From Poggio to E3-Saxo

We spent another quiet night in the parking lot on the Poggio before heading west to France then north towards Belgium.

The first night we stayed at a very nice place in Digne-Les-Bains on the lovely river Bleone.

We passed through some beautiful countryside – it was quite cold and included snow.

We stopped for a quick break for a coffee and a small bite to eat at one of the many parking areas along the motorway. It had a very nice monument to WWII – we tried to look it up and it seems there was some sort of ambush of Nazis there, and then retribution fell on the locals.

That night we found another beautiful aire/sosta that was on the bank of the Moselle river just past the city of Nancy.

The night was chilly but quiet and we had a very good sleep.

The next morning didn’t go as planned – we managed to drop the grey water, but the toilet canister wouldn’t come out. You can’t manage very long in a campervan without a toilet! We got some direction from an old local fellow who advised us to go back towards Nancy and we would find a service place.

He was correct – we found a great campervan sales/service place right off the motorway and they took us in and we were out again in about two hours with a new toilet canister! Off again towards Belgium with only a couple of hours lost.

We had one night at an aire that was the parking area of an abandoned quarry, and another at an aire next to a sports centre near Tellin/Resteigne.

We ended up at the campground in Zwalm (where we’ve been a few times before) by noon on Thursday, and were able to eat lunch, shower and do laundry.

Luckily the campground also has two clothes dryers so we weren’t left with a bunch of wet laundry in the campervan. After a nice night – with lots of intermittent rain – we left early Friday morning to find where we wanted to watch E3-Saxo from.

We found the route fairly quickly and ended up choosing a place on the large paved parking area of a local football (soccer) club. It was just past the top of the Kapelberg climb and just before a sharp corner towards the Paterberg.

I went for what ended up being a very long walk looking for a store, or even a cafe/bar to no avail even though I went through more than one village and was never far from houses. What do folks do around here if they want a coffee or a litre of milk?

Anyway right after I returned to the campervan the bar at the football club opened so we headed right in there. Asking for red wine in a country that has over 150 kinds of beer was a bit puzzling to them, but they did manage to dig a bottle out from their storage shelves. It was quite good – from South Africa – but not cheap!

As the race wasn’t passing us until after four we returned to the campervan for lunch – on the way out we asked if we could buy the remainder of the bottle of wine to take with us – deal made (again – not cheap).

After lunch we went back to the bar to watch on their big tv as the race started and approached. Quite a few other folks arrived as well and the bar was doing a fairly good business. As soon as the riders were getting near we all trooped outside to line the small road to cheer as they passed.

My photos are kind of crappy but Colin got some good ones. Once again we all trooped back into the bar to watch the end on tv – there was quite a ways to go so we were in there for a while.

Shortly after the race ended we got going west, stopping at one of the many Lidl’s on the way. We made it to the town of Kemmel and decided to stay in a car park there rather than attempting to find a spot on Sunday’s route in the dark and rain.

On to Poggio!

Rather than drive 100 miles south to watch the next stage of TA live on Sassotteto we decided to just stay where we were and watch it on tv. It was a good choice, as we were heading north afterwards and it meant several hours less driving south then north again.

We ended up taking the coast road north to Ravenna, then going northwest towards Ferrara. Miss GPS took us on a fairly ‘scenic route’ but we eventually made it to the west coast around Imperia. After that it was a bit dicey – we wondered if Miss GPS was punishing us for not listening to her at times in the last couple of days or maybe she was going through menopause and was just being super bitchy. In any case she totally mis-directed us near the end of the day when we were trying to find an aire on the coast and we ended up inland on the side of a mountain. Not usually a problem for us but I was a bit pissed off at her – anyone that has been led astray by any GPS system will know how we felt! We did know fairly quickly that we weren’t going where we wanted to but decided to see where we ended up.

We did get on our way the next morning in the right direction – having muted Miss GPS – and arrived at our destination of the campground at Santo Stefano Al Mare that we’ve been to several times before.

I can’t describe how lovely the shower was, and we got to do laundry too – truly wonderful to be clean and have clean clothes at the same time!

The campground has some very nice cats that I happened to catch sunning themselves on the roof of the office as we left.

A short drive got us to Poggio – one of the most iconic climbs in cycling races.

It’s not long (only 3.7 km) and not steep (average 3.7% grade) but very important in the first Monument of the year – Milano SanRemo – La Primavera.

There’s been some improvements done in the general area…

…and more still ‘in progress’…

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We had lunch in the local cafe/bar on race day – we thought we’d ordered roast rabbit but ended up with roast pork. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t rabbit, but since I do like pork it was ok.

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There were at least three different police forces on hand, in addition to ‘Mr. Whistle’ who thinks he runs everything.

Colin and I, as usual, went to different places to watch and photograph from.

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I was lucky and had a couple of fellows next to me that had the race on their phone – I watched over their shoulders as Pogacar, Pidcock and Van der Poel took off on the Cipressa.

By the time they reached us Van der Poel had been dropped and it was only the two in front.

Because the finish was only down the hill I really wanted to run across the road to the bar to watch the end on tv but the cops wouldn’t let me – I settled for watching it on another fellow’s phone – Pogacar won!! I could hear screaming and cheering from the bar and I was screaming just as loud – so happy!

Leaving Trasimeno/Papiano/Trevi and on to Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 5

Leaving Asciano early – without breakfast or even a cup of tea (because of lack of electrics again) – we stopped in Castigliano del Lago for groceries. There was some kind of race going on – it looked like a walking/running race perhaps around the lake. After we parked once again at the aire in San Feliciano I saw one of the runners – looking fairly fit, but puffing on a vape as he ran.

The aire was almost totally packed – most of them likely here for the race. There also were two tour buses that pulled up and discorged several dozen old folks who proceeded to amble along the lakeside promenade into the town. I was walking Max at the time and the volume of them seemed to intimidate him a bit – we decided to return to the camperan rather than venture into the village for tea.

I do have a comment about the lake…Trasimeno is the third largest lake in Italy and you can literally see the perimeter of the entire lake from where we are. The surface area of the lake is just over a third of that of Okanagan Lake, and overall that’s around 350 square km. In contrast Lake Superior is over 82,000 sq km of surface area.

It doesn’t mean one is more beautiful than the other, however, although Trasimeno does have a slightly more violent history. Hannibal played a trick on the Romans when he was invading, and they killed so many Romans that part of the lake turned red with their blood. Also, in WWII the Canadians broke through the Nazi line on the west side of the lake in one of many battles on the Allies’ way up from the south.

We met the new estate agents at the house in Papiano on Tuesday afternoon. Basically the woman spent most of her time making excuses for the lack of attention to the terrace. This is how the terrace should look…

…and this is how it looks now:

In the meantime I took the fellow outside with me and played ‘bad cop’ ranting about the terrace to the poor guy for about 15 minutes. I think we got it through to them that we weren’t happy and that something had to be done – as we had requested several times.

We left Papiano for Trevi, where we spent a couple of nice nights at the aire there, and had a lovely lunch at one of our favourite restaurants – La Vecchia Posta. We both wanted the roast wild boar but were told that that needed to be pre-ordered so settled for the wild boar ragout pasta instead, which was, of course, delicious.

We left after two nights for Fossombrone to find the route for stage 5 of Tirreno Adriatico. Miss GPS took us on a route we hadn’t been on before, and it was just beautiful – lots of lovely little towns and wide green valleys. Even the road surfaces weren’t too bad!

We found, as usual, an excellent place to park on one of the climbs for a couple of nights and settled in to wait for the race the next day. There are lots of deer and wild boar around here – I think we hear the wild boars sometimes at night, and I’ve seen several deer in the field across the way in the late evening.

Race morning was not bad – not so much wind, and not raining.

Coverage on the tv didn’t start until right around where we were, but as usual all of the police motos and the helicopter…

…let us know when the riders were near.

Alaphillipe was in the breakaway of seven or eight, with the peloton following around 5 minutes behind. Colin lucked out as the EF rider threw his bidon directly to him – it was the one he wanted the most this year.

After the last rider had passed we retired into the campervan and watched the last half of the race on tv.

From just down the road you can see Fano (I think) and the Adriatic Sea in the distance.

Papiano Terrace Dismay – and Strade Bianche!!

When we visited the house in Papiano we were dismayed to see the state of the terrace – it’s so covered in ivy it looks like the little house is being eaten! The lovely terrace is one of the best features of the house and the estate agents have let it go to shit – despite several requests from Colin to please have it tended.

We made an effort for over an hour – having brought some gardening tools with us, but it was just too much for us. A meeting with the agent and a demand to get some help are in order!

After our disappointment with the house we stopped for lunch at Monte Buono on our way back to the aire on the lake – the food was delicious as usual, with me taking home over half of my seafood lasagne for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Later that afternoon I took Max for a walk and visited the small supermarket to get some essentials (ok – wine!!). At the checkout there was a man ahead of me that was purchasing one bottle of beer – the cashier opened it for him and he had it half finished by the time he was out the door. Then Max – the little moocher that implies to everyone that he never gets fed – got a nice little piece of the next fellow’s salami sandwich.

We decided to get to Asciano nice and early so headed there on Thursday to spend the night in the local aire, before going to our favourite place to watch Strade Bianche. It’s partway along the section named for Fabian Cancellero – or maybe just a bit past it.

We got to the space before 9 in the morning and there was only one campervan already there – he was parked in an awkward way and took the space of probably three others but we had plenty of room so it wasn’t our problem.

Several more campervans joined us throughout the day – two of them were related to each other so it’s nice that they both got a space. Sometime in the late evening our electrics started failing – apparently we can’t watch tv all day and charge all of our devices and expect the solar panel and battery to carry it all – bummer! We spent the night with no lights available for loo trips but made it through ok. Within an hour or so of the sun rising on race-day morning the battery was almost recharged and we were okay for the rest of the day – although we did try to not run too many things at the same time.

The campervan next to us had a little boy – maybe about four or so – he was just adorable and one of the local farmers took him for a ride around the fields on his caterpillar/tractor.

Race day started out nice and sunny, and the usual parade of amateur riders and fans started to pass by. One family were quite obviously Pogacar fans – even the little girl’s face had a Slovenian flag painted on it.

Because we’d been able to get the starlink back up we knew when the race was nearing us and who was in front – but we didn’t really need the tv as we could see the helicopters and the motos were racing past us, and the dust was rising on the road as they approached.

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The first to pass us were three riders from UAE – with Pogacar in the middle of two team-mates. It was quite dusty and the wind direction had unfortunately changed – the flags were hanging better but the dust got everywhere!

We saw on the tv that Pogacar made his move on one of the next climbs, ending up once again going solo for many miles before winning for the fourth time – well done!

We stayed until the end of the race before taking down our flags, saying farewell to our neighbours and going back to the aire in Asciano for the night. Once again we’d drained the electrics a bit but it was quite alright for the night.

Finally Italy!!

After another lovely lunch at Le Breuil we started packing up the campervan on a Monday afternoon and got a start on the road on a Tuesday morning. Having decided not to rush we’ve given ourselves plenty of time and plan to have a nice leisurely journey down to Italy to deal with the house in Papiano.

The first day we made it as far as Saint Georges D’Aurac, after a challenging time getting through Claremont-Ferrand.

We parked for the night near the back of a churchyard…

…luckily they turned the bells off at around 9 so we didn’t have to listen to them all night long.

The second day we continued our leisurely pace and headed east past Valence, then south to Crest and east again just past Die, stopping at another aire in the village of Beaurieres.

Just after we parked an old fellow with a very shaggy dog approached us and we let him know we were only going to be there for one night and did not need electrics or anything – no problem. There’s a local hunting club with a facility right next to the campground but we never saw any wild boar when we were there, although there were indications that they were active in the area.

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After a very quiet night we got a good start again and made our way through Gap and north to Briancon then across the border to….Italy!! We haven’t been here in three years and it’s great to be back!

We made it to the aire behind the Lidl’s in Pinerolo in good time and had

another nice, early, quiet night. We’re loving the Starlink that we got installed – we can now both access unlimited wi-fi, watch tv – whatever – it’s just great.

Getting going again at a good time we headed south towards the coast and stopped at a lovely cafe/bar for a beverage.

We hit the coast and skirted Genoa on the new overpass, leaving the motorway a short while later and heading a bit north to the small town of San Pietro Vara.

There’s a lovely flat aire right next to the river and in walking distance of the town.

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The afternoon we arrived we had a drink in one of the local cafe/bars, and the next morning we went to different one to relax a bit. We saw not one, but two beautiful cars going through the village – the first was a Porsche in a gorgeous aqua/blue colour, and the second was a Lotus. Honestly if I could have the Lotus in the aqua/blue colour that would be my dream car! No room for a dog or any luggage…but…!!

On the way back to the campervan to watch Omloop on the tv we passed a vending machine that sells milk!

Wanting to get going on Sunday morning we hit the road early. Since the cafe in the village was already open we picked up a couple of paninis to go (for lunch) and headed for the motorway. They’ve finally made some progress on the construction, but there was a bit of a slow-down just past Firenza. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad and we made it to the aire at Lago Trasimeno by early afternoon.

From Winds in Spain to Floods in France

The campervan place in Vera finally got the part in that we’d been waiting for so we dropped it off one morning and continued on in the car to Mojacar for a couple of hours. It was a bit early for lunch so we just had some tapas, which were just delicious.

It was super windy and the palm trees along the promenade were almost bent in half from the force, but it wasn’t really cold. We were sheltered a bit under an awning and it was quite pleasant sitting and watching all of the little birds come around and scrounge for scraps.

The water was very blue, and the whitecaps were beautiful.

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The ‘check engine’ light came on shortly after we left the campervan place but we continued back to the house. We were planning to leave back to France the next morning but were forced to wait a day because of the extreme weather warnings for the wind. The advice was to stay home unless you had urgent business. The power went off and on several times and the wind was fierce but we came through without much damage.

Leaving a day later than planned we went to our mechanic just outside Albox to get the check engine light looked into – Colin in the campervan and myself in the black beemer. They hooked up the diagnostic tool and we were told it was ok to drive – one of the filters just hadn’t finished a ‘self-cleaning’ and the best thing to do was drive it fast for a while – alright!

We arranged to take three days of travel and meet for the first night in Teruel which shouldn’t have been too long a day. However…the spanish farmers were taking their turn at protesting and I encountered them twice. The first time was on the main motorway between Lorca and Murcia. At first I thought it might be an accident – three lanes of traffic were funneled into one, then off the motorway and onto a secondary road. We moved very slowly and there were dozens of police along the way with lights flashing directing the traffic.

Finally we passed the cause of the jam – about a mile of tractors and other equipment clogging up the motorway, and at the far end all of the drivers having a bit of a party. There was music and everything.

Once past we were led back onto the motorway and I started making good time again. My GPS turned me north at Murcia, and about 45 minutes along I came across another slow down. This time it wasn’t quite so bad, and I didn’t notice tractors, but rather just a couple hundred men blocking the road, surrounded by police holding them back. We were able to inch around them without a large detour and were once again on our way. Encountering no more protests I still made it to Teruel before dark and was even greeted by a lovely rainbow – I took that as a sign of better things to come.

It was a pretty early and quiet night accompanied by rain off and on. The morning was bright enough and we each got on our way by 9:00. The drive to the French border was fairly easy and Colin and I met for the night at the large shopping centre with no problem. Another early and quiet night, with more rain.

The drive north wasn’t bad, although the rain during the last hour or so was very heavy. It was good to get back to the house, and I quickly turned the water on, as well as the water heater and the wi-fi connection.

There had been a lot of rain here during the last several weeks, and the river just keeps getting higher and higher.

We took the campervan down to Angouleme to get the ‘check engine’ alert dealt with and had to leave it there while they ordered a part – unfortunately it wasn’t just going to fix itself by driving it.

We had a meal out at Le Breuil, not far outside the small town of Verdille. It was excellent, starting with soup (served in our own pot at the table) followed by self-serve salad bar, then the main course. I had pork with mushroom sauce, served with cauliflower in a creamy tarragon sauce – just delicious! The owner has his own vineyards and winery, as well as makes his own cheese.

The rain kept coming and the river kept rising, finally breaching the banks a little at a time. A few days later the whole area became a lake – hippodrome, campground…everything under a couple feet of water.

Everywhere we go the fields along the road have ponds in the middle because they just can’t drain anymore.

Because we couldn’t get down to the campground to walk Max we went to another park – I’m not sure why I’ve never been to it before but it was lovely.

More Farmers’ Protests, Christmas Lamb

Well…it seems to have been awhile since I Iast posted – it feels like just last week! Colin had a couple of appointments that went well, also the usual blood test, etc.

We had another very nice meal at Le Cheval Blanc in Luxe, although we had a bit of unanticipated ‘entertainment’ throughout. To start we had a drink that was accompanied by a small plate of four different appetizers – each as delicious as the last. The main course was awesome – steak, done somewhat rare even though we asked for medium-well (we might have been asked to leave if we’d requested ‘well done’ – haha). Anyway all of the food was so good, except that at the table next to us was a couple that were doing a video – we figured out that the restaurant approved it as the wait-staff posed along with the food. The problem was that the woman taking the video kept getting up and backing up against our table to get a ‘better shot’ – at one point her backside was right over the edge of our table and when she bent over to get the proper vantage point her sweater rode up and we could see her butt-crack – as we were eating! I debated pouring a bit of our ice-water down her pants but decided to ‘take the high road’ and do nothing. At least it provided a bit of different conversation for us! We found out a few days later that the video was for a review of the restaurant for a local papier.

Max had a vet appointment, plus a teeth cleaning (which was badly needed – he really had bad ‘doggy breath’).

We also had a couple of nice meals at the Penalty Bar, but ended up staying home a lot most days in front of the fire.

In the middle of December we headed back down to Spain. As the farmers were protesting (yet again) we had to adjust our route continually to try to avoid them, although we did pass a few sights where they’d been.

We also did encounter a few dozen in one small town, although they only slowed us down a bit, rather than totally blocking the road.

Being back down at the house was great – I like it so much here. We had one small problem with the pellet burner, but were only without heat for a couple of days before we got it back running.

We had some more painting done by our neighbour Juani – the kitchen and foyer are now pristine again. She mentioned that the laundry room and attached bathroom could use a coat of paint, and she’s not wrong. Colin went to Ikea in Murcia and got some better shelving units for the laundry room so we’ve already booked Juani for sometime in March to give it a freshening up.

We had a delicious Christmas dinner – slow cooked boneless leg of lamb. We got it from a local farmer who also gave us the bone to flavour the gravy. I started it at six in the morning and it slow cooked for eight hours – it was so tender and delicious – complete with rosemary and thyme from the west garden. I thought we’d have left-overs for days but there was barely enough left for sandwiches the next day.

We’ve had a few very windy days as well as some torrential rains, but also some very nice sunny and warm days – I think it got up to 14 C a day or two ago.

We had a lovely day-trip yesterday to San Jose, which is on the coast just north of the tip of Capo de Gata.

Once again we managed to find the best restaurant, and our meals were excellent.

There were many little stray cats in the area and I wanted to catch and take every one home – especially a little black one with a gimpy back leg. He would have been relatively easy to catch but having a cat in a campervan is probably not the best idea.

We have met several folks over the years that have had travelling cats but it would add extra work for us.

Seaside Lunches, and (Finally!) Sad Hill Cemetery

The house painting got finished and it’s beautiful! We got the sun room painted the same colour, even though we just got it painted white two years ago.

The Renault was ready before the campervan, and when picking it up we just continued on to the coast to Mojacar, where we stopped for a drink at one of the hundreds of cafe/bars along the coast road. At least at this time of year it’s not quite so infested with tourists, although there were still quite a few brits around. I imagine that many of them do live here year-round.

We arrived in Carbonaras and had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant right across from the beach.

It’s owned by a brother and sister and the meal was one of the best we’ve had in a long time.

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A few days after picking up the Renault we retrieved the campervan – they still have a couple of little things to do but as we’re going back to France soon we couldn’t just leave it there. We took another little road trip to a bit further down the coast and ended up at the Isleta del Moro.

We had another lunch, but not quite as good as the one in Carboneras, although we did have some ‘entertainment’.

There was a ‘photo shoot’ happening on the beach with two very bored looking young ladies – it went on for almost the entire time we were there.

There were also some diving lessons going on…

We got on the way back to France and decided to take our time for once. The first day was a bit long, but we stopped at Santo Domingo de Silos to try – for the second time – to find Sad Hill Cemetery.

The hotel we’d booked was quite nice – very quiet at night and good breakfast in the morning.

Once again it was a challenge to find the route to Sad Hill. We ended up going the ‘long way’ and approaching from the north, which was, in fact, the easier drive.

It was well worth the effort of trying to find it – not once, but twice! It seemed to us that a little bit of signage on how to actually get there would be beneficial. It’s quite funny but in Spanish they call it ‘The Good, The Ugly and The Bad’ – not sure why!

The site itself is well presented, and even at this time of year there would have been at least 50 or more folks there throughout the day – as long as they could find it!

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The cemetery was originally made by the Spanish army for the film, although the site was left derelict and now has been reconstructed by a society. There are what look like some real graves and there are many crosses for folks you know have never been there.

It was pretty cool to see the stone circle where the final confrontation happened in the movie, as well as the ‘hanging tree’.

Apparently Robert Redford is buried here – NOT!! Although there is a cross with his name on it right next to the circle. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen little Max so excited – he ran around like crazy and literally flew over the ‘graves’ whenever we called him.

We took the other road out – the one that goes to Santo Domingo.

Near the top there’s a good view point where you can see the whole place, including the valley that Clint (the ‘Good’) rode down when the movie ended.

The remainder of the trip was pretty good, and also quite entertaining. We took a less travelled road, and it was so nice! The scenery was beautiful, but the really unique thing was that there was all sorts of ‘livestock’ everywhere, including on the road – cows, horses, donkeys.

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It was a nice short drive up to Logrono to pick up a few cases of Rioja, and a one night stay at a nice hotel – Max had his own bed (although he still slept on my bed between my feet). There was a very good breakfast in the morning – maybe the best since the place in Austria several years ago.

The rest of the journey home was alright, although we sometimes wonder what planet Miss GPS thinks we’re on. In any case we got here just before dark, turned on the water and water heater and got a fire going in time for a nice cozy evening.

Vuelta Frustrations, South to Storm and Beauty

After spending the night after the race on the mountain we left very early, just as it was getting light. We were back at Rio Luna nice and early – had a shower and took it easy for the next few days. A couple of nice walks with the dog, and watching more Vuelta stages on tv in the bar.

I got quite upset while watching one stage as the organizers shortened the race before the final climb due to the f’ing protestors. I will say again and again – it’s a race, not a political event – f-off!

We left the campground on the Wednesday morning heading south past Leon. Just before the city Colin said ‘oh my – what is that’ – it was a little dog racing towards us right on the motorway. He slammed on the brakes and the car in the exit lane to our right just managed to avoid the little fellow. We pulled right and put on the hazard lights – I jumped out the side door and started running back down the motorway after the dog. All of the oncoming traffic slowed and a couple of folks stuck their heads out saying ‘he went that way!’. I tried to catch him but he was a very fast runner – obviously panicked – and I am not. I jogged along calling ‘puppy, puppy’ for about a mile then had to give up. As I didn’t see him dead on the road I had hope that he’d managed at least to get off the road and down to a field on the side. Going back to the campervan I was very sad – the little guy was so cute, perhaps a Yorkie or something, and I would have been so happy to catch him. A short while later we passed a car accident – looked like a motorcycle had been hit and the rider was strapped to a board ready to go into the ambulance. Maybe the little dog had escaped from the car after the accident.

We got to Valladolid and after stocking up on supplies at Lidl we found the time trial course, which was the same as when we were here two years ago. Finding the same spot we’d been in before we settled down for the afternoon – but that didn’t last that long. A police car pulled up and started asking questions – basically they were on the lookout for protestors and were trying to head off any trouble. I decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to show them the pieces of cardboard painted with the palestinian flag that I’d pulled off the poles on the mountain stage we’d been at! In any case the police made us leave our spot and led us – with lights flashing – to a parking area a few hundred meters back, which was fine.

After a nice quiet night Colin gave me some bad news – the route of the ITT had been shortened due to the fucking protestors so they would not be coming past us after all. We saw our Belgian friends leaving the route, then we took the time to let a couple in a UK campervan know as well before just heading back south to the house. God damn ignorant protestors – I’m so fed up with them!

We got all the way back to the house in one day – a bit of a long drive, but no problems along the way. The bougainvillea are all blossoming again, the window boxes are flourishing, and it’s plenty warm enough for swimming so all is ok here.

We got to watch the final few stages of the Vuelta on tv, and more than once again the f’ing ignorant ‘free palestine’ protestors had a negative impact – I wish the police would just arrest them all and throw them in jail for a few days (or at least until the race is over!).

The Renault and the campervan are both in different shops getting things done so we’re down to just one vehicle – which is fine for the amount of driving we usually do.

We’re having the house painted by our ‘neighbour across the valley’ – she’s a lovely little lady and is always smiling and happy. Her son lives in the house that shares part of our driveway.

We think that the police have finally caught the burglars that have been terrorizing our valley for the last several weeks. Colin will have to watch the local facebook group chat page for confirmation.

One day we had a torrential rainfall – so hard it wasn’t even large drops but more like a waterfall. The wind was also very strong and coming from the south – we found out that two of the smallest windows that face that way need a bit of weatherproofing as they leaked live sieves. I spent about an hour mopping the floors in both the snug and the office, and one of the walls is going to need cutting and re-plastering on the inside.

I’m not sure if we’ll get any more swims since the recent rains and much colder nights, but it’s still nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the view.

Return to Rio Luna, and Vuelta up San Lorenzo

We left the house on a Thursday morning and made it as far north as the lake just past El Tiemblo, where we’d stopped a couple of years ago. I took a lovely photo of the lake near sunset, and when looking back at the last time we were here I seem to have taken an almost identical photo – I guess when I like something I like it!

After a nice quiet night we got going north again fairly early, avoiding toll-roads and arriving at our favourite campground Rio Luna.

We spent a few days just chilling out, going for a couple of nice walks, and watching the Vuelta on the tv in the campground’s bar – while sipping some nice Rioja.

On our second day here I had a fight with a folding lawn chair…

…I lost.

Two days before the stage we came to see we took a little re-con drive to the general area, and decided to go to the second-to-last climb rather than the last one.

There are a couple of places along the way where the fires had swept down one mountain, across the road and up the other side.

Luckily there aren’t any bad ones around the area at the moment, although it was a horrible summer in some places.

Back at the campground one of the local ranchers was moving his herd of sheep, taking some time for them to graze in the field just outside the campground’s fence before moving them along.

We got up quite early the next morning to head to the mountain we’d chosen for Saturday’s race, leaving just as it was getting light.

It was still misty when we got to the top of the San Lorenzo, and we found a wonderful wide spot that only had two other campervans parked.

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We had a couple of nice walks – there are lots of horses and cows on the hills and they’re not all fenced in.

By evening there were many more campervans both behind and in front of us, and during the next morning we couldn’t believe how many more managed to squish in.

An enterprising fellow brought an ice-cream truck up – he also had chips and beer – looked like he was doing a good business.

Our ‘Belgian friends’ arrived in their huge bus, this time with Tudor on it rather than Quickstep. They stopped and said a quick hello to me (I was out walking Max) before heading back down the climb to park. Later in the day they walked up and we had a really nice chat – we first met them several years ago and have seen them regularly at many different races in several different countries. They are Alaphilippe supporters thus the sponsor name change on their bus. It was really nice to see them again.

At one point one of the black horses and her little foal started walking down the road and a car was coming up from below us – I made the ‘slow down’ motion to him. When he stopped I realized he was the horses’ owner and he got them back up the track where they would be safe.

The Palestinian protesters had been busy – there were slogans painted on the road, and stickers on all of the signs denouncing Israel, etc. Colin and I, and also one of our neighbouring campervaners scratched off as many as we could. Then later Colin noticed that many of the signposts up and down the road had cardboard painted with Palestinian flags tied to them. I walked down about ½ km and tore them all off the posts – almost every single person parked along the road either gave me the ‘thumbs up’, said ‘good job’ or ‘thank you’!

There was one woman sitting on the road almost across from our campervan who actually said ‘don’t you support other people’s right to their opinion?’ and I countered with ‘I do, but this is a cycling race, not a political forum’. Our neighbour also told her to shut up.

We did get, of course, a marker for ‘top of the climb’, along with a bit of barrier – also several well-armed policemen. I had a nice chat with one of them and they’re not going to tolerate any guff from any protestors.

There have been a couple of issues with protestors intefering with racers, and there’s talk of changing the final day into Madrid. Not to mention that the Israel Premium Tech team is under pressure to withdraw – they’ve already removed ‘Israel’ from their jerseys and I’m sure some of the riders are more than a little anxious. Again – it’s a sporting event!

As usual we knew when the riders were getting close because of the helicopters and motos, then we could see them snaking up the hairpins below us.

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It took a while for everyone to pass, then we walked up to where a group of folks were gathered outside a campervan. The fellow had swivelled his tv out the door and we all got to watch the final climb up past Saliencia with Soler – a spanish rider – triumphant at the finish. A really, really good and fun couple of days on the side of a mountain.