AustralAsianEuroInvasion 2012/13: Into Spain

Second time into Spain, this time from the west and inland. More dry landscapes, but striking valleys, quaint villages and fortified towns. We spent a week cruising around on the way to Barcalona, and no, we didn't do Madrid, Seville etc etc... Another day.

22/03 Monsarraz (which is on the border) to Caceres is 3 hours was not too much of a struggle and we get a spot between some other big ‘homes and settle in. I feel someone touch the trailer and sure enough there is a girls soccer team using it to get changed on. A brief hello and 'nice car' followed by their training session is fairly rowdy and we don’t get to sleep till late.

23/03 Woke up to police moving half the ‘homers out as we are parked in the coach parking area. Caceres to Jalance via N roads which mainly follow the toll roads, so pretty easy going. Arrive at a nice little aire in the hills at Jalance after big 6 hour drive. A few bangs that sound like gunfire (not again…) but it’s just kids with fire crackers nearby. Some mother has lost her kid and is crying out ‘Carlos’! Walk into town and buy some food etc. Nice dinner and easy night. Awesome.

24/03 Jalance to Peniscola on the Mediterranean, we meet a Porsche club getting ready for a treasure hunt type event and they go bananas when they see the 911 under the cover, so we pull over and have a chat to them. Really nice guys, all keen as mustard and many stories and photos are exchanged.
Peniscola is very dodgy (like the name) and we pay 8 Euro to park in a gravel car park for the night. Thought about a swim in the ocean but it looks really crap. There is a massive amount of tourists here in the summer, why I don’t know. What we have seen so far is a dump, and roads to get in here are worst so far. Not impressed with the Spanish coast as yet folks...

25/03 Peniscola to Morella. Morella is another fortified town, stunningly perched atop a hill, with mountains and farms as far as the eye can see. No one around, we set up for a relaxing few days.

Get Porsche off for a drive on the N330 which is just another sensational road in the Spanish mountains… Get the GoPro going and ended up screwing it into the front plate of the Porsche. Did all our washing and had a nice day just chilling out overlooking the castle and town across the valley. Tried to find a supermakat in the town, but it just seems too hard to get in and around in there, and Purdy reckons it’s just a bit creepy.

I get her to have a drive on the way back home, and take her through a fast uphill section of straights and sweepers. She is a bit nanna at first, but on the way home she overtakes a car, just as another one comes around the corner the other way and she has to floor it! Gets to 160ks and then has to take the next corner going faster than she was expecting. I think some wee may have come out of her, a little scream certainly did…

26/03 Woke up early and did the N330 again with the GoPro. The road is in such good condition, and there are bikes apparently coming from everywhere to ride it, I’d say it’s a popular spot.

Drive from Morella to Barcelona, via bush prossie madness, they are everywhere for a little stretch along the coast and we have a great time spotting them in the bushes! We pass Valencia Circuit, and onto the coast road north of Valencia city. Arrive in outer suburbs of Barca, and spend an hour trying to find a campground, even trying a car park in the middle of Barca… Finally settle on Camping Masnou just SE of the city. Looks proper dodgy but they let us park wherever and we do a heap of Googling. There is an ugly old woman with too much makeup going around with a stick poking around in all the skip bins followed by about 15 cats. Not sure if she is getting more cats out of the bins, or shooing rats and mice out for the cats. Either way I haven’t seen this many cats for a long time…