After a less than early start to Thursday morning (8 Jan), we loaded the bikes onto Nellie and were on our way before lunchtime. Just.

We drove for around 90 minutes until we reached the town of Puerto Serrano and parked the campervan in the station car park next to a couple of other motorhomes.

The station at Puerto Serrano has never seen a train arrive or depart but it lies on the historically proposed Jerez to Almargen railway route. This route was studied at the beginning of the 19th century in order that it might energise the economic fortunes of the Sierra.

The works began under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera but were never completed and it was abandoned in the early 1960s. In fact, in 1962, the World bank recommended that Spain should not continue with the construction of new railway lines. Much of the track route and infrastructure was constructed, but no track was laid.

In the 1990s, the section between Puerto Serrano and Olvera was revitalised as a Via Verde and several of the stations were renovated; namely Puerto Serrano, Coripe and Olvera. It is quite possibly the most beautiful Via Verde in Spain.

Our journey started at the station of Puerto Serrano and a short return section from Puerto Serrano to Coripe.

The Via Verde is around 36.5km long and the first stage would be an easy 30km or so.

There are 30 tunnels on the Via Verde but two are unsafe and closed. This meant we had a total of 56 tunnels to traverse. The first closed tunnel is just a short distance away from Puerto Serrano and the diversion is a steep drop into the valley and back up again. Apart from that it was an easy trip to Coripe and back.

The countryside is varied and essentially stunning; we encountered goats in the road, sheep, dogs, horses, black birds of prey and a lot of cattle.

Click on any of the photos below to see a high resolution.

We had a short break in Coripe – Joe enjoyed a beer and Moe an ice cream before the trip back to Puerto Serrano.

The parking at Puerto Serrano is not an official Aire. There is fresh water available and a bar / restaurant with toilets – when open. We had a peaceful nights rest before attempting the remainder of the Via Verde.

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Friday morning and left the station of Puerto Serrano for the town of Coripe. There is an aire in Coripe for five vans and we decided we’d explore the remainder of the via verde from this location.

This five van aire, provided by the municipality of Coripe has flat, purpose built pitches each with it’s own supply of fresh water and grey / black waste disposal. Perfect for our 1 day stay. Not everything about this aire is perfect – the availability of picnic benches on the same site attracts local kids and teenagers in the evenings so it can be a bit noisy. It’s also 3km away from Coripe station – down a very steep road – we’d have to save some battery for this part of the return journey.

Our route to Coripe station took us down a steep mountain road with views across the valley towards the viaduct over which the vi verde makes its ascent into the station.

The via verde to Olvera is a steady ascent all the way from Puerto Serrano and it would take us at least twice as long on the outward journey to Olvera than the return.

A few kilometres from Coripa is the Penon de Zaframagon and a visitor centre which we have been recommended to visit – apparently it’s well worth the two Euros. One day it will actually be open!

Here at Zaframagon, in an area of less than half a square kilometre, is the largest colony of Griffin Vultures in Andalusia and one of the largest in Spain.

We continued our journey to Olvera, a stop for a picnic at the now abandoned and not-restored station of Navalagrulla and finally arrived at the beautiful station of Olvera. Complete with a hotel, restaurant and railway-car themed accommodation.

The abandoned stations of Navalagrulla:

Onwards to the end of the line at Olvera:

Arriving back at the van early evening, Joe enjoying a well-deserved glass of Rioja.

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We decided to head into Olvera on Saturday and stay at Camping Pueblo Blanco – located a few kms outside of this old town. After two days in the saddle, it was time to find somewhere with a proper shower! In the morning, we walked into Coripe for a coffee and then set off to the campsite, arriving just after lunchtime.

Some pictures from the town of Coripe:

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The campsite near to Olvera is located some three kilometres from the edge of the town and another couple to the old town where the church, castle and tourist office are located.

By the time we had walked in, looked around the Olvera monuments, failed spectacularly to find a taxi home, we had over 10 miles clocked on the fitbits and were somewhat exhausted. This was supposed to be a quiet day!

Pictures from the town of Olvera, Spain, 2024:

It’s very peaceful at the campsite and we would have a quiet week ahead after our various trips.

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Thursday we walked into Conil via the beach and noted just how many campervans are now parked up at the main beach car park. It’s doubtful that these are just staying during the daytime! The nice spell of weather is continuing but the mini heatwave is behind us.

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The highlight of Friday was a trip to Chiclana. Primarily to refill our gas bottle but there was the inevitable stopover at the bakery, La Cremita.

The sourdough bread (La Cremita only make Sourdough bread) is all freshly baked with natural ingredients. The empanada (or “pie”) was ham, cheese and onion baked in a delicious puff pastry. Moe chose the desserts and honestly, no idea where they were kept or how long they lasted…

Evening was another community meal – the food was Italian themed and the disco played music from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

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Saturday we cycled to the Port of Sancti Petri, a pleasant 30 mile journey. We had time for a swift beer at one of the port restaurants.

There is now a new cycle route open from the urbanisation Roche all the way into Novi Sancti Petri.

Some pictures from the port of Sancti Petri below.

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Tuesday and we booked a table at our favourite restaurant in this area for lunch with Richard and Jennifer. El Jardin del Califa is situated in the heart of the pretty white andalucian village of Vejer de la Frontera. It’s about a 12 mile cycle ride which took the four of us over two hours. The route is quite hilly and the final three kilometres into Vejer is very steep. We weren’t helped by a vicious and cold headwind all the way to Vejer.

The Moroccan food at El Calife is superb and the building is just a maze of passageways, stairs, underground vaults and finally a pretty and sheltered garden. In the shelter of the patio, it was a rather pleasant afternoon.

My plate of BBQ meats was excellent but after sharing two of the house Meze starters, I just wasn’t able to finish. Richard helped me out!!

The Plaza de Espana in Vejer looks as well kept and clean as always.

The cycle ride back to our campsite was a lot easier than on our outward trip. This time we had wind behind us and much less uphill terrain.

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Wednesday we spent much of the day preparing for our next jaunt in the Campervan. Not forgetting the important Wednesday evening quiz night. We finished a respectable 3 points off the winner but no place and cash this time around. If only I’d listened to Jennifer a bit harder we could well have been two points closer.

One more shot at the elusive first prize next Wednesday and then we head off on our different ways…

With the campervan packed, filled with fuel and water we headed off to the hills to spend a few days at Setenil de las Bodegas, situated at an altitude of 640m with a population of around 2,700.

The centre of the pueblo has been declared a Historic site and it is embedded in the gorge formed by the Trejo river as it passes through the village. It is part of the route of the white villages and is connected via its railway station some 5km east, to the Bobadilla – Algeciras railway line. Google suggests the station is permanently closed but other sites seem to suggest that 1 or two trains per day stop here. The station of Ronda lies just a few tens of kilometres to the South.

Setenil de las Bodegas is part of the association of the most beautiful towns of Spain.

Our accommodation for the next couple of nights was at the campsite, Camping el Nogalejo. A well kept site, the pitches were perfect for Nellie, our small camper van and our pitch was basked in sunshine until a motorhome parked in the adjacent pitch. There are only around 17 pitches and the site doesn’t appear to respond to emails nor telephone calls, so in the end we just turned up. As is the case this year, it was busier than we expected with pretty much all camping spots taken by sunset.

We are in the midst of a winter heatwave here in Spain, with abnormally high temperatures for the season leading to an almost summer-like feel in many areas. That includes the town of Setenil where daytime highs were around 25C.

The restaurant at the campsite has an excellent reputation but on Mondays, it is closed, so early evening we headed into Setenil for a beer and a bite to eat. The town was very quiet and we struggled to find anywhere open. The one advantage was that we were able to take some fantastic tourist-free photos around dusk.

The picture above is probably the most iconic of this pretty village and shows the houses and shops intertwined with the fabric of the gorge.

The location was occupied as early as the 1st century AD and remained an almost impregnable location during the various conflicts post the 12th century.

Setenil has a reputation for its meat products, particularly chorizo and cerdo (pork) which would go some way to explaining why many of the shops were selling Chicharrones (more on this delicacy later).

The following day we walked back into town and discovered many other streets and rows of houses built into the rock.

At the top of the hill is the church of la Encarnacion, a rather plain concrete structure on the outside but the usual vivid colours of a typical catholic church and as is often the case, free to enter. The church was constructed under the patronage of the Catholic king and queen – Isabel and Ferdinand – and is characterised by late gothic architecture that symbolised the triumph over the moslem people at the end of the fifteenth century.

In the evening, we had a superb meal at the Campsite restaurant.

On Wednesday, we returned to our base in Conil de la Frontera and met up with Richard and Jennifer, recently arrived at Camping Rosaleda. Moe now has a signed copy of Jennifer’s latest book – “Happiness Seeker”. And the storyline isn’t set in Spain!

More importantly though, Wednesday evening was the first English quiz night and the four of us made a tremendous start with 45 points out of 50 and second place.

The weather has been a bit mixed both prior to and including this week. Some nice sunny days with temperatures around 16C to 18C mixed in with some really wet and windy days.

Sunday the 14th January was a dry day and we headed to one of the local beaches in the van for a picnic. In the afternoon, Joe then headed off towards Trafalgar along the cycle path, looping back through El Palmar and Conil promenade. The new bike electric conversion is working extremely well.

In the evening we headed up to the bar and ate with John (he’s on the right, out of view!)

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On Tuesday, Moe and I set off for a cycle ride towards La Barroso, but due to inclement weather, stopped near Novi Sancti Petri for a picnic in the drizzle. We just made it back to the campsite before the heavens opened and we endured a very wet and windy night.

The poor weather continued into Wednesday so we drove to Jerez and the large out of town shopping centre where we loaded up with goodies from Decathlon, Ikea and LeRoy Merlin!

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Chiclana has always had an English butcher whilst we have visited this region of Spain, which, since the advent of Brexit has proven useful to buy English sausages and bacon. Steve actually lives in Gibraltar but this year he has abandoned the commute and his butcher’s shop in Chiclana, but still takes click and collect orders through Facebook. Order by Tuesday pm and it’s available to collect on Thursday lunchtime near to San Andre golf.

We picked up our order last Thursday and the weather was ok for a BBQ in the evening.

Lunch was a picnic at the Port of Conil.

Friday was another wet and windy day and the only respite was a communal meal in the evening – Moroccan chicken, a typical Moroccan starter and also cake, followed by a “Belly” dancing show.

Saturday was much drier but still a cold wind was present. We managed a walk to the beach and a swift beer at the beach bar shack.

Sunday was the festival and procession of Romeria de San Sebastian, 2024. We were finally getting over our various colds and viruses and decided we didn’t need to be anywhere close to a large gathering of people. Here’s a link to last year – https://www.caravanramblings.co.uk/?p=5481

We used the day to get the campervan ready for it’s first micro Spanish trip…

This is a trip of many firsts – several most un-wanted!

Moe has gradually been improving from her respiratory illness and two courses of antibiotics – the latter started just a few days before our departure taking the duration of her illness to more than a calendar month. Ideally we would have pushed our departure back a few days but all of the Brittany Ferry crossings in January were fully booked.

She also forgot to bring enough of one of her inhalers and it’s our first time in Spain when the Pharmacies have refused to sell us prescription medication over-the-counter. We tried three different Pharmacies before heading to a Private Clinic where they prepared Spanish prescriptions for a fee of Euros 30.

A word of warning – Flu and Covid rates are on the rise here in Spain. Masks are now compulsory in Healthcare settings.

The second first was our new Towcar – the California Ocean. After a dreadful period of ownership due to a leaking pop-top (affecting an extensive number of vehicles manufactured in MY23) we appear to be finally close to a robust VW fix. This meant though that this was the first time we had towed the caravan with this vehicle.

The towing credentials of the California are impressive – we have the 204PS version but not 4-wheel drive (which wasn’t an option when we ordered ours). You really don’t know the caravan is on the back. Even when you hit some bumpy road, the outfit stays solid with no buffeting of the Cali at all.

The first leg of the journey was from Santander to Caceres – in total some 368 miles – completed in around 7 hours. Snow was falling on the high ground from Santander but the roads were clear and the snow ploughs were out and about.

We were allocated a large plot at Caceres, complete with our personal toilet block but with overnight temperatures below zero degrees, some heating in the private facilities would have been welcome.

This left us with a circa 260 mile journey on Sunday from Caceres to Conil de la Frontera. After a late start we had completed this and arrived at Camping La Rosaleda just after 3:00pm. We were greeted as old friends by the campsite reception and presented with a bottle of Rosaleda’s Christmas wine!

Our new double plot is fantastic. So much room for the Cali, caravan and awning. With us both being under the weather it did take a few days before we had cleaned most of the journey’s grime from the caravan and erected the awning etc.

There a lots of familiar faces here again at Rosaleda with the site fairly close to a sell-out. The English contingent seems to decrease a little more each year as we all work out how we want to allocate our 90 days in the EU. For us this year, we will only stay for 6 weeks as Moe has some medical appointments in February but this does then give us the opportunity for another trip in June / July.

Joe went on one one of his favourite cycle rides, from the campsite heading through the woods to Nova Sancti Petri and then back along the coastal road and clifftops before descending into Conil.

Thursday night was the first communal meal and the restaurant was packed for the food and subsequent Flamenco dancing.

Our favourite bread-shop – La Cremita, at Chiclana de la Frontera is still baking the most fabulous loaves of bread.

Salamanca is one of the new LPG powered ships from Brittany Ferries and we are presently on-board her for our sailing from Portsmouth to Santander.

it’s been a difficult few days preparation for our first trip of 2024. Moe has had a bad cold since mid-December and a subsequent chest infection. Close to the end of her second round of antibiotics she declared herself fit to travel. That left Joe to complete the sale of the old towcar, pack the new towcar, caravan, sort out the allotment, and much more besides. All in persistent rain!

Our trusty Kia Sorento was collected by the buyers on the day of departure.

Finally, we left East Devon in our outfit pulled by “Nellie”. Our departure day, 4th January 2024 will be remembered for Storm Henk. As if Blighty wasn’t already sodden after what seems like the wettest Autumn and Winter ever, Henk dumped another deluge of rain and turned our usual 3 hour trip to Portsmouth into a 5 hour nightmare.

Despite flooding everywhere and roads virtually impassable we reached the port around 7pm.

Close to the port of Portsmouth lies the Ship and Castle Inn. An oasis in the desert of industrial units, port workings and office blocks. A well earned pint of London Pride was waiting for Joe.

We had booked our ferry crossing back in July shortly after the booking window opened and we managed to secure one of the posh cabins which includes access to the fully inclusive “Commodore Lounge”. All food and drinks are complimentary but at an add-on price of £85 it isn’t a cheap option if it’s not included with the cabin.

After the numerous storms, the Bay of Biscay today is calm. Perhaps not a millpond but certainly more than we had hoped for.

Our arrival at Santander is scheduled for 08:00 Spanish time at the port of Santander.