Thursday 18th April 2019
This morning we packed up the caravan and loaded the car ready to move on and continue with our tour. We decided to move up to Camping Sierra Espuña, a site we had not visited before. The reviews of the site were very good despite dire warnings of quite narrow approach roads.
Our plan for the next couple of weeks is to make our way back to Barcelona docks and take the Grimaldi Lines ferry to Rome. Camping Sierra Espuña would be a good stepping stone in that direction.
Towing Kilometres – Today: 396 Cumulative: 29,951
We started on the near 400km route in reasonable weather but it was clear that angrier weather was approaching from the west. As we climbed up into the hills the skies grew darker and darker. Kim took pictures from the car window and I think it may be the darkest sky I have ever seen.
We appeared to be skirting the edge of the storm for most of the morning and then the road turned to the east and we drove into drier, if not warmer, weather. We stopped for a coffee break and the thermometer was registering a rather unexpected 8°C!
Back on the road, and the journey continued nicely until we approached Alhama de Murcia to begin the rather convoluted climb up to the site at El Berro. Road closures for Easter festivities called for a diversion through rather narrow roads before we got back on track.
We had read that the climb up to Sierra Espuña was twisty, rather narrow, and very bumpy in places and indeed all the above proved to be correct. The 9 kilometres took over 40 minutes because we feared for the contents of the caravan. There is a shorter, more windy route that can be used for motorhomes or smaller vans than ours.
All the reviews we had read suggested that the tricky approach was well worth the effort and indeed this proved to be correct. The owners are very friendly, the facilities are all good, and the surrounding area has fine views with walking and cycling routes. The site even rents out e-bikes.
We were rather fortunate in that we hadn’t reserved a pitch and on arrival only one pitch was left that our van would fit on.
Unfortunately, the weather was so poor for the four nights we stayed that neither of us felt like venturing out to explore the surrounding area.
I had to resort to earplugs on one of the nights, such was the loudness of the rain hammering on the roof, relentlessly, for seven hours solid!