19th July 2017

After breakfast we completed packing up and paid our bill at Monte Holiday. The receptionist said that she would sort me out a deal on the price when we changed pitches, and true to her word she had given us a discount. We left at about 10.15am and made our way back to junction 69 on the A1 and headed in the direction of Madrid. We still couldn’t see junction 67 as we headed south although there was a small unmarked turning on the entry slip road from junction 68 so maybe that was it. The campsite was at 1100 meters and according to the sat nav we climbed quickly to 1200 meters and then crept back down to around 800 meters and throughout the rest of the journey today we varied in height between just under 600 meters to about 850 meters. We left with a temperature of 26 degrees with a little cloud.

On the outskirts of Madrid we turned off onto the M50 ring road, if only the M25 in the UK was as quiet. We followed this around Madrid and stopped briefly for coffee and a comfort break. We rejoined the M50 and then turned onto the R3 toll road to cut off a big chunk of M50 and A3 and then onto the A3 in the direction of Valencia. We stopped for lunch about an hour before arrival at our next campsite and had a quick snack before rejoining the A3. We passed field after field of yellow sunflowers, and also several rows of windmills for electricity generation. The whole of the journey today was subject to some gusty winds which were quite noticeable at times.

The A3 was undulating with some long but not too steep climbs in most cases. We dropped down from Castilla La Mancha to Valencia provinces and crossed over the wonderful turquoise lake that we were due to stop next too. The colour of the water was incredible but the water level was at least 15 meters below where it should have been looking at the marks on the rocks. Through a tunnel and then turn off the A3 onto a side road for the campsite passing through Villargordo del Cabriel, the sat nav played its usual trick and took us through the village roads to save 100 meters instead of following the main road, Garmin does really need to sort its caravan routing out. We followed a twisting  rural road down hill towards the lake and then passed alongside the high speed rail line from Valencia to Madrid. We turned into the campsite up a wide road to what turned out to be a quaint old village which was now the campsite. We checked in and were told to choose our pitch and let reception know which one we had chosen.

We chose a large plot which was made of compacted gravel, which all of them were, unlike the lush grass we had had at the previous two campsites. We set up and chilled with a beer in 37 degree heat and working wifi which made a pleasant change. We had an excellent meal in the campsite restaurant in what was the old village church and returned to the caravan for a quick drink before bed and were treated to a lovely sunset.