Heading North ish!

Starting the journey home

We left La Linea on January 1st and took the opportunity to fill up with some seriously cheap diesel (€1.29 a litre that’s £1.12 to you) and set sail so to speak towards Castile-La Mancha in search of windmills.

Well that was the plan, our chosen overnight stop turned out to be in a small village that was still in full new year party mode and the aire was almost inaccessible. All I can say is it’s a good job we are in the Transit and not Trundlebus.

Back out on the main road we consulted our parking apps for somewhere else in the area, only to discover that Baeza was less than 50 minutes away so off we set. The aire is between a bus station a sports hall and next door to a supermarket, services are free.

Tuesday morning arrived, fresh faced and bushy tailed we set off for Consuegra in search of windmills. We arrived and found the aire, if you can call a spot of rough ground nestled well below the castle and molinos an aire. It would have been rather difficult for either of us to visit the attractions as camping cars were not allowed up the hill but busses were. I know go figure.

We stopped in Consuegra for lunch and remembered that a friend had suggested a much better location to visit windmills. So off we set for Campo de Criptana. The recommendation was spot on. A parking area within 100m of 10 windmills, a couple of souvenir shops, a tapas bar and a rather classy restaurant. We mistakenly took the route through town via some rather dodgy back allies again thinking ourselves lucky we weren’t in Trundlebus.

Our stay was only spoilt by local ‘yoof’ who decided to have a full blown argument at 1 in the morning after throwing several beer bottles around the area. Ah well.

Wednesday morning we took the decision to head south again and pointed our trusty camper towards Almeriamar once again. Unfortunately we hit Granada at rush hour. All I can say is it’s not for the feint hearted and how nobody was killed or accidents occurred is beyond my pay grade.

Thursday 4th Jan; after filling our tank once again with some seriously cheap diesel, (£1.10) and our larder with numerous tasty vitals we set off for Saint Javier on the coast and a spot of boondocking behind a shopping mall.

Friday arrived so did we in La Vall d’Uixó at a very pleasant carpark near Saint Joseph’s Caves.

However earlier in the day we called into a pharmacy and with some careful negotiation purchased some antihistamine for our hay fever. Not long after parking up we put the kettle on and took one tablet each. I managed to loose 36 hours. Passed out a couple of times and Dad faired no better. Head felt like it was full of cotton wool and I was half a step behind myself. The second nights sleep was fitful and confusing. Between you me and the gatepost I really shouldn’t have driven on Sunday up to Casa de Fusta, I was finding it hard to concentrate. We have ditched the tablets.

So as you can see it’s been an interesting week with lots of adventures and mishaps, great way to start the new year.

Next week we are hoping to secure a spot back at EmpordArea for a week before crossing back into France.