinates were spot-on so no problems.

The book said Caceres aire was popular, and so it was. On arrival we found that all the spaces had been taken up although if everybody had parked properly there would have been room enough. However there was plenty of room on the adjacent coach park so we joined the other half-a-dozen vans there – and several more arrived later. An early arrival meant we could enjoy a couple of hours of warm sunshine before it got dark, which appeared to have suddenly happened much later (around 7.00pm) although the fact that it isn't raining helps…….

But we've been on the road for a week now and are ready for a break, so as the weather seems to have turned we have decided to head for Evora in Portugal, a place recommended by our friend Ed and which has an excellent write-up in the Rough Guide, and stop for 2 or 3 nights.