Chulilla day.
I had a good night at Navarcles, slept well, despite some arse arriving about 11 in a motorhome and leaving the engine running for about half an hour while they emptied and filled up with fresh water. Didn't even stay!!!
I was up and about at 8 ish, dumped my old water and threw my rubbish away and set course for Chulilla, eta. 1600 and 500 kilometres south, give or take. Avoiding tolls turned out to be a good decision as the N340 ran parallel to the A7 pretty much all the way to Tarragona and most of the journey was on good dual carriageway. I only saw one REPSOL gas station with an Autogaz sign, and by the time I'd spotted it I was too far past the exit to jump on. I figured (wrongly) that there would be more along the way.
Spain isn't blessed with many LPG stations. They haven't really got into LPG for the cars much. Themi was busy locating other options. She found one in Castellon, which I eventually found only for it to refuse my Euro card. But there's bound to be another..... I stopped on the CV35 heading out of Valencia at a convenient McDonalds ( lol ) where Themi and I had a skype and assessed the LPG situation. It wasn't a dire need or anything, but it was the one thing so far that I hadn't tried yet. My bottle was still just under half full, but I wanted to arrive at C without the need to leave again too soon. So we found a couple of stations, back in Valencia. No matter, it was only 25 minuets back the way. ANd it worked like a dream. Found the station ok, really helpful guys one of which spoke good English and it was plain sailing. Away west again, reversing that section, without the coffee stop this time to jump off the CV35 a mere 5k for Chulilla.
I started to see the cliffs and the little hilltop houses peeking between the trees and my excitement grew. I pulled into the car park and went straight down the road into town to explore my new surroundings, and I found a nice friendly cafe, with wifi, and in situ Slovenian climbers. They're always nice, Slovinian guys, and we chatted away and arranged to meet for a climb tomorrow.
Job done :)
I came back later for a vino tinto and some supper with them, and to do the interweb stuff. I remembered to text Mom, and I wrote to the kids after chatting with Themi for a while.
I sensed her mood change. Now the initial journey is over her fears have changed. Now its climbing to worry about, and all the safety concerns that go with being apart while I'm climbing. And I guess there are other worries too.
It's been an experience just getting here. I guess really, it all began on the 25th of January when I landed back in Edinburgh, Since then I've been in the van. Up to Aberdeenshire to see Mom and the kids, plus getting an MOT and timing belt on the van. Then back to Fearghas's for a night followed by a snowy departure for Keswick and Needle Sports on the 29th. A night at Autogas 2000 in Thirsk, then the Dog and Partridge before hitting the south coast and a night at Newhaven. Over to France, Nonancourt, Loches, Uzerche, Toulouse, Port Vedres and Navarcles. Now Chulilla.
I've grown to like home, fixed a few things en-route, adjusted this, tweaked that, cooked a little and enjoyed the comfy warmth of my memory foam mattress, heated by the hot water tank below. The shower is awesome, when needed and apart from the sat nav everything has worked ok (touches wood again). Now its time for the fresh challenge of maintaining the batteries health, using the solar and conserving the water and gas as much as possible before trips to Valencia are required. I also want to get a Spanish sim for the phone.
I noticed along the way some differences between the countries. France was very good for the van. They do like a motorhome, so do the Germans apparently and both cater for them pretty well. France, even when its shabby, looks kind of ok in a rustic, charming sort of way...... Spain, just looks tired and beat in its small villages and towns along the main roads. In France avoiding tolls took me through a lot of small one street towns that still managed to look ok for the most part. There were exceptions. Spain's second string roads are pretty much motorways and bypass the towns so all you get to see is industrial areas or the outskirts of towns. There's also a great deal of new roads here, the sat nav is a 2014 model (when its working) and is missing some of the new sections already. Then of course I get to Chulilla and its picture postcard beautiful, really gorgeous. I would say Validrau was also a lovely place. Both need an effort to get to. You don't see these lovely villages by bombing along on the motorway, whereas in France, if you avoid the tolls you are forced to see some nice towns. Not sure what's best, but that was part of the reason for my journey, to see new places, to make an effort, and to go somewhere new. Its been scary exciting at times. Super frustrating when the technology breaks, but otherwise a real trip.
Now I can relax, get fit, and enjoy some wonderful looking rock. The atmosphere here does remind me of Kalymnos a little. No beach, obviously, but in as far as we are all here for the climbing, and the town is probably financially better off for it. I think its easily close enough to Valencia for people to commute so tourism isn't the life blood here that it is to Kalymnos, but in this day and age every little helps. I suspect I'll find out more over the days to come.
Viladrau... A lovely camperstop and hill top village.
Chulilla. Drop dead gorgeous.
New pals from Slovenia
Van central!!! There's sparky, with Ozzy Nic to the right.
I had a good night at Navarcles, slept well, despite some arse arriving about 11 in a motorhome and leaving the engine running for about half an hour while they emptied and filled up with fresh water. Didn't even stay!!!
I was up and about at 8 ish, dumped my old water and threw my rubbish away and set course for Chulilla, eta. 1600 and 500 kilometres south, give or take. Avoiding tolls turned out to be a good decision as the N340 ran parallel to the A7 pretty much all the way to Tarragona and most of the journey was on good dual carriageway. I only saw one REPSOL gas station with an Autogaz sign, and by the time I'd spotted it I was too far past the exit to jump on. I figured (wrongly) that there would be more along the way.
Spain isn't blessed with many LPG stations. They haven't really got into LPG for the cars much. Themi was busy locating other options. She found one in Castellon, which I eventually found only for it to refuse my Euro card. But there's bound to be another..... I stopped on the CV35 heading out of Valencia at a convenient McDonalds ( lol ) where Themi and I had a skype and assessed the LPG situation. It wasn't a dire need or anything, but it was the one thing so far that I hadn't tried yet. My bottle was still just under half full, but I wanted to arrive at C without the need to leave again too soon. So we found a couple of stations, back in Valencia. No matter, it was only 25 minuets back the way. ANd it worked like a dream. Found the station ok, really helpful guys one of which spoke good English and it was plain sailing. Away west again, reversing that section, without the coffee stop this time to jump off the CV35 a mere 5k for Chulilla.
I started to see the cliffs and the little hilltop houses peeking between the trees and my excitement grew. I pulled into the car park and went straight down the road into town to explore my new surroundings, and I found a nice friendly cafe, with wifi, and in situ Slovenian climbers. They're always nice, Slovinian guys, and we chatted away and arranged to meet for a climb tomorrow.
Job done :)
I came back later for a vino tinto and some supper with them, and to do the interweb stuff. I remembered to text Mom, and I wrote to the kids after chatting with Themi for a while.
I sensed her mood change. Now the initial journey is over her fears have changed. Now its climbing to worry about, and all the safety concerns that go with being apart while I'm climbing. And I guess there are other worries too.
It's been an experience just getting here. I guess really, it all began on the 25th of January when I landed back in Edinburgh, Since then I've been in the van. Up to Aberdeenshire to see Mom and the kids, plus getting an MOT and timing belt on the van. Then back to Fearghas's for a night followed by a snowy departure for Keswick and Needle Sports on the 29th. A night at Autogas 2000 in Thirsk, then the Dog and Partridge before hitting the south coast and a night at Newhaven. Over to France, Nonancourt, Loches, Uzerche, Toulouse, Port Vedres and Navarcles. Now Chulilla.
I've grown to like home, fixed a few things en-route, adjusted this, tweaked that, cooked a little and enjoyed the comfy warmth of my memory foam mattress, heated by the hot water tank below. The shower is awesome, when needed and apart from the sat nav everything has worked ok (touches wood again). Now its time for the fresh challenge of maintaining the batteries health, using the solar and conserving the water and gas as much as possible before trips to Valencia are required. I also want to get a Spanish sim for the phone.
I noticed along the way some differences between the countries. France was very good for the van. They do like a motorhome, so do the Germans apparently and both cater for them pretty well. France, even when its shabby, looks kind of ok in a rustic, charming sort of way...... Spain, just looks tired and beat in its small villages and towns along the main roads. In France avoiding tolls took me through a lot of small one street towns that still managed to look ok for the most part. There were exceptions. Spain's second string roads are pretty much motorways and bypass the towns so all you get to see is industrial areas or the outskirts of towns. There's also a great deal of new roads here, the sat nav is a 2014 model (when its working) and is missing some of the new sections already. Then of course I get to Chulilla and its picture postcard beautiful, really gorgeous. I would say Validrau was also a lovely place. Both need an effort to get to. You don't see these lovely villages by bombing along on the motorway, whereas in France, if you avoid the tolls you are forced to see some nice towns. Not sure what's best, but that was part of the reason for my journey, to see new places, to make an effort, and to go somewhere new. Its been scary exciting at times. Super frustrating when the technology breaks, but otherwise a real trip.
Now I can relax, get fit, and enjoy some wonderful looking rock. The atmosphere here does remind me of Kalymnos a little. No beach, obviously, but in as far as we are all here for the climbing, and the town is probably financially better off for it. I think its easily close enough to Valencia for people to commute so tourism isn't the life blood here that it is to Kalymnos, but in this day and age every little helps. I suspect I'll find out more over the days to come.
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