Category: 2026 Spain

It’s Friday the 13th tomorrow and it may be unlucky for the continuation of the streak of dismal weather. In the forecast for tomorrow, is the appearance in the daytime sky of a strange orange object. One so rare this winter that it’s only been spotted a handful of times since the beginning of December 2025 – a Spanish winter so horrible that the reservoirs and dams are overflowing, thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and the peninsula has suffered much damage.

This explains the lack of posts on Caravan Ramblings. Storm after storm has pounded the Iberian peninsula with heavy rain and wicked winds, restricting outdoor activities to such an extent that last week I’ve been to the indoor gym every day and taken up Whist to add an extra evening’s entertainment.

In fairness, we have made the most of the community here at Camping La Rosaleda and without such a community, and the well-attended bar, things might have become a little bit un-bearable.

Still, we have been to several community meals, participated in Whist and the weekly quiz. Last weekend we watched an afternoon of sport, including the six nations, and later in the evening celebrated John’s birthday. Teen had organised a rather splendid cake.

Valentine’s day meal and Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Everywhere this winter.

We have now been at Camping La Rosaleda for two weeks and the rain has been fairly non-stop. There have been a couple of nice days but even then, temperatures have been cold with wind-chill even colder, driven by a wicked northerly wind.

Monday was a dry day so I decided to head east on the bike. The route to Trafalgar is all on a dedicated and separated cycle path and I understand that this has been extended a few more kilometres to the coastal town of Barbate. This would be a long ride and there are some steep inclines between Trafalgar and Barbate as the road (and presumaby cycle route) heads inland and through the forest.

Let’s find out…

Leaving Trafalgar, the cycle route is still a bit of a mess through the village of Los Canos de Meca. However, once you leave the east side of the town, a fairly new cycle route makes it’s way inland and up to the top of the cliffs.

It was just under 30km to Barbate and I knew the last few had depleted my battery dramatically. I hoped I had enough power to assist on the route back.

After stopping for refreshements along the sea front I set off on the return leg. This time I had the full impact of a northwesterly wind and despite deploying my final layer of clothing, it was a horrid ride back. To add to the delights, my battery ran out prematurely on the outskirts of Conil. At least the remaining journey warmed me up somewhat!

I’m guessing the bike battery, which is some 9 years young, is approaching its end of life. Time for another upgrade.

Recent upgrades to the bike have worked well. A new wide-range cassette on the rear, brand new Shimano Deore rear-gearset, chain and new shifter. Also, a lightweight bike rack to replace the cheap and cheerful topeak seat-post mounted one. Finally a proper system fit for purpose – all based around the absolute best in class Ortlieb system. And some new USB C rechargeable lights, direct from AliExpress.

Whilst I was visiting Barbate on the bike, Moe went out with the ladies walking group, clocking up some 15,000 steps.

Later in the week a customary visit to my favourite DIY store – Leroy Merlin and the Carrefour at neaby San Fernando. Managed to buy loads of stuff we definitely didn’t need from Leroy Merlin.

Friday night was another communal meal with brother and sister Flamenco and guitar act taking to the stage. We’ve seen this couple before and they are very good. Both the guitar playing and the Flamenco dancing.

And that’s really the highlights of Week 2 at Conil de La Frontera in the province of Cadiz in Spain.

Still seeking that opportunity to be able to liberate the shorts and vest top.

The weather has been a little mixed so far on this trip. Daytime high temperatures have rarely exceeded 12C or 13C and many overnight lows in the low single digits. In between this cold fine weather there has been some warmer weather, but coupled with persistent heavy rain.

Moe and I have walked into Conil a several times and sampled coffee and cake at the cafe in Atalaya park.

My first bike ride was over to Roche and along the cycle track through the pine woods; a quick check-in to the port of Conil, to find out when one of our favourite restaurants will open. Alas, El Nautico has no information about this either at the restaurant itself nor on their Facebook page.

Spain is always appreciative of abundant rain during the winter months to replenish the reservoirs and water aquafers. It won’t be disappointed with the rainfall over the last 6 weeks. It’s rained a lot since the start of December and the pine forest is starting to look like a local wetland. So wet in fact, that the Romeria San Sebastian festival, scheduled for today, 18th January (Sunday) has been postponed for a week.

Friday night at the Campsite restaurant was “Rock and Roll night”. A sell-out, as is normal. The food was plentiful (too much in reality) and just 14 Euros for a nice 3-course meal. Spaghetti Bolognese to start, Pork Knuckle for the main course and carrot cake for desert.

I think this is our 10th or 11th winter trip to Spain. We have enjoyed many smooth crossings over the Bay of Biscay coupled with some fairly unpleasant ones as well. But never have we boarded a ferry in the middle of a named storm packing Hurricane Force 12 gales. Storm Goretti arrived on the South West coastline shortly after our drive to Portsmouth and barreled along the English channel.

Boarding the Brittany Ferries LNG powered ferry, “Salamanca”, was on time and we then spent a pleasant evening / early morning in the Commodore lounge with some fellow travellers heading to our campsite near Cadiz. Sleep was easy to find and the first 10 hours of our journey were most relaxed – we hadn’t left the dock at Portsmouth!

The rest of the journey was pretty horrible. Moe was fine and made the most of the Commodore lounge food and Tapas. Myself, I found the cabin bed to be the best place to spend the next 24 hours… Needless to say, access to the Premier lounge was totally wasted on me.

Despite the delayed departure, the Captain, whilst navigating close to the UK South coast and then the French coast, managed to avoid the absolute worst of the storms and in the end, we arrived into Santander only 2.5 hrs late at 10:30am.

A very pleasant drive on excellent, quiet roads had us arriving at Caceres shortly after 17:30. Dinner at the restaurant and a 09:00 start on Saturday would have us at our final destination mid-afternoon.

This included a stop at services north of Seville to give the caravan the quick once-over.

A couple of beers at the Rosaleda bar and many of the usual suspects are already here at Camping La Rosaleda.

Another busy day today setting up the awning and all the toys and accessories. Finally, by the evening we are finished and ready to enjoy a couple of months in the Spanish winter sunshine – hopefully…