30th June 2017

Jun 302017
 

A quiet day at the campsite today just chilling and doing a small amount of maintenance to the caravan.

I installed drip strip to the awning rail to help prevent black streaks on the caravan from dirty rain. Not sure whether it will work or not. It was good to have Mike’s help to get it installed, it was a 2 person job apart from one tricky bit where we needed Ingrid’s help too. Her hair dryer came in useful to make it more flexible as the temperature was only 8c! I also moved the awning a little further forward so that the ‘wind blocker’ will clear the door when the door is open.

We also started getting everything ready for an early departure tomorrow as Bronchales is likely to be very busy with a large sporting event taking place this weekend.

 

Not quite this cold today but it felt like it first thing.

29th June 2017

Jun 292017
 

The temperature dropped overnight to around 6C and so we needed the heating on this morning. Murphy’s law came into play, even though there was quite a bit of gas in the bottle the heating would not fire so a good job we have  2 bottles onboard.

After breakfast we decided to take a trip to Albarracin, we had last visited about 7 years ago. On the road from the campsite into Bronchales we stopped to take a couple of photos.

We followed the sat nav and took a camino rural to Albarracin, a little rough in places but still perfectly OK and only took 30 minutes to get there. Luckily there was a Cepsa petrol station in Albarracin and so I got a replacement gas bottle. We had a walk around the village with the cobbled and sandstone streets taking photos. We then returned to the road down the mountain and walked towards the tunnel to a restaurant we had been to in the past and had an excellent lunch.

We took the same route back to Bronchales and part way along the route Mike spotted some deer grazing in a field, we stopped so we could see them but unfortunately too far away to get a good photograph. Back to the campsite for a well deserved cup of tea and coffee.

28th June 2017

Jun 292017
 

The start of our summer holiday 2017 saw us leaving home at 9.15 and collecting the caravan from El Vergel and meeting Mike and Sue with their motorhome at the Ondara shopping centre. We left there at about 10am and joined the AP7 north. We stopped for coffee at the service station on the approach to Valencia.

parked

Stopped for coffee

After a break we set off again on the AP7 which was busy with cars and lorries but moving freely. We continued north and then turned off onto the A23 and so the climb up into the centre of Spain began. We were heading for the highest campsite in Spain at 1750 meters above sea level in Bronchales, Aragon. Part way along the A23 we had to stop after passing one of the viaducts as the jockey wheel on the caravan dropped down (note to self don’t let the security guard at the caravan storage put the jockey wheel up). Luckily no damage done. We stopped for lunch at a service area near Teruel.

After lunch we continued along the A23 until the turn off with the A1511. With all the climbing and wind on the trip we had used a lot of fuel and so pulled into the petrol station and put in 46 litres so the economy for 300 km’s wasn’t good. After the fuel stop we continued towards Bronchales through one sleepy village and onto an undulating road that continued to climb. We could see Bronchales in the distance nestled below two tree covered hills. We entered Bronchales and twisted through some narrow roads and followed the signs rather than the sat nav to Camping Las Corralizas. We left the town and went onto a narrow road through the forest for about 3km’s until we arrived at the campsite. Luckily we only passed one motorhome coming the other way and it was on a wider stretch of the road.

The campsite is set between trees with some no marked pitches just areas to park in. We were surprised to find that the temperature had dropped from the 31C at home to only 17C at the campsite so shorts and T shirts were the wrong clothes. We parked up amongst the trees and had a good meal at the campsite restaurant.